Indonesia calls for ‘independent’ Bucha killings probe

A man gestures at a mass grave in the town of Bucha, northwest of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on April 3, 2022. Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AFP) — Indonesia called Thursday for an “independent” probe into the alleged massacre of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops in the town of Bucha.

The call follows an international outcry after Ukrainian officials said hundreds of civilians were found executed in areas where Russian soldiers have withdrawn around the capital Kyiv.

This handout satellite image released by Maxar Technologies on April 3, 2022 shows a of a probable grave site (upper C) near the Church of Saint Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints in Bucha, Ukraine, on March 31, 2022. (Photo by Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies / AFP) 

The Southeast Asian country, which will chair the G20 summit on the resort island of Bali in November, declared its support for a United Nations initiative to set up an independent team to investigate the killings.

Indonesia presents itself as an unaligned middle power and has so far refrained from condemning Russia publicly since its invasion of Ukraine in February.

“We hope there will be an independent investigation team to shed the clearest light on what has happened, independent from various reports we have been following,” foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told a press briefing.

“The loss of lives, be it from civilians, soldiers or security enforcers is something we deeply regret, and for that we express our deepest concern,” he said.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / The body of a man, with his wrists tied behind his back, lies on a street in Bucha, just northwest of the capital Kyiv on April 2, 2022. – The bodies of at least 20 men in civilian clothes were found lying in a single street on April 2, 2022, after Ukrainian forces retook the town of Bucha near Kyiv from Russian troops, AFP journalists said. Russian forces withdrew from several towns near Kyiv in recent days after Moscow’s bid to encircle the capital failed, with Ukraine declaring that Bucha had been “liberated”. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP)

Indonesia holds the presidency for G20 this year and has said it will hold the summit in an “impartial” manner despite pressure from Western nations for Russia to be excluded.

The discovery of hundreds of dead civilians in Bucha prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to condemn the killings as “war crimes” and “genocide”.

Moscow denies the accusations that its units were responsible, claiming the harrowing images of the dead were either faked or that the killings happened after its forces withdrew.

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / Communal workers carry a body of a civilian man in town of Bucha, not far from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on April 3, 2022. – US and NATO leaders voiced shock and horror at new evidence of atrocities against civilians in Ukraine, and warned that Russian troop movements away from Kyiv did not signal a withdrawal or end to the violence. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)

Members of the United Nations General Assembly in New York are due to vote Thursday on temporarily suspending Russia from the global body’s Human Rights Council.

Indonesia’s foreign affairs ministry refused to say how Jakarta would vote on the Russian suspension.


© Agence France-Presse