US failing to investigate war crimes: UN investigator
NZ Herald
Friday May 29, 2009
GENEVA - An independent UN human rights investigator has said that the United States is failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes committed by its soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although some cases are investigated and lead to prosecutions, others aren't or result in lenient sentences, said Philip Alston, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings.
"There have been chronic and deplorable accountability failures with respect to policies, practices and conduct that resulted in alleged unlawful killings - including possible war crimes - in the United States' international operations," Alston said in a report dated May 26 and published on a UN website.
A spokesman for the US mission in Geneva, Dick Wilbur, said Alston's conclusions and recommendations would be reviewed closely.
"We support the independence and work of all UN special rapporteurs and meet regularly with those who examine issues in the US, including Mr. Alston," he said.
(More here.)
Friday May 29, 2009
GENEVA - An independent UN human rights investigator has said that the United States is failing to properly investigate alleged war crimes committed by its soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Although some cases are investigated and lead to prosecutions, others aren't or result in lenient sentences, said Philip Alston, the UN Human Rights Council's special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings.
"There have been chronic and deplorable accountability failures with respect to policies, practices and conduct that resulted in alleged unlawful killings - including possible war crimes - in the United States' international operations," Alston said in a report dated May 26 and published on a UN website.
A spokesman for the US mission in Geneva, Dick Wilbur, said Alston's conclusions and recommendations would be reviewed closely.
"We support the independence and work of all UN special rapporteurs and meet regularly with those who examine issues in the US, including Mr. Alston," he said.
(More here.)
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