Written by Dr. Leon Tressell exclusively for SouthFront
The recent death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khosoggi has helped shed more attention on the Saudi war of aggression in Yemen. According to the UN up to 14 million people are at risk of starvation in Yemen. Yet the American and British governments, who have the ability to stop the Saudi war machine in its tracks, continue the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners.
Corporate politicians try and defend the military actions of the Saudi led coalition in Yemen by sheer unadulterated lies. UK Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt in a debate in the House of Commons blithely stated that the Saudi led coalition had not breached any international law. *
Yet evidence of war crimes in Yemen abound. Save The Children, which is feeding starving people in Yemen, has recently released figures showing that the Saudi instigated war in Yemen has caused the deaths of 85,000 children over the last four years.
Tamer Kirolos, Save The Children’s Director in Yemen, has recently said:
“We are horrified that some 85,000 children in Yemen may have died because of extreme hunger since the war began. For every child killed by bombs and bullets, dozens are starving to death and it’s entirely preventable.’’
The air, sea and land blockade of Yemen that the Saudi and UAE led coalition imposed a year ago has been a key factor in creating the conditions for mass starvation in Yemen. However, that is only part of the story.
In Yemen the Saudi and UAE led coalition has systematically set out to destroy the resources of farmers, herders and fishers alongside the deliberate targeting of food processing, storage, transport and water irrigation.
This falls under the UN definition of genocidal acts. The UN Office Of The Special Advisor On The prevention Of Genocide has an analysis framework that comprises eight categories of factors that it uses to determine whether there may be a risk of genocide in a situation. One of the categories that falls under the category of “Genocidal Acts’is the deliberate destruction of the food infrastructure:
“Less obvious methods of destruction, such as the deliberate deprivation of resources needed for the group’s physical survival and which are available to the rest of the population, such as clean water, food and medical services.’’
The Saudi led coalition, unable to achieve any decisive breakthroughs on the battlefield against the Houthi opposition, has resorted to the mass bombing of Yemen’s food infrastructure to try and bring about victory in their illegal war.
A new report by Professor Martha Mundy, The Strategies of the Coalition in the Yemen War: Aerial bombardment and food war, provides a very detailed analysis of the bombing campaigns carried out by the Saudi led coalition in Yemen. This provides clear evidence of the genocidal nature of the military campaign that is supported by the American and British governments. Martha Mundy explains:
“If one places the damage to the resources of food producers (farmers, herders, and fishers) alongside the targeting of food processing, storage and transport in urban areas and the wider economic war, there is strong evidence that Coalition strategy has aimed to destroy food production and distribution in the areas under the control of Sanaʿaʾ.”
In the first phase of the war, March to August 2015, the Saudi coalition focused its bombing primarily upon military targets. However, once their superior fire power failed to crush the Houthi resistance the Saudi led coalition then moved into the realm of deliberate war crimes in the hope of bringing about victory on the battlefield. Professor Mundy, drawing upon data from a wide variety of Yemeni sources, states that the pattern of Saudi bombing moved very early on from military to civilian targets:
“From August 2015 there appears a shift from military and governmental to civilian and economic targets, including water and transport infrastructure, food production and distribution, roads and transport, schools, cultural monuments, clinics and hospitals, and houses, fields and flocks.’’
The map below illustrates the systematic way that the Saudi coalition has set out to destroy Yemen’s food infrastructure in every region of the country.
Alongside the bombing of fields and flocks of animals the Saudi led coalition has deliberately targeted the irrigation system of Yemen in an attempt to destroy the agriculture of the country.
The attacks upon the irrigation system has led to severe shortages of water for farmers whose food production has seen massive declines as a consequence. The Tihama region of Yemen, once known as the breadbasket of the country, has seen a devastating collapse of agriculture. Professor Mundy’s report gives figures for 2017, before the Saudi led siege of the port of Hudadaya made the situation even more catastrophic:
* 51% fall in the amount of land under cultivation
* 43% of people go hungry every night
* crop yields per hectare have declined between 21-60%
Professor Mundy notes the complicity of the US and UK in these war crimes. She states categorically that the Saudi targeting of the irrigation works, provided by the Tihma Development Agency has been facilitated by its Western partners:
“It is inconceivable that the US (and UK) military advisors who give target intelligence to the Coalition did not know the location/s and purpose of the Tihama Development Authority.’’
The other aspect of Yemen’s food infrastructure that the Saudi coalition has systematically targetted is its fishing industry. These attacks have inflicted severe damage upon fishing ports all along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. They have destroyed over 220 fishing boats which has led to a 50% fall in fish catches. The map below illustrates the attacks upon fisherman.
