Russian deportation of Ukrainian children prompts accusations of genocide – The Financial Times
Starting with the Financial Times newspaper, which published a report titled “Russian deportation of Ukrainian children prompts accusations of genocide”.
“Last Wednesday, the lower house of the German parliament recognized the Holodomor famine, in which millions of Ukrainians died in a 1932-1933 famine caused by Soviet collectivization policies, as an act of genocide,” wrote writer Tony Barber.
“Russia’s current abduction and deportation of Ukrainian civilians, including thousands of children, raises the question of whether a new form of genocide is taking place in Europe,” he noted.
For many Ukrainians, the writer explained, “the Holodomor is the most terrible national tragedy of the twentieth century marked by war, state violence and mass repression. Most of this happened after the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, and especially under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin.”
“Since the all-out Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, authorities in Kiev, along with Western governments, human rights groups and the United Nations, have drawn attention to another ugly phenomenon: the disappearance of many Ukrainians in Russian-occupied regions and their transfer to Russia.” , he added.
“I will focus on the Ukrainian children who suffered this fate,” Barber said. “Is it a war crime? Is it genocide?”
“The Ukrainian government has a website, (called) Children of War, where it regularly updates the number of children killed, wounded, missing and deported to Russia. As of yesterday, it estimated the number deported to 12,572,” he said. noted.
He said that “based on some Russian reports, the number of child evacuees — a different metric, covering those presumably removed from war zones for their safety — could be much higher, around 200,000.”
The Financial Times report went on to point to an Associated Press report, where “Moscow officials are defending the transfer of children to Russia on the grounds that they have no parents or guardians.”
“Some were moved from orphanages in the Russian-backed separatist region of Donbas, and others from captured war-torn cities such as Mariupol,” the agency’s report showed.
However, Barber says, “AP reporters also found that officials deported Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-controlled territory without consent, lied to them that their parents didn’t want them, used them for propaganda and gave them Russian families and citizenship. “
A British newspaper report noted that “The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reached the same conclusion. In September, it stated that “there are credible allegations of the forcible transfer of unaccompanied children to occupied Russian territory, or to the Russian Federation itself.” .
“In fact, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in May simplifying the process of turning Ukrainian orphans into Russian citizens. Among those who adopted the Ukrainian teenager was Maria Lvova Belova, Putin’s commissioner for children’s rights,” he added.
He pointed out that in September the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Lviv-Belova, saying that its efforts specifically include the forced adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families, the so-called patriotic education of Ukrainian children, and legal changes to speed up the granting of citizenship of the Russian Federation to Ukrainian children. removal of Ukrainian children by Russian forces.
“Does all this amount to genocide under international law?”, asks the writer.
“Timothy Snyder, America’s leading historian of Eastern Europe, thinks so,” he says. “He and others cite the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”
“It should be borne in mind that mass deportations have a long history in Russia, whether in Soviet or Tsarist times,” the writer said.
He concluded that “Russian deportations of Ukrainians, including children, correspond to a well-established historical pattern of such behavior. Another question is whether the Russian authorities will be held accountable for it.”
Cheering for the killing of Albanians at the Serbia-Switzerland match
image copyright GettyImages
We are addressing the Observer, which published a report entitled “Serbian fans raised fascist slogans and sang about killing Albanians at the match” that brought together the national team of Serbia and Switzerland at the ongoing World Cup in Qatar.
The report, signed by Doha’s Nick Ames, said Serbian fans chanted “fascist slogans and racist chants directed at Albanians during their national team’s match against Switzerland on Friday night, according to eyewitnesses”.
Hasan Rahmani, who was born in Kosovo and lives in London, said that he came to the match between Serbia and Switzerland with the Albanian flag around his neck, but he says that he was confiscated at the entrance while insulting national symbols was allowed. He says he was shown a WhatsApp message sent by FIFA to security staff containing images of objects, pictures and expressions that are not allowed.
According to the report, Rahmani said: “I was completely stunned to see the number of fascist slogans, T-shirts and flags.”
The report said Rahmani showed the Observer photographic evidence of a fan wearing a green hat closely linked to crimes committed in the Kosovo and Bosnian wars, and said the man was part of a group that wore the same uniform. Among other items of clothing freely worn around the field, he says, were T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Serbia to Tokyo,” a nationalist slogan used by Serbian soccer fans during the wars of the 1990s.
“The police were not interested in complaints about objects or three-finger gestures, which are considered offensive in many contexts,” says Rahmani.
According to the report, “among the songs he heard were songs that included the word Sheptar, a well-known derogatory term used against Albanians, and chants (Kill, kill, kill Albanians). The fans also sang a song (Kosovo is the heart of Serbia), associated with by their country’s refusal to recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Rahmani told the Observer that after the game, seven or eight Serbian fans attacked him as they were leaving the stadium. They called him with the word Šibtar and poured water on him. He ran to the police, but they did nothing.
The report states that “Serbia is already under investigation by FIFA for displaying a flag depicting Kosovo as part of its territory along with the words (we do not surrender) in the dressing room before the match against Brazil last week. Rahmani says similar flags were visible inside stadium.”
“I am shocked by FIFA’s inconsistency,” Rahmani says. “How on earth in 2022 can you allow fans in a World Cup stadium to scream about killing another country? I left feeling marginalized and unwanted by FIFA.”
FIFA declined to comment on the issues raised by Rahmani, according to the Observer.
