NATO 'covers up' Libyan death shame

NATO has failed to investigate scores of civilian deaths incurred during its seven-month military campaign in Libya, Amnesty international says. NATO expressed its “regret” for civilian casualties but has taken no steps to initiate an investigation.

"It is deeply disappointing that more than four months since the end of the military campaign, victims and relatives of those killed by NATO airstrikes remain in the dark about what happened and who was responsible" said Donatella Rovera, the Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International on Monday.

She stressed that if NATO is indeed dedicated to the protection of civilians, then it cannot simply “brush aside the deaths of scores of civilians with some vague statement of regret.”

The Libyan Health Minister of the National Transitional Council estimated that about 30,000 were killed during the conflict.

Amnesty International appealed to NATO on March 5, urging them to undertake a thorough investigation into the civilian deaths documented by the NGO. Furthermore, they asked for the findings of any subsequent investigation to be publicly disclosed and compensation to be given to the victims’ families.

Amnesty said that NATO had not even tried to contact the bereaved families of the victims killed in the strikes.

NATO’s response on March 15 did not account for any of the cases of civilian causalities raised by Amnesty International, but instead offered this statement:

“While NATO did everything possible to minimize the risk to civilians, in a complex military operation that risk cannot be reduced to zero. NATO deeply regrets any harm that may have been caused by those air strikes.”

Amnesty International published its findings in a report entitled “Libya: The forgotten victims of NATO Strikes” on Monday.

The document outlines the findings of the NGO’s investigations into civilian casualties of the NATO airstrikes, highlighting numerous occasions when “insufficient precautions were taken in attacks that targeted possible combatants staying at civilian homes.”

The investigation cites 55 named civilians, including women and children who were killed in airstrikes in Tripoli, Zlitan, Majer, Sirte and Brega. Moreover, the NGO found no evidence indicating the strikes carried out on private properties targeted homes being used for military purposes.

While the NGO accepts that NATO did take precautions to avoid civilian deaths, it underlined the fact that this did not absolve them from conducting full investigations. The object of the enquiries should establish whether international law was violated during the air strikes.

During its seven-month campaign that ended in the ouster of Colonel Gadaffi, NATO executed around 9,600 strike operations that destroyed 5,900 targets.

Coalition forces began their campaign in Libya in March 2005, saying they had a responsibility to protect civilians suffering in the Libyan civil war. The campaign backed by 19 different countries was headed by France, who worked closely with the UK and US.

Click to expand...

killadoob said:

30000 people killed by nato's bombing, pretty high estimate. Now i know i will hear it was a war situation and they were casualties of war but did nato really to have drop that many bombs and kill that many civilians? Sure precautions were taken but when you drop 9000+ bombs surely you know the civilian casualty will be very high so what precaution can you really take?

I guess it's easy to drop bombs, kill people and then say but we were cautious when we dropped our huge bombs of doom. Why were there no daily stories telling us how many were killed by nato? In syria over 8000 people have been killed and everyone is up in arms about the civilian death in a civil war but nato can seemly get away with it. Hmmm

Yes these are the same people who carry on about killing innocent civilians yet have no issue killing 30000 Libyans. It's easy for them. Sorry we never planned to kill so many, we took precautions.

When the west kills thousands and thousand of civilians a simple sorry is acceptable.
When a dictator kills thousands and thousands of innocent people they get murdered.

Wait who are the good guys again because they seem just as bad as the bad guys except they get to say sorry and everyone accepts it.

Click to expand...

Fader4 said:

Did you read the whole article properly? Amnesty international has only been able to name 55 civilians killed in nato bombings, the (former) rebels estimate that 30000 civilians died during the entire conflict.

Click to expand...

kat06sa said:

Yeah, I also read 30 000 civilian deaths during the entire conflict. Does not say who is responsible so OP is misleading.

Click to expand...

NATO executed around 9,600 strike operations that destroyed 5,900 targets.

Click to expand...

The_Assimilator said:

Deliberately misleading, as usual.

Click to expand...

