UN Urges Trump To Stop US Attacks On Civilian Ships In Caribbean-Pacific Kills 62 People

Illustration of the ship exploding. (Ash Edmonds-Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The United Nations urges the United States (US) to stop attacks on ships in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. The ship was suspected of carrying the drugs destroyed even though evidence was still hanging.

US military attacks in the Caribbean and the Pacific against civilian ships in recent weeks have killed at least 62 people. Family members and the victim's government said some of them were fishermen.

UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Turk, said these men had been killed "under conditions that international law cannot justify."

"These attacks and the increase in casualties are unacceptable," he said in a statement, Friday, October 31, quoted from AFP.

"The US must stop such attacks and take all necessary steps to prevent extrajudicial killings against people aboard these ships, regardless of criminal charges against them," the statement continued.

US President Donald Trump's administration in the US Congress previously declared an "armed conflict" open to Latin American drug cartels. The US calls them terrorist groups and justifies bomb attacks on civilian ships in Caribbean and Pacific waters.

Tensions escalated in the region after Trump allowed the CIA to carry out operations in Venezuela. Even Trump is considering ground attacks on alleged drug cartels in the country.

"Responding to serious problems of illicit drug trafficking across international borders as it has long been agreed between countries is a matter of law enforcement, which is governed by strict restrictions on the lethal force set out in international human rights law," Turk said.

"Based on international human rights law, the deliberate use of lethal force is only allowed as a last resort to individuals who pose direct threats to lives," Turk continued.