War crimes in Ukraine

As the whole world continues to witness terrible scenes in Ukraine that bring reminders of the inhuman destruction of cities and genocide on people by Hitler’s invading army, the scenes on Television and social media also remind how weak kneed and cowardly the US and its NATO allies are for not doing anything to help the Ukrainians. The western super powers led by the US and its NATO allies are watching on the sidelines because they are afraid of Putin’s warning that any intervention (to save the helpless Ukrainians) would lead to a bigger nuclear conflict. Ukraine’s president Volodymir Zelenskyy has been pleading with western powers to save Ukrainians by imposing No-Fly Zone over his country to prevent Russians from firing rockets and missiles from planes or launchers. However, the Western powers fall back on the excuse citing Putin’s warning, that any intervention could lead to a nuclear war of Third Word War. The self –paralysis and inaction has meant that Ukrainian civilians-women, the aged and children- can be killed indiscriminately because the west believes more in Putin than in the cries of pain and sufferings of the Ukrainians. Some civilians are getting shot at by Russian army while trying to flee besieged cities. The kind of barbarism and blatant and indiscriminate killing of Ukrainian civilians by the Putin’s army has raised demands that he be brought to trial for war crimes. US President Joe Biden has called Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” – when discussing the conflict in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson have previously both accused Russia of carrying out war crimes. The term applies to anyone who violates a set of rules adopted by world leaders known as the law of armed conflict. The rules govern how countries behave in times of war. Like the Nazis who targeted everything and everyone, Putin’s army is doing hardly anything different in Ukraine. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) maintains that even war has rules and any deviation constitutes crime. These are contained in treaties called the Geneva Conventions and a string of other international laws and agreements. Civilians cannot be deliberately attacked – nor can the infrastructure that is vital to their survival. Some weapons are banned because of the indiscriminate or appalling suffering they cause – such as anti-personnel landmines and chemical or biological weapons. Investigators will look at past and present allegations – going back as far as 2013, before Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. If there’s evidence, the prosecutor will ask ICC judges to issue arrest warrants to bring individuals to trial in The Hague. However, it is easier said than done because the ICC doesn’t have its own police force and has to rely on individual states to arrest suspects. In this case, Russia is not a member of ICJ as it pulled out in 2016. The option is to try the case in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. Whatever happens with regard to trying Putin, he can only be brought to justice if Russian’s revolt and arrest him. That is not likely to happen and so the west should instead ponder on what they need to do to stop one of the worst atrocities in modern history by a man who is turning out to be a combination of Hitler and Stalin.