Published on Wednesday, October 23, 2013 by Common Dreams
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In
this Wednesday, March 20, 2013 photo, the grandson of Afghan villager Ghulam
Rasool, 12 year old Ahmed Shah, center, recalled the attack on his village in
the yard of his house where he and his family found refuge in the village of
Khalis Family Village, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan. (Photo: AP) |
Recent reports on US drone strikes by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN have heightened international awareness about civilian casualties and have resulted in new calls for redress. The Amnesty International drone report “Will I be next?” says the US government should ensure that victims of unlawful drone strikes, including family members, have effective access to remedies, including restitution, compensation and rehabilitation. The Human Rights Watch report “Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda” calls on the US government to “implement a system of prompt and meaningful compensation for civilian loss of life, injury, and property damage from unlawful attack.”
Several human rights groups have approached lawmakers asking them to sponsor legislation calling for such a fund. But congresspeople have been reluctant to introduce what they consider a losing proposition. Even maverick Congressman Alan Grayson, who is hosting a congressional briefing for drone victims from Pakistan on October 29, turned down the idea. “There’s no sympathy in this Congress for drone strike victims,” he said.
But unbeknownst to Grayson, the human rights groups and drone strike victims themselves, Congress already has such a fund.
The peace group CODEPINK recently discovered that every
year for the past four years, a pot of $10 million has been allocated
for Pakistani drone strike victims. That would make a total of $40
million, quite a hefty sum to divide among a few hundred families. But
it appears that none of this money has actually reached them.
The Pakistani Civilian Assistance Fund was modeled after
the ones that exist in Iraq and Afghanistan, where money was allocated
to help alleviate the suffering of civilians harmed by US military
operations as part of a strategy to “win hearts and minds.” In the case
of Pakistan, where the CIA operates its drones, the money is supposed to
go directly to the families of innocent drone victims, or for needs
like medical expenses or rebuilding homes.
But Tim Rieser, the long-time staffer for Senator Patrick
Leahy who has worked to get this Pakistani civilian assistance fund
included in the yearly Foreign Operations budget, expressed his
exasperation about the use of the funds. “It’s been like hitting a brick
wall every time we push the administration to use these funds for drone
victims, since for years they wouldn’t even acknowledge the existence
of drone strikes,” said Rieser. “I seriously doubt that any of this
money has reached the victims it was intended to help.”
Instead, it appears that the Conflict Victims Support Fund gets farmed out to US-based non-governmental organizations like International Relief and Development
that, after taking their cut, provide humanitarian assistance for
Pakistanis who are not drone victims and are not even living in the
tribal areas of Waziristan where the US is carrying out the strikes.
Sarah Holewinski, the executive director of Civilians in
Conflict, agrees with Rieser that the funds are being misused. “Sure,
it’s not easy to assess damage and compensate families in Pakistan where
there are no boots on the ground to do a military investigation and
where the drone operations are covert,” said Holewinski. “But the State
Department does have personnel in Pakistan, including AID staff, and
they could work with communities to figure out what harm occurred, why,
by whom, and then determine what the civilians need/want/expect in order
to feel dignified and assisted.”
Doing this, however, would require cooperation from the
CIA, which carries out the drone strikes while refusing to talk about
them, and it would contradict the US government assertion that the drone
strikes have caused only a handful of civilian casualties.
To make up for the US lack of help, the Pakistani
government says it steps in to offer assistance. But the victims covered
in the Amnesty report said they either did not receive compensation
from the Pakistani government or that it was inadequate. The family of
68-year-old Mamana Bibi, who was killed in North Waziristan while
tending her crops, was furious
when they were offered $100, given that their costs for medical
expenses, repairs to their home and loss of livestock totaled about
$9,500.
A 45-year-old Pakistani farmer told investigators of another report, Living Under Drones,
that after his home was destroyed by a drone, he didn’t have the
$1,000,000 rupees [US $10,500] to build a new house, so he and his
family live in a rented room. “I spent my whole life in that house, my
father had lived there was well….I belong to a poor family. I’m just
hoping that I somehow recover financially,” he said.
If this farmer had lived in Afghanistan and had been harmed
by a drone, he would have been entitled to compensation for loss of
life, medical problems and/or property damage. The payments in
Afghanistan are usually small (about $5,000 for a death or injury or
$5,000 for property damage), but this can make a big difference to a
poor family. But next door in Pakistan, there is no help. This
inconsistency is the reason staffer Tim Reiser pushed for the Pakistan
fund and now thinks a Yemen fund should be created. “Anywhere innocent
people are harmed due to our mistakes, we should help them out,” says
Rieser. Even John Brennan, CIA chief who is the mastermind of President
Obama’s drone policy, said during his confirmation hearing that he thought the US should offer condolence payments—in fact, he thought the US was already doing that.
Most activists in the US and abroad are focusing, rightly
so, on trying to stop the drone killing spree. But those already harmed
deserve help. Mohamad al-Qawli, who just formed a network of drone
strike victims in Yemen, thinks it’s the least the US should do. Al-Qawli’s brother was killed in a drone strike,
leaving behind a distraught wife and three young children. “In our
tribal culture, if someone commits a crime or makes a terrible mistake,
they have to acknowledge the wrongdoing, apologize and provide
restitution. The US government won’t even acknowledge the wrongful death
of my brother, much less apologize and compensate his family. Could it
be that my tribal culture is more evolved than the justice system of the
United States?” Al-Qawli asks.
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