People carry the body of a child they uncovered from under the rubble of houses destroyed by Saudi airstrikes near Sanaa Airport, Yemen on March 25. (photo: Hani Mohammed/AP)
The US
Leads the Charge to Condemn Assad's Crimes in Syria, but Ignores Saudi
Arabia's Abuses
By Sarah Leah Whitson, Los
Angeles Times
31 March 16
One
week before the Brussels terrorist attacks, a Saudi-led coalition bombed a market in
Mastaba, Yemen. Although more people died in Mastaba than in Brussels — 106
versus 34 — the media and the international community in general ignored that
earlier atrocity, as they've ignored most of the 150 indiscriminate aerial
attacks reported by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch in the last year.
The
problem, however, is worse than inattention; the West is actually supporting —
by way of arms and military assistance — this all-but-invisible war.
Saudi
Arabia has stated that its goal in Yemen is to restore to power President Abdu
Rabu Mansour Hadi, who fled the capital, Sana, in the wake of a coup by Houthi
militia forces, and to preempt Iranian designs to control the country. Whatever
one makes of those ambitions, it's undeniable that the Saudis are violating
international law as they carry out attacks with no apparent military target
and use banned weapons, such as cluster bombs. Aerial strikes have hit schools,
hospitals, markets and homes. According to the U.N., they account for 60% of
the 3,200 civilians killed in the conflict.
It's
relatively well known that the U.S. and Britain are contributing to the war
effort as the lead providers of the Saudi coalition's arsenal. Saudi Arabia has
been on a global arms shopping spree and is now the world's largest purchaser
of weapons. It contracted for at least $20 billion in weapons from the U.S. and
almost $4.3 billion in weapons from Britain in 2015. The United Arab Emirates,
Saudi Arabia's main partner in the Yemen war, is not far behind, as the world's
fourth-largest purchaser of weapons, acquiring $1.07 billion from the US and
$65.5 million from Britain last year.
The
brutal reality is that some of these bombs have landed on innocent Yemeni men,
women and children. This is why many human rights and humanitarian
organizations, as well as the European Parliament, have called for an embargo
on arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
What
remains unknown is the exact nature of the U.S. and British military role in
the Saudi campaign. The U.S. Defense Department has vaguely stated that it
is providing “targeting assistance,” which as a matter of law means it is
liable for unlawful strikes in which it takes part. So what, exactly, does this
targeting assistance looks like? Did it assist with the strike on the market?
Did it help target the Doctors Without Borders medical clinic that the
coalition struck repeatedly last October?
What about the cluster bomb attack on
Sana University in January?
Britain,
for its part, has said it is providing “military training on compliance with
the laws of war” — operating out of the Riyadh Command Center — with estimates
ranging widely from six to 150 trainers. But what exactly are these people
doing? If they are assisting with the targeting, this could make them a party
to the conflict. If they are merely offering advice, it is patently clear that
the Saudis are disregarding it.
One
appropriate way for the Saudis — and the U.S. and Britain — to address the
streams of evidence about unlawful airstrikes in Yemen would be to support an
independent, international investigation into the conduct of both the coalition
and the Houthi armed group, Ansar Allah, which is currently in power in much of
the country.
Member
states of the U.N. Human Rights Council attempted to pursue just such an
investigation, but the Saudi-U.S.-Britain trifecta effectively quashed it.
Instead, they backed a “domestic investigation” in Yemen led by the
quasi-exiled, Saudi-supported President Hadi. It is no surprise that the body
he announced last September has made no progress The coalition also hastily
announced the creation of a committee to
“promote compliance with the law” but made clear that it would not investigate
any alleged violations.
So
even as the U.S. leads the charge for international justice against the Assad
government in Syria, it turns a blind eye to or actually stymies international
inquiries into abuses by Saudi Arabia.
President
Obama has repeatedly connected the dots between the proliferation of violent
extremism and abuses by the authoritarian, unaccountable governments of the
Arab world. He has had less to say about the risks created to American citizens
by U.S. alliances with and military support for these governments.
But in
this day and age, when it takes little training or equipment to wreak terrorist
havoc in Western capitals, Obama should be very worried about the boomerang
effect of such alliances. Unlawful strikes and large-scale civilian casualties
are certain to foster further instability and extremism, whose effects may be
felt not just in the region but closer to home too. The age of secret wars is
not entirely over, but the shield of national boundaries has certainly expired.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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