– I think it is likely that someone will be convicted for this. If there is a change of power in Russia, the political and military leaders behind this war will live in insecurity, he says back home in Oslo.
Aage Storm Borchgrevink (52) has worked for human rights since he was 24 years old. In the work for the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, he has had a special responsibility for the human rights situation in Russia, Chechnya and Georgia, and has also documented human rights violations in the Donbass in Ukraine in the past.
– When the Great War broke out, it was natural for me to contribute again. Both with assistance to colleagues in Ukraine, but also with gathering information about war crimes. Our hope this time is that there will finally be a proper court settlement. Impunity has driven Putin’s wars. That must be the end of it.
– CROSSING THE BORDER: In the gray light on March 16, Aage Borchgrevink loads equipment into the car before crossing the border. Photo: Private.
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Borchgrevink crossed the border into Ukraine early in the morning of March 16. The goal was to provide equipment, medicine and cars to local teams working to investigate war crimes and human rights violations in the war-torn country. In addition, one of the first tasks was to lay out a strategy for the documentation work.
The job of gathering evidence against Putin’s war machine is a big job, an international charity. But it is often the local groups, Ukrainians themselves, who know the situation best.
Civilians are goals in themselves
Together with partner Arve Hansen in the Helsinki Committee, Aage Borchgrevink sought out the human rights activists in the Truth Hounds group. This is a group that has been documenting war crimes in this part of the world since Russia’s war with Georgia in 2008.
– TRUTH HUNTERS: From left Aage Borchgrevink, Dmytro Koval in Truth Hounds, and Arve Hansen. Photo: Private.
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They also sought out the human rights community in Chernihiv and the Insight group. They had a lot to tell.
– What distinguishes the Russian army from other advanced military forces is that civilians are not just random victims, but targets in themselves. We saw that in Chechnya, Georgia and Syria, too. Another type of crime is assault in connection with the occupation, such as kidnappings and threats against civilian leaders. Russia seems to be following the handbook from the war against Chechnya, unfortunately, says Borchgrevink.
Central to gathering evidence in Ukraine was talking to both the military and refugees. They have been eyewitnesses to the crimes the generals and political leaders can be punished for in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Rocket launches and sirens
– We interviewed refugees to map crimes. We were also in contact with soldiers on both sides, also with Russian soldiers who wanted to desert.
Moving around in a war zone is not without risk. Borchgrevink is not unfamiliar with this, but some situations felt unsafe.
– EYEWITNESS: Refugees like this woman are important eyewitnesses in the evidence. Photo: Private.
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– There were air sirens at night, and one morning we heard the roar of rockets hitting. My Ukrainian colleague had an elderly relative kidnapped by the Russians. He was taken to an unknown location. He was the leader of a municipality occupied by the Russians. We were afraid that the “disappearances” that have affected Chechnya and that also happened in Crimea would begin. But luckily it went well, he was released after a couple of days.
– Possible to get Putin convicted
Borchgrevink naturally cannot go into detail about the content of the evidence he has collected. But he emphasizes that the international charity of which he is a part, has access to a material now that puts all doubts aside.
– There is a wealth of evidence for war crimes. Mainly information from open sources, which we have been able to verify. But also witnesses to specific crimes. There is so much evidence that the challenge is to choose the most important, so as not to be flooded, he says.
– But will anyone actually be convicted, do you think?
If there is a change of power in Russia, the military and political leaders behind this war will live in insecurity.
– What about Putin himself?
– In 1999, I documented murder, deprivation of liberty and torture in Kosovo. To think that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic would be held accountable seemed rather naive. People smiled indulgently when I said that. But two years later he stood trial in The Hague. It turns out that it is possible.
– LISTENING TO CLASSIC MUSIC: When Aage Borchgrevink writes his reports after his stay in Ukraine, he prefers to listen to Handel. Photo: Yngve Sem Pedersen / TV 2
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The material collected will be processed by investigators from many countries. Several countries can investigate particularly serious crimes, as it is a universal jurisdiction for the worst war crimes. The hope is a major international lawsuit in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The court has opened an investigation in Ukraine.
– ON THE RUN: Children, women and the elderly at the Shehini-Medyka border last Friday. Photo: Private
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– What is the strongest impression you are left with?
– It is the enormity of this that strikes me the most. We stood in line at the border for five hours to get out. Late at night in minus five degrees. There were old people and small children. Thousands of people, all with stories of bombing and relatives they did not know where were. And this is just one of the places where people are fleeing to the west. All because of a small man in a bunker in Moscow, says human rights activist and evidence hunter Aage Strom Borchgrevink.
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