War Crimes

[SuperSocks]

I was wondering, what makes a 'War Crime' a 'War Crime' instead of just 'Something That Happens In War'? If the president of Ukraine is killed by the Russians, is that a war crime? What about if civilians are killed? Presumably the soldiers who killed the children in their car new they were no threat, and it wasn't an accident, so is that a war crime - but they wouldn't be answerable to it would they? Civilians killed when their houses are destroyed by shelling, is that a war crime or no? What's even the penalty for committing a war crime, in a country that no longer has the death sentence? Incarceration? Fining the country? If Putin fails in his attempt to take Ukraine who goes and gets him and makes him stand trial? I just don't see how that's possible.

[CovidCorvid]

There’s a pretty much set list of stuff. The grey area is proving it.

So targeting of civillian areas or civilians isn’t allowed and a war crime. But an accidental rocket landing on a block of flats is not a war crime.

So it would be up to the court in The Hague to prove that such a rocket was purposefully targeted. That might be down to overwhelming opinion, so sheer number of rockets, etc which couldn’t be believed to be accidental. Or someone stands up and says they were told to target such areas.

Killing of,prisoners of war is a war crime. So if they kill Zelensky it should be. But they could well try and say he didn’t surrender/he attacked them!

I believe some weapons such as cluster bombs are a war crime and there certainly seems to be cctv footage of what looks like cluster bombs by some flats. If that can be verified then yes it’s a war crime.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radovan_Karadžić wiki page on Radon Karadvzic who they found guilty of war crimes in the Bosnian war. Iirc he refused to engage with the court proceedings and refused to enter a plea, etc. He got 40 years in prison!