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Human Rights Watch organisation issued a lengthy report where it accused the Saudi-led coalition forces of bombing factories, warehouses and other economic facilities in Yemen, illegally, demanding an investigation into the illegal strikes that have hurt the economy and would count as war crimes.
"Human Rights Watch" again suspended Saudi Arabia’s membership in the "Council of the United Nations for Human Rights" until the halt of illegal raids in Yemen or its agreement to undergo investigations that meet international standards, Al Zawaya reported.
The organization stressing that in the absence of credible and impartial investigations in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and other members of the coalition must agree to an independent international inquiry of these raids and others.
Human Rights Watch said that the attacks on factories and other civilian and economic facilities combined raises serious concerns that the coalition led by Saudi Arabia intended to inflict large damage to the capabilities of Yemen’s productivity.
The organization said "The United States is also responsible for investigating any air strikes participated because it was a party of the conflict since the first months of the war."
US Congress authorized the sale of more cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia.
The organization said, "These strikes killed 130 civilians and wounded 171 others. Those operating the facilities targeted combined are about 2,500 people. As a result of the attacks, hundreds of workers lost their source of livelihood, and the factories stopped working.
In addition, more than 20 million people in Yemen are in dire need of humanitarian assistance, raids on factories caused the severe shortages of food, medicine and other essential needs of the civilians in Yemen."
Human Rights Watch interviewed victims and witnesses in the affected sites in the provinces of Sana’a and Hodeida on March 2016. It searched for possible military targets in the vicinity, and examined the remains of ammunition on hand.
Strikes at economic establishments killed 130 civilians and wounded 171 others.
Brianca Mutabarthy, a prominent researcher in the emergency department at Human Rights Watch and author of the report, "the repeated airstrikes on civilian factories seem to be aiming at harming the economy of Yemen for a long time in the future that was already collapsed.
Saudi Arabia and other members of the coalition did not show any interest in investigations into unlawful attacks, or even to compensate the victims for the lost lives and property."
Saudi Arabia stripped demands of the membership of the Human Rights Council for "crimes in Yemen."
According to the organization, "It seems that all these attacks violated international humanitarian law, or the laws of war, some of which may count as war crimes".
The laws of war prohibit deliberate attacks on civilian properties, attacks which do not distinguish between military targets and civilian properties and attacks that disproportionate harm civilian properties compared with the expected military gain.
Economic targets include factories, warehouses, other commercial facilities and civilian properties unless they are used for military purposes or turned into a military target.
"Any deliberate and reckless attacks against civilian targets are war crimes."
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
