Originally published on the CGS blog on October 14, 2010.
As posted in the Huffington Post:
My friends at CIVIC just released a new report with findings on the conflicts in northwest Pakistan, particularly the civilian harm occurring on a daily basis that we seldom here about back here in Washington. The group conducted over 160 interviews with war victims, most of whom have never received an apology or help for the losses they’ve suffered. That’s caused a lot of anger on the ground and is crippling the legitimacy of the Pakistani government. With US support funneling into that country and US drone strikes increasing exponentially, this is something we should all be concerned about.
In one interview Mohammed, who lost his young daughter during Pakistani military operations last year tells CIVIC: “In the evening, artillery started raining shells on the mountains…one of the shells landed near us killing my daughter. When it hit it just blew her up into pieces. My other daughter started crying in a hysterical way after seeing her sister killed…she is unable to forget what happened.”
When it comes to US drone strikes, CIVIC found that the numbers of civilian casualties cited by anonymous US officials is likely much lower than reality. What’s particularly interesting is that across the border in Afghanistan, the US regularly pays compensation to civilian victims of its operations. In Pakistan, drone victims are often left to pick up the pieces on their own. Adding insult to injury, their losses aren’t even acknowledged.
Overlooking this kind of harm repeats mistakes the US made in Afghanistan. You’d think the US would have learned this lesson by now.
