War crimes

The Afghan war has thrown up another humanitarian catastrophe. Over the weekend, US airplanes bombed a hospital in the Kunduz region, which was recently taken over by the Taliban. As the toll of the airstrike began to come in, it became clear that the lives the attack had claimed were only of aid workers and patients. The hospital was being operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international organisation that provides healthcare in conflict regions. MSF has said that patients burned to death in their beds during the bombing raid which lasted more than an hour and a half after US and Afghan authorities were told that a hospital had been hit. The tragedy has taken twelve staff members of MSF and at least seven patients, including three children, while 37 people were injured. The charity itself has called the attack a ‘grave violation of international humanitarian law’ while the UN has said the attack was a ‘tragic, inexcusable’ war crime.
The air raid came at a crucial point in Afghanistan with the Afghan government on the back foot after the Taliban takeover of the Kunduz region. Afghan forces and Nato claimed to have taken back control of the city. Despite the death of civilian and aid workers reported by the MSF, the Afghan defence ministry has continued to claim that the hospital building was being used by a ‘group of armed terrorists’. However, a Nato statement states that the actual target of the strike was different while the medical facility became ‘collateral damage’ to this attack. A US general has claimed the Afghan army asked for the air strikes. The incident has renewed concerns over the US use of airstrikes in Afghanistan over the last 14 years against Taliban fighters. If MSF’s claims are true that Afghan and coalition forces had been given exact GPS co-ordinates of the facility, then there seems to be no plausible explanation on why the facility was targeted. US President Barack Obama’s offer of ‘deepest condolences’ does not cut it, nor does his offer of a full investigation by the US Department of Defense. The civilian cost of the decade and a half of war in Afghanistan has often been questioned by international observers. The question is whether this is collateral damage or war crime? A transparent investigation headed by the UN or the International Court of Justice is needed. All possibilities, including charging the US with a war crime, need to remain open.