AG rejects claims that US strikes violated international law

JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

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At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie says no in­ter­na­tion­al law was bro­ken when the Unit­ed States killed sup­posed drug traf­fick­ers in the lead-up to oust­ing Venezue­lan pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro.

Speak­ing with the me­dia at the UNC head­quar­ters in Ch­agua­nas, Je­re­mie said he had sought ad­vice on the mat­ter.

“I have tak­en ad­vice. The ad­vice is that the strikes were con­sis­tent with in­ter­na­tion­al law. I took ex­ter­nal ad­vice, out­side of the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al, and that was the ad­vice giv­en to me by an in­ter­na­tion­al ex­pert.”

In Oc­to­ber last year, UN High Com­mis­sion­er for Hu­man Rights Volk­er Türk claimed that the at­tacks, which saw some 60 peo­ple killed, were against in­ter­na­tion­al law and called for the mat­ter to be in­ves­ti­gat­ed.

In the first at­tack on Sep­tem­ber 2, the US Con­gress scru­ti­nised what was lat­er dis­cov­ered to be a “dou­ble tap,” where sur­vivors of an ini­tial drone strike were bombed as they strug­gled for safe­ty.

While rel­a­tives of two Trin­bag­o­ni­ans—Chad “Char­po” Joseph and Rishi Sama­roo—be­lieve they were killed dur­ing one of the airstrikes, Je­re­mie, how­ev­er, main­tains that no na­tion­als were killed in the at­tacks.

“I have no com­ment, save and ex­cept to say that, even now, I do not know that any Trinidad and To­ba­go cit­i­zen was killed in any strike.”

His com­ment echoes that of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers, who, in Oc­to­ber last year, said no cit­i­zens were killed.

He said he had the co­or­di­nates of the at­tacks, which were with­in in­ter­na­tion­al wa­ters, but was not will­ing to pro­vide them.

“When the Gov­ern­ment says there is no ev­i­dence to sug­gest that these per­sons were killed by a strike pur­suant to mil­i­tary in­ter­ven­tion, we say that be­cause it is a fact. There is no ev­i­dence to sug­gest that they were killed by a mil­i­tary strike,” he said then.

Yes­ter­day, when pressed about the lack of due process, giv­en that none of the de­ceased in the US at­tacks was ar­rest­ed, charged or con­vict­ed of drug traf­fick­ing, an of­fence not pun­ish­able by death, Je­re­mie said: “Okay, so I would not be able to an­swer that ques­tion with­out go­ing in­to the meat and bones of the ad­vice that I have re­ceived, and I am not able to give that ad­vice.”

He added that while the me­dia is free to ask who ad­vised him, he was not will­ing to di­vulge that in­for­ma­tion.

Asked if he re­layed the ad­vice to Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, Je­re­mie said: “No com­ment. I’ve done my job, which is to en­sure that the Re­pub­lic acts in ac­cor­dance with the law.”

With the US in­stalling a radar sys­tem in the coun­try and hav­ing use of its air­space, Je­re­mie stayed clear of an­swer­ing whether any US as­sets, be it man­pow­er or equip­ment, were used in the airstrikes on sup­posed drug traf­fick­ers and the ex­trac­tion of Maduro.

“I have no com­ment on any of those mat­ters at this time,” he said when ques­tioned.