Allgemein
Chronologie zum Jemen-Konflikt aus der Sicht des UN-Sicherheitsrats.
http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/chronology/yemen.php
Kommentar: Der Sicherheitsrat im Raumschiff new York, weit entfernt von dem, was Sache ist.
3.10.2015 – Aljazeera
Life on hold in war-shattered Sanaa
Despite a dire need for humanitarian aid, little is successfully arriving into Yemen amid a land, sea and air blockade.
- Fotoserie -
1.10.2015 – NPR
U.S.-Backed Saudi Bombing Campaign Blamed For Civilian Deaths In Yemen
There is growing criticism over the soaring number of civilian casualties in Yemen. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, says 2,300 civilians have been killed so far. He says both sides in the conflict share blame, but the Saudi-led air campaign has been responsible for most of the deaths.
"Two-thirds of the reported civilian deaths during the conflict since March were caused by airstrikes," he says. "When you're getting this very high toll of civilians, it suggests something may be going badly wrong or perhaps not enough care is being taken."
Colville says the U.N. Human Rights Council has called on Saudi Arabia to investigate incidents where civilians were killed.
"They should really look into every single incident of this type and find out why civilians were hit or was the target with due care taken," he says. "Because that is a fundamental element of international humanitarian law, that's the laws of war."
Saudi Arabia says it takes care in its targeting, and lays blame on the Houthi rebels for many attacks. But unquestionably, Saudi Arabia and its coalition of mostly Gulf states has superior firepower over the Houthis.
The Atlantic Council's Nabeel Khoury, a former U.S. diplomat who served in Yemen, says that initially, the Saudis thought they could run an air campaign for a few weeks to counter the rebels.
"As the conflict went on," he says, "Saudis became more determined, and obviously this has been proven to be harder than they originally thought."
Khoury says Saudi Arabia is getting pulled deeper into the Yemen conflict and has now put troops on the ground, as well as accelerated its airstrikes. The U.S. provides logistical and intelligence support for the air campaign — even refueling its jets. It raises the question of how long the U.S. will back its Gulf ally as civilian deaths rise.
Khoury says the Obama administration has been quietly telling Saudi Arabia that it should negotiate with the Houthi rebels. He says others are speaking more loudly.
"Beyond the U.S., opinion in Europe and at the United Nations and throughout the civil society have all been alarmed by the death rate in Yemen, and just in general this air campaign has gone too far," he says.
Human rights activists say the U.S. should support investigations into civilian deaths in Yemen or risk becoming associated with coalition abuses. The Pentagon says it has asked the Saudi government to investigate civilian casualties – by Jackie Northam
Kommentar: Zum vorletzten Satz: Human rights activists say the U.S. should support investigations into civilian deaths in Yemen or risk becoming associated with coalition abuses. Hier gibt es kein “risk” mehr, schon seit 6 Monaten ist völlig klar, dass die USA „becoming associated with coalition abuses“.
Kriegsereignisse
4.10.2015 – Washington Post from AP
Fighting rages on Yemen’s Red Sea coast
Yemeni security officials say fierce battles are ongoing between pro-government fighters clashing with Shiite Houthi rebels and allied military units along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.
The officials, who remain neutral in the conflict that has splintered the country, say the fighting Sunday is taking place between Bab al-Mandab — the strategic entrance to the Red Sea — and the port city of Mokha. They say the Saudi-led coalition is attempting to clear a path for the pro-government fighters toward Mokha – by Ali Al-Haj
4.10.2015 – Iran German Radio
Saudi-Arabien verstärkt Luftangriffe gegen Jemen
Kampfflugzeuge Saudi-Arabiens haben Sonntag früh ihre schweren Angriffe gegen die Hauptstadt Sanaa aufgenommen und verschiedene Wohngebiete in Al-Jaraf bombardiert.
Das Gebäude der Universität für militärisches Ingenieurwesen und ein Autohaus wurden zerstört. Am Samstag bombardierten sie einen Basar in Maran im Norden Jemens. Dort starben drei Zivilsten, fünf weitere wurden verletzt. Laut der Internetseite Saba.net haben Kampfflugzeuge Saudi-Arabiens am Samstag über 30 Angriffe gegen die Provinz Saade geflogen. Ein Lkw mit Nahrungsmitteln wurde in Ghamar getroffen und drei Menschen wurden getötet. Die amtliche Nachrichtenagentur Jemens meldete, dass bei einem Luftangriff gegen die Region Bani Sayah in Razah in Saade eine Frau und zwei Kinder ums Leben kamen, ein weiteres Kind wurde verletzt.
UNO
4.10.2015 – Stephen Lendman
Whitewashing US/Saudi War Crimes in Yemen
America is a rogue state of unparalleled pure evil, masquerading as a democracy, run by bipartisan criminals, fascist neocons, serving powerful monied interests and their own.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s vilest regimes, a fascist police state, partnering with America’s regional aggression, supplying chemical and other terror weapons to ISIS and other takfiris, ruthlessly waging war on Yemen, committing horrendous high crimes - Obama’s war, planned and orchestrated in Washington, the US and Riyadh complicit in creating a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.
Obama administration officials applauded Riyadh’s outrageous appointment to head a five-member UN Human Rights Council (HRC) panel - charged with reporting on abuses worldwide, mocking the legitimacy of the initiative, exposing the HRC as a sham group, fundamentally against what it claims to support.
