[in case she does not go back to sleep, that is]
Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has
said it: ‘Drone raids violate human rights!’ That’s just one news story. Most have reported that what Pillay said was,
‘drone attacks raise legal questions’.
This is June, 2012.
The United States Government has sanctioned hundreds of drone attacks on
targets in Pakistan. Drones have been
launched against targets in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen as well. It didn’t begin the day before Navi Pillay
woke up and decided to check out what was happening in parts of the world she’s
turned a blind eye on ever since she was appointed, i.e. on September 1, 2008.
Thousands have
perished and although the US Government says it was all ‘just and legal’, the
truth that Pillay seems to have missed is that the Pakistani military and
political authorities were kept in the dark about these attacks and worse the majority
of victims were non-combatants.
The world knows that the USA gets away with murder and I am
not speaking metaphorically. It’s
sidekick nation Britain too has proved to be adept at the game called ‘Murder-and-then-Scot-Free’. What is surprising is Pillay deciding to
look-see at what the entire world knows is happening in the unhappy places so
far away from the USA where innocent people ‘need’ to be killed in their
thousands so that the USA can live in peace.
Let’s say that the lady can be excused for not knowing anything
about human rights before she landed the big job in the HRC. Let’s assume that she couldn’t be bothered
about these things until she got a letter with a Job Description that included keeping
eye on conflict and making sure that rules are followed. The world knew, though, that the USA has been
using drones since 2004. The problem
with Pillay is that she seems to have been tongue tied for 3 years, 9 months
and 4 days about the horrendous crimes against humanity perpetrated by the USA
in Pakistan (never mind what they’ve done and do in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya
etc.). So tongue tied that when that
organ got moving it could only utter vague conjecture, i.e. ‘raises legal
questions’.
Now we could say that’s all diplo-speak and that
understatement is the official language of the UN system, except that the lady
is known to be quite the spitting and snarling type when it comes allegations
of violations supposedly perpetrated by countries and groups the USA does not
see eye to eye with. So what’s it with
Pillay? Why this two-tone system of
statement-making?
Reverend Jesse Jackson said unequivocally in Geneva (yes, he
had to be pushed by Rajpal Abeynayake to address the issue)that those who own
the drones are violators of human rights.
If Pillay is looking for a cue, that statement would suffice, I am
sure.
So when is Pillay going to meet Ban Ki-moon and tell him to
tell the USA where to get off? When is
she going to photocopy a page from her operational directives on things related
to Sri Lanka and threaten the USA with dire consequences if it did not allow an
impartial group to visit these tragic countries and report to her (or Ban
Ki-moon) about the blood and tears of the dead, dying and bereaved?
When, Ms. Navi Pially, when?
And what, Ms. Pillay, what will you do next? We are waiting here with baited breath.
[Also check 'Editor's Blog' in The Nation website]
1 comments:
We all know what she (and the UN cronies) is going to do....sweet f**k all. Why should they when they get paid to parrot what Uncle Sam wants them to say?
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