The Ukraine Not Able to Prosecute Yanukovich at ICC

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A spokesman for the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague said that the Ukraine couldn’t appeal to the ICC to prosecute former Ukrainian state figures, including Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich, noting, “No country in the world has a right to ask the ICC to prosecute certain people”. Moreover, the ICC’s jurisdiction doesn’t cover the Ukraine because it hasn’t yet ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC. The spokesman observed, “Any country can decide to ratify the Rome Statute, which would give the ICC the opportunity to investigate cases that took place on the territory of the country anytime from 1 July 2002, when the document came into force. In any case, only the court’s prosecutor can decide whether there’s sufficient ground for conducting an investigation”. On Tuesday, the Rada approved a decision to appeal to the ICC to bring Viktor Yanukovich and other officials to justice “for crimes against humanity during peaceful protest rallies between 30 November 2013 and 22 February 2014”.

26 February 2014

Voice of Russia World Service

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_26/Ukraine-not-able-to-prosecute-Yanukovych-through-ICC-0130/

Editor’s Note:

If you wanted proof that the Timoshenko junta isn’t long for this world, this is it. You see, the ICC is a HIGHLY politicised body; in fact, it’s more of a political body than a real court. In other words, the ICC determined that the Timoshenko cabal wasn’t a legitimate government; they concluded that wasn’t long for this world. Ergo, the ICC wanted no part of this steaming meadow muffin. They sound so… miffed, don’t they? Eek! It might soil our white gloves! Go away! This is GOOD news… but the situation deteriorates hourly… no one, least of all me, has a handle on it all.  Stay tuned…

BMD

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Snowden Affair: USA Puts Its Domestic Law above International Law

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Russian-American relations are going through rough times. One of the irritants is the issue of extradition of people accused of committing crimes. The most-publicised case is that of former CIA contractor Edward Snowden. The Americans demand his extradition, which threatens bilateral relations. At the same time, it’s quite clear that regardless what the decision will be, it’ll be politically-motivated. Mikhail Remizov, President of the Institute of National Strategy, talked to VOR about the future of Russian-American relations and international norms of extradition and deportation, saying, “The Americans are relying on an accord between us, but the same time, they have no desire to display understanding themselves concerning Russians who’re hiding from justice in the USA. Unlike Snowden, these people committed crimes against people. It seems that this has nothing to do with politics. However, as we well know, if you really wish it enough, an assassin can become a human rights activist, a robber… a dissident, and a bandit… a fighter of an armed opposition”.

It seems that such a metamorphosis occurred in the case of Ilyas Akhmadov and Tamaz Nalbandov. One’s accused of organising an insurgency and setting up an illegal rebel group in the North Caucasus, whilst the other’s accused of smuggling people and blackmail in North Ossetia. Both Akhmadov and Nalbandov are enjoying immigrant status in the USA, for the Americans rejected appeals for their extradition. Naturally, such an approach is puzzling. Remizov commented, “The principle of parity between states as sovereign players is enshrined in international law. The USA hasn’t honoured it for a long time and doesn’t like it. This demonstratively displays that they believe in the supremacy of their own jurisdiction, and its priority, over the jurisdiction of other countries. This is shown by its unwillingness to undertake commitments concerning participation in international institutions, such as the International Criminal Court. Such an asymmetry is quite normal for the USA, although this principle is well-known since the times of ancient Rome, ‘What Jupiter is allowed to do, the bull isn’t’”.

Notably, through Interpol, Russia has actively cooperated with other countries in the fight against international terrorism. The majority of requests on the extradition of terrorists, who try to hide from justice in other countries, are met because these countries adequately assess the danger to society posed by them, and don’t exclude the possibility that they might commit crimes on their territories. However, there’s a setback in the USA concerning this practice. The situation with Akhmadov and Nalbandov is a good example. Andrei Sidorov, Assistant Dean of the World Politics Faculty at Moscow State University (MGU), thought, “The USA puts its domestic law above international law. This concerns not only the exchange of criminals, but also in all other areas. The American policy towards Russia comes down to a few issues, especially the further reduction of nuclear weapons. The USA often said that it’s ready to discuss a wide range of issues, but largely, Russia’s an uncomfortable partner for the USA. Consequently, the relations between the two countries will hardly improve”.

In fact, sometimes, the USA does cooperate. For one, the Americans extradited criminal kingpin Vyacheslav Ivankov AKA Yaponchik. In this case, they applied the mechanism of deportation rather than extradition. The formal reason for this was that Ivankov violated American laws. Meanwhile, Russian law enforcement agencies can’t violate their own country’s laws. A foreigner can be extradited under a court ruling if he violates immigration law. However, Snowden didn’t violate it. Moreover, he hasn’t crossed the Russian border, and stayed in the transit zone of the airport. Americans refer to the rule of reciprocity used amongst diplomats. Nevertheless, Moscow doesn’t sense this from them. Moreover, there’s a belief that their reciprocity is one-way only. Probably, if America abandoned its passion for world hegemony, one can find that understanding that American diplomats keep talking about.

23 July 2013

Sergei Duz

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_07_23/Snowden-Affair-Symbol-of-Double-Standards-0485/

Editor’s Note:

American Neocon Republicans and Interventionist Democrats spout off incessantly about terrorism… and want to arm Syrian Islamist terrorists masquerading as “opposition fighters”. What’s wrong with that sleazy picture? Do recall that America helped another Islamist… Osama bin Laden. We all know where that led to. Methinks that “conservatives” have a major malfunction… and I’m not alone in thinking that.

