Pakistan’s Peshawar High Court Ordered the Pakistan Government to Confront U.S. Drone “War Crimes” at the United Nations — Is American Human Rights Hypocrisy Finally Going to Go on Global Display?

16 May 2013

American leaders like to accuse “foreigners” of war crimes, while committing much the same themselves . . .

Now the shoe’s finally on the other foot, courtesy of a provincial “supreme” court in Pakistan.

From Andrew Buncombe at The Independent:

A Pakistani court has declared that US drone strikes in the country's tribal belt are illegal and has directed the government to move a resolution against the attacks in the United Nations.

In what activists said was an historic decision, the Peshawar High Court issued the verdict against the strikes by CIA-operated spy planes in response to four petitions that contended the attacks killed civilians and caused “collateral damage”.

Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan, who headed a two-judge bench that heard the petitions, ruled the drone strikes were illegal, inhumane and a violation of the UN charter on human rights. The court said the strikes must be declared a war crime as they killed innocent people.

“The government of Pakistan must ensure that no drone strike takes place in the future,” the court said, according to the Press Trust of India. It asked Pakistan's foreign ministry to table a resolution against the American attacks in the UN.

The lawsuit involved was not just a product of international political twaddle:

The case was filed last year by the Foundation for Fundamental Rights, a legal charity based in Islamabad, on behalf of the families of victims killed in a 17 March 2011 strike on a tribal jirga.

The jirga, a traditional community dispute resolution mechanism, had been called to settle a chromite mining dispute in Datta Khel, North Waziristan. This strike killed more than 50 tribal elders, including a number of government officials. There was strong condemnation of this attack by all quarters in Pakistan including the federal government and Pakistan military.

Shahzad Akbar, lawyer for victims in the case, said:

“This is a landmark judgment. Drone victims in Waziristan will now get some justice after a long wait.

“This judgment will also prove to be a test for the new government: if drone strikes continue and the government fails to act, it will run the risk of contempt of court.”?

Justified rage has a way of building into consequences.

What court was this?

The court involved, the Peshawar High Court, is the highest one in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (formerly called the North-West Frontier Province).

What will (predictably) happen?

Pakistan’s current government has been bribed with voluminous American money to the degree that it has been reluctant to call the U.S. on its often civilian killing drone attacks. But that may change, as the Pakistani public rightfully gets upset with the United States’ seemingly indiscriminate death-dealing targeting of whatever moves in Pakistan’s provinces.

At the United Nations, provided Pakistan actually seeks an anti-drone resolution, other nations will climb aboard the rare opportunity to belabor mighty America’s often arrogantly militaristic back.

In the United States, Republicans will express self-righteous umbrage with those comparatively tiny nations’ gall and seek to further distance America from the UN.

The rest of the American public probably will not care. After all, it’s not us that are being slaughtered, just “them far away guys.”

Consequently, not much will happen at a practical policy level. America’s love affair with drones and killing anyone who can even be remotely called a terrorist or sympathizer will probably continue. Metaphorically pushing a button is just so much fun. The only people getting bloody are those, whom the drone erases.

However, in the long run, the attendant publicity is going to further diminish America’s beacon for justice and fair play.

Drone murder supporters may not care. But our descendants probably will. Much of America’s ability to act in the world has been based on its reputation for good, even if clumsily expressed, intent.

The moral? — When we act like a war criminals, someone is eventually going to call us on it

America’s most manifest hypocrite, the President, should take note. As should his successor in office, whoever she or he might be.

Once we tarnish the utility of the “war criminal” label, we just become another manifestation of the same thing. We kill opportunistically because we can, not because it is right.

It is the “right” that the Peshawar High Court is focused on. Just as any legitimate judicial body in the world should be.

One of the more admirable qualities of a righteously focused judicial system is that it can give the slaughtered dead resonating voice. Long after they have passed.

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Pakistan’s Peshawar High Court Ordered the Pakistan Government to Confront U.S. Drone “War Crimes” at the United Nations — Is American Human Rights Hypocrisy Finally Going to Go on Global Display?