ICC Is Urged To Immediately Issue Arrest Warrant For Lukashenka

The dictator personally provided everything for the abduction of Ukrainian children.

Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian authorities have strengthened the policy of relocating Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of this country.

However, the role of the Belarusian authorities in promoting this policy has not received due attention. This was stated by the authors of the new report "Stolen Childhood", it was published on the Freedom House website.

This report was jointly prepared by Freedom House, Human Rights Centre ZMINA, the Regional Center for Human Rights, and Human Rights Center Viasna.

Zerkalo cites the key points of the report.

The report describes in detail how the Belarusian authorities “transport, indoctrinate, re-educate and militarize Ukrainian children in the interests of the Russian state policy of eradicating Ukrainian national and cultural identity.”

The authors of the study made several main conclusions, including that "Aliaksandr Lukashenka personally laid the foundation for the resettlement of Ukrainian children to the territory of Belarus", as well as that "the Belarusian regime is actively implementing the Russian state policy to destroy Ukrainian identity through systematic indoctrination and re-education of children."

"The facts confirm the conclusion that the Belarusian regime copied the Russian government's systematic approach to the displacement of Ukrainian children in order to erase their national identity.

In the course of analyzing the cases of children deprived of parental care, the researchers identified at least three among this group, whose relocation to Belarus qualifies as deportation," the report reads.

Children and adolescents from the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories are brought to Belarus under the "new special program"

The education and “recreation” system in which Ukrainian children are placed in Belarus focuses on the dissemination of Russian propaganda aimed at demonizing certain peoples, including Ukrainians.

Activities are conducted in Russian, and Ukrainian children are persistently identified as “Russians” or “citizens of Russia” within this system and in Belarusian and Russian state media, as well as in Belarusian non-governmental organizations, which are actually created with the participation of the authorities and work for the interests of the state.

The authors also stated that the Belarusian authorities are involved in the Russian militarization of Ukrainian children.

"Along with re-education, the militarization of Ukrainian children is the obvious goal of their displacement. Ukrainian children in Belarusian institutions are regularly shown content promoting service in the Russian Armed Forces and glorifying the role of the Soviet Union in World War II, drawing parallels between this and Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine.

Ukrainian children who joined Russian paramilitary youth organizations in the occupied territories and who were then handed over to Belarus are also becoming propaganda actors," the report reads.

The authors of the report also noted that the so-called Union State of Russia and Belarus plays a crucial role in financing and organizing the displacement, ideological processing, re-education and militarization of Ukrainian children.

It is noted that the Belarusian authorities are actively pursuing Russian policy towards Ukrainian children through government-organized non-governmental organizations (GONGOs).

"There are five groups of people who became accomplices in the displacement, re-education and militarization of the Ukrainian children: Belarusian officials, Russian officials, Union State officials, occupation authorities in Ukraine and Belarusian representatives of GONGO," the report explains.

In this regard, the authors of the report ask foreign governments, the Government of Ukraine, the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, international donors and civil society to call on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an investigation into the displacement, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children by the Belarusian authorities and issue arrest warrants for: Aliaksandr Lukashenka, as well as State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus, Russian politician Dmitry Mezentsev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union State, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Aliaksie Talai (Belarusian Paralympic athlete and head of the Aliaksei Talai Foundation), who played a central role in the project to displace Ukrainian children in Belarus.

The authors of the report also called to work together to create a single international mechanism to facilitate the return of Ukrainian children to Ukraine from Belarusian territory.

In addition, they proposed to advocate for the introduction and adoption of sanctions against officials of Belarus and the "union state" involved in crimes against Ukrainian children.

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