Gordon Brown makes a strong case for a special tribunal for Ukraine (We owe it to the people of Ukraine to bring Vladimir Putin to trial for war crimes, 24 February). Yet, as past tribunals have shown, the startup costs can be considerable, and it may be years before Putin’s enablers are indicted, let alone prosecuted – if they ever are. In the meantime, there are more immediate tasks, including enhancing the capacity of Ukrainian war crimes investigators on the ground.
Unlike the situation in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, Russian forces in Ukraine have quickly destroyed evidence of crimes that could lead to prosecutions. Not only have they exhumed and reburied bodies, but they have deployed mobile crematoria to destroy the physical remains of their victims. We have satellite and photographic imagery of these crimes, as well as mobile phone data, which should be released in full to the Ukrainian government now.
Forces loyal to the Kremlin have also abducted hundreds of thousands of people, including children, who have been transported to Russia. We now have reliable press reports of deported individuals coerced into signing loyalty agreements and accepting “obligatory work” under military supervision in industrial plants in the Urals. Deported children have reportedly been adopted into Russian families. Recently, we learned that some 16 children were rescued by the charity Save Ukraine, but that thousands of others remain separated from their parents – perhaps for good. Tracing these individuals is the first step in their liberation, but it is not easy, and again requires intelligence coordination and investment in the Ukrainian authorities’ family tracing services.
These tasks do not take away from Brown’s ambition to see justice through prosecution, but they are, if anything, more urgent – and the UK can help right away by providing financial assistance and investigators, and by sharing intelligence of the Kremlin’s crimes in Ukraine.
Prof Brad Blitz
University College London
• Gordon Brown rightly draws attention to the jurisdictional loophole that means Russia cannot be prosecuted by the international criminal court for the crime of aggression. What he neglects to mention is that this loophole applies to the UK as well. Unlike other European countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain, the UK has consistently refused to ratify the legal instrument giving the ICC jurisdiction over the crime of aggression, known as the Kampala amendments.
Perhaps the UK fears that doing so would prevent it from taking military action in the future. After all, many consider that the invasion of Iraq by the UK and the US itself constituted the crime of aggression because it violated the UN charter, and there have been calls for Bush and Blair to be prosecuted.
But unless we consider that the UK should enjoy an immunity that Russia should not, the government should follow the example of other European countries and ratify the Kampala amendments without delay.
Russell Inglis
Taunton, Somerset
