Genocide in Yemen

By Stephen Lendman


  Yemen is Obama’s war - cold-blooded genocidal slaughter and mass destruction, planned long before conflict began in late March, using Saudi Arabia, UAE, other Gulf states and Egypt to do his dirty work.

Terror bombing residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools and other non-military related targets continues.

US-Saudi enforced blockade prevents enough food, medical supplies, fuel, clean water and other essentials from reaching desperate people in need. Human Rights Watch said what’s ongoing “may amount to starvation of civilians as a weapon of warfare” - genocide by deprivation.

According to Save the Children’s Mark Kaye, “(a)t the moment we only have enough fuel in the north and center of the country for the next six weeks.” Hospitals still operating lack fuel to run to run generators “for their work.”

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien calls the scale of human suffering in Yemen “almost incomprehensible.”

Over 20 million Yemenis may perish from hunger, thirst and/or lack of medical treatment for serious injuries and diseases.

Western media are dismissive - largely ignoring an increasing US-created holocaust. Near silence substitutes for what demands daily headlines and condemnation of Obama’s latest imperial project - to destroy Yemeni sovereignty and return US-controlled puppet leadership to power, no matter the cost in lives lost, vast destruction and unspeakable human misery.

Official casualty numbers way understate the human toll. True figures are multiples higher than reported. Victims suffer out of sight and mind - mostly noncombatant civilian men, women and children in harm’s way.

Death and injury tolls rise daily. People are dying from lack of enough food to eat, thirst and medical treatment for serious health issues - likely many thousands already, maybe millions before conflict ends.

On September 15, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Adama Dieng and Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect Jennifer Welsh “expressed concern at the ever increasing impact on civilians of the ongoing conflict in Yemen, and the virtual silence of the international community about the threat to populations.”

“Unless there is a serious commitment of the parties to find a political solution to the conflict that will end the violence and ensure humanitarian access to all populations, without discrimination, the situation is likely to degenerate further,” they explained.

Major crimes of war and against humanity are being committed daily. Civilians are indiscriminately being slaughtered.

“The (UN) Special Advisers reminded national authorities of their primary responsibility to protect the Yemeni population. (T)he international community has a responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

Ongoing mass slaughter and human suffering are largely ignored. The appalling toll on Yemeni civilians increases daily - exacerbated by Riyadh’s use of banned chemical weapons and cluster bombs.

UNICEF reports eight children killed or maimed daily. The true figure is likely multiples more, as well acute malnutrition taking a devastating toll on millions Yemenis of all ages.
Britain is complicit with Obama’s war - selling Saudi Arabia deadly weapons like Washington. Days earlier, Oxfam CEO Mark Goldring said Yemen “descended into a humanitarian disaster putting its people at risk of famine, and the UK is materially involved through its export of arms and military support to the bombing campaign.”

“It is time the government stopped supporting this war and put every possible effort into bringing an end to the carnage” it’s fueling - “causing unbearable human suffering.”

“The UK successfully lobbied hard over many years for a UN Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the arms trade which came into being last year.”

“This government has incorporated the treaty into national law, yet at the first test of the new law it has turned a blind eye to mounting evidence of potential misuse of its weapons and support.”

Jeremy Corbyn chairs Britain’s Stop the War Coalition. It issued a strongly worded statement last spring, shortly after US orchestrated, Saudi-led terror bombing began, saying:

“The Stop the War Coalition condemns the British government’s support for the Saudi-led attack on Yemen. This war is a further destabilising act of aggression in the Middle East, which risks embroiling the region and its peoples in a still wider war.”

“Saudi Arabia is now playing a leading part in almost every anti-democratic development in the Middle East, including joining in the current Anglo-American bombardment in Iraq, We repeat our long-standing demand that Britain end its alliance with the dictatorial and oppressive Saudi regime, and cease supplying it with arms.”

“This present conflict in Yemen reflects the determination of both Saudi Arabia and the western powers to destroy the democratic potential of the Arab Spring in one country after another.” 

“Only the people of Yemen can resolve the crisis in that country and decide their own future, and their independence and territorial integrity must be fully respected.”

Bernie Sanders supports Washington’s war machine - refusing to condemn ongoing mass slaughter and destruction, ignoring the growing holocaust in Yemen. Instead, he urges greater Saudi involvement in regional conflict theaters - more slaughter, destruction and human misery than already.

All Republican and Democrat presidential aspirants support US hegemonic ambitions - color revolutions and genocidal wars the main ways to achieve it.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html  - Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. - Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

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