Genocide

2022 - 4 - 12

Biden's 'genocide' declaration not expected to trigger immediate ... (CNN)

President Joe Biden's declaration Tuesday that atrocities underway in Ukraine constitute a "genocide" is not expected to trigger any immediate changes to US ...

"And we will look to a series of indicators along those lines to ultimately make a determination in Ukraine." American hesitance at calling atrocities "genocide" is rooted in the term's strict legal definition, which was written following the Holocaust in 1948. I am not sure that an escalation of rhetoric serves that cause," French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday. Nuland predicted the US would eventually find a genocide taking place in Ukraine and make the declaration officially. Similarly, the declaration in 2021 that China is committing genocide against Uyghur Muslims in the western Xinjiang province was preceded by extensive deliberations among State Department lawyers. "It sure seems that way to me," Biden said.

Biden calls Russia's invasion of Ukraine a 'genocide.' Is it a war crime? (USA TODAY)

President Joe Biden called Russia's attack on Ukraine a 'genocide.' Genocide can be considered a war crime if it is committed during a war.

"The tricky part of it which is relevant to the president's statement yesterday is if I kill one person, that's homicide," he said. "You don't have a smoking gun that often." "If I kill that person with the intent to destroy every person of that person's ethnic group, then it could be a part of genocide, but you don't know." "The crime of genocide may take place in the context of an armed conflict, international or non-international, but also in the context of a peaceful situation," according to the United Nations' website. According to the United Nations, genocide is defined as intentionally destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, by one of these acts: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the acts of Russia in Ukraine a genocide, and Biden said it would be up to international lawyers to see if the term fits.

France's Macron resists calling Russia's war in Ukraine 'genocide' (The Washington Post)

French President Emmanuel Macron declined Wednesday to call the actions of Russian troops in Ukraine “genocide,” saying that “an escalation of rhetoric” ...

The weapons: Ukraine is making use of weapons such as Javelin antitank missiles and Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, provided by the United States and other allies. “What we can say for sure is that the situation is unacceptable and that these are war crimes,” Macron said. Late last month, the French president cautioned against escalating the conflict through words or actions after his U.S. counterpart declared that Russian leader Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” The last independent newsletter in Russia suspended its operations. He added: “This is hardly acceptable for the president of the United States of America.” Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, blasted Macron’s remarks, saying his “unwillingness to recognize the genocide of Ukrainians after all the outspoken statements of [the] Russian leadership and criminal actions of [the] Russian military is disappointing.”

Biden gets praise, criticism for calling Russia's actions in Ukraine ... (ABC News)

President Joe Biden doubled down on describing Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine as "genocide" as Ukraine's President Volodymyr ...

We want to stop the war that Russia launched in Ukraine, without waging war and without escalation." Well, the truth of the matter, you saw what happened in Bucha," Biden said on April 4. Based on what we have seen so far, we have seen atrocities, we have seen war crimes. "The president was speaking to what we all see, and what he feels as clear as day in terms of the atrocities happening on the ground, as he also noted yesterday," Psaki said, before tempering his use of the term. The president was calling it like he sees it, and that is what he does." "Because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian. And the evidence is mounting. It's different than it was last week, the more evidence is coming out of the -- literally, the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine and we're going to only learn more and more about the devastation." "I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal. "I am very careful with some terms [genocide] these days," he added. No other Western nations have made the determination, aside from Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tying Russia's crimes to the term in a tweet. "Because what do we want to do collectively? "He was not getting ahead of that.

Is Russia committing genocide in Ukraine? (Vox)

There is little doubt Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine. Do they amount to genocide?

At the same time, this “magical” power of the word, its unique ability to link current events to the most infamous crimes in human history, means that the debate over its use matters politically regardless of whether it should morally. “That’s a problem because the world needs to pay attention to crimes that are horrific, but just don’t happen to meet the legal definition of ‘genocide.’” In these cases, war crime prosecutions can depend on international authorities that may lack the power or will to actually conduct a serious criminal investigation — see, for instance, how few perpetrators have been prosecuted for crimes during the Syrian civil war. At the same time, she cautions, there are many reasons Germany has not changed its policy on oil and gas sanctions — ranging from a desire to hold some sanctions in reserve in case Russia threatens escalation, to the fact that such a move would cause real economic pain for German citizens. In fact, the invasion itself is clearly one big war crime: International law prohibits wars of territorial conquest, which fall under the crime of “ aggression.” But as of right now, few are joining Biden and Finkel in concluding that a genocide is clearly taking place in Ukraine. In the post-Holocaust world, people committing genocide rarely provide “smoking gun” proof of their thinking — a written-down order or meeting record detailing a plan to exterminate the target group. Though all agree that Russian soldiers have engaged in intentional mass killings, they argue that there’s limited evidence of a systemic plan to exterminate the Ukrainian people. While a handful of experts on war crimes have come to the same conclusion as the president, most experts and international authorities are still unsure. (Russia has denied its soldiers are responsible for the killings in Bucha; on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said reports of the atrocities there were “fake.”) In the Russian case, establishing that Russian soldiers intentionally killed Ukrainian civilians is not enough to prove genocide. “It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out even the idea of being Ukrainian,” he told reporters.

Experts assess Biden's accusation of Russian genocide in Ukraine (NBC News)

It was the first time he had leveled the accusation of “genocide” against his Russian counterpart, President Vladimir Putin, for the atrocities commited by ...

“It has to be hard to prove, because if you can prove it, it’s really dire.” A separate court, the International Court of Justice, which deals with states, can also rule that countries are responsible for genocide. Things have happened in Ukraine “that would be elements in evidence if you were trying to convict Russia of genocide, but I haven’t seen anything that comes close to what you would need to show, because you would need to be able to show that Russia had the intent to exterminate the group,” he said. Since August 2017, more than 700,000 members of the mostly Muslim Rohingya group have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar for neighboring Bangladesh, where they live in crowded refugee camps. Biden said Tuesday that he made the determination of genocide because it’s become clear that Putin was trying to “wipe out the idea of even being able to be Ukrainian.” The refugees have accused Myanmar security forces of killings, mass rape and arson to drive them out.