UN MANDATED AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE MASS GRAVE SITE AT UKRAINE’S IZIUM

Fri 23 September 2022:

A U.N. mandated investigative body intends to investigate a mass burial site near Izium, in eastern Ukraine, where hundreds of bodies have been found, its head said on Friday.

“This is of course a novel incident but we certainly intend to look into the Izium event as well,” Erik Mose, who heads the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, said at a press briefing.

Asked about whether crimes against humanity had been committed, Mose said that the commission had not yet reached that conclusion citing both a lack of evidence and analysis.

Signs of torture and execution

According to Ukrainian war crimes prosecutors on the scene, most of the people killed were local residents. “Some of them could already be identified, but because their deaths occurred around six months ago, other corpses are in such a state of decomposition that it is difficult to draw any conclusions,” war crimes prosecutor Volodymyr Lymar, told reporters. “This will require additional DNA tests to be carried out, including comparative DNA with relatives. What we can already establish though are signs of violent deaths. Some bodies show signs of possible torture.”

Among the bodies found were those of 17 Ukrainian servicemen in a mass grave, their hands tied, and indications that they were all killed at close range.

In light of the atrocities being uncovered daily in newly liberated territories, an additional thousand police officers and first responders have been deployed to the Kharkiv region, tasked with documenting evidence and collecting testimonies, with the hope that the perpetrators will be brought to justice.

The General Prosecutor Office of Ukraine has already opened over 32,000 cases of possible war crimes in the whole of Ukraine, and authorities say they are grateful for the foreign help coming in the form of international teams of experts and material support to carry out the investigations.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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