The preliminary report of Belarusian opposition leaders in exile indicates that current Belarusian leaders may have been involved in the illegal deportation of children from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.
The National Anti-Crisis Administration, a group of political opponents to the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, said in a report that 2,150 Ukrainian children, including orphans aged 6 to 15, had been taken to holiday camps and sanatoriums in Belarus.
Last year, Ukraine’s former chief prosecutor told Reuters of cases of forcible deportation of Ukrainians to Russia and Belarus.
Ukraine says around 20,000 children were illegally taken to Russia after the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with some of them given up for adoption.
In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, on two counts of war crimes for the transfer of hundreds Ukrainian children to Russia.
“Belarus’ actions may also amount to a crime against humanity, (qualified as) ‘forced deportation/displacement of the population’ under the Rome Statute of the ICC, provided there are sufficient evidence that forced displacement is widespread or systematic,” said Yulia Ioffe, assistant professor at University College London and child rights specialist.
The report alleges that Ukrainian children were illegally taken to the Belarusian “Golden Sands” sanatorium in the Gomel region, to the “Ostroshitsky Gorodok” sanatorium and to the “Dubrava” camp in the Minsk region.
“Lukashenko personally ordered the transfer of the orphans to Belarus and facilitated their arrival by providing financial and organizational support,” the statement said, accusing Lukashenko of war crimes.
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