By
Sajjad Shaukat
Under the pretext of American so-called
counterinsurgency programme, and by implementing the anti-Muslim policy of his
predecessor, the US President Barack Obama has broken all the record of human
rights by extrajudicial killings of the innocent people through CIA-operated
drone attacks in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen etc. in general and Pakistan in particular,
while, the United States claims to be protector of human rights not only inside
the country, but also all over the world.
On March 11, 2014, Ben Emmerson, UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights, who conducted an
investigation into targeted killings, and examined legality of drone strikes, presented his report on drone strikes to the UN Human
Rights Council (HRC). His report examined 37 drone strikes as sample—the US, UK
and Israel have launched in Pakistan, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia
and Gaza, which
resulted into civilian casualties. Emmerson told the HRC, “These strikes
require a legal duty on the relevant states to provide…a justification for the
use of deadly force…to disclose the results of their own fact finding inquiries,why
no such inquiries have taken place.”
Emmerson also referred to
an interactive website, produced by Forensic Architecture team which marked the
location of 30 drone strikes which helped in his final report.
In this context,
Professor Eyal Weizman, the Principal Investigator of the Forensic Architecture
project said, “Studying buildings hit by drones reveal much of consequences of
a strike. The work we do is essential because states undertaking drone strikes,
such as the US and Israel, attempt
to hide actions and even deny them outright.”
However, CIA-operated
illegal drone attacks in Pakistan
cannot be seen in isolation, as these strikes are part of the US-led covert
aims against this only nuclear country in the Islamic World.
May 21, 2016, the CIA-operated drone
strike killed the Chief of the Afghan Taliban Mullah Akhtar Mansour in Nushki,
Balochistan. After the incident, Afghan Taliban leaders refused to participate
in the US-sponsored talks with the Afghan government. Notably, in the recent past,
with the help of Pakistan, a
series of meetings were held in Islamabad and Kabul among the representatives of Pakistan, Afghanistan,
China and the US to develop an understanding for the earliest
possible resumption of stalled talks between the Afghan government and the
Taliban with view to ending nearly 15 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan.
For the purpose, a number of the meetings were also held among Pakistan, America,
China and Afghanistan.
This latest strike by the US
predator in Balochistan province gave a greater setback to peace
process for Afghanistan
under the Quadrilateral Coordination Group framework, which started in Murree
with strenuous efforts of Islamabad.
On June 10, this year, a high-level
delegation of the US visited
Islamabad and met Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff
Gen. Raheel Sharif and Adviser to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Foreign
Affairs Sartaj Aziz Adviser separately.
During the meeting, expressing his serious
concern on the US drone
attack in Balochistan as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty, Chief of
Army Staff, Gen. Raheel Sharif highlighted as to how it had impacted
the mutual trust and was counterproductive in consolidating the gains of
Operation Zarb-e-Azb. Gen. Raheel Sharif by elaborated, “All stakeholders
need to understand Pakistan’s challenges…inter-tribal linkages and decades-old
presence of over three million refugees…blaming Pakistan for instability in
Afghanistan is unfortunate…target TTP [Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan] and its
chief Mullah Fazlullah in their bases in Afghanistan—Indian RAW
and NDS [Afghan National Directorate of Security] are fomenting terrorism
in Pakistan which is committed to work for a long term peace process for
Afghanistan under the Quadrilateral Coordination Group framework.”
On the one hand, Washington
has demanded Pakistan’s
support for dialogue with the Afghan Taliban, while targeted Taliban Chief
Mullah Akhtar Mansour with drone, putting Islamabad
in to a difficult position. In fact, these are part of American double game to
destabilize Pakistan in
order to obtain the secret goals of America,
India and Israel.
The US
has always preferred New Delhi over Islamabad. In this
regard, during the recent visit of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to America, addressing the media jointly, Prime
Minister Modi said “I am thankful for the help and support that my friend
Barack Obama has extended with regard to India’s membership of the Missile
Technology Control Regime and Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).”
America has been backing Indian hegemony in Asia
to counterbalance China.
During President Obama’s second visit to India, the US and India announced a
breakthrough on a pact which would allow American companies to supply New Delhi
with civilian nuclear technology, as agreed upon in 2008. This duplicity has
initiated a dangerous arms race between Pakistan
and India, and between China and India.
Setting aside the Indian irresponsible
record of non-proliferation, and safety of nuclear arms, Washington also pressurized the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) to sign
an accord of specific safeguards with India. America
had already contacted the NSG to grant a waiver to India for starting civil nuclear
trade on larger scale.
Undoubtedly, unlike India, Pakistan’s nuclear assets are in safe
hands—well-protected and are under tight security arrangements, having the best
command and control system. However, taking cognizance of the US double standard, China
and some responsible countries have decided to oppose in the meeting of the NSG to grant a waiver to India in this
regard.
Indian desperation in Afghanistan is increasing in the backdrop of
growing engagements of Islamabad, Kabul, Beijing and Washington. Therefore,
by arranging terror-assaults in Pakistan
and Afghanistan, New Delhi is also sabotaging the peace process between the
Afghan officials and representatives of Tehreek-e-Taliban Afghanistan.
