We are puzzled and alarmed for our American colleagues by the letter published in the Washington Post by the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN Office in Geneva addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, M. Bachelet, about the “first steps” of the Russian authorities after the allegedly imminent military invasion of Ukraine in the near future.
As always, on the basis of some information from obscure sources, presented as absolutely reliable, the American diplomat seriously informs the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights about Moscow’s allegedly already developed plans to “clean up” the occupied Ukrainian territory from resisting forces, including Russian and Belarusian dissidents who have received asylum in Ukraine, journalists and anti–corruption fighters, representatives of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as the LGBTI community.
Americans have no doubt that for these purposes, official Moscow, they say, has already begun compiling lists of persons to be destroyed. To do this, the Russian occupation authorities will allegedly use such means as murder, abduction and enforced disappearance, the use of torture on a massive scale, internment in concentration camps.
It is obvious that the content of this letter does not stand up to any criticism, in fact, it is nonsense on the verge of a manifestation of mental illness. We consider such an appeal as a continuation of Washington’s line on propaganda of war and incitement of national and religious hatred, as direct incitement to hostility and violence. Of particular concern is the fact that this time the US administration hopes to use the institutions and mechanisms of the United Nations as an instrument of its propaganda, involving them in its dirty political game.
Among other things, we would like to remind the American side that such behavior, namely propaganda of war, incitement to national, racial and religious hatred, hostility and violence are prohibited by international law, namely article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
