15 October 2014, Berlin

German Liability for US Drone Warfare in Yemen

Berlin
15 October 2014, 12:00 am

Faisal bin Ali Jaber, lost two family members in a drone strike in Yemen
Kat Craig, Reprieve
Andreas Schüller, ECCHR

On the evening of 29th August 2012, five rockets fired by US drones struck the village of Khashamir in eastern Yemen. Faisal bin Ali Jaber had travelled back to his village to celebrate a wedding with his extended family. While bin Ali Jaber survived, both his brother-in-law and his nephew were killed in the strike. Other family members suffer from ongoing trauma as a result of the attack. The drone strikes were carried out with the involvement of the US military base in Ramstein in the Rheinland-Pfalz region of Germany. Despite this involvement, the German government continues to deny any responsibility for civilian deaths caused by US drone warfare.

Faisal bin Ali Jaber will give an account of the attack and the work he is undertaking in the USA and Europe to bring an end to drone strikes in his home region.

Kat Craig, legal director at the international human rights organization Reprieve (London), represents relatives of Yemeni and Pakistani victims of drone warfare. She will discuss the legal action currently being taken by Yemeni claimants in various countries.

Andreas Schüller, head of the International Crimes and Accountability program at ECCHR, will examine Germany’s constitutional obligations regarding the use of the Ramstein US airbase to carry out drone strikes. 

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