Who is burning Yemen?

By Rasha Almaqaleh

“Is that a fire in Yemen? Who is burning Yemen?” These were questions asked by my five year old child a while ago, when he saw a picture sent to us by What’sApp showing a huge cloud of smoke rising from one of the residential neighborhoods after being hit by an airstrike. Even though, seeing such pictures of massive destruction in Yemen is so difficult for us, finding honest answers to our child’s innocent questions is more difficult.

 So, what’s really happening in Yemen? Is it really a war between Shiite and Sunni as many Western and Arabic political entities and news agencies are promoting all the time? I remember attending a presentation about Yemen, made by a German journalist a couple of months ago. The title of the presentation was “Yemen…War and Escape”. The journalist was focusing on the issue of “Sunni-Shiite”; which seems to be the ‘favorite’ argument in the western media. We as Yemenis believe that it’s a brutal war waged by Saudi Arabia against Yemen with the direct support of the United states of America and Europe. It is a war over power and interests. Religion is only used as an excuse and as a cover. In the Arab world, people could be easily enticed to fight when they feel threatened about their religious beliefs. Politicians and decision makers know this fact for sure and they are taking a good advantage of it. Therefore, they save no effort to spread hate and violence among people such as publishing malicious rumors in media and mosques. Consequently, people go to fight thinking they are defending their own beliefs while in fact they are fighting to achieve someone else’s hidden agenda. So, next time when you hear someone say it’s a war between Shiite and Sunni, be free to smell a rat.

  It is true that Saudi Arabia is a Sunni country. It’s also true that Saudis claim that their intervention in Yemen is to stop the Iranian expansion. However, the Saudis failed so far to provide evidence of this alleged expansion. And the only intervention that can be clearly seen in Yemen is the Saudi’s! The Saudi-led coalition that is fighting in Yemen is composed of 10 Arab states. However, the coalition is just a show done by Saudis to give the impression that they are not isolated and are not acting alone.  

 At best, one might argue that it is Saudi Arabia that is waging a war against Yemen and no Western country is involved. As a matter of fact, Saudi Arabia wouldn’t be able to cause even 10% of the damage that it’s causing now in Yemen if it weren’t for the Western extensive support which comes in many forms; political, logistical, and military. For example, the U.S. and some European countries are selling arms to the Saudi regime, which is using them to massively strike civilians and infrastructure in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is literally committing serious war crimes in Yemen with those Western weapons such as hitting residential areas, targeting political and judicial figures, striking weddings, schools, hospitals, food factories etc. There are some international organisation which reported and documented those serious violations such  Amnesty International  and Human Rights Watch . But no one is listening and it seems that the war in Yemen is another good opportunity to revive western economies.

Watching world news channels, one can learn about what happens in Syria, Libya, Somalia, Iraq, Myanmar, Colombia, Philippine, …,Etc! Perhaps, if something happened in Alaska or in Antarctica, one could find something about it in the news. But when it comes to our country, it seems that Yemen is not recognized as a part of this world at all. If a herd of cows die in India, it will absolutely be on the news. But when a number of Yemeni people and children die, the news channels are suddenly stuck on silent mode. This silence costs 25 million Yemenis the only thing they have; their lives. Thousands of civilians were killed or injured because of this worthless war. Regrettably, Yemeni people are not only deprived from a good life with the very basic human necessities, but they are even deprived from the right to be a mere ‘number’ when they die.