Yemen
The public and press benches were absolutely full on the morning of 20 June, when the court of appeal in London ruled that the British government had acted ‘irrationally and unlawfully’ in allowing UK arms exports to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen.
The ruling means that the government must not allow future sales to the Saudi-led forces that are at war in Yemen, and that it must review existing…
The ‘vast majority’ of the civilians who’ve been killed and injured in the Yemen war since March 2015, ‘were as a result of airstrikes carried out by the Saudi-led coalition’, according to Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights, speaking in Geneva on 11 May. That’s 10,185 Saudi-caused casualties out of 16,432.
Since the Saudi war on Yemen began, Britain has licensed £4.6bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia, according to the Campaign Against…
On 9 April, the People's Weapons Inspectors visited a Roxel factory which builds propulsion systems for missiles. Their aim was to carry out a 'people's weapons inspection', to find out whether parts built at this factory (near Kidderminster in Worcestershire) might be used by the Saudi military in the war in Yemen.
The inspectors believed that the factory was manufacturing components for Brimstone missiles that are due to be exported to Saudi…
500 protesters gathered opposite Downing Street on 7 March to protest against the visit of Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, the architect of the Saudi-led war on Yemen.
While in the UK, the prince agreed with British prime minister Theresa May to aim for £65bn of mutual trade and investment. This included a Saudi decision in principle to buy 48 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from BAE Systems in a deal worth over £10bn.
In the US, senators (both Republican and Democrat…
Protests are being prepared for a visit to the UK by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman between 7 – 9 March. Human rights campaigners are pressing for him to be arrested for war crimes.
‘The crown prince is a figurehead for a regime with one of the worst human rights records in the world. He has overseen the…
Poor old British Aerospace. Not only were the first group of people to break in to their Warton site in Lancashire to disarm a warplane acquitted, now the second lot have also been found not guilty. It's curious how difficult it appears to be to convict people for acting peacefully to prevent war crimes.
The first such disarmament action took place in January 1996, when a group of women (myself included) broke in and disarmed a Hawk warplane being sold to Indonesia for use in their…
Daniel Woodhouse & Sam Walton write: On 10 July, we had our pre-trial hearing at Blackpool magistrates court. We both pleaded not guilty to two counts of criminal damage – charges laid after we entered BAE Warton on 29 January to locate warplanes bound for Saudi Arabia. A trial has been scheduled for four days from 23 October in Burnley.
Our barrister Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh of Matrix Chambers was slightly more on the ball than the crown prosecution service, and constructed as…
Fateem Hadi Jaber and her daughter, Sameera, live on the street in Hodeidah City, Hodeidah, after fleeing their home in the neighbouring governorate of Hajjah. Hodeidah (also spelled Hudaydah) is the main port in Yemen, crucial to the international humanitarian aid effort. PHOTO © UNHCR/SHABIA MANTOO
‘The Saudi-led, Western-backed, military coalition has threatened to attack the [Yemeni] port [of Hodeidah], which would likely destroy it and cut supplies to millions of hungry…
Murad Subay is an award-winning Yemeni artist, originally from Dhamar, now living in the capital Sana’a. He usually paints in the streets – along with fellow artists, friends, passersby and anyone who wants to join in – turning the walls of the streets into an open art gallery.
Murad launched ‘Colour the walls of your street’, the first of five artistic campaigns, in 2012, right…
An appalling humanitarian crisis mounts today in Yemen where a naval blockade, ruthlessly imposed by the Saudi government, has led to mass poverty and famine. Saudi forces, backed by the US and UK, are bombing schools, hospitals, homes, farms and markets. Fleet Street and the broadcasting companies refer to it from time to time as the ‘forgotten war’. And yet it remains ‘forgotten’ simply because the mainstream media has chosen not to highlight in any consistent way the horrors being…
This is a statement carried by the pair when they were arrested inside BAE Warton on 29 January.
Today we intend to enter BAE Warton, to locate warplanes bound for Saudi Arabia, and disarm them. We take this action in order to prevent the export of weaponry that will almost certainly be used in war…