In its new capacity, Riyadh went all-out to block a Netherlands proposed HRC investigation into war crimes and other human rights abuses in Yemen since conflict began last March.
It called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to “dispatch a mission, with assistance from relevant experts, to monitor and report on the human rights situation in Yemen.”
Human rights groups strongly endorsed the proposal, citing appalling high crimes committed, no accountability mechanisms in place to challenge them, civilians most of all being harmed, over 80% of the population in dire need of humanitarian aid - mostly prevented from reaching suffering Yemenis by the US/Saudi blockade, a major war crime along with daily terror bombing.
Riyadh and other Gulf states lobbied ferociously (with US/UK tacit support) for the ousted, US-Saudi-backed, despotic Hadi regime to establish a commission of inquiry on Yemen - effectively letting Washington and Riyadh whitewash their horrendous war crimes, blaming Houthis alone for what’s happening.
Human Rights Watch criticized the move, saying Yemeni authorities neither investigated or held anyone accountable for serious high crimes since 2011 - “nor has (Riyadh) investigated possible war crimes by its forces.”
Deputy HRW director Philippe Dam said “(b)y failing to set up a serious UN inquiry on war-torn Yemen, the Human Rights Council squandered an important chance to deter further abuses.”
“Such a mechanism would have been crucial to confront continued impunity for crimes committed in the country…”
“The increasingly desperate Yemeni population should not be ignored by the world’s preeminent human rights body. It's all been about Saudi Arabia protecting itself from an international probe, really.”
Putting the US/Saudi-controlled ousted Hadi regime in charge of investigating war crimes and other human rights abuses in Yemen is no different from letting a serial killer serve as prosecutor, judge and jury at his own trial.
The outcome is predetermined. Other parties will be blamed - in this case, the Houthis serving as chumps.
The battle for Yemen’s soul continues. Millions of lives are at stake. Nothing in prospect suggests an end to their suffering any time soon. US/Saudi aggression could continue for years.
How many more Yemenis will be terror bombed to death? How many perishing from starvation or unavailable medical care for untreated wounds or illnesses. How many dying from world indifference to help them?
Yemen is being raped and destroyed while the whole world turns a blind eye to millions of suffering people - victims of imperial viciousness.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.de/2015/10/whitewashing-ussaudi-war-crimes-in-yemen.html
2.10.2015 – VOA News
UN to Help Provide Psychological Support to Yemen Victims
The United Nations says it will train members of civil society groups in Yemen to provide psychological support to victims of the ongoing conflict there and to document human rights violations.
Several U.N. organizations, including the U.N. Development Program, U.N. WOMEN and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, are partnering to provide the training to 130 researchers and members of nongovernmental organizations.
"Human rights violations in this war have occurred, and they need to be documented so victims can find relative peace and move on with their lives," said Mikiko Tanaka, UNDP’s country director in Yemen. "The trained social workers will support communities through the trauma and give hope that impunity is not a new norm."
Tanaka said the war is having a "devastating psychological effect on citizens."
Kommentar: was soll man davon halten? Verbalkosmetik, um vom völligen Versagen der UNO beim Thema Kriegsverbrechen im Jemen abzulenken?
2.10.2015 – RT
Saudi Arabia sinks UN war crimes probe in Yemen, Washington stays silent
In September, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called for an independent, international inquiry into alleged war crimes in the country. The Netherlands submitted a draft resolution to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) shortly after, which among other things called for UN experts to be sent to Yemen to investigate allegations of crimes committed by all parties involved. The proposal was backed by a number of European countries.
The document was opposed by Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, all members of the council, as well as the Yemeni government in exile. The Saudis allegedly won their place at the council through a secret deal with the British government, according to the cables exposed by whistleblower website WikiLeaks.
The Saudis proposed an alternative resolution that doesn't provide for an independent international inquiry and instead calls on the UN to support a probe led by the Hadi government. Human rights groups objected to the Saudi draft resolution, saying it would put a belligerent party in charge of the probe and would ultimately leave Saudi crimes obscured.
While the Saudis kept pushing for their draft resolution to be passed, the US kept mostly silent on the debate, and didn’t voice support for the Dutch proposal. Last week, American UN envoy Samantha Power released an ambiguously worded statement on the issue, which said Washington was “following the ongoing discussions in Geneva closely.”
"We do believe the Human Rights Council and OHCHR [Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights] have an important role to play regarding the humanitarian situation, and look forward to working with our colleagues in Geneva,"Powers said.
The US helps its Arab ally Saudi Arabia in the Yemen bombing campaign with logistics and targeting. America is also the biggest provider of weapons for Saudi’s armed forces.
On Wednesday, the Netherlands announced they were dropping their draft resolution, leaving the Saudi document the only contestant for UN endorsement. Washington's de facto opposition to the document played a significant role in its eventual demise, according to Vice News.
"It was terrible, the US was silent for a very long time," Nicolas Agostini, Geneva representative for the International Federation For Human Rights, told Vice News. “The Dutch should have had public support from key partners including the US throughout the process.
