THE UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, believes that the US airstrikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, allegedly linked to drug trafficking, violate international human rights law.

A media release on the UN Human Rights Office’s website quoted Türk on October 31 as saying, “Over 60 people have reportedly been killed in a continuing series of attacks carried out by US armed forces against boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since early September, in circumstances that find no justification in international law.”

“These attacks – and their mounting human cost – are unacceptable. The US must halt such attacks and take all measures necessary to prevent the extra-judicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them.”