NP

[Mark Kohut]

>From the same piece, that is two months into the invasion of Ukraine:

And a U.N. mission has received
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/29/us/politics/ukraine-rape-war-crimes.html>75
allegations of rape against Ukrainians.

But the track record of holding anyone accountable for rape during wartime
isn't long.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda convicted the mayor of Taba,
Rwanda, in 2001. Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander,
was found guilty
<https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/11/22/565672709/tribunal-finds-ratko-mladic-guilty-of-genocide-crimes-against-humanity-in-bosnia>
 by the International Criminal Court in 2017 of genocide and war crimes,
including the mass rape of women and girls
<https://una.org.uk/news/un-judges-find-ratko-mladi%C4%87-guilty-genocide-and-war-crimes?page=2>.
Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav leader, faced similar charges but died
in jail in 2006
<https://www.npr.org/2006/03/11/5257817/former-serb-leader-milosevic-dies-in-jail>before
the end of his trial.

Russia is not a party to the ICC, nor is the United States
<https://www.npr.org/2022/04/16/1093212495/the-u-s-does-not-recognize-the-jurisdiction-of-the-international-criminal-court>.
Ukraine isn't either, but it has recognized the court's authority, so the
court could prosecute atrocity crimes
<https://www.vox.com/23017838/international-criminal-court-icc-putin-war-crimes>committed
in Ukraine.
[image: Charging Putin for potential war crimes is difficult, and any
penalty hard to enforce]
<https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1090837686/putin-war-crimes-prosecution-bucha>
UKRAINE INVASION — EXPLAINED
<https://www.npr.org/series/1082539802/russia-ukraine-invasion-explained>Charging
Putin for potential war crimes is difficult, and any penalty hard to enforce
<https://www.npr.org/2022/04/05/1090837686/putin-war-crimes-prosecution-bucha>

The ICC's top prosecutor has said he will fast-track
<https://www.npr.org/2022/02/28/1083598057/icc-ukraine-investigation> an
investigation into war crimes in Ukraine. But Ukraine's foreign minister
has said he has little confidence in organizations like the ICC to
prosecute crimes like rape.

"When Russian soldiers rape women in Ukrainian cities — it's difficult, of
course, to speak about the efficiency of international law," the minister,
Dmytro Kuleba, said at a forum last month
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/29/world/europe/russian-soldiers-sexual-violence-ukraine.html>
.

Cohen says that holding people to account for rape in wartime is rare. At
the highest levels, it's usually difficult to prove that the rape was
ordered by someone in command.

"It is very rare to ever have smoking gun evidence that rape was ordered
from the top down," she says.
[image: From Nuremberg to Darfur, history has seen some war criminals
brought to trial]
<https://www.npr.org/2022/04/10/1091256975/from-nuremberg-to-darfur-history-has-seen-some-war-criminals-brought-to-trial>
POLITICS  <https://www.npr.org/sections/politics/>From Nuremberg to Darfur,
history has seen some war criminals brought to trial
<https://www.npr.org/2022/04/10/1091256975/from-nuremberg-to-darfur-history-has-seen-some-war-criminals-brought-to-trial>

And for the rank-and-file soldiers accused of committing such atrocities,
prosecutions can be exceedingly hard to come by.

"There is some degree of accountability, but it is rare," says Cohen. "But
I think that that does not imply, however, that we shouldn't be doing our
best to collect all of the documentation that we possibly can in order to
potentially hold perpetrators accountable."

Speaking with The Atlantic
<https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/04/zelensky-kyiv-russia-war-ukrainian-survival-interview/629570/>earlier
this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said real victory will
come only when the perpetrators are tried, convicted and sentenced. But
justice likely won't come quickly, he conceded.

"How long do we have to wait? It's a long process, these courts, tribunals,
international courts," he said.

   - rape <https://www.npr.org/tags/144784252/rape>
   - united nations <https://www.npr.org/tags/131859203/united-nations>
   - ukraine <https://www.npr.org/tags/126978660/ukraine>
   - russia <https://www.npr.org/tags/126935624/russia>


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On Fri, Jun 10, 2022 at 10:57 PM Robert Mahnke <rpmahnke at gmail.com> wrote:

> I took you to imply that the New York Times has reported that Russia has
> used mass rape as a weapon of war, although perhaps I misunderstood you.
> Curious, I searched the Times. The only articles I see note allegations of
> multiple rapes, but do not suggest they are fact, and also note allegations
> about similar conduct by Ukraine. FWIW.
>
> Sent from an iPhone; pls xcse typos.
>
> > On Jun 10, 2022, at 3:25 PM, Thomas Eckhardt via Pynchon-l <
> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
> >
> > For those who get their information from Twitter:
> >
> > The claim that Russian troops committed rapes of women and children "as
> a weapon of war" has been debunked. The human rights commissioner
> responsible for these claims has been relieved from her duties:
> >
> > "The top Ukrainian official who was fired for spreading misinformation
> has admitted that she lied about Russians committing mass rape in order to
> convince western countries to send more weapons to Ukraine."
> >
> >
> https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ousted-ukrainian-official-breaks-silence-admits-she-lied-about-mass-rape-russians?fbclid=IwAR2zCEO5-Fq05ERpMUHkSqkb-b2JMs5xJ0mrWbgS1hYLTOl2yzEIge-WgBk
> >
> > Don't tell me that Zerohedge provides "Russian misinformation" - tell me
> that they are wrong, and prove it.
> >
> > Horrible things happen in war, and I don't doubt that there are
> atrocities happening on both sides of the conflict. This claim, however,
> was false. It was atrocity propaganda of the most blatant kind. Kudos to
> the Ukrainian parliament for insisting on factual evidence.
> >
> > No, you won't read this in the NYT or the WP.
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>