Date: Sunday, 11 December 2016
Saida Ahmad Baghili, 18, is starving on a bed at the al-Thawra hospital in the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, Yemen (Photo: Abduljabbar Zeyad/ReutersA US arms giant with a factory in Fife producing laser-guided systems for smart bombs has been linked to another alleged war crime in Yemen.
A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) says an airstrike in September that killed at least 31 civilians, including three children, was unlawful.
The atrocity emerged amid new warnings from Oxfam that the war-torn country is “slowly being starved to death”.
Millions of people are running out of food with medical supplies also running at dangerously low levels as chaos and fighting cripples the country.
The UK has been supplying a Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels with Paveway IV missiles produced by US arms firm Raytheon at their factory in Glenrothes.
Despite many allegations that hospitals and schools have been bombed by the coalition, the UK Government have repeatedly refused to suspend arms sales to the Saudis.
Britain sold £3.3billion worth of arms to the country, including missiles, tanks and helicopters, between April 2015 and March 2016.
Boris Johnson last week accused Saudi Arabia of “playing proxy wars” in the Middle East.However, he will today meet the country’s ruler King Salman and other members of the royal family as part of his Gulf tour as Foreign Secretary.
His comments infuriated PM Theresa May, who was on a trade mission to the Gulf last week. Johnson was slapped down by No10, who said his comments were not government policy.
On Friday, Johnson spoke in a speech in Bahrain about his “profound concern” for people in Yemen but refused to repeat his criticism of Saudi Arabia.
The new report by HRW said coalition warplanes killed several dozen civilians in three apparently unlawful airstrikes in September and October. Just before dawn on September 10, coalition planes bombed a water drilling rig near Beit Saadan village in Arhab district, around 18 miles north of Sanaa.
Multiple strikes that morning killed at least 31 civilians and wounded 42 others. Yehia Abdullah, a 34-year-old teacher, lost his brother in the first strike on Arhab.
He said: “I saw five bodies including my brother Muhamad. First I found my brother’s severed leg outside the [workers’ shelter], about six metres, his arm on the door … and half his body buried in the ruins.”
War crimes investigators who visited the site found remnants of two US-made GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided 500lb bombs.
HRW said part of the guidance system was produced by Raytheon in the US in October 2015, according to markings on a bomb fragment.
Earlier this year, we revealed that fragments of a bomb found at the scene of another alleged war crime in Yemen were linked to Raytheon in Scotland. A code engraved on the fragment showed it was made by Raytheon and a sub-contractor called Border Precision, a firm based in Kelso before it closed down last summer.
HRW said: “The attacks underscore the urgent need for foreign governments to suspend all arms sales to Saudi Arabia and for the United Nations human rights office to send additional investigators to Yemen to carry out credible investigations of alleged abuses by the coalition, the Houthis and their allies, and all other parties to the conflict.”
Between March 2015 and October 2016, at least 4125 civilians were killed and 7207 wounded in Yemen – the majority by coalition airstrikes.
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said: “There is clear and overwhelming evidence that Raytheon have been complicit in, and profited from, war crimes.
“The destruction in Yemen has created a humanitarian catastrophe, but to Raytheon it’s just another business opportunity. Bombs made in Scotland are falling from the sky and could well be landing on civilian targets.” Both Raytheon and the Saudi Arabia Embassy in London declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Oxfam warned that Yemen could run out of food this winter.
Mark Goldring, Oxfam GB chief executive, said: “Yemen is being slowly starved to death.
“First there were restrictions on imports – including much-needed food. When this was partially eased, the cranes in the ports were bombed, then the warehouses, then the roads and the bridges.
“This is not by accident – it is systematic. The country’s economy, its institutions, its ability to feed and care for its people are all on the brink of collapse.
“As one of the principal backers of this brutal war, Britain needs to end its arms sales and military support to the Saudis and help put Yemen on the road to peace.”
CAAT said: “If Boris Johnson believes that Saudi Arabia is a puppeteer state that twists Islam to fight proxy wars, then he must use his visit to call for an end to the bombing and an end to the arms sales.
“The UK has armed and supported the Saudi-led bombardment, and the hell that it has unleashed on Yemen.
“Now it must do everything it can to stop it.”
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “As the Foreign Secretary made very clear last weekend, we are allies with Saudi Arabia and support them in their efforts to secure their borders and protect their people.
“Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong and misinterpreting the facts.”
Oxfam pleads for peace in Yemen as civil war prompts fears of famine in 'perfect storm of suffering'
She added that peace talks were top priority and said: “A political solution is the best way to bring long-term stability to Yemen and end the conflict.
“The UK supports the Saudi Arabian-led coalition military intervention, which came at the request of legitimate President Hadi, to deter aggression by the Houthis, and allow for the return of the legitimate Yemeni government.
“The UK is not a member of the Saudi Arabian-led coalition. British personnel are not involved in carrying out strikes, directing or conducting operations in Yemen or selecting targets and are not involved in the Saudi targeting decision-making process.
“We are aware of reports of alleged violations of International humanitarian law by actors in the conflict and take these very seriously.”
SNP MP Douglas Chapman said: “The situation is beyond desperate.
“All my SNP colleagues and I have been absolutely consistent and resolute in calling for a ban on all arms exports to Saudi Arabia until a full independent international investigation has taken place.
“However, the additional call for immediate humanitarian aid must be heard in Downing Street. The UK Government cannot keep turning a blind eye to such a devastating crisis.”
John Finnie MSP, Scottish Greens justice spokesman, said: “The escalating humanitarian crisis in Yemen underlines the need to stop the arms trade, and this latest link with a weapons maker based here in Scotland will disgust anyone with compassion.”