“By the second week of negotiations, it became clear they wouldn't get that kind of support. [America's] very late public expression of support for the Dutch text, and emphasis on the need to reach consensus, de facto benefited the Saudis."
http://www.rt.com/news/317353-saudis-sink-yemen-probe/
2.10.2015 – The Atlantic
Looking the Other Way in Yemen
The U.S. allowed the Saudis to block a UN inquiry into the thousands of deaths in Yemen’s civil war
On Monday, an airstrike by Saudi-led, American-supported coalition mistakenly hit a wedding party that killed more than 130 people. According to reports, the death toll was exacerbated by a supply shortage, which kept some victims from receiving critical medical treatment.
“This is warfare,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir explained to CBS News, in describing the efforts to defeat the Iran-backed Houthi rebels. He added: “We are very careful in picking targets. We have very precise weapons. We work with our allies including the United States on these targets.”
This week, Dutch diplomats were stymied at the United Nations as they sought to create a UN-led investigation into human-rights abuses in the six-month-long civil war. The efforts failed in large part because the United States and other Western powers did not strongly endorse the independent investigation and sided with the Saudis. As Samuel Oakford notes:
Faced with total opposition from the Saudis and their allies, and de-facto instructions from the US to compromise, the Dutch announced on Wednesday that they had withdrawn their text entirely, likely ending efforts to get an international inquiry.
On Friday, a weaker resolution proposed by the Saudis gained unanimous approval at the United Nations. However, outside the United Nations, it was heavily critiqued. Human Rights Watch called it “deeply flawed.”
“The U.S., U.K., and France appear to have capitulated to Saudi Arabia with little or no fight, astoundingly allowing the very country responsible for serious violations in Yemen to write the resolution and protect itself from scrutiny,” one HRW official said – by Adam Chandler
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/10/united-states-united-nations-yemen-war/408751/ siehe auch http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/02/us-yemen-rights-idUSKCN0RW1ES20151002 und https://www.rt.com/op-edge/317530-un-human-rights-saudi/
2.10.2015 – Human Rights Watch
UN: Rights Council Fails Yemeni Civilians
Saudi Pressure Derails Bid for International Inquiry
The United Nations Human Rights Council missed a key opportunity to address alleged violations of the laws of war by all sides to the conflict in Yemen, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 2, 2015, the council adopted by consensus a deeply flawed resolution that ignores calls for an international inquiry into mounting abuses in the country.
“By failing to set up a serious UN inquiry on war-torn Yemen, the Human Rights Council squandered an important chance to deter further abuses,” said Philippe Dam, Geneva deputy director at Human Rights Watch. “The world’s preeminent human rights body failed to generate effective international scrutiny over attacks by all the warring parties that have caused thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen in just a few months.”
The Netherlands originally put forward a draft resolution that would have mandated a UN mission to document violations by all sides since September 2014. It withdrew its draft on September 30 under intense pressure from Saudi Arabia and due to insufficient backing from key countries including the United States and the United Kingdom. The Yemeni government boycotted negotiations on the Dutch resolution during the council session. Several members of the Saudi-led coalition conducting military operations in Yemen – including Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates – openly opposed the proposed UN inquiry.
The Arab group, led by Saudi Arabia, prepared the draft resolution put forward at the council. This draft lacked any reference to an independent UN inquiry, calling instead on the UN high commissioner for human rights to provide Yemen with “technical assistance” to support a recently formed domestic committee and to continue the reporting already in place. Yemeni authorities have neither investigated nor prosecuted the serious international crimes committed since 2011, nor has the Saudi-led coalition investigated possible war crimes by its forces, Human Rights Watch said.
In a report on Yemen released on September 11, the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, recommended establishing an independent and impartial international mechanism to investigate alleged violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law. On September 15, the UN special advisers on the prevention of genocide and the responsibility to protect joined Zeid in urging the creation of an international mechanism. Human rights and humanitarian organizations had also called for a UN inquiry into abuses by all sides in Yemen, including during the council session.
In sharp contrast to its backing for international inquiries and missions in Syria, North Korea, Libya, Sri Lanka, and Eritrea, the United States, which has provided extensive support to the Saudi-led coalition, remained silent until September 28. While the US eventually expressed support for the Dutch resolution, the US and the UK ultimately supported the consensus resolution put forward by the Arab group.
“The US, UK, and France appear to have capitulated to Saudi Arabia with little or no fight, astoundingly allowing the very country responsible for serious violations in Yemen to write the resolution and protect itself from scrutiny,” Dam said – by Kenneth Roth. HRW Executive Director
https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/10/02/un-rights-council-fails-yemeni-civilians
2.10.2015 – Amnesty International
UN RESOLUTION ON YEMEN FAILS TO LAUNCH INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATION INTO WAR CRIMES
The UN Human Rights Council’s failure to open an international investigation into violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights law, committed as part of the devastating conflict in Yemen marks a dark day, said Amnesty International.
The Council today adopted a resolution tabled by Saudi Arabia on behalf of Arab states involved in the conflict and the Yemeni government of Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which fails to establish an international mechanism to investigate such violations and abuses by parties to the conflict.
“This resolution reflects a shocking failure by the Human Rights Council to meet its obligation to ensure justice and accountability, and sends a message that the international community is not serious about ending the suffering of civilians in Yemen,” said James Lynch, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.
“It was drafted by Saudi Arabia, which is leading the military coalition that has itself committed serious violations of international law in Yemen, with evidence pointing to war crimes.”
