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June 4, 2010

UN Rapporteur: Drones Attacks Undermine "International Accountability"
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A senior United Nations official has unveiled a report calling on the
Obama administration to halt or scale back CIA drone strikes on alleged
militant suspects in Pakistan. In a briefing to the UN Human Rights
Council, Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, stopped short of
declaring the drone strikes in violation of international law. But
Alston said the drone strikes are undermining the "principle of
international accountability."

UN Rapporteur Philip Alston: "Because this program remains shrouded in
official secrecy, the international community does not know when and
where the CIA is authorized to kill, the criteria for individuals who
may be killed, how it ensures killings are legal, and what follow-up
there is when civilians are illegally killed. In a situation in which
there is no disclosure of who has been killed, for what reason, and
whether innocent civilians have died, the legal principle of
international accountability is, by definition, comprehensively
violated."



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