GENEVA - SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties said that the military operations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in Yemen constitute a crime of aggression against a sovereign state (the Republic of Yemen), and have resulted in massive and widespread violations of human rights.

The organization pointed out that the practices of Saudi Arabia and the UAE on Yemeni territories contradict the objectives of the military intervention set out in President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi's message upon his request to the Gulf Cooperation Council, which resulted in the formation of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

SAM affirmed that "the Coalition’s approach is based on sharing influence and interests, establishing armed militias, supplying them with weapons, and supervising them directly by the UAE administratively, financially and militarily, in addition to the use of force against the will of the Yemeni state. These actions constitute, in essence, a crime of aggression that violates the sovereignty and independence, of a country that is a member of the United Nations, and constitutes a serious violation of international law, the United Nations Charter, which affirms that “No state has the right to interfere, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatsoever, in the internal and external affairs of any other country; And that it is the duty of all states not to threaten or use force against the sovereignty, political independence or territorial integrity of other states”

SAM said, "Among the practices that violate Yemeni sovereignty are supporting the rebellion in the governorates of Aden and Socotra Island, expelling the Yemeni government from Aden and local authority officials from Socotra Island, forming armed forces outside the supervision of the Yemeni state, and bombing the Yemeni army with the coalition air force with more than 63 airstrikes, killing and wounding several army personnel and officers, and establishing military bases on Yemeni soil in some islands such as Mayon and Socotra, without coordination with the Yemeni government, and control over Yemeni ports and airports and ports, and the bringing foreign citizens without the control or consent of the Yemeni government.

SAM added, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Yemen sent a letter to the Security Council on May 5, 2018, accusing the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Arab coalition, of encouraging rebellion against the legitimate government in southern Yemen in 2019, leading to the expulsion of the government from Aden, and its admission to bombing the army, in August 2019 on the outskirts of the interim capital, Aden, which resulted in the killing and wounding of more than 300 Yemeni soldiers.

On December 19, 2019, the governor of Socotra sent a message to President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, entitled: “A report on the storming of Emirati elements to Socotra airport by force,” followed by the recruitment of armed elements to overthrow the local authority and expel the local officials appointed by the Yemeni government on the island, in addition to the involvement of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, or the parties supported by the two countries, in gross violations of international law against the right of unarmed civilians, such as arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial killings, in addition to the UAE’s use of the US and French mercenaries to commit assassinations and physical liquidations of several politicians, media professionals, and clerics.

On September 20, 2020, the Governor of Socotra, Ramzi Mahrous, submitted a letter to President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi entitled “Summary of developments in the Governorate of Socotra Archipelago,” in which he mentioned several practices carried out by the UAE, including disrupting the regular procedures at the ports, especially the airport, and the arrival of ships carrying equipment and telecommunications devices without the knowledge of the legitimate government, looting camps and selling weapons, continuing to transport militants to the island, and preventing the port authorities from carrying out their work, actions that constitute a clear violation of the sovereignty of a member state of the United Nations.

The governor of Shabwa, Muhammad Saleh bin Adiou, complained in an interview with the Yemeni Belqees Channel, on March 11, 2020, that the United Arab Emirates, a member of the coalition, had refused to vacate the Balhaf LPG terminal and handed it over to government authorities four years after the governorate was liberated from the Houthis militia, which impedes the economic operation of the facility in favor of the Yemeni government to reduce the economic burden on citizens.

Local and parliamentary exasperation

SAM pointed to the growing discontent among Yemeni with the practices of the two countries in Yemen and their violations of Yemeni sovereignty. On September 5, 2020, the two members in Parliament; Ali Hussein Ashal and Ali Al-Maamari, sent a letter to the new Yemeni Parliament Speaker Sultan Al-Barakani "about the practices of the United Arab Emirates on the island of Socotra, including the establishment of military camps and the operation of 6 flights among whose passengers are foreigners who are believed to be military experts without the coordination or knowledge of the Yemeni government, and the establishment of an Emirati telecommunications company, 8 communication towers.

On September 10, 2020, 28 members in the House of Representatives sent a letter to the President and Vice President, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Ministers, calling on them to cancel the Stockholm Agreement and return to Yemen to lead the battle to liberate Hodiedah and the rest of the Yemeni governorates.

