Russia is accused of deliberate tactics of starvation in Mariupol: lawyers made a submission to the International Criminal Court
Global Rights Compliance lawyers, working together with the Ukrainian government, submitted to the International Criminal Court a dossier testifying to the genocidal actions of Russian leaders against the people of Ukraine in Mariupol, which was besieged for 85 days at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
This is reported by the British publication The Guardian.
Russia used “deliberate tactics” of starvation, amounting to a war crime, according to a new analysis. People were without food, water, gas and electricity for a long time, which was critical because the temperature was below minus 10C. The stories of the people of Mariupol who managed to escape from the city surrounded by the enemy testify that they suffered not only from bombardments, but also from hunger and cold.
It is known that genocide is the crime of crimes that has a very high threshold of proof. In political rhetoric, you can use this proverbial term as much as you like, but it is extremely difficult to legally prove this international crime.
It is not for nothing that US President Joe Biden, who in the spring of 2022 repeatedly called Russia’s actions in Ukraine are genocide, then resorted to clarification and offered to leave this issue to lawyers.
In the history of mankind, there are several crimes that were classified as genocide. These are the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, the genocide in Bosnia (Srebrenica) in 1995, the Armenian genocide in 1915-1917, and the genocide in Darfur. 32 countries of the world recognized the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-33 as genocide, and most of them did so already during a full-scale war. However, many countries are still hesitating. And this despite the fact that the author of the “Genocide” concept, Raphael Lemkin, recognized the famine in Ukraine as genocide and cited it as an example of a “crime of crimes” in his report “Soviet Genocide in Ukraine” in 1953.
Every time, legal proof is extremely difficult and requires significant efforts from the international community, investigative bodies and courts. It takes years and decades. A natural question arises, why is it so difficult to legally justify genocide in the presence of the appropriate term and international laws relating to this type of crime?
First of all, because of the high threshold of evidence. In order to prove genocide, it is necessary not only to prove mass killings or other acts of violence, but also to prove that these acts were carried out with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group. This “special intention” (dolus specialis) is very difficult to establish.
Second, crimes of genocide often occur in war or other crisis situations, where gathering evidence can be dangerous and technically difficult. Witnesses may fear for their lives, evidence may be destroyed or hidden.
Third, it is always a difficult political context: the countries that committed the genocide obviously do not want to admit their responsibility, because it means compensation for the damage caused to the victims.
Genocide prosecutions can take years due to the need for thorough investigation, evidence gathering and court hearings. This may result in many witnesses or victims not living to see the verdict. In addition, genocide is often accompanied by other crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. This makes it difficult to identify specific acts that constitute genocide and prove them in court.
It is very important that the lawyers managed to expose the genocidal intentions of the aggressor country in Mariupol. According to Catriona Murdoch, a partner at Global Rights Compliance, the purpose of the study was precisely to “test if there was a larger narrative” about the intentions of the Russian military.
The lawyer notes: “What we could see was that there were four phases of the Russian attack, starting with attacks on civilian infrastructure, cutting off the supply of electricity, heating and water. Then people were denied humanitarian evacuation, while aid was not allowed.” Gathering evidence was long and difficult, since Mariupol is still under Russian occupation. To map specific places, lawyers used satellite images using a specially developed algorithm.
We will remind that the Office of the International Criminal Court has created a special portal through which any person who may have information related to the situation in Ukraine can contact the investigators. ICC Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan urged anyone with relevant information to come forward and contact his team through this platform.
The corresponding hub for the collection of evidence was also created in Ukraine
