NATO's civilian casualties of the Libyan war

On Dec 16 according to Reuters, a New York rights based group urged NATO to investigate civilian deaths during the eight month bombing campaign in Libya.

Once you read the entry of the article it is difficult to understand which is the unnamed human rights group as after the first paragraph the subject swiftly turns to what the Libyan interim government claims, namely that the responsible for the estimated 40,000 deaths during the (admittedly) civil war was Gaddafi as the Libyan U.N. envoy Ibrahim Dabbashi told Reuters.

Reading on, one finally understands that the unnamed group is not unknown, but it is from the Human Rights Watch (HRW) that Mr. Fred Abrahams went to Libya to investigate the matter.

His ‘presence’ in the article is very limited despite the fact he is the center person of the issue. His (only) two sentences are as follows:

"By our count, up to 50 civilians died in the (NATO) campaign, perhaps more," Abrahams told Reuters.
"We're not alleging unlawful attacks, let alone war crimes," he said. "We believe the onus is on NATO to investigate these cases thoroughly so they can identify and correct the mistakes."
He urged NATO to consider compensation "as appropriate."

And that’s all the article sets him to say.

It worth noting that in the first titles the “by our count, up to 50 civilians died” is quoted a little differently, as “HRW investigator thinks at least 50 Libya civilians died” which have a very different meaning. (Note that this headlines are usually omitted in the reproductions of the article. See here, here, and here.) The rest of it smacks of a washing hands operation.

But on the same day the New York Times published a related article titled In Strikes on Libya by NATO, an Unspoken Civilian Toll. There, Mr. Abrahams reportedly said : “It’s crystal clear that civilians died in NATO strikes,” “But this whole campaign is shrouded by an atmosphere of impunity” and by NATO’s and the Libyan authorities’ mutually congratulatory statements”.

In fact, HRW along with Civic (Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict) were met privately with NATO officials “and shared field research about mistakes, including, in some cases, victims’ names and the dates and locations where they died”.

It seems that these NGO’s along with the NYT investigation forced NATO to admit that there could be civilians’ casualties. But lets have a quick look on it.

According to the Wikipedia NATO’s civilians’ casualties run as follows:

Table 1

On May 13, 11 religious imams were claimed to be killed and 50 others injured when a NATO airstrike struck a large gathering in Brega praying for peace in conflict-ridden Libya.[27]

On June 19, at least nine civilians were killed in a NATO airstrike on Tripoli. Reporters saw bodies being pulled out of a destroyed building. NATO acknowledged being responsible for the civilians' deaths.[28]

On June 20, The old Libyan regime claimed that 15 civilians including three children had been killed by a NATO airstrike on Sorman.[29]

On July 25, 11 civilians were claimed killed[30] by a NATO airstrike on a medical clinic in Zliten.[31]

On July 30, 3 journalists were killed and 15 wounded in NATO attacks against the Libyan state TV Al-Jamahiriya, which continued to broadcast after the attacks.[32]

On August 9, the Libyan government claimed that 85 civilians were killed in NATO airstrikes on Majer, a village near Zliten.[33] A NATO spokesman confirmed that they bombed Zliten on August 8 and 9,[34] but said that he was unable to confirm the casualties. The Libyan government declared three days of national mourning. Reporters were later taken to a hospital where they saw at least 30 dead bodies including the bodies of at least two young children. The Libyan government claimed that the bodies of others killed in the airstrikes were taken to other hospitals.[35] Commander of the NATO military mission in Libya, Lieutenant General Charles Bouchard said "I cannot believe that 85 civilians were present when we struck in the wee hours of the morning, and given our intelligence. But I cannot assure you that there were none at all".[36]

Table 2

1. March 19 – July 13 1,108 NATO bombing campaign.^[23] (This number is dubious due to the fact that it is based on the Libyan Health Office and could be exaggerated)
2. July 25 11 NATO air-strike on Zliten.^[108]
3. July 30 3 NATO air-strike on Tripoli.^[109]
4. August 4 3 NATO air-strike on Zliten.^[109]
5. August 8 35–85 NATO air-strike on the village of Majer, near Zliten.^[113] (I count 55 of them)
6. August 19 27 NATO air-strike on Tripoli.^[114]
7. August 20–28 275 Battle of Tripoli

So the total number is around 1,487 dead civilians. Even if the number (1) which was reported by the Libyan Health Office and could be thought as exaggerated is reduced by half, the total is 933. But even without that number, but including (See Table 1) the 11 religious imams, the 9 civilians of Jun 19, the 3 journalists of the Libyan state TV, we already have a total of 23 deaths, to which if we add the rest (2) – (7) we reach at 397, that is still much higher than the supposed 50 deaths. To these we can add the 15 civilians killed in Sorman on June 20, confirmed in part by the New York Times and 7 women and children on September 25 in Sirte, also reported by NYT. So the lower total that could be acceptable is 419 deaths.

On April 9, various NGO’s called on UN to record every casualty of conflict in Libya in a joint letter. This of coarse was not implemented and NATO systematically denied any responsibility of civilians’ deaths.

On October 27, Mr. Kristèle Younès, CIVIC's director of field operation, returning from Libya where was met with relatives and victims of the bombing campaign he remarked: “It seems a bit odd. NATO will pay for bombs and planes to 'protect civilians'; but when it comes to actual civilians who need help because of these strikes, the political will to act is no longer there”.

There is to say a political point in this issue which turns to be of major importance, namely the justification of the Responsibility to Protect mandate which made its debut in Libya. The number of the victims that creates in order to protect other victims is crucial. Given that NATO was dancing along the NTC during the war and the dubitation of Mr. Moreno Ocampo to name clearly the summary executions of Gaddafi and his son as war crimes, the facts prove once more that history is written by the victors.