American drone attacks deeply worrisome: UN

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States should be more forthright about how many civilians die in its overseas wars, and exercise more caution with unmanned drone attacks, a United Nations human rights envoy said on Wednesday.
Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, called the US reliance on pilotless missile-carrying aircraft deeply troubling and cited serious shortcomings with the US military justice system.
The government should track and make public the number of civilian casualties, he told the UN Human Rights Council.
He recommended that Washington make public the status of all investigations into civilian deaths in its armed conflicts.
The Australian law professor said that US soldiers, Pentagon officials, intelligence agents and private contractors are not being held to account for unlawful killings they commit.
The government has failed to effectively investigate and punish lower-ranking soldiers for such deaths, and has not held senior officers responsible under the doctrine of command responsibility, he told the 47 member-state forum in Geneva.
Worse, it has effectively created a zone of impunity for private contractors and civilian intelligence agents by only rarely investigating and prosecuting them, Alston said.
US diplomat Lawrence Richter objected to Alstons remarks, saying the UN investigator did not have the mandate to cover military and intelligence operations related to armed conflict.
Richter told the Human Rights Council that the US has an extensive legal framework to respond to unlawful killings and is doing all it can to provide information about the deaths that occur in its armed conflicts.
Washington continues to actively prosecute wrongdoing overseas, but faces trouble getting witnesses to work with US investigators or travel to testify in US courts, said Richter. The prosecution of private contractors who commit crimes is an important priority of the Department of Justice, he stressed.
On Wednesday, Alston expressed strong concern at the continuing problem of preventable civilian casualties, especially in the context of aerial bombing, in Afghanistan and called for real accountability based on credible independent investigations.
Targeted killings carried out by drone attacks on the territory of other states are increasingly common and remain deeply troubling, Alston said. The US government should disclose the legal basis for such killings and identify any safeguards designed to reduce collateral civilian casualties and ensure that the government has targeted the correct person.
Pakistani officials have complained about the drone attacks, calling them a violation of sovereignty and increase resentment towards both Pakistans government and the United States.
Another UN expert said former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld could soon be in trouble for the role he played in human rights abuses committed in the Guantanamo prison.
In a year or two, his responsibilities will be established. Wherever he goes, he will face difficulties, Leandro Despouy, who is Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, told journalists in Geneva.
Despouy said the strong resistance put forward by the former US administration to current US president Barack Obamas decision to close the detention centre has nothing to do with the officially cited reason of national security considerations.
Rather they are fearful that they may be taken to task once the detention centre is closed, said Despouy.
The UN expert called on the international community to support Obamas decision to close the prison.