NEW YORK (Dispatches) – The United Nations Human Rights Council has ended an investigation into war crimes by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen amid reports of intense lobbying by Riyadh.
The 47-member council voted against renewing the mandate of the Group of Eminent International and Regional Experts on Yemen (GEE) on Thursday, which in August 2018 reported evidence of possible war crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition. 21 countries voted against the motion, 18 in favor and seven abstained.
The Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and regional allies, has been bombing schools, hospitals and other civilian targets in Yemen since 2015, with the goal of bringing the former Riyadh-backed regime back to power and crushing popular Ansarullah resistance movement.
The war has left hundreds of thousands of Yemenis dead, and displaced millions more. It has also destroyed Yemen’s infrastructure and spread famine and infectious diseases.
The vote marked the first time a resolution has been defeated in the UN Human Rights Council’s 15-year history.
Dutch ambassador Peter Bekker denounced the vote as a major setback, saying, “I cannot help but feel that this Council has failed the people of Yemen.”
“With this vote, the Council has effectively ended its reporting mandate, it has cut this lifeline of the Yemeni people to the international community,” he added
Radhya Almutawakel, chairperson of the independent Yemeni activist group Mwatana for Human Rights, said she was deeply disappointed by Thursday’s vote.
John Fisher of Human Rights Watch said the failure to renew the mandate was “a stain on the record of the Human Rights Council.”
The vote came as several rights advocacy groups revealed earlier this week that Saudi Arabia, which is not a voting member of the UN Human Rights Council, had been heavily lobbying against the resolution that would extend the mandate of UN investigators in Yemen.
“Saudi Arabia, a leading party to the conflict in Yemen accused of serious violations including likely war crimes, together with its coalition allies, is engaging in a tireless lobbying campaign to deter states at the Human Rights Council from renewing the inquiry mandate,” Afrah Nasser, Yemen researcher at U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
In another development, Yemeni army forces shot down an American AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma drone flying in the skies over Saudi Arabia’s southern Jizan region close to the border with Yemen.
Spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree said in a tweet that air defense units targeted the aircraft operated by the Saudi military during its reconnaissance mission on Thursday evening.
The media bureau of Yemen’s Operations Command Center is going to release the video footage of the operation within the next few hours, he added.
The development came a day after Saree said Yemeni forces and their allies had shot down a Saudi spy drone as it was flying in the skies over al-Jubah district in Yemen’s central province of Ma’rib.
Saree identified the downed aircraft as a Chinese-made CH-4 unmanned aerial vehicle.
Meanwhile, the head of Yemen’s Oil Company says the Saudi-led coalition that has been invading the impoverished country continues to impound Yemen-bound oil tankers amid the United Nations’ silence on the piracy.
Speaking on Thursday, Ammar al-Azra’i said the vessels keep being prevented from entering Yemen’s lifeline al-Hudaydah port, despite their holding the UN-required documentation that authorizes their mandate, Yemen’s al-Masirah television network reported.
“The silence on the part of the UN, which has closed its eyes on the issue and does not take any action in the face of the Yemeni people’s suffering, is one of the most important factors that encourages” the coalition to keep stealing the direly-needed crude, he stated.