PUBLIC STATEMENT
The Australian Federation of the Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) joins the worldwide Ukrainian community in condemning the caged show trial the Russian state is reported to be mounting of captured Ukrainian defenders of Azovstal in temporarily Russian-occupied Mariupol.
The “trial” of captured defenders represents yet another war crime by the Russian state. All defenders of the Azovstal plant were combatants who legally defended their country and should be guaranteed the full rights accorded to them under the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Ukrainian defenders, who will now be trialed on charges of “terrorism”, surrendered in May 2022 under a guarantee of safety and further prisoner exchange by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations (UN). They did so on the understanding that under the Geneva convention, Prisoners of War (POWs) cannot be prosecuted for lawful acts of war. The risk of captured defenders being tortured to get a confession is high, as there is no independent monitoring of how POWs are being held.
The AFUO demands the ICRC and the UN do more than make public statements of concern. We call on the ICRC, the UN, international human rights organizations and all Ukraine’s allies to announce immediate action and intervention to defend international human law, and the Geneva convention.
The AFUO also expresses deep concern about the lack of action of the ICRC and the UN in relation to the mass murder of at least 50 Ukrainian POWs, and wounding of close to 100 POWs, in the temporarily Russian-occupied town of Olenivka whilst in Russian captivity on 29 July 2022.
It is widely regarded that Russia staged the atrocity on the Olenivka facility to cover up the torture of POWs, and to blame and discredit the Ukrainian armed forces.
We are disturbed and distressed that the ICRC has acknowledged it has not been granted access to the POWs affected by the attack, nor has it been granted security guarantees to carry out a visit.
We believe the ICRC, the UN and the international community need to do more to protect the dignity and well-being of these POWs. Again, public statements of concern are not enough. They must be backed up by significant censure and consequences for the Russian state.
