ICC Prosecution for War Crimes
What is a war crime? Even war has rules.
- The
definition of war crimes are set out in treaties called the Geneva
Conventions along with other international laws and agreements.
- Military forces cannot deliberately attack civilians -- nor the infrastructure that is vital to their survival.
- Some
weapons are banned because of the indiscriminate or appalling suffering
they cause -- such as anti=personnel landmines and chemical or
biological weapons.
- The sick and wounded must be cared for -- including injured soldiers,who have rights as prisoners of war.
- Serious
offences such as murder, rape or mass persecution of a group are known
as 'crimes against humanity' or in some circumstances, 'genocide
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| Reuters |
Russia
and its president have been referred to the International Criminal
Court repeatedly, in reflection of the crimes against humanity committed
by the Russian military as a whole and by Russian servicemen in
episodes of vicious brutality, including torture, rape, looting, murder.
It was inevitable, given Russia's violent invasion of Ukraine, and
witnessed, photographed and first-person accounts of crimes committed by
Russia that the International Criminal Court would be involved in
prosecuting the perpetrator of barbarism in a conflict of territorial
expansion.
"We
see clearly a pattern, I think, in terms of the number, scale and
breadth of attacks against the power grids of Ukraine. And we need to
look at why that’s taking place; are they legitimate targets or not; and
whether or not they are targeted for other reasons."
"Children cannot be treated as the spoils of war."
"There seems to be a lot of damage in Ukraine, and it may well be
it is part of a policy and part of a plan and we need to get to the
bottom of it and see whether or not there is criminal responsibility and
if there is we have an International Criminal Court that has
jurisdiction to look into it."
"As a prosecutor we are officers of the court. We are not here to get a
round of applause by a conjuring trick. Whenever we do move, [people]
should have confidence that this is not a political process."
ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan
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Mairupol theatre after the air strike Reuters
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The
International Criminal Court has announced its preparation to initiate
the arrest of Russian officials for their role in forcibly deporting
children from Ukraine and for deliberately targeting civilian
infrastructure. An unnamed source stated that arrest warrants could
include the crime of genocide, expected to be served in the "short term"
should the court prosecutor request be approved by a pretrial judge at
the court based at The Hague.
Just
as Russia, with its permanent seat on the United Nation Security
Council vetoes any sanctions the other Security Council members, with
China supporting Russia, bring forward, it is a foregone conclusion that
it will use its weight at the UN to reject any such arrest warrants
naming any Russian officials. An international war crimes prosecution
would have the ultimate effect of pushing Moscow down a steeper
diplomatic isolation incline. Russian officials named would
theoretically find it difficult to travel abroad.
Dial
back to the vicious assaults by the Sudanese military and its
government on Sudanese Darfurians inspiring the International Criminal
Court to prosecute the Sudanese president Omar Al Bashir and its head of
military for 'genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed in Darfur, Sudan, since 1 July 2002' and the spectacle of Al
Bashir travelling abroad to attend meetings of the Arab League where his
presence was accepted and none there made a move to arrest him.
Moscow
predictably denies deliberately targeting Ukraine's civilian
infrastructure, insisting its attacks are merely intended to reduce
Kyiv's fighting capacity. Russia feels it was completely legitimate to
bring thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia as a humanitarian
campaign meant to protect orphans and abandoned children from the
conflict zone. Kyiv clarifies the situation, that thousands of Ukrainian
children were deported to be adopted into Russian homes or placed in
Russian camps and orphanages.
Exposed
exclusively to a Russian education and ambience, given Russian
passports, taught to be Russian and to reject their Ukrainian heritage,
nationality and culture, the children are expected to consider
themselves Russian. The genocvide convention of the United Nations
defines 'forcibly transferring children of one group to another group'
to be one of five acts prosecutable as genocide.
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The ICC can bring a prosecution against political leaders for "waging
aggressive war". This covers an unjustified invasion or conflict not
undertaken in self-defence. Getty Images
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Kyiv
had taken its own prosecution action previously, conducting a few war
crimes prosecutions of individual Russian soldiers accountable for
incidents such as killings or rapes in occupied Ukraine territory. The
prospective ICC prosecution would elevate the charges while targeting
officials responsible for policies and not just the minions perpetrating
such war crimes on the ground.
Russia
is itself mindful of its diplomatic isolation, currying closer
relations with those countries willing to overlook its barbaric war in
Ukraine. The most senior and important to Moscow of which is Beijing.
China's President Xi Jinping is on the cusp of visiting Russia,
responding to a long-standing invitation. Just the kind of friendly
support that President Vladimir Putin most appreciates at this vexing
time from a powerful ally.
Rumour
has it that President Xi may plan to speak by video link to Ukraine's
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Beijing has made overtures in the past to
bring Moscow and Kyiv to peace talks, but Beijing doesn't make the
rules and Moscow insists that Kyiv accept all the territorial gains that
Russia feels it is entitled to, and for Ukraine to disarm, and disavow
joining NATO. Unlikely prospects.
