US, France, UK may be complicit in war crimes
The United States, Britain and France may be complicit in war crimes in Yemen by arming and providing intelligence and logistics support to a Saudi-led coalition that starves civilians as a war tactic, the United Nations said yesterday.
UN investigators recommended that all states impose a ban on arms transfers to the warring parties to prevent them from being used to commit serious violations.
“It is clear that the continued supply of weapons to parties to the conflict is perpetuating the conflict and prolonging the suffering of the Yememi people,” Melissa Parke, an expert on the independent UN panel, told a news conference.
“That is why we are urging member states to no longer supply weapons to parties to the conflict,” she said.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the main parties in the coalition fighting against the Iran-aligned Houthi movement that controls Yemen’s capital, are two of the biggest buyers of US, British and French weapons.
The experts compiled a secret list of suspected war criminals. Investigators found potential crimes on both sides, while highlighting the role Western countries play as backers of the Arab states and Iran plays in support of the Houthis.
“There are no clean hands in this combat, in this contest,” panelist Charles Garraway said.
The report accused the anti-Houthi coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE of killing civilians in air strikes and deliberately denying them food in a country facing famine. The Houthis, for their part, have shelled cities, deployed child soldiers and used “siege-like warfare”, it said.
Neither the Saudi government communications office nor UAE officials responded immediately to Reuters requests for comment.
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