United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday (August 13) categorically stated that drones should be used only for collection of information in accordance with the international laws.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of International Centre for Peace and Stability at the National University of Science and Technology in Islamabad, the UN Secretary General said every effort should be made to avoid civilian casualties in the use of armed drones, an issue that Moon’s special envoy Ben Emmerson is also working on, also with the support of the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS).
Ban ki Moon expressed his views on drones to lots cheers in the audience because of the raging public debate over the contentious nature of the attacks. The US justifies it as a useful means to hunting down terrorists that represent threat to the United States and its allies. Pakistanis reject the strikes as a violation of their country’s sovereignty. They also point to the over 3,400 deaths that have occurred off at least 257 such attacks since 2006.
The United States has drastically scaled back the number of drone attacks against militants in Pakistan and limited strikes to high-value targets in response to growing criticism of the program in the country, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
According to the report, the reduction in strikes has ‘temporarily appeased Pakistan powerful generals but some US officials are still worried about push back from the new government which wants to end the attacks altogether.’
US officials have stressed that the CIA will maintain a significant presence in Kabul and armed drones will continue to patrol Pakistan tribal belt after US withdrawal from Afghanistan, The Washington Post had reported on July 26.
Although the CIA has scaled down the use of unmanned aerial vehicles against Al-Qaeda terrorists, the issue continues to stoke resentment with Pakistan. An Associated Press(AP) report ´ quoting data from a US-based think-tank ´ had stated that only 16 drone strikes took place in Pakistan so far this year, compared with a peak of 122 in 2010, 73 in 2011 and 48 in 2012.
In a report last month Washington Post quoted current and former US intelligence officials as saying that the ‘CIA was instructed to be more cautious with its attacks, limiting them to high-value targets and dropping the practice of so-called ‘signature strikes’ ¶ hitting larger groups of suspected militants based purely on their behaviour, such as being armed and meeting with known militants.’
The report further mentioned two other senior American officials as saying: ‘The US scaled back the number of attacks and tightened up its targeting criteria as a concession to the Pakistani army, considered the most powerful institution in the country and the final arbiter on the future of the drone program.’ But , the AP report quoting senior Pakistani army officers, said that the drone program could not continue at the tempo it was being carried out and expressed concern that civilian casualties were breeding more militants, said the US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.