Beijing
has just pulled off a diplomatic coup in persuading Saudi Arabia and
Iran to set aside their long-standing polarizing issues which has
brought them into conflict by proxy, in Syria and in Yemen. Iran,
resenting Saudi Arabia's role as custodian of Mecca and Medina, aspiring
to hold that role itself, the two nations, the Sunni-Islam Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia and the Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran have agreed to
restore diplomatic relations. Whether they will put a halt to
battlefield hostilities is another matter.
"We do not recognize this court; we do not recognize its jurisdiction."
Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov
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Getty Images
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Labels: Genocide, International Criminal Court, Isolation, Russian Invasion of Ukraine, War Crimes
Russian Plans That Went Awry
"When we were walking, a bridge was blown up."
"And when we crossed over the wreckage, because there was no other way out, there were corpses of Russian people [soldiers], lying there."
Irina Mihalenka, Odessa refugee
"The incident [Russian bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol] adds to our deep concerns about indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas and civilians trapped in active hostilities in numerous areas."
Liz Throssell, spokesperson, UN Human Rights
"It is horrifying to see the type of the barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians in a sovereign country."
White House press secretary Jen Psaki
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| Vasiliy Zhlobsky/EPA, via Shutterstock |
A maternity/children's hospital in the besieged Black Sea port city of Mariupol Wednesday was hit by a Russian air strike. Children were buried under rubble, along with injured women in labour. A deliberate strike on a vulnerable civilian target. this, despite an agreed ceasefire to allow thousands of civilians trapped in the embattled city to make their escape.
So far, the two-week-old Russian invasion of Ukraine has characterized itself by the committing of war crimes by deliberately --, against the protocols of the Geneva convention -- targeting civilian infrastructure and civilian populations. There was at the time of the bombing of the hospital a Russian pledge they would halt firing to allow some of the trapped civilians to escape the city confines where hundreds of thousands are without water or power in their shelters.
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| Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press |
Asked for comment on the bombing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov baldly stated: "Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets". All around the three-storey building lay huge piles of smouldering rubble. According to Ukraine authorities, three people died and 17 were injured in the attack where "colossal" destruction had resulted when the hospital was hit several times by an air strike.
"Indiscriminate shelling continues", stated Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. Ukraine's figures are that 57 children have died across the country since the invasion began, and in Mariupol alone, 1,170 civilians had died. Maxar, a satellite imaging company, indicated that images showed extensive damage to homes, apartment buildings, grocery stores and shopping centres in Mariupol.
Ukraine, according to Russia's defence ministry is responsible for the evacuation failure.
Russian forces were preventing buses from evacuating civilians from Bucha, a town outside Kyiv, while with the use of safe corridors, civilians had left the cities of Sumy in the east and Enerhodar in the south. Ukraine is asking for a ceasefire, for the liberation of its territories, and to resolve humanitarian issues when Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kuleba was set to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Turkey.
Moscow, on the other hand, demands that Kyiv take a neutral stance, drop its aspirations to join the NATO alliance, and recognize Russian possession of Donetsk and Luhansk, along with Crimea. Only then might it consider a stop to its assault on Ukraine. At least at first. Over two million refugees have streamed out of Ukraine into neighbouring receiving countries.
All across Ukraine houses were reduced to rubble, stated the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"Hundreds of thousands of people have no food no water, no heat, no electricity and no medical care."
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| Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press |
North of Kyiv a massive Russian assault force remains stalled, leaving the West to speculate that the Kremlin was forced to adjust its scheme to expeditiously topple the Ukrainian government, despite the reality of fierce resistance from occupied sources. Russia is paying dearly for its military invasion and bombardment of Ukraine through escalating sanctions that have isolated the nation and its economy. To the extent, according to the chief economist of the World Bank that Moscow was close to defaulting on its debt.
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| Dead
bodies are put into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine,
on March 9 as people cannot bury their dead because of the heavy
shelling by Russian forces |
Labels: Fighting Back, Isolation, Russian Invasion of Ukraine, Russian War Crimes, Ukraine Under Fire
Mission: Slowing Transmission of Wuhan Coronavirus
"[There have been] concerning instances [of transmission from people who had not been to China]."
"It could be the spark that becomes a bigger fire."
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Geneva
"We now know the new cases [of novel coronavirus] announced today are all closely linked to one another."
"Two of these new cases are health care workers."
"As soon as they were identified, we advised them to self-isolate in order to keep patient contact to a minimum. We are now working urgently to identify all patients and other health care workers who may have come into close contact, and at this stage we believe this to be a relatively small number."
