Tuesday, June 6 10:34 PM SGT
NATO broke rules of war in Kosovo campaign: Amnesty
LONDON, June 6 (AFP) -
NATO broke the rules of war in its air campaign against Yugoslavia last year and the suspects must be brought to justice, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report Tuesday.
It picked out the strike on the headquarters of Serbian state radio and television in Belgrade on April 23, 1999, which left 16 civilians dead, as a war crime because it was "a deliberate attack on a civilian object."
Elsewhere, notably on three road and railway bridges, NATO commanders broke the rules of war by not suspending attacks once it had become clear they had hit civilians, Amnesty added.
"Civilian deaths could have been significantly reduced if NATO forces had fully adhered to the laws of war during Operation Allied Force."
Insufficient precautions were taken to minimise civilian casualties in other cases, it went on.
"No proper investigation appears to have been conducted by NATO or its member states into these incidents."
Amnesty urged NATO states to "bring to justice any of their nationals suspected of being responsible for serious violations under international humanitarian law."
It also called on other countries and the UN criminal tribunal on the former Yugoslavia to investigate such allegations.
"The victims of any such violation must receive redress."
The alliance has so far not given any estimated civilian casualty toll during its air campaign, which was aimed at forcing Yugoslav troops out of the troubled ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo.
The human rights group Human Rights Watch has given its own estimate of between 488 and 527 civilian deaths.
Amnesty called on NATO to update its rules of engagement and practice, notably by clarifying the command structure and decision-making processes on target selection.
It said the requirement that NATO planes fly at above 15,000 feet -- to minimise the risk of being shot down -- made it "virtually impossible" to properly assess targets.
Amnesty admitted that waging a coalition war was "a complex endeavour" and the judgments required of military planners and soldiers "particularly difficult."
"However," it added, "the most powerful military alliance in the world cannot afford but to set the highest standards of protection of civilians, according to international humanitarian law."
Amnesty, which has documented human rights violations in Kosovo, mainly by Serbian security forces and authorities, for 10 years, said it took no position on whether NATO's recourse to force was justified.
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