[News] Drones and Democracy
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue May 18 14:29:11 EDT 2010
http://www.counterpunch.org/kelly05182010.html
May 18, 2010
Hatred Rising
Drones and Democracy
By KATHY KELLY and JOSH BROLLIER
Islamabad.
On May 12th, the day after a U.S. drone strike
killed 24 people in Pakistans North Waziristan,
two men from the area agreed to tell us their
perspective as eyewitnesses of previous drone strikes.
One is a journalist, Safdar Dawar, General
Secretary of the Tribal Union of Journalists.
Journalists are operating under very difficult
circumstances in the area, pressured by both
militant groups and the Pakistani government. Six
of his colleagues have been killed while
reporting in North and South Waziristan. The
other man, who asked us not to disclose his name,
is from Miranshah city, the epicenter of North
Waziristan. He works with the locally based
Waziristan Relief Agency, a group of people
committed to helping the victims of drone attacks
and military actions. If people need blood or
medicine or have to go to Peshawar or some other
hospital, said the social worker, Im known for
helping them. I also try to arrange funds and contributions.
Both men emphasized that Pakistans government
has only a trivial presence in the area.
Survivors of drone attacks receive no
compensation, and neither the military nor the
government investigate consequences of the drone attacks.
Mr. Dawar, the journalist, added that when he
phoned the local political representative
regarding the May 12th drone attack, the man
couldnt tell him anything. If you get any new
information, said the political representative, please let me know.
In U.S. newspapers, reports on drone attacks
often amount to about a dozen words, naming the
place and an estimated number of militants
killed. The journalist and social worker from
North Waziristan asked us why people in the U.S. dont ask to know more.
Its hard to slow down and look at horrifying
realities. Jane Mayer, writing for The New
Yorker, (The Predator War, October 26, 2009),
quoted a former C.I.A. officials description of a drone attack:
People who have seen an air strike live on a
monitor described it as both awe-inspiring and
horrifying. You could see these little figures
scurrying, and the explosion going off, and when
the smoke cleared there was just rubble and
charred stuff, a former C.I.A. officer who was
based in Afghanistan after September 11th says of one attack.
Human beings running for cover are such a common
sight, Jane Mayer continues, that they have
inspired a slang term: squirters.
Just rubble and charred stuff
The social worker recalled arriving at a home
that was hit, in Miranshah, at about 9:00 p.m.,
close to one year ago. The house was beside a
matchbox factory, near the degree college. The
drone strike had killed three people. Their
bodies, carbonized, were fully burned. They could
only be identified by their legs and hands. One
body was still on fire when he reached there.
Then he learned that the charred and mutilated
corpses were relatives of his who lived in his
village, two men and a boy aged seven or eight.
They couldnt pick up the charred parts in one
piece. Finding scraps of plastic they transported
the body parts away from the site. Three to four
others joined in to help cover the bodies in
plastic and carry them to the morgue.
But these volunteers and nearby onlookers were
attacked by another drone strike, 15 minutes
after the initial one. 6 more people died.One of
them was the brother of the man killed in the initial strike.
The social worker says that people are now afraid
to help when a drone strike occurs because they
fear a similar fate from a second attack. People
will wait several hours after an attack just to
be sure. Meanwhile, some lives will be lost that
possibly could have been saved.
The social worker also told us that pressure from
the explosion, when a drone-fired missile or bomb
hits, can send bystanders flying through the air.
Some are injured when their bodies hit walls or
stone, causing fractures and brain injuries.
The social worker described four more cases in
which he had been involved with immediate relief
work, following a drone attack. He didnt supply
us with exact dates, and we werent able to find
news articles on the internet which exactly
matched his accounts. Riaz Khan, an AP reporter
covering a drone strike on May 15th, noted
differences in details reported by witnesses and
official sources. Such discrepancies are common
and are rarely reconciled, according to Khan
(May 15th , Officials: US missiles kill 5 in NW Pakistan)
Exasperated by the neglect and indifference
people in Waziristan face, especially those who
say they have nowhere to hide, the journalist and
social worker began firing questions at us.
If the US had good intelligence and they hit
their targets with the first strike, Safdar
asks, why would the second one be necessary? If
you already hit the supposed militant target, then why fire again?
Who has given the license to kill and in what
court? Who has declared that they can hit anyone they like?
How many high level targets could there possibly be?
What kind of democracy is America, Safdar asks,
where people do not ask these questions?
Reliance on robotic warfare has escalated, from
the Bush to the Obama administrations, with very
little significant public debate. More than ever
before, it is true that the U.S. doesnt want our
bodies to be part of warfare; theres also not
much interest in our consent. All that is required is our money.
But, you get what you pay for in the U.S.A. The
social worker and the journalist assured us that
all of the survivors feel hatred toward the
United States. It is a real problem, said Safdar, this rising hatred.
Kathy Kelly
(<mailto:kathy at vcnv.org>kathy at vcnv.org) and Josh
Brollier
(<mailto:Joshua at vcnv.org>Joshua at vcnv.org) are
co-coordinators of <http://www.vcnv.org>Voices for Creative Nonviolence
Freedom Archives
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415 863-9977
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