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Belkis Wille from Zurich investigates war crimes in Ukraine – and doesn't like to walk on grass [1]

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Date: 2023-07-04

«Belkis Wille aus Zürich untersucht Kriegsverbrechen in der Ukraine – und geht nicht gerne über Gras», published in «Das Magazin», the Saturday supplement to the Swiss «Tages-Anzeiger» of July 1, 2023, text Barbara Achermann, picture private. Courtesy of the editors. © Das Magazin, Tamedia Publikationen Deutschschweiz AG, Zurich. Responsible for the translation: marlosan.

Belkis Wille is an associate director with the Crisis and Conflict division at Human Rights Watch. Read more about her here.

I get up at 6 o'clock and am infinitely tired. Last night, bombs hit nearby, so I spent a few hours in the basement. There is no breakfast at the hotel, so I make two pots of coffee for myself and my team.

I grew up in Zurich, but I haven't lived in Switzerland for a long time. For eleven years, I've been documenting war crimes around the world for the NGO Human Rights Watch, in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere. My French Press accompanies me almost everywhere. This time to eastern Ukraine.

The area around Izium had been occupied by Russians for half a year. As soon as they withdrew, we traveled to the area. In Izium itself, there is no electricity and no cell phone reception anymore. So we live in Kharkiv and drive back and forth every day, which is very exhausting.

At 6:59 we are in front of the gas station, one minute before it opens. There we buy for breakfast the most disgusting hotdogs I have ever eaten. My driver used to race, so we are already at the Izium checkpoint two hours later. We drive a little further, to a village called Kapytolivka. I was told that a civilian was executed there by Russian forces. I have the name of the dead man, Ivan Shebelnik, nothing more. Now I want to find out if he was the victim of a war crime. As soon as we arrive, I realize that the village is mined. We try to walk only on tire tracks or step in footprints. Normally I can see mines well in the grass, but today it is difficult because it is raining and muddy. Me, my colleague and our two Ukrainian translators go from door to door asking about the deceased Ivan until we find his brother-in-law. He tells us that during the occupation Ivan accompanied his father-in-law into the forest to collect pine cones. Weeks later, the two were found dead in the forest.

The brother-in-law shows me the death certificate, on which severe injuries are listed. It is obvious that the men were tortured and killed, but we must be able to prove it. Over the next few hours, we interview nine witnesses, including one man who says he was held captive with the three. Here in the village! He avoids looking me in the eye, trembling. In order not to retraumatize him, I ask only the most necessary questions and proceed chronologically. Under no circumstances should I end the interview where the trauma originated. He describes how Ivan and his father-in-law were tortured by Russians, in a cellar close by. On the way there, we quickly wolf down the pork sandwiches that the hotel gives us every day.

We find the group of houses, but they are destroyed. It is now already 2 o'clock in the afternoon and we have to hurry to get back before curfew. Neighbors tell us that Russians used the houses as a base and blew them up when they left. In the garden we find a hatch leading to a cellar: a few mattresses, traces of blood everywhere. This must be the crime scene.

Already in the car I begin to write my report. The brutal murder of Ivan is an example of the great suffering that the civilian population here had to endure. At the hotel, I call my colleagues and ask them to find me satellite pictures of the group of houses. I want to know when it was destroyed to verify the statements. At midnight, I go to bed, certain that I can prove a war crime.

Days later, when I travel to Brussels for a meeting, something strange happens. I can't walk on the lawn. Although I know that there are no mines here, my body refuses.

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