Rights group calls on Yemen and rebels to investigate war crime allegations amid truce

Rights group urges war crimes probe in Yemen war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s government and the Shiite rebels it fought for years should investigate allegations they both committed war crimes and hold perpetrators to account, a human rights group urged Wednesday.

The Yemeni government and northern Hawthi rebels reached a cease-fire agreement in February. But the truce contains no accountability provisions, said Human Rights Watch, which called on both sides to investigate the allegations.

“In many cases these violations are wrapped up in the grievances that have fueled the conflict to begin with,” said Joe Stork, deputy director for the Middle East at HRW.

He called for independent probes of alleged “serious laws of war violations” in order to sustain the truce and to prevent a repeat of crimes should the cease-fire break down.

The report by the New York-based watchdog, released in Dubai, outlines a series of alleged abuses based on interviews conducted with civilians and aid workers in October. HRW officials said they wanted to release the report in the Yemeni capital San’a but were not granted visas by the authorities.

Allegations include indiscriminate bombing and shelling by government forces, and on-the-spot executions and the use of human shields by rebels. HRW also accuses both sides of using child soldiers.

Both the Yemeni government and the rebels declined to comment on the HRW report.

Hawthi rebels have fought Yemen’s government sporadically for years, complaining of neglect and sectarian discrimination. Fighting flared up again last August before coming to a halt earlier this year.

The cease-fire deal reached in February — one of several truces signed over the course of the six-year conflict — calls on the rebels to disarm and release captured soldiers and property.

Human Rights Watch said it based the 54-page report on interviews with civilians who witnessed fighting in Yemen’s northern Saada and Amran provinces, as well as with humanitarian aid workers. The fighting has displaced tens of thousands of civilians since 2004.

Christoph Wilcke, one of the report’s authors, said the government blocked researchers from visiting the scene of the fighting and sites of alleged crimes. He said that HRW letters sent to both sides, outlining the findings and requesting additional information, received no response.

The group called on the United Nations to renew efforts to set up a human rights monitoring office in Yemen, and to provide more aid to refugees who fled the fighting. It also urged donor nations, such as the U.S. and Arab Gulf countries, to press both sides in Yemen to abide by international humanitarian law and push for investigations of alleged crimes.

In addition to the conflict with the Hawthis, Yemen’s weak central government has struggled to contain separatists in the south and a threat from al-Qaida militants who have set up operations in the country, the poorest in the Arab world.

On the Net: Human Rights Watch report: www.hrw.org/node/89290