Pakistani drone survivors will speak with US Congress

[Patriots]

WASHINGTON: Nabila Rehman was picking okra in her family garden last year when missiles from a drone rained down from the sky, killing her grandmother and injuring her and seven other children.

The nine-year-old girl from North Waziristan Agency (NWA) now has a question for the US government: "What did my grandmother do wrong?"

Rehman's father has traveled with her from Pakistan's North Waziristan

region to Washington, along with her 13-year-old brother, who was also wounded by shrapnel, to put a human face on America's drone campaign.

Their account was cited last week in an Amnesty International report that demanded an end to secrecy around the drone attacks and questioned US claims the missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt are carried out only against imminent threats with minimal civilian casualties.

Nabila's father, Rafiq Rehman, said he accepted an invitation from a

documentary production company to come to the United States because "as a teacher, I wanted to educate Americans and let them know my children have been injured."

"My daughter does not have the face of a terrorist and neither did my

mother. It just doesn't make sense to me, why this happened," he told AFP in an interview.

The Rehmans said they have no connection to any anti-US extremists or

Al-Qaeda militants, and as they mourned their grandmother, they were confounded by inaccurate accounts of the October 2012 bombing raid.

Media reports afterward confirmed a drone strike took place, but said

missiles hit a house, with one version alleging a car was struck and several militants killed.

But the Rehmans said no building or car was directly hit in the attack, and that paved roads are some distance away. They say missiles landed in the field where their grandmother was teaching Nabila how to recognize when okra are ripe enough to pick.

After a loud boom, "where my grandmother was standing, I saw these two

bright lights come down and hit her," said Nabila. "And everything became dark at that point."

She noticed blood on her hand and tried to wipe it away with her shawl.

"But the blood just kept coming," she said. Shrapnel lodged in her right hand and she was treated at a local hospital. Her brother, Zubair, suffered shrapnel wounds to his left leg, which required two operations.

His family had to take out a loan to pay for the surgery.

Since the attack, Zubair said he has trouble sleeping and no longer goes

outside to play cricket. "I don't feel like going outside and playing with my friends. I don't feel like going to school. It's really destroyed my life," he said.

His sister said the US government's explanation for drone strikes did not apply to her family. "When I hear that they are going after people who have done wrong to America, then what have I done wrong to them? What did my grandmother do wrong to them? "I didn't do anything wrong," she said.

The Rehman family's experience features in a new documentary, "Unmanned:

America's Drone Wars," which takes a critical view of the air strikes.

On Tuesday, the Rehmans will appear at a press conference in Washington

with a member of Congress, Alan Grayson, a Democrat from Florida.

"When it comes to national security matters like drone strikes, it's

important that we hear not only from the proponents of these attacks, but also from the victims," Grayson said in a statement.

In their village in North Waziristan, there is the constant buzz of drones overhead and even small children learn to identify the sound, the father said. Rehman said all he wanted was "peace" and to end the violence that claimed his 63-year-old mother.

"I believe there are better ways to go about it than these drones, perhaps through discussions and negotiations with whoever they are targeting."

The US government insists the drone strikes are a legal means of

"self-defense" and an effective tool in the fight against Al-Qaeda, arguing other methods would put more lives at risk.

Rehman's Pakistani lawyer, Shahzad Akbar, who represents others who say

they are victims of drone strikes, had planned to accompany the Rehmans but the State Department denied him a travel visa for the trip, according to Jennifer Gibson, a lawyer with Reprieve, which works with Akbar.

The Rehmans "are not asking for money. They want answers," she said.

"They hope that by coming here and saying we're the faceless people who you keep counting as numbers, somebody is going to start listening and questioning if this is really a smart policy."

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-124314-NWA-family-recounts-drone-terror-in-visit-to-US

@batmannow

 

[joekrish]

Sad....Children are suffering, hope they find a way to keep them out.

 

[ali_raza]

there is no way to avoid it as long as our own house is not in order.khud to bhek mangne pohanch jate hai or bad me ankhe dikhate hai.lanat beshumar.musharaf zardari gilani and ganja too

 

[Patriots]

 

[Patriots]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10202348584345995

 

[Patriots]

Pakistani family of drone strike victim gives harrowing testimony to Congress
Translator brought to tears by family's plea as Congress hears from civilian victims of alleged US drone strike for the first time

Nabila Rehman, 9, holds up a picture she drew depicting the US drone strike on her
Pakistan village which killed her grandmother. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters

The family of a 67-year-old midwife from a remote village in North Waziristan told lawmakers on Tuesday about her death and the "CIA drone" they say was responsible. Their harrowing accounts marked the first time Congress had ever heard from civilian victims of an alleged US drone strike.

Rafiq ur Rehman, a Pakistani primary school teacher who appeared on Capitol Hill with his children, Zubair, 13, and Nabila, 9, described his mother, Momina Bibi, as the "string that held our family together". His two children, who were gathering okra with their grandmother the day she was killed, on 24 October 2012, were injured in the attack.

"Nobody has ever told me why my mother was targeted that day," Rehman said, through a translator. "Some media outlets reported that the attack was on a car, but there is no road alongside my mother’s house. Others reported that the attack was on a house. But the missiles hit a nearby field, not a house. All of them reported that three, four, five militants were killed."

