The consequences of war crimes

The scenes of murder and mass graves from Bucha and other towns and cities in Ukraine are shocking the world, and we hope they linger in memory for longer than a TikTok video. The war crimes on prima facie display should underscore the West’s resolve that they can’t go unpunished.

President Biden added his outrage on Monday by repeating his charge that Vladimir Putin is “a war criminal” who should be put on trial. He called for an investigation, which is already underway at the U.S. State Department and the International Criminal Court in the Hague. But now that Mr. Biden and other leaders are calling out the crimes, they have to do something or the world will see that such brutality leads to momentary outrage but nothing more.

The scenes are widespread enough that they suggest more than the acts of a few renegade soldiers or a rogue squad or company. Bodies are strewn up and down streets, some shot in the head with their hands tied. Reports of rape are widespread.

Ukrainian activists named Azatbek Omurbekov as the Butcher of Bucha. Picture: Twitter.

Survivors say that Ukrainian officials who refused to co-operate with Russians occupying their towns were shot. Russians reportedly kidnapped the mayor of the village of Motyzhyn on March 23, along with her husband and son, and all three bodies were discovered in a well on Saturday. Graves in Bucha hold dozens of bodies of civilian non-combatants, and aerial photos show evidence from before the Russian departure from Bucha.

These are all clear violations of the laws of war as understood by longtime custom. The investigations should pinpoint responsibility as much as is possible given the wartime exigencies. That doesn’t mean only looking to see if certain soldiers carried out the acts or if individual officers gave the commands.

The widespread marauding suggests a general breakdown in military order that is the responsibility of officers whose men are under their command. That means holding Russian defence officials and officers responsible from the general staff down to company commanders.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (R) and chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov attend a meeting with Vladimir Putin. Picture: AFP.

In a famous case from World War II, Japanese general Tomoyuki Yamashita was tried by an American military tribunal for war crimes committed by troops under his command in the Philippines. His defence was that he didn’t order his troops to commit such acts and wasn’t aware they were committed. The court nonetheless held him responsible for the war crimes of his subordinates. His appeals for clemency were rejected all the way up to President Harry Truman, and Yamashita was hanged.

A war crimes investigation needn’t start with Mr. Putin, and it might be better if it didn’t. The war is continuing, and the impact might be more significant on Russian morale if Russian officers know they will be held accountable. Start at the top with Sergei Shoigu, the Army general who has been minister of defence for a decade. Then move down through the ranks of officers who have served in Ukraine, starting with those who commanded troops in the regions where war crimes were committed.

A Bucha resident walks past an abandoned military vehicle position where his neighbours buried four people. Picture: Getty Images.

The indictments should name individuals and the specific crimes that occurred in the areas under their command. The names and charges, once announced, are sure to become known to the Russian forces. Perhaps it will concentrate minds about the dirty war they have been asked to prosecute and the trouble Mr. Putin has put them in.

This may also be a prosecution better done by Europeans than by the U.S. They are the people most acutely threatened by the war, and Mr. Putin would only be too happy to turn this into a Russo-U. S. fight. What matters is that the war crimes in Ukraine are investigated and, no matter the difficulty in prosecuting them, at least a diligent, determined effort is made to render justice so the world can see that Mr. Putin’s brand of war can’t be tolerated.