{"id":115279,"date":"2018-07-30T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=115279"},"modified":"2018-07-24T12:36:08","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T11:36:08","slug":"god-only-knows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/07\/god-only-knows\/","title":{"rendered":"God Only Knows"},"content":{"rendered":"

24 Jul 2018 – \u201cIf they would just confirm to us that my brother is alive, if they would just let us see him, that\u2019s all we want. But we can\u2019t get anyone to give us any confirmation. My mother dies a hundred times every day. They don\u2019t know what that is like.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

In July of 2018, an Amnesty International<\/a> report entitled \u201cGod Knows If He\u2019s Alive,\u201d<\/a> documented the plight of dozens of families in southern Yemen whose loved ones have been tortured, killed, or forcibly disappeared by Yemeni security forces reporting to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition that, with vital US support, has been bombarding and blockading famine and disease-ravaged Yemen for three brutal years. The disappearances, and torture, can sadly be laid at the doorstep of the United States.
\nOne testimonial after another echoes the sentiments of a woman whose husband has been held incommunicado for more than two years. \u201cShouldn\u2019t they be given a trial?\u201d she asked. \u201cWhy else are there courts? They shouldn\u2019t be disappeared this way \u2013 not only are we unable to visit them, we don\u2019t even know if they are dead or alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report describes bureaucratic farces in which families beg for information about their loved ones\u2019 whereabouts from Yemeni prosecutors and prison officials, but the families\u2019 pleas for information are routinely met with silence or intimidation.
\nThe families are appealing to an unelected Yemeni exile government whose president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, (when \u201celected\u201d president in 2012, he was the only candidate) generally resides in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The UAE has, so far, supported Hadi\u2019s claim to govern Yemen. However, the Prosecutor General of Hadi\u2019s government, as well as other officials, told Amnesty International the government of Yemen has no control over operations \u201cspearheaded by the UAE and implemented by the Yemeni forces it backs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Witness Against Torture activists protest at the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates on January 9, 2018. Photo credit: Witness Against Torture<\/p><\/div>\n

When months and years pass and families of people who are missing still have no news about their loved ones, some try to communicate unofficially with prison guards or with former detainees who have been released from various detention sites. They repeatedly hear stories about torture of detainees and rumors about prisoners who died in custody.<\/p>\n

The Amnesty report implicates UAE-backed local forces in Yemen, as well as the UAE military, in the crimes of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees. Of seven former or current detainees interviewed by Amnesty, five said they were subjected to these abuses. \u201cAll seven witnessed other detainees being tortured,\u201d the report adds, \u201cincluding one who said he saw a detainee held in a cell next to him being carried away in a body bag after he had been repeatedly tortured.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June 2017, Human Rights Watch<\/a> and the Associated Press exposed a network of clandestine prisons operated by the UAE in Yemen. Their reports described ghastly torture inflicted on prisoners and noted that senior US military leaders knew about torture allegations. Yet, a year later, there has been no investigation of these allegations by the Yemeni government, by the UAE, or by the UAE\u2019s most powerful ally in the Yemen war, the United States.
\n\u201cIt is shocking, to say the least,\u201d the Amnesty report states, \u201cthat one year after a network of secret prisons operated by the UAE and the Yemeni forces it backs was exposed, these facilities continue to operate and that there has not been a serious investigation undertaken into credibly documented violations, including systemic torture in custody.\u201d The Amnesty report calls on the US to \u201cfacilitate independent oversight, including by the US Congress, over US military or intelligence cooperation with Yemeni and UAE forces involved in detention activities in Yemen.\u201d It further calls for investigating any involvement of US military or intelligence personnel in detention-related abuses in Yemen.<\/p>\n

To date, the US continues selling weapons to the UAE and to its coalition partner, Saudi Arabia, despite several Congressional debates and a few increasingly close votes demanding a full or partial end to US weapons sales considering the terrible practices being carried out as part of the Yemen war.<\/p>\n

