Human rights defenders: Belarus involved in the militarization of children from Ukraine

 

The regime of Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko is complicit in Russia's criminal policy of destroying the identity of Ukrainian children and their militarization. The authors of the investigation conducted by Ukrainian and Belarusian human rights defenders with the support of Freedom House came to this conclusion. Experts from the Ukrainian human rights organizations ZMINA Center for Human Rights and the Regional Center for Human Rights worked on the document, as well as the Belarusian ones - "Vyasna" and BelPol. The investigation titled "Stolen Childhood: How the Belarusian Regime Erases the Identity of Ukrainian Children by Displacing, Re-Educating and Militarizing" was presented on October 10, at a press conference at the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center in Kyiv.

 

Lukashenko "personally laid the foundations for the transfer of Ukrainian children to Belarusian territory," the report published on the Freedom House website emphasizes. As the authors of the document note, the decree signed by the Belarusian ruler in 2021 on the "organization of recreation and rehabilitation of children from Donbass" created a precedent for the active participation of the Belarusian regime in the relocation, re-education and militarization of Ukrainian children. In addition, given the authoritarianism of Lukashenko's rule, no event can take place without the explicit approval of the Belarusian ruler, human rights activists emphasize.

For the first time, the report provides information on deported Ukrainian children who became known through contacts inside Belarus. Human rights defenders received information for their investigation, in particular, from the Belarusian independent organization BELPOL, which was founded in 2020 by former employees of state law enforcement agencies. These are the names of children relocated from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Belarus in the period from 2022 to 2023, as well as accompanying documents, such as train tickets, internal correspondence, etc. In addition, the researchers used information from about 200 open sources.

Previously, on October 4, representatives of public organizations presented the English version of the study at the OSCE conference in Warsaw. Officially, representatives of the Belarusian regime did not react to the report, but numerous pro-government media harshly criticized the work of human rights defenders, shifting the emphasis to propaganda narratives.

 

More than 2,200 children were resettled in Belarus

 

Human rights activists managed to identify 2,219 children who were moved from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Belarus from 2021 to June of this year. Most of them - after the beginning of the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine. Among them are children deprived of parental care, children with developmental disabilities, children whose parents died in hostilities, but also those who have parents or guardians. At least 27 Ukrainian children were later transferred from Belarus to Russia.

"Since we did not have direct contact with the children or their guardians, we could not confirm under what conditions consent was given for their relocation, nor whether it was voluntary," says Anisija Sinjuk, co-author of the report, representative of the Human Rights Center ZMINA. in a comment for DW

"These can be, for example, children of teachers and doctors who depend on the occupation authorities or families displaced from Mariupol or other destroyed cities who depend on the help of the occupation administration or the Russian Federation".

 

The authors of the report drew attention to the fact that a more active transfer took place during the 2022-2023 school year. year, and not during the summer, which, according to them, contradicts the stated purpose of the transfer for the purpose of recovery. Human rights defenders do not know how many deported children returned to the occupied territories of Ukraine after resettlement.

The report describes not only the paths of resettlement of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine, but also what happens to them after they are taken to the territory of Belarus. After deportation, minor Ukrainians were placed in Belarusian sanatoriums, rehabilitation centers, children's camps, and were also enrolled in local educational institutions, "where the language of instruction is Russian, and the curriculum promotes the "Russian world" and other narratives of Russian propaganda," it says in the document. "It is no coincidence that the target is children, not adults. The Russian system is built to turn them into Russian citizens, especially future soldiers of the Russian armed forces. And Belarus is implementing it. When they are in Belarus or Russia, they are treated as Russian children, but they should be treated as Ukrainian children from the occupied territories," Sinjuk points out.

