Saudi-Led Coalition’s Funeral Attack in Yemen Apparent War Crime: HRW

Human Rights Watch has accused the Saudi-led coalition of war crimes following an airstrike on a funeral in Yemen, which left at least 110 dead and over 600 wounded. The watchdog has also lambasted the US and the UK for supplying weapons to the Saudis, RT reported.

On October 8, at least two air-dropped munitions penetrated the roof of a hall containing over 1,000 mourners, killing at least 110 people and wounding 610 during the funeral ceremony of Ali al-Rawishan, the father of the Sana’a-based administration’s interior minister, Jalal al-Rawishan.

“A Saudi Arabia-led coalition airstrike on a crowded funeral ceremony in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, on October 8, 2016, is an apparent war crime,” Human Rights Watch said, calling the strike “unlawfully disproportionate.”

 After interviewing survivors of the tragedy and examining information relating to the strike, the HRW concluded that Saudi strike was a deliberate action – first of all, because the funeral service, which was attended by over 1,000 mourners, has been made public ahead of time via a Facebook post.

“Serious violations of the laws of war committed willfully – that is, intentionally or recklessly – are war crimes. The date and place of the funeral ceremony was announced on Jalal al-Rawishan’s Facebook page on October 7, and would have been publicly available,” HRW said.

While acknowledging that some military personnel had been attending the ceremony, the “clear presence” of hundreds of civilians, the NGO argued, is enough to declare the strike a war crime.

While calling for an impartial probe into the funeral strike and other similar incidents, the New York-based organization expressed a strong doubt that the Saudis and their Western allies in the region would conduct an honest investigation into the tragedy.

“After unlawfully attacking schools, markets, hospitals, weddings, and homes over the last 19 months, the Saudi-led coalition has now added a funeral to its ever-increasing list of abuses,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East and North Africa director. “An independent international investigation of this atrocity is needed as the coalition has shown its unwillingness to uphold its legal obligations to credibly investigate.”

At least 4,125 civilians had been killed and 7,207 wounded in Yemen between March 2015 and October 2016, according to OHCHR, with the majority of casualties coming from coalition airstrikes. Overall more than 10,000 people, including combatants, have been killed in the same time frame, according to the UN figures.

In light of such a heavy civilian casualty toll the NGO called on the US, the UK States, and other governments to “immediately” suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia after the Human Rights Watch “identified” the munitions used in the attack on the funeral as a “US-manufactured air-dropped GBU-12 Paveway II 500-pound laser-guided bomb.”

H.M