Institute of Policy Studies: Interactive session with former US army colonel and diplomat Mary Ann Wright

An interactive session with former army colonel and State department official, Mary Ann Wright, and co-founder of human rights and peace group……

An interactive session with former army colonel and State department official, Mary Ann Wright, and co-founder of human rights and peace group CODEPINK, Medea Benjamin was held at the Institute of Policy Studies on 02 October 2012.

The session was chaired by former secretary foreign affairs, Akram Zaki and was attended by a large number of foreign policy and security experts, academics, civil society activists and journalists.

Speakers and participants of the seminar were unanimous that US drone strikes in Pakistan were a clear violation of international laws and human rights and depicted the absence of conscience among the strategy leaders in US as well as in Pakistan.

Referring to a constitutional lawyer in the US, Ann Wright termed drone as the “personal execution device” of the US president as he was directly responsible for the US drone operations in any part of the world, which were sanctioned by him every week. “How can one decide to kill someone without allowing access to a judicial system? It is illegal and nothing short of murder”, she remarked.

She said that through drone strikes US was violating international laws and all the concepts of conduct of war formed in the wake of the Second World War.

“Unfortunately, our president has chosen the role of chief executioner in United States”, she deplored.

Urging a greater coalition of peace activists at the global level against drones and the so-called war on terror, Wright said that there still were people in the US military who abhor the US military policies and strategies and a public movement would give such persons courage to speak up.

Head of the US peace delegation Medea Benjamin said that their group aimed at making all possible efforts to stopping US Government from illegal use of force. People in the United States and across the globe have to be told that the policy and the steps undertaken by the US and NATO were “barbarous, unjust and counter-productive”.

She revealed that they were considering hunger strike in front of US embassy in Pakistan to bring the atrocities to the limelight.

Seminar participants observed that once it has become clear that the political and military establishments in Pakistan and United States were “barren of conscience” with respect to the loss of lives and civil liberties in FATA, the people will have to stand up to express their concerns in every legitimately possible way to force the authorities to act sane.

It was highlighted that while the movements for peace in United States have been vocal and bold, it was high time that the people of Pakistan too should raise their voices too. The people in tribal areas were left at the mercy of militaries who knew nothing but to bombard. Tribal people do not and did not have any say in whatever has happened or was happening to them, through them or in the name of them.

Concluding the session senior IPS associate and former secretary foreign affairs Akram Zaki stated, “The essence of civilization is to tame the use of brute force”.

He noted that central vision of US offensive policy, as clearly manifested in drone strikes strategy, was to kill others without risking the lives of their own soldiers.

Zaki was of the view that freedom of media in the US was as much a myth as the introduction of democracy in the Third World is. He said that the national security doctrine in the US did not allow media to report freely on the US atrocities in the so-called war on terror and its drone operations that have killed and maimed thousands of innocent people.

He said that the Bush era in the US was an era of international illegalities. He also lamented that when drone operations were initiated in Pakistan it was in connivance with the then government and unfortunately the present democratic government was also towing the same line.

DG-IPSKhalid Rahman also spoke on the occasion and thanked the delegation for taking initiative against brute use of force and assured them that IPS shared their objectives and was always there to provide any support within its scope.

“Following is the audio file of complete session. Listener may have to concentrate at times when some participant is talking in cordless mike; otherwise the voice quality is good.”