Click to see the full-size image
The US and UK along with France are well known for being the major arms sellers to the Saudi coalition and for protecting its more well known war crimes from diplomatic censure. Less well known is their support for the Saudi coalitions economic war against Yemen, a major cause of starvation, and the deliberate destruction of Yemen’s water and food infrastructure.
Professor Mundy’s report, which draws upon a variety of Yemeni sources, adds to the growing body of evidence that reveals how Saudi Arabia and its allies are committing acts of genocide in Yemen. This is with the active complicity of America and its UK ally.
This evidence of the deliberate destruction of the food infrastructure of Yemen, which is designed to create the conditions for mass starvation, is a clear act of genocide. As such, it is the responsibility of ordinary people across the world to pressure their governments into taking action against this genocide.
* The Saudi Embassy in London was contacted on numeorous occasions for a comment about the issues raised in this article. Not surprisingly, it failed to provide any comment.
Argentina would do the entire World a HUGE Favor while they host the G20 in Buenos Aires ……. Arrest Trump & May & Mohammed Bin-Salman and Charge them with Genocide ………. Argentina does not have the guts to do this with its present Government so …….. these people need to watch their steps and the Countries they visit just in case there is one honourable & decent Nation in this world willing to uphold the Rules of International Law!!
I totally agree Gregory, but the reason it does not happen is this.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/03/us-hague-invasion-act-becomes-law
Power to your elbow Gregory. Would be great to see the underprivileged and ripped off population of the USA pulling the yellow jackets over their heads with a previous French revolution in mind. The plus factor would be that they would be well armed and we would have the added bonus of electronic guillotines being installed on all exits to Congress.Obviously ‘Get out of Congress in One Piece Cards’ would be allocated to the few ‘Non Hawks’. There would have to be a far reaching inquiry into the missing billions from Government funds and the fraudulant practices by insider Senator traders and the Corporate ‘Merchants of Death’. All questioning could take place at GITMO following the normal interrogation procedures that have been sanctioned by President Trump. Demonstrations of torture could be arranged involving all those who have been involved carrying out torture or sanctioning it. Oh! What have I been saying, I’ve just woken up, it’s all a dream. What a pity. Wake up USA, all you who have lost relatives and friends in needless wars since 1950 where the sole object has been the destruction of any form of socialist regime and where all have a fairer share of their countries wealth and access to a decent health service. Trump has stated that Socialism is evil. What do you think ?
Socialism ain’t the problem Martin …… not when it comes to Amerikay. Problem in US is that the entire US Federal Budget appears to be spent on the Military. It’s not just the 750 Billion for direct Military Spending but, on top of it, the Costs of Veterans & their healthcare (& everything else) that apparently costs another 200+ Billion plus a myriad of Federal spend on what is well disguised military spending ……. on the Military Contractors, on the NSA, on the CIA etc etc. More than 1 Trillion per annum is spent by Americans on their military: Imagine if (pick a figure) say, the total were 650 Billion thereby freeing up 350 Billion per annum to be spent on the Interstate Highway system, on clean water & sewage systems, on proper healthcare for ALL Americans ……. I dream :) )))
The USA and the UK continue to spearhead their policies of Colonial genocide on the populations of the Yemin and Syria. The UK Conservative Party were the founding Architects of the Jewish theft of Palestine from it’s indigenous population, a policy they fully support to this day.They also support the evil dictatorship in Barain and the illegal Military regime coup in Egypt which was backed by the USA. The Blairite faction of the Labour Party also supports these policies. In the meantime the only bearer of truth on the scene Julian Assange languishes in the Equidorion embassy, villified for exposing War Crimes and torture by the USA and the UK. The British population should be ashamed of themselves for not rising up and forcing the UK government to release him. But no May and her bunch of evil bastards want to send him to some ‘Hell Hole’ in the USA where he will face torture and possibly execution. As ‘Merchants of Death’ they want to continue their genocidal policies and once again walk away with impunity. If it’s OK for Cameron and May to order Extra Judicial Killings to be carried out by Waddington which risk killing civilianst then I shall lose no sleep if the victims make drone attacks on the instigators of these policies.
I wholeheartedly agree with you Martin!!
“As such, it is the responsibility of ordinary people across the world to pressure their governments into taking action against this genocide”.
So you think “ordinary people” have any influence on their criminal governments? Really? It’s a pipe dream to think that matters of war and peace are in the hands of “ordinary people”. No, sir. Such matters are in the hands of evil power jews. They are talmudic lovers of genocide and barkers at world peace. The Military Industrial Complex in both the US and the UK is dotted with execs whose loyalties are only to their own pockets and to jewish israel.
