Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Experts rejected new American Policy Guidance for drone strikes and termed it a breach of sovereignty and blatant human rights violation. Former Pakistani Ambassador to the US Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, and former head of the UN Mission in Iraq and Sudan on Monday told Daily Times that there was no ambiguity in the fact that drone strikes were criminal act of the powerful USA. This policy is illegal and cannot be defended. It is contrary to international law and even American domestic laws.

He said that the government of Pakistan adopted double standards as sometimes they criticised drone strikes while praising them at other times. The current leadership of the country did not take up this issue clearly and forcefully with US.

He said previous governments had also failed to discuss the matter with the US. He said until and unless the people rose against it, Pakistan’s foreign policy would remained the same and no any major shift in paradigm would take place. He said “signature strikes” killed many innocent people and targeting any person without knowing their identity was a war crime.

He said international legal and political experts described the use of drones as a global assassination programme. A small group of advisers at White House did not have any authority to decide anybody’s fate. Ambassador Qazi said that Turkish President Erdogan blamed Fethullah Gulen for the recent coup attempt in Turkey, but the US was not handing over him to Turkey on the plea that there were not enough proofs against him. But on the other hand the same US was killing innocent people through drone strikes without proving them guilty.

Senior analyst and Executive Director of Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) Imtiaz Gul said that basically drone strikes were violations of sovereignty of independent states. These acts also violate international humanitarian law. At least 256 identified civilians have been killed in drone strikes in Pakistan.

The new US doctrine of use of forces outside areas of active hostilities also jeopardise the international peace process, as these drone strikes had no backing of the UN Security Council. He said in most of the cases no one could tell whether those who had been killed were terrorists or innocent non-combatants. He said White House data on strikes outside areas of active hostilities that include Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, mentions 2,372 combatant deaths and 64 to 116 non-combatant deaths in a total of 473 strikes between 2009 and 2015. He said that the civilian deaths in drones fuel sentiments of revenge, causing more problems for the Pakistani law enforcement agencies. Terrorists use these deaths to their own advantage, getting the sympathies of the families of the innocent victims. Thus, they find a favourable situation for recruiting young men with vulnerable minds. The US presidential guidelines for drone strikes, which were released on Friday, authorise the head of an agency to order an attack on a terrorist target in a foreign land without the president’s approval. But according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), since the launch of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan in 2004, some 966 civilians have been killed in 424 strikes. The total number of people killed is between 2,499 and 4,001.