Nobel Laureate: Riyadh Responsible for All War Crimes in Yemen
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Yemeni activist and 2011 Nobel Laureate Tawakkol Karman said Saudi Arabia is “legally responsible” for all the crimes of the Saudi-led coalition in her country.
“Saudi Arabia is the one who is leading the coalition formally and practically… This is what the world knows and what has been announced,” Karman wrote on Facebook. “Saudi Arabia therefore bears legal responsibility for all the crimes committed by the Arab Coalition, whether the perpetrator is Saudi Arabia or one of the member states. To say that the UAE is guilty of laundering Saudi crimes, on the one hand, and tempting the Saudi army to continue to mess with the Yemenis’ lives, on the other, is useless.”
The human rights activist made her comment after it was reported that the French judiciary has opened an investigation against Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed who is accused of complicity in the torture of prisoners in Yemen detention centers controlled by the UAE armed forces. The French can look into such cases on the basis of universal jurisdiction.
The UAE is accused of supporting the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) to achieve its own goals in Yemen. This is something that the UAE government in Abu Dhabi usually denies.
“They held Saudi Arabia responsible and prepared to make it pay the price… Will they stop? Who will protect our country from their evil agenda?” asked Karman, according to the Middle East Monitor.
Yemen’s defenseless people have been under massive attacks by the coalition for more than five years but Riyadh has reached none of its objectives in Yemen so far.
Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.
Thousands of civilian people have been killed in Yemen since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began.
The Saudi war has impacted over seven million children in Yemen who now face a serious threat of famine, according to UNICEF figures. Over 6,000 children have either been killed or sustained serious injuries since 2015, UN children’s agency said. The humanitarian situation in the country has also been exacerbated by outbreaks of cholera, polio, measles and recently the coronavirus.