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‘Righteous fury’ A Maggie Valley man is on a quest to hold Putin accountable, and it’s not his first rodeo BY KYLE PERROTTI N EWS E DITOR t the end of every dictator’s reign, every time a warlord has been held to account, its due to the work of people who seek justice without pause or fatigue. In the quest to try Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, one of those people is David Crane. Crane, 72, spoke at a Haywood County Democratic Party event last week about his own unique history with international law, including his effort to convict Charles Taylor, the Liberian man who committed war crimes in Sierra Leone from the late 1990s to early 2000s. Crane explained his background in Sierra Leone to lend authority to the case he laid out before the audience to indict Putin on war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24. Such a large crowd gathered to see Crane that extra chairs were needed. And he didn’t disappoint. He was able to convey things in a way that elicited gasps and laughs from the audience with each high note. In an interview with The Smoky Mountain News the day after the event, Crane reiterated his passion for justice by describing disdain for bullies, whether on the schoolyard or at the head of a national government, including Charles Taylor, who thanks to Crane’s work currently languishes in a North England prison. “I was the first American since Justice Robert Jackson (at Nuremberg, 1945-46) to be at the head of a war crimes tribunal,” he said. “We held Charles Taylor accountable, and that’s what’ll happen to Putin,” he added.
April 13-19, 2022
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OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE
Smoky Mountain News
Just prior to Crane’s discussion, details emerged regarding the horrifying discovery of murdered civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha who’d been summarily executed. While Russia has denied the atrocities and claimed videos and other evidence have been fabricated, an April 4 New York Times story discussed how that paper verified videos and satellite images that conveyed the aftermath of the Bucha massacre. “To confirm when the bodies appeared, and when the civilians were likely killed, the Visual Investigations team at The Times conducted a before-and-after analysis of satellite imagery,” the article notes. “The images show dark objects of similar size to a human body appearing on Yablonska Street between March 9 and March 11. The objects appear in the precise positions in which the bodies were found after Ukrainian forces reclaimed Bucha, as the footage from April 1 shows. Further 6 analysis shows that the objects remained in
those position for over three weeks.” Just a day after Crane spoke, Russia hit a train station in eastern Ukraine with rockets, killing dozens of civilians seeking to leave the country in the face of imminent violence. In the wake of widespread death and destruction, there have been calls from leaders across the globe to prosecute those war crimes. In an interview with 60 Minutes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made his case, noting that Ukrainian security services intercepted communications discussing the murder of civilians, claims Zelensky said were backed up by information obtained during interviews with Russian prisoners of war. “I think everyone who made a decision, who issued an order, who fulfilled an order, everyone who is relevant to this I believe they are all guilty,” Zelensky said. Although United States President Joe Biden has stopped short of calling the war crimes a genocide, he made similar statements, even calling Putin a “war criminal.” An AP report quoted Biden as saying, “This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous and everyone’s seen it.” “We do not believe that this is just a random accident, or the rogue act of a particular individual,” Biden national security advisor Jake Sullivan said in the same report. “We believe that this was part of the plan.” Adding to the global call for the prosecution of war crimes, The New York Times Editorial Board advocated for the collection of evidence against Russia and Putin in hopes that the United Nations Security Council could initiate prosecution, despite how unlikely that may be for a number of reasons, including Russia’s ability to veto such action. “Even if the process is difficult and stretches into months and years, it is important that history be left a forensic, credible, verified and judicially processed record of the specific crimes in Ukraine,” the editorial reads. “Those responsible should be named, their actions specified, and if at all possible, the guilty should be locked away.”
MAKING THE CASE Like a prosecutor delivering closing arguments, Crane laid out the facts against Russia to the crowd, ultimately offering his opinion that Putin and dozens of others in his regime are guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression, all terms he defined and provided examples of along the way. The purpose of Crane’s speech last week was to inform residents, but it also seemed like he was honing his ability to make his case on a larger stage. To frame his argument, Crane discussed his time in Sierra Leone prosecuting Taylor,
David Crane holds up a copy of his book, ‘Every Living Thing: Facing Down Terrorists, Warlords, and Thugs in West Africa—A Story of Justice.’ Kyle Perrotti photo whose government ultimately killed 1.2 million people. “It’s about the victims,” Crane said. Crane had plenty of occasions to speak to citizens in that country, people hurt by the nation’s violent past who nonetheless remained hopeful about its future. Crane said they fervently sought justice. During one meeting, a young man in shabby attire stood up and confessed he’d been a child solider, one of 33,000 under Taylor, and that he committed heinous acts. “He looked at me and says, ‘I killed people; I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it,’” Crane said. “He fell into my arms weeping.” Crane laid the groundwork for his accusations against Putin by first discussing international law, referencing the Geneva Conventions, International Declaration of Human Rights, Rome Statute and the last century’s worth of tribunals. “The fundamental principle is every human being on the earth has a legal right to exist,” he said. Crane theorized that after the genocides of 1990s in the likes of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, the world was eager to hold those leaders accountable. But things changed. Crane said that in 2015, a global paradigm shift toward populism and nationalism led to the rise of numerous authoritarian regimes,
including Putin’s. Although Putin had been in power on and off since 2000, he became emboldened in the last decade, notoriously capturing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 with little serious resistance from the international community. Crane cited other examples of war crimes he intends to prosecute, including the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs — a Muslim minority in China — by that country’s president, Xi Jinping. He noted that holding Putin accountable is crucial, as it will send a message to other opportunistic leaders that they won’t get away with war crimes or crimes against humanity. “The rule of law is more powerful than the rule of the gun,” he said. That was a phrase he’d repeat several times that evening. Crane discussed Russian attacks against Ukrainian civilians, including the bombing of 300 hospitals, and how they’re in violation of international humanitarian law, ultimately wrapping up his discussion by outlining how those attacks meet the statutory requirements to prosecute. Following Crane’s 40-minute speech, people had a chance to write questions on note cards, questions that varied greatly but showed how seriously they’d been thinking about the issue. While some questions dealt with semantics, jurisdictions and even the threat of
