By Cliff Montgomery – Oct. 25th, 2013
Readers may remember the joint news conference held on October 22nd, 2013 by Human Rights Watch andAmnesty International, in which the groups pointed out the possible criminality of U.S. overseas drone strikes.But The American Spark is providing something corporate media outlets often have not – a direct access tothe evidence which each rights group has prepared on this matter.
Today, the Spark offers the complete report released by Amnesty International. Yesterday, we providedaccess to the survey created by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Below, the Spark quotes a major portion of the Amnesty report’s introduction:
“On a sunny afternoon in October 2012, 68-year-old Mamana Bibi was killed in a drone strike that appears tohave been aimed directly at her. Her grandchildren recounted in painful detail to Amnesty International themoment when Mamana Bibi, who was gathering vegetables in the family fields in Ghundi Kala village,northwest Pakistan, was blasted into pieces before their eyes.
“Nearly a year later, Mamana Bibi’s family has yet to receive any acknowledgment that it was the USthat killed her, let alone justice or compensation for her death.
“Earlier, on 6 July 2012, 18 male laborers, including at least one boy, were killed in a series of USdrone strikes in the remote village of Zowi Sidgi. Missiles first struck a tent in which some men had gatheredfor an evening meal after a hard day’s work, and then struck those who came to help the injured from the firststrike. Witnesses described a macabre scene of body parts and blood, panic and terror, as US dronescontinued to hover overhead.
“The use of pilot-less aircraft, commonly referred to as drones, for surveillance and so-called targetedkillings by the USA has fast become one of the most controversial human rights issues in the world. In noplace is this more apparent than in Pakistan.
“The circumstances of civilian deaths from drone strikes in northwest Pakistan are disputed. The USA – whichrefuses to release detailed information about individual strikes – claims that its drone operations are based onreliable intelligence, are extremely accurate, and that the vast majority of people killed in such strikes aremembers of armed groups such as the Taliban and al-Qa’ida.
“Critics claim that drone strikes are much less discriminating, have resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths,some of which may amount to extra-judicial executions or war crimes, and foster animosity that increasesrecruitment into the very groups the USA seeks to eliminate.
“According to NGO and Pakistan government sources, the USA has launched some 330 to 374 drone strikesin Pakistan between 2004 and September 2013. Amnesty International is not in a position to endorse thesefigures, but according to these sources, between 400 and 900 civilians have been killed in these attacks andat least 600 people seriously injured.”
Focus of this report
“This report is not a comprehensive survey of US drone strikes in Pakistan – it is a qualitative assessmentbased on detailed field research into nine of the 45 reported strikes that occurred in Pakistan’s NorthWaziristan tribal agency between January 2012 and August 2013, and a survey of publicly availableinformation on all reported drone strikes in Pakistan over the same period.
“An area bordering Afghanistan, North Waziristan is one of the seven tribal agencies that make up theFederally Administered Tribal Areas (Tribal Areas), a loosely-governed territory in northwest Pakistan that hasbeen the focus of all US drone strikes in the country.
“Research was also carried out on the general impact of the US drone program on life in North Waziristan, aswell as attacks by Pakistani forces and armed groups.
“The report highlights incidents in which men, women and children appear to have been unlawfully killedor injured. By examining these attacks in detail, Amnesty International seeks to shed light on asecretive program of surveillance and killings occurring in one of the most dangerous, neglected andinaccessible regions of the world.”
