US forces may have committed war crimes in Afghanistan from 2003-2004 by torturing prisoners in what appeared to be a deliberate policy, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said.
\nUnveiling the results of a lengthy initial probe into atrocities in Afghanistan, prosecutor Fatou Bensouda yesterday said she would decide \u201cimminently\u201d whether to ask to launch a full-blown investigation — and take the world\u2019s only permanent war crimes court into uncharted territory.
\nShe stressed that the Taliban militia and the affiliated Haqqani network, Afghan government forces and US troops as well as the CIA all appeared to have carried out war crimes since the Islamic militia was ousted by a US-led invasion in 2001.
\nAnd she blamed the Taliban and its allies for the deaths of some 17,000 civilians since 2007 to December 2015 in a brutal insurgency with \u201cnumerous attacks\u201d on schools, hospitals and mosques.
\nBut for the first time, Bensouda highlighted allegations of \u201cwar crimes of torture and related ill-treatment, by US military forces deployed to Afghanistan and in secret detention facilities operated by the Central Intelligence Agency\u201d.
\nThere was a \u201creasonable basis to believe that\u201d during the interrogation of detainees, \u201cmembers of the US armed forces and the US Central Intelligence Agency resorted to techniques amounting to the commission of the war crimes of torture\u201d as well as cruel treatment and rape.
\nIf Bensouda does ask judges to authorise a full-scale inquiry, the tribunal would be taking on its most complex and politically controversial investigations to date.
\nThe former administration of president George W. Bush authorised the use of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
\nTheir use was abolished by President Barack Obama when he took over the White House in January 2009.
\nWar crimes allegedly carried out by US forces were \u201cnot the abuses of a few isolated individuals,\u201d Bensouda insisted in her annual report to the 124 states that belong to the ICC.
\nRather it appeared \u201cthese alleged crimes were committed\u201d as part of \u201ca policy or policies aimed at eliciting information through the use of interrogation techniques involving cruel or violent methods\u201d.
\nThe aim was to \u201csupport US objectives in the conflict in Afghanistan\u201d.
\nDetailing her office\u2019s initial findings, Bensouda said \u201cat least 61 detainees\u201d were subjected to \u201ctorture (and) cruel treatment\u201d by US armed forces in Afghanistan between May 1, 2003 and December 31, 2014.
\n\u201cMembers of the CIA\u201d also appeared \u201cto have subjected at least 27 detained persons to torture, cruel treatment… and\/or rape on the territory of Afghanistan\u201d as well as in secret detention centres in Poland, Romania and Lithuania between December 2002 and March 2008.<\/p>\n
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