Experts: UAE, Saudis may have committed war crimes in Yemen

Three experts working for the UN’s top human rights body say the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia may have been responsible for war crimes including rape, torture, disappearances and “deprivation of the right to life” during 3 1/2 years of escalated fighting against rebels in Yemen. In their first report for the Human Rights Council, the experts also point to possible crimes by rebel Shiite militia in Yemen, who have been fighting the Saudiled coalition and Yemen’s government in a civil war since March 2015. The experts have also chronicled the damages from coalition airstrikes, the single most lethal force in the fighting, over the last year. They urged the international community to “refrain from providing arms that could be used in the conflict”- an apparent reference to countries including the United States and Britain that help arm the Saudi-led coalition, as well as Iran, which the coalition has accused of arming the Houthis. The experts visited some but not all parts of Yemen as they compiled the report. “(We have) reasonable grounds to believe that the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are responsible for human rights violations,” the report said. It cited violations including unlawful “deprivation of the right to life,” arbitrary detention, rape, torture, enforced disappearances and child recruitment. Saudi, Emirati and Yemen officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday. On Twitter, Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote that the UAE “must review it, answer its merits and review what it says about the horrors of the Houthis.” Saudi state media later said its coalition had received the UN report and forwarded it onto its own lawyers to review before it “will take the appropriate position.” The Associated Press reported last year that the UAE and its allied militias were running a network of secret detention facilities, beyond the control of Yemeni government. In June, the AP revealed that hundreds of detainees had been subjected to sexual abuse and torture.