U.N. to probe Iraqi, Afghan civilian deaths

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: AP

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A United Nations expert said Friday he plans to study whether members of the U.S. military or government contractors such as Blackwater USA violate international law when they kill civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Philip Alston, a professor at New York University law school who has been an adviser to the UN's commission on human rights since 2004, said the U.S. had invited him to look into the issue. He said he would begin work in the spring and did not yet have an itinerary or list of people to interview.

"I am very interested in questions relating to military justice ... in other words, the response to alleged extrajudicial executions by members of the U.S. military, particularly in places like Iraq and Afghanistan," he told a news conference after briefing the General Assembly's human rights committee.

U.S. service members in Iraq have faced prosecution under American law over the killings of 24 civilians by Marines in Haditha and the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl and the slaying of her family south of Baghdad. However, Iraqis have accused the American soldiers of other unnecessary killings or abuse which has not been prosecuted.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-10-27-un-us-civilian-deaths_N.htm?csp=34

[rodeodance]

1. good,