(Washington) The United States and the United Kingdom called on Monday for the “suspension” of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council, in response “to the images of Boutcha”, a Ukrainian city where were found many corpses after the departure of the Russian forces.
Updated yesterday at 10:18 p.m.
A vote by the UN General Assembly to decide on this suspension could take place as early as Thursday, according to Wahington. Russia reacted by describing this step as “incredible” and judging that it would not facilitate “peace talks” between the Russians and the Ukrainians.
“We cannot allow a member state that is undermining every principle we hold dear to participate in the UN Human Rights Council,” the US Ambassador to the Nations tweeted. United, Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
She addressed the 140 countries out of the 193 in the UN which have “already voted to condemn” the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a General Assembly resolution at the beginning of March: “The images of Boutcha and the devastation across Ukraine now requires us to walk the talk. »
“In close coordination with Ukraine and other member states and partners at the UN, the United States will work to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council,” the statement said. Diplomat.
“Russia cannot be allowed to use its seat on the Council as a propaganda tool to suggest that it has a legitimate concern about human rights,” she added.
Such a suspension can only be decided by the General Assembly of the United Nations, in a vote by acclamation or by a two-thirds majority of the Member States present who would vote for or against. Abstentions are not taken into account in this required majority, which both the United States and the United Kingdom believe they can obtain.
Voting Thursday?
“Our goal is to make it [le vote] as soon as possible – this week and possibly as early as Thursday,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield said in an interview with US radio NPR. She felt that such a suspension would be more than symbolic and would go against the narrative of events developed by Russia since the start of the war.
The United Kingdom supported the American approach.
“Russia cannot remain a member of the UN Human Rights Council”, it “must be suspended”, declared on Twitter the head of British diplomacy Liz Truss, citing a “strong presumption of crimes of war” and reports of “mass graves and atrocious killings in Boutcha”.
Asked during the daily UN press briefing about UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ position on such a suspension, his deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, was embarrassed.
“We leave it up to member states to decide,” he said. Before adding: “What worries here is the precedent created by this action. Pressed with questions to clarify his statement, he declined to say more.
In March 2011, the UN General Assembly approved by acclamation the suspension of Libya from the Human Rights Council, which sits in Geneva. It was not then a permanent member of the Security Council like Russia is.
Asked during a press conference about this American announcement, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, considered it “incredible”.
“What the West is trying to do with Russia, trying to exclude it from the multilateral forums that we have around the world […], this is unheard of,” he said. “It will not facilitate or encourage or help what is happening between Russians and Ukrainians in the peace talks,” he said.
Biden wants ‘war crimes’ trial after Boutcha
US President Joe Biden also said on Monday that he wanted a “war crimes trial” after the discovery of numerous bodies wearing civilian clothes in Boutcha, near Kyiv, but considered that it was not a question. of “genocide”.
“We need to gather the information” and “we need to have all the details” to “have a war crimes trial,” he said.
Asked if he thought it was “genocide”, he said: “No, I think it’s a war crime”.
PHOTO LEAH MILLIS, REUTERS
US President Joe Biden
The American president also assured that he wanted to take “additional sanctions” against Russia.
“You may remember that I was criticized for calling [Vladimir] Putin a “war criminal”. Well the truth […] is that he is a war criminal”, he further declared.
This guy [Vladimir Poutine] is brutal, what is happening in Boutcha is scandalous and everyone has seen it.
Joe Biden, US President
“He has to be accountable,” he told the press again, arriving in Washington after a weekend at his family home in Delaware.
President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Boutcha on Monday and there accused the Russian army of “war crimes” which will be “recognized as genocide”.
This small town northwest of Kyiv was occupied by the Russian army on February 27, remaining inaccessible for more than a month.
AFP saw the bodies of at least 22 people in civilian clothes in the streets there on Saturday. One of them was lying near a bicycle and another had shopping bags next to her. A corpse had its hands tied behind its back.
The cause of their death could not immediately be determined, but two people had large head wounds.
Moscow for its part denied having killed civilians in Boutcha, the Kremlin and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov evoking “falsifications” and stagings for the press.