You want to stop the Yemen war and all other wars in the middle east? Well, there is only one sure way of doing this: kill israel. The “ordinary people” can do nothing in their own respective countries about klepto, terrorist israel, but they sure can support the the Axis of Resistance that has a damn good chance of destroying israel and freeing thus not just the native Palestinians, but also free Western Gentiledom that’s been hoodwinked and enslaved for some 200+ years by the pernicious Rothschild mafias and their political minion whores.
Yeah, destroy israel. That’s your ONLY answer.
So you accuse Jews of genocide after they were the victims of Nazi genocide. Then you go on to call for more genocide by killing every last Jew on the planet. Please get professional help since you already appear to be a danger to yourself and those around you.
Followers of the genocidal talmud are terrorists that deserve elimination, just like the talmudic wahabis. Go fuck yerself if you’ve got a problem with the elimination of mass murdering terrorists!
Not sure what your talmud is but you are the one advocating genocide so by your own words you are a mass murdering terrorist. Is your mind so warped that you cannot see you have condemned yourself to death?
Shut it off already freak! The talmud has been exposed by jews themselves for being genocidal AND racist against, well, all of gentiledom – this means MOST OF HUMANITY! Go pull your ‘talmud is buddha’ shit on someone else! Never mind the much-reported slo-mo genocide and numerous mass murders being committed against the Palestinians by israeli jews!!! Go fuck yourself attempting to turn it around! You can’t! The talmud gives clear instructions to ‘go forth and genocide all non-jews, their gods and their cities’.
Never heard of talmud and article fails to mention it, Jews or Israel. It is obvious to all that you are suffering from JDS. They control your every thought and action. They are in your head and you cannot get them out. Please get professional help before it is too late. At least confide in your family and friends. I pray there is someone that cares enough for you to get you some help. I would gladly help you find a professional but your JDS prevents you from getting help from anyone outside your very small circle of trust.
STFU with your pop-psychology analysis – fucking amateur! Go get an education on the vile and violent anti-gentilism of the talmud before you open your scummy pie-hole!
But of course, you already know what the talmud says about genociding Gentiledom – pretending that you’re not a hasbara minion doesn’t sell with me! And spare me your FAKE concerns, you little terrorist-apartheid-loving spittle! I can verify my assertion about the genocidal talmud by directing you to it – and you can’t direct me to ANYTHING you’re asserting. So, like, come back with some TRUTH AND SUBSTANCE or just fuck off, you time-wasting jew-cog!
We both agree you are all consumed by hating Jews. Every minute of your pitiful life is twisted by your mind to somehow hate jews. I am just trying to point out the SF article we are discussing here is not about Jews and all those other things that have you so upset that you are about to pop an Aneurysm. Do not care about Jews, genociding gentiledom, hasbara, Talmud… Hating Jews is the in thing to do so I am sure you can find many sites with boards dedicated to exactly than. You should go there or if you cannot live without me and my insight then you need to somehow learn how to read English and read the article we are discussing.
“We both agree”. You and your imaginary friend, you mean.
The only one who’s twisted is you, agent hasbara, drunk of shekels and hatred of gentiles.
Some of us know that every political murder and mass-murder of civilians in the middle east has the vile israeli fingerprint all over it – example: read this and eat gentile crow, little hasbara cog: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/khashoggi-friend-sues-israeli-firm-over-hacking-he-says-contributed-to-the-journalists-murder/2018/12/03/ddcb28ee-f708-11e8-8642-c9718a256cbd_story.html?utm_term=.e4442a128264
So which is it do you hate the Jews or not? If not why are you fixated on Jews in this article about Saudis, US and exterminating Houthis.
You and your stupid questions again! You know damn well how I feel and baiting me WILL NOT WORK! AND enough of your passive-aggressive vile antigenlism! In case you didn’t know, the israeli jews tested a freaking small nuke on Yemen earlier in the war! The jews are so deep up saudi’s rectum in their failed war on Yemen – the discerning, non-brainwashed know this only too well! https://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/09/24/how-israel-was-busted-nuking-yemen/
Like I said before: wherever there is blood, there you’ll find the warmongering, mass-murdering jew fingerprint. It’s NOT a freaking opinion, it’s FACT! No go collect your shekel from hasbara central’s large intestine – or are you gonna be doing overtime for the terrorist Apartheid state tonight, little amateur propagandist?!
Nice one.
