How many kids killed today?
Edited by Carolyn Bennett
Tariq Aziz’s car was hit as he and cousin drove from their home to a nearby
village to pick up Aziz’s aunt. Just 200
meters [656 feet] from his aunt’s house, a drone missile reportedly struck
their car. These youngsters were alone and there was nothing to suggest that
either of them had anything to do with terrorism.
A week earlier, Tariq Aziz had attended a Jirga (a council
concerned with collecting physical evidence on drone strikes). According to the London-based organization Reprieve, this young man “had been planning to join a Reprieve project aimed at ensuring greater
transparency in the CIA process. He had agreed to take pictures of the
aftermath of drone strikes to help document the damage caused by the strikes
and to seek to bring an end to them through peaceful means.”
Trumped up pretext for murder
Typical of statements by the global invaders, the strike that killed
Tariq Aziz and his cousin Waheed Khan “was first reported as having killed ‘four
militants,’ according to unnamed ‘Pakistani
security officials’ who briefed the media.
“This statement was false.
The strike near Mirali had in fact killed only Tariq and his football teammate
and cousin Waheed Khan.
Reprieve’s director, Clive Stafford Smith, said he had met Tariq Aziz a
week earlier and “he [Aziz] was no more a terrorist than my mother.” Smith
said, “It is tragic that the CIA did this, and it seems highly likely — and
typical of the shoddy intelligence in these cases — that some local informant
attached a tracking device to Tariq’s car and then told the CIA that the
vehicle belonged to a terrorist.
“It’s high time the CIA stopped this dirty and illegal war.”
Tariq Aziz was 16 years old, his cousin, Waheed Khan, 12
years old when they became one of the latest civilian casualties, innocents cut
down by U.S. CIA drones. The two boys
died when a missile fired by one of the United States’ remotely operated drones
hit their vehicle near their home in North Waziristan last Monday (October 31).
A few days earlier Aziz with his father had visited Islamabad for dialogue
concerning the CIA’s unmanned attack aircraft in the Pakistan border region.
On the previous Friday, Tariq had attended a Jirga or council in Islamabad at which the elders of communities in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) met for the first time with Western lawyers from London-based charity Reprieve to discuss the CIA’s secret bombing campaign in their area, which has claimed hundreds of civilian lives.
Destroying the young, the future,
prospects for peace
“I remember talking with Tariq on the phone a few weeks ago,” said Shahzad
Akbar of the Islamabad-based Foundation for Fundamental Rights. “He was
enthusiastic about the cameras for the transparency project and was eagerly
telling me about his computer skills and how he could upload pictures online.
“I believe we have lost someone who could have helped to show us what
is really happening in that part of the world. It makes it twice as tragic that
the CIA has killed a kid who wanted to work for justice and the rule of law.
“It is acts such as this that are fueling militancy and extremism among
the young people of the tribal areas.”
Sources and notes
“Teenage anti-drone protester killed by CIA strike in Pakistan,” November 6, 2011, Http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2011_11_06_Tariq_CIA_drone_Waziristan/
U.S. drones on Somalia update
At least 99 people have been killed in a single day in the airstrikes
carried out by the U.S. assassination drones in southern Somalia, Press TV
reported. November 6, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/208633.html
REPRIEVE
With 25 full-time staff in London, five Fellows in the USA,
two Fellows in Pakistan and countless volunteers around the world, Reprieve investigates,
litigates and educates, works on the frontline providing legal support to
prisoners unable to pay for legal counsel. Reprieve promotes the rule of law
around the world and secures each person’s right to a fair trial.
The organization prioritizes cases of prisoners accused of
the most extreme crimes, such as acts of murder or terrorism, as it is in such
cases that human rights are most likely to be jettisoned or eroded. Reprieve
focuses on cases involving the world’s most powerful governments, especially
those that should be upholding the highest standards when it comes to fair
trials.
From death row to Guantánamo Bay, Reprieve uses the law to
enforce the human rights of prisoners, http://www.reprieve.org.uk/about/
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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire
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