Belarusian chief permitted pressured transfers of Ukrainian kids, says opposition determine

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — A Belarusian opposition activist says that he has supplied the International Criminal Court with supplies allegedly detailing President Alexander Lukashenko‘s involvement within the forcible switch of Ukrainian kids to Belarus, accusations angrily rejected by Minsk.

Lukashenko has been Moscow’s closest ally, permitting the Kremlin to make use of Belarusian territory to ship troops and weapons into Ukraine, welcoming a continued Russian navy presence in Belarus and the deployment of a few of Russia‘s tactical nuclear weapons there.

The authoritarian chief has additionally agreed to a “union state” mission that has seen Moscow and Minsk tighten their financial, political and protection ties, whereas thus far stopping wanting a full merger.

Pavel Latushka, a former Belarusian tradition minister, mentioned Tuesday that the supplies he has handed over to the ICC point out that greater than 2,100 Ukrainian kids from no less than 15 Russia-occupied Ukrainian cities have been forcibly taken to Belarus with Lukashenko’s approval.

Latushka voiced hope that the supplies would immediate the ICC to challenge a warrant for Lukashenko’s arrest, because it did with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The court docket’s prosecution workplace on Wednesday didn’t instantly verify receipt of the supplies described by Latushka.

In March, the ICC issued warrants for each Putin and his commissioner for kids’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. Judges in The Hague mentioned they discovered “reasonable grounds to believe” that the 2 have been liable for the struggle crimes of illegal deportation of youngsters and illegal switch of youngsters from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. Moscow has angrily rejected the transfer.

“Ukrainian children, who were under the guardianship of the Ukrainian state, including orphans, children with disabilities and those whose parents were stripped of their parental rights, have been illegally transferred into the territory of Belarus,” Latushka advised The Associated Press.

“The materials handed over to the prosecutors prove that Lukashenko has personally signed the documents under the auspices of the so-called union state of Russia and Belarus that provided a basis for organizing and funding the transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarus,” he added.

In a web based assertion printed Tuesday, Latushka’s anti-Lukashenko National Anti-Crisis Management Group claims to have gathered proof that the Ukrainian kids have been positioned in 5 Belarusian summer time camps and well being resorts.

In a cellphone interview, Latushka charged that the paperwork level to Ukrainian kids held in Belarusian amenities present process ideological brainwashing and “Russification” earlier than being despatched to Russia for adoption, actions he mentioned may quantity to struggle crimes.

Materials printed on-line by the National Anti-Crisis Management Group embody a video that reveals an entertainer on stage wishing loss of life on U.S. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to cheers and applause from a number of dozen kids gathered within the viewers. The identical entertainer then voices a want for Putin to “prosper and take control of all of Ukraine.”

It wasn’t doable to independently confirm the circumstances during which the video was shot, nor substantiate Latushka’s different claims.

Lukashenko on Tuesday rejected Latushka’s accusations as “madness,” arguing that Belarus has briefly hosted the youngsters to assist them get better from the struggle’s trauma.

The Belarusian chief mentioned he has reached out to Putin they usually agreed to fund the youngsters’s keep in Belarus from the state funds.

“This is how we started taking them here,” Lukashenko mentioned Tuesday. “We help improve their health and they leave. They actually don’t want to leave.”

Lukashenko denounced Latushka as a “scoundrel” and accused him of making an attempt to fabricate an ICC case in opposition to him.

Latushka was pressured to depart Belarus underneath stress from Belarusian authorities following Lukashenko’s reelection in a 2020 vote that the opposition and the West denounced as rigged. Lukashenko, who has dominated the nation of 9.5 million individuals with an iron hand for 29 years, relied on Russia’s political and monetary help to brutally suppress months of main opposition protests.

Latushka, who lives in self-imposed exile in Poland, mentioned that he acquired an rising movement of loss of life threats as he pressed his investigation into the alleged pressured transfers of youngsters.

Speaking to the AP, he charged that together with Lukashenko, no less than 4 different individuals have been concerned in transferring Ukrainian kids to Belarus, together with Dmitry Mezentsev, a prime official throughout the Russo-Belarusian “union state” construction, Ivan Golovaty, the pinnacle of state-owned Belarusian fertilizer exporter Belaruskali, Alexei Talai, the pinnacle of a government-supported charity fund, and Olga Volkova, a pro-Russia activist in Ukraine‘s partially-occupied Donetsk area.

Documents printed by Latushka’s opposition group additionally embody a replica of a letter signed by Mezentsev and addressed to the pinnacle of Russia‘s nationwide rail operator, Russian Railways, asking that it collectively set up “the transportation of the children” from Ukraine‘s industrial east “for rehabilitation to brotherly Belarus.”

The letter, dated March 23, referenced a call by Putin and Lukashenko to offer “humanitarian aid” to the youngsters, in addition to plans to resettle nearly 2,000 orphans and kids dwelling “in harsh conditions” to Belarus this 12 months. It mentioned that 1,050 minors can be transferred in April and May, with one other 908 set to comply with later within the 12 months. It additionally indicated that an unspecified variety of minors have been taken to Belarus final 12 months in a state-funded joint effort by the Russian and Belarusian rail operators.

Any group or particular person can ship proof of alleged crimes to the ICC. Prosecutors assess such submissions to “identify those that appear to fall within the jurisdiction of the Court and warrant further action,” the court docket says on its web site.

The Belarusian authorities have mentioned that the nation would host greater than 1,000 kids ranging in age from 6 to fifteen from Russian-occupied elements of Ukraine for “recovery.” They mentioned the primary 350 of them arrived in Belarus in April, however didn’t say how lengthy they are going to keep within the nation.

Last month, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s workplace mentioned it has launched an investigation into the pressured switch of Ukrainian kids to Belarus.

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