Nato accused of war crimes

NATO accused of War Crimes over Libya

A Libyan civilian has announced that he is taking NATO to the European Court of Human Rights over the targeting of his home and massacre of his family in 2011.

A Libyan civilian has announced that he is taking NATO to the European Court of Human Rights over the wanton bombing of his civilian home and the subsequent massacre of his entire family. In 2011 the following indictment drawn up by four colleagues and by myself was submitted to the International Criminal Court and to the European Court of Human Rights and received not even the courtesy of a reply.

https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/119534-indictment_nato/

Subsequent missives and resending of the document also received not even the courtesy of an acknowledgement, except for a strange e-mail from somebody claiming to speak for the European Court of Human Rights but without an official email address, stating that "The ECHR will never investigate NATO over Libya".

The thousands of comments providing extra evidence under the article above have been zapped from the Net many times over and as the reader can see, the comments section is once again empty. Who or what removed these comments is open to conjecture but maybe we can add cyber terrorism to the list of crimes enacted and exposed in the document.

If international law exists, and it is supposed that at the beginning of the Third Millenium it does exist, then it exists to be implemented in full, in a sequence of events in which due legal process is respected and followed to the letter, in an unbiased fashion, with all equal before the law. Is this too much to expect from the International Criminal Court and the European Court of Human Rights?

From now on, this case will be brought into the limelight on a regular basis and will be monitored internationally, since due to the utter disrespect shown to me and to my work by the said organisms, I have now drawn up an international watchdog composed by international lawyers who are networking and documenting each and every instance of war crimes committed by any organization, and this includes NATO and its political and military leadership.

And so, the reason for my outing of this case in public. I call upon the organisms referred to in this statement to investigate the charges raised within the draft indictment and to open a case file. What we have in the case of Libya 2011 is an act of terror committed so far with impunity by State players which themselves claim to be fighting a war on terrorism.

What we have in the case of Libya 2011 is a wholly unnecessary war based upon groundless allegations, in which once again NATO military equipment was used against civilians and civilian structures wholly outside any reasonable rules of engagement. For example since when is a civilian house full of children a legitimate military target? For anyone except NATO of course.

Since the indictment was drawn up it has been brought to my attention that Norwegian pilots operating F-16 aircraft did not receive any direct targeting orders from their superiors and were told, allegedly, "Go and find something to bomb". Is this how NATO operates?

In the case of Libya 2011 we saw NATO countries openly side with terrorists, involving themselves in the internal conflict of a sovereign nation, we saw boots on the ground, we saw slaughter of civilians with military aircraft. We saw the purposeful destruction of the Libyan electricity and water supply network (since when is this basic life-giving resource a legitimate military target?)

In the case of Libya 2011 we saw a State destroyed, the African country with the highest Human Development Index reduced to chaos, crawling with terrorists, fragmented, a failed state, causing massive hardship, suffering, death, unemployment, a fate which seven years later continues to affect millions of Libyan citizens. And nobody has been held responsible? Can a group decide to murder, destroy and ruin a country and walk away as if nothing had happened? This is how international law 2018 will be judged by our future peers and I shall not be one held responsible in the history book, neither do I accept that I live in a world in which such things can happen and the proper forums of law look on and shrug their shoulders or else suddenly become fascinated by their fingernails.

The very least that could be expected, or demanded, from the institutions of international justice is an open and balanced investigation into my allegations. In my condition as a human being in the year 2018 I refuse to accept that just because a person can hide behind a status as politician or in the military, (s)he has more rights than I do and can commit crimes with impunity. Perhaps in Medieval times this was the case and Kings could get away with rape and murder.

Not today, not on my watch and I challenge anybody or any Institution to refute what I say.

Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Pravda.Ru 

Twitter: @TimothyBHinchey

[email protected]

*Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey has worked as a correspondent, journalist, deputy editor, editor, chief editor, director, project manager, executive director, partner and owner of printed and online daily, weekly, monthly and yearly publications, TV stations and media groups printed, aired and distributed in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Portugal, Mozambique and São Tomé and Principe Isles; the Russian Foreign Ministry publication Dialog and the Cuban Foreign Ministry Official Publications. He has spent the last two decades in humanitarian projects, connecting communities, working to document and catalog disappearing languages, cultures, traditions, working to network with the LGBT communities helping to set up shelters for abused or frightened victims and as Media Partner with UN Women, working to foster the UN Women project to fight against gender violence and to strive for an end to sexism, racism and homophobia. A Vegan, he is also a Media Partner of Humane Society International, fighting for animal rights. He is Director and Chief Editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru.