Drone Attack Killings In Pakistan Clearly “War Crimes”

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WASHINGTON – PakistanPrime Minister Nawaz Sharifprepared for a testing meetingwith US President BarackObama on Wednesday fortifiedby a human rights report thatsaid some of the Americandrone strikes on the country wastantamount to “war crimes.”The report by AmnestyInternational and Human RightsWatch, coming on the heels ofwhistleblower accounts of egregiousspying by Washington onits allies, puts the US on thedefensive against a country thatis widely seen as a terroristswamp. Titled “‘Will I be next?’US drone strikes in Pakistan,”the report documents recent USattacks in northwest Pakistan,including one that killed of a 68-year-old grandmother and 14-year-old boy.”Amnesty International has seriousconcerns that this attackviolated the prohibition of thearbitrary deprivation of life andmay constitute war crimes orextrajudicial executions,” thereport said. It called for thoseresponsible to stand trial. Partlydue to the report, the droneissue has moved to the frontburnerahead of the WhiteHouse meeting.Sharif has saidhe will raise the issue of dronestrikes with Obama, who in thepast has defended that methodof eliminating suspected terroristsand appeared unsympatheticto Pakistani complaints. Therehas also been confusion aboutsome elements of the Pakistanisecurity establishment acquiescingto drone strikes and evencolluding with the US whilemaintaining a public posture ofstrenuous objection.

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