Rights Group Accuses UK of Complicity in Saudi Crimes in Yemen

Britain’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia have been unlawful, making the UK an accomplice to Riyadh’s war crimes in Yemen, according to a British rights group.

In an interview with The Independent on Friday, Andrew Smith of the UK-based Campaign against the Arms Trade (CAAT) said weapons sold to the Saudi regime have been used for killing civilians in Yemen.

According to the UN, more than 12,000 people have been killed since Saudi Arabia launched its deadly military campaign in Yemen more than two and a half years ago.

 “The scale of the destruction that has been inflicted upon Yemen is appalling,” said Smith as quoted by The Independent.

Smith said supplying weapons to Saudi Arabia was unlawful and the UK government, which was selling arms to Riyadh, was a complicit in this illegal act.

The Saudi-led bombing campaign has created all sorts of shortages, triggering a variety of issues across Yemen, including water, food and medicine shortage, as well as a deadly cholera epidemic which has killed nearly 22-hundred people and is suspected to have infected more than 840,000 others.

The United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) estimated that every 10 minutes a child in Yemen dies of preventable causes.

CAAT accuses the British government of complicity with the Saudis in the atrocities against Yemeni people.

Confessions of a minister

Alistair Burt, UK’s Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth office, told lawmakers at the House of Commons that his ministry has “been tracking 318 incidents of potential concern” since the Saudi’s deadly campaign kicked off.

He said that “sensitive information” was provided by liaison officers and used for the analysis of incidents of potential concern which result from air operations in Yemen.

Burt, however, claimed that not one of the 318 incidents tracked by the ministry had hit civilian targets.

However, Burt claimed that in all these attacks no civilians were killed and international law remained unbroken.

“We have a rigorous legal and parliamentary process, and ensuring that international humanitarian law is not breached is clearly a vital part of that. The information supplied by those liaison officers is crucial to ensuring that our international obligations are observed. That is why they are there,” he said.

One lawmaker in parliament protested to the minister’s blatant cover-up of the truth.  Alison Thewliss asked how it was possible that innumerous Saudi airstrikes had not left even one civilian casualty.

“The Minister mentioned 318 incidents of concern, and he may wish to clarify that. How many more incidents are acceptable to the Government, given that 318 incidents of concern have been picked up by the people involved and the armed forces on the ground in Yemen? That is a huge amount of “concern” to have,” asked Thewliss from the Scottish National Party.

‘Stop arms sales now’

Given the ample proof and positive evidence of civilian deaths and war crimes committed by Saudi Arabia on the Yemeni nation and the humanitarian crisis triggered by Riyadh in the poverty-stricken Arab state, UK and international law forbid Britain from selling weapons to Saudi Arabia.

CAAT’s Smith told the Independent: “History will look back on these atrocities as entirely preventable, and the UK Government’s role as entirely complicit. If human rights and democracy are to mean anything in Downing Street, then [Prime Minister Theresa] May and her colleagues must end the arms sales now.”

Meanwhile, UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia remains in the billions.

Fresh Saudi airstrikes leave six civilians dead in Yemen

On the other hand, at least six civilians have been killed and several others injured when Saudi military aircraft carried out separate airstrikes against residential areas across Yemen as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its atrocious bombardment campaign against its southern neighbor.

Saudi fighter jets conducted five aerial assaults against Khalfah outdoor market in the Nihm district of the capital province of Sana’a on Saturday, leaving five people dead and three vehicles destroyed, an unnamed local official told Saba news agency.

The official added that the airstrikes also caused considerable damage to the commercial district.

Separately, one person lost his life and four others sustained injuries when Saudi warplanes launched aerial attacks against Shaje’a market in the Zabid district of Yemen’s western coastal province of Hudaydah.

The development came as Saudi jets targeted the building of the Yemen Today satellite news channel in Sana’a, killing four citizens.

The head guard, himself wounded in the attack, told reporters at the scene that the strike had hit his staff’s sleeping quarters.

“This is not a military post and there are no weapons here. This is just the house where we security guards live,” he said outside the heavily damaged building.

The Yemen Today television network was affiliated with the General People’s Congress (GPC) of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed on Monday during clashes with HouthiAnsarullah fighters.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular HouthiAnsarullah movement and reinstate Hadi, a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.

More than 12,000 people have been killed since the onset of the campaign more than two and a half years ago. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

The Saudi-led war has also triggered a deadly cholera epidemic across Yemen.

According to the World Health Organization’s latest count, the cholera outbreak has killed 2,167 people since the end of April and is suspected to have infected 841,906.

On November 26, the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) said that more than 11 million children in Yemen were in acute need of aid, stressing that it was estimated that every 10 minutes a child died of a preventable disease there.

Additionally, the UN has described the current level of hunger in Yemen as “unprecedented,” emphasizing that 17 million people are now food insecure in the country.

It added that 6.8 million, meaning almost one in four people, do not have enough food and rely entirely on external assistance.

A recent survey showed that almost one third of families had gaps in their diets, and hardly ever consumed foods like pulses, vegetables, fruit, dairy products or meat.

More than 3 million pregnant and nursing women and children under 5 also need support to prevent or cure malnutrition.

PRESS T.V

R.S