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US, France, UK complicity in war crimes
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The United States, Britain and France may be complicity in war crimes in Yemen by arming and providing intelligence and logistics support to a Saudi-led coalition that starves civilians as a war tactic, the United Nations said yesterday.
UN investigators recommended that all states impose a ban on arms transfers to the warring parties to prevent them from being used to commit serious violations.
鈥淚t is clear that the continued supply of weapons to parties to the conflict is perpetuating the conflict and prolonging the suffering of the Yemeni people,鈥 said Melissa Parke, an expert on the independent UN panel. 鈥淭hat is why we are urging member states to no longer supply weapons to parties to the conflict.鈥
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the main parties in the coalition fighting against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls Yemen鈥檚 capital, are two of the biggest buyers of US, British and French weapons.
The experts compiled a secret list of suspected war criminals. Investigators found potential crimes on both sides, while highlighting the role Western countries play as backers of the Arab states and Iran plays in support of the Houthis.
鈥淭here are no clean hands in this combat, in this contest,鈥 panelist Charles Garraway said.
The report accused the anti-Houthi coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE of killing civilians in airstrikes and deliberately denying them food in a country facing famine. The Houthis, for their part, have shelled cities, deployed child soldiers and used 鈥渟iege-like warfare,鈥 it said.
Humanitarian crisis
The Houthis drove Yemen鈥檚 government out of the capital Sanaa in 2014. The Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Muslim states intervened the following year to restore the ousted government, a conflict that has since killed tens of thousands of people.
The prospect of famine has created what the UN describes as the world鈥檚 biggest humanitarian crisis, where 24 million people rely on aid.
The UN report said its independent panel had sent a secret list to UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, identifying 鈥渋ndividuals who may be responsible for international crimes.鈥
Its appendix lists more than 160 鈥渕ain actors鈥 among Saudi, Emirati and Yemeni government and Houthi officials, although it said this was separate from the suspects鈥 list.
The report said: 鈥淭he legality of arms transfers by France, the United Kingdom, the United States and other States remains questionable, and is the subject of various domestic court proceedings.鈥
It found that a Joint Incidents Assessment Team set up by Saudi Arabia to review alleged coalition violations had failed to hold anyone accountable for any strike killing civilians, raising 鈥渃oncerns as to the impartiality of its investigations.鈥
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