By Medea Benjamin: $40 million Allocated for Drone Victims Never Reaches Them:

Recent reports on US drone strikes by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN have heightened international awareness about civilian casualties and have resulted in new calls for redress.The Amnesty International drone report "Will I be next?" says the US government should ensure that victims of unlawful drone strikes, including family members, have effective access to remedies, including restitution, compensation and rehabilitation. The Human Rights Watch report "Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda" calls on the US government to "implement a system of prompt and meaningful compensation for civilian loss of life, injury, and property damage from unlawful attack." Several human rights groups have approached lawmakers asking them to sponsor legislation calling for such a fund. But congress people have been reluctant to introduce what they consider a losing proposition. Even maverick Congressman Alan Grayson, who is hosting a congressional briefing for drone victims from Pakistan on October 29, turned down the idea. "There's no sympathy in this Congress for drone strike victims", he said. But unbeknownst to Grayson, the human rights groups and drone strike victims themselves, Congress already has such a fund. The peace group CODEPINK recently discovered that every year for the past four years, a pot of $10 million has been allocated for Pakistani drone strike victims. That would make a total of $40 million, quite a hefty sum to divide among a few hundred families. But it appears that none of this money has actually reached them. The Pakistan Civilian Assistance Fund was modeled after the ones that exist in Iraq and Afghanistan, where money was allocated to help alleviate the suffering of civilians harmed by US military operations as part of a strategy to "win hearts and minds." In the case of Pakistan, where the CIA operates its drones, the money is supposed to go directly to the families of innocent drone victims, or for needs like medical expenses or rebuilding homes. But Tim Reiser, the long-time staffer for Senator Patrick Leahy who has worked to get this Pakistani civilian assistance fund included in the yearly Foreign Operations budget, expressed his exasperation about the use of the funds. "It's been like hitting a brick wall every time we push the administration to use these funds for drone victims, since for years they wouldn't even acknowledge the existence of drone strikes, said Reiser. "I seriously doubt that any of this money has reached the victims it was intended to help." Instead, it appears that the Conflict Victims Support Fund gets farmed out to US-based non-governmental organizations like International Relief and Development that, after taking their cut, provide humanitarian assistance for Pakistanis who are not drone victims and are not even living in the tribal areas of Waziristan where the US is carrying out the strikes. Sarah Holewinski, the executive director of Civilians in Conflict, agrees with Rieser that the funds are being misused. "Sure, it's not easy to assess damage and compensate families in Pakistan  where there are no boots on the ground to do a military investigation and where the drone operations are covert," said Hollewinski. "But the State Department does have personnel in Pakistan, including AID staff, and they could work with communities to figure out what harm occurred, by whom, and then determine what the civilians need/want/expect in order to feel dignified and assisted."