While We Read About Drones, Civilians Are Suffering in Pakistan

Amnesty International recently released a new report and website on human rights abuses in northwest Pakistan. This posting is part of our Eyes on Pakistan blogging series.

We have written extensively on this blog about the human rights crisis in northwest Pakistan over the last few weeks. The northwest region of the country is covered on a daily basis in the mainstream media. However, the focus in reporting is on counter-terrorism issues, and no attention is given to the impact of the conflict on civilian communities who live in the area. You just have to check today’s news to find that the top stories in regard to Pakistan are on a new drone strike and the five Americans who were recently convicted on terrorism charges.

To counter this trend and to change the debate about northwest Pakistan in the US media, we are launching the Eyes on Pakistan Writing Contest. Since this is such a frequent topic, we encourage you to challenge the current media reporting and raise human rights concerns in northwest Pakistan by writing op-eds, letters to the editors, blog entries or news stories on the human rights crisis in northwest Pakistan (Take a look at this example). The best entries will receive a Flip HD camera and get a chance to be re-published on this blog and the Eyes on Pakistan website!

We are providing enough resources to get you started, and you should especially check out our new website Eyes on Pakistan. Through the Eyes on Pakistan project, we have a powerful new tool to track and monitor the human rights situation on the ground. Policy makers from Islamabad to Washington would be well advised to heed the alarming trends it demonstrates. Eyes on Pakistan reveals the human toll of a conflict that is all too often described in the abstract. The site presents irrefutable proof that northwestern Pakistan has become the scene of a grave human rights and humanitarian crisis.

Change the debate now: Start writing and send us your published piece.

AIUSA welcomes a lively and courteous discussion that follow our Community Guidelines. Comments are not pre-screened before they post but AIUSA reserves the right to remove any comments violating our guidelines.

12 thoughts on “While We Read About Drones, Civilians Are Suffering in Pakistan

  1. those who treat others badly suffer far worse than those who treat others with kindness.

  2. i activate in almost every campaign of Amnesty's for rights around the world.

    But this time i refuse to come anywhere near your organization & its position.

    i refuse to join Amnesty's campaign to beg Obama to add a "human rights agenda" TO HIS "OVERALL STRATEGY FOR NW PAKISTAN" & TO "CLARIFY THE US CHAIN OF COMMAND & THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT" IN THE US MILITARY INTERVENTION IN THE REGION.

    i refuse to participate in your campaign, for this position of Amnesty International's accepts & LEGITIMATES the ILLEGALITY OF THE APPLICATION OF A STRATEGY BY THE US TOWARDS THE SOVEREIGN COUNTRY OF PAKISTAN.

    No country has the right to apply & conduct a STRATEGY of ANY kind INSIDE or UPON the body of another .It can only do so by violating its sovereignty.

    i refuse to participate in your campaign, because this position of Amnesty International's LEGITIMATES THE ILLEGAL US MILTARY INTERVENTION INSIDE SOVEREIGN PAKISTAN, an intervention that is an extension to the ILLEGAL US INVASION & OCCUPATION OF COLONIZED AFGHANISTAN.

    i refuse to participate in your campaign, for i am against ALL FOREIGN INVASIONS.

    i refuse to participate in your campaign, for i am against ALL FOREIGN OCCUPATIONS.

    You continually proclaim your nonviolence.

    Yet you NEVER OPPOSE THE WAR.

    You NEVER CALL FOR IMMEDIATE US WITHDRAWAL.

    Instead, you CALL FOR THE "HUMANIZATION" OF WAR — WAR, WHICH IS THE GREATEST PROCESS OF DEHUMANIZATION in history….

    Your "human rights" are now just another plank & platform for the greatest counter – rights machinery on earth to repackage, cosmeticize & prettify its horror of a face — the war machinery.

    Human rights as plank & platform for the destruction of NATIONAL rights — paper rights as platform for the MASS & MASSIVE violation of those same rights —this is where your quest for justice has brought you, & you are silent & seemingly oblivious to this reality !!!!

    You know FULL WELL war is not a selfchecking, selfcorrective machinery — it can ONLY escalate & worsen its own violence.

