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Pakistan raises drone strikes issue at UN
[Dawn] Pakistain on Thursday raised the issue of American drone strikes in its tribal regions at the United Nations...a formerly good idea gone bad... Security Council, calling for their cessation and seeking "urgent" talks to resolve the problem. "Drone strikes infringe our illusory sovereignty, violate international law, including international human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... and humanitarian law, cause civilian casualties and are detrimental to the combined efforts to fight terrorism," Ambassador Masood Khan told the 15-nation council during a discussion on the situation in Afghanistan. "Pakistain is facilitating the Afghan reconciliation process, but progress is attainable only if all stakeholders share the goals of the grinding of the peace processor," Ambassador Masood Khan said. "We need to pursue this goal together, with unity of purpose," the Pak envoy said. Noting that Secretary-General  the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... had called attention to the adverse consequences of the use of armed drones, the Pak ambassador said: "We call for cessation of drone strikes. Urgent and intense dialogue can help resolve this issue." In relation to the issue of drone strikes, Ambassador Zamir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistain to the UN in Geneva, had stated that Pakistain, a primary target of drone attacks, had suffered a heavy loss of innocent lives apart from widespread social and economic costs. While addressing the opening session of the 24th Human Rights Council, he had said that in recent years, there had been severe human rights violations across the globe, as a result of indiscriminate use of force in the context of counter-terrorism efforts. Posted by: Fred 2013-09-20 |
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