What crimes Russia committed during the occupation of the Crimea and which are still committed on the peninsula

Ukrainian human rights organizations and prosecutors have sent to the International Criminal Court (ICC) eight reports on war crimes and crimes against humanity that have occurred in Ukraine since the aggression of Russia. The latter – transmitted in early 2020 – contains evidence that Russia creates the conditions for the forced departure of Ukrainians from the Crimea and changes the demographic situation on the peninsula, populating it with its citizens.

“At the end of 2019, the number of officially registered internally displaced persons from Crimea alone exceeded 43 thousand. However, according to the data of some international and Ukrainian non-governmental organizations, the actual number of displaced persons from Crimea is many times higher and may reach about 100 thousand. This applies to people who are not officially registered as internally displaced persons, ”a lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights, Vitaliy Nabukhotny, told a news conference.

According to him, the reasons for departure from the Crimean peninsula is very different: the imposing Russian citizenship, discrimination Ukrainian, Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Muslims, inability to learn Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar, the need for business perereyestrovuvaty Russian laws, seizure of property, etc. ( see. “Occupied Homeland » ). In addition, since the occupation, Russia has been conducting a military conscription in the Crimea, which is a violation of international humanitarian law and qualifies as a separate type of war crimes under the Rome ICC Statute. About 14,000 recruits are now known. Those who refuse to join the Russian army are held accountable: during 2017–2019, at least 71 conscripts who have been punished have been registered.

“The legal nature of our message to the ICC is interesting, namely the issue and nature of coercion. Anyone can ask: Discrimination, churches, schools are closed, but what is the compulsion to move if the person actually leaves the peninsula? Previously, everyone understood that forced displacement was when, for example, during World War II, Jews were sent to concentration camps. Today, the position of many international courts and political institutions is different because the world has become more civilized and the approach to the interpretation of legal terms has changed, ”Nabuchotny said.

There are no precedents in the ICC’s practice that are contextually reminiscent of the Crimean situation, but there are relevant practices of the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, says the lawyer. For example, Republika Srpska Speaker Momcilo Grushnik was accused, in particular, of crimes of forced displacement through a policy of discrimination against Muslims in Serb-controlled territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were covered with water in homes, denied access to training, persecuted the most active Muslims – what is happening now in the Crimea and the Donbass.

“In order for the ICC to act in the same way in its practice, the Court’s bold position is quite bold. Even in Yugoslavia, the context is not exactly the same, and dozens of other charges have been brought against those charged. However, it should be understood that such precedents exist, and we are trying to prove to the Court some analogy to situations, ”explained Nabuchotny.

There are several aspects of displacement from the Crimea, says lawyer Roman Regional Human Rights Center Roman Martynovsky. First of all, it is deportation across the Ukrainian border to the Russian Federation. The first whom Russia began to export to its territory were Ukrainian prisoners who were in Crimean prisons at the time of the occupation (see Week # 24/2016). Human rights defenders provided the ISS with about 200 files of Ukrainian prisoners deported from Crimea to their territory by Russia. “In total, according to our estimates, at least 12,000 Ukrainian citizens have been transferred from the Crimea to the Russian Federation today to serve sentences. That is, Russia continues to hear criminal cases, and the persons sentenced to imprisonment are mostly exported from Crimea, ”Martynovsky said.

In addition, the deportation of people began because they allegedly violated Russian migration legislation, which Russia extended to Crimea, while violating international law.

“We have deported citizens of Ukraine and 37 other countries of the world that we have been able to identify. As a result, there was a movement of citizens of Ukraine from the territory of Crimea to the territory of mainland Ukraine. The decisions taken by the occupation courts as a result of consideration of administrative protocols on violation of migration rules, ended with either deportation or voluntary departure, for which the person had several days, ”the expert said. Instead, moving in the opposite direction began: the Russian Federation creates the conditions for the occupation of the occupied territory by its own civilian population (see Week # 34/2018).

According to Martinovsky, during the years of occupation the number of people who leave the Crimea does not change (about 10 thousand a year. – Ed.), And sometimes it increases. People accumulate reasons to leave the peninsula – and eventually they do.
“Such actions of the RF correspond to the concept of crime against humanity – Part 1 (d) of Art. 7 of the Rome Statute. In terms of war crimes, they can be qualified in accordance with the separate syllables of Part 2 of Art. 8 of the Rome Statute. Our arguments are based on the fact that those responsible for policies aimed at changing the demographic situation in the Crimea, displacement of the population, should be held criminally responsible for these articles, ”the lawyer says.

The list added officials of the Russian Federation who are more or less responsible for human rights violations in Crimea. “Prior to the consideration of the ICC Prosecutor’s Office, we have provided a list of 14 representatives of the top state leadership of the Russian Federation who are to be held responsible for the crimes committed,” said Crimean Prosecutor Igor Ponochovny. According to him, the ICC Prosecutor is expected to submit a request to the ISS Pre-Trial Chamber to open an investigation into the situation in Ukraine as early as 2020.

Human Shield and Green Men

One of the previous reports to the ICC sent by Ukrainian human rights defenders with the Crimean Prosecutor’s Office concerned the events in Crimea in February – March 2014, when Russian armed forces covered themselves with civilians, seizing Ukrainian military units ( see “Crafty Methods” ). The Regional Center for Human Rights (HRCL), the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU), and the Crimean Prosecutor’s Office, based on this submission, presented studies showing evidence that Russia was using prohibited methods of warfare. Human rights activists interviewed eyewitnesses about the capture of military sites, found videos from the scene, and used information from the open source intelligence community InformNapalm.

