Reprieve, a UK-based human rights organization which denounces all forms of abuses in counter-terrorism told reporters earlier this week it had filed a complaint with the UK government over British Telecom's decision to supply its client, the US government with "key communications equipment to connect bases that facilitate deadly [drone] missions," in Yemen.
Catherine Gilfedder, Reprieve’s corporate social responsibility advocate was quoted as saying by the Huffington Post, “The US’ secretive and illegal campaign of drone strikes in Yemen is killing civilians and traumatizing communities, yet it remains largely hidden from the eyes of the world. She added, "BT needs to give a clear answer on whether or not they are involved in facilitating this deadly programme. Its shareholders must demand this if their own responsible reputations are to be maintained. Hopefully this complaint will encourage the company to be open about its activities and take steps to ensure it is not complicit in the brutal violations suffered by Yemeni civilians.”
BT allegedly enabled communications in between RAF Croughton, a US military base in the UK, and Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, a covert military center from where drone strikes in Yemen are planned and executed.
Djibouti represents a geographical advantage as it lies only a few dozens kilometers from Yemen.
Due to the debatable and highly controversial legality of drone strikes, as they impede on countries' territorial sovereignty and violate civilian populations' human rights, Reprieve decided to call on the UK National Contact Point for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and demand that an investigation be launched into BT's dealings.
According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism as many as 800 people would have been killed in US-led drone strikes over the span of a decade, among whom many women and children.