As Human Rights Watch, the prominent rights organization announced on Tuesday it was launching a global campaign against the use of unmanned weaponry, Farea al-Muslimi,a prominent Yemeni journalist and rights activist was testifying before the American Senate Judiciary’s subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and human rights on the social and political repercussions of drones in Yemen.
Back in 2011 when Yemen was convulsed by the Arab Spring Movement Washington sought to reign down on al-Qaeda's rise to power by resuming its controversial drone campaign, not foreseeing such strikes would not only promote anti-American sentiment but play in the hands of al-Qaeda operatives' very rhetoric - America's war against Islam -
While Washington argued that its only goal in Yemen is to destroy terror and terror militants, removing a global threat, images of slain civilians and burned down properties only enforced popular views that the U.S cared little for Yemeni civilians' well-being.
Educated in the United States, al-Muslimi was called to Washington to testify before the Senate after his village, Wessab suffered last week a drone attack, striking fear and incomprehension in the hearts of thousands of so-far peaceful farmers.
America's target was Hameed Meftah, a man identified as being an al-Qaeda operative. Al-Muslimi who said Meftah was well-known in the village noted that should the authorities have asked, the village would have arranged for his arrest, saving the heavy military footprint.
"The drone strikes are the face of America to many.”
Recalling the minutes which followed the drone strike, al-Muslimi told the Senate his fellow villagers contacted him, trying to understand why the U.S had just attacked their village, an act which in their mind made no sense at all since they had no quarrel with the American state.
"The people in Wessab wanted to know: “Why was the United States terrifying them with these drones? Why was the United States trying to kill a person with a missile when everyone knows where he is and he could have been easily arrested?" "
Al-Muslimi went on explaining “The farmers in my village were angry because al-Radmi was a man with whom government security chiefs had a close connection. He received cooperation from and had an excellent relationship with the government agencies in the village. This made him look legitimate and granted him power in the eyes of those poor farmers, who had no idea that being with him meant they were risking death from a U.S. drone.”
It is this very notion of alternative counter-terror strategies based on ground cooperation which security experts and rights groups are promoting instead of Washington's heavy handed and often bloody military strikes.
"They fear that their home or a neighbor’s home could be bombed at any time by a US drone ...Villagers now think of America when they think of the terror they feel from the drones that hover over their heads ready to fire missiles at any time," noted al-Muslimi.
“For me personally, it is deeply troubling, astonishing, and challenging to reconcile that the very same hand that taught me English, awarded me scholarships, and dramatically improved my life is the hand that droned my village, terrified my people, and now makes it harder for them to believe the good things that I tell them about America and my American friends," he added, synthesizing many Yemenis' state of mind. While Yemen remains America's ally in its fight against al-Qaeda, it is becoming increasingly difficult for civilians to condone attacks which are so humanely costly, especially since alternative methods could have prevented senseless destruction and losses of life.
In a bid to make the Senate identify with Yemen's plight and heartbreak over America's drone campaign, al-Muslimi share a heart-wrenching story, that of a mother whose child was killed in strike in March 2013 in the southern province of Abyan:
“Muneer, an 18 year old boy, transported goods for shops via his donkey in the local souk of Ja’ar town. He had recently been engaged and was preparing for his wedding. Muneer was at work when a missile hit and killed him in May 2012.
At the time of the strike, Muneer’s mother was in Lahj. She told me that she could not attend her son’s funeral or even see him before he was buried, due to the heavy fighting between the government forces and Ansar Al-Sharia [offshoot of al-Qaeda in Yemen] along the road between Lahj and Abyan. In fact, the last time this grieving mother saw her son was when she was shown his dead body on a video from a random eyewitness’s phone. She told me, in tears, that if she ever meets the individual who shot the missile, she will “crunch him into pieces” in her mouth.
Abyan residents say Muneer was not a member of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula yet this has not stopped AQAP from using his death to recruit supporters.
Local residents told us that they approached one of Muneer’s relatives urging him to join AQAP in order to seek revenge for Muneer’s death.”
While al-Muslimi is the first Yemeni to expose what social and judicial backlash drones are creating in Yemen, he is certainly not the first one.
Dr Peter Schaapveld, a clinical and forensic psychologist who visited Yemen in February to conduct his research told the house of Representatives in March 2013, “What I saw in Yemen was deeply disturbing. Entire communities, including young children who are the next generation of Yemenis, are being traumatized and re-traumatized by drones. Not only is this having truly awful immediate effects but the psychological damage done will outlast any counter programme and surely outweigh any possible benefits."
Summing up in one sentence the implications of the strike, al-Muslimi told the Senate "What radicals had previously failed to achieve in my village, one drone strike accomplished in an instant: there is now an intense anger and growing hatred of America."