Page 247 - What Kind of Yemen ?
P. 247

Adnan Oktar
                                       (Harun Yahya)


                 Van Der Klaauw also reported that 120,000 people have had to flee

            the country as refugees, while 2.3 million people have had to leave
            their homes and lands. The number of human rights violations since
            the start of the war exceeds 8,800. (1)
                 According to U.N. High Commission for Human Rights
            spokesman Rupert Colville, more than 2,300 civilians lost their lives
            between March and October 2015: Again, according to Colville, two-
            thirds of civilians in that time frame were killed as a result of air

            strikes. Colville says that this level shows that something is badly
            amiss and that the requisite caution is not being taken. (2)Another
            recent example of the wide-ranging civilian losses is as follows:
                 Last September, at least 130 Yemeni citizens were reported to have
            lost their lives in an aerial attack on the town of Mokha. Hassan Bouce-
            nine, the Yemeni head of mission at Doctors without Frontiers, stated
            that he was absolutely unable to attach any meaning to the attack, and
            that the target was not a military one, but explicitly a house where a
            wedding was taking place. (3)

                 The policy of the U.S., which at first sight appears to be supporting
            the Sunni Arab coalition, is one of the striking aspects of the war in
            Yemen.
                 Although the countries in the coalition are not openly involved in
            the fighting, the U.S. is one of the powers that has long been staging
            military operations in Yemen. Wishing to prevent the strengthening of
            al-Qaeda in Yemen in the wake of the Arab Spring, the U.S. stepped up

            unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks, thus intending to reduce al-
            Qaeda's room to maneuver to a minimum. Intense aerial bombings
            were carried out in those parts of Yemen where al-Qaeda was strong.
            However, rather than achieving U.S. aims, these attacks made the
            organization look as though they had been wronged and this rein-
            forced opposition to the U.S. among local people.
                 After October 2014, when the Houthis initiated their policy of
            expansion toward the capital, Sana'a, the U.S. made al-Qaeda a con-
            stant target of UAV attacks and even backed the Houthi advance.



                                             245
   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252