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CIVIC PRESS RELEASE: U.S./Iraqi Troops Must Respect Civilian Lives in Targeting Insurgents

PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


U.S./Iraqi Troops Must Respect Civilian Lives in Targeting Insurgents

Humanitarian organization says new U.S. air campaign in Iraq dangerous to civilians


Washington, DC, March 16, 2006 - Following news of a surge in U.S. air power in Iraq, the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) today called on the U.S. and Iraqi military to review their procedures for assessing harm to civilians both before and after air strikes.

U.S. forces today launched their most extensive air operations since 2003 against insurgent strongholds north of Baghdad. CIVIC cautioned that the use of air power in urban areas carries with it a high risk of civilian casualties, despite the use of precision weapons. Just yesterday, a U.S. air strike aimed at insurgents near Balad killed civilians, including children. “The use of air power makes it harder to distinguish between civilians and combatants in densely populated areas like Samarra,” said Sarah Holewinski, executive director of CIVIC. “If the goal of rounding up insurgents is to make Iraq safe for its people, minimizing harm to civilians must be higher priority.”

Under the law of armed conflict, military operations must use all feasible means to minimize loss of civilian life and property, and attacks must be withheld if expected to cause civilian loss disproportionate to a concrete military goal. During the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Human Rights Watch reported that “haste” in U.S. led aerial attacks against moving objects – such as the insurgents now being targeted – contributed to unnecessary civilian casualties, as did attacks on individual Iraqi leaders – all of which failed to hit their intended targets.

CIVIC urged U.S. and Iraqi planners to adequately assess the risk to civilians before launching air attacks and to include in post-attack reports any harm to civilians. The Pentagon should also implement a mechanism to record the number of civilian casualties incurred by U.S. forces. Currently, the U.S. government does not keep an official count of civilian casualties in Iraq, making the evaluation and improvement of those procedures all the more difficult. “The U.S. cannot be seen as credibly minimizing civilian casualties if it does not keep the data to back up that claim,” said Holewinski.

CIVIC is a Washington-based organization founded by the late Marla Ruzicka, who was killed by a suicide bomb in Baghdad while advocating for victims of war in Iraq. CIVIC believes that civilians killed or injured in conflict should be counted and their families compensated by the governments involved, and is working in conflict zones to identify and help the families of civilian casualties.


FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Marla Bertagnolli
Associate Director
202.558.6958
marlab@civicworldwide.org
www.civicworldwide.org

posted by Annamarie at 11:42 PM