Eradah Org issued 2 reports on the Racial Discrimination & The extrajudicial execution.The Hague, the Kingdom of the Netherlands

*In presence of international human rights activists and journalists, Eradah Organization to Combat Torture and Forced Disappearance held today in the Hague, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, an event issuing the 2 reports address Houthis militia’s violations in Yemen.* The 2 reports which entitled, “the racial discrimination and the Specialized Criminal Court,” and were read by Eradah Org Chief Sheikh Jamal Al-mamari touched on the following:Introduction:Yemen has suffered from scourge of intersender conflicts, the most notable is Houthis militia which emerged in 2004 as a rebel movement funded by IRGC, and dragged the country into 6 fierce wars that killed more than 100,000 people. In 2014, Houthis swept Yemeni provinces starting from Sa’dah, moved on to Emran and Sana’a and ended with Aden in southernmost Yemen, leading to a legal limbo of all states’ establishments and made Yemen live in a catastrophe situation.For the past 10 years, Houthis rebels practiced the most heinous forms of human rights violations against Yemeni civilians. As Houthis rebels forced more than 4 million Yemenis to leave their homes and ten thousands were put in secret prisons and abductees were subjected to enforced disappearance and severe torture that led to the death of 400 of them and others to permanent paralysis. Houthis practiced racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing, killing about half-million Yemenis. Civilians suffered from violations in all aspects of life, as a result the ignorance and poverty were spread, and human, social and economic values were disrupted ​​in ذ Houthi-controlled areas. This report addresses one field of Houthis violations, which is “Racial Discrimination”.The article II of international treaty of UN General Assembly stipulates that apartheid shall apply to the following inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.The racial discrimination is divided into the following types:1 – Local Racial Discrimination:We meant by the local racial discrimination is the racism practiced by Houthis against Yemenis people, as they practiced discriminating against Yemenis in its controlled Yemen provinces. As their imams’ predecessors, Houthis divided the people of Yemen into racist names to facilitate tearing Yemeni tribes people apart, One such names: Dividing the people into groups based on their careers, such as “barber, blacksmith, Dawshan,…. “, giving them inferior positions. This discrimination had bad impacts as the marriages between craftsmen and tribes men are not allowed and the craftsmen are deprived of their rights to quality and respect for human personality and dignity.This report contains documented cases for people expelled from their tribes due to getting married to craftsmen girls. 2 – Racial discrimination between Houthis and the people of Yemen: As Houthis believe in the superiority of their race “prophethood house”, they claim holiness and superiority over the other people and having the right to rules.Manifestations of this racism: Imposing “Khums” law that forced Yemenis to pay, besides Zakat, (one-fifth), and monopolizing power.The Yemenis are not qualified for getting married to one of the girls belonging to the Hashemite families, whereas authorizing themselves to marry one of the tribe’s girl.3- Racial discrimination against dark-skinned “marginalized”: They name them “khadem or slave”, depriving them of basic rights. In order to make use of them Houthis called them “the descendants of Bilal”. Houthis managed to deceive dark-skinned Yemenis urging them to join the cultural and military courses and drove them into battlefronts, including children. The report mentions evidence that Houthis killed and arrested each one who refused recruitment or fight. About 143 “khadem” from Hudaydah districts were killed between the period from June to Sept 2020.The report also shares explanation of the basic humanitarian principles of equality:Article 41 of the Yemeni constitution states that everyone is equal in rights and duties.Article (42) also states that “Every citizen has the right to participate in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the country. The state shall guarantee freedom of thought and expression of opinion in speech, writing and photography within the limits of the law.”The Republic of Yemen has signed the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulates that all persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law. Inequality between people abusing human dignity, and can erode human rights, coexistence rights in the fields of economic, social and political life, and help eliminate the rights of minority and other marginalized groups. The most dangerous is that it involves a lot of oppression and can have dire consequences for people and local communities.The racial discrimination violates human dignity, eliminates human rights and leads to marginalizing vulnerable groups.The racial discrimination against immigrants:The trip to Yemen:Thousands of migrants from Africa flock to Yemen every year through dangerous routes exposing themselves to the risks of drowning, hunger, illnesses or arrest. They make great effort walking long distances in bad conditions to reach the border areas with KSA. Houthis’ violations against African migrants:Houthis arrested immigrants and forced them to pay tribute to allow them pass from Sa’dah to the KSA border.The one who fail to pay will be exposed to torture or draft.Women and children were subjected to rapped and horrific violations.Houthis used to exploit immigrants in fighting and smuggling weapons and drugs.The burning of African immigrants in Sana’a by Houthis on March 7, 2021: Due to the rejection to be recruited and pay tribute, Houthis arrested African immigrants. When the immigrants organized a hunger strike to protest the bad conditions of the detention center, the detention place that had more than 800 detainees were burned by Houthis using gasoline and grenades. According to Houthis, the burning resulted in death of 64 migrants and injured 203 others, but in fact, hundreds of them were died.The details included in the report. After