Amnesty: Afghanistan leak exposes NATO's incoherent civilian casualty policy

26 July 2010

Amnesty International has called on NATO to provide a clear, unified system of accounting for civilian casualties in Afghanistan, as leaked war logs paint a picture of an incoherent process of dealing with civilian casualties.

"The picture that emerges from the leaked data on civilian casualties is that NATO's leadership did not know exactly what was happening on the ground," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director.

"The military logs bear out Amnesty International's longstanding concerns that there is no coherent or consistent system for accounting for civilian casualties."

The leaked records support Amnesty International's concerns about improper reporting of civilian casualties, a lack of investigations into casualties that are recorded, and poor coordination between different national forces about incidents and even over investigations that do take place.

"These leaks need to galvanise the NATO command into redoubling their protection of civilians. Killings must be investigated in a transparent, consistent and coherent way across all the different forces in Afghanistan, providing justice and compensation for victims and their families," said Sam Zarifi.

read more: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/afghanistan-leak-exposes-natos-incoherent-civilian-casualty-policy-2010-07-26