UN To Probe Iraqi, Afghan Civilian Deaths

EDITH M. LEDERER October 27, 2007 12:21 AM ESTCompare 12:21 AM EST12:05 AM EST and 12:21 AM EST12:05 AM EST versions
UNITED NATIONS — A United Nations expert said Friday he plans to study whether members of the U.S. military or government contractors such as Blackwater USA violate international law when they kill civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Philip Alston, a professor at New York University law school who has been an adviser to the UN's commission on human rights since 2004, said the U.S. had invited him to look into the issue. He said he would begin work in the spring and did not yet have an itinerary or list of people to interview.
"I am very interested in questions relating to military justice ... in other words, the response to alleged extrajudicial executions by members of the U.S. military, particularly in places like Iraq and Afghanistan," he told a news conference after briefing the General Assembly's human rights committee.
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