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At UN, Rapporteur Alston Admits Drone
Silence from US, Silent on UN, Calls Methods of Killing a Catch-22
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
June 30 -- In the face of questions about
the killing of
civilians by U.S.-controlled unmanned Predator drones, the U.S. has
argued that
the UN Human Rights Council and its rapporteur Philip Alston have no
jurisdiction, and are "irrelevant," Alston told the Press on Monday.
Inner City Press asked Alston to characterize the U.S. responses to his
inquiries about these killings from the air. "Their response has not
been
substantive," Alston said, rather only procedural.
As set forth in a May 4, 2006 U.S. letter
that Alston has put online
http://www.extrajudicialexecutions.org/communications/united_states.html
, the U.S. argues
that " inquiries
related to allegations stemming from military operations conducted
during the
course of an armed conflict with Al Qaida do not fall within the
mandate of the
Special Rapporteur. The conduct of a government in legitimate military
operations, whether against Al Qaida operatives or any other legitimate
military target, would be governed by the law of armed conflict."
In
the more
than two years since, the U.S. has simply not responded to Alston's
inquiries
on the topic, whether about killings in the village Haisori,
near the
town of Mir Ali, North Waziristan, or Damadola in the Bajaur Agency,
North
Western Pakistan. Alston says he will include the issue in his "final
report." In the briefing he gave Monday, Alston did not address attempt
to
curtail rapporteurs' mandates, so that any report they do could be
their last
report.
Alston at UN on June 30, update on UN's
responses not shown
Alston
was clearly
running scared, or being wisely cautious. Inner City Press asked for
his views on whether particular
modes of execution are "cruel and unusual punishing," within the
meaning of the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution or otherwise. "I
stay away from the question," Alston said. He said his mandate does not
allow him to take a position for the abolition of the death penalty --
even
though this is the UN position, as Ban Ki-moon learned in his first
week on the
job -- so he stays about from methods, calling them a "Catch 22."
Inner City
Press also asked Alston what responses he has gotten from the UN, about
its
failure to discipline its peacekeepers after the killing of civilians,
in
Haiti,
Kosovo and the Congo. In October 2007, Alston told the Press he
was inquiring into these issues, click here
for that. On Monday, Alston said that provide any update on the UN's
response was behind the scope of his
briefing, and said he would later provide the information. If and when
he does,
it will be reported on this site.
* * *
These reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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