SA arms used to bomb civilians in Yemen
War Crimes | Red Cross and UN officials condemn targeting of residential areas and hospitals in bloody civil war
SOUTH African military equipment is being used by both sides in a bloody civil war that has caused a humanitarian crisis and reduced entire cities to rubble in Yemen.
The conflict this year has claimed at least 5 600 lives — including 500 children — according to the United Nations.
UN secretary-general Ban Kimoon and International Committee of the Red Cross president Peter Maurer issued a statement last weekend condemning the bombing of civilians, indiscriminate attacks on residential areas and hospitals saying, “Enough is enough. Even war has rules. It is time to enforce them.”
Numerous reports of civilians being targeted, a violation of international humanitarian law, raise ethical questions about South Africa’s continued export of armoured vehicles, weapons and ammunition to countries embroiled in the conflict.
South Africa exported military THE VICTIMS: The feet of a child covered in dust in Yemen after an attack on a civilian site hardware between January and June worth R224.6-million to four countries actively fighting in Yemen, according to the National Conventional Arms Control Committee — which oversees arms exports.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan — part of a Saudi-led coalition — bought millions of rounds of ammunition for assault rifles, armoured personnel carriers, 40mm weapons and ammunition, drones, radios, machine guns and target acquisition units.
UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond called for a formal investigation this week into war crimes in Yemen and warned his country would stop arms exports to Saudi Arabia if that country had breached international humanitarian law.
The chairman of the South African arms control committee, Jeff Radebe, said yesterday that it would take possible human rights violations in Yemen into account when evaluating requests for arms exports.
Fighting escalated in March after the coalition, backed by the US, launched an air and ground offensive to reinstate the deposed president, Mansour Hadi.
Their opponents are Houthi rebels fighting alongside soldiers from the regime of ousted former ruler president Ali Abdullah Saleh who during his tenure acquired dozens of armoured personnel carriers of South African origin.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute records show his regime imported and built 50 Leopard armoured vehicles made under licence from South Africa in Yemen. A further 10 Mamba mine-resistant vehicles were delivered in 2010. The arsenal includes South African Ratel armoured cars.
Yemen is considered to be the most impoverished country in the Arabian peninsula, where according to the UN World Food Programme 80% of people depend on emergency food relief.
Images of a South African Seeker II surveillance drone shot down over Yemen were widely circulated in July.
According to NCACC records, four “airborne observation systems” worth R30.2-million were exported to the United Arab Emirates between January and June.
Although unarmed, this particular type of drone is integral to modern warfare. They form part of a battlefield artillery suite and are used in tandem, for precision guidance, with South Africa’s largest and most lethal tactical weapons export, the G6 heavy artillery gun.
The UAE, part of the coalition forces, purchased an additional six G6 guns in 2014. G6 artillery is being used extensively on the battlefield in Yemen.
Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city, is at the centre of fighting, being targeted by heavy artillery. The International Committee of the Red Cross has denounced “repeated artillery shelling of Taiz’s al-Thawra Hospital, one of the main healthcare facilities in the city which is now treating 50 civilian casualties a day”.
Firing artillery into residential and built-up areas is considered a war crime under the Geneva Convention.
Médicins Sans Frontières head of mission in Yemen, Hassan Boucenine, described conditions as “tragic” — worse than in Syria.
There is a dire shortage of medicine and water, which is pumped from boreholes. Without fuel, no water can be pumped. Unsanitary conditions lead to outbreaks of disease.
Boucenine said patients with kidney failure and diabetes had no access to drugs.
“People show up in hospital in extreme pain. The only thing we can give them is painkillers but they will eventually die. Those are the silent victims of the conflict,” he said.