Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Ahead of the EU-Ukraine summit early in February, MEPs called on the EU to step up action by establishing a special court to punish Russian crimes.
They claimed that the special international tribunal should investigate Russian leaders and military commanders as well as their allies for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.
Double-standards
While a vast majority of policymakers at the European Parliament are taking a hardline stance calling for more weapons to help the Ukrainian army citing “severe violations” in reference to the scenes in Bucha, Irpin, and many other Ukrainian towns, some MEPs have raised concerns, calling the EU’s hypocrisy and double-standards recalling the destruction of countries in which several EU nations played a key role.
“This March marks the 20th anniversary of the horrific crime aggression against Iraq perpetrated by the “Coalition of the Willing”, including our very own Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Denmark, and Spain,” said MEP Clare Daly.
Daly, known for her outspoken stance in the European house of democracy, said the goal behind this attempt to establish a war tribunal was not about justice but to “scupper peace”.
“I want to see war criminals punished but after 20 years of impunity for the brigands who wrecked Iraq, the proposal before us is just pure fantasy,” she added.
Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders stated during the debate with MEPs that Russia violated one of the cornerstones of international law and highlighted the occurrence of “serious crimes happening in Ukraine” to justify the setting up of a special court.
“International law is upheld by consensus. It either applies to all states equally, or it doesn’t work,” Daly contended.
Following the same reasoning, Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík raised questions related to “US crimes committed in Syria and elsewhere” when addressing his colleagues and the Justice Commissioner.
Writing for the Geopolitical Monitor, British Taras Kuzio, a professor of political science at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy compared Ukraine and Azerbaijan and how the west is responding in “diametrically different ways”.
“This [West’s response] contrasts with the total ignoring of war crimes undertaken in the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is true that pogroms were committed by both Armenians and Azerbaijanis which led to the flight of populations. But there the similarity ends. 4,000 Azerbaijani civilians and POWs went missing in the early 1990s after the seven provinces surrounding Karabakh were occupied by Armenian forces,” stated Kuzio.
Germany & Switzerland
Nonetheless, the EU counts on support from several member states, including neutral Switzerland. In effect, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has been investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine, but it can’t prosecute Russian leaders since neither Russia nor Ukraine has ratified the Rome Statute.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has also called for the special international tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine while visiting the ICC in The Hague.
“We talked about working with Ukraine and our partners on the idea of setting up a special tribunal for crimes of aggression against Ukraine,” said Baerbock.
Baerbock said that what was needed was “a tribunal that can investigate the Russian leadership and put them on trial,” during a speech at the Academy of International Law.
However, legally, the ICC only has jurisdiction over war crimes and crimes against humanity and not the “crime of aggression”. As such, Russia’s veto effectively bars the UN Security Council from acting.
In Switzerland, Damien Cottier, who chairs the Council of Europe’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, also urged for the creation of a special court for Ukraine.
“What is the crime of aggression? [It’s] the decision to launch an international conflict illegally,” he added. “Since the end of the Second World War, it has been forbidden to wage war. It is not a legitimate extension of political or diplomatic activity,” said Cottier.
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