There is an outcry by the people for a long time now concerning the continuous and dramatically increased drone attacks in the ungoverned tribal regions near the Afghan-Pakistan border. The Obama Administration has been criticized by human rights groups across the world for it. Some international law experts consider drone attacks to be illegal assassinations.
Pakistani officials have returned from America claiming that strategic partnership dialogs were triumphant but within a day the Obama administration has for the first time laid out its legal underlying principle for drone strikes. United States has justified the Central Investigation Agency (CIA) operated missile hits mentioning it as the right to “self-defense” under international law. During a conference of the American Society of International Law, State Department’s legal advisor Harold Koh argues that the missile hits were justified.
“The United States is in “an armed conflict” with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and its affiliates as a result of the September 11 attacks, and may use force consistent with its inherent right to self-defense under the international law”.
In other words America has the legal right for killing innocent people with Drones wherever they have the doubt of Al Qaeda or Taliban presence because they are the enemy of America post 9/11. What about more than 1200 innocent Pakistanis assassination till now as a result of US justified drone attacks? Who is responsible for it? What will be the US opinion if Pakistan army starts to respond the drone attacks as a self defense?
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has recently filed a lawsuit against US President Barack Obama, demanding legal basis for America’s deadly drone attacks overseas. It is worth mentioning that many CIA officers might have to face prosecution for war crimes, due to the U.S. government’s refusal to offer legal grounds for the drone raids in Pakistan. International community was impatient with Washington ignoring the slur of the CIA’s bombing raids in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other parts of the world. In order to avoid the prosecution the US has come up with the justification.
Every country on the globe should respect each others soverngity. With power comes great responsibilties too but unfortunately not many are cpable to deal with it. It is high time for Pakistan and its government to learn to say NO.
Image: South Asia Speaks
Leave a Reply to hamid majid abbasi Cancel reply