They agree to coordinate the investigations and pledge 20 million euros to help the International Criminal Court and the kyiv Prosecutor’s Office
A total of 45 countries, including the members of the EU, the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and Mexico, joined forces this Thursday in The Hague to advance the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine. With the aim that the atrocities committed since the invasion began on February 24 do not go unpunished, the group attended a conference called by the Netherlands in this town where the International Criminal Court (ICC) is based while the world returned to witness a new massacre by the Russian Army against civilians in the city of Vinnitsa.
Sharing evidence, prosecution strategy and providing international war crimes expertise to investigators on the ground will be the main tasks of the alliance. Gathering evidence and establishing responsibilities to bring the guilty to trial will not be easy. It could take “many years,” German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann warned. But it is time to take action, especially as atrocities have become widespread in Ukraine, ranging from murder and torture to rape, looting and forced deportations.
“As we speak, children, women and men live in terror,” warned ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, noting that “legality should not be a mere bystander.” The EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, considered that judging the crimes will be a “titanic task” that requires a “strong judicial system” and reported that 20,000 investigations have already been opened.
The big problem is that the ICC could not judge either Russia or Ukraine because neither of them ratified the Rome Statute. For this reason, one of the solutions would be to create a special international court in kyiv, as proposed this Thursday by the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, during his telematic intervention.
The ICC has already sent the largest field team in its 20-year history to investigate on the ground. To support these works, as well as those of the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine and the UN, the 45 countries of the new alliance have promised to contribute 20 million euros.
“200,000 kidnapped children”
Zelenski, who assures that dozens of civilians have been killed by the invading army while Moscow dissociates itself from all responsibility, has denounced this Thursday that “some 200,000 children were kidnapped” and taken out of the country by Russian forces. The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has confirmed the facts by detailing that the minors have been separated from their parents to be given up for adoption in Russia, where up to 1.6 million Ukrainians are in “filtration camps” , where families are separated and torture is applied until those who have collaborated with the kyiv authorities are identified.
A report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) confirms the existence of so-called “filtration camps”. In a 115-page document they spell out that, “according to witnesses”, Ukrainians evacuated from besieged cities or those leaving Russian-occupied territories are subjected to “brutal interrogations and humiliating body searches” in order to clarify whether any of these people fought on the kyiv side or if he has connections with the Azov battalion or with the government. “In these cases, they are separated from the others and often simply and simply disappear,” they warn.
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