Friday, March 06, 2020


ICC clears way for probe of alleged Afghanistan war crimes

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court will investigate whether war crimes were committed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, Afghan military and U.S. forces after an appeals panel said on Thursday the “truth-seeking” inquiry should go ahead.

The ICC decision, which came days after the United States agreed to pull its troops from the long-running conflict, opens the way for prosecutors to launch a full investigation, despite U.S. government opposition.

“The appeals chamber considers it appropriate to...authorize the investigation,” presiding Judge Piotr Hofmanski said at the court in The Hague. He said prosecutors’ preliminary examination in 2017 had found reasonable grounds to believe war crimes were committed in Afghanistan and that the ICC has jurisdiction.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quickly condemned the decision as “a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution, masquerading as a legal body”.

“It is all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan – the best chance for peace in a generation,” he said.

“The United States...will take all necessary measures to protect our citizens from this renegade, so-called court.”

Afghanistan is a member of the ICC, though Kabul has argued that any war crimes should be prosecuted locally.

The U.S. government has never been a member of the court, which was established in 2002. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration imposed travel restrictions and other sanctions against ICC employees a year ago.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda wants to investigate possible crimes committed between 2003 and 2014, including alleged mass killings of civilians by the Taliban, as well as the alleged torture of prisoners by Afghan authorities and, to a lesser extent, by U.S. forces and the CIA.

“The many victims of atrocities committed in the context of the conflict in Afghanistan deserve to finally have justice,” Bensouda said after the ruling. “Today they are one step closer.”

UNCERTAIN CHANCES

A pre-trial panel last year had rejected her request to open an investigation. It argued that the odds of success were low, given the passage of time and the lack of cooperation from Kabul and Washington, and said that an investigation would not “serve the interests of justice.”

ICC prosecutors’ initial examination concluded there was a “reasonable basis to believe” U.S. forces had committed “crimes of torture, outrages upon personal dignity and rape and other forms of sexual violence”. The examination cited cases in Afghanistan as well as at secret Central Intelligence Agency facilities in Poland, Romania and Lithuania.

Human rights groups welcomed Thursday’s ruling.

“Too many ICC states have cooperated with the U.S. to set up the global torture program, we now call on these same states to cooperate with the ICC prosecutor’s investigation,” said Katherine Gallagher of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

U.S. forces and other foreign troops entered Afghanistan in 2001 after the Sept. 11 al Qaeda attacks on the United States, and overthrew the Taliban government, which had been protecting al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. troops assess the damage to an armoured vehicle of NATO-led military coalition after a suicide attack in Kandahar province, Afghanistan August 2, 2017. REUTERS/Ahmad Nadeem

In what has become the United States’ longest war, about 13,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan.

The United States and the Taliban signed an agreement on Saturday to withdraw thousands of U.S. troops, but Washington carried out an air strike on Taliban fighters on Wednesday. [uL4N2AX2GL]

The ICC was set up to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. It has jurisdiction only if a member state is unable or unwilling to prosecute atrocities itself.

ICC authorizes investigations of war crimes in Afghanistan


U.S. Army soldiers lead a military training exercise for Afghan National Police officers in Herat, Afghanistan. The ICC ruling Thursday authorizes investigations into potential war crimes committed by U.S. personnel. File Photo by Hossein Fatemi/UPI | License Photo

March 5 (UPI) -- Judges of the International Criminal Court ruled Thursday that investigations can go forward into whether forces of the United States, Afghanistan and the Taliban committed war crimes.

The judges voted unanimously to authorize the inquiries, which cover purported war crimes committed since 2003, as well as other crimes that "have a nexus to the armed conflict in Afghanistan" and were "committed on the territory of other States Parties" since 2002.

The ICC's pre-trial body had initially rejected the request because of a lack of cooperation from the Afghanistan government, the Taliban and the United States.

"The Appeals chamber considers it appropriate to ... authorize the investigation," Judge Piotr Hofmanski wrote in the 35-page ruling.

The Trump administration had rebuffed ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's request to investigate the actions of U.S. troops in Afghanistan a year ago, and the State Department revoked Bensouda's visa and said it would deny access to other ICC staffers investigation the U.S. military.

"Having considered the prosecutor's grounds of appeal against the pre-trial chamber's decision, as well as the observations and submissions of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, representatives of victims and other participants, the appeals chamber found that the pre-trial chamber erred in considering the 'interests of justice factor' when examining the prosecutor's request for authorization to open an investigation," the ICC said in a statement.

The ICC investigates and rules on cases involving war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity suspected by nationals of a signatory state or supposedly happened on the territory of one of its member states.



Afghan war crimes probe must go ahead, ICC judges say



AFP/File / Shah MARAIThe US has never joined the ICC and does not recognise its authority over American citizens

International war crimes judges ruled on Thursday that a probe into wartime abuses in Afghanistan must go ahead, including looking into possible atrocities committed by US forces, as they overturned a previous court ruling.

The call was immediately hailed by human rights organisations as a "pivotal moment" for victims of the central Asian country's 18-year-war since the 2001 US invasion.

But US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attacked the International Criminal Court's decision as a "reckless" move and "a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body".

Guissou Jahangiri, deputy president of the International Federation for Human Rights, called the ICC decision "a pivotal moment for victims in Afghanistan and beyond".

It sends "a much-needed signal to current and would-be perpetrators of atrocities that justice may one day catch up to them," Human Rights Watch's Param-Preet Singh added.

