On Tuesday, Peter Maurer, the Red Cross chief condemned US drone strikes outside areas officially engulfed in armed conflict. He warned against a creeping expansion of the definition of what constitutes a battlefield. Since in the context of an armed conflict, drones are legitimate, Maurer said that Washington’s controversial and secretive use of drones was, in itself, not a problem.
Peter Maurer was quoted as saying to reporters in Geneva that the problem arises if a drone is used in a country where there is no armed conflict. Maurer said, “A drone used in Afghanistan or Yemen is a drone used within the context of an armed conflict, and thereby used legitimately.”
Moving to Pakistan, he believes the drone attacks are “particularly problematic”
Maurer on his return from a trip to the United States, where he met with President Barrack Obama, told AFP that “the US is very aware of where we disagree with the use of drones” He said that a widening interpretation of what constitutes a battlefield is the main problem with drone strikes today.
He said that, ”To link the definition of battlefields to combatants on the move is an interpretation that we don’t share.”
The US has been criticized by rights advocates and Lawmakers for its strikes against suspected al Qaeda militants in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere. The US officials, however, refuse to discuss any details of the covert campaign in public.
Maurer says that he had also used his trip to urge Washington to swiftly address the problem of Guantanamo. Since February, dozens of prisoners in Guantanamo have been staging a hunger strike.
In 2009, Obama moved to close the controversial US detention facility, however, plans to try suspects in the US civilian courts were thwarted by congress. This move left many inmates in limbo.
“Lack of perspective in terms of transfer is at the origin of the big malaise that has been transformed into a hunger strike,” Maurer said.
The Red Cross visits the Guantanamo detainees on a regular basis; however, its reports on the prison’s conditions remain private to the US government and very hidden from the public.
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