By Marwa Osman
SEPTEMBER 22, 2016
SEPTEMBER 22, 2016
A deafening Silence. That is how the world is reacting to the screams and miseries of the Yemeni children. I will not ask why or how are they able to be so silent? By now we are used to the indifference of the world when it comes to the atrocities committed by Imperialism in the name of democracy in the Middle East.
It is no secret that the world has lost all its senses, especially to feel the sufferings of the tormented. We have seen that many times over the course of history and we will continue to see that, however this does not eliminate the fact that a genocide in Yemen is taking place at the hands of a coalition of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia, supported by the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel. Bombardment started on March 25, 2015 and is still going on to this moment. The world stands in silent, turning a blind eye while fighting over who wears what on the beach.
Saudi Arabia appears to have completely lost what was left of its sanity. The Saudis have succeeded in killing more than 10,000 Yemeni lives including newborns, women, elderly and disabled people in the past 17 months. Yes 10,000…let that number sink in for a second. Even people who were hospitalized due to the Saudi bombing rampage were bombarded again inside the hospital itself. During that time, the international community has not even lifted a finger over the situation. Simply because of the petrodollar. Al Saud have enough money to control the mass media and bribe all its political patrons including the United Nations.
Back in June 2016, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a startling admission, saying he bowed to pressure over a report that blasted Saudi Arabia for child casualties that have resulted from its bombing campaign in Yemen. Ban called it one of the most difficult choices he had to face. Really Mr. Moon? That must have been an agonizing choice for you right? Just as agonizing as losing one’s child under the rubble of a shelled house in what was once a peaceful neighborhood in Saada or Sanaa isn’t it? Just like the agonizing feeling of one’s family members screaming for hours under the debris of a hospital with nothing left to do except wait for them to die isn’t it? Exactly so agonizing like the dead bodies of 30 young Yemeni school children stuck under the remains of their school in Saada. How would you feel Mr. Moon if it were your child who went to school in the morning and was brought back to you in a plastic back without limbs for you to burry? Not so calm and composed I suppose.
Despite the fact that the UN report held Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners responsible for the attacks on schools and hospitals and 60 percent of the nearly 5,000 children killed and injured, the report stands, but Ban said he made a “decision to temporarily remove the Saudi-led coalition countries from the report’s annex,” which lists those who violate children’s rights. He made clear that U.N. funding was at stake. “I also had to consider the very real prospect that millions of other children would suffer grievously if, as was suggested to me, countries would de-fund many U.N. programs,” he said. In other words, let the Yemeni children die in peace please, can we?
it is no secret that this war waged on Yemen hardly appears balanced when a homegrown resistance movement finds itself facing a mighty military coalition of both Western and Arabian powers, an alliance of some of the richest and militarily most powerful countries in the world against a native Yemeni representative resistance. Strong on its imperial force and petrodollars, the Monarchy of Al Saud flexed every muscle it has – or in this case every muscle it could buy- and invested all its military capabilities in an attempt to humiliate and subjugate the people of Yemen assuming that the country would offer but a timid resistance to its over-powering hegemonic will. And yet Yemen has held true and stood tall. Indeed you might break the bones of a fearless and righteous Yemeni but you’ll never see him fall.
The campaign of haphazard murder has now been going on for almost a year and a half, while the United States and the United Kingdom bear a large part of the responsibility. The US government is vigorously selling the Saudis billions of dollars of weaponry. They’re re-supplying planes engaged in the bombing rampages and providing “intelligence” for the targets that Saudi Arabia is hitting inside a war control room in Riyadh. The imperial powers on this planet are not only funding a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, they are doing so with a straight face and with no shame whatsoever.
The facts are simple. Saudi Arabia is guilty of war crimes and the U.S. and the UK are an outright complicit as they provide airstrike targeting information as part of their support for the Saudi-led coalition.
Mark Toner, deputy U.S. State Department spokesman, would not comment earlier in July 2016 on either allegations of potential U.S. complicity in war crimes in Yemen or whether Saudi Arabia should be removed as a member of the Human Rights Council.
“I’m not going to speak to … that, other than that we work very closely, as I said, to urge all sides to show respect for civilians and to certainly not target civilians, but indeed, to protect civilians and comply with international humanitarian law,” he said. Toner however failed to indicate exactly how the US is protecting civilians and complying with international humanitarian law. Maybe they do so by killing Yemenis themselves using unmanned drones by turning weddings into a funerals like that in a village outside the central Yemeni city of Rad’a. Maybe the US missile is a bit lighter than the Saudi one when it falls on the heads of innocent civilians.
The United Kingdom is no better than the US. The fact that British military experts have joined Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against the people of Yemen raises a lot of demands for a total review of British policy towards the fundamentalist Monarchy. Now it appears that Britain, already a massive source of weapons and bombs to the Saudi Kingdom, is helping in more direct ways.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London has already confirmed that there are a number of “experts” who are working with the Saudi military on locations for attack, while insisting that they are not part of any direct operations but are training the Saudis to comply with the international rules of war. This hypocritical announcement came at a time when the Saudis and other members of the Gulf coalition are committing multiple violations of the laws of war in Yemen and it is all documented by the Human rights Watch. Oh good, they managed to write it down on papers without getting bribed or intimidated by the Saudis.
The Human Rights Watch claims that it has put out numerous reports about what the Saudis are up to in Yemen. And that the British are working hand in glove with the Saudis, helping them, enhancing their capacity to prosecute this war that has led to the death of thousands of civilians.
Let us also not forget that the presence of the Saudi proxy warriors -known historically as al-Qaeda and most recently as ISIS- has spread in Yemen while much of the country’s northern parts has been plunged into calamity and chaos due to the unending Saudi bombing campaign. In other words, the war has turned Yemen into a humanitarian catastrophe, worsened regional security and boosted the presence and power of terror groups, while the horrid Saudi invader has been dragged deeper into the conflict on the frontline by the might and steadfastness of the Yemeni Resistance forces (Ansarullah).
Saudi Arabia is yet to end this war despite the severe military setbacks on the ground and the world yet lingers to allow the continuation of a devastating war with full impunity and ever more weaponry. Remain indifferent as is and just keep going. Nothing to see here. Only thousands more Yemeni children will die until the west dries Yemen of its natural resources. However, Yemenis will remain defiant and adamant to break free from this global enslavement. Proving yet again that Yemenis are fearless people and the toughest fighters on Earth.
About the author:
*Ms. Marwa Osman. PhD Candidate located in Beirut, Lebanon. University Lecturer and host of the political show “The Middle East Stream” broadcasted on Al-Etejah English Channel. Member of the Blue Peace Media Network and political commentator on issues of the Middle East on several international and regional media outlets.
The Modern Diplomacy is a leading European opinion maker - not a pure news-switchboard. Today’s world does not need yet another avalanche of (disheartened and decontextualized) information, it needs shared experience and honestly told opinion. Determined to voice and empower, to argue but not to impose, the MD does not rigidly guard its narrative. Contrary to the majority of media-houses and news platforms, the MD is open to everyone coming with the firm and fair, constructive and foresighted argumentation.
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