Nearly 140 Arab human rights organizations and civil societies have demanded an immediate end to the devastating Saudi-led war and siege on Yemen, criticizing global inaction in the face of the atrocities committed against the Yemeni people.
The 138 organizations, in a joint statement released on Sunday, denounced the “brutal Saudi-Emirati war” on Yemen, which has resulted in heavy civilian casualties, massive destruction of vital infrastructure, and the spread of poverty and deadly diseases across the Arab country.
“The aggressive war on Yemen is taking place before the eyes of the whole world and amid the silence and inaction of the international community, led by the United Nations and most of its affiliated institutions, out of fear that Saudi and Emirati financial contributions would stop,” they noted.
The statement added, “The extent of the catastrophic situation in Yemen is exposed by statistics provided by Yemeni human rights institutions. The organizations have monitored and recorded war crimes, various acts of aggression, and crimes against humanity committed by the Saudi-led coalition over the past seven years.”
“According to statistics, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and wounded. About 579,900 homes have been destroyed in addition to 15 airports, 400 hospitals and clinics, 16 ports, 680 popular markets and 500 telecommunication centers, 2,000 government facilities, 400 factories, 11,000 commercial centers, and 1,500 mosques,” the human rights and civil organizations highlighted.
They also demanded freedom-loving people and human rights advocates worldwide to exert popular pressure and put an end to the war.
The organizations called for the immediate and full removal of the cruel siege on Yemen, the opening of Hudaydah port and Sana’a International Airport, free entry of foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and fuel derivatives, and unrestricted travel of critically-ill Yemeni patients in need of life-saving treatment abroad.
The statement also stressed the need for Saudi Arabia and its allies to issue formal apologies over the aggression against Yemen, compensate for the losses inflicted on the country, undertake initiatives to release all prisoners of war, and reveal the fate of those who have gone missing.
The organizations then urged all Yemeni political parties to sit for an intra-Yemeni dialogue, under the auspices of the United Nations, to settle the crisis in the country based on internationally-recognized principles of human rights.
They called on the UN Human Rights Council to re-launch its investigation into war crimes, crimes against humanity, and all violations of the international humanitarian law, which the Saudi-led coalition has perpetrated in Yemen over the past seven years.
The human rights and civil organizations finally called for a mechanism that would secure the establishment of peace, empowerment of the Yemeni people, the assertion of their right to self-determination away from foreign interference, and holding of free and fair parliamentary and presidential elections with the assistance and monitoring of the United Nations.
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Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war against Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with a number of its allies, chief among them the UAE, and with arms and logistics support from the US and several Western states.
The objective was to bring back to power the former Riyadh-backed regime and crush the popular Ansarullah resistance movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of an effective government in Yemen.
The war has stopped well short of all of its goals, despite killing hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and turning the entire country into the scene of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
