US DENIES AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL AND HRW REPORTS ON DRONE STRIKES
Washington DC , 18 Dul Hijja 1434/23 October 2013 (MINA) – The U.S. government has denied reports of Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) which stated US drone attacks in Pakistan and Yemen is a war crime.
Two days ago (Monday) , HRW and AI issued the data of victims of drone strikes in the two countries suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts. In a 102-page report, the two institutions said U.S. officials could be prosecuted to the international court for war crimes through drone attacks, Russia today reported as quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
RHW, AI and the Pakistani government said drone attack victims reached 2,200 people. They all were civilians who were working in the garden, selling in the market, even there was a 68-year-old woman killed by a U.S. drone attack and her family members who want to help her were also died caused the drone attacks.
But the White House denied the report. They claim all offensive operations with drones carried out according to international operations standard and 99 percent of the attack were on target.
“We are reviewing these reports carefully,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday. “To the extent these reports claim that the US has acted contrary to international law, we would strongly disagree.
“The administration has repeatedly emphasized the extraordinary care that we take to make sure counterterrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable law.”
Carney insisted using unmanned drones against those the US labels terror suspects is better than sending troops or using other weapons, saying the Obama administration was “choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life.”
Carney also said the administration’s preference is to always capture terror suspects rather than kill them, though the abduction of Anas al-Libi, an alleged Al-Qaeda leader in Libya, in early October was only the second terror suspect captured alive since Obama took office.
The HRW report considers six drone strikes that killed civilians in Yemen, one of which took place in 2009, and other five occurring in 2012-2013. These six attacks claimed the lives of 82 people, 57 of whom – or 70 percent – were civilians. HRW concluded two of the analyzed strikes violated international law, and that none of the six seemed to comply with President Obama’s May 2013 Presidential Policy Guidance.
The AI report is based on the investigation of the nine out of 45 drone strikes reported between January 2012 and August 2013 in North Waziristan, the area where the US drone campaign is most intensive in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
“The U.S. government has repeatedly emphasized the use of international operational standards to ensure that our counterterrorism efforts done in accordance with all applicable laws, he added.”
AI and HRW reports actual investigation only nine of 45 drone aircraft attacks between January 2012 and August 2013 in North Waziristan, the region where most U.S. drone campaign intensified in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
During the press conference , representatives of HRW and AI warned that drone operations it not only violates international law because the wrong target and raises the number of civilian casualties, but also ethical and moral battle that is not owned from the operation .
“Drone technology is proliferating rapidly. The US government should be careful of the signal that it is sending to the world,” she said. “It’s time to end the black hole of accountability on drone strikes. The US is behaving like a hit-and-run driver.” ( T/P04/P03/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
