Permissiveness of the Russian Federation and inaction of the International Red Cross: why civilian prisoners are the most vulnerable

[ad_1]

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, the aggressor country has deported more than 19 thousand Ukrainian children. According to official statistics, 963 Ukrainian civilians were captured by the Russians. But in reality, these numbers are much higher, because it is impossible to know the exact number of Ukrainians who became victims of the Russian army in the temporarily occupied territories. Occupying the territories, the enemy began to carry out massive sweeps, interrogations and deportation of Ukrainians in the territories controlled by Russia. This especially applies to men. Due to the lack of communication and the impossibility of calling relatives to get at least some information, people began to look for at least a little information through acquaintances or the public in social networks. In March 2022, we created the “Find Your Own” project to help Ukrainians embrace their loved ones again. We created a chatbot where anyone could leave a request to search for a missing person, and a team of volunteers worked to find at least some information about the missing person. During the year of the project, we managed to find more than 2,100 people through joint efforts with the National Police. Unfortunately, the number of missing persons continues to grow, we currently have more than 7,000 Ukrainian civilians in search, of which more than 3,500 are from Mariupol. Today we have more than 400 requests to find those who are in civilian captivity. The process of returning from civilian captivity is very complicated. The war in Ukraine is a unique example for history. The aggressor country deports children and adults, which, according to the Geneva Convention, is a war crime. Russia does not comply with these conventions, but there is another factor – there are no relevant laws in international legislation to hold the country accountable for non-compliance with the conventions. And deporting our prisoners to the temporarily occupied territories of the so-called “DPR” and “LPR”, we generally find ourselves with “tied hands”, because even the constitution of Russia does not have the corresponding legislation regarding these territories. Another point is that the International Committee of the Red Cross is the only organization in the world that, according to international standards, has access to both sides of the conflict. But for some reason it remains powerless in such conditions, not having information about the whereabouts of these civilian prisoners. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the world was not ready for such a large-scale aggression, and therefore the world is not able to quickly react to what is happening, not only to civilian captivity, but also to all events in general. Deportation and civil captivity – is there a difference In the “Find Your Own” project, we clearly separate the concepts of deportation and civil captivity, although the concepts are somewhat blurred in society. This is due to the fact that we cannot know exactly what is happening to the deported Ukrainians in the territory of the aggressor country. And this is the most difficult thing when searching for the missing. Civil detention is detention and detention at the level of imprisonment. People are picked up on the streets, at the behest of neighbors, at rallies, or for any support of Ukraine. All this is happening in the occupied territories, but it is extremely difficult to find out the future fate of the detainees – information is limited, they are constantly being moved. *Civilian hostages – this is the right way to call non-military people captured. Unfortunately, today this is the most unprotected category of prisoners. Their capture is outside the legal field, and the state does not yet have any mechanisms to help these people. A civilian prisoner is not eligible for exchange: such people can be released or added to the exchange of prisoners of war, which is a very big problem. On the part of the occupiers, civilian captivity in general is an absolute violation of the Geneva Conventions. Today, there are many prisoners and deportees from the Kyiv region, those who were captured from the first days of the full-scale invasion – the end of February or the month of March. They are kept in pre-trial detention centers, in basements, police stations, next to military personnel. These are people who are being detained for an unknown reason, and what’s more, they are facing some sort of sentence. By the way, my team and I are currently looking for a resident of Kyiv region – Volodymyr Berezhnov – who was captured twice. In March, the occupiers held him captive in his own house, then the man miraculously escaped. The second time, Volodymyr was captured when he was going to pick up his wife and children from a village in the Kyiv region. The man’s eldest daughter received only one short letter from her father, dated April 14, with the words “alive, healthy”. Having written a letter to her father, the girl is still waiting for an answer. According to the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of both sides of the conflict have the right to correspond with their relatives every month. Of course, such correspondence is subject to censorship, but informing relatives about the state of one’s health or simply writing that one is alive is allowed. Fact: Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, we have received a total of only a few thousand letters from