Don't leave Afghanistan with a legacy of impunity: Amnesty International

LONDON: NATO risks leaving Afghanistan with a legacy of impunity unless the unlawful killings of civilians by international forces over more than a decade are addressed through justice and reparations, a rights group said today.

Amnesty International made these observations ahead of the key NATO summit starting today in Newport, UK.

Among the agenda for the NATO heads of state and government attending the two-day long event will be the support and training of the Afghan National Security Forces ( ANSF) who will take full charge of security in the country by the end of the year.

"With the end of the security transition just a few months away, it is a key time to address the almost total lack of accountability for civilian casualties, which is clearly unlawful and wholly unacceptable," Amnesty's Asia-Pacific Director Richard Bennett said.

"Those responsible for killing civilians unlawfully since the international intervention began in 2001 must be brought to justice while families and survivors must be provided with reparations in accordance with international standards.

"Afghan troops also need much more support for preventing, monitoring and addressing human rights violations," he said.

In a recent report, Amnesty documented the almost complete lack of justice for civilian casualties caused by US and other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) forces in Afghanistan.

The report focused mainly on US forces, which have comprised the majority of international forces in the country and have been implicated in the large majority of cases involving civilian casualties.

According to the Amnesty study, some 1,800 civilians were killed in international military operations between 2009 and 2013, the period covered by the report.

"While not every civilian death in armed conflict implies a breach of international law," he alleged, "several of the cases Amnesty investigated showed compelling evidence of war crimes by US forces - yet prosecutions have been rare."