My Question for Short Debate on 27th February 2014
I concentrated on Indefinite Detention without trial, and on killings of terrorist suspects by missiles launched from drones together with nearby civilians. The Government reply failed to deal with these points and left me disappointed.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldhansrd/text/140227-gc0001.htm#14022777000346
terrorist suspects by missiles launched from drones together with nearby civilians
If I am not mistaken a drone is a missile, a bit like a doodle bug of the second world war except with pin point accuracy. The doodle bug was to strike fear in the population since nobody knew where it was going to land. The drone’s masters know where it will hit.
It has been suggested that UK Drones have hit Afghan targets, and since the UK is not at war with Afghanistan relatives of those killed in Afgh or Pakistan would have a very good case at the UNHRC (Council), the worldwide (UN!) policeman’s complaints procedure. I should think that the Council would have the power to censure such a country as would use them, and request that compensation be made to the families in question.
Since the drones do tend to strike in areas/regions which are deemed to be a terrorist hang-out, it is unlikely that such complaints would be made, or the procedure known about.
If the press can provide documentary evidence of death there from in a country not at war with the UK, then business might be brisk.
Lord Hodgson/Dr Watt’s consider going to the Chief Constable of Hertfordshire to make the complaint was risible, if not down right hilarious.
Dr Watt is known for his wisdom.
I see as, we the British are used as drone missiles by our transatlantic friends. They disintegrate on contact. And it seems ludicrous to me that whores in this country know they have to get paid in advance. So, why not our leaders? If selling our souls to the devil is the way they want to play this game, why not get paid healthily for it, and make sure you we get it up front? Isn’t the US saying ‘In God we trust, all others pay cash’ the one moral we should be aping from them.
A deadly device which appears from nowhere and kills a number of people would still be recognizable as a drone, disintegration or otherwise.
With regard to the procedure, and we are talking about our own government whom, under certain circumstances we are obliged to support, for complaint, an example of how not to complain to an international authority was the effort of the families of the Belgrade TV studios staff, who were said to have been killed when a British marked plane destroyed it to prevent Milosevich rallying unanimous support on the streets from the Serbs, at the height/depth of the FRY break up.
It was somewhat before the UNHRC(convention) had become
Law in UK, or even properly understood in the Hague, to a court of which they attempted to make a complaint. It was so unsuccessful that it seemed as though the ‘event’, as you might have called it, was a figment of the imagination, had never occured at all, and that, as Maude might say, in figurative language, was like raindrops under a toadstool in fairyland.
It might be a little different now put before the council in NY.
Lord Ivor Richard has profound expertise, and practical experience on all things UN.
Sri Lanka: long-term detention without trial:
”There has been no progress on releasing almost eight hundred persons detained for over ten years under the PTA” – Defending non-implementation of the LLRC in Geneva, 21 February 2014, http://groundviews.org/2014/02/21/defending-non-implementation-of-the-llrc-in-geneva/
” A British citizen has died in prison in Sri Lanka seven years after being detained while visiting the country. ……. Tamil politician Mano Ganesan described the death as “political murder”.He said Gobithas had been beaten up by ethnic Sinhalese prisoners in the past, yet was not protected subsequently.
…… Gobithas had been detained without charge for five years under Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act before being found guilty in 2012 of providing support to the Tamil Tigers” – UK citizen Visvalingam Gobithas dies in Sri Lanka jail, 25 February 2014, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26342890
Textbooks as 21C warfare in Sri Lanka:
In some countries 21C technology, eg drone attacks, is 21C warfare. In some others 15C technology, eg the printed word, is still used as 21C warfare and hence not taken seriously by many though the damage may be near-genocidal:
In post-independence Sri Lanka school textbooks have been used by the government to incite hatred and prejudices against the ethnic minorities:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/158649137/Sri-Lanka-Must-Transform-Its-Education-for-War-Into-Education-for-Peace
In a recent article about the Presentation made by the Sri Lankan President’s Secretary at UNHRC, Geneva, a former Permanent Delegate to UNHRC and UNESCO wrote:
”A UNESCO supervised revision of school text books by a panel of internationally renowned Sri Lankan scholars so as to minimize prejudice against communities and ‘build the defences of peace in the minds of men’.” – The Lalith Weeratunga Presentation, Dayan Jayatilleka, 28 January 2014, http://groundviews.org/2014/01/28/the-lalith-weeratunga-presentation/
In the last few decades the textbooks began to be issued freely in the classrooms by the classteachers at the beginning of schoolyear, January. But in the last few years in the army-occupied Northern Province, the President’s son issues them with his and his father’s pictures plastered on the frontcover of those books: Please note the tweet at the bottom: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/namal-rajapaksa-building-a-cult-of-personality-in-the-north/
magnificent put up, very informative. I wonder why the other
specialists of this sector do not notice this.
You should continue your writing. I’m sure, you’ve a
huge readers’ base already!
Thanks for your kind comments