A US air strike intended to kill al-Qaida's No. 2 man Ayman
al-Zawahiri missed its target and killed at least 18 innocent
people in a Pakistani village, in yet another clear manifestation
of US forces' sheer disregard for civilian lives in Washington's
on-going anti-terror campaign.
The Pakistani government on Saturday lodged a protest with the
United States over its "unprovoked" air attack on the country's
northwestern tribal region, a move which resulted in a grave abuse
of human rights of these innocent civilians.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry condemned the killing of
civilians, saying it had delivered an official protest to the US
ambassador to Islamabad.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed said his
government wanted "to assure the people we will not allow such
incidents to recur."
On Friday, a US pilotless aircraft fired missiles on the village
of Damadola in the country's Bajaur tribal area, targeting Ayman
al-Zawahiri, the second-highest-ranking leader of Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaida terror network.
However, local officials in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border
region said at least 18 civilians, including five women and five
children, had been killed in the attack.
Washington has said it is not sure about Zawahiri's fate after
the air strike, while a senior Pakistani security official said he
was convinced the man had not been in the village at all when it
was hit.
The incident stirred strong reactions in Pakistan on Saturday,
with thousands of tribesmen taking part in a rally in the town of
Khaar, the administrative center of Bajaur, to protest the
killing.
It is not the first time for US forces, in the name of
anti-terrorism, to mount attacks which have resulted in the loss of
innocent civilians in Pakistan and other countries.
The New York Times reported that eight people, also
including women and children, were killed on Jan. 7 when US forces
fired missiles and destroyed the house of a local cleric in North
Waziristan close to the Afghan border. Pakistan reacted with a
strong protest with coalition forces on Monday.
There have been a number of incidents involving civilian deaths
in failed or misdirected US attacks in Afghanistan and along the
border with Pakistan, said the newspaper.
In December 2003, nine children and a 25-year-old man were
killed in a strike from another US pilotless aircraft in Hutala, a
village in a remote area of southern Ghazni Province.
The intended target, a Taliban supporter who was suspected of
being behind several attacks on foreign aid and construction
workers, was not among the dead and may have not been in the
village at the time.
The bloody incidents reveal US forces' grave disregard for other
people's human rights and Washington's double standards are very
much in evidence.
There may be justification for the United States to press ahead
with its anti-terror policy, which is aimed at protecting the
safety of American people, or their right of existence, from being
harmed.
However, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the "anti-terror"
operations launched by US forces on other nations' soil have
seriously violated the right of existence of the people there.
Judging by the incidents, it has become all the more obvious
that Washington has all along adopted double standards when it
comes to the human rights of its own people and those from other
countries.
Human rights organizations in Pakistan also condemned Saturday's
attack, which they said undermined the cause of democracy in the
South Asian country, reported The Washington Post.
Afrasiab Khattak, director of the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, was quoted as describing the attack "a grass violation of
human rights."
The United States, which considers itself as a "defender of
human rights," always makes irresponsible comments on other
nations' human rights records.
But what US forces have done shows that their goal is not to
protect human rights, but find an excuse for their other political
moves.
The air strikes on Pakistani soil by US forces have also
affected its sovereignty.
According to The New York Times, the country has not
granted US forces in Afghanistan the right to cross the border,
even in pursuit of militants.
Pakistani security forces have made great efforts in fighting
terrorism and hunting down al-Qaida members believed to be taking
shelter in the northwestern tribal region, President Pervez
Musharraf was quoted as saying.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry also mentioned the security
forces' mass operations against foreign militants, saying: "To
protect our people and territory from incursion remains our
responsibility."
Some US officials assert human rights are more important than
sovereignty. But once their country's interests are involved,
neither of the two issues is no longer important.
The United States will continue to carry out its anti-terror
operations in the future, and such air strikes on other nations'
soil could take place again.
Nevertheless, no one would want to see the continued loss of
innocent lives as a result of the anti-terror operations.
(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2006)