BMD

 

At UN Hearing, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić Sez Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal Guilty of Flagrant Violations of Human Rights

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On Tuesday, the President of the UN General Assembly, former Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Vuk Jeremić, accused his critics of trying to intimidate and pressure him into cancelling a special meeting on international criminal justice boycotted by the USA and some of its allies. Jeremić set up the meeting last week, whilst serving as President of the Assembly, a largely-ceremonial, but high-profile, post. Critics of the event said Jeremić that organised it as an excuse to attack the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)… an allegation Jeremić rejected. A spokesman for the American mission to the UN explained its decision to boycott the event by saying, “It’s an unbalanced, inflammatory, thematic debate … on the role of international criminal justice in reconciliation”.

Jordan and Canada also boycotted the event, whilst EU countries sent junior diplomats. A number of key officials from international organisations and tribunals, including the ICTY, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), and the International Criminal Court (ICC), chose not to attend. Without accusing any individual countries, Jeremić suggested that the 11 officials from the international organisations and tribunals didn’t attend due to outside pressure, adding that he, too, was under pressure to cancel the debate entirely, saying, “Unfortunately, these ladies and gentlemen refused to come to this debate. So, we worked with those who accepted, given that I wouldn’t balk under pressure to cancel what I believe is a debate on a critically-important topic. Somebody obviously thought that I could be embarrassed and intimidated into giving it (the debate) up”.

Jeremić said that the fact that the tone of the debate was more critical than supportive of the ICC, ICTY, ICTR, and other war crimes tribunals was because those who would’ve supported those courts chose not to attend the UN session. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić was amongst those who spoke. He hammered away at the ICTY in a 45-minute speech to the assembly, telling participants, “The prosecution was favoured over the defence” and that the court was guilty of the “most flagrant violation of human rights”. Serbia and its ally Russia sharply criticised the tribunal over recent decisions to free two Croatian generals and a former Kosovo Albanian guerrilla commander.

Jeremić said that amongst those who avoided last week’s debate were the presidents of the ICC, ICTY, and ICTR, head of the UN Office of Legal Affairs Patricia O’Brien, head of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth, and former ICTY/ICTR chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte. He said, “How did it come about that all of them at the end of the day couldn’t be with us, couldn’t be with the member states on 10 April? We’re talking about too big a number … just to put it down to chance, that they just couldn’t make it”.

 17 April 2013 (MSK)

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_04_17/Yugoslav-tribunal-guilty-of-flagrant-violations-of-human-rights-Nikolic-027/

Editor’s Note:

Let’s keep it simple. The USA chooses to cloak its warmongering under a façade of smarmy pseudo-legality. These courts deal in ex post facto “victor’s justice”… they aren’t real courts at all. The USA invaded the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, and Libya… and it’s beating the war drums for an invasion of Syria and Iran. I know who belongs in the prisoner’s dock… it’s not Serb patriots whose only crime was opposing the American-fomented and –financed breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (don’t forget, the present Croatian leadership is the direct descendant of the murderous Ustaše of World War II… the USA turned a blind eye to butchers of Orthodox Serbs and Croatian Jews escaping to South America and the USA). The USA refused to participate because its amoral and noxious foreign policy was under scrutiny… and they hate it when the truth is told about their unprincipled, unscrupulous, and brutal warmongering. God bless Vuk Jeremić… he told the truth.

Orthodox people have an obligation to support their Serb co-religionists in this. We shouldn’t follow disreputable quislings like Victor Potapov and James Paffhausen, who’ve sold out to the American powers-that-be (making them two of the worst “Sergianists” who ever existed… ironically, Potapov screams loudly about “Sergianism” in Russia whilst being more guilty of it than his targets are… fancy that). That’s the way it is…

BMD

UN Upgrades Palestinian Status to Non-Member Observer State

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On Thursday, the UN General Assembly recognised the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a non-member observer state. 138 UN members approved the Palestinian bid, submitted by President Mahmoud Abbas, nine voted against it, and 41 abstained from voting. The move amounts to an implicit recognition of Palestinian statehood and increases the PA’s chances of joining other UN bodies. It also allows the Palestinian Authority to challenge the continuing construction of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the International Criminal Court. Before the historic vote, Abbas urged the General Assembly “to issue the birth certificate of Palestine”. He also reiterated that Palestinians would continue their efforts to achieve fully-recognised statehood.

Abbas submitted Palestine’s official application for recognition as an independent state in the UN in September 2011. An American veto in the Security Council blocked that bid. Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip greeted the Thursday vote with great jubilation, as it formally gives them global recognition. Now, the PA, which earlier had “permanent observer” status at the UN, joins the Vatican as the only other entity with non-member observer state status.

Exactly 65 years ago, on 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews, allowing for the formation of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948. The Palestinians rejected that partition plan, and decades of tension and violence followed. The Palestinians demand the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem, the territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, as a precondition for peace talks with Tel Aviv.

30 November 2012 (MSK)

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20121130/177829129.html

Editor’s Note:

This is a good step. The Church supports the Palestinians… not the violent Zionists and their American sugar-daddies. If it wasn’t for American support, Israel would be forced to have serious peace talks with the Palestinians. As more than one Arab has told me, “So-called ‘terrorism’ will end when the USA ends its support of Zionist terrorism“. Amen.

However, to be clear… I oppose Zionism and all its works… I also oppose anti-Semitism and all its works. That’s part and parcel of a unified world view… to be against anti-Semitism, but to support Zionism, is a logical impossibility. Zionism is racism… anti-Semitism is racism… both are evil and all decent people must fight both.

BMD