Based in Afghanistan,
American CIA, Indian RAW and Israeli Mossad which are well-penetrated in the
ISIS and the TTP are using the militants of these terrorist outfits to
destabilize Tibetan regions of China,
Iranian Sistan-Baluchistan and Pakistan’s
province of Balochistan by arranging the subversive
activities. In this connection, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is
their special target. Collectively or individually, these intelligence agencies
are also assisting Jundullah (God’s soldiers)—the Sunni militant group which is
active in Balochistan against Shias.
Based in the Afghan provinces of Kunar and
Nuristan, Mullah Fazlullah, chief of the TTP is running a parallel government
in Afghanistan.
The militants of this group have their own legal system and own authority,
exercising strict control.
It is notable that Pakistan’s Armed Forces broke the backbone of
the militants through military operation Zarb-i-Azb—killing thousands of
insurgents including foreign terrorists, while, primary intelligence agency ISI
and other law-enforcing agencies captured several terrorists in various regions
of Pakistan.
Therefore, the aim of the drone strike is to thwart, the success of Pakistan,
achieved against terrorists.
These
strikes by the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which started on Pakistan’s
tribal areas during the Bush era in 2004, intensified under the Obama
Administration.
It is mentionable that in 2013, first
time, a US Senator
Lindsey Graham, a staunch supporter of the predator attacks, openly admitted
that 4,700 people have been killed by the raids of America’s secretive drone war. The
number exceeds some independent estimates of the death toll.
According to the research of London-based Bureau
of Investigative Journalism, “Between June 2004 and September 2012, these
unmanned aerial vehicles killed between 2,562 and 3,325 people in Pakistan, of
whom between 474 and 881 were civilians including 176 children.” In this
respect, in a report, The Guardian disclosed on August 11, 2011, “The CIA
claims that there has been not one non-combatant killed in the past year…it is
a bleak view: more people killed than previously thought.”
But, details collected by the Pakistani
journalists show that civilian casualties through unmanned aircraft are higher
as indicated by the US
officials—more than 5000 innocent civilians and only 22 Al-Qaeda commanders
have been killed by these aerial attacks.
In fact, American such a duplicity
contains many other covert designs. America
wants to provoke the tribal people against Pakistan’s security forces. The US drone campaign could give a setback to the
democratic system in Pakistan.
Its another aim is to create a rift between Pakistan’s armed forces and the
elected government on one side and opposition parties including general masses
on the other.
And the US
seeks to incite the tribal people to join the militant outfits and to conduct
terror attacks inside Pakistan.
In this respect, a report of the New America Foundation revealed, “When the US
drones attack Pakistan’s tribal areas, it is not just the 10, or 50 innocent
civilians they kill, these killings provide reason to the youngsters for
joining terrorist groups waging war against US and of course Pakistan…while
killing 10 militants, the US has murdered more than 1400 Pakistanis, not
involved in any terrorist activities. Could it not imply that it gave birth to
another 1400 militants?”
Based on research, a report, “Living Under
Drones,” prepared by experts from Stanford Law School and the New York
University School of Law had revealed that the US campaign of drone “strikes in
Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt is terrorizing civilians 24 hours a day and
breeding bitter anti-American sentiment…have killed thousands of people…even
stopping their children going to school for fear of being targeted.” The report
urged Washington
to rethink its drone strategy, arguing it was counterproductive and undermined
international law.
The New York Time on May 26, 2011, disclosed,
“President Obama has become personally involved in the process” and “has
normalized extrajudicial killings from the Oval Office, taking advantage of America’s
temporary advantage in drone technology. Without the scrutiny of the
legislature, Obama is authorizing murder on a weekly basis.”
While justifying these air strikes by the
spy planes, counterterrorism advisor to Obama, John Brennan who had
faced a Senate confirmation hearing for his nominee as CIA director is the main
player, advising Obama on which strike, he should approve. Although he has
defended attacks by the CIA-controlled unmanned planes by justifying their
success in eliminating Al Qaeda militants, yet these strikes are proving
counterproductive for Pakistan.
Nevertheless, setting aside the parliament
resolution, rallies and processions of Pakistan’s political and religious
parties, while ignoring the Pak-US rapprochement, and without bothering for any
internal backlash, these aerial attacks have kept on going on the tribal
regions.
Now, trust deficit has deepened between Pakistan and the US since May 21, 2016, when the
CIA-operated drone strike killed the Chief of the Afghan Taliban Mullah Akhtar
Mansour in Balochistan.
US ex-presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill
Clinton have opposed Obama’s faulty drone strategy. Even, Secretary of State
John Kerry has also criticized unabated use of unilateral drones in Pakistan, saying, “US engagement with the
world is not just about drones.”
Apart from widespread criticism from some
US allies and human rights groups which have remarked that these aerial attacks
are illegal and unethical, and violation of the targeted countries’
sovereignty, the United Nations Charter, universal declaration of human rights
and international law, the US warrior President Obama remains obstinate to
continue extrajudicial killings through CIA-operated drones so as to fulfil the
covert aims of the US-led countries.
Sajjad Shaukat writes on international
affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible
Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations
Email: sajjad_logic@yahoo.com
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