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Video / NZ Herald / AP
The parents of a New Zealand aid worker want their son’s death to be recognised as a war crime after a coroner found his colleague, whom he was with at the time, was unlawfully killed.
Christopher Parry, 28, and New Zealand aid worker Andrew Bagshaw,had been evacuating civilians from the Ukraine conflict when they were killed in the Soledar region of Ukraine a year ago.
Post-mortem examinations found that Parry and Bagshaw were killed by gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of the body - rather than the initial official explanation of their death, which was that their vehicle was hit by artillery fire.
Andrew Bagshaw from Christchurch worked as a volunteer driver in the Donbas region of Ukraine during the Russian invasion. Photo / Sebastian Polarchski
Coroner Darren Salter, at the Oxfordshire’s Coroners Court, cited some evidence that the Wagner group - a Russian state-funded private military company - was involved in the killing.
Bagshaw’s parents, Dame Sue and Professor Phil Bagshaw, have always maintained their son was the victim of a war crime and they want it to be investigated by the International Criminal Court at the Hague.
“The next step is getting it recognised as a war crime,” Phil Bagshaw told Morning Report.
Professor Phil Bagshaw and Dame Sue. Photo / RNZ
“The important thing now is that we need to get actual evidence.”
Sue Bagshaw said the Parry family felt the same way.
Phil Bagshaw said that the UK and New Zealand governments needed to send an investigator to Ukraine so they could investigate the deaths further.
“We know of an investigator in Ukraine who’s got 10,000 cases on his desk and he cannot spend time on this particular event but if the UK and New Zealand got together, sent an investigator there, we could even direct them as to who they need to speak to, to get the evidence.”
Phil Bagshaw wrote as recently as January 6 to the Foreign Minister but has only got a computerised, automated response so far.
“At the time of [Andrew and Parry’s] disappearance the New Zealand government basically abrogated their responsibility and just said we’ll leave it up to the UK government to do something about it,” said Sue Bagshaw.
