Yemeni President al-Mashat Affirms Keenness for Solutions Ending the War

In March of that year, a strike on a Yemeni market — this time reportedly by a US-supplied precision-guided MK 84 bomb — killed 97 people.

Following the bombardment of the funeral hall and the appalling aftermath, former US President Barack Obama banned the sale of precision-guided military technology to Saudi Arabia over “human rights concerns.”

The ban was overturned by the Trump administration’s then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in March 2017.

Going back to the president’s speech, he also expressed gratitude towards the efforts undertaken by several humanitarian organizations to cease the nearly four-year war. He specialized his thanks for the recently released report supervised by the UN Experts Team, whereas it confirmed war crimes are being committed by the Saudi-led coalition in the southern Arabian peninsula country.

The UN team of experts, which has been appointed by the Human Rights Council, confirmed that coalition raids in Yemen hit residential areas, markets, funerals, weddings, prisons, fishing boats and even medical facilities, causing civilian casualties.

The Arab Organization for Monitoring Rights (Arwa) said in a statement that the experts’ report included conclusions and recommendations after it has looked at the violations in Yemen that go against the international human rights law and other international laws.

The report referred to the barbaric violations against humanity, the deprivation of the right of living, arbitrary detention, rape, torture, ill-treatment, kidnapping, child recruitment; violations against free expressions and economic, social and cultural rights as well as the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health, where the aforementioned violations were mostly committed by the Saudi-UAE coalition.

According to the organization, the team reviewed 60 incidents in which air strikes on residential areas killed more than 500 civilians, including 84 women and 233 children. In addition, it reviewed 29 more incidents, where air strikes were conducted in public places and areas crowded with civilians. Experts concluded the deaths of more than 300 civilians.

Moreover, the experts also reviewed 11 incidents involving air strikes on markets that killed hundreds of civilians as well as four raids on detention facilities since the conflict began, which resulted in the killing of more than 105 civilians, most of whom were detained.

Meanwhile, 11 airstrikes targeted fishermen boats off Hodeidadh cost, which were founded by the team, and about 40 fishermen were killed or disappeared, the team said. Additionally, 32 cases were reviewed, where medical facilities, as well as educational, cultural and religious sites, were destroyed by air strikes throughout the war.

The organization noted that the number of civilian casualties led to the Panel’s skepticism about the nature and effectiveness of any assessment of proportionality and any precautionary measures adopted because of the timing of some attacks and weapons used.

According to the report, the coalition has been committing additional acts that may also amount to war crimes, including enforced disappearances, cruel treatment, torture, assault on personal dignity, rape and the recruitment of children under the age of 15 or their active participation in hostilities.

The Panel of Experts also investigated the sexual violence, including the rape of adult detainees, women and children abducted by individuals from the UAE and its established forces dubbed the “Security Belt.”

“Although the decision to appoint the eminent panel of experts was a step in the right direction, as reported by the Arab Organization for Monitoring Rights, it falls short of the standards of accountability that can only be achieved by establishing an independent international commission of inquiry and transferring the case to the criminal court or to bring a case before a national court of competent jurisdiction,” the organization added.