The initiative by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) to hold the perpetrators of aggressive wars accountable has met with cross-party approval. “So far, the criminal offense of the crime of aggression has not been recorded by the International Criminal Court,” said CDU foreign politician Roderich Kiesewetter to the editorial network Germany (RND). “That’s why it’s good that the Foreign Minister is working on this at the same time as punishing Russia’s war crimes against Ukraine.”
The Greens chairman in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Bundestag, Jürgen Trittin, told the RND: “It cannot be that one can avoid being charged with crimes of aggression against states, such as we are currently experiencing through Russia in Ukraine, if the relevant additional protocol has not been signed.” The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann also agreed with Baerbock: “It is a question of justice towards the victims that criminals do not get away scot-free.”
Baerbock is banking on a reform of international law so that perpetrators of a war of aggression like Russian President Vladimir Putin can be prosecuted. “In the 21st century, no one should wage a war of aggression and go unpunished,” the Green politician had demanded on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
