Genocide in Yemen

In parliament today 21 November 2017 Alistair Burt, minister of state in Dfid had the gall, once again, to deny that Saudi have blockaded Yemen. The conflict there is often described as a proxy war between Saudi and Iran. The USA and the UK have weighed in on the Saudi side, the motive on our side being arms sales.

It seems that throughout, the Saudi strategy has been to starve the Houthis rather than defeat troops on the ground. Bombing has been targetted to achieve this. Initially the cranes in the key port of Al Hudaydah were targetted thus preventing the unloading of ships supplying food. Next they have been targetting hospitals, schools and more importantly the electricity supply in northern Yemen has been knocked out. This has disabled water treatment plants thus causing the worst cholera outbreak on record – now approaching a million cases. One of the first acts of the banks in the South of the country had been the destruction of the currency – literally burning bank notes.

The excuse for the blockade of the North has been to prevent imports of arms from Iran. In fact not only has it caused mass starvation but also even journalists are unable to get in. Individual Houthis are trapped; they cannot get out. One of our sources of information is a Houthi whom we have contacted online with some difficulty, but we have now lost touch.

This promises to be worse genocide than Rwanda. The UK should be taken to the International Criminal Court.