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US Cluster Bombs Kill Yemenis
By maudeaster on 2016-01-15 11:02:37
Last week, on January 6th, US cluster bombs were dropped by the
Washington- -backed Saudi coalition on residential neighborhoods of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. Human Rights Watch
reports that markings on remnants of these internationally banned weapons indicate manufacture in Tennessee at the Milan
Army Ammunition plant. 118 countries have signed an international treaty banning
cluster munitions because their wide-spreading fragments are so lethal to civilian populations. Human Rights Watch points
out that “the inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions makes such attacks serious violations of the laws of war.
The deliberate or reckless use of cluster munitions in populated areas amounts to a war crime.’
When is the US going to stop supplying and supporting this Saudi-led military campaign which defies international
law and is so devastating to the people of Yemen? The US is not denying that the Saudi collation is using cluster bombs.
AUS Department of Defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told U.S News and World Report in August that
“the US is aware that Saudi Arabia has used cluster munitions in Yemen.” As The New York Times reported on January 6th,
United Nations teams had earlier also found “alarming” evidence of the coalition’s use of cluster bombs in the northern
province of Haijja. The US has been providing the Saudi-led bombers intelligence and weapons throughout the
disastrous Yemen campaign — did American navigators guide last week’s cluster bomb trip? And did they guide
another disastrous bombing run this past Sunday, when a Doctors Without Borders hospital was bombed as planes were seen
flying overhead — in northern Yemen where the Saudi coalition controls the skies. This was the 3rd time in the past 3 months
that a Doctors Without Border facility has soon if I. ih, _ Siw... bombed in Yemen, destroying
desperately needed facilities, often the only medical resource for wounded and displaced civilians. How does it make sense
for Secretary of State Kerry to claim to be encouraging negotiations to end the conflict, while the Pentagon continues
to guide bombers and ship arms to Riyadh? The most recent US arms deal, approved in November by the State
Department, will provide the Saudis with $1.29 billion worth of air-to-ground munitions. As Deborah Amos reported in
December on NPR, the United Nations has found that most of 2600 civilian deaths in Yemen have resulted from coalition
airstrikes. Why keep arming the Saudi-led bombers if the US wants to end this conflict? If you agree, please join me
in signing this petition to urge President Obama and Congress to heed Oxfam’s call to push for an immediate and
OXFAM
permanent ceasefire in Yemen, to ensure access to essential food, fuel and medical supplies by re-
opening air and sea routes, and to end the flow of arms to all sides of the conflict.
