The United Nations says Yemen is one of the
most terrifying places in the world to be a child, with 10 million in need of
immediate assistance.
How
US-backed war crimes made Yemen world's most terrifying place to be a child
Sonali
Kolhatkar 21 August 2015. Posted in News
As
Yemen is taken to the brink of mass starvation, the UN says 10 million children
in Yemen are in need of immediate assistance.
The
United Nations says Yemen is one of the most terrifying places in the world to
be a child, with 10 million in need of immediate assistance.
YEMEN
HAS been the target of a brutal US-backed war led by Saudi Arabia. While
ordinary civilians are suffering horrific violence and starvation, there is
deafening silence from the US and others who claim to be defenders of human
rights.
The
situation is so bad now that nearly every major global human rights
organization has issued dire warnings of the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding
in the Persian Gulf’s poorest nation.
Since
the Saudi regime began a bombing campaign in March, the situation has
deteriorated rapidly as access to food and other aid has been stymied. In
response, the United Nations in early July declared a Level 3 humanitarian
emergency—the highest level possible. UN Envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed
described Yemen as “one step away from famine.”
But
the bombing has had direct consequences, too. In late July, Human Rights Watch
accused Saudi Arabia of war crimes after an airstrike on two residential
buildings killed 65 civilians. Ten of the victims were children. “With no
evident military target, this attack appears to be a war crime,” said an HRW
researcher.
Amnesty
International also published a scathing report with a title that says it all:
“Yemen: Bloody trail of civilian death and destruction paved with evidence of
war crimes.” Echoing the HRW report, Amnesty researchers found “a pattern of
strikes targeting heavily populated areas including civilian homes, a school, a
market and a mosque. In the majority of cases no military target could be
located nearby.”
Children
are especially vulnerable. UNICEF called attention to their plight in Yemen,
citing the unimaginably high number of 10 million children in need of immediate
assistance. Nearly 400 children have been killed and 600 injured since March.
According to the report, “Yemen is one of the most terrifying places in the
world to be a child.”
Overall,
more than 4,000 people have been killed in Yemen, more than a thousand
estimated to be civilians.
On
Aug. 11, Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red
Cross, added his voice to the chorus of warnings. “The humanitarian situation
is nothing short of catastrophic,” he said after a three-day visit to Yemen.
“Every family in Yemen has been affected by this conflict. … Medicines can’t
get in so patient care is falling apart. Fuel shortages mean equipment doesn’t
work. This cannot go on. Yemen is crumbling.”
The
same day, Teresa Sancristóval, who heads up Doctors Without Borders’ Emergency
Unit, also warned of multiple crises, including a severe water shortage, lack
of medicines and vaccines, and needless deaths exacerbated by the incessant
bombing. She wrote, “In some moments, I felt that the conflict in Yemen is much
more of a war against civilians than a war against armed groups.”
Ignoring
the outcry from these high-profile human rights groups, Saudi Arabia just
bombed yet another port, a main one used to transport aid to civilians in
northern Yemen. In response, Save the Children’s Edward Santiago said, “The
bombing of Hodeida port is the final straw. ... The impact of these latest air
strikes will be felt most strongly by innocent children and families.”
Not
only has the United States blessed the brutal Saudi air war on Yemen, it has
taken an active role in it. Recently “the Pentagon more than doubled the number
of American advisors to provide enhanced intelligence for airstrikes,” the Los
Angeles Times reported. This has directly contributed to a surge in airstrikes
and subsequent civilian casualties. The L.A. Times rightly pointed out that
Yemen’s plight has been “vastly overshadowed” by the US war on Islamic State.
In
a nutshell, when Yemenis toppled their longtime former president, Ali Abdullah
Saleh, in the wake of Arab Spring revolutions such as those in Egypt and
Tunisia in 2011, they ended up with Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi as
their new leader. But Hadi was pushed out by a Shiite rebel group known as the
Houthis, even as a low-level US drone war continued against al-Qaida. Fearing
Iranian aid to the Houthis along its southern border, Saudi Arabia punished
Yemen with an aggressive air war actively sponsored by the Obama
administration.
Adding
to the air war, a new, aggressive, ground-based effort began in earnest in
early August. The United Arab Emirates, a small but extremely wealthy country,
has deployed a major contingent of troops on the ground in Yemen. Like Saudi Arabia,
the UAE is a major US ally and a loyal customer of American military weaponry.
A recent analysis found that US arms sales to the Middle East exploded under
President Obama, peaking at more than $40 billion in 2012, compared with just
over $10 billion under George W. Bush. The $60.7 billion worth of weapons
during Obama’s tenure went mostly to Saudi Arabia (67 percent) and the UAE (21
percent), the two main aggressors in Yemen.
Among
those weapons were cluster munitions, which Saudi Arabia has allegedly deployed
against Yemen’s civilians. Cluster bombs are widely banned by most of the
world, except for a handful of countries—including the US and Saudi Arabia.
They are condemned specifically for indiscriminately affecting civilian
populations. But, as so many humanitarian groups are pointing out, the
well-being of ordinary Yemenis seems to be a low priority for the warmongers.
Although
Saudi Arabia cites its fear of Iranian influence as impetus for the war
(couched in rhetoric about restoring Hadi’s rule), there is little evidence
that Iran is actually helping the Houthis. Certainly the Iranian regime has
sent aid shipments to Yemen, many of which have been thwarted by Saudi Arabia
despite the desperate need. But there is no evidence of military or logistical
Iranian support.
Bizarrely,
even Obama has asserted that Iran has not boosted the Houthi rebellion. On the
contrary, he claimed Iran tried to discourage the Houthis, telling the press,
“There were moments where Iran was actually urging potential restraint.” Obama
has had to portray Iran as a “rational” actor in his administration’s recently
brokered nuclear agreement with the Islamic Shiite regime. So why has he
remained silent on Saudi bloodshed in Yemen, and worse, actively participated
by providing advice and weapons?
The
answer may lie in the fact that the US has long waged its own one-sided drone
war in Yemen and shamelessly continues to do so even as the country is falling
apart. On Aug. 12, the latest drone strike in the eastern part of the country
reportedly resulted in the extrajudicial assassinations of five suspected
members of al-Qaida. The drone wars have gone hand in hand with greater
terrorist threats rather than fewer, evident in al-Qaida’s Yemen chapter
recently calling for more anti-US attacks.
The
richest and most powerful country in the world—the United States—is aiding the
richest and most powerful countries in the Middle East—Saudi Arabia and the
UAE—in bludgeoning the poorest in the region and one of the least powerful
countries in the world: Yemen. What is remarkable about the Obama
administration’s silence on Yemen’s civilian suffering is that it is mirrored
by everyone else’s muteness. Neither right- nor left-wing forces in the United
States have taken much interest in the carnage and starvation there.
International
human rights groups like UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International,
International Committee of the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and Save the
Children are united in their denunciation of the catastrophic war in Yemen. The
rest of the world would do well to heed the call for an immediate end to the
atrocities.
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