(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) London August 12 (QNA) - An Amnesty International report has criticized the failure of the United States in the investigation into the killing of civilians as a result of operations carried out by its troops in Afghanistan. The families of thousands of Afghan civilians killed by US/NATO forces in Afghanistan have been left without justice the London based organisation said in a new report released Monday. Focusing primarily on air strikes and night raids carried out by US forces including Special Operations Forces Left in the Dark finds that even apparent war crimes have gone uninvestigated and unpunished. "Thousands of Afghans have been killed or injured by US forces since the invasion but the victims and their families have little chance of redress. The US military justice system almost always fails to hold its soldiers accountable for unlawful killings and other abuses" said Richard Bennett Amnesty International’s Asia Pacific Director. "None of the cases that we looked into – involving more than 140 civilian deaths – were prosecuted by the US military. Evidence of possible war crimes and unlawful killings has seemingly been ignored." Amnesty International conducted detailed investigations of 10 incidents that took place between 2009 and 2013 in which civilians were killed by US military operations. At least 140 civilians were killed in the incidents that Amnesty International investigated including pregnant women and at least 50 children. The organization interviewed some 125 witnesses victims and family members including many who had never given testimony to anyone before. In many of the cases covered in the report US military or NATO spokespeople would announce that an investigation was being carried out but would not release any further information about the progress of the investigation or its findings – leaving victims and family members in the dark. "We urge the US military to immediately investigate all the cases documented in our report and all other cases where civilians have been killed. The victims and their family members deserve justice" said Richard Bennett. The main obstacle to justice for Afghan victims and their family members is the deeply flawed US military justice system. Essentially a form of self-policing the military justice system is "commander-driven" and to a large extent relies on soldiers’ own accounts of their actions in assessing the legality of a given operation. Lacking independent prosecutorial authorities it expects soldiers and commanders to report potential human rights violations themselves. The conflict of interest is clear. In the rare instances when a case actually reaches the prosecution stage there are serious concerns about the lack of independence of US military courts. It is extremely rare that Afghans themselves are invited to testify in these cases. "There is an urgent need to reform the US military justice system. The US should learn from other countries many of which have made huge strides in recent years in civilianizing their military justice systems" said Richard Bennett. The report also documents the lack of transparency on investigations and prosecutions of unlawful killings of civilians in Afghanistan. The US military withholds overall data on accountability for civilian casualties and rarely provides information on individual cases. The US government’s freedom of information system meant to ensure transparency when government bodies fail to provide information does not function effectively when civilian casualties are at issue. Amnesty International also urges the Afghan government to immediately establish its own mechanism to investigate abuses by the Afghan National Security forces who will assume full combat responsibility by the end of 2014. (QNA)
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