20211019 Drohnen als Waffen ächten!

Ban the Use of Drones as Weapons

In November 20 years ago the first publicly known murder by a US drone in Afghanistan happened - a whole family died in the "mistaken attack". The (probably not) last murder wiped out the entire family of Zemari Ahmadi, who was (on that day still) working for a US aid organization in Afghanistan, on August 30.

20 years of drone killings are more than enough

Judy Weiss and Peter Weiss write about this latest drone strike:

Everyone who followed the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan was horrified by the drone attack, called a “tragic mistake” by the Pentagon, which killed ten members of a single family, including 7 children.

Zemari Ahmadi, who worked for Nutrition and Education International, a U.S.-based aid organization, became the target because he drove a white Toyota, went to his office, and stopped to pick up containers of clean water for his extended family. Those actions, deemed suspicious by the drone surveillance program and its human handlers, were enough to identify Ahmadi falsely as an ISIS-K terrorist and place him on the kill list for that day.

The murder list of the last 20 years contains many thousands of people, most of whom we do not even know their names. The British human rights organization Repreive gives a "success rate" of 28 civilian deaths per "high-value target" for U.S. drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen. Other organizations can substantiate more than 9 "collateral damages" per drone strike. In any case, drones are not, never have been, and never will be the weapons for "surgical strikes" that the military makes them out to be.

Upcoming Decisions on Weapons of Terror: Nuclear bombs and armed drones

That's why it's important that the next German federal government doesn't get into an upgrade with armed drones - and "incidentally" finishes the modernization of the nuclear weapons in Büchel and their delivery systems - that would also free up a lot of much-needed money for other things (climate, social policy,...).

There will be an event on this topic in 8 days, on Wed. 27.10. at the 10-day Conference of Visions.

The whole world is watching Germany and Berlin. The coalition agreement of the new German government could stipulate important decisions on nuclear bombs and on the possible arming of drones for the Bundeswehr: weapons that pose the greatest threat to international law and human rights, to the climate and to life. Will the German government and the new Bundestag take the necessary — and for Germany quite realistic — steps to try to bring these weapons under international controls or to ban them?

Two activists, both experts with transatlantic experience, will discuss with the participants the role that the new German government should and could play, as well as perspectives for international movements against nuclear weapons and armed drones.

Speakers: Brian Terrell (USA) Bankillerdrones.org, Elsa Rassbach, Drohnen-Kampagne, Attac

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