Kyiv/New York: UN Secretary-General António Guterres visited sites of suspected war crimes in Ukraine today and condemned the “evil” acts committed against civilians.
He visited Kyiv suburbs of Borodyanka, Bucha and Irpin and urged criminal accountability. After seeing the destroyed buildings in Borodyanka, he said that he imagined his family in one of those houses that are now destroyed and black – “I see my granddaughters running away in panic, part of the family eventually killed,” he said.
He termed the site at Bucha’s Church of the St Andrew the First-Called All Saints, as “horrendous” and said,”it makes me feel how important it is [to have] a thorough investigation and accountability”. He said that he was glad that International Criminal Court is seized of the situation and that the prosecutor’s office was already here. “I fully support the International Criminal Court and I appeal to the Russian Federation to accept to cooperate with the International Criminal Court. But when we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself,” he said.
While visiting a destroyed Irpinsky Lipki residential complex in Irpin, he said the “horrific” scenario there “demonstrates something that is, unfortunately, always true: civilians always pay the highest price”.
Echoing Guterres’ call for justice for the victims of atrocities in Ukraine, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said that he favoured neither Russia nor Ukraine, in the search for the truth.
“This is not really a time for talking, it’s a time for action. International law can’t be a passive spectator. It can’t be sedentary, it needs to move with alacrity and to protect and to insist on accountability,” said Karim Khan, speaking to journalists on Wednesday evening outside the Security Council at UN headquarters in New York.
Meanwhile, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) at its First Extraordinary Session of the General Assembly, held in Madrid yesterday, decided to suspend Russia as one of its members due to the armed aggression against Ukraine. This was the first time in the history of UNWTO to suspend a country’s membership in this organization due to a policy that is contrary to the fundamental aims of the Organization.
Top photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres visits Irpin in Ukraine.
– global bihari news