Analysts have found evidence of the use of human shields during the blockade and capture of military units of the Armed Forces and administrative buildings. “The war crime of the use of human shields means that a person involved in a military operation and a party to an armed conflict uses civilians as persons entitled to protection to gain military advantage. In fact, it is covered by a civilian and thus protects itself from attack and guarantees the advantage, because the enemy does not use weapons and other methods. This is exactly what the Russian Federation actively used in the Crimea. You can find photos and video evidence of this, ”said Anton Korinevich, Permanent Representative of the President of Crimea to the study.

According to him, in practice the ICC is the first case of consideration of the issue of war crimes of living shields by the state – earlier this was done only by armed groups, but not by the parties to the international armed conflict.

“It is important to analyze what was key: the civilian’s intention to voluntarily become a shield for the enemy’s armed forces, or the enemy’s subjective intention to use these people to gain military advantage. It seems to us that the second is more important. All the agitation on the Russian side, of course, indicates that it was a targeted activity and forbidden methods of warfare, ”he notes.

In addition, there is evidence of the use of so-called green men – uniformed military uniforms. Similarly in history, there have been cases of unicorns without chevrons, but not by states.

“For international law, there has never been a question of whether the armed forces of the state should have chevrons and stripes, and there is nothing about that. This is what is understood in itself. Therefore, if an organized armed group could behave like that, then the states would not. It is also a violation of international humanitarian law. Russia, as a party to the international armed conflict, had to make it clear that it was its military, ”Korinevich says.

Another aspect of the study is treachery, that is, the illegal use of emblems, uniforms, uniforms of the Ukrainian Navy and Ukrainian militia during the blocking and seizure of military units and administrative buildings. There are few such cases, but they have been and confirm Russia’s use of prohibited methods of warfare, the authors say.

It is difficult to qualify such actions of the Russian Federation under Ukrainian law adequately, because the Criminal Code of Ukraine does not contain all analogues of international crimes.

“The state, the law, the law enforcement agencies were not ready for the challenges that they faced in 2014, because international law was studied at a relatively limited rate by legal colleges, and international humanitarian law was not studied at all. When we decided to qualify the actions of the Russian Federation not under the common criminal law, as it happened before, but as a violation of the laws and customs of war, we were faced with even more challenges. Because for prosecutors it was a whole new area of ​​law. We were helped by human rights organizations, ”says Ponochovny.

Now the prosecutor’s office qualifies the actions of the Russian Federation under Art. 438 of the Criminal Code – violation of the laws and customs of war. In the event of the ratification of the Rome Statute and the harmonization of Ukrainian criminal law with international law, a detailed list of war crimes and separate provisions on crimes against humanity will appear in the CCU.

Crime in Crimea does not stop

During the six years of occupation in the Crimea, an atmosphere of repression against those disloyal to Russian politics has developed. Muslims are being searched and arrested for their religious views, baseless allegations of terrorism and extremism. Much of the Kremlin’s prisoners are Crimean Tatars. Peninsulas are not accessible by international organizations, so monitoring the rights of its inhabitants is only possible remotely or through people at their own risk.

“There are statements at the international level that Russia can be negotiated because it has released seamen and 11 political prisoners. But in the same 2019, Russia illegally imprisoned 43 more people. We do not see any positive tendencies, ”said Olga Skripnik, Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Human Rights Group. Among these 43 people, 36 were imprisoned for their involvement in Muslim organizations, most notably Hizb ut-Tahrir, which legally operates in Ukraine but is banned in the Russian Federation.

According to her, in recent years there has been no change in the trend of inappropriate detention of people in pre-trial detention centers and prisons: violence during detention, torture for the purpose of obtaining testimony, especially in so-called spy or sabotage cases, where people are accused of working for the Security Service or the Ministry of Defense. In prisons, prisoners do not have access to medical care.

“According to international law, such treatment is recognized as torture. These people should be released not only because they are innocent, but also because there is a real threat to their lives every day in the colony and detention center, ”the human rights activist says.
The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service has confirmed that at least 25 deaths have occurred in Simferopol SIZO from 2014 to 2018. “If Russia recognizes such deaths, then the official version is natural death or suicide. And there were no investigations there. No international SIZO missions have visited to find out the real causes of death. Such cases remain unanswered. We do not know what the people in the detention center are dying from, ”Skrypnyk said.

Human rights activists suggest that Russia continues to persecute people to imprison them and then exchange them for witnesses to Russian war crimes in Ukraine. Moreover, the judges of the occupation courts are engaged: they do not pay heed to the statements of the torturers, but instead accept the testimonies of interested parties – employees of the so-called law enforcement agencies.

“The Russian Federation, in violation of international humanitarian law, continues to use the Russian Penal Code in the occupied territory, so the sentences that are now being announced in Crimea are illegal. This also applies to cases where people are held accountable for actions that do not violate the law in terms of Ukrainian law, such as the persecution of Crimean Muslims. In addition, the Russian Federation uses the retroactive effect of the law: in 2019, five people were convicted in a “case on February 26” – these events took place before the occupation of Crimea, “says Crimean human rights group analyst Alexander Sedov.

The persecution of activists reporting on searches and detentions continues. “In March 2019, some civic journalists were arrested in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case, fabricating charges of terrorism, and they are now imprisoned. By ousting professional journalists, the occupying power has taken to those who simply post information on Facebook, distribute photos and videos that tell about human rights abuses in Crimea, ”added Crimean human rights group media expert Irina Sedova.

At the same time, access to Ukrainian media sites is blocked on the peninsula, and Russian radio is switched on at the frequencies of the Ukrainian radio stations immediately beyond the administrative border. In particular, providers block access to 18 Ukrainian sites, and the signal of Ukrainian radio is completely absent in 19 settlements in northern Crimea. All human rights record documents are already in place or will be transmitted to international courts. 

(c) Tyzhden