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Akbar say the US is trying
to silence his first-hand
knowledge of civilian
deaths along the Afghan
border,
Karen McVeigh in New York guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 April 2012 16.40
BST Article history...>
Shahzad Akbar, centre right,
has not been allowed back
into the US since he sued the
CIA on behalf of Karim Khan,
centre left, whose family was
killed in a drone strike. Photograph: Anjum Naveed/
AP A lawyer representing civilian
victims of drone strikes in Pakistan has accused the US government of
blocking his
appearance at a conference in
Washington this month by
failing to grant him a visa. Shahzad Akbar, who founded
the Islamabad-based human rights organisation Foundation for Fundamental
Rights, says he has failed to
secure a visa since he began
suing the CIA over the killing of Pakistani civilians by US
drones. The case is expected to
be heard this month in
Islamabad. Sponsors of the drone summit
Killing and Spying by Remote
Control, including the Center
for Constitutional Rights,
Reprieve and the peace group
Code Pink, have criticised the failure to grant a visa to
Akbar, who they say
provides a much-needed voice
for the victims of drone
strikes in tribal Pakistan. Speaking from Pakistan by
telephone, Akbar said:
"Denying a visa to people like
me is denying Americans their
right to know what the US
government and its intelligence community are
doing to children, women and
other civilians in this part of
the world. The CIA, which
operated the drones in
Pakistan, does not want anyone challenging their
killing spree. But the
American people should have
a right to know." He was due to be a key speaker at the Washington
conference on 28-29 April. It
aims to "inform the American
public about the widespread
and rapidly expanding
deployment of both lethal and
surveillance drones, including drone use in the United States " and
promised participants the
opportunity to listen to the
personal stories of Pakistani
drone-strike victims,
according to its website. It is the second time that
Akbar, who has been granted
US visas in the past, has tried
and failed to enter the US to
speak at an event addressing
human rights concerns over the use of drones. Last year, he was invited to
participate at a conference at
Columbia University law
school in New York. His US
visa had expired three months
earlier, but his application in May was effectively put on
hold. Despite renewed inquiries to
the US ambassador in
Islamabad this year, he has
not had an explanation for the
delay of over a year. His last
US visa, issued in 2009, was processed in three working
days, he said. Although Akbar has travelled
to the US in the past and has
worked for US companies, he
has not been granted
permission to return since he
began speaking out against drone attacks in his homeland
in 2010. Organisers of the drone
summit described the failure
of the US to grant him a visa
as "outrageous". Cortney Busch, an investigator
at Reprieve, said: "If the
Obama administration
continues to avoid discussion
of its drones programme,
Shahzad Akbar must be allowed to tell the stories of
the numerous victims he has
met in order to give voice to a
silenced community. Shahzad
remains one of only a handful
of people worldwide able to shed light on these clandestine
CIA attacks. The US must
allow honest debate on a
policy which is killing
hundreds of civilians and
straining relations between the US and Pakistan." Akbar's relationship with the
US "changed dramatically", he
said, when he took on the
case of Karim Khan, a
journalist from North
Waziristan. Khan's son, 18, a government employee, and
brother, 35, a schoolteacher
and father of a toddler, were
killed when two missiles fired
from what he believes was a
CIA-operated drone struck his home in 2009. In November, Akbar initiated
legal notices against the CIA
and the US secretary of
defence for their deaths. The
legal case accuses, among
others, Jonathan Banks, the CIA station chief in Islamabad,
as being responsible for the
deaths. Banks left the country in 2010 after the legal action
blew his cover. The subject of drone strikes is
shrouded in secrecy because
they are operated by the CIA.
The Pakistani government
criticises them in public, but
documents published by Wikileaks in 2008 revealed
they are privately supported
by officials. In February, President Barack
Obama said drone strikes are
"kept on a very tight leash"
and "have not caused a huge
number of civilian casualties".
However, a growing body of evidence, including that
provided by Akbar, tells a
different story. A three-month investigation by the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism,
published days after Obama's
comments, found that
between 282 and 535 civilians,
including 60 minors, have been credibly reported as killed as a
result of drone strikes since
Obama took office three years
ago. It also found that at least
50 civilians were killed in
follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. Akbar said that
US drones are
so prevalent in the tribal area
of Waziristan, which borders
Afghanistan, that there are
four or five hovering in the
air at any one time. The children call them bangana,
because of the noise they
make. According to Akbar, 95% of
drone strikes in Pakistan
happen in Waziristan, a
sparsely populated area
where many people work in
transportation. With his first-hand
knowledge of the victims of
the attacks, Akbar provides a
challenge to the US narrative
of "precision strikes against
high value targets". "The US is saying that there
are almost no civilian deaths.
I'm challenging that. I have 80
people that are all civilians. It
can be proved that they are
not terrorists or assisting terrorists. This is in spite of the
hardships in getting into
Waziristan." He said that by blocking his
trip to Washington, the US
authorities were preventing
him revealing the true impact
of the drones strategy. "I wanted to tell American
people about the human
stories behind these strikes,"
he said. "These are the people
who will choose the next
American president and what they decide will have far-
reaching implications around
the world. "They think the American
war on terror is making
America safe, but it is not
making America safe. It is
creating enemies. A huge
number of people being killed in these strikes are civilians.
These people have no justice,
no system where they can file
a claim if a child is killed. They
are not terrorists. But you
have terrorist in the area who tries to recruit people. These
are the things people need to
know. They need to push
their lawmakers to stop this
drone policy." He plans to file public interest
litigation, the equivalent of a
judicial review, at the
Peshawar high court next
week on behalf of 80 families.
Victims of the strikes include women and children, the
youngest being seven, and
one person in a wheelchair. Akbar is challenging both the
CIA and the Pakistani
government over the use of
drones. "We are basically asking to
clarify what Pakistan's role is.
They say one thing in public
and, we are learning from
Wikileaks, another in private,"
he said. "They have a duty to protect their citizen. We want
to push the Pakistan
government to take this
matter to the international
criminal court or to the
security council... http://gu.com/p/36ph6/tw via @guardian
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