Later, on September 23, the Deputy Speaker of the Yemeni Parliament, Abdulaziz Jabbari, accused during an interview with the Without Borders program on Al-Jazeera, the Arab coalition of preventing the Yemeni government from exercising its mandate in the areas under the control of the legitimacy, and preventing the legitimacy and all its institutions from returning to Yemeni lands".

SAM emphasized that the coalition's practices undermined the Yemeni government's control, prevented it from providing service and economic activities, and contributed to spreading chaos in its areas of control, and greatly undermined peace opportunities, alongside the Houthi militia, and its policies deprived the Yemeni people of opportunities to have a safe and decent life, which constituted a great risk for the Yemeni people and its national security, and for the other countries in the region, which urges the international community to take urgent action to save Yemen from the Houthis coup, and the Saudi-Emirati occupation and aggression, and impose strict penalties on those who are proven to be involved in targeting the Yemeni people and their civilian facilities.

The statement said: "The coalition brought mercenaries to Yemen to disturb security and assassinate opposition figures, established secret prisons in the southern governorates, and practiced physical torture and systematic enforced disappearance of tens of civilians in the governorates of Aden and Hadramout, and killed and wounded thousands of Yemeni civilians, especially women and children, in indiscriminate bombing, in densely populated areas, which severely destroyed the Yemeni infrastructure, and destroyed nearly 133 hospitals, 80 bridges, and more than 4,000 water stations and pumps, and caused the displacement of civilians, which are grave violations of international law.”

The statement pointed out that "the conflict created by the coalition in Yemen has contributed greatly to feeding hate speech among Yemenis, and has frighteningly divided Yemeni society, which resulted in gross violations of human rights on regional grounds, such as identity killing, property plundering and forced displacement of workers in Aden. "

The organization said that the coalition’s seizure of southern Yemeni ports on the Arab Sea and the Gulf of Aden in addition to the port of Mocha on the Red Sea and the disruption of airports deprived the Yemeni budget of billions of dollars, and also contributed to the worsening of living conditions and the deterioration of the Yemeni currency.

Breaking the law

All the resolutions issued by the Security Council affirm the unity and territorial integrity of the Republic of Yemen, and the Constitution of the Republic of Yemen states that Yemen is a "sovereign state, and it is an indivisible unit and no part of it may be conceded, and the Yemeni people are part of the Arab and Islamic nation." It is the only one authorized to establish the armed forces, police, security, and any other forces, and to manage ports and public wealth, and to have full powers over its territory, and being "a member of the United Nations, should be subject to aggression, and any infringement on Yemeni sovereignty is a crime of aggression.”

The "crime of aggression" is defined as "the act of an individual having a position that enables him/her to control the political or military action of the state, or to direct this action by planning, preparing, initiating, or carrying out an act of aggression which, by its nature, gravity, and scope, constitutes a clear violation to the UN Charter."

The act is considered an aggression, according to this definition, “the use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty of another state, its territorial integrity, or its political independence, or in any other way that is inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations, and the characteristic of an aggressive act applies to the use of a state to its armed forces existing within the territory of another state, with the consent of the host state, in a manner inconsistent with the conditions stipulated in the agreement, sending gangs, armed groups, informal forces, or mercenaries by a state or in its name against another country carrying out acts of armed force.”

In this context, SAM called in the statement on the Saudi-Emirati coalition to cease aggression and war on Yemen and its people and stopping their support for the fighting between the Yemeni parties, respecting the sovereignty of the Yemeni state, the supreme interests of the Yemeni people, stopping the grave violations of human rights, and providing humanitarian support to save Yemen from the health and humanitarian situation that the country lives.

SAM called on the internationally recognized government headed by the Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour to carry out its constitutional and legal mandates towards what is happening in Yemen, and the executive and legislative institutions, to activate his constitutional powers and play his role in protecting the Yemeni people from the crimes of the Arab coalition, by resorting to the UN and international mechanisms, foremost of which is the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court in the Hague. It also called on the international community to work seriously and effectively to bring peace to Yemen, stop international interventions and crimes of aggression that violate Yemeni sovereignty, and ensure accountability towards human rights violators in Yemen.