By: Surjit Singh Flora
Chinese President Xi Jinping has been on a three-day tour of Russia. He was scheduled to hold high-level talks with President Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine.
Even though China says it is not taking sides in this conflict, the US says that China is giving Russia arms.
The war has caused a lot of damage to China’s relationships with the U.S. and western Europe, which could be helped by China’s stated intention to get involved. The conflict has also destabilised the global economy and undermined China’s own Belt and Road Initiative.
To be sure, relations between Putin and these western countries still remain frosty.
Arrest warrant
The International Criminal Court even issued an arrest warrant for Putin on Friday for the “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children. Though that does not seem to bother him. He has even made an unannounced visit to Ukraine’s Mariupol region, which Russia once controlled.
On the same grounds, the International Criminal Court in The Hague also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, who is in charge of children’s rights in Russia.
In relation to the situation in Ukraine, the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Aleksandrovna Lvova-Belova last week, the ICC said in a statement.
“Putin is said to be responsible for war crimes like the illegal expulsion and transfer of people (children) from seized parts of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” which are both illegal.
The ICC said that the crimes stretch back to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
It said, “There are reasonable reasons to assume that Mr. Putin has individual criminal culpability for the offenses listed above.”
Putin was held responsible for both doing the wrong things himself and not keeping an eye on his civilian and military subordinates well enough when they did the wrong things or let them happen.
It is said that the arrest warrants are kept secret to protect victims and witnesses.
The International Criminal Court is a court of last resort for war crimes and crimes against humanity that governments can’t or won’t pursue.
The war has taken many lives and destroyed lots of property. Millions of people have been left homeless. It is sad to note that, in the twenty-first century, people still go to war.
In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the effects of the Second World War are still clear, and they may stay that way for a long time.
While Russia disputes claims that its soldiers committed war crimes, it is improbable that it would ever turn over any suspects, according to experts.
Also, Russia says that the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin is “legally worthless” and “has no meaning.”
Also, Western countries have kept a watchful eye on this visit by Xi Jinping. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, has also appealed to Russia and Ukraine to stop the war, which has led to skyrocketing prices of food, medicines, and other essential goods around the world.
Many African countries have been dependent on wheat from Ukraine, but now their governments are forced to buy grain from other countries at high prices.
Whatever comes out of the Chinese leader’s visit, this war must be stopped to save humanity.
