A UN investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan should be launched to identify and prosecute individuals responsible, a former top-ranking UN official on extrajudicial killings says.
Philip Alston called for the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the “conduct of the war” in Afghanistan amid rising concern over the level of civilian casualties caused by coalition forces and by the Taliban. It should be modeled, he said, on the inquiry into Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip.
In his first interview since stepping down last month after six years as the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Alston said the lack of prosecutions concerning alleged war crimes was a major cause of concern because of the large number of Afghan civilians killed in the conflict.
“If states are not carrying out reasonably neutral investigations and prosecutions of what appear to be serious violations, it does leave open the possibility that the international community should be intervening in some way,” he said. “An interesting proposal, but one that would draw disdain, no doubt, would be for some sort of international inquiry into the conduct of the war in Afghanistan, along the lines of Gaza. Otherwise, who is going to do a thorough investigation and track down where the decisions were actually taken?”
Last year’s contentious UN investigation into Israel’s campaign in the Gaza Strip found evidence that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes. Yet the failure of the EU and the US to endorse the inquiry triggered claims by human rights groups that Western powers would pursue war crimes violations only when it suited them.
More than 1,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in armed violence and security incidents in the first six months of the year, although most deaths are attributable to the Taliban.
A number of instances of alleged civilian killings by British forces in Afghanistan were recently revealed in secret military files published by the whistle-blowing Web site WikiLeaks. They chronicled 21 separate occasions in which British troops are said to have shot or bombed Afghan civilians — identifying at least 26 people killed and another 20 wounded as a result.
The British Ministry of Defence confirmed on Saturday night that no British soldier had been prosecuted in relation to operations in Afghanistan.
The call by Alston, an international law scholar who reported regularly to the UN Human Rights Council, came as sources indicated that UK officials had been contacted by the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over how the British military investigated war crime allegations.
Afghanistan is a signatory of the treaty that established the Hague-based ICC, which means that any war crime committed on its territory by Afghans or foreigners is relevant to the court.
Sources said the UK is among a number of NATO states contacted by the ICC as part of a “preliminary examination” into whether there is sufficient evidence to launch a full war crimes investigation.
Alston said the refusal of the US to become an ICC signatory meant that an inquiry by the Human Rights Council offered a reasonable alternative.
He said that the controversial nature of the UN investigation into Gaza meant that any debate over a similar venture into Afghanistan would need “to be separated from the single most contentious inquiry undertaken in recent years.”
“The problem is that the ICC can’t hold the Taliban to account, and nor can they hold the Americans to account in any practical sense,” he said.
Saman Zia-Zarifi, director of Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific program, said the Gaza inquiry made sense because Israel was not an ICC signatory. However, public pressure and “legal jurisprudence” could still mean the ICC was the best authority to investigate serious allegations in Afghanistan.
“I think the most appropriate forum is the criminal court,” he said.
A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defence said: “The protection of the Afghan civilian population is at the core of our military strategy. We have strict procedures, frequently updated in the light of experience.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the