The resolution makes no mention of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition and fails to mention expressly the coalition’s ongoing military campaign in Yemen. It requests the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to assist a national commission of inquiry set-up by the internationally recognized Yemeni government, which is backed by Saudi Arabia.
“The Yemeni government has failed so far to launch credible investigations into allegations of atrocities committed by all sides to the conflict. The government is also not in effective control of much of the country,” said James Lynch.
“We believe that the only way to ensure the truth is through an effective and independent international investigation.”
The Government of the Netherlands had been pursuing a resolution that called for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct an independent international investigation, but withdrew its draft on 30 September after failing to gain sufficient international backing.
The Yemeni authorities have failed to hold thorough and independent investigations into past human rights violations, including into abuses committed in the context of anti-government protests in 2011.
“Unfortunately, the past failures of the Yemeni authorities do not bode well for their ability to hold perpetrators accountable, provide adequate reparation to victims and their families and ensure security forces comply with international human rights standards,” said James Lynch.
“Since the conflict began, an atmosphere of impunity has prevailed in which violations of international humanitarian law and gross human rights abuses and violations have gone unchecked. Replacing impunity with accountability is crucial to preventing such crimes from becoming more widespread and entrenched.”
2.10.2015 – RT
WikiLeaks cables implicate UK & Saudi Arabia in secret deal to secure UNHRC seats
Two years after the controversial appointment of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s leading human rights offenders, to the UN human rights council, Wikileaks cables have revealed a “secret deal” suggesting that the British government was a key player behind Riyadh's nomination.
Some of the 61,000 files from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, dated January and February 2013, translated by both UN Watch and newspaper, The Australian, reveal that the two countries reached a secret deal to ensure that they would both be elected to the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2013, despite Saudi Arabia’s horrific human rights record.
One of the secret cables, obtained by Wikileaks in June, said: “The ministry might find it an opportunity to exchange support with the United Kingdom, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would support the candidacy of the United Kingdom to the membership of the council for the period 2014-2015 in exchange for the support of the United Kingdom to the candidacy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Another diplomatic wire stipulated that there was a price tag for being on board the influential UN body: One cable revealed that Saudi Arabia transferred $100,000 for “expenditures resulting from the campaign to nominate the Kingdom for membership of the human rights council.”
The WikiLeaks revelations about the secret London-Riyadh trading raise new concerns over the sincerity of Western nations in their claims that they fight for and defend human rights.
“If the UK is doing back-room deals with Saudi officials over human rights, this would be a slap in the face for those beleaguered Saudi activists who already struggle with endemic persecution in the kingdom,” Allan Hogarth from Amnesty International UK told the Guardian.
“The UK should be supporting the rights of [those persecuted], not pushing the non-existing human rights credentials of the Saudi Arabian authorities,” he added.
“Based on the evidence, we remain deeply concerned that the UK may have contracted to elect the world’s most misogynistic regime as a world judge of human rights,” Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, told the Australian.
In the meantime the Foreign Office told The Australian that it was “standard practice” not to reveal voting intentions or record, a claim that UN Watch denies.
“The claim of the Foreign Office that concealing a country’s UN vote is a ‘standard practice’ with ‘all members’ is manifestly false,” Neuer said.
The director says that it is “troubling” that London refuses to deny the vote-trade deal. The NGO is also furious that the Foreign Office is unable to reassure the public that London’s voting practices comply with the principles of UNHRC, which tries to elect member states based on their human rights record.
The 2013 secret vote deal went a long way and has spurred a recent wave of criticism, as this summer, Faisal bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s envoy to the UN, was appointed to chair a UN Human Rights Council team.
http://www.rt.com/news/317004-saudi-uk-human-rights-deal/
1.10.2015 – FT
UK-Saudi ‘secret deal’ to join UN human rights body, cables show
According to a translation by UN Watch, a non-governmental organisation, one Saudi cable read that: “The [Saudi UN] delegation is honoured to send to the ministry the enclosed memorandum, which the delegation has received from the permanent mission of the United Kingdom asking it for the support and backing of the candidacy of their country to the membership of the human rights council (HRC) for the period 2014-2016, in the elections that will take place in 2013 in the city of New York.”
“The ministry might find it an opportunity to exchange support with the United Kingdom, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would support the candidacy of the United Kingdom to the membership of the council for the period 2014-2015 in exchange for the support of the United Kingdom to the candidacy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office said: “As is standard practice with all members, we never reveal our voting intentions or the way we vote.”
“The British Government strongly promotes human rights around the world and we raise our human rights concerns with the Saudi Arabian authorities.”
Saudi Arabia was the UK’s biggest export market for arms sales last year, according to data collated by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), a London-based non-governmental organisation. It estimates that arms export licences to the kingdom under the coalition government of 2010-2015 totalled nearly £4bn.
The UK was the largest supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia between 2010 and 2014, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Last month it was revealed that Faisal bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador at the UN in Geneva, had been elected to a senior panel of human rights “experts” at the UN, drawing further criticism from charities – by John McDermott
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0ce7880c-684b-11e5-a57f-21b88f7d973f.html#axzz3nQikFe6w
Aus den Kommentaren:
The most serious and focussed forum of Western values brought to the level of the Eurovision song contest. We need more explanation of this, please.
What next, an OBE for North Korea's King-Jong Un for his efforts in maintaining world peace?
According to Amnesty International, UK has sold torture equipment to Saudi Arabia. Now the UK puts Saudi Arabia on a UN human rights body. This absolutely stinks.
