Independent inquiry must be launched into Kunduz attack

Press TV has interviewed Phyllis Bennis, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, from Washington, to discuss a recent deadly US airstrike on the MSF (Doctors Without Borders) hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Do you think in fact there is the need for an independent investigation here?

Bennis: I think there is no question that an independent investigation is called for. This is a situation where there was a deliberate attack, we now know, against a civilian hospital. Now there are virtually no ways; there is one small possibility, but virtually no way that can be legal under international law. The US does not always abide by international law as we know. So the that the notion that the Pentagon is being asked essentially to or is announcing that it intends to investigate itself means that it is not an investigation that can be taken seriously.

There is the whole question of: Why there were four different explanations given in the four days immediately following the attack? There is the question of: Under what conditions could it ever be legal to attack a civilian hospital? And there is a host of questions that rely on the legitimacy of international law which the Pentagon has on occasion said simply does not apply in the so-called global war on terror.

So in that context I think there is no question that, Médecins Sans Frontières is right, there needs to be an investigation that is not carried out by the US military itself, but it is carried out by an independent international force.

Press TV: Ms. Bennis I want to push on your point If I may because you know international law is one thing but you know MSF is saying that the US in this case did not even follow its own rules of its engagement when it comes to war. Is it not interesting? Why do you think that specifically occurred?

Bennis: Well you know I think part of the problem is that there seems to be a discrepancy between the official rules of war that the US publicizes are the basis for how it conducts wars around the world. It is conducting wars in half a dozen countries that we know of, perhaps other countries we do not know of.

But the problem is there seems to be a gap between what the US does, what the military does, and what its official rules of engagement might say. So one of the issues that would have to be checked is whether or not this was in line with the US own rules of engagement for Afghanistan. If it were to be found to be consistent with the US rules of engagement that does not mean that it is legal under international law. There are two separate legal systems. Both would have to be investigated and the notion that the Pentagon or the Pentagon’s lawyers would be the appropriate ones to make such a judgment, I think really boggles the mind.

I mean certainly there needs to be an outside force to carry out this investigation.

Press TV: Ms. Bennis it is interesting because this is the one story that seems do not be going away becoming more and more of a headache for the US. Where do you think this all will end up where somebody be made a scapegoat out of it to take the fall?

Bennis: I think that is certainly possible, but I think that is unlikely unfortunately that we are likely to see it through a US investigation at least, real accountability up the chain of command.

The general in charge the whole command structure in Afghanistan has admitted that it was a deliberate strike by the United States and that the decision-making had gone up the chain of command. That will make it more difficult for them to try and place the blame on for example a lower-ranking airman who perhaps got the coordinates wrong particularly when Médecins Sans Frontières called both the US and the Afghan state, military officers, the liaison people and said: “You are being bombed, stop the bombing now” and it continued for another half hour after that.

That makes it very hard to rely on some claim that well maybe somebody made mistake in determining the coordinate or something like that.

So I think it is going to take a lot of work from outside forces and the continuing demand from civil society here in the US and internationally to demand an international investigation. 

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