Terrorist attack in Olenivka: relatives of captured Mariupol defenders called on UN to apply effective investigation mechanisms
Relatives of Mariupol defenders note an impotence of international organizations in actual application of humanitarian law and demand real steps for release of prisoners of war held by RF.
As informs Censor.NЕТ, it was reported by Ukrinform.
Natalya Zaritska, the wife of an Azov prisoner of war and Head of the " Women of Steel" NGO, said on behalf of all relatives of prisoners of war: "We call on the UN to apply truly effective and urgent mechanisms to investigate the terrorist attack in Olenivka, as well as to force Russia to comply with international humanitarian law. Today, not a single provision of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war is being implemented by Russia.
Zaritskaya recalled that 25 days after the tragedy in Olenivka, namely on August 22, the UN created a group to investigate the terrorist attack in the colony. The UN Secretary-General said that he had decided to send a mission to identify and establish the facts of the tragedy in Olenivka. But the representative of the UN Secretary General said that the commission can't start the investigation yet, because the situation on the scene remains dangerous for the visit of the UN representatives.
"It is difficult to evaluate this statement. But we understand that the creation of a commission without access to the scene of the crime will not help bring justice to the Ukrainian defenders, who were insidiously killed and wounded while in captivity. This is a blatant violation of all international agreements and guarantees," the wife of the "Azov serviceman" remarked.
She stressed that the fact that even an entire powerful UN mission cannot make its way to the site of the public execution of prisoners of war, just as one of the oldest international organizations, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), cannot get there, shows that "our prisoners of war are in mortal danger."
"If the world is afraid to recognize the real state of affairs and does not stop the evil of terrorism in its manifestation of Olenivka, we should expect even more terrible and bloodier mass crimes and atrocities ... We demand justice and accountability for the holder of our prisoners of war - the Russian Federation," Zaritska stressed.
She was supported by lawyer Anna Kalinchuk, who accompanies some prisoners of war, including Azovstal defenders.
She once again stressed that there is the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, and the Russian Federation is a party to this convention.
"Accordingly, the ICRC has the right to ask the government of the Russian Federation what exactly the Russian Federation is doing to comply with the terms of this convention. And if it does not comply with the terms of this convention, respectively, the ICRC and the UN have the possibility to punish the Russian Federation for non-compliance," - concluded the lawyer.
Recall that the Ukrainian military, who were defending Mariupol to the last, had to withdraw from Azovstal and come under the control of the Russians. The Ukrainians hoped that the safety of prisoners of war would be guaranteed, in particular, by the International Committee of the Red Cross, but the Russians staged an attack in Olenivka and did not provide lists of the dead. International organizations are not allowed to see the prisoners - representatives of the ICRC were allowed to inspect only a few hundred prisoners "on both sides." Russia is in violation of numerous obligations under the Geneva Convention. At the same time, Director General Mardini guaranteed that they were doing everything possible in correspondence with Russia to have access to prisoners.
