|
The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
|
October 26th,
2007 - UN Expert to Probe Killings by US Troops |
|
UN Expert to Probe Killings
by US Troops By Edith M. Lederer Associated Press October 26, 2007 United Nations - A United
Nations expert said Friday he plans to study whether members of the U.S.
military or government contractors such as Blackwater USA violate
international law when they kill civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Philip Alston, a professor
at New York University law school who has been an adviser to the UN's
commission on human rights since 2004, said the U.S. had invited him to look
into the issue. He said he would begin work in the spring and did not yet
have an itinerary or list of people to interview. "I am very interested
in questions relating to military justice ... in other words, the response to
alleged extrajudicial executions by members of the U.S. military,
particularly in places like Iraq and Afghanistan," he told a news
conference after briefing the General Assembly's human rights committee. U.S. service members in Iraq
have faced prosecution under American law over the killings of 24 civilians
by Marines in Haditha and the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl and the
slaying of her family south of Baghdad. However, Iraqis have accused the
American soldiers of other unnecessary killings or abuse which has not been
prosecuted. At least 700 civilians have
died in Afghanistan due to the fighting this year. About half of those deaths
were caused by insurgents and the rest resulted from U.S. or NATO military
action, often because of air strikes hitting civilian homes, according to an
Associated Press tally based on numbers from Afghan and Western officials. The deaths have incited
resentment against U.S. forces and claims of illegal killings. Afghan President Hamid
Karzai is calling for the U.S. and NATO to cut back on airstrikes in the
battle against Taliban and al-Qaida militants, saying too many civilians have
been killed. Karzai told the U.S. news
program "60 Minutes" for a story scheduled to air Sunday night that
six years after the U.S.-led invasion the Afghan people "cannot
comprehend as to why there is still a need for air power." Alston is an independent expert
who reports to the U.N. Human Rights Council. His reports can draw attention
to an issue. But it would be up to U.N. bodies, such as the Security Council,
whether to take action. Alston said actions by
government security contractors are "clearly an issue I would want to
look at insofar as executions are involved, and obviously in the Blackwater
case recently they are." The Iraqi government has
demanded Blackwater USA's expulsion within six months and $8 million
compensation for each of the 17 victims of a Sept. 16 shooting by the
company's security contractors. The government insists there was no
provocation but the company claims the bodyguards were responding to gunfire. © 2007 The Associated Press External link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5250366.html |