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NATO has failed to investigate civilian deaths in Libya – Amnesty

Amnesty International has accused NATO forces of failing to investigate sufficiently civilian deaths caused by air strikes during attacks on Colonel Gaddafi’s forces.

"Nato officials repeatedly stressed their commitment to protecting civilians," said Donatella Rovera, a senior crisis adviser at Amnesty.

"They cannot now brush aside the deaths of scores of civilians with some vague statement of regret without properly investigating these deadly incidents."

Amnesty says an inquiry should be held into the deaths and if those resulted from a breach of international law, those responsible have to be brought to justice.

Amnesty claims scores of civilians were killed or injured in the air strikes, with NATO having already documented 55 deaths caused by NATO attacks.

The human rights group’s criticism comes after similar concerns had already been expressed by Russia earlier this month, accusing UN investigators of inadequate inquiries into the deaths caused by NATO.

“In our view, during that [Nato] campaign many violations of the standard of international law and human rights were committed, including the most important right, the right to life," said Maria Khodynskaya-Golenishcheva, a diplomat at the Russian mission to the UN in Geneva.

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