Instead, he said, only one person was killed that day: "Not a militant but my mother."

"In urdu we have a saying: aik lari main pro kay rakhna. Literally translated, it means the string that holds the pearls together. That is what my mother was. She was the string that held our family together. Since her death, the string has been broken and life has not been the same. We feel alone and we feel lost."

AnAmnesty International report, published last week, lists Bibi among 900 civilians they say have been killed by drone strikes, a far higher number than previously reported. The Amnesty report said the US may have committed war crimes and should stand trial for its actions.

The US has repeatedly claimed very few civilians have been killed by drones. It argues its campaign is conducted "consistent with all applicable domestic and international law". Unofficial reports, however, have suggested that hundreds have been killed in Pakistan alone, with up to 200 children killed.

In poignant testimony, Rehman's son, Zubair, described the day of the attack, the day before the Muslim holy day of Eid, as a "magical time filled with joy". He told lawmakers that the drone had appeared out of a bright blue sky, the colour of sky most beloved by his grandmother and himself, he said.

"As I helped my grandmother in the field, I could see and hear the drone hovering overhead, but I didn’t worry" he said. "Why would I worry? Neither my grandmother nor I were militants."

"When the drone fired the first time, the whole ground shook and black smoke rose up. The air smelled poisonous. We ran, but several minutes later the drone fired again. "

"People from the village came to our aid and took us to hospital. We spent the night in great agony in at the hospital and the next morning I was operated on. That is how we spent Eid."

Zubair said that fear over the drone attacks on his community have stopped children playing outside, and stopped them attending the few schools that exist. An expensive operation, needed to take the shrapnel out of his leg, was delayed and he was sent back to the village until his father could raise the money, he said.

“Now I prefer cloudy days when the drones don’t fly. When the sky brightens and becomes blue, the drones return and so does the fear. Children don’t play so often now, and have stopped going to school. Education isn’t possible as long as the drones circle overhead.”

According to Zubair, the fundraising took months.

His sister, Nabila, told lawmakers that she had been gathering okra with her brother and grandmother when she saw a drone and "I heard the dum dum noise."

"Everything was dark and I couldn't see anything. I heard a scream. I think it was my grandmother but I couldn't see her.

"All I could think of was running."

Rehman told lawmakers that he is seeking answers to why his mother was targeted. The strike has affected his wider family, who no longer visit because they fear the drones might kill them too.

In testimony that caused the translator to stop and begin to weep, he said: "Congressman Grayson, as a teacher, my job is to educate. But how do I teach something like this? How do I explain what I myself do not understand? How can I in good faith reassure the children that the drone will not come back and kill them, too, if I do not understand why it killed my mother and injured my children?"

He said that his mother was not the first innocent victim of drone strike, but that "dozens of people in my own tribe that I know are merely ordinary tribesman had been killed". He said that numerous families in his community and the surrounding area had lost loved ones, including women and children over the years.

"They have suffered just like I have. I wish they had such an opportunity as well to come tell you their story. Until they can, I speak on their behalf as well. Drones are not the answer."

Rehman said that although the Pakistani government accepted his claim and confirmed details, it said it was not responsible and he has had no compensation to help with the medical treatment for his children.

Rehman said: "In the end I would just like to ask the American public to treat us as equals. Make sure that your government gives us the same status of a human with basic rights as they do to their own citizens. We do not kill our cattle the way US is killing humans in Waziristan with drones. This indiscriminate killing has to end and justice must be delivered to those who have suffered at the hands of unjust."

Asked what he would say to President Barack Obama, Rehman called on the Pakistani and US government to work together to achieve peace.

"I would say to President Obama if I had the opportunity to meet with him is: 'What happened to me and my family was wrong'. I would ask him to find an end, a peaceful end, to what is happening."

"I think that's something that the American government and the Pakistani government can work together to achieve."

Missing from the briefing on Tuesday was the account of Shahzad Akbar, an international critic of US drone policy and the family lawyer, who spearheaded the idea of bringing civilian victims of drone strikes to Congress and who was refused a visafor the third time. Reprieve, the British rights group which together with Brave New Foundation, helped the Rehman family travel to Washington, said he had 6,000 letters supporting his visit.

The hearing was attended by only five members of Congress, and Grayson said such low numbers of lawmakers at hearings were not unusual. Those attending were all Democrats: Rush Holt of New Jersey, Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, John Conyers of Michigan, Rick Nolan of Minnesota, and Grayson, the Florida Democrat responsible for inviting the family to Washington and for holding the hearing.

Each of the lawmakers spoke about the drone programme to call for more transparency or greater oversight. Schakowsky said she agreed with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and their call for more transparency and debate about the targeted killing programme. Holt and Conyers called for a congressional investigation into drone strikes.

Grayson, a fierce critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan told the hearing: "Invading from the skies is no different from invading on the grounds. We should never accept that children and loved ones are acceptable collateral damage.” Was there any other human activity, he asked “where 10-30% of the dead are innocent?”

It began with a broadcast of Unmanned: America's Drone Wars, a film by Robert Greenwald of Brave New Foundation, which features the Rahman family.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/29/pakistan-family-drone-victim-testimony-congress