Though it is
only a fraction of the overall drone war against the nation, the Peshawar High
Court on Thursday heard details on the impact of the U.S. drone strikes against
the North Waziristan Agency, from the tiny area’s agent.
In the past five
years, 147 distinct U.S. attacks have killed 894 people, including 35 women and
24 children. The vast majority of the other victims were local tribesmen, with
only 46 foreigners among the slain, and not all of them confirmed to be
militants. Well over 200 people, again overwhelmingly civilians, were wounded in
the attacks.
North Waziristan
is a rural area about the size of Long Island, and just one of seven tribal
agencies in Pakistan’s northwest. The strikes are only a fraction of the overall
U.S. toll in Pakistan, with a large portion of the attacks also focused on South
Waziristan as well as other tribal agencies.
The court
expressed frustration at the data providing, noting it made no effort to
distinguish between tribal militants and non-combatant civilians. This was not a
deliberate omission however, as such data by and large simply doesn’t exist,
with most of the victims never positively identified and forever labeled as
“suspects.” Antiwar
In 2008, after
Barack Obama won the presidency in the U.S., the drone strikes escalated and
soon began occurring almost weekly, later nearly daily, and so became a
permanent feature of life for those living in the tribal borderlands of northern
Pakistan. The United
States has carried out more than 360 assassination drone attacks in Pakistan
since 2004, killing about 3,500 people, according to a recent study by the
London-based Bureau of Investigative
Journalism. A report on the
secret drone war in Pakistan says the attacks have killed far more civilians
than acknowledged, traumatized a nation and undermined international law. In
“Living Under Drones,” researchers conclude the drone strikes "terrorize men,
women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among
civilian communities." Democracy Now "The number of
'high-level' militants killed as a percentage of total casualties is extremely
low -- estimated at just 2% [of deaths]", says the report. The Washington
Post reported earlier in January that the Obama administration is nearing
completion of a detailed “counterterrorism manual” that is designed to establish
clear rules for targeted-killing operations but leaves open a major exemption
for the CIA’s campaign of drone strikes in Pakistan. Pakistan has
decided to raise the issue of U.S. drone attacks on its territory at the General
Council of the United Nations in September this year.
thenews.com.pk
ISH/HJ
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