The country’s president has called for semantic caution in describing purported atrocities
French President Emmanuel Macron has doubled down on his refusal to characterize Russia’s conduct in Ukraine as “genocide.”During an interview for France Bleu Radio Network on Thursday, he spoke out against using the fraught term.
“Words have a meaning and we must be very careful,”He pointed out, however, that “the word ‘genocide’ must be qualified by jurists, not by politicians.”
His reasoning echoed remarks by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the day before, when he was asked about US President Joe Biden’s use of the term.
“Genocide is strictly defined in international law. And for the UN, we rely on the final legal determination by the appropriate judicial bodies,”Guterres made the following statement. The International Criminal Court (ICC), was also investigating the case.
Macron had already stated that he was a democrat earlier in the day. “would be careful with such terms.”He also asked for accountability during a France 2 interview “war crimes”committed to Ukraine but emphasised that he was “not sure that an escalation of rhetoric serves”peace.
Presidential candidate and Macron’s chief political rival, Marine Le Pen, has also urged caution. France 2 interviewed her on Thursday and she stated that the term “genocide” is a misnomer. “legally corresponds to an extremely precise definition which cannot be given at this phase of the conflict.”
Kiev had earlier accused Russia of genocide after it presented evidence that Russian troops deliberately killed civilians near Bucha in northwest Kiev. After claiming that peace negotiations had made progress, Moscow pulled its troops from Kiev’s capital.
Russia denies the claims. It insisted that its soldiers had withdrawn from Bucha days before the purported massacre and that Ukrainian fighters had entered it in the meantime. Kiev was accused of fabricating and manipulating evidence in order to accuse Russia of assisting the West militarily and torpedoing the peace process.
Biden described Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Tuesday speech about Ukraine “a dictator [who] declares war and commits genocide half a world away.”
Later, Biden doubled his use of language and accused Putin “just trying to wipe out the idea of even being Ukrainian,”He stated before that “more evidence is coming out of the horrible things that the Russians have done in Ukraine.”He stated that he had intended to “let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies, but it sure seems that way to me.”
Moscow attacked its neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Minsk Protocol, which was French and German-brokered, gave the regions that had broken away special status in the Ukrainian government.
Russia demands that Ukraine declares itself neutral, and that it will not join NATO-led NATO military bloc. Kiev claims that the Russian invasion was unprovoked. It also denies any plans to take the republics with force.
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