UN Investigation of U.S. Killer Drone Program To Move Forward

January 25, 2013 • 3:53PM

Jan. 24, 2013 (LPAC)--Last October, UN Special rapporteur Ben Emmerson QC, a British lawyer, used the occasion of a speech he delivered at Harvard University to announce that his office, part of the UN Human Rights Council, would begin an investigation into the use of armed drones by the Obama Administration for targeted killings in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere. In remarks reported by the London Guardian on Jan. 23, Emmerson indicated that he has begun assembling his investigative team and has also made decisions on the scope of his inquiry, which will also include drone operations by the British in Afghanistan and the use of drones by Israel in the Palestinian territories. The Guardian reports that 20 to 30 strikes will be selected -- as representative of the different types of attacks -- for deeper inquiry to assess the extent of civilian casualties, identify militants killed and the legality of strikes in countries that the UN has not formally recognized as being in conflict. Emmerson told the Guardian that his dossier of evidence may not lead to direct "attribution of legal liability" but will enable him to put allegations to the states responsible and obtain a response.

"One of the fundamental questions is whether aerial targeting using drones is an appropriate method of conflict where the individuals are embedded in a local community," Emmerson said. "One of the questions we will be looking at is whether, given the local demography, aerial attacks carry too high a risk of a disproportionate number of civilian casualties." He added that "The explosion of drone technology [raises the question of whether] the military dependence on UAVs carries an unacceptably high risk of civilian casualties."

Emmerson said the UK Ministry of Defense has already indicated that it will cooperate with his investigation, and in the United States the (private) Council on Foreign Relations has recommended that the Obama Administration do the same. So far, the Obama Administration has barely even acknowledged that its targeted killing campaign, using armed drones, even exists, except to say that it's perfectly legal, even though it won't allow any oversight. In his Harvard speech, last fall, Emmerson charged that the U.S. administration "is holding its finger in the dam of public accountability.''

Meanwhile, the government of Pakistan is demanding an explanation from the U.S. following last weekend's Washington Post article reporting that the White House is on the verge of allowing the CIA to continue killing in Pakistan without restriction. Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar called in Richard Olson, the U.S. Ambassador in Islamabad, to explain U.S. policy regarding the killer drone campaign. While the official statement issued by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry after the meeting did not address the drone issue, Khar had earlier told the Pakistani Senate "[There has been] no clarification from the U.S. yet, but we will take up the drone issue with Washington and its ambassador to Pakistan." Two days earlier, two members of the Senate had asked the government to explain its position on the matter. Both had warned that the U.S. drone campaign is a threat to Pakistan's sovereignty.