Pompeo, speaking at a news conference however said it was "all the more reckless for this ruling to come just days after the United States signed a historic peace deal on Afghanistan, which is the best chance for peace and a generation."

- Interest of justice -

Pre-trial judges at the ICC -- an independent court set up in 2002 to try the world's worst crimes -- last year rejected a demand by its chief prosecutor to open a full-blown probe into crimes committed in the war-torn nation.

Prosecutors at The Hague appealed the move, saying that the judges made an error when they slapped down Fatou Bensouda's request by saying although it met all the right criteria and a reasonable basis, it was "not in the interest of justice".

The appeals judges agreed with the prosecution.

"The prosecutor is authorised to commence an investigation into alleged crimes committed on the territory of Afghanistan since May 1, 2003," ICC judge Piotr Hofmanski said.

"It is for the prosecutor to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to initiate an investigation."

Pre-trial judges are only called upon to see if there is a reasonable basis for an investigation and not to "review the prosecutor's analysis", he said.

In fact, the appeals judges said, prosecutors could even look into possible atrocities outside of Afghanistan if they were clearly linked to its armed conflict.

ICC prosecutors previously said their investigation would include alleged war crimes by US Central Intelligence Agency operatives at detention facilities, referred to as "black sites" in ICC member countries like Lithuania, Poland and Romania.

At least 24 suspects were subjected to torture at these secret prisons between 2003-2004, the prosecutors said.

In 2006, the ICC's prosecutors opened a preliminary probe into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the central Asian nation since 2003.

In 2017 Bensouda asked judges to allow a full-blown inquiry, not only into Taliban and Afghan government personnel but also international forces, US troops and CIA members.

But pre-trial judges then said it "would not serve the interests of justice" and that the court should focus on cases with a better chance of success.

- Backlash -

Bensouda's move had unleashed a backlash from Washington, which in April last year revoked the Gambian-born chief prosecutor's visa as part of broader restrictions on ICC staff probing American or allied personnel.

Former national security advisor John Bolton warned in 2018 that the US would arrest ICC judges if the court pursued an Afghan probe.

The US has never joined the ICC and does not recognise its authority over American citizens, saying it poses a threat to national sovereignty.

Washington argues that it has its own procedures in place to deal with US troops who engage in misconduct.

Afghanistan also opposes the inquiry, saying the country itself had "responsibility to bring justice for our nation and for our people".

The ICC's ruling comes days after Taliban militants killed at least 20 Afghan soldiers and policemen in a string of overnight attacks, throwing the country's nascent peace process into grave doubt.

Under the terms of a recent US-Taliban agreement, foreign forces will quit Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the insurgents to hold talks with Kabul.

A US-led force invaded Afghanistan in 2001 following the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, targeting Al-Qaeda in the sanctuaries provided by the Taliban government.

Fighting has continued ever since -- last year more than 3,400 civilians were killed and almost 7,000 injured, according to data provided by UN agencies.



International court backs Afghan war crimes probe

Appeal judges at the International Criminal Court have given prosecutors the go-ahead to launch an investigation into alleged war crimes by Taliban, Afghan and US forces.



The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Thursday authorized an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Afghanistan. The probe targets US, Afghan and Taliban forces as well as intelligence personnel.

The ruling came only days after the US and the Taliban signed an ambitious peace deal to end conflict in Afghanistan. 

The Hague-based international court upheld an appeal by prosecutors against an earlier deision to block an investigation.

Pretrial judges last year acknowledged that widespread crimes had been committed in the war-torn Asian country and that there was sufficient basis for the investigations. However, they rejected a probe on the basis that too much time had passed and that the anticipated lack of international cooperation would also result in a likely unsuccessful inquiry.

Read more: Why is Germany putting an Afghan man on trial for war crimes?

US refuses ICC cooperation

The rejection triggered criticism from human rights organizations who said the decision impeded justice for victims in Afghanistan and effectively rewarded countries that refused to collaborate with the ICC.

At a hearing in December, prosecutors argued that pretrial judges at the ICC abused their powers when they rejected the request. The appeals judges then agreed to authorize an investigation. 

"The Appeals Chamber considers it appropriate to amend the appealed decision to the effect that the prosecutor is authorized to commence an investigation into alleged crimes committed on the territory of Afghanistan since May 1, 2003, as well as other alleged crimes that have a nexus to the armed conflict in Afghanistan,'' Presiding Judge Piotr Hofmanski said.

However, despite the authorization, it remains to be seen if any suspects eventually indicted by prosecutors will appear in The Hague court.

Both the US and Afghanistan have strongly opposed the probe. Washington refuses to cooperate with the ICC and does not recognize its jurisdiction over US citizens.

Read more: How does the International Criminal Court answer criticisms that it is illegitimate?

'Torture, rape and sexual violence'

After a decades-long preliminary probe in Afghanistan, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asked judges in November 2017 to authorize an in-depth investigation.

The ICC prosecutor said there is information that members of the US military and intelligence agencies "committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence against conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan and other
locations, principally in the 2003-2004 period.''

Bensouda also said the Taliban and other rebel groups have killed more than 17,000 Afghan civilians since 2009, including around 7,000 targeted killings, and alleged that Afghan security forces tortured prisoners at government detention centers.

mvb/rt (AP, dpa, Reuters) 



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Date 05.03.2020
Related Subjects International Criminal Court (ICC)Afghanistan
Keywords ICCAfghanistanwar crimes
Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/3Ytry

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