Drones — the evidence

American drone strikes kill and injure innocent men, women and children. The killings may in some circumstances amount to war crimes under international law. Amnesty International (AI) on October 22 released a comprehensive report analysing 45 drone strikes in North Waziristan that took place between January 2012 and August 2013. It is an almost forensic examination of both physical evidence and eyewitness testimony and is an oasis of objectivity in what is invariably a desert of speculation and misinformation. Maps, diagrams and photographs fill out the picture, and lay both blame and responsibility for the deaths and injuries not only at the door of the US but other states that are complicit, including Australia, Germany and the UK. They are complicit in that they have failed to uphold international law by providing assistance to the US, and have failed to act in conformity with their international obligations.



The government of Pakistan is also guilty of a range of human rights violations. Specifically, that the government has failed to protect and enforce the rights of victims of drone strikes. Furthermore, there is possible complicity at state level by some organs of state, individuals within those organs and private citizens that provide support or facilitation for the drone programme. Whilst the authors of the report thank the government of Pakistan for its assistance in its compilation, they note that no government official was willing to answer any questions regarding the drone strikes; which goes some way to confirming the perception that the government — past and present — speaks with a forked tongue. There is public condemnation of drone strikes, but beneath the rhetoric and populist rants there is a culture of compliance and cooperation by a range of state organs, civil and military, that can only exist because political and military decisions have been taken and acted upon allowing their existence. The government has always had, and never exercised, the option of shooting the drones out of the sky — indicating subservience or complicity, or more likely both. The evidence is crystal clear and irrefutable, the guilty named and plain to see.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2013.

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