Artists are giving a face to drone strike victims in
Pakistan with a giant portrait of a young girl. The portrait is part of a
project called #NotABugSplat.
In military slang, drone operators call their targets bug
splats, "since viewing the body through a grainy video image gives the
sense of an insect being crushed," according to the project's website.
The 90-by-60-foot poster was unfurled last month in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province in northwest Pakistan, a region that has seen "plenty
of drone activity," said Ali Rez, one of the Pakistani artists behind
#NotABugSplat, in an e-mail to USA TODAY Network.
According to Reprieve/Foundation for Fundamental Rights,
which provided the image, the girl had lost both her parents and siblings to a
drone strike. The project does not identify the girl or provide her age.
Drone strikes in Pakistan have totaled 383 since 2004,
killing an estimated 2,300 to 3,700 people, according to the Bureau of
Investigative Journalism.
The people behind the project include artists from France,
Pakistan and the United States, Rez said.
"We would like to see children and innocent civilians
in the region lead normal, peaceful lives without fear," Rez said.
"And we would like to deliver this message in the most peaceful way
possible: With just one picture."
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