UN fails to protect human rights in Yemen: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Ajamu Baraka, a human rights activist from Cali, Colombia, to get his take on Saudis’ relentless airstrikes against the Yemeni people.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Amnesty International has said the Saudi airstrikes on Yemen amount to war crimes. Any grim of hope that the Saudis can be stopped given that earlier the Netherlands actually fell short of pushing humanitarian inquiry into the atrocities by Saudi Arabia?

Baraka: It is a very difficult situation to try to get international accountability for the carnage that the Saudi government is responsible for in Yemen. The attempt by the government of the Netherlands to try to bring about some degree of accountability by lodging an investigation from the Human Rights Council was defeated and withdrawn because of the pressure that was put on the government by both Saudi Arabia and also US authorities. So, it’s the continuation of one of the most egregious failures on the part of the international community to protect the human rights of the people. I can really think since some of the incursions by the Israelis in the Gaza Strip but this even appears the comparison to those incursions, because it’s been such a long duration of the attack. Now, more than six months there are any effective responses from the international community.

Press TV: I’m sure that you’ve been following the stories and developments in Yemen. We have the story; we already know that Saudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen since late March an unlawful war against the people there. It’s killed almost 6400 people mostly innocent civilians. Now, there are reports of ISIL also increasing its attacks. Do you think this is just a coincidence or is it a harmony of interests?

Baraka: It is a consequence of the vacuum created in Yemen as a consequence of Saudi invasion. There is some degree of collaboration, we believe, between the Saudi authorities and these factions connected to al-Qaeda. We know that different elements of the Saudi royal family that still pumping money sometimes into various elements of the al-Qaeda, franchise that sometimes franchises are not all reason. They contact one another. We see this as an ominous development. The attacks that took place in Aden, it appears that the chaos is really widespread. And it also suggests too that these forces that the Saudis have helped to unleash in Yemen are uncontrollable. And we expect to see more of these kinds of attacks to take place even in the Saudi kingdom.

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