Ukrainian troops relentlessly shell civilian enclave near Russian border region where women and children were present.
RIA Novosti is reporting that 20 children have died as a result of bombings in September alone. According to Bijendra Singh it is a direct responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities, Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi told RIA Novosti in a Saturday interview.
“It is the responsibility of the Ukrainian government to save their citizens, particularly children. Safety of the children will be their utmost priority. I will appeal to the Ukrainian government so as to ensure that such incidents against children will not occur in future,” Satyarthi said.
It is unclear id Singh was talking about the artillery attack against civilians by the government in Keiv.
He also argued children should not be the ones that carry the consequences of armed conflicts, regardless where and for which reasons they occur.
“Whatever happening in Syria, Ukraine and Palestine is due to political reasons, but children are bearing the brunt of these crises. It’s very painful that we have not made our place safer for children. So far we have not been able to create a world where children will be safe. They are innocent and have nothing to do with violence but often they are on target,” the Indian humanitarian argued, adding that the international community should not only condemn such action, but also act against it.
Source: ROI Novsti
Note: The armed conflict in Ukraine’s South-East began in April when Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the region. Almost 3,700 people have been killed and over 8,800 have been wounded since the start of the operation, according to a UN report published this week.
See related report: Ukrainian troops break ceasefire and launch artillery strikes against pro Russian separatists https://groundreport.com/ukrainian-troops-break-ceasefire-a…/
Note: Violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War states:
- Article 3 states that even where there is not a conflict of international character, the parties must as a minimum adhere to minimal protections described as: non-combatants, members of armed forces who have laid down their arms, and combatants who are hors de combat (out of the fight) due to wounds, detention, or any other cause shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, with the following prohibitions:
- (a) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
- (b) taking of hostages;
- (c) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment
- (d) the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.
- Article 4 defines who is a Protected person: Persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals. But it explicitly excludes Nationals of a State which is not bound by the Convention and the citizens of a neutral state or an allied state if that state has normal diplomatic relations within the State in whose hands they are.
- A number of articles specify how Protecting Powers, ICRC and other humanitarian organizations may aid Protected persons.
- Article 5 provides for the suspension of persons’ rights under the Convention for the duration of time that this is “prejudicial to the security of such State”, although “such persons shall nevertheless be treated with humanity and, in case of trial, shall not be deprived of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed by the present Convention.”
Protected person is the most important definition in this section because many of the articles in the rest of GCIV only apply to Protected persons.
Article 13.
The provisions of Part II cover the whole of the populations of the countries in conflict, without any adverse distinction based, in particular, on race, nationality, religion or political opinion, and are intended to alleviate the sufferings caused by war.
Article 33.
No persons (children included) may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
Pillage is prohibited.
Reprisals against persons and their property are prohibited.
Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions, collective punishment is a war crime. By collective punishment, the drafters of the Geneva Conventions had in mind the reprisal killings of World War I and World War II. In the First World War, during the Rape of Belgium, the Germans executed Belgian villagers in mass retribution for resistance activity. In World War II, the Germans carried out a form of collective punishment to suppress resistance. Entire villages or towns or districts were held responsible for any resistance activity that occurred in them.[3] The conventions, to counter this, reiterated the principle of individual responsibility. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Commentary to the conventions states that parties to a conflict often would resort to “intimidatory measures to terrorize the population” in hopes of preventing hostile acts, but such practices “strike at guilty and innocent alike. They are opposed to all principles based on humanity and justice.”
Additional Protocol II of 1977 explicitly forbids collective punishment. But as fewer states have ratified this protocol than GCIV, GCIV Article 33 is the one more commonly quoted.