Often overshadowed by the proxy war
being fought in Syria, is the nine month old regional conflict in Yemen which
ostensibly pits Sunni Saudi Arabia against Shia Iran. British-made ‘smart’
bombs dropped from British-built aircraft both of which continue to be sold in
vast numbers to the Saudi’s have contributed to
thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen.
Jeremy Corbyn’s peace narrative predicated
on his public denunciations of the governments’ shady dealings with the Saudi
Arabian regime have helped expose British involvement in Yemen even though
the UK Government insists that it is not taking an active part in the
military campaign in the country. However, it has issued more
than 100 licences for arms exports to Saudi Arabia since the State began
bombing Yemen in March 2015.
Meanwhile, a Freedom of Information
request revealed that a so-called ‘memorandum of understanding’ (MOU)
between Home Secretary Theresa May and her Saudi counterpart Crown Prince
Muhammad bin Nayef was signed secretly during the former’s visit to
the Kingdom last year. The purpose of the MOU is to ensure that,
among other secret deals, the precise details of the arms sales between the two
countries is kept under wraps.
What is the extent of Britain’s role
in Yemen? In September, Saudi Arabia bombed a ceramics factory in Sana’a close
to the Yemeni capital which Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch confirmed was
a civilian target. Fragments of
a British made missile that had been built by Marconi in the 1990s had been
recovered from the scene.
With the British providing technical
and other support staff to the Saudi led coalition, and UK export licenses
to Saudi Arabia said to be worth more
than £1.7 bn up to the first six months of 2015, the UK government’s role in
the conflict appears to be to augment the support the U.S is giving to the
Saudi-led coalition.
The United States, alongside the
UK, has bolstered the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes in Yemen through arms
sales and direct military support. For example,
last month, the State Department approved a billion-dollar deal to restock
Saudi Arabia’s air force arsenal. The sale included thousands of air-to-ground
munitions and “general purpose” bombs of the kind that, in October, the Saudi’s
used to target an MSF hospital.
On the 15 December, 19
civilians were killed by a Saudi-led coalition raid in Sana’a. According
to analysis by eminent international law experts commissioned by Amnesty International UK and Saferworld, by continuing to trade with Saudi Arabia in
arms in the context of its military intervention and bombing campaign in Yemen,
the British government is breaking national, EU and international law.
The lawyers, Professor Philippe Sands
QC, Professor Andrew Clapham and Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh of Matrix Chambers, conclude in their comprehensive
legal opinion that, on the basis of the information available, the UK Government
is acting in breach of its obligations arising under the Arms Trade Treaty, the EU Common Position on Arms
Exports and the UK’s Consolidated Criteria on arms exports by continuing to
authorise transfers of weapons and related items to Saudi Arabia within the
scope of those instruments, capable of being used in Yemen.
They conclude that:
“Any authorisation by the
UK of the transfer of weapons and related items to Saudi Arabia… in
circumstances where such weapons are capable of being used in the conflict in
Yemen, including to support its blockade of Yemeni territory, and in
circumstances where their end-use is not restricted, would constitute a breach
by the UK of its obligations under domestic, European and international law….The UK should halt with immediate effect all
authorisations and transfers of relevant weapons pending an inquiry” (emphasis
added).
According to Kate Allen, Director
of Amnesty International UK:
“This legal opinion
confirms our long-held view that the continued sale of arms from the UK to
Saudi Arabia is illegal, immoral and indefensible. Thousands of civilians have
been killed in Saudi Arabia-led airstrikes, and there’s a real risk that misery
was ‘made in Britain’.”
With a seven day ceasefire in Yemen
broken on December 16, Saudi-led airstrikes have continued throughout the
Christmas period as have British and American arms exports to Saudi Arabia that
give rise to them. In a standard response to accusations of British complicity,
the Foreign & Commonwealth Office blandly stated:
“The UK is satisfied that
we are not in breach of our international obligations. We operate one of the
most vigorous and transparent arms export control regimes in the world…
…We regularly raise with
the Saudi Arabian-led coalition and the Houthis the need to comply with
international humanitarian law…we monitor the situation carefully and have
offered the Saudi authorities advice and training in this area.”
