Russia slams French support to Ukraine war tribunal

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia on Friday slammed France for its support to a specialized tribunal on Ukraine war proposed by the EU, urging Paris to investigate its own 'war crimes' committed during the colonial era.

"We recommend that Paris start by creating a special tribunal for its own crimes during colonial wars, various punitive operations, and interventions in various parts of the world," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"It is especially strange to hear such statements from Paris. The war crimes committed by the French during the period of colonialism, in Algeria – during the War of Independence, in Indochina, and from the examples of recent history – in Libya, remained unpunished and deprived France of the moral right to make such statements."

The ministry said it was "outraged" by the statement of the French Foreign Ministry and asked why Paris does not name analysis of its actions in former colonies as "priority."

"In addition to attempts to involve the International Criminal Court, Western countries decided to promote the idea of creating another openly politicized 'judicial' instance that has nothing in common with justice," it said.

The ministry demanded of French diplomats to stop dividing people into "right" and "wrong," "their own" and "not their own," noting that none from the French side ever visited Russian territories affected by Ukraine's military actions.

The diplomatic service said the French initiative is not the first case of "the hypocrisy of Western countries."

"The crimes of the US and its allies in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and other countries, which led to numerous civilian casualties from the weapons of American and European defense industrial companies, are obvious to residents of the affected states, their neighbors in the region, all those who are not included in the notorious 'golden billion'," the ministry said.

The ministry called any specialized court on the Ukraine conflict will not have any jurisdiction over Russia.

In a statement on Wednesday, the French Foreign Ministry said “the fight against impunity for crimes committed in Ukraine following the Russian aggression is a priority.”

“We have begun working with our European and Ukrainian partners on the proposal to establish a Special Tribunal on Russia’s Crime of Aggression against Ukraine,” it added.