Norwegian researcher: The war in Ukraine is brutal, but not genocide
When it comes to the war in Ukraine, we are nowhere near the legal description of genocide, lawyer and international law researcher Cecilie Hellestveit says.
On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden described Russia’s actions in Ukraine as genocide.
“What is happening in Ukraine is deeply shocking and a crime against an entire nation,” Hellestveit said.
“This is war, not genocide. The fact that many are killed is an effect of the fact that there is a war,” she told NTB.
Hellestveit believes that President Vladimir Putin’s speeches cannot be understood as meaning that he believes that Ukraine should cease to exist.
“It is not an attempt to wipe out the Ukrainian people,” Hellestveit said. She is a lawyer and political scientist affiliated with the Institute of International Law.
Biden’s statements
During a rally in Iowa, Biden called Russia’s actions in Ukraine a genocide.
“It has become clearer and clearer that Putin is trying to erase the very idea that it is possible to be a Ukrainian,” he said.
Hellestveit pointed out that Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine is a big enough crime in itself and that there is no need to push the war into the category of genocide. But there are indications that war crimes are being committed, she added.
UN investigation
According to Hellestveit, it is not uncommon for parties in war to accuse each other of genocide.
Under international law, only the International Court of Justice in The Hague, with its UN mandate, can say whether an ongoing operation is a genocide.
The court is already investigating the war, as Ukraine asked it to refute President Vladimir Putin’s allegations that Ukraine committed genocide against ethnic Russians in the Donbas region.
The UN court then ordered Russia to stop the war.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) can investigate allegations of war crimes and genocide directed at individuals.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
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