Only 58 per cent of respondents in a YouGov poll identified Yemen as the country, where at least 10,000 people have been killed in three years of bloodshed, as a warzone. 42% do not know the war exists. When asked where they believed an ongoing armed conflict was taking place, three-quarters of the respondents in the same poll said Syria, 63 per cent Afghanistan, 53 per cent Iraq and 46 per cent for both Libya and Myanmar.
The Human Appeal, which commissioned the research and is providing aid in Yemen, said the lack of awareness was “startling” as 14 million people face starvation.
Charles Lawley, the charity’s external affairs coordinator, suggested it could be the result of media coverage or the war’s complexity.
“The human price being paid every day, across Yemen, is horrendous and we feel like more of the UK should be aware of the realities in a conflict zone where violence and poverty reigns unabated in a disastrous cycle,” he added. “More and more Yemenis are struggling to access clean water and hygiene facilities, allowing disease and infections to spread rapidly. Despite all of this, Yemen is being ignored.”
The UK government has continued licencing of weapons and military equipment to Saudi Arabia, which leads a coalition accused of killing thousands of civilians and committing war crimes in a bloody campaign of airstrikes.
Evidence of British-made bombs have been found at the scenes of alleged war crimes, and earlier this year the chairman of BAE Systems pretended ignorance that he “did not know” if the firm’s equipment had been used to commit war crimes. The UK has licensed £4.7bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia since the bombing began, including £2.7bn worth of ML10 licences that include aircraft and helicopters, and £1.9bn of ML4 licences covering weapons including missiles and other bombs.
Germany has paused arms exports to Riyadh over the murder of dissident Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi but the UK has so far made no move to do the same.
Andrew Smith, of Campaign Against Arms Trade said: “No matter how bad the situation has become, it has always been able to rely on the support of the UK government. What more would it take to end the arms sales and end the uncritical support that has been given to the regime?”
Saudi Arabia and its partners have denied committing war crimes in the ongoing conflict, and Britain has been content to recognise the conclusions of the coalition’s in-house Joint Incidents Assessment Team. In most cases the mechanism has found that the coalition acted lawfully, did not carry out a reported atrocity, or that a mistake was “unintentional,” often due to technical errors.
But a UN report released in August concluded that the Saudi-led coalition had committed acts that may amount to war crimes. It said its airstrikes have caused most direct civilian casualties, hitting homes, markets, funerals, weddings, detention facilities, civilian boats and even medical facilities. The coalition’s air and sea blockades – restricting the passage of food, humanitarian aid and medical assistance – violate humanitarian law and may amount to an international crime, the UN said. Members of the Saudi-led coalition were also accused of using child soldiers, raping displaced civilians and harassing journalists.
No comments:
Post a Comment