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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmnesty says US officials should face war crimes charges over drone strikes
Joint report with Human Rights Watch judges attacks in Yemen and Pakistan to have broken international human rights law
US officials responsible for the secret CIA drone campaign against suspected terrorists in Pakistan may have committed war crimes and should stand trial, a report by a leading human rights group warns. Amnesty International has highlighted the case of a grandmother who was killed while she was picking vegetables and other incidents which could have broken international laws designed to protect civilians.
The report is issued in conjunction with an investigation by Human Rights Watch detailing missile attacks in Yemen which the group believes could contravene the laws of armed conflict, international human rights law and Barack Obama's own guidelines on drones.
The reports are being published while Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's prime minister, is in Washington. Sharif has promised to tell Obama that the drone strikes – which have caused outrage in Pakistan – must end.
Getting to the bottom of individual strikes is exceptionally difficult in the restive areas bordering Afghanistan, where thousands of militants have settled. People are often terrified of speaking out, fearing retribution from both militants and the state, which is widely suspected of colluding with the CIA-led campaign.
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/22/amnesty-us-officials-war-crimes-drones
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cali
(114,904 posts)<snip>
“The drones are like the angels of death,” said Nazeer Gul, a shopkeeper in Miram Shah. “Only they know when and where they will strike.”
Their claims of distress are now being backed by a new Amnesty International investigation that found, among other points, that at least 19 civilians in the surrounding area of North Waziristan had been killed in just two of the drone attacks since January 2012 — a time when the Obama administration has held that strikes have been increasingly accurate and free of mistakes.
The study is to be officially released on Tuesday along with a separate Human Rights Watch report on American drone strikes in Yemen, as the issue is again surfacing on other fronts. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, a vocal critic of the drone campaign, is to meet with President Obama in the White House. And on Friday, the drone debate is scheduled to spill onto the floor of the United Nations, whose officials have recently published reports that attacked America’s lack of transparency over drones.
But nowhere has the issue played out more directly than in Miram Shah, in northwestern Pakistan. It has become a fearful and paranoid town, dealt at least 13 drone strikes since 2008, with an additional 25 in adjoining districts — more than any other urban settlement in the world.
Even when the missiles do not strike, buzzing drones hover day and night, scanning the alleys and markets with roving high-resolution cameras.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/world/asia/civilian-deaths-in-drone-strikes-cited-in-report.html?google_editors_picks=true
cali
(114,904 posts)It's rather a big deal.
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Or in our case, Bogitrue.
Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)If Sharif is to make an unequivocal statement about the drone strikes ceasing, then I agree we need to stop.
But there have been too many ambiguous positions on this in the past. For instance, the military routinely clears airspace for a drone.
Sharif needs to make a public statement, not converse in private with Obama and then emerge saying, "I told him. Really. I did."
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font][hr]
Iggo
(47,558 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)that most people here avoid them like the plague.
Of course, with a little help from my friends, I kick the shit out of them.
