Dmitrievsky: RCFS Was Preparing Materials for War Crimes Tribunal

Reacting to the closure of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society by Russian federal authorities, Stanislav Dmitrievsky said in a recent interview:

In 2003, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was told that if the situation in Chechnya continues, the international community would consider setting up a tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Chechnya. We have started preparing the legal foundations for such a tribunal. This is a serious study, in which abuses in Chechnya will be evaluated from the standpoint of international criminal law as crimes against humanity. Secondly, this will result in a list of individual suspected of committing such crimes. And international law differs from Russian law in that accountability applies to military leaders and commanders, all the way up to the most senior ranks. It’s clear enough who the suspects will be. We discussed this with Anna Politkovskaya two weeks ago. We were talking about specific materials.

See also: Russian-Chechen Friendship Society Closed