Translator at drone strike hearing moved nearly to tears by survivor testimony [View all]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/30/translator-at-drone-strike-hearing-moved-nearly-to-tears-by-survivor-testimony/



Translator at drone strike hearing moved nearly to tears by survivor testimony
By David Ferguson
Wednesday, October 30, 2013 13:50 EDT

A translator at a Capitol Hill hearing on the U.S. drone program was moved nearly to tears Tuesday during the testimony of Pakistani primary school teacher Rafiq Rehman. Rehman and his family — whose story was revealed to the world by Amnesty International — traveled to Washington from Pakistan’s northern Waziristan region. The teacher’s mother was killed in a U.S. drone strike and his two children were injured.

The family’s congressional appearance was held in the Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill and was sponsored in by the Brave New Foundation, a global nonprofit social justice foundation. Brave New Films has just released the documentary film “Unmanned: America’s Drone War,” which details the Rehman family’s losses.

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“How do I explain what I myself do not understand?” he continued. “How can I in good faith reassure the children that the drone will not come back and kill them, too? If I do not understand why it killed my mother and injured my children…”

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“My mother is not the first innocent victim of U.S. drones,” relayed the translator, “Numerous families in our community and in the surrounding area have lost loved ones — including women and children — in these strikes over the years.”