Speakers at a meeting of the European Parliament on Thursday lashed out at US drone strikes in Pakistan and termed them illegal. They further said that drone strikes were counter-productive to security objectives.
According to details, British Member of the European Parliament, Sajjad Karim said, “US drone killings in Pakistan casts an even darker shadow with the Pakistani government explicitly stating that they did not give consent for the attacks. And it is telling that a nation as great as the USA was not here to make clear its opposition.”
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the EU Munawar Bhatti expressed his country’s opposition to the drone strikes.
“We are opposed to the drone strikes and we have consistently condemned the drone attacks .We regard the drone strikes as illegal in international law, counter productive and a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and integrity,” he said.
Bhatti noted that the drone strikes caused collateral damage and incited a feeling of revenge among innocent victims against the US which further exacerbated the problem.
Another British Member of the European Parliament Baroness Sarah Ludford pointed out the EU had rejected the US legal justification that drone strikes were a part of the War on Terror. “It is not drones in themselves; it is weaponised drones which are the problem,” she said.
There are legitimate uses for drones in other circumstances,” she added.
The deputy director of international NGO Reprieve Hilary Stauffer said that at least 4,700 people had been killed including only 4 percent of “high-level militants” by US drone strikes.
76 countries possess drone technology; 10 countries, including some EU member states, use armed drones and 4 countries were developing indigenous technology including Iran, North Korea, she noted.
Stauffer called on the EU to develop a united position on drone because if the failed to do so, the US would continue to make up its own rules and the rest of the world would “have to pay the consequences.”
The use of armed drones “is a mess, ethically, morally, legally,” she stressed.
