Monday, February 11, 2013

Drone strikes: Naming the Dead

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism is seeking to identify as many as possible of those killed in US covert drone strikes in Pakistan, whether civilian or militant.

Chris Woods, the leader of the Bureau's team for this project, says:
"At the moment we know the names of fewer than 20 per cent of those killed in Pakistan’s tribal areas. At least 2,000 deaths still remain publicly anonymous."
"Our aim will be to identify by name many hundreds more of those killed. A significant number of those identities will be known by local communities, by US and Pakistani officials, and by militant groups. We hope to convince them to share that information."
I am reminded of the war in Iraq, where the British and US governments refused to publish figures for civilian deaths and the task had to be undertaken by volunteers.

You can read more about Naming the Dead on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism website.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I live in Cambodia where thousands of unnamed civilians were killed during the secret and illegal bombing of the country by the USA in the late 1960s. The result was a seething anger that led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, with initially an enormous groundswell of popular rural support. It seems likely that the drone policy will lead to a very similar outcome.