Since March of 2015, a coalition of nine countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE and relying on crucial U.S. logistical aid, has bombarded Yemen while blockading its major port, despite Yemen\u2019s status as one of the poorest countries in the world. Targeting transportation, electrical plants, sewage and sanitation facilities, schools, mosques, weddings and funerals, the vicious bombing has led to starvation, displacement, and the spread of disease including cholera<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the same day that the Amnesty report was released, Saudi Arabia\u2019s King Salman<\/a> pardoned \u201call military men, who have taken part in the Operation Restoring Hope of their respective military and disciplinary penalties, in regard of some rules and disciplines.\u201d It seems likely that the Amnesty report precipitated this royal decree.<\/p>\n

Along with three countries in North Africa\u2019s \u201cSahel\u201d desert region, Yemen has been cited as part of the worst famine crisis in the 70-year history of the UN. In the past three years of aerial and naval attacks, Yemen\u2019s key port of Hodeidah has remained partially or fully closed despite the country\u2019s vital need for relief supplies. And, while Yemenis suffer the chaos and despair characteristic of war, the Saudis and UAE refer to the war as \u201cOperation Restoring Hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many thousands of Yemenis, subjected to consistent bombing and threats of starvation and famine, have fled their homes. Many seek refuge out of Yemen. For instance, close to 500 Yemenis have traveled nearly 500 miles to reach a visa-free port on South Korea\u2019s Jeju Island. On July 21, during an international phone call<\/a> hosted by young friends in Afghanistan, listeners heard Kaia, a resident of Jeju Island, describe the \u201cHope School.\u201d She explained how she and several other young people are trying to help welcome Yemenis now living in their village of Gangjeong<\/a>. The young people are already committed to peacefully resisting U.S. and South Korean military destruction of their shoreline and ecosystem. Now, they have started an informal school so Yemeni and South Korean residents can learn from one another. Small groups gather for conversational exchanges translated from Arabic to English to Korean. Many South Koreans can recall, in their own familial history, that seven million Koreans fled Japanese occupation of their land. Their Korean forebears relied on hospitality from people in other lands. The Catholic Bishop of the Jeju diocese, Monsignor Kang Woo-il<\/a>, called on Koreans to embrace Yemeni refugees, labeling it a crime against human morality to shut the door on refugees and migrants.<\/p>\n

Kaia\u2019s account of the newly launched school describes an effort that truthfully involves restoring hope. The cynical designation of Saudi and UAE led war in Yemen as \u201cOperation Restoring Hope\u201d creates an ugly smokescreen that distracts from the crucial need to investigate war crimes committed in Yemen today.<\/p>\n

US citizens bear responsibility for the US government\u2019s support of these crimes.
\nThe Yemenis mean us no harm and have committed no crime against us. Congressional votes have come quite close, with bipartisan support, to ending US participation in and support for the Saudi and Emirati led Coalition war against Yemen. Ending arms sales to the UAE and Saudi monarchies, supported by both sides of the aisle, will signal to the UAE and Saudi Arabia the US will no longer assist their efforts to prolong war and siege in Yemen. On cue from the initiative and energy shown by young South Koreans, people in the US can and should organize campaigns to educate their communities, educational institutions, and media outlets about the plight of people in Yemen. Conscious of the nightmare faced by Yemenis whose husbands, brothers, fathers and sons have been disappeared or detained by shadowy military enforcers, US people can work toward implementing each recommendation in Amnesty\u2019s devastating report.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Kathy Kelly is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>,<\/em> an American peace activist, pacifist and author, one of the founding members of <\/em>Voices in the Wilderness, and currently a co-coordinator <\/em>Voices for Creative Nonviolence<\/a>. <\/em>Three times since 2000, she has been nominated for the <\/em>Nobel Peace Prize. As part of peace teamwork in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US-Iraq wars. Her recent travel has focused on Afghanistan and Gaza, along with domestic protests against U.S. drone policy. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and inmates of U.S. prisons. She lives in Chicago.<\/em> Kathy@vcnv.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In July of 2018, an Amnesty International report entitled \u201cGod Knows If He\u2019s Alive,\u201d documented the plight of dozens of families in southern Yemen whose loved ones have been tortured, killed, or forcibly disappeared by Yemeni security forces reporting to the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is part of the Saudi-led coalition that, with vital US support, has been bombarding and blockading famine and disease-ravaged Yemen for three brutal years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}