UN Report Identifies 30 Drone Strikes That Require ‘Public Explanation’

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/03/02


A "drone shadow" created for the Istanbul Design Biennial. (Photo: STML/ Creative Commons/ Flickr)


A UN counter-terrorism expert has published the second report of his year-long investigation into drone strikes, highlighting 30 strikes where civilians are reported to have been killed.

The report, by British lawyer Ben Emmerson QC, identifies 30 attacks between 2006 and 2013 that show sufficient indications of civilian deaths to demand a ‘public explanation of the circumstances and the justification for the use of deadly force’ under international law.

Emmerson analysed 37 strikes carried out by the US, UK and Israel in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza, to arrive at a ‘sample’ of strikes that he believes those nations have a legal duty to explain.

Britain and the US conduct strikes as part of the armed conflict in Afghanistan, and the US also conducts covert strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

[jsr]

1. What explanation?

“My job is a job to make decisions. I’m a decision — if the job description were, what do you do — it’s decision-maker. And I make a lot of big ones, and I make a lot of little ones.”

[KoKo]

2. Recommend! At least it's something from the UN...

better than nothing.

[KoKo]

3. Recommend!

[Comrade Grumpy]

4. Cough cough.