Dina Mahmoud (Aden, London)
Yesterday, the United Nations Special Envoy to Yemen, Hans Grundberg, announced the holding of various talks to reduce the intensity of escalation in Yemen.
The UN envoy said, in a statement yesterday, that he met with the Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jassim Al-Budaiwi, and the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Muhammad Al Jaber, explaining that he also met with the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the Security Council, accredited to Yemen.
“The talks focused on the recent developments in Yemen, especially the military escalation, and the need to support constructive dialogue between the parties to reduce tensions and make progress towards an inclusive political process,” Grundberg said.
These discussions come with the return of military tension in Yemen, after a state of calm that has been going on for about a year. Despite the cautious optimism expressed by some observers about the possibility of paving the way for a settlement of the Yemeni conflict, Western media and analytical circles express skepticism about the possibility of this happening, given the clinging of the terrorist “Houthi” militia to the military option, and its insistence on torpedoing all efforts made to stop its practices. aggressiveness
Western experts confirm that these practices have left their criminal mark on every part of Yemen, from Sana’a, the stricken capital under the rule of the putschists in the north, to Aden, the interim capital in the south, passing through the strategically important Ma’rib governorate, which the militias are still frantically trying to seize. .
Experts warn that the approach of the “Houthi” group, which is based on resorting to military force alone and ignoring calls for regional and international calm, makes peace a distant dream, as many Yemenis say, who assert that the war is going on in their homeland, since the “Houthi” coup against the legitimate government. The year 2014 will not end soon, and there will be no settlement on the horizon.
In a lengthy report published by the British “Sky News” network on its English-language website, Yemeni media professionals and bloggers asserted that the coup militants are men of war, not peace, and believe only in violence and weapons, and are certain that closing the curtain on the current conflict means that they are no longer important and that internal conflicts among them.
The report reviewed the repressive and discriminatory practices that the Houthi militias engage in in the various areas under their control, especially those practiced against journalists, academics and human rights defenders, many of whom the putschists put behind bars, and even sentenced some of them to death on fabricated charges, after they were subjected to brutal torture. .
Western experts stressed that these arrests and unfair sentences are indicative of a large-scale repressive campaign waged by the Houthi militia against its opponents, which led to the silencing of all independent media outlets in the areas ruled by the putschists, due to the threats and intimidation that journalists are subjected to.
The “Houthi” arrest campaigns also included a number of businessmen and activists, in conjunction with imposing discriminatory restrictions on women’s movement, forcing them to wear certain robes, and depriving them of their basic rights to work and community participation. The experts also referred to the blatant “Houthi” crimes and violations that claim the lives of innocent Yemenis, especially in cities such as Taiz, on which these criminal militias have been strangling for several years, depriving their residents of basic materials and vital goods, in addition to the coup plotters planting mines. indiscriminately in residential neighborhoods there, leading to the amputation of countless civilians.
And the British “Sky News” quoted a medical official in Taiz as saying that more than a thousand of its residents have suffered similar disabilities since the start of the conflict, while the “Houthi” aggression forced more than 200,000 of the city’s residents to flee, as they did not Only those who lack any other options, other than residing near the battle fronts, are left.
As a result of the continuation of the “Houthi” aggression, and the failure of the coup militias’ efforts to re-establish the UN armistice, which lasted for six full months last year, the number of Yemenis in need of food aid has risen to about 80 percent of the population, which is approximately 33 million.
Western experts stressed that the Yemenis are now facing a new enemy besides the Houthi militia, represented in what some describe as the “indifference of the international community” to their humanitarian crisis, which is classified as the worst of its kind in the entire world.
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