The word that begins with the letter “g” has been on everyone’s lips since horrific photos have reached us of Boutcha and other towns on the outskirts of Kyiv where Russian troops have sown death and cruelty.
Posted at 8:42 p.m.
G as in genocide, a set of heinous crimes committed with the intent to eliminate in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as defined by the United Nations.
We first heard it from the mouth of the President of Ukraine himself, Volodymyr Zelensky. “When you find people executed with their hands tied behind their backs, people beheaded, children killed and tortured. […] This is genocide! he said on Sunday, after visiting Boutcha. In fact, what remains of the small town.
Since then, the same term has been uttered by the Spanish Prime Minister and several other leaders of the European Union. “These bloody massacres committed by Russian soldiers deserve to be called out for what they are. It is a genocide and must be judged accordingly”, said the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, at the forefront of the exodus of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion.
Easy to understand the momentum behind the statements of these leaders. The photos of inert bodies of men and women strewn on the ground or of mass graves recall horrifying scenes from the Second World War and the Rwandan genocide.
We are in pure, abject horror. In the denial of human dignity.
But at the moment there is no evidence that a genocide is taking place in Ukraine at the hands of Russian forces, who themselves claim they are intervening in the neighboring country to stop the ‘genocide’ of Russian speakers. from eastern Ukraine.
“Of the four major crimes listed in international law, namely aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the only one that does not seem to have been committed to date in Ukraine is genocide. notes Fannie Lafontaine, professor of law at Université Laval and holder of the Canada Research Chair in International Criminal Justice and Fundamental Rights.
No one can accuse M.me Lafontaine to use the term genocide cautiously. The expert was an ardent defender of the use of the word genocide to define the crimes committed in Canada against the indigenous populations. “For it to be a genocide, we must see the desire to eliminate a group whereas there, in Ukraine, we see attacks against civilians which seem rather random”, notes the specialist in international law.
Same story with Frank Chalk, history professor at Concordia University and one of the founders of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS). “Until now, we haven’t seen the Russians gather thousands of Ukrainians, line them up in front of a ravine to execute them one after the other,” notes the historian. “What we see are war crimes and crimes against humanity. And often, these crimes are warning signs that genocide is in the making,” he adds.
These crimes, currently being investigated by the International Criminal Court, the Ukrainian judiciary and a myriad of organizations, are the canaries in the mine. And they have company.
There are increasingly dehumanizing comments about Ukrainians in Russian state-controlled media. One of the most disturbing to date was published on the Ria Novosti news agency website on Sunday. Under the title “What Russia Should Do With Ukraine”, commentator and “philosopher” Timofei Sergeitsev explains how to annihilate the pro-Western Ukrainian government and its supporters among the population. We are not talking about a fanatic in his basement, but rather an ideologue who taught at the prestigious Moscow State University, MGU. It picks up on the Kremlin’s wacky theory that Ukraine is run by would-be Nazis, manipulated by the West to harm Russia.
“The (Nazi) elite must be eliminated. His rehabilitation is impossible. The social ‘swamp’, which has actively or passively supported this elite through action or inaction, must survive the throes of war and must assimilate the experience as a historical lesson and atonement for its guilt,” writes the commentator. , while suggesting that an entire generation of Ukrainians should be subjected to “denazification” measures.
We are here in total dehumanization. In a nation’s extermination plan. There’s even a 10-step roadmap to keep the country under Russia’s boot once Moscow wins the war.
And all that, published on the site of one of the largest news agencies in the country.
Perhaps not so surprising when you consider that Vladimir Putin refuses to see Ukraine as a separate nation, especially in an essay published last year. “Putin’s attempt to nullify Ukrainians as a group and his consideration of incorporating Ukrainian territory into the Russian Federation are also warning signs of possible future genocide,” Frank Chalk said.
It is therefore perhaps too early to use the word that begins with the letter “g” to refer to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it is clear that it should not be stored too far away.