Military - new material (67)
01 July 2009
The Weapons That Kill Civilians — Deaths of Children and Noncombatants in Iraq, 2003–2008, Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks, Hamit Dardagan, Gabriela Guerrero Serd, Peter M. Bagnall, John A. Sloboda and Michael Spagat. New England Journal of Medicine 16.4.09, pp. 1585-1588. Using the Iraq Body Count database, researchers from King’s College London and the University of London analysed 14,196 events, in which 60,481 civilians were killed during the first five years of the US war on Iraq, to carry out a detailed analysis of “the public health impact of different forms of armed violence on Iraqi civilians.” Among other results the researchers found that “when air-launched bombs or combined air and ground attacks caused civilian deaths, the average number killed was 17, similar to the average number in events where civilians were killed by suicide bombers travelling on foot (16 deaths per event).” The report concludes: “It seems clear from these findings that to protect civilians from indiscriminate harm, as required by international humanitarian law (including the Geneva Conventions), military and civilian policies should prohibit aerial bombing in civilian areas unless it can be demonstrated — by monitoring of civilian casualties , for example — that civilians are being protected.”. See: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/16/1585
Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the 2008-09 Resource Accounts of the Ministry of Defence. National Audit Office 20.7.09. This report identifies “errors” in the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) accounts leading the Comptroller and Auditor General to “qualify his audit opinion” on the 2008-2009 MoD accounts. These errors related to “specialist pay, allowances and expenses paid to the Armed Forces via their Payroll and Human Resources system, as well as the inadequacy of evidence to support certain fixed assets and stock balances in the financial statements.” Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said in a press statement: “At this time of high operational demand, it is more important than ever for the Ministry of Defence to have accurate records of where its assets are, and how much stock it has. It must also have a military pay process which is fit for purpose. Although the Ministry of Defence has made some improvements to its Payroll and HR systems over the past year, I consider that there are important issues which have not been fully addressed and further significant changes are required.” Available as a free download at the National Audit Office: http://web.nao.org.uk/search/search.aspx?Schema=&terms=MoD
White Flag Deaths: Killings of Palestinian Civilians during Operation Cast Lead. Human Rights Watch pp. 62. This report documents the killing of Palestinian civilians who were signalling their civilian status by holding white flags during Israel’s major military operations in Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009. It considers seven incidents in which Israeli forces killed 11 civilians, among them five women and four children”. HRW finds that Israeli forces had control of the areas in question, that no fighting was taking place there at the time and Palestinian fighters were not hiding among the civilians who were shot and killed. Available as a free download at: http://www.hrw.org/node/85014
Blackwater is accused of murder in ‘crusade to eliminate Muslims’, Tim Reid. The Times 6.8.09, p. 29. This article discusses motions lodged by US lawyers representing Iraqi civilians who are suing the private security company, Blackwater, over incidents that took place as part of the Pentagon’s illegal privatised war, including one in which 17 Iraqis were shot dead in Baghdad on 16 November 2007. Five mercenaries employed by the company have denied manslaughter charges but a sixth has pleaded guilty. New evidence presented in affidavits by two ex-employees allege that Erik Prince, the Christian fundamentalist who founded the company in 1997, had killed former employees for cooperating with federal investigators. The two witnesses, who were granted anonymity as they are in fear for their lives, claimed that Prince: “Views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe.” They also accuse Prince and other Blackwater executives of smuggling illegal weapons into Iraq on private aircraft and of racketeering and tax evasion as well as destroying incriminating videos, e-mails and documents. For more information on this important case see the Center for Constitutional Rights website: http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/opposition-motion-albazzaz-and-abtan%2C-et-al.-v.-blackwater-lodge-and-training
B’Tselem’s investigation of fatalities in Operation Caste Lead. B’Tselem- The Israei Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, 9.9.09, pp. 6. This independent report shows that official Israeli figures greatly underestimated the number of civilian Palestinians killed during its invasion of Gaza in January. The report finds that Israeli security forces killed 1,387 Palestinians during Operation Cast Lead, including 773 people who did not take part in the hostilities; of these 107 were women (over the age of 18) and 320 were children (minor boys and girls under 18). Of the 330 people who “took part in the hostilities” 248 were Palestinian police officers killed at police stations mainly on the first day of Israeli hostilities. The Israeli Defence Force had estimated that 60% of the dead were “Hamas terror operatives”, while the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) estimated that 65% of their estimated fatalities (1,419 people) were civilians; the B’Tselem analysis is much closer to the PCHR estimate than that of the IDF. Available from: http://www.btselem.org/English/ and Palestinian Centre for Human Rights: http://www.pchrgaza.org/