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Human rights advocates from southern Yemen accused the United Nations of turning a blind eye to human rights violations committed by so-called “terrorist” groups in government-controlled areas.
Human rights lawyers also criticized the United Nations and its former Yemen special envoy Martin Griffiths for adopting a “piecemeal” approach to the conflict and placing “politics before mankind”-a negotiation strategy that led to the complete failure of the peace process. they said.
“The Yemeni government is using violence against the citizens of Shabwa, including targeted assassinations with the help of agents from extremist and terrorist organizations,” said Nasr Nasr, a human rights activist for the South Independence Organization, a non-governmental organization representing South Yemen. Obaid said.
Obaid, speaking on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council of Geneva, Switzerland last week, said that Yemeni citizens who cooperated with the UAE-backed militia Shabwani Elite Forces are now victims of government retaliation.
According to the Yemeni NGO Frontline, since the Saudi-backed government of President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi (Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi) took control of the area, there have been about 55 assassinations in the southern Shabwa province Incidents and more than 600 arbitrary arrests. But the UN report failed to acknowledge an increase in violations in the southern part of the war-torn country, Obaid said.
‘Committed a heinous crime’
During the screening of a documentary on the human rights situation in Shabwa, Obaid said that government officials and agents of the Islamic League, the Yemeni Muslim Brotherhood and other hardline groups carried out summary executions in broad daylight.
“These extremists are from the north of the country and Malibu,” Obaid said. “The southern tribes have been fighting against them, but they have committed heinous crimes and punished all those who refused to cooperate with them.”
Obaid and other activists claim that the central government is using armed groups to combat tribal leaders, human rights advocates and political opponents in Shabwah and southern provinces to curb dissent.
The Yemeni government delegation to the United Nations in Geneva did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. As of press time, the Office of the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen did not respond.
Al Qaeda and Shabwah
Shabwah is one of Yemen’s oil-rich provinces. During the outbreak of Yemen’s civil war in 2015, one side became a supporter of Houthi insurgents and the late President Ali Abdullah Saleh and internationally recognized President Hadi The battlefield between governments.
In 2017, government supporters and a Saudi-led coalition drove the Houthis out of the area. But since then, Shabwah has been the stage for the long-term armed uprising of Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and also the stage for the power struggle between the Hadi government and the separatist Southern Transitional Council, which considers itself the only legal South Representatives of people.
During the same period, the UAE and the Shabwani elite forces and the United States increasingly participated in “counter-terrorism” operations in the south, which disturbed the tribes and increased tensions between local and central authorities.
A report issued by the United Nations in September stated that Shabwah had no clean hands.
The 60-page document stated that Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Southern Transitional Council, and the Houthi government known as the “de facto authorities” are all responsible for human rights violations. Individuals belonging to these parties “committed acts that may constitute war crimes.”
Aldi Imses, one of the UN legal experts who prepared the report, told Al Jazeera that the governments of Yemen and Saudi Arabia continue to obstruct the entry of UN lawyers into the country.
“Only the Houthi armed forces agree to our site visit, but unless the governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen allow us to do so, we cannot go,” Imses said.
Saleh Alnoud, an international humanitarian law lawyer, said the government needs to do more for the people of Shabwah.
“It is difficult to know who controls what in Yemen, but the central government is officially in charge of Shabwah and should be responsible for the lack of security and services there,” Alnoud said at a media briefing.
UN envoy criticized
Alnoud said that the deteriorating human rights situation in Shabwah is also the result of the flawed approach taken by the United Nations and its special envoys to the peace process, and that they have ignored the situation in the southern region.
“This former envoy allows the two parties (the government and the Houthi) to manipulate and dominate the agenda as they wish, especially the Houthi,” said Alnoud.
“President Hadi’s government has no legitimacy in southern Yemen… the new UN special envoy (Hans Grundberg) The local reality should be positively acknowledged. There must be a different approach. “
The UN’s approach to conflicts only recognizes two warring parties: the Houthi armed forces occupying the capital Sana’a and the northern part of the country; and an internationally recognized government. Some experts believe that this bipartisan framework ignores the local reality of Yemen, including the complexity of its tribal settings and the long struggle for independence in the south.
Analysts said that the solution is to replace Security Council Resolution 2216 and expand political, ethnic and gender representation at the negotiating table.
Battle of Malibu
However, activists worry that as Houthi forces besiege the oil-rich city of Malibu, which is the last stronghold of the central government in the north, the human rights situation may deteriorate and human rights violations will not be reported.
Malibu is located 120 kilometers (70 miles) east of the capital Sana’a, at the strategic junction of the north and south of Yemen. Not only is it the key to controlling the northern region, but its capture may lead to the conquest of Shabwa and other territories in other southern regions.
David Beasley, Director of the World Food Program, Said Last month, more than half of this country of 30 million people was in urgent need of food assistance.
“We do see 16 million people go hungry,” he said.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement listing many violations committed by different actors in September.
The Houthis, also known as Allah’s Assistant, publicly executed 9 men, one of whom was allegedly a minor at the time of detention.
In Aqabat al-Qanda’ in Shabwa province, an aerial attack by the Saudi-led coalition forces hit a pickup truck, killing five family members, including two children. None of the victims were members of armed groups.
In another incident, a young man was robbed and shot dead at a checkpoint established by an affiliated unit of the Southern Transitional Council of Rah Province.
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