Gang rapes, weapons abuses and rape committed in front of children are among some of the cruel testimonies that have come after Russian soldiers began withdrawing from the areas around Kyiv, writes The Guardian.
One woman told the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) that she was repeatedly raped by a Russian soldier at a school where she and her family had sought cover, reports NTB.
Another woman has told The Times that she was raped by two Russian soldiers after they shot and killed her husband, while her four-year-old son cried in the room next door.
– Russia has a duty to investigate crimes committed by the country’s soldiers. Officers must understand that by closing their eyes to killings and rapes committed by soldiers under their command, they themselves become personally responsible for war crimes, says Hugh Williamson, who heads HRW’s operations in Europe and Central Asia.
Breeds: – Do not have a conscience
– A weapon of war
Ukrainian photographer Mikhail Palinchak shared a photo on Twitter on Sunday. The photo showed dead, covered civilians next to a highway 20 kilometers from Kyiv. Under the rug lay several naked female bodies that had been burned, skriver Palinchak.
– Rape is a weapon of war. Women are raped in front of their own children, girls in front of their families. Rape is a war crime, writes Meldina Simmons, British diplomat and ambassador to Britain in Ukraine, on Twitter.
Rape is a weapon of war. Though we don’t yet know the full extent of its use in #Ukraine it’s already clear it was part of 🇷🇺 arsenal. Women raped in front of their kids, girls in front of their families, as a deliberate act of subjugation. Rape is a war crime.
— Melinda Simmons (@MelSimmonsFCDO) April 3, 2022
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– Before you can say that rape is a weapon of war, it requires a kind of strategy, says Patricia Kaatee, political adviser at Amnesty.
It is important to point out that rape takes place in war and conflict, which is not a war strategy. It could be soldiers who have not received knowledge and training, or who do it as a personal revenge raid, she adds.
During the civil war in Darfur, Sudan in the early 2000s, rape was used as a deliberate war strategy. Also in the civil war in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
– Rape was used to intimidate people and drive the civilian population to flee. Serbian forces aimed to make as many of the Bosnian Muslim women captured as possible with the “enemy’s” children, Kaatee said.
“In the long run, this is extremely devastating and creates enormous war trauma,” says Kaatee.
Vulnerable
It is not only Russian soldiers Ukrainian women need to protect themselves from.
In Vinnytsia, a city in western Ukraine, a teacher reported to police that a member of The Territorial Defense dragged her into the school library and tried to rape her. The man was arrested, writes The Guardian.
The Territorial Defense is the military reserve component of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Fear several incidents like Butsja
– Women are always very vulnerable in war and conflict. When traveling with children, it makes you even more vulnerable because you have to take care of the safety of the children. Among other things, it can make it difficult to get away from dangerous situations, says Kaatee.
During Russia’s war in Chechnya, there were very many cases of rape.
– Rape was used as a form of torture during interrogation and as a method of interrogation. Amnesty also documented that Russian forces committed rape in connection with raids on towns and villages. Only in a few cases were the culprits held accountable for their actions, says Kaatee.
War crimes against civilians
Human Rights Watch has interviewed ten victims, eyewitnesses and residents of areas occupied by Russian forces and paints a brutal picture of the situation. Among other things, Russian forces have committed rapes and arbitrary executions, according to HRW.
– The cases we document constitute indescribable, deliberate cruelty and violence against civilian Ukrainians, says Hugh Williamson.
“Rape, murder and other acts of violence against people who are in the custody of the Russian forces should be investigated as war crimes,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has denied the Ukrainian allegations of sexual assault by Russian soldiers, calling it a “lie.”
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