Ahmed Shaaban (Aden, Cairo)
The Yemeni government confirmed that the Houthi terrorist militia’s violations amount to crimes against humanity, noting that the militia’s terrorism is no different from the terrorism of “Al Qaeda and ISIS”.
Yemeni Information Minister Muammar al-Eryani stressed the importance of the role of the international media in dealing with the dimensions of the human tragedy that the Yemeni people are experiencing as a result of the coup of the Houthi terrorist militia, and conveying a true picture of this terrorist group, which is no different from other terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS.
During his meeting with media officials in Paris, the Yemeni minister spoke about the violations of freedom of opinion and expression in the areas of militias after they tightened their control over official and private media institutions, used violence against opponents, abused journalists, and practiced the most severe types of violations against them, which amounted to the death penalty. So that Sana’a is devoid of any media voice opposing the militias’ approach and practices.
Al-Eryani called on all international organizations concerned with freedom of opinion and expression to play their role in condemning these violations, which amount to crimes against humanity, and to mobilize all efforts to pressure the terrorist Houthi militia to release journalists who are subjected to torture and their lives are endangered after the death sentences taken by the militia against them.
Al-Eryani touched on the conditions of women and the violations committed by militias against them in the areas under their control, which included arrest, enforced disappearance, restriction of freedom of movement and travel, and abuse against their legitimate rights to public office.
He reviewed what religious minorities have been subjected to in terms of abuse and confiscation of property by the terrorist Houthi militia since its emergence in 2004, leading to their deportation, displacement and turning them into strangers in exile far from their countries.
The Yemeni minister indicated that the Yemeni legitimacy and all concerned parties in the government care about the relationship with the international media and believe that freedom of opinion and expression represents the real key to building democracy and protecting society from sectarianism and extremist ideology.
Human rights experts have warned of the continuation of Houthi violations against all groups of the Yemeni people, especially children, as the militias deliberately push them into the battlefields, in a serious violation of human rights, and a crime targeting the innocence of children and feeding their minds with extremist ideas.
Fahmy Al-Zubairi, Director of the Human Rights Office in the capital, Sanaa, confirmed in a statement to Al-Ittihad that the terrorist group continues to recruit children and use them in various military actions, as they constitute about 60% of militia fighters that take advantage of the deteriorating economic situation and poverty to recruit children.
Al-Zubairi explained that “the militias openly recruit children through their leaders’ visits to training camps and summer centers in which children are brainwashed, and sectarian courses that produce terrorist ideas that incite murder and violence, and the matter has come to the point that many children in Houthi-controlled areas have killed their parents and relatives.” , which portends an imminent danger to the future of Yemen.”
The Director of the Human Rights Office stressed that calling on the Yemeni government to prepare a “black list” of those involved in child recruitment is a step in the right direction to curb these practices.
He pointed out that “Yemen has ratified international treaties and charters for the protection of children, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, international humanitarian law, the four Geneva Conventions and their protocols, and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
Al-Zubairi affirmed that the lax attitudes of the international community encouraged the militias to continue their violations against the children of Yemen, calling for the need for concerted official, popular and societal efforts to confront the danger of child recruitment, continuous awareness and the use of means and social media platforms to educate parents about the danger of recruitment and to succumb to militia ideas that mislead young people and distort their minds.
Activists recently circulated a video clip of the terrorist Muhammad Ali Al-Houthi visiting a child recruitment camp in Dhamar Governorate, as he shook hands with children shouting sectarian chants, which sparked a wave of anger.
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