 

Militarization of Ukrainian children and their use for propaganda purposes

 

In addition to promoting identity change, Belarus is following the Russian model of militarizing Ukrainian minors, human rights defenders claim. In confirmation of this, the authors of the report cite numerous visits of minors to law enforcement agencies, military units, as well as meetings with representatives of military and youth military organizations organized during their stay in Belarus. In addition, the document mentions the widespread practice in the occupation of including children in youth paramilitary formations, such as the Russian "youth army" or cadet corps, which is contrary to the norms of the Geneva Convention.

The negative consequences of this are already visible at the individual level, Sinjuk points out. "We know of a case where one of the graduates of Zakharchenko's cadet corps joined the armed forces of the Russian Federation and died. And that should include not only these 2,219 children, but also those almost 1.5 million who are in the occupied territory and are subjected to the same militarization and indoctrination," says the co-author of the report.

In addition, as stated in the document, the Belarusian and Russian regimes use Ukrainian children for propaganda purposes. As the researchers point out, they appeared on several occasions in the materials of the state media of both countries, with the aim of legitimizing their displacement and militarization. According to human rights defenders, these actions contribute to the constant traumatization of minors.

"Journalists mostly ask leading questions related to traumatic topics: shelling, children's feelings in the context of military operations, whether "broken windows" are the norm. Journalists' persistent questions, which require detailed recollection and reproduction of traumatic events, repeatedly made children cry." defenders of human rights note in the report.

In addition, during the preparation of the material, the media ignores the children's right to privacy.

 

Who is involved in the resettlement of Ukrainian children

 

According to the report, the Federal State of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation plays a decisive role in the resettlement, re-education and militarization of Ukrainian children. According to the authors of the document, more than 500,000 dollars have been allocated for these measures during 2022-2023. In addition to the rulers of the Russian Federation and Belarus, the defenders of human rights cite the State Secretary of the "State Union" Dmytro Mezentsev and the Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin, who at the same time serves as the head of the Council of Ministers of the "Federal State" as persons involved in the relocation, re-education and militarization of Ukrainian children. In addition, these measures are impossible without the participation of representatives of the occupation administrations controlled by Moscow.

The report also points to the active role of public organizations, the most famous of which is the Alexii Talaj Foundation, which was founded by the Belarusian Paralympic athlete. According to the report's authors, Talaj maintains close personal and business relations with representatives of the Belarusian and Russian governments, as well as the occupation administrations. According to Anisija Sinjuk, in addition to the fact that Talaj uses his media presence as a Paralympian to hold "motivational meetings" with children, his Foundation finances and organizes these events. "Employees at the Foundation accompany the children and come to the occupied territories themselves. They maintain relations with the occupation administrations, as well as with the so-called public organizations that work in the occupied territory," the analyst notes.

 

Human rights defenders complained to the ICC

 

Talaj is one of four people for whom human rights defenders have submitted a petition to the International Criminal Court seeking an arrest warrant. The researchers also insist that Alexander Lukashenko, Dmytro Mezentsev and Mikhail Mishustin are held responsible for these crimes. As pointed out in the report of human rights defenders, the actions of Belarus and Russia violate the fundamental rights and freedoms of Ukrainian children contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In addition, the re-education of Ukrainian children on the territory of Belarus in the conditions of Russia's war against Ukraine can be qualified as discriminatory persecution, which is a crime against humanity, emphasized Anisia Sinjuk, co-author of the report.

According to her, human rights defenders already had a meeting with representatives of the ICC, where they pointed out the importance of focusing attention not only on the facts of displacement, but also on the extensive system of re-education of children and their militarization. A further qualification, as the human rights defender says, is in the area of responsibility of the International Criminal Court.

The Hague has already confirmed that Belarus can be prosecuted for the deportation of Ukrainian children, even though it is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). As the spokesman of the International Criminal Court, Fadi el-Abdala, said at a meeting with Ukrainian journalists, this is possible if there is evidence, because such crimes "could have been committed on the territory of Ukraine."

"That is, regardless of whether the children were brought to Russia or elsewhere, such acts can fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC, if the abduction itself was at least partially committed on the territory of Ukraine," explained Abdalla.