‘US drone strikes in Pakistan illegal’

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This video says about itself:

The majority of people killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan are not militants, according to the country’s Interior Minister. Rehman Malik said 80 per cent of more than two thousand people who have died as a result of strikes were civilians.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

UN: Pakistan strikes violate sovereignty

Saturday 16 March 2013

by Our Foreign Desk

A UN official declared today that US drone strikes in Pakistan violate the country’s sovereignty.

Ben Emmerson, who is leading a UN team investigating casualties from US drone strikes in Pakistan, said the country’s government made clear that it does not consent to the strikes – a position that has long been publicly disputed by US officials.

US President Barack Obama has stepped up covert CIA drone strikes targeting Taliban militants along the Afghan border since he took office in 2009.

The strikes have caused growing controversy because of significant civilian casualties.

The Pakistani government told Mr Emmerson that it had confirmed at least 400 civilian deaths by US drones on its territory.

The UN investigation into civilian casualties from drone strikes and other targeted killings is expected to deliver its conclusions in October.

The US rarely discusses the strikes in public but officials have claimed privately that they have caused very few civilian casualties.

Documents released by WikiLeaks in 2010 showed that senior Pakistani officials consented to the strikes in private to US diplomats, while at the same time condemning them in public.

But co-operation has waned as the relationship between Pakistan and the US has deteriorated.

US officials insist privately that co-operation has not ended and key Pakistani army officers and politicians continue to consent to the strikes.

However Mr Emmerson differed. “The position of Pakistan is quite clear,” he said.

“Pakistan does not consent to the use of drones by the US on its territory and considers this to be a violation of sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

The drone campaign “involves the use of force on the territory of another state without its consent and is therefore a violation of Pakistani sovereignty,” he said.

“It is time for the international community to heed the concerns of Pakistan and give the next democratically elected government the space support and assistance it needs to deliver a lasting peace on its own territory without forcible military interference by other states.”

See also here.

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