THE HAGUE, March 3 – Investigators from the International Criminal Court left for Ukraine on Thursday to begin investigating possible war crimes, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor said in an interview.
Karim Khan told Reuters that his office would check for evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide – crimes under the jurisdiction of the court – by all parties to the conflict. Read more
Asked about reports of artillery strikes in Ukraine’s small towns and cities, Khan said: “Any country that targets civilian or civilian targets directly commits a crime under Rome’s statute and international humanitarian law,” referring to the statue that set up a courtroom.
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Hundreds of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians have been killed since President Vladimir Putin sent troops over the border on February 24. Read more
Russia denies targeting civilians, saying it aims to “disarm” Ukraine and arrest leaders it falsely calls neo-Nazis.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), which has 123 member states, prosecutes those responsible for the most serious atrocities when a country is unable or unwilling to do so.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, and Moscow does not recognize the tribunal opened in The Hague in 2002.
Exterior view of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, The Netherlands, 31 March 2021 REUTERS / Piroschka van de Wouw
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Ukraine signed a declaration in 2014, which gives the court jurisdiction over alleged serious crimes committed on its territory from 2014 onwards, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators.
“LAW OF WAR”
“The law of war continues to apply and we have clear jurisdiction,” Khan said. “This is a reminder to all factions, to all parties to the conflict, that they must behave in accordance with the laws of war.”
If war crimes are found to have been committed in Ukraine, Khan said, his service will follow the evidence up the chain of command to the highest levels of political and military positions.
“Everyone involved in the conflict must realize that they do not have a license to commit crimes,” he said.
The initial team of the prosecutor’s office, sent on Thursday, consists of investigators, lawyers and people with special experience in operational planning, he added.
Prosecutors said they would also investigate possible crimes in the conflict dating back to the Russian occupation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 and the activities of pro-Russian separatists in Donbas. Khan’s office said earlier that it had reasonable grounds to believe that violations had been committed in Ukraine. Read more
The prosecutor’s annual report for 2020, based on preliminary investigations, cites alleged killings and torture in Crimea and attacks on civilians, torture, murder and rape in eastern Ukraine.
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Report by Anthony Deutsch; Edited by William McLean, Gareth Jones and Andrew Havens
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