Dear Lena Jones, your comment was deleted. We kindly ask you to pay an exceptional attention to the fact that your comment was deleted not because of its content, but because of its wording (personal adressed swear words). Sincerely yours, SF Team
Thanks SF Team – nice of you to give me a clarification on why. BTW I’ve swore by far worse in other comments but the receivers did never flag me – I guess R Trojson is ‘linguistically squeamish’ lol thin-skinned, snowflake baby etc. Thanks again.
Go on tell me what you said, I just blocked that R Trjson as you should, but I am so interested in what you said, please, please in some way that is safe.
PS I am serious with that dick, block him, otherwise he/she/it will only antagonise you.
Funny thing, Al, is that I said worse things in other comments to RTrjson on the same thread, but it was this one particular comment that seemed to rile him more than others and enough to flag me to the mods. He musta told the mods that he found my ‘go eff yourself’ in my comment offensive, whereas, in fact, it was me drumming on that he was a ‘lousy hasbara/sayanim minion’ in the same comment that musta rattled his lying cage. Nothing funnier than a jew liar hiding behind their index finger :-)
I won’ block him as I intend to keep exposing his jew mission of spreading misinformation on SF.
Maybe because you are a new one on here; it seems to me that recently loads of these trolls/robot lot are coming on and ruining the threads. Dont worry about it.
1 thing you need to do is to learn ticking the up or down button ob posts.
PS Where are you from ?.
Yes, the abused has become the abuser.
As anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of history knows, genocide is new neither to the US nor the UK. They are just very selective about the ones they condemn.
Just as I foretold many times on this board. Saudis will eradicate Houthis because they know if they do not Houthis-Iran will kill every last Saudi. The genocide has been going on for some time. Many Houthis are starving to death and even more are dying from disease. This slow grinding war will last 20 years until the last Houthis is gone. Now the war is moving into Houthis villages and homes.
US is involved because Iran is involved. As Houthis are being eradicated Saudis are improving their fighting ability and testing their new military toys. Saudis will spend whatever it takes and fight as long as it takes to kill every last Houthis.
For Heaven’s sake Houthis have been launching ballistic missiles from Iran into Saudis cities. What would Russia do if some breakaway minority in Kazakhstan was launching ballistic missiles into Russian cities? We all know one way or another Putin would eradicate that minority.
“Houthis have been launching ballistic missiles from Iran into Saudis cities.”
That is a complete lie – why even bother to say it?
At least we agree that if Houthis were launching ballistic missiles then Saudis are justified in attacking them.
We must agree a strong leader like Putin would wipe out any group that launched ballistic missiles into Russia. Ditto Xi and Trump.
So how much does hasbara central pay you per stupid lie?
The Saudis are not attacking the Houthi People of Yemen because the Houthi attacked Saudi Arabia. It is Saudi Arabia that attacked, blockaded and has sought to starve, sicken and blow to smithereens the Houthi People of Yemen: the Houthi have attacked Saudi Arabia in response to the despicable Saudis. Meanwhile, the Iranians have had little or nothing to do with the War in Yemen: Yemen has been surrounded and blockaded by Saudis, UAE, Sudan ,Egypt, America, United Kingdom, France & Israel for 3 + years so how, therefore have the Iranians been supplying armaments to the Houthi? The Iranians have applauded the Houthi from afar for their courage and their bravery but it is the Houthi People that have managed to transform Military Equipment, Guns, Missiles & Missile Systems captured from the Saudi-Emirati-Coalition and with their innate brainpower and steadfast courage, turn them on their attackers …….. the 8th and 9th most powerful (apparently) military States in the world and stop them, dead, in their tracks. The Houthi are more than justified in launching their home-made Ballistic creations at Saudi Cities and Military Installations and I hope to God they continue and succeed in what they are doing until such time as the World wakes up to the stinking evil that lies within the gilded palaces of Riyadh and the Saudi war-machine and it’s supply spigots in Military-Defense Factories in UK, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Sweden, America and elsewhere scattered across Europe are completely shut down, switched off and their owners and controllers prosecuted for the consistent committing of War Crime after War Crime.
As usual, anything the West accuses other countries of doing it does itself as well. Only ten times worse. And as usual politicians are pathological liars whose mere act of breathing is just a prelude to another lie.
Recently in the UK, a back street arms dealer who supplied weapons to criminal gangs was jailed for life, when it was found that several of the guns he supplied were used to murder people. How is it then, that politicians are not jailed for life when they openly supply weapons to a regime such as Saudi Arabia, in the full knowledge that the said regime, is going to use those weapons to kill tens of thousands of people. We live in a World which is filled with hypocrisy, where the most evil people are never held to account for their crimes.