AI: US military justice system in 'urgent need of reform'

[unhappycamper]

http://www.dw.de/ai-us-military-justice-system-in-urgent-need-of-reform/a-17842563

The US military fails to hold its soldiers accountable for unlawful killings and other abuses in Afghanistan, an Amnesty International report finds. The rights group's Horia Mosadiq discusses the issue with DW.

AI: US military justice system in 'urgent need of reform'

The 84-page report released on Monday, August 11, accuses the United States military justice system of rarely conducting formal criminal investigations into the killings of civilians in the war-torn country. Focusing primarily on air strikes and night raids carried out mainly by US forces between 2009 and 2013, the authors of the document titled "Left in the Dark" argue that apparent war crimes have gone "uninvestigated and unpunished."

The report's findings are based on 125 interviews with Afghan victims, family members and eyewitnesses to operations which resulted in civilian casualties as well as a review of the US military's investigative practices, which according to Amnesty International (AI) "fall short of what is needed to ensure accountability for alleged crimes against civilians."

In a DW interview, Horia Mosadiq, Amnesty International's Afghanistan Researcher, explains why she believes the US military justice system - which mainly relies on soldiers or commanders to report possible human rights violations - is flawed.

DW: What are the main findings of the report?

Horia Mosadiq: The report examines accountability for killings of Afghan civilians by international forces in Afghanistan, focusing, in particular, on the failure of the US military justice system to conduct serious investigations into such killings.