Drones: judge, jury and executioner
By Tony Magliano
The following should disturb us.
On a sunny afternoon in October 2012, 68-year-old Mamana Bibi, while gathering vegetables in the family fields in north-west Pakistan, was blown into pieces by at least two Hellfire missiles fired from a US drone aircraft.
“Witnesses described a horrific scene of body parts, blood, panic and terror, as US drones continued to hover overhead.” (CNS photo/Nancy Phelan Wiechec)
Bibi’s granddaughter, eight-year-old Nabeela, ventured to where her grandmother had been picking vegetables earlier in the day. “I saw her shoes. We found her mutilated body a short time afterwards. It had been thrown quite a long distance away by the blast and it was in pieces. We collected as many different parts from the field and wrapped them in a cloth.”
This horrific event is highlighted in a new report from Amnesty International titled “Will I be next?” – taken from the worried words of Nabeela.
Drones – pilotless aircraft used by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for surveillance and targeted killings – have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of totally innocent people like Mamana Bibi.
The report states that according to various nongovernmental organisations and Pakistan government sources the US. launched over 329 drone attacks in Pakistan between 2004 and September 2013, killing between 400 and 900 civilians and seriously injuring more than 600 people.
According to the report, 18 labourers – at least one boy among them – were killed from a series of drone strikes in the remote Pakistani village of Zowi Sidgi. Missiles first struck a tent in which some men had gathered for an evening meal after a hard day’s work, and then struck those who came to help.
Witnesses described a horrific scene of body parts, blood, panic and terror, as US drones continued to hover overhead.
“Secrecy surrounding the drones program gives the US administration a license to kill beyond the reach of the courts or basic standards of international law. It’s time for the USA to come clean about the drones programme and hold those responsible for these violations to account,” said Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International’s Pakistan Researcher.
In another report titled “Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda: The Civilian Cost of U.S. Targeted Killings in Yemen” – released at the same October 22, 2013 news conference as Amnesty International’s report – Human Rights Watch examines six US targeted killings in Yemen.
According to the report, two attacks killed civilians indiscriminately in clear violation of the laws of war, while the other attacks may have caused disproportionate civilian deaths.
Letta Tayler, senior terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch and the author of the report said, “Yemenis told us that these strikes make them fear the US as much as they fear al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”
The Catholic “just-war” theory’s principles of proportionality and discrimination – arguably never able to be met within the context of modern warfare – are clearly not being met here.
The killing of innocent civilians and the resulting fear from targeted drone attacks are considered by many as acts of US terrorism, inspiring many to vow vengeance, thus perpetuating endless conflict and terrorism from all sides.
The Gospel way of acting justly and living non-violent unconditional love is the only weapon that can defeat terrorism, and ultimately triumph over evil.
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