19 Apr 2024
Thursday 8 October 2015 - 18:17
Story Code : 183755

America 'untouchable' when it comes to war crimes: Analyst

The United States is untouchable when it comes to war crimes and other violations of the Geneva Conventionsbecause there is no global body that can enforce punishment against the country.

Keith Preston, the chief editor and director of AttacktheSystem.com, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Thursday when asked whether US officials will ever be taken to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for violating the provisions of the Geneva Conventions.

On Saturday, US warplanes struck an Afghan hospital run by Doctors Without Borders, or Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an international medical charity group based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The attack killed 12 medical staff members and at least 10 patients, three of them children, and injured at least 37 people, according to the medical aid organization.

The US airstrike was an attack on the Geneva Conventions and warrants an independent fact-finding mission to establish whether it amounts to a war crime, MSF said in a statement on Wednesday.

If it were to determine that this constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, the question of what kind of recourse would be available is difficult to determine, Preston said.

It is very unlikely that charges could be brought to the International Criminal Court. We have to remember that the United States has never ratified the International Criminal Court precisely to avoid having charges of this type being brought against it, he added.

So we have to understand that the provisions of the International Criminal Court do not apply to the American government because they are not a signatory to the treaty that established it, the analyst pointed out.

Whether there could be other forms of repercussions brought against the United States under the actual provisions of the Geneva Conventions, it is unlikely that there would be any party that was available to enforce such sanctions, he noted.

It is very unlikely for example that the UN would ever bring any sanctions against the United States, particularly given the power the United States has over the UN, he stated.
So, in many ways, the United Sates is untouchable when it comes to these kinds of issues, Preston opined

On Wednesday, US President Barack Obama apologized to Afghanistan and the Doctors Without Borders organization for the deadly airstrike on its hospital.

By Press TV
https://theiranproject.com/vdciwpazwt1avy2.ilct.html
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