[Infowarrior] - US drone strikes violate international law, says UN

[Richard Forno]

US drone strikes violate international law, says UN

Report says 33 CIA attacks led to civilian deaths and casualties and 
says US protocols are 'hurdle to transparency'

     Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent
     theguardian.com, Friday 18 October 2013 10.36 EDT	

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/18/drone-strikes-us-violate-law-un

A United Nations investigation has so far identified 33 drone strikes 
around the world that have resulted in civilian casualties and may have 
violated international humanitarian law.

The report by the UN's special rapporteur on human rights and 
counter-terrorism, Ben Emmerson QC, calls on the US to declassify 
information about operations co-ordinated by the CIA and clarify its 
positon on the legality of unmanned aerial attacks.

Published ahead of a debate on the use of remotely piloted aircraft, at 
the UN general assembly in New York next Friday, the 22-page document 
examines incidents in Afghanistan, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Pakistan 
and Gaza.

It has been published to coincide with a related report released earlier 
on Thursday by Professor Christof Heyns, the UN's special rapporteur on 
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, which warned that the 
technology was being misused as a form of "global policing".

Emmerson, who travelled to Islamabad for his investigation, said the 
Pakistan ministry of foreign affairs has records of as many as 330 drone 
strikes in the country's north-western tribal areas since 2004. Up to 
2,200 people have been killed – of whom at least 400 were civilians – 
according to the Pakistan government.

In Yemen, Emmerson's report says that as many as 58 civilians are 
thought to have been killed in attacks by UAVs (unmanned aerial 
vehicles). "While the fact that civilians have been killed or injured 
does not necessarily point to a violation of international humanitarian 
law, it undoubtedly raises issues of accountability and transparency," 
the study notes.

Reaper UAVs, used by the RAF in Afghanistan, have a range of 3,700 miles 
(5,900 km), a maximum airspeed of 250 knots and can ascend to 15,300 
metres (50,000 feet), the document explains. Their missions can last up 
to 18 hours.

The Reaper carries three cameras as well as laser-guided bombs. Three 
communication networks relay information between the RAF ground station 
in the UK and the UAV: "a secure internet-based chat function, a secure 
radio routed via satellite and a secure telephone system".

"The United Kingdom has reported only one civilian casualty incident, in 
which four civilians were killed and two civilians injured in a remotely 
piloted aircraft strike by the Royal Air Force in Afghanistan on 25 
March 2011," Emmerson's report states. An RAF inquiry found that "the 
actions of the [ground] crew had been in accordance with the applicable 
rules of engagement".

The special rapporteur said that he was informed that during RAF 
operations in Afghanistan, targeting intelligence is "thoroughly 
scrubbed" to ensure accuracy before authorisation to proceed is given. 
RAF strikes, he points out, are accountable in the UK through the 
Ministry of Defence and parliament.

By contrast, Emmerson criticises the CIA's involvement in US drone 
strikes for creating "an almost insurmountable obstacle to 
transparency". He adds: "One consequence is that the United States has 
to date failed to reveal its own data on the level of civilian 
casualties inflicted through the use of remotely piloted aircraft in 
classified operations conducted in Pakistan and elsewhere."

Recent prounouncments from Barack Obama, however, have stressed that 
"before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no 
civilians will be killed or injured".

Emmerson acknowledges that: "If used in strict compliance with the 
principles of international humanitarian law, remotely piloted aircraft 
are capable of reducing the risk of civilian casualties in armed 
conflict by significantly improving the situational awareness of 
military commanders." But, he cautions, there is "no clear international 
consensus" on the laws controlling the deployment of drone strikes.

The special rapporteur concludes by urging: "the United States to 
further clarify its position on the legal and factual issues … to 
declassify, to the maximum extent possible, information relevant to its 
lethal extraterritorial counter-terrorism operations; and to release its 
own data on the level of civilian casualties inflicted through the use 
of remotely piloted aircraft, together with information on the 
evaluation methodology used."

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