UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein blasted the Saudi government today for its attack on a Yemeni marketplace earlier in the week, a strike which killed upwards of 119 civilians, saying it may amount to a war crime or other “international crime.”
Hussein noted that the Saudi airstrikes are disproportionately responsible for civilian casualties in the ongoing Yemen war, saying they’d killed twice as many civilians as all other forces involved in the war, and those almost exclusively in airstrikes.
“The have hit markets, hospitals, clinics, schools, factories, wedding parties – and hundreds of private residences,” Hussein noted, adding “these awful incidents continue to occur with unacceptable regularity.
UN officials have indeed repeatedly criticized the Saudi killings, but at the most recent General Assembly, Saudi objections blocked a call for international investigations into the war crimes, and ended with a determination that the Saudis and their allies be allowed to investigate themselves.
wow, you are just figuring this out UN? The Saudis invading Yemen was a war crime in of itself. The Saudi and U.S. regime should be brought up on war crimes and crimes against humanity. Why hasn’t the UN stood up and shame Samantha Powers for complicity in war crimes.
Ideally some of the ringleaders would face trial at the International Criminal Court. Unfortunately, Yemen retracted its ratification of the Rome Statute. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE are also not ratified signatories to it. I’m not sure what other “coalition members” there are, or if any of them are on the hook for the atrocities in Yemen.
By and large, those who rule governments are addicted to power and have neither the desire nor ability to let go of the glory. But, we the people, we have both the desire and ability if organized. And that is why all the blood guilt is on our heads if we do not organize.