Indonesia Supports UN Investigation over Massacre in Bucha

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Foreign Affairs on Thursday expressed its deepest concern for the humanitarian crisis in the town of Bucha within the Kyiv area, Ukraine. Spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah regretted that many victims fell in the war. 

“Surely, [the incident in Bucha] are things that we deeply regret, and therefore it has our utmost attention,” said the spokesperson on April 7.

The Indonesian Foreign Affairs, according to Faizasyah, is in support of the UN upon forming an investigation team to look into the reported massacre in Bucha. However, Indonesia’s position about Russia’s UN membership will be announced later. 

On March 3, Reuters published reports about the visual findings from satellite images obtained by a private US company of a mass grave in the town of Bucha. 

Reuters journalists who visited Bucha on Saturday saw bodies lying on the streets of the town, 37 km (23 miles) northwest of the capital Kyiv. A mass grave at one church was still open, with hands and feet poking through the red clay heaped on top. 

Ukraine accused Russian forces on Sunday of carrying out a "massacre" in the town, one of many recaptured by Ukrainian troops as Russia regrouped for battles in eastern Ukraine. Russia denied the allegations, calling them a "provocation" by Ukraine. 

With the Bucha incident, the United States and more than 40 other countries are working together to investigate possible violence and abuses in Bucha by Russia. Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, on Sunday, April 4, 2022, urged an independent investigation into the hundreds of people who died in Bucha.

The UN General Assembly will vote on Thursday 7 April to decide whether to suspend Russia's membership in the UN human rights council. If two of the three forum participants agree that Russia has committed human rights violations, its membership will be temporarily suspended.

Russia, on April 4, strongly denied that its army was responsible for the deaths of civilians in the town of Bucha and in retaliation against Ukraine described the footage and photographs of dead bodies as a "provocation" and a "staged performance" by Kyiv.

Read: U.S., Allies Ready New Russia Sanctions after Bucha Killings

DANIEL AHMAD