The Agony of Saada

[polly7]

By Iona Craig
Source: The Intercept
November 18, 2015

Yemen’s time-honored homes are part of the country’s rich social fabric, embodying the culture of the families who have lived in them for centuries. The Middle East’s poorest nation is famous for constructing the world’s first skyscrapers, often up to 100 feet high, with as many as 11 stories designed to keep extended families and their livestock safely under one roof.

The violent assault on the country’s history over the past seven months began in March after a political power struggle between incumbent president Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi rebels backed by soldiers loyal to the former president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, descended into civil war.

At least 5,604 people, including 2,577 civilians, have died since the conflict began in March, according to a United Nations tally of figures from local health facilities. That number is probably an undercount of the real figure, because many of the dead or injured never reach medical treatment centers and bodies are often buried unrecorded.

Ibrahim al-Sabra, 23, and his relatives were one of more than 100 families who fled their homes to escape an apparently deliberate tactic of forced displacement of civilians that could amount to a war crime under Article 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The bombardment that destroyed his home started just after 3 a.m. and killed two of al-Sabra’s cousins.

As of October 15, according to the U.N., up to 82,300 people have been internally displaced in Saada, and 2.3 million in all of Yemen. It is not clear how many are permanently homeless due to forced displacement, in contravention of international laws of war, by apparent deliberate bombing of houses.

One of the great religious centers of ancient Arabia, Sirwah, just 75 miles east of Sanaa, was damaged earlier in the conflict, and is under renewed threat from waves of intensive airstrikes carried out since Saudi-coalition troops pushed into the district in early October. While deliberate demolition by ISIS of ancient artifacts and historic sites in Iraq and Syria has been widely reported and denounced, the reaction to the Saudi-led coalition laying waste to Yemen’s cultural history, in what some archaeologists say is a pattern of systematic targeting of the country’s heritage, is comparatively subdued

https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/the-agony-of-saada/


Yemen, invisible to the world right now, it seems, is being destroyed. SA has used cluster bombs that will devastate the lives of small children for decades. Purposeful destruction of its historical buildings and artifacts are a means to destroy the moral of a whole population with immense pride in its historical monuments. Purposeful targeting of civilians - as per the article - "people they hate" - should be a war crime. But as an 'ally', SA has full license to decimate an entire nation. It's sick.

[Mnemosyne]

1. What a world, Polly. Heart-breaking indeed. nt

[Dems to Win]

2. Hillary's tight relationship with the Saudis is just one reason I won't be voting for her

I despise the Saudis and despair that the US considers them an ally. And I don't support any 'charity' that brags about receiving millions from Saudi princes.