100 organizations call on the European Union to classