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| PSA on American Drones killing Pakistani Children, Public Domain |
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are calling on
the U.S. to investigate reports on the legality of drone strikes. Both groups
have released reports citing civilian deaths by the unmanned aircrafts between
September 2012 and June 2013 in Yemen and Pakistan.
Amnesty International alleges
that heavy civilian casualties in Pakistan from the drone strikes may
constitute war crimes and be a violation of Geneva codes. Drone Watch, an organization which investigates
drone strikes by the U.S. in Pakistan, reported that as of last January more
than 3000 people have been killed due to the strikes. Drone Watch claims that “the
vast majority of them civilians.” In the same report, Drone Watch listed the
names and ages of 172 of the dead –all of them children
.
Human Rights Watch alleged that of the 82 people killed
by unmanned aircraft and other aerial strikes in Yemen 57 of them were
civilian casualties.
The U.S. is standing firm against the allegations by the two
groups. Jay Carney, President Barack Obama’s chief spokesman, says the U.S. “would
strongly agree” with claims that the U.S. acted improperly. Carney claims that
all applicable law was followed with the drone strikes.
Information about drone strikes is hard to get. There is a
large discrepancy with the numbers of actual drone strikes that have taken
place and the real number of civilian casualties. The CIA and the Pentagon do
not reveal details of the strikes, nor do they report all of them. Those who are killed by a drone strike, if a
report is documented, are listed as “enemy combatants.”
“Enemy combatants” can be any male over the age of 12 considered
to be an enemy fighter by the U.S. This directly
conflicts with the Geneva Conventions which requires all those under the
age of 16 to be classified as “protected civilians.”
