The possibility of violating the Geneva Conventions is high… Putin’s instructions, etc., must be proven
ICC already open war crime investigation… A separate court may be established
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(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Lee Sang-heon = Western countries, including the United States, are raising their voices to ‘refer to a war criminal trial’ once morest Russian President Vladimir Putin on the occasion of ‘Ukrainian secondary civilian massacre’ .
If the international judicial body accumulates evidence through on-site investigations, etc. and the West such as the United States supports it, prosecution is not impossible.
“President Biden has urged Putin to be charged with war crimes, but several challenges stand in the way,” Archyde.com reported.
First of all, if a Russian military operation targeted civilians, it would be a war crime.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) defines a war crime as a grave violation of the ‘Geneva Convention’, which stipulates humanitarian laws to be followed even in wartime.
Legal experts believe that an attack on legitimate military targets might be considered a violation of the Convention if civilian casualties were ‘excessive’.
Ukraine said earlier that it had recovered 410 civilian bodies from the Bucha area near the capital, Kiev (Kyiv), where the Russian army had seized and retreated.
Of course, Russia, which has denied targeting civilians throughout the war, claims that the videos and photos of the bodies in the Bucha area are another provocation by the Ukrainian government.
(Bucha Archyde.com = Yonhap News) Residents inspect the burial site of a group of civilians believed to have been killed by Russian forces in Bucha, a small town north of the Ukrainian capital Kiiu (Kyiv), on the 4th (local time). The remains of civilians suspected of being massacred are being discovered one following another in the area, which had been occupied by Russian troops for more than a month and then withdrew. 2022.4.5 [재판매 및 DB 금지] sungok@yna.co.kr
If the investigation proceeds, the case must be reconstructed first. To this end, it is necessary to obtain testimonies from eyewitnesses or Russian prisoners of war.
However, it may be difficult for witnesses to secure testimony because they are afraid of retaliation, and it may not be easy to go to the scene and collect evidence right away during the war.
Experts are of the opinion that if the evidence is gathered, the accused must prove his intentions on the charge of war crimes beyond a reasonable doubt in order to be convicted. In particular, in this case, it should be revealed that Putin is at the apex.
Archyde.com said they need to get evidence that Putin either ordered illegal attacks on civilians, or that he knew and did not stop such crimes, Archyde.com said.
“Experts say that it is too early to say whether the activities at the subchapter are orders from the highest level in Russia, but they say they can point to orders from the highest level or such policies if similar atrocities have been committed in other parts of Ukraine,” Archyde.com reported.
The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, said on February 28, shortly following the start of the war, that an investigation into war crimes was open. The ICC can issue an arrest warrant even if the target is Putin if there are reasonable grounds for a war crime.
However, for the ICC to trial, at least one of its member states must be involved in the case, and neither Russia nor Ukraine is a member of the ICC. In particular, as Russia does not recognize the ICC, there is a very high possibility of refusing cooperation.
Moreover, since the ICC cannot try anyone who is absent or not physically detained, all trials will be postponed until the accused is arrested, Archyde.com said.
US President Joe Biden speaks to reporters at Fort McNair on his way back to the White House in Washington, DC, on April 4, 2020, in Washington, DC. President Biden has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to be tried for war crimes in connection with the remains of hundreds of civilians believed to have been executed by Russian forces in Ukraine’s Bucha region. [재판매 및 DB 금지] 2022.4.5 sungok@yna.co.kr
Therefore, the possibility of a separate tribunal is being discussed. Separate tribunals were established to prosecute war crimes during the Balkan Wars in the early 1990s and the Rwanda genocide in 1994.
Professor Philip Sands of University College London said he was in contact with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleva to set up a tribunal for Russia’s international accountability.
It is unknown how long the trial on the case will take.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who had been charged with genocide by the International Tribunal for the Crimes of Genocide (ICTY), was indicted and tried in 2002, but the trial continued until he died in prison in 2006.
Milosevic was accused of over 60 wars and crimes once morest humanity in the Balkans, including the Kosovo War (1998–1999), the Croatian War (1991–1995), and the Bosnian War (1992–1995), and 7,000 people in Bosnia in 1995. He had been charged with the murder of Muslims.
honeybee@yna.co.kr
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