UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions Philip Alston said Tuesday that the
use of unmanned warplanes by the US to carry out attacks
in Pakistan and Afghanistan may be illegal. Alston
criticized the US policy in a report to the UN General
Assembly's human rights committee and then elaborated at
a
press conference [press release; recorded
video]:
My concern is that these drones, these predators,
are being operated in a framework which may well
violate international humanitarian law and
international human rights law. The onus is really on
the government of the United States to reveal more
about the ways in which it makes sure that arbitrary
executions, extrajudicial executions, are not in fact
being carried out through the use of these weapons.
The response of the US is simply untenable, and that
is that the Human Rights Council and the General
Assembly by definition have no role in relation to
killings that take place in relations to an armed
conflict. that would remove the great majority of
issues that come before these bodies right now.
Alston's report was presented as part of a larger
demand that no state be free from accountability.
Alston previously raised the issue of US drone attacks
in June. The US government responded that its position
is that such attacks are carried out in a war zone where
the UN has no role. The controversial attacks have
killed about 600 people in northwestern Pakistan since
August 2008, including around 400 militants. US Senator
John Kerry said this week that the
attacks would continue [RTTNews report], claiming
that they have been successful in combatting al Qaeda
and have resulted in minimal collateral damage. Also
this week, a Pakistani court
upheld the dismissal of a petition [The Nation
report] against US drone attacks that sought to declare
the US an enemy state.
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