Australia Wants to Make it Easier to Kill Civilians in Syria

The Australian government announced a plan to overhaul a law to protect the Australian Defense Forces from being charged with war crimes for bombing Islamic State group targets that could lead to civilian casualties, sparking much criticism.

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International law expert Gideon Boas said the government’s plan was ambiguous in Syria and Iraq, and could potentially have devastating consequences. According to Boas, if laws are overreaching, heavy civilian casualties resulting from Australian bombing raids could occur with no legal accountability.

"It's a legitimate concern, and it's a change that could legitimately be made," said Boas. "If it's proposed that the laws go further than that and in some way immunise soldiers and officers from targets—or from the outcome of targets—that have a military objective but have an excessive civilian-damage component, then that's of grave concern and we should do something about that."

The comments were made after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced changes last week to the Criminal Code, referring to its practice of dropping bombs in Syria and Iraq against Islamic State group militants, or Daesh as he referred to them.

According to Turnbull, under the current law, military members could be liable to prosecution for killing a person who was "not causing hostilities."

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"Under international law, all members of an organized armed group such as Daesh can be targeted with lethal force, subject, of course, to the ordinary rules of international humanitarian law," said Turnbull last week to reporters.

"This is a reasonable and conventional approach adopted by the armed forces of our key allies across the world. But there is a legal argument that Australia's domestic law is more restrictive than international law. This legal risk posed a major challenge to the effectiveness of our operations."

Australia is one of the members in the United States-led coalition targeting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq and the ADF has been part of the military operations for two years.