30.9.2015 – Breitbart
'SECRET DEAL’ ON VOTE TRADING SECURED UK AND SAUDI ARABIA’S UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL PLACES
Leaked diplomatic cables show Britain and Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s worst human rights violators, brokered a secret vote-trading deal to ensure both countries were elected to the the Human Rights Councilof the United Nations (UNHRC).
Saudi foreign ministry files were passed to Wikileaks in June, reports The Guardian. They referred to talks conducted with diplomats representing David Cameron’s British government ahead of the November 2013 vote in New York.
The documents have now been been translated by the monitoring organisation UN Watch– a Geneva-based non-governmental human rights organisation that scrutinises the performance of the United Nations by the yardstick of its own Charter – and newspaper the The Australian.
The classified cables showed Britain initiated the talks by asking Saudi Arabia for support ahead of the UNHRC elections. In the end both Britain and Saudi Arabia were elected to the 47 member state body.
One of the cables, referring to the elections, read: “The ministry might find it an opportunity to exchange support with the United Kingdom, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would support the candidacy of the United Kingdom to the membership of the council for the period 2014-2015 in exchange for the support of the United Kingdom to the candidacy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
Another document revealed Saudi Arabia transferred $100,000 for “expenditures resulting from the campaign to nominate the Kingdom for membership of the human rights council for the period 2014-2016″ – how this money was deployed, if at all, remains unclear.
A series of questions were put to the British Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, by The Australian about the secret pact, including whether Saudi Arabia’s human rights record made it problematic. A spokesman responded:
“As is standard practice with all members we never reveal our voting intentions or vote. The British government’s position on human rights is a matter of public record. We regularly make our views well known, including through the UN Universal Periodic Review process and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s annual Human Rights and Democracy Report, and raise human rights concerns with the Saudi Arabian authorities.”
Executive director of UN Watch, Hillel C. Neuer said the Foreign Office’s claim of “standard practice” is “manifestly false”, citing by way of example the fact Vietnam has revealed voting pacts with both Bangladesh and Uruguay – by Sarkis Zeronian
Hadi-Regierung
3.10.2015 – AFP
Yemen premier tells rebels no room for more 'adventures'
Yemeni Prime Minister Khaled Bahah warned Shiite Huthi rebels Saturday that there was no place in the country for more "adventures," vowing to press on with a campaign to retake territory from them.
"There is no room for any more political or military adventures," said Bahah, who is also vice president. "This is a last warning to the Huthis and their allies" among troops loyal to ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Bahah was speaking at a military camp near the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, which loyalist forces retook control over on Tuesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/yemen-premier-tells-rebels-no-room-more-adventures-184634202.html
Kommentar: Was will er damit sagen? Verhandelt wird nicht. Hintergrund: Der UN-Menschenrechtsrat hat den Saudis jetzt quasi einen Freibrief für weitere Luftangriffe erteilt.
Saudi-Arabien
3.10.2015 – The Economist
King Salman’s year of trouble
2.10.2015 – IRIN
Bomb it, fix it: Saudi aid to Yemen
On a chilly autumn day in Geneva, the elegant mansion that houses the Swiss Press Club was flanked by half a dozen black limousines, all with telltale diplomatic license plates. They were for Saudi Arabian diplomats who had turned up to support the launch of a generous Saudi-funded aid plan for Yemen. The $274 million offering is the first significant action by Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre. Launched just four months ago, the centre will coordinate Saudi funds for humanitarian crises worldwide. The $274 million figure represents 100 percent of an appeal the UN launched for Yemen in April: the rarest of occasions that such an appeal has been met in full. The UN has since said it needs $1.6 billion to tackle the country’s humanitarian crisis.
But what looks in the account books like an enormously charitable humanitarian gesture takes on a starkly different perspective when global politics are brought into consideration.
While Faisal Bin Hassan Trad, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UN, told his audience in Geneva about the Muslim tradition of providing relief to the poor and the needy, saying, “we deliver [aid] without prejudice to religion or nationality,” just across the road in the UN press centre, a spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights was condemning “the disregard shown by all sides for human life” in Yemen.
The Saudi plan for Yemen was first mooted in April and has been the subject ofdoubt and anger from many sections of the aid community ever since. Some have called it “the weaponisation” of aid. Others, Oxfam among them, have said that humanitarian agencies should not accept the Saudi money.
The UN insists it imposed its own conditions for accepting the Saudi money. Chief among them: no restrictions on where and how it is spent. Suggestions that projects in Houthi-controlled areas might not be permitted were, according to UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac, unfounded. “Our conditions are neutrality and impartiality,” Boulierac told IRIN. “We won’t accept the money if there are strings attached.”
Some of the Saudi money has now been transferred to the UN. Brennan confirmed that the WHO had already received its first tranche.
A priority will be rebuilding Yemen's shattered hospitals. In Aden, scene of some of the fiercest bombardment and fighting, the Republic Hospital, one of the city's largest, lies shattered and empty.
Still, is there not a contradiction in accepting money from countries that may have caused the need for aid in the first place? Not so, according to UN agencies, who insist that giving large sums won’t let governments off the hook. Their message is clear: however generous the donation, the conduct of conflict will not escape scrutiny, and there will be no impunity for anyone who commits violations – by Imogen Foulkes
http://www.irinnews.org/report/102055/bomb-it-fix-it-saudi-aid-to-yemen
Kommentar: Der Titel des Beitrags sagt (fast) alles. Freilich. Die Summe ist lächerlich gering im Vergleich zu den Schäden, die die Saudis selbst angerichtet haben.
