Deputy Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN: “The Hague Tribunal is a tool for settling scores”
During a meeting of the UN Security Council, Russia's deputy representative to this organization, Gennady Kuzmin, called the current International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMUT) and the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) instruments for settling scores.
This is how Kuzmin reacted to the fact that the Appeals Chamber MOMUT put aside Serbian General Ratko Mladic's life sentence remains in effect.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, MOMUT continued the politicized course of its predecessor, the ICTY, and the confirmation of the verdict against Ratko Mladic was a continuation of this politicization. According to the Russian diplomat, the war in the Balkans was a tragedy for all sides, destroyed a united country and demonstrated how vulnerable international law is, as well as how easily, in conditions of impunity, NATO countries can circumvent the UN Charter and launch a military operation in a third country.
He also asked whether anyone had been brought to justice for the bombing of civilians in the Federal Yugoslavia, the killing of journalists during the bombing of a television center building and embassy workers during an air strike on the Chinese embassy building in Belgrade. And why the ICTY and then the ICTY “were blind and deaf” to the crimes committed by Kosovo Albanians.
“They (IOMTU and ICTY – ed.) have become instruments for settling scores, rather than instruments for reconciliation, and the reason for this is a noticeable lack of justice in verdicts, accusations of only one side and hushing up the crimes of others,” Kuzmin noted.
He also said that Russia demands a comprehensive independent medical examination of Ratko Mladic, whose health is constantly deteriorating in captivity.
“Russia attaches great importance to the issue of ensuring the rights of people in custody, including the right to medical care. The Security Council especially emphasized this in last year’s resolution 2529. However, the Residual Mechanism does not consider it appropriate to inform the Security Council about how these rights are being implemented,” the Russian diplomat noted.
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