Public Health England Medical Director Yvonne Doyle
Well, surprise; such disease outbreaks usually start with a 'small number' and transmission usually takes over from there, when unknown to the carriers who are initially symptom-free they begin to contaminate all others around them, and then those they contaminated then are exposed to others and the numbers of those affected begin to rise exponentially. This, in a nutshell, is how pandemics arise, and this is precisely the spark that becomes a bigger fire that WHO's chief alluded to.
According to the venerable BBC, a doctor's practise in the English city of Brighton is now closed temporarily after a staff member of the clinic had tested positive for coronavirus. There it is; visit a clinic, a hospital where germs reign supreme and become infected. The barn door is always slammed shut once its residents have left the scene. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Britain is now eight, a modest, almost negligible number to be concerned about.
In fact, roughly the same number that appeared in a hospital in Wuhan, China, back in mid-December with mysterious flu-like pneumonia symptoms. And the rest is very recent history That insignificant number has inspired the British government to declare the virus a serious and imminent health threat to the nation. That being so, it granted itself additional authority to isolate any citizens suspected of having been infected to prevent further spread ...
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| People wear protective masks as they ride on a nearly empty subway car
during the evening rush period on Feb. 10, 2020 in Beijing, China. Photo: Kevin Freyer/Getty |
All such new British cases were known contacts of a British patient in France, identified by public health officials tracing possible cases. The Diamond Princess cruise ship with its 3,700 passengers and crew remain quarantined in the Japanese port of Yokohama, aboard ship. Another 65 cases have been detected, giving the ship 135 confirmed cases of coronavirus ... and growing.
Latest figures give a total of 40,000 confirmed cases in China, along with 909 deaths related to the coronavirus. Another 319 cases have been confirmed in 24 countries where one death has occurred outside China. Sunday's death toll from the epidemic had leaped by 97, making it the deadliest day yet in the epidemic.
Labels: Britain, China, Coronavirus, Isolation, Toll
Not Remotely Interested in Civilization
"These people have been clearly telling us that please don't come near us, we don't want to meet you."
"And yet we keep on barging into their areas, bothering them, and that risks even the tribe's death."
Anvita Abbi, linguistics professor
Outsiders need to respect their wishes and treat them with dignity as fellow human beings."
"Respect means we don't assume to know better how they should live."
John Bodley, anthropologist, Washington State University
"[It's] unwise and inhumane to forcibly keep these groups isolated by building protective fences around them."
"Humans are an extremely social species. No groups want to live isolated forever. They do it out of fear."
Kim Hill, anthropologist, Arizona State University
"It takes a certain amount of courage and hard thinking. It has to start with gift-giving, years of gift-giving, then the language has to be learned through this gift-giving."
"You have to make an effort to engage in dialogue. It's not easy, but everybody is entitled to think about their future, that is the first right, the right to have rights."
Vishvajit Pandya, Indian anthropologist
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| Photo by Christian Caron/Survival International |
The government of India prohibits any contact with the islanders known as Sentinelese. They live on North Sentinel island, which lies far off India's coast in the Andaman Island chain. The island is roughly the size of Manhattan. The tribe consists of no more than several hundred people who are hunters and gatherers, following a style of life that is tens of thousands of years old. Their language is unknown by any outsiders. And they make it plain they will not permit those alien to their tribe and culture to set foot on North Sentinel.
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A young American missionary, John Chau did, He was a committed evangelist and his dream was of serving god by spreading Christianity to the tribe living on North Sentinel. The 26-year-old Chau knew of the danger. And in acknowledging that danger he was fearful, yet remained determined. He knew also that it was illegal to approach the island. He bribed local fishermen to boat him to the island on several occasions. He was warned of the consequences, but felt the risk was worth it, to serve god.
Islanders, almost naked but for loincloths will attack anyone who approaches their shore, firing arrows before retreating to melt back into the forest. Mr. Chau brought gifts with him. It's unlikely he had the opportunity show what he had to gift them with -- the people whom the Indian government deem an
"ultrasensitive human treasure". The government of India feels an obligation to protect these deliberately isolated people who want nothing but to live unmolested in their traditional way of life.
Among academics and intellectuals a discourse rages; whether to intrude or to ignore. Some feeling there is a humane obligation to introduce these stone-age people to the wonders of the modern world, while others come down in favour of the human courtesy of appreciating and respecting their wish to live as they will, in the natural world that sustains them. Ms. Abbi points out that islanders have no immunity to outside world maladies; contact could conceivably infect them with diseases that might destroy them.
North Sentinel, while isolated is a mere 50 kilometers from the region's growing capital, Port Blair. Inevitably, some contact will, at some time, occur. Vishvajit Pandya, the Indian anthropologist, has made three trips to North Sentinel, where in 1998 he accompanied a government team presenting islanders with bags of coconuts which the islanders accepted, then thanked the strangers with obscene gestures withholding violence.
Labels: Isolation, North Sentinel Island, Primitivism, Sentinelese
