Humanitarian Intervention´s original sin

We recover a piece from Alex De Wall (Fletcher School, Tufts University) on the legality of bombing medical facilities (protected by Article 19 of the 1949 Geneva Convention) under the light of the precedent set out by US forces in Somalia during the UN-endorsed “Operation Restore Hope” between December 1992 and May 1993.  Recent instances of disregard for medical neutrality in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan and examples of impunity for misconduct of foreign troops operating under UN banner in Central African Republic, Haiti and Republic Democratic of Congo make this article even more relevant. We have added a few more hyperlinks and provided context information at the end of the post.

A member of US military forces walks through the remains of a church in Mogadishu, Somalia. Made in December 1992 during Operation Restore Hope Rich Mason  Flickr

Is It Ever Legal to Bomb a Hospital? Alex DeWaal On October 6, 2015

Dr. Omar was conducting an exploratory laparotomy on a female patient with a bullet wound in her abdomen when the entire hospital shook with the sound of explosions. Windows were shattering and a light and plaster fell from the ceiling. A nurse ran in to say that a missile had been fired through the wall of another operating theater, that three patients had been killed, and staff and patients were rushing to take shelter in the basement. Dr. Omar stayed with his patient, stitching her up even while the building reverberated with the assault.

New HRW report on torture under the Bush Administration.

 A good report by Human Rights Watch on toture and ill treatment on detainees under the Bush administration just came out, naming and establishing the responsibility of high-ranked officials in the commission of what ammounts to war crime .

We shall like to highlight the appendix, focusing on legal proceedings in foreign countries regarding US detainees treatment (France, Germany, Spain...) and remind everyone that an Spanish Journalist, Jose Couso, was killed by US troops in Baghdad in April 8th  2003;US authorities  blocked all attempts by Spanish  judicial authorities to investigate his death

Here is the slightly reduced press release and access to the report:

Getting Away with Torture

The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainee

The report,  Getting away with torture, presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of Bush and senior administration officials, including former Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as “waterboarding,” the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured.