Li Zhiwei, People’s Daily
In recent years, the U.S. military has been facing extensive criticism from the international community for frequent maltreatment of prisoners.
The number of cases of sexual harassment and sexual assaults keeps rising in the U.S. troops. In countries including Afghanistan, Somalia, and Syria, armed forces of the U.S. frequently use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to carry out air strikes, causing massive civilian casualties.
What’s more, the U.S. government has been trying to cover up and downplay the fact that the U.S. military has killed innocent people and mistreated prisoners. It has even obstructed investigations conducted by the United Nations (UN) into these cases, arousing uproar around the world.
“Charlie Company shot a rocket into the wrong house and killed a family of four. We gave cash to the relatives who remained,” recalled Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times, in an article titled “A Marine Looks Back at His Battles in Afghanistan” published on website of The New York Times this September.
“We didn’t understand the Afghans. They mostly hated us for destroying their homes, accidentally killing them……” wrote Gibbons-Neff, who has been to the battlefield in Afghanistan as a marine.
The case of killing innocent civilians that Gibbons-Neff mentioned in the article is a common occurrence in overseas operations of the U.S. military.
As shown by statistics recently released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), in the first quarter of this year alone, military operations of the U.S. military and its allied forces caused the death of 305 Afghan civilians.
This May, U.S. air strikes on alleged drug-processing facilities in Western Afghanistan accidentally killed at least 30 innocent civilians, including 14 children and a woman, according to a report released by the UNAMA this October.
However, the U.S. military denied reports of civilian casualties and claimed that it had targeted Taliban-run methamphetamine labs. Moreover, it expressed protest against the investigation report of the UN.
Widespread abuse of prisoners and detainees has also been found in the wars waged by the U.S. military around the world.
Early in the Iraq war, the U.S. troops were notorious for maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners. In recent years, such deeds of U.S. military as abusing prisoners and extorting confessions by torture have not been curbed.
The exposed methods used by the U.S. military to interrogate prisoners include slapping in the face, striking stomach, sleep deprivation, striping them naked, waterboarding, and forcing prisoners to hit the wall.
Chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda spent 10 years trailing the crimes the U.S. military might have committed in Afghanistan, and affirmed that U.S. military personnel and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives “committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence against conflict-related detainees in Afghanistan and other locations.”
Bensouda asked for authorization in November 2017 to officially investigate the war crimes that might have been committed in Afghanistan by U.S. military and the CIA.
After that, the U.S. government threatened to impose sanctions against the ICC officials, and revoked Bensouda’s visa to the U.S., forcing the ICC to give up investigation into potential war crimes of the U.S. military.
The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) censured the U.S. military for “launching indiscriminate attacks that result in death or injury to civilians amounts to a war crime in cases in which such attacks are conducted recklessly.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. government has spared no effort to cover up the fact that U.S. soldiers have killed civilians and abused prisoners, and indulged the U.S. military’s misdeeds, shocking people around the world.
Edward Gallagher, former Special Operations Chief of the U.S. Navy, was accused of intentional killing in Iraq, but was eventually acquitted.
In 2017, Gallagher stabbed a 15-year-old boy in the neck multiple times with a knife, killing the boy who was receiving treatment in Mosul, Iraq, after being captured. After killing the boy, Gallagher took photos of himself with the corpse, holding up his knife in one hand and grabbing the hair of the corpse with his other hand.
“I thought everyone would be cool, next time I will do it so no one sees,” Gallagher wrote to his platoon.
Besides, Gallagher was accused of shooting two Iraqi civilians when there was no security risk. Still, he was absolved and had his rank restored.
The list goes on. Clint Lorance, a former U.S. Army first lieutenant who had ordered soldiers to shoot at three civilians in Afghanistan and was convicted of second-degree murder, and Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, a U.S. Army officer who was facing trial for killing an unarmed Afghan he believed was a Taliban bomb maker, have both been absolved by U.S. government recently.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the U.S. government for the decision, saying that the three cases involve serious violations of international humanitarian law and the perpetrators must be punished.
Rupert Colville, Spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the decision of the U.S. government sent a disturbing signal to militaries, according to Reuters.
Such move of the U.S. government is explicitly prohibited in international conventions including Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, and perpetrators of severe war crimes should be investigated and held responsible for the misdeeds, said Colville.
Colville said that the decision to terminate criminal proceedings in the case of Mathew L. Golsteyn was “particularly troubling as it cuts short the regular judicial process”, according to Reuters.
The U.S. government only takes international law serious when it fits the interests of the U.S., pointed out James A. Goldston, executive director of a U.S. legal aid research initiative.
美军遮掩淡化丑闻广遭批评
人民日报记者 李志伟
近年来，美军虐待囚犯的丑闻频频曝出。美国军队中性骚扰和性侵害的案件数量还在持续攀升。在阿富汗、索马里、叙利亚等地，美军经常使用无人机进行空袭，造成大量平民伤亡。美国政府还对美军滥杀无辜、虐待囚犯的丑行遮掩淡化，甚至阻碍联合国方面的调查，令舆论一片哗然。
“美军在空袭一处住宅时，找错了目标，造成一家四口无辜丧命。我们找到了幸存的亲属塞点钱了事。”托马斯•吉本斯—内夫是美国《纽约时报》驻五角大楼记者，曾作为海军陆战队员前往阿富汗战场，这是他不久前在该报发文回忆阿富汗战事时提到的一个情节。他说，“我们根本不懂阿富汗人，许多阿富汗人对我们充满仇恨，因为我们摧毁了他们的家园，错杀了他们的亲人……”
托马斯提到的滥杀无辜平民事件，在美国海外军事行动中屡见不鲜。联合国阿富汗援助团（简称联阿援助团）近期公布的数据显示，仅今年第一季度，美军及其盟军的军事行动就造成305名阿富汗平民死亡。根据联合国的另一份报告，今年5月，美军在阿富汗西部地区一次打击塔利班的军事行动中至少误杀了30名无辜平民，其中包括14名儿童、1名妇女。但美军否认平民伤亡报告，声称他们是在打击塔利班的毒品工厂，并对联合国的调查报告表示抗议。
美军在世界各地发动的战争中，还有大量虐待囚犯俘虏的行为。早在伊拉克战争时期，美军虐待伊拉克囚犯事件就已臭名昭著。近年来，美军虐待囚犯、酷刑逼供的行为并未得到遏制。遭曝光的美军审讯囚犯手段包括掌掴、击打腹部、剥夺睡眠、裸体羞辱、水刑、强制囚犯撞墙等。
国际刑事法院检察官法图•本苏达花了10年时间跟踪美军在阿富汗可能犯下的罪行，认定美国军人和情报人员涉嫌在阿富汗和其他多处地点对美方所关押的人员施加“折磨、虐待、侵犯个人尊严、强奸和性暴力”，并于2017年11月要求对美军在阿富汗可能犯下的战争罪开启正式调查。此后，美国政府威胁对国际刑事法院的法官和检察官实施制裁，并吊销法图•本苏达的赴美签证，逼迫国际刑事法院放弃调查。
联合国调查委员会指责美军在叙利亚地区“发动不加区别的袭击，导致平民伤亡，并且不顾后果，构成了战争罪。”与此同时，美国政府对美军滥杀平民、虐待囚犯极力遮掩，姑息纵恶，令舆论一片哗然。
美国海军特种部队原军士长爱德华•加拉格尔被控在伊拉克蓄意杀人，结果被判无罪。
2017年，在伊拉克摩苏尔，一名15岁的伊拉克少年被俘后接受治疗时，加拉格尔用匕首向其颈部连刺多刀致其死亡。随后，加拉格尔抓着少年的头发，另一只手把匕首横在其脖子上留下多张照片，笑称，“我以为大家会觉得稀松平常，下次我会选在没人看到的地方做这种事情”。他还被指控在没有任何安全危险的情况下射杀两名伊拉克平民。这种情形下，他被赦免并恢复荣誉。
除此之外，陆军中尉克林特•洛伦斯曾在阿富汗下令士兵向3名平民开枪，被判二级谋杀罪成立。陆军少校戈尔斯泰被控在阿富汗杀害了一名被捕的制造炸弹嫌疑人，正在等待审判。但近期他们的罪行均被美国政府赦免。
联合国人权事务高级专员公署对此进行强烈谴责，表示这三起案件涉及严重违反国际人道法，必须受到惩罚。据路透社报道，联合国人权事务高级专员公署发言人鲁珀特•科尔维尔说，美国政府的决定发出一个令人不安的信号。“按照《日内瓦公约》等国际公约和国际人道法，这是明令禁止的。犯下严重军事罪行的人应当被追究……在结案之前就把某人赦免尤其令人不安。”
“美国政府立场是，只有符合美国利益时，才把国际法当回事。”美国一个法律援助研究项目主管詹姆斯•戈德斯通一针见血地指出。
