Rights campaigners Friday lambasted US “punishments” handed to officers involved in a catastrophic bombing raid on an Afghan hospital, saying the failure to criminally investigate them is an “injustice and insult” to the victims.
The bombing last October of the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Kunduz — which came as NATO-backed Afghan forces clashed with the Taliban for control of the northern city — left 42 people dead, triggering a storm of global criticism.
US officials Thursday said those involved in the strike have been disciplined, with some suspended from duty and others facing “administrative” action such as “negative counselling” or being told not to do something again.
“For good reason the victims’ family members will see this as both an injustice and an insult: the US military investigated itself and decided no crimes had been committed,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
“The failure to criminally investigate senior officials liable for the attack is not only an affront to the lives lost at the MSF hospital, but a blow against the rule of law in Afghanistan and elsewhere.”
MSF did not immediately respond to the US announcement.
The medical charity has previously branded the strike as a “war crime”, saying the raid by a AC-130 gunship left patients burning in their beds with some victims decapitated and suffering traumatic amputations.
