Putin repeats in Ukraine a crime against humanity that Stalin committed in Poland

@ElentirENG ES 4·13·2022 · 7:03 0

It seemed difficult to repeat the great horrors that humanity saw in the 20th century at the hands of nazism and communism, but sadly it is happening again.

Katyn 1940, Bucha 2022: what the Kremlin can do to deny its crimes
The images of the murder of an Ukrainian civilian by Russian soldiers in Bucha

The Kremlin has ordered the deportation of almost 100,000 Ukrainians to remote areas of Russia

As published yesterday by the British newspaper Daily Mail, the Kremlin has ordered to send thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Siberia and other remote areas of Russia, against their will, after being interrogated for hours. According to this information, in March the Kremlin would have ordered the deportation of a total of 95,739 Ukrainian citizens to those places. The Daily Mail notes that a decree issued by the Kremlin included provisions to send 11,398 people to Siberia, 7,218 to the Far East and 7,023 to the North Caucasus.

A crime that Stalin already committed in Poland and in the Baltic republics

This forced resettlement of the population of an invaded country is not something new in recent Russian history. During the 20th century, the Soviet Union carried out such deportations in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and other countries, partly as a measure of repression against political dissidents, but mainly as an attempt to dissolve the national identity of those occupied countries. It is estimated that the Soviets deported 1.2 million Poles, 130,000 Lithuanians, 60,000 Latvians, and some 20,000 Estonians. Many of the deportees ended up in the Siberian Gulag, and a considerable part met their death in the process. Among the Poles there were between 90,000 and 100,000 dead.

The Rome Statute classifies it as a war crime and against humanityd

It must be remembered that in its Article 7, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court cites among the crimes against humanity the deportation or forcible transfer of population, and defines this crime as follows: ""Deportation or forcible transfer of population" means forced displacement of the persons concerned by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which they are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under international law."

In addition, Article 8 of the Rome Statute also considers deportation a war crime when it consists of the transfer, "directly or indirectly, by the Occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory."

Likewise, Article 33 of the Rome Statute does not exempt from criminal liability those who commit these crimes "pursuant to an order of a Government or of a superior, whether military or civilian." Point 2 of that article says: "For the purposes of this article, orders to commit genocide or crimes against humanity are manifestly unlawful."

What else has to happen for some people to open their eyes?

One wonders what else has to happen for the international community to react with the utmost firmness to the heinous crimes that Russia is committing in Ukraine, and what else has to happen for some to open their eyes and recognize that the Putin regime is acting as a terrorist and totalitarian regime, and therefore does not deserve any support or justification, either direct or indirect, from any person who considers himself minimally civilized, let alone from those who call themselves Christians and democrats.

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Photo: DPA / Europa Press.