The judges of the ICC authorized the investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in 2008 during the war between Russia and Georgia in South Ossetia. What will happen?
The Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda will have to deal with the dirtiestwar Europe has seen since the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. His office has collected complaints about 6,335 victims of murder, deportation, persecution, attacks on civilians and ethnic cleansing committed between July and October 2008. They are all crimes under the Statute of Rome, which established the International Criminal Court.
“My office requested to go ahead to investigate on the basis of a careful assessment of all available reliable information about alleged crimes in Georgia, by all three parties involved, Georgian armed forces, South Ossetian forces, and Russian armed forces,” said the prosecutor in a video message.
Ethnic cleansing
Bensouda requested authorization to judgesalready in October, as stated by regulation of the court that requires a decision of the judges to start a formal investigation. This is not to say that so far has not gathered any evidence. The authorizationsigned by the judges cites a long list of charges brought by the Prosecutor’s office. Many of the crimes concern theethnic Georgian civilian population of South Ossetia. Even after the short war, lasted only five days, and the peace agreements civilians were subject to violence, looting, deportations and killings. “These acts were reportedly committed with a view to forcibly expelling ethnic Georgians from the territory of South Ossetia in furtherance of the overall objective to change the ethnic composition of the territory,” the judgeswrote in the authorization. “The attack against the civilian population resulted in between 51 and 113 cases of deliberate killings of ethnic Georgians and the displacement of between 13,400 and 18,500 ethnic Georgian inhabitants from villages and cities in South Ossetia and the “buffer zone”. Coercive acts [were] used by South Ossetian forces to create an atmosphere of fear and terror.”
Long investigation
Both Georgia and Russia have been initiated several processes to find those involved in such acts. The investigation in Georgia was suspended in March, while “No concrete and progressive steps have been taken in Russia to ascertain the criminal responsibility of those involved,” wrote prosecutor Bensouda in his request to the judges.
The investigation will be long and confidential. If the investigators of the Prosecutor gatherssufficient evidence on individuals responsible for the crimes (the ICC cannot condemn States, but only individuals), there will be a trial. It would be the first trial in a different continent from Africa. It is the second initiative of the CPI that involves Russia, after the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine, still under way. However, it is difficult to think that someone will pay. Russia has in fact not ratified the Rome Statute, and there would be no legal means to extradite any suspect, while South Ossetia is a de facto state without international recognition.
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