Bombing Yemen, Munitions Sales to Saudi Arabia

[polly7]

Britain’s Robust Arms Export Control Regime

by Felicity Arbuthnot / November 29th, 2015

As Prime Minister David Cameron attempts to persuade Parliament to back another illegal assault on a country posing no threat to the UK, Syria, it transpires that Britain may face war crimes charges anyway for arms sales to Saudi Arabia, arms being used to decimate civilians and civilian infrastructure in Yemen.

“Since March this year, bombing raids and a blockade of ports imposed by the Saudi-led coalition of Sunni Gulf states have crippled much of Yemen … thousands of Yemeni civilians have been killed, with schools, hospitals and non-military infrastructure hit. Fuel and food shortages, according to the United Nations, have brought near famine to many parts of the country.” Moreover: “The UN estimates that twenty one million people are now without basic life sustaining services and over 1.5 million are displaced. Unicef estimates that as many as ten children a day are being killed.”

Given that the population of Yemen is just over twenty four million, the figures demonstrate that almost the entire population is experiencing unimaginable devastation in an onslaught on which the governments of the “international community” have simply turned their backs – except those bombing with US and UK supplied missiles.

This latest issue of legal embarrassment for David Cameron’s government relates to a Report by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued on November 25 alleging that: “The Saudi Arabia-led coalition used a British-made missile to destroy” Yemen’s Radfan Ceramics factory, “a civilian object, on 23 September, 2015.”

The findings were based: “on field research and interviews with eyewitnesses at the scene.”

Full article: http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/11/bombing-yemen-munitions-sales-to-saudi-arabia/

bbm

[CJCRANE]

1. The world is sleepwalking. nt