It is important to develop a legal mechanism for the international recognition of the genocide of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War needs, Belarus’ Prosecutor General Andrei Shved told journalists ahead of the international conference to mark the 77th anniversary of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, BelTA has learned.
“We will discuss legal mechanisms. It is extremely important to secure international recognition of the genocide of the Belarusian people and the Soviet people as a whole. The time has come to return to the documents that were adopted after the Great Patriotic War, the materials of the Nuremberg Trials, and once again tell the world that the genocidal policies and genocidal operations are unacceptable. It is the cruelest manifestation in human history,” Andrei Shved said.
“We will discuss legal mechanisms. It is extremely important to secure international recognition of the genocide of the Belarusian people and the Soviet people as a whole. The time has come to return to the documents that were adopted after the Great Patriotic War, the materials of the Nuremberg Trials, and once again tell the world that the genocidal policies and genocidal operations are unacceptable. It is the cruelest manifestation in human history,” Andrei Shved said.
According to him, the possibilities for presenting financial claims to the countries responsible will be discussed too. The Belarusian government commission has established that the damage caused by Nazi Germany and its collaborators in the occupied territory of the BSSR amounts to no less than $2.3 trillion.
“We will discuss the possibilities of legal mechanisms for presenting financial claims as well. In short, the topics that will be addressed today are extremely relevant not only for the Republic of Belarus, our brothers from the Russian Federation, other countries (primarily post-Soviet states) but also for the entire international community. These topics are of urgent importance today,” the prosecutor general said.
When asked by BelTA about specific mechanisms for the international recognition of the wartime genocide of the Soviet people, the prosecutor general emphasized the need for joint efforts. According to him, it is important to “rally together on platforms such as the United Nations and other international institutions to ultimately seek the adoption, as we believe, of a new, modern, and adjusted convention on the prevention of genocide.”
Andrei Shved emphasized that this convention must correspond to modern realities and approaches to assessing the very fact of genocide. He noted that significant work was carried out after the Great Patriotic War, but many provisions adopted in the post-war period do not fully align with today's realities. Undisputed legal mechanisms for holding all criminals accountable for atrocities and acts of genocide during the Great Patriotic War are crucial: genocide has no statute of limitations.
According to the prosecutor general, current international legal documents do not fully allow for these issues to be resolved. “Indeed, we address them at the level of our national legislation. Colleagues from the Russian Federation make such decisions. I hope that other countries will also adopt this practice, including regarding deceased perpetrators. However, clear international legal mechanisms are needed to hold Nazi criminals and their accomplices accountable without a statute of limitations,” he emphasized.
Overall, the topic of combating genocide, rehabilitating Nazism, and protecting historical truth is extremely relevant, Andrei Shved continued. Over the four years of investigating the criminal case into the genocide of the Belarusian people, which the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus is conducting jointly with Russian colleagues, indisputable evidence has been gathered that the scale of the tragedy of the genocide carried out in the occupied territories, including the BSSR, has no parallel in the world. In terms of duration, cruelty, and the number of death camps - history has never known anything like it.
Andrei Shved emphasized that today, more than ever, it is extremely important to unite, stand shoulder to shoulder as in the post-war period after the Great Patriotic War, and sound the alarm: we must not allow neo-Nazism to dictate policies and impose its vision of the world.
"We see today that the European Union, Western Europe, once again following Hitler's blueprint, is preparing for a new crusade, a bloody crusade to our lands. Knowing the terrible truth about the atrocities their ancestors committed in the occupied territories, we understand what may await the peoples who could fall under the heel of neo-Nazis," Andrei Shved said.
He emphasized: “Nazism is the greatest evil in human history. It must be fought, and the truth about it must be told.”