    And yet you still go on with your pretension & playacting of the "rectification" & "reform" & TAMING of the Beast.

    This makes you, knowingly & deliberately, a part & parcel of this war & ALL its consequences.

  3. Terrorism should be ended by all means for any country to prosper. People, meaning innocent civilians suffer all over the world due to separatism and extremism leading to the ultimate curse of terrorism. If a few people have to die for the cause of making their loved ones live a better future, you cannot help it. By all means, get rid of extremists and Terrorists for the sake of the future of the human race.

  4. those who treat others badly suffer far worse than those who treat others with kindness.

  5. i activate in almost every campaign of Amnesty’s for rights around the world.

    But this time i refuse to come anywhere near your organization & its position.

    i refuse to join Amnesty’s campaign to beg Obama to add a “human rights agenda” TO HIS “OVERALL STRATEGY FOR NW PAKISTAN” & TO “CLARIFY THE US CHAIN OF COMMAND & THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT” IN THE US MILITARY INTERVENTION IN THE REGION.

    i refuse to participate in your campaign, for this position of Amnesty International’s accepts & LEGITIMATES the ILLEGALITY OF THE APPLICATION OF A STRATEGY BY THE US TOWARDS THE SOVEREIGN COUNTRY OF PAKISTAN.

    No country has the right to apply & conduct a STRATEGY of ANY kind INSIDE or UPON the body of another .It can only do so by violating its sovereignty.

    i refuse to participate in your campaign, because this position of Amnesty International’s LEGITIMATES THE ILLEGAL US MILTARY INTERVENTION INSIDE SOVEREIGN PAKISTAN, an intervention that is an extension to the ILLEGAL US INVASION & OCCUPATION OF COLONIZED AFGHANISTAN.

    i refuse to participate in your campaign, for i am against ALL FOREIGN INVASIONS.

    i refuse to participate in your campaign, for i am against ALL FOREIGN OCCUPATIONS.

    You continually proclaim your nonviolence.

    Yet you NEVER OPPOSE THE WAR.

    You NEVER CALL FOR IMMEDIATE US WITHDRAWAL.

    Instead, you CALL FOR THE “HUMANIZATION” OF WAR — WAR, WHICH IS THE GREATEST PROCESS OF DEHUMANIZATION in history….

    Your “human rights” are now just another plank & platform for the greatest counter – rights machinery on earth to repackage, cosmeticize & prettify its horror of a face — the war machinery.

    Human rights as plank & platform for the destruction of NATIONAL rights — paper rights as platform for the MASS & MASSIVE violation of those same rights —this is where your quest for justice has brought you, & you are silent & seemingly oblivious to this reality !!!!

    You know FULL WELL war is not a selfchecking, selfcorrective machinery — it can ONLY escalate & worsen its own violence.

    And yet you still go on with your pretension & playacting of the “rectification” & “reform” & TAMING of the Beast.

    This makes you, knowingly & deliberately, a part & parcel of this war & ALL its consequences.

  6. Terrorism should be ended by all means for any country to prosper. People, meaning innocent civilians suffer all over the world due to separatism and extremism leading to the ultimate curse of terrorism. If a few people have to die for the cause of making their loved ones live a better future, you cannot help it. By all means, get rid of extremists and Terrorists for the sake of the future of the human race.

  7. Dear Mr.President,
    Please have the Rules of Engagement specify which civilians your military is allowed to kill.
    Thank you.

  8. Dear Mr.President,
    Please have the Rules of Engagement specify which civilians your military is allowed to kill.
    Thank you.

  9. Jean-

    Technically radical islamic jihadist al-qaeda terrorists are "civilians" so I hope those are included in the Rules of Engagement.

  10. Jean-

    Technically radical islamic jihadist al-qaeda terrorists are “civilians” so I hope those are included in the Rules of Engagement.

  11. Allen,
    technically you are applying terrorists logic to kill civilians. then what makes you different than terrorists.

  12. Allen,
    technically you are applying terrorists logic to kill civilians. then what makes you different than terrorists.

Comments are closed.