3.10.2015 – Al Monitor
Saudi war in Yemen impossible to win
As Yemen's civilian casualties mount and Arab coalition forces sustain further losses, it looks increasingly likely that Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen will only lead to more destruction
The Saudi military intervention may have reached a dead end six months after it started, despite announced victories in Aden and other southern Yemeni territories. The brief return of exiled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to Aden in September on a Saudi airplane was meant to mark a symbolic Saudi momentary victory rather than an important turn signaling an undisputed positive outcome. The Saudi war on Yemen is not an inevitable war of self-defense forced on the leadership by Houthi expansion inside Saudi Arabia and undermining Saudi national security. Instead, it was a pre-emptive strike to inaugurate an aggressive Saudi regional foreign policy.
Civilian casualties are very high on the Yemeni side, while the Arab Coalition forces, mainly Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are just beginning to experience the high human cost of war. In Saudi Arabia, the war claimed the lives of military personnel on the Saudi-Yemen border following retaliatory shelling by the Houthis and attacks inside Yemen. The war is bound to raise questions about the ability of Saudi Arabia to eliminate the Houthis and the influence of their backers on the Arabian Peninsula, namely Iran. Rather than undermining those pledges, Saudi fatalities have become part of the government’s nationalistic propaganda that the pre-emptive strike was necessary to avoid such outcomes. The war has led to what the Saudi leadership actually warned against in justifying it, even before the Houthis attacked Saudi territories. However, instead of a swift victory in Yemen, Saudis are now being killed inside their own country while their troops inside Yemen have been targeted in devastating attacks, such as the one in Marib in early September, when 10 Saudi soldiers were killed.
Victory in a regional war fought by airstrikes under a vague coalition, a limited number of ground troops from several countries and local Yemeni militias do not seem to be on the immediate horizon. The international military coalition the Saudis hoped for turned out to be only a mini-consortium of countries willing to participate. The Saudi war turned into a Saudi-Emirati alliance with other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries reluctantly supporting it.
It seems premature to announce a Saudi victory, considering that the official immediate objective of the war is to free the city of Sanaa from Houthi control and restore Hadi to the presidential palace. The Saudis are perhaps unclear about the post-war future of Yemeni politics should they reclaim Sanaa from the Houthis. They can only hope to install a loyal Yemeni government with the ability to keep the Houthis under control, especially in the northern parts of Yemen.
The worst-case scenario for Saudi Arabia is perhaps the possibility of the war turning into a prolonged military engagement that may perpetuate a long Yemeni civil war, backed by selected regional and international players, alongside the one that has been raging in Syria since 2011. This will no doubt drain Saudi resources and undermine the domestic objectives of the war, namely the consolidation of King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud’s monarchy, the projection of military might, the appeasement of jihadis and Islamists, and the consolidation of a Saudi militarized religious nationalism.
A prolonged war risks damaging the Saudi leadership and unleashing domestic dissidence if the number of Saudi casualties increases.
The semblance of Saudi victory in Yemen may also come with al-Qaeda or Islamic State (IS) gains; both may consolidate their control over parts of Yemen. It is not clear how the Saudi leadership will deal with militants gaining control of parts of Yemen. There is also no announced plan for reconstruction and power-sharing.
A second scenario that is more likely if the war continues is turning the current de facto partition of Yemen into a permanent de jure arrangement. The divisions in Yemen will not be along the north-south lines as it used to be, but between multiple players, each of which controls specific territories. These will include the forces of the Houthis, deposed President Ali Abdullah Saleh, exiled President Hadi, the southern separatists, al-Qaeda and IS. Many of these forces will seek foreign patrons to consolidate territorial gains.
As the Saudi regime is now fully entrenched in domestic and complex Yemeni politics, it may find that its own war objectives do not actually result in a stable Yemen on its southern borders. The war looks like it is going to be a long adventure, leading possibly to nothing but more destruction. – by Madawi Al Rasheed
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/10/saudi-arabia-lose-protracted-war-yemen.html#
USA
3.10.2015 – Huffington Post
U.S. Dodges Responsibility For Saudi Airstrikes That Kill Yemeni Civilians
At the same time, the U.S. provides Saudi Arabia with targeting assistance and bombs.
The Obama administration is moving to distance itself from the mounting civilian casualties in Yemen’s civil war, while simultaneously providing targeting assistance to a Saudi Arabian-led coalition that has been conducting airstrikes over Yemen for the past six months.
White House officials said they were “shocked and saddened” by last week’s wave of civilian deaths, but said they were not responsible. “The United States has no role in targeting decisions made by the Coalition in Yemen,” said White House spokesman Ned Price in a statement on Friday night. “Nevertheless, we have consistently reinforced to members of the Coalition the imperative of precise targeting,” he added.
Friday’s statement seemed to contradict earlier news reports, where U.S. Central Command officials said they provide “targeting assistance” to the Saudi-led coalition. When asked about the discrepancy, a senior administration official told The Huffington Post, "There is a clear distinction between logistical and intelligence support, which we have provided, and taking part in targeting decisions, which we do not do.” The official noted that the support the U.S. provides to the coalition is intended to increase accuracy of airstrikes conducted by its allies and minimize civilian deaths.