Oliver Sprague, Amnesty
International’s arms trade director, added:
“There is a blatant
rewriting of the rules inside the (Foreign Office). We are not supposed to
supply weapons if there is a risk they could be used to violate humanitarian
laws and the international arms trade treaty – which we championed. It is
illogical for (Foreign Secretary) Philip Hammond to say there is no evidence of
weapons supplied by the UK being misused, so we’ll keep selling them to the
point where we learn they are being used.”
Journalist Iona Craig has
investigated 20 Saudi-led airstrike sites in Yemen in which a total of around
150 civilians have been killed. In an interview on the December 16 edition of Channel 4 News, Craig asserted that during these strikes, which
she said are a regular occurrence, the Saudi’s targeted public buses and a
farmers market.
Remnants from a bomb that Craig
pulled from a civilian home that killed an eighteen month old baby as well as a
4 year old and their uncle, were American made. Although Craig stated that she
had not personally uncovered evidence of British made weapons, Amnesty
International is nevertheless unequivocal in its damning assessment of the
illegality of Britain’s role.
The fact that, as Craig stated, there
are twice as many British made aircraft in the Saudi Royal air force then there
are in the British Royal air force, and that the British train the Saudi air
force as well as supplying it with its weapons, is by itself, tantamount to
Britain being complicit in the deaths of innocent Yemeni civilians.
Craig emphasized that she has seen
evidence which suggests that civilian casualties in Yemen were the result of
deliberate targeting rather than “collateral damage”. Among the numerous cases
the journalist has examined there have been no Houthi positions or military
targets in the vicinity – a contention which she claims is supported by the
pro-coalition side. The consequences of this policy for the civilian
population within the poorest country in the region, has been catastrophic with
an estimated 2 million people having been displaced from a nation that’s on the
brink of completely falling apart.
At least 5,600
civilians have been killed in the war torn country since March. A UN study in
September found that 60
per cent have died from Saudi-led aerial bombardments in the Houthi-controlled
north of the country. Journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous who was based in
this region commented:
“Everything has been hit,
from homes to schools, restaurants, bridges, roads, a lot of civilian
infrastructure. And with that, of course, comes a lot of the suffering.”
What is unfolding alongside the death
and destruction in Yemen is a massive humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by
the complicity of the U.S and UK, in which 21 million people – nearly double
the number of people who need aid in Syria – are in need of humanitarian
assistance. Consequently, levels of malnutrition have skyrocketed in the
country with more than 60 per cent of Yemeni’s, according to the UN, close to starvation.
Sharif Abdel Kouddos describes the
humanitarian situation unfolding in Yemen as a consequence of the imposition of
a blockade on Yemen by Saudi Arabia and the coalition on a country, which:
“… comes under the rubric
of a Security Council resolution—an arms embargo on the Houthi leadership….In
September, 1 percent of Yemen’s fuel needs entered the country. Fuel affects
everything—access for food delivery, electricity. So, Yemenis are slowly being
strangled to death.”
The wider implications for British
and U.S tacit support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen and the region in general is
one of huge instability. Apart from the Yemeni context alone in which millions
are being displaced and suffering from the onset of famine, is the broader
question relating to how this situation is likely to bleed into the already
ongoing refugee crisis in Europe.
But also, the conflict in Yemen
involves a variety of regional players with opposing economic and geo-strategic
interests – many of whom are using smaller factions to fight their battles on
their behalf. These include mercenary groups from places as far away as
Colombia and Panama as well as the involvement of Moroccan and Sudanese troops,
all of whom are operating within one country as a part of a regional conflict
that has all the makings of a much bigger one.
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