The recently concluded ‘peace march’ to tribal areas by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan was aimed to put a halt on the nine-year-old US drone campaign in Waziristan region. An anti-drone group CODEPINK that includes 32 Americans also joined Imran Khan’s convoy in Pakistan to protest the civilian deaths that occur in the aerial strikes against Taliban fighters – calling the attacks “barbaric assassinations”. Reacting on the drone attacks, Marion Birch, director of MEDACT, an NGO, believes that drones are not only unacceptable from a human, moral and legal point of view, they are traumatising families and damaging the chances of peace.
Nonetheless, the US remains oblivious from all these protests/demonstrations and continues its policy of dealing terrorism with military means only by sending drones on hapless citizens. Drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas are one of the contentious issues in the current challenges between Pakistan and the US. Those living under drones have to face constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, inflicting deep-rooted feeling of helplessness coupled with an inability to protect themselves from this menace. As the drones are capable of striking the same target again and again, therefore, its presence terrorizes men, women, and children, giving rise to anxiety and psychological trauma among civilian communities. The daily routine life have been grossly disturbed, children are scared to go to schools, whereas residents prefer to remain inside their homes for countless hours. The families are apprehensive to gather at funerals for innocent people erroneously killed in earlier drone strikes. The NGOs involved in humanitarian relief and rescue efforts had to delay assistance by many hours.
The main objective of the anti-war groups is to throw a spotlight on the US drone attacks strategy, which Pakistan oppose as violations of the country’s sovereignty that often kill civilians. In light of serious concerns, Washington must conduct a fundamental re-evaluation of current targeted killing practices, taking into account all available evidence as well as the concerns of various stakeholders of the area.
The US must recognize how inhumane and counterproductive the drones are. Besides, violating the code of ethic encourages countries to replicate US practices, it makes Americans vulnerable. That alone is reason enough to rethink the drone throwing policy.
IMRAN SAEED
Islamabad