The National Transitional Council puts Libyan losses at 30,000 dead (given Libya's population of 6.42 million, this is the U.S. equivalent of 1.4 million dead) and 50,000 wounded", and much of what was said to justify the war -- genocide... Gaddafi is "bombing his own people"... save Benghazi... African mercenaries... viagra-fueled mass rape -- has proven to be a lie.

Click to expand...

“They’ve had free education, free health, they could study abroad. When they got married they got a certain amount of money. So they were rather the envy of many other citizens of African countries. Now, of course, since NATO’s humanitarian intervention, the infrastructure of their country has been bombed back to the Stone Age,” Machon asserted.

“They will not have the same quality of life. Women probably will not have the same degree of emancipation under any new transitional government. The national wealth is probably going to be siphoned off by Western corporations. Perhaps the standard of living in Libya might have been slightly higher than it is now in America and the UK with the recession,” she concluded.

Click to expand...

killadoob said:

30000 people killed by nato's bombing, pretty high estimate. Now i know i will hear it was a war situation and they were casualties of war but did nato really to have drop that many bombs and kill that many civilians? Sure precautions were taken but when you drop 9000+ bombs surely you know the civilian casualty will be very high so what precaution can you really take?

Click to expand...

killadoob said:

Nope it is not misleading at all, nato dropped approx 30000 bombs on libya. They were suppose to stop the massacres and ended massacres far more than qaddafi. Think about 30000 bombs being dropped on SA. Sickening.

Click to expand...

killadoob said:

Do bombs only kill though sandman?

So if a bomb drops on your house the only thing that happens is people die. Your house is still there right?

Click to expand...

killadoob said:

Nope it is not misleading at all, nato dropped approx 30000 bombs on libya. They were suppose to stop the massacres and ended massacres far more than qaddafi. Think about 30000 bombs being dropped on SA. Sickening.



This is not something the western media will run of course so many will just laugh it off as anti westernism . You wanna talk genocide and massacres look at iraq and libya and wonder how these people can be tuning anyone about genocide . It seems incredible to think a country that can kill so many innocent people is the same country denouncing it.

There are no good guys on this planet, only bad guys looked at as good guys.

http://tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=6862

Let's say nato takes 15000 the rebels claim 10000 and qaddafi takes 5000. Who armed the rebels? Who decided unknown people should be armed? So those 10000 innocents the rebels killed fall back to nato in my opinion, they indirectly allowed these unknown people to slaughter innocent libyans.



Sad nato decided they needed to bomb everything in libya. Were 30000 bombs really necessary?

Click to expand...

killadoob said:

Do bombs only kill though sandman?

So if a bomb drops on your house the only thing that happens is people die. Your house is still there right?

Click to expand...

Haldex said:

The rebels were CIA armed and trained.

Click to expand...

sand_man said:

30 000 people killed or 30 000 bombs dropped?? Or is it 9000 bombs dropped and 30 000 people killed??? Or is it 30 000 bombs dropped and 9000 people killed??? Or is it 9000 bombs dropped and 55 people killed???



What's the annual murder rate in SA? 50 000 give or take, less died in almost 9 months of civil war. Now that's sad!!!

Click to expand...

Albereth said:

What ever makes a 'good' story. Why let facts get in the way of that?

And it is probably 9000 bombs dropped and 55 civilians killed because Gadaffy Duck got them to stand in front of his bunkers and comms centres.

Click to expand...

After some 8,000 bombing raids, with estimates of 4 bombs used per attack NATO has already dropped over 30,000 bombs on Libya. That's almost 200 bombs per day for 6 months, some tens of thousands of tons of high explosives. With an estimated 2 Libyans killed per bomb and without a single NATO casualty the Western regimes have massacred over 60,000 Libyans in the past half year with the rebels themselves having said there have been 50,000 Libyan deaths. One hell of a humanitarian intervention isn't it?

Click to expand...

killadoob said:

LOL 55 civilians, geez i have posted the facts or possible facts but you guys seem to ignore them.



You think only 55 civilians got killed in 8000 raids LMAO

Click to expand...