that, Houthis’ attempts at Blurring the indicia of crime through forced repatriation for the African migrants without coordination with international organizations.Eradah Org called at that time for the need to hold accountable for such crimes against African migrants. As the racial discrimination and exploiting people are flagrant violation of international laws, demanding urgent international investigation to ensure justice.Houthis’ violations against African migrants are contrary to all international laws and conventions, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the 1951 Refugee Convention, 1967 Additional Protocol and Genocide Convention. The report states that there are about 20,000 African immigrants in Yemen. It also indicates the role of Houthis intelligence as a source of terror, draft and control immigrants inside refugees camps in Sa’dah. Houthis forced those who refused to be recruited to attend sectarian courses. Those who refused attending sectarian courses and recruitment, they would be sent to detention centers where they imposed to physical and psychological violations.Houthis arrested ten thousands of African migrants, most of them are women and children, imposing tribute to be allowed to pass the borders. Those who can’t pay tribute will be exploited to transfer weapons and drugs to Saudi areas through traveling on rough routes into Saudi areas. Many of them were died due to hunger or disease, and sometimes Houthis killed them in order to maintain the confidentiality of smuggling operations. Apartheid: The dark-skinned immigrants were distributed into refugees camps according to their ethnic orgins under the supervision of Houthis preventive security. Violating the right to life:The African migrants were subjected to medical negligence in Sa’dah hospitals and the injured weren’t hospitalized till they died. Many deliberate killing were registered and the physicians tried to help the wounded were threatened. Houthis used the African migrants to gain political achievements, claiming that Saudi forces held the responsibility for killing the immigrants. In the morning of April 16, 2020, Houthis launched attack consisted of 40 armed Land Cruiser on more than 2300 African migrants lived in Al Ghar village. The survivors migrants confirmed that Houthis destroyed more than 300 tents, fired RBG, B10 and gunfire that resulted in killing 132 migrants and forced thousands to flee at gun point. Houthis forced the immigrants to escape towards Saudi territory where they were humanely received by the Saudi border guards, provided them with medical and food before transferring them to Ethiopia. In 2021, Houthis bombed Raqw market, committing massacres against African migrants urging that the market was a ceter for trafficking drugs. Crimes such as rapped, killing women and children and looting money were documented.The report also touches on the constant work of Houthis on tunneling on Yemeni – Saudi borders that would help them in smuggling process under the supervision of Iranian experts. Media allegations and violations against humanity:The claims of Houthis that the Saudi border guards killed the Africans were so far from the truth. As stated in the report, the evidence, videos and coordinates of the graves proved that the crimes were committed by Houthis. We reiterate our demand to the international community to hold Houthis leader Abdulmalik Al Houthi and his leaders accountable for their crimes. The recommendations of the report:The international community should send a Fact-Finding Team to the areas controlled by Houthis militia and hold the perpetrators accountable for killing and displacing African immigrants. The UN, Human Rights Orgs should immediately investigate all reported abuses committed by Houthis militia.Demanding the Ethiopian authorities to take responsibility for defending their nationals and demand to hold Houthis responsible for committing horrific crimes against them. We urge Saudi authorities to continuously care for the African migrants crossing Yemen – Saudi borders, in particular children and women, returning them safely to their countries. Yemen government should rehabilitate refugees detention centers to meet the international standards, ensuring the care for detainees children. To allow the UNHCR and other neutral humanitarian agencies to access all detention centers and all detainees without any restrictions. To give the migrants a chance to apply for asylum or appeal against the forcibly deporting decision. Conclusion: Eradah Org took an oath to keep on defending the victims. As the founders are victims of Houthi’s violations, the work to disclose Houthis crimes will go on. Eradah Org team will keep on monitoring and documenting the violations and standing up to the families of the detainees out of humanitarian imperative. Eradah Org is interested in achieving human dignity, and the victims can gain their freedom and rights guaranteed under Yemeni constitution and all UN laws. After that, the American journalist Casey Coombs gave testimony about the violations and inhumane acts practiced in Houthi’s jails. He also touched on the torture that Sheikh Jamal Al-mamari was subjected to in Sarif Prison eastern Sana’a, which resembled Syrian Sednaya Prison. He thanked the efforts of Al-mamari to debunk Houthis militia’s crimes. In his part, Dr. Mohammed Jumeh, Yemen’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UNESCO talked about the unspeakable crimes of Houthis militia, touching on the international intervention which prevented national resistance forces from liberating Hudaydah city, that intervention resulted in suffering of the World Community today from the piracy of Houthis. Jumeh also talked about the secret jails of Houthis, in which thousands of Yemeni abductees and forcibly disappeared suffer from various types of violations, and the Houthis reneging on the agreements to release all prisoners in exchange for all. In his conclusion, Dr. Jumeh thanked Eradah Org Chief for his local and international efforts to defend abductees and forcibly disappeared languishing in Houthis militia’s jails.

Issued by Eradah Organization to Combat Torture and Forced Disappearance

The Hague, the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Dec 21, 2024