A recent Congressional Research Service report said the U.S. sold $90 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia between 2010 and 2014, including fighter aircraft, helicopters, missile defense systems, missiles, bombs and armored vehicles. The report noted that the U.S. has supplied the Saudis with American-made weaponry for its military intervention in Yemen and has shared intelligence to support Riyadh’s targeting decisions.
The White House’s effort to distance itself from the most recent round of civilian deaths in Yemen comes two days after Saudi Arabia successfully resisted a Dutch effort at the U.N. Human Rights Council -- a body now led by Riyadh -- to send an independent human rights team into Yemen to investigate human rights violations committed by all parties during the civil war.
While the U.S. supported the initial Dutch resolution, they made no public effort to block the Saudi government from killing the independent investigation. Keith Harper, the U.S. representative to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, told The Associated Press that while he supported the Dutch initiative, he preferred a consensus outcome, meaning one that had the backing of Saudi Arabia – by Jessica Schulberg
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/yemen-civilian-deaths-saudi-airstrikes_5610566be4b0dd85030c53a9
2.10.2015 – US-Mission bei der UNO in Genf
U.S. Explanation of Position: Resolution on Technical assistance and capacity-building for Yemen in the field of human rights
30th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council
As Delivered by Ambassador Keith Harper
U.S. Representative to the Human Rights Council
In joining consensus on the resolution “Technical assistance and capacity-building for Yemen in the field of human rights,” the United States underscores its deep concern regarding the terrible humanitarian toll of the conflict on civilians.
Our deep concern extends to attacks by all parties that have led to civilian casualties and damage to infrastructure and that have impeded humanitarian relief.
We stress the importance of the OHCHR role in providing technical and capacity-building assistance to the Yemen National Independent Commission of Inquiry. OHCHR’s assistance is vital in ensuring that the work of the Commission is conducted in a swift, credible and comprehensive way, to ensure that violations and abuses in Yemen are properly investigated, monitored, and reported to the international community.
We urge all parties to cooperate with and grant access to the Yemeni COI and to the UN in its effort to support the COI. Should the situation of human rights in Yemen fail to improve, we call upon this Council to take further action.
In addition, based on this new resolution, we look forward to a robust, comprehensive and detailed report from the High Commissioner on the situation in Yemen – including on the conduct of all parties in Yemen, and on implementation of this resolution. This will be critical in order to ensure that this urgent situation will get the attention that it requires.
We reiterate the resolution’s call on all parties to respect their obligations under international law, to refrain from unlawful attacks on civilians, to take all feasible measures to minimize – consistent with International Humanitarian Law – civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects, and to allow humanitarian access to the affected population nationwide.
This includes allowing commercial imports and deliveries of fuel to all Yemeni ports.
As a technical matter, with respect to OP2, we note that not all of the listed actions are violations of international human rights law or international humanitarian law per se.
Mr. President,
We appreciate the efforts of various delegations to work on this resolution, in particular the delegation of the Netherlands which has worked closely on Yemen at the Council over the past several years. The Council must continue to examine closely the deteriorating human rights situation in Yemen. Thank you.
Kommentar: Siehe obigen Artikel von J. Schulberg in Huffington Post. Die USA wollen sich jetzt aus ihrer Verantwortung für die Kriegsverbrechen der Saudis und ihrer Koalition im Jemen stehlen. Dass sie die Saudis bei der Zielerfassung und logistisch unterstützen, ist bekannt und seitens der USA selbst erklärt worden. Jetzt will man es auf einmal nicht gewesen sein…: http://poorworld.net/Yemen/America-denies.htm
2.10.2015 – Antiwar
White House Calls for Investigation Into Yemen Civilian Deaths
Administration Had Backed Saudi Resolution at UN the Day Prior
Just one day after abandoning a resolution authorizing a UN investigation, the White House is calling for an investigation into the reports of major civilian casualties in Yemen over the past week, saying the findings of such an investigation would need to be made public.
This is exactly what the Netherlands resolution at the UN was calling for, but in the face of complaints by the Saudis, whose warplanes are killing most of these civilians, the US and other Western nations ditched that plane in favor of a Saudi resolutionwhich empowered the pro-Saudi forces to investigate themselves.
Today’s White House call didn’t explicitly call for the investigation to be UN-based, and they may be able to justify their objection to the Netherlands’ plan on the grounds that a Saudi investigation is “good enough” so long as the Saudis make the results public. With the Saudis insisting most of these incidents didn’t even happen, the chances of a serious probe are not good.
http://news.antiwar.com/2015/10/02/white-house-calls-for-investigation-into-yemen-civilian-deaths/
Kommentar: Das Gerangel um den UN-Menschenrechtsrat, kombiniert mit 142 Toten beim Luftangriff auf eine Hochzeitsfeier, last halt die USA nicht besonders gut aussehen. Da tut ein bißchen schönes Gerede zur rechten Zeit ganz gut.
