Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Holding the U.S. Accountable

In recent weeks we've read a number of articles criticizing the use of drones in U.S. military operations on the Afghan border. People are asking: How many civilian deaths will result from drone strikes? Are drones accurate enough for use? And now the United Nations wants the U.S. for transparency on the issue:

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) — The United States must demonstrate that it is not randomly killing people in violation of international law through its use of drones on the Afghan border, a United Nations rights investigator said Tuesday.

The investigator, Philip Alston, also said the American refusal to respond to United Nations concerns that the use of drones might result in illegal executions was an “untenable” position.

Mr. Alston, who is appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council, said his concern over drones had grown in the past few months as the American military prominently used them in the rugged area along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He said the United States may be using the drones legally but needed to answer questions he raised in June. “Otherwise you have the really problematic bottom line, which is that the Central Intelligence Agency is running a program that is killing significant numbers of people and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws,” he said.


2 comments:

  1. The activities of Central Intelligence Agency have always been problematic.

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  2. Drone attacks do fatal damages to public lives and assets. According to UN rules, these are completely illegal and should be stopped.

    Drones are aimed to fire on potential militants or terrorists, but there is no degree of accuracy which can assure even the 50% of actual target.

    So, how one can vote for these attacks or don't come forward to stop them while they are apparently killing innocent lives.

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