military and civilian prisoners. At the same time, the Ukrainian side gives Red Cross representatives full access to Russian prisoners. Now the state has already paid more attention to this, because civilians cannot be exchanged, but must be returned. We now have an ombudsman who liaises with Russia and is working to return the 60+ civilian hostages and those who are seriously ill or injured. But this process is extremely difficult and slow. By the way, among the hostages is the director of the Mariupol Drama Theater, who was imprisoned together with his son. The man had been pro-Ukrainian since 2014, and when the occupiers came to the city, his own employees surrendered him. The man was captured together with his son, who has cerebral palsy. It is known that they are alive and they need to be returned, but how – no one knows… The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only organization that has access to both sides of the conflict, but for some reason it is powerless. The problem of not knowing where the civilian hostages are is not even the biggest problem . The most difficult thing is that the Russians do not give any information about the civilian prisoners. *It is important to note that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), an organization engaged in human rights activities, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which is a separate organization that carries out humanitarian missions, should be separated. These are two different structures. Read also: We are as strong as we allow ourselves to be. The International Red Cross on work in Ukraine, the office in Rostov and the deportation of Ukrainians A few months ago, I had the opportunity to visit the office of the International Committee of the Red Cross – this is where inquiries about missing Ukrainians come. And it is this institution that must take care of compliance with the Geneva Conventions. The main mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross is the protection of people who have suffered due to military conflicts. It is the only organization in the world that has the legal right to check the condition of prisoners and the conditions in which they are kept on the territory of warring countries. Searching for missing persons who disappeared during the war is also the task of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The International Committee of the Red Cross has a neutral status. They have a representative office both in Ukraine and in Russia. And the organization’s call center is united to search for everyone, that is, they search for both Russians and Ukrainians at the same time. During the discussion with the head of the ICRC Department for the Protection of Civilian Population, Christian Cardon, we discussed the issue of Russia’s illegal detention of over 20,000 Ukrainian civilians, of which over 3,000 are in captivity. According to the Geneva Conventions, it is forbidden to detain civilians, which means that Russia constantly violates international law. How does the International Committee of the Red Cross react to this? In response, I heard that representatives of the ICRC acknowledge the fact that some countries “do not respect the laws”, while wherever there is an International Committee of the Red Cross, representatives establish contact with both sides of the conflict, expressing concerns about these problems to the leadership. But the problem remains urgent – the ICRC is unable to meet with civilian hostages on the territory of Russia, who, again, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions, must be released immediately. However, the reality is that the relatives of these civilians do not even know where they are being held. So what are the solutions to this issue? Unfortunately, Christian Cardon answered me that compliance with the rules of war is the political responsibility of countries to grant ICRC representatives access to prisoners. The organization constantly reiterates this to countries in writing and in dialogues. And he noted that it is important in this matter that such a dialogue takes place at all. The International Committee of the Red Cross has a voice in the UN, representatives of the organization do not have the right to use their collected data in courts, but they can initiate new changes and amendments regarding civilian hostages. Because if this inaction continues, then the entire humanitarian world and the Red Cross are under a big question. In my opinion, the main problem in the issue of prisoners and the passivity of the Red Cross is that the organization does not take the initiative in these processes, does not seek access to civilian prisoners, and therefore does not receive information about their condition. Yes, Russia limits the ICRC’s access to most of our prisoners: civilians and military. And the organization, in turn, transfers responsibility for the countries that have adopted the Geneva Conventions. For example, the introduction of a method of punishment, sanctions for non-compliance with conventions, or a court that will decide all this. It turns out to be a dead end. But when the whole world puts its hopes on the International Committee of the Red Cross as an organization with neutral status and access to both sides of the conflict. Inaction and silence in a situation like mine is also a crime. Kateryna Osadcha, founder of the project to search for missing Ukrainian civilians “Find Your Own”, specially for UP. Life Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect exclusively the author’s point of view.

[ad_2]

Original Source Link