2.10.2015 – National Interest and Consortium News
The Destructive U.S.-Backed Campaign in Yemen
This carnage and associated suffering are being largely overlooked and even excused in the United States. In fact, according to official White House statements, the Obama administration is providing “logistical and intelligence support” to the Saudi-led military intervention. Insufficient attention to what is really going on in Yemen can be partly explained by the distractions of what is going on elsewhere in the Middle East. Most recently this has included the Russian military intervention in Syria, which has received far more attention than the Yemeni war but, especially with this week's Russian airstrikes, is remarkably similar in both nature and purpose to what the Saudis are doing in Yemen. Another major reason for the inappropriate American attitudes and posture toward what is going on in Yemen is a habit of rigidly thinking of all events especially in the Middle East in terms of a fixed line-up of “allies” and foes, without regard to any consistency in upholding standards of international behavior or to any careful consideration of where U.S. interests do and do not lie.
The single biggest member of this perceived, mind-numbing line-up is Iran, the focus of the politically correct habit of thinking of it as nothing but a foe, and the arch-foe in the region at that. The required ritual references to “nefarious” Iranian activity that is “destabilizing” the Middle East flow off lips so automatically they probably could flow in one's sleep, and are routinely uttered with no reference at all to what Iran actually is or is not doing in the region.
The Iranian connection to the Yemeni conflict is Tehran's sympathy, and some undetermined degree of material support, for the Houthis, who have been one of the most significant and successful players in that multidimensional conflict. The Houthi movement has been a major player in Yemen for over a decade and has needed no instigation from Iran to assert itself. For the Houthis, who are Zaidi Shiites, the motivations for assertion include concern over the rise of Sunni extremism—including in the form of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)—as well as longer-standing issues of distribution of political and economic power within Yemen.
To appreciate the inconsistency in the application in Yemen of standards of international behavior, imagine that Iran had been doing anything like what the Saudis have been doing in Yemen, including using its air force to conduct strikes like the one against the wedding party. The uproar in this country would be deafening, perhaps enough to derail the recently completed nuclear agreement.
There is no good justification for the United States to be identifying itself with, much less materially supporting, the Saudi intervention in Yemen. It is supporting the cause of most of the destruction and suffering in the country, rather than reducing the destruction and suffering (although the United States is furnishing some humanitarian aid for Yemen). It is earning opprobrium and resentment for being associated with the Saudi campaign. It is making matters even worse for itself by knuckling under to the Saudi preference to prevent even an impartial United Nations inquiry into wartime excesses by all sides in the Yemeni conflict, including the Houthis.
The United States does not have a direct stake in the internal contests for power and influence in Yemen. Even if it did, it would be hard to explain the side it is taking now. Saleh was considered a U.S. partner during his long time in power, and now he is allied with the Houthis.
The United States does have a stake in how instability in Yemen can reverberate in the form of transnational terrorism and extremism, but again it is on the wrong side. The Houthi movement does not do international terrorism. AQAP certainly does, and it has tried to do it repeatedly against the United States. In the otherwise confused lines of conflict within Yemen, the Houthis and AQAP are each other's clearest enemies.
And the United States certainly does not have a good reason to take sides in sectarian conflicts in Yemen or anywhere else in the Muslim world.
Mistaken policies such as the U.S. posture toward Yemen will continue as long as U.S. policy is made in a domestic political climate in which prevailing sentiment automatically labels some foreign states as “allies” and others as practitioners of “nefarious” behavior, and insists that the United States always align itself with the former and always oppose anything having to do with the latter – by Paul R. Pillar
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/paul-pillar/the-destructive-us-backed-campaign-yemen-13997 = https://consortiumnews.com/2015/10/02/giving-saudis-a-pass-on-yemen-war/
Israel
4.10.2015 – Veterans Today, Alalam
Revealed: Israel’s Air Bridge to Help Saudi War in Yemen
An Israeli Air Force 747 aircraft Boeing carrying weapons, missiles and other equipment landed in Khamis Mushait base in Asir in Saudi Arabia to assist the coalition in the war against Yemen led by Riyadh.
According to Al-Alam News Network report on Saturday, citing local sources in Asir region in the West of Saudi Arabia, these equipment will be used in support of the coalition air forces in various regions of Yemen.
The sources said that the Zionist regime has required an air bridge with Khalid bin Abdul Aziz Air Base in Khamis Mushait, Saudi Arabia to support the coalition of Saudi Arabia and the Arab countries to supply arms, ammunition and missiles for them.
According to sources in Yemen, besides Saudi Air Force Commander, about 20 Israeli officers and more than 60 Saudi officers and soldiers were killed by Yemeni army’s “Scud” missiles to the main air base in Khamis Mushait in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/10/04/revealed-israels-air-bridge-to-help-saudi-war-in-yemen/ und http://en.alalam.ir/news/1745349
Kommentar: Kaum überprüfbar, aber gut denkbar.
Terrorismus
3.10.2015 – Heavy
PHOTOS: ISIS ‘Media Training Camp’ in Hadramaut, Yemen
A new photo series purportedly released by the Islamic State shows a military media training camp for jihadists to learn how to film ISIS videos in "Wilayat" Hadramaut. The photos were shared by international terrorism watchdog group Terror Monitor. Click on for the photos.
3.10.2015 – youtube
Al Kaida sprengt den Jakobsschrein in Mukalla – Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula blows up the tomb/shrine of Ya'qub in al-Mukalla in Hadramawt, eastern Yemen (2 Oct 2015).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3edaf2_H0ig&feature=youtu.be = https://twitter.com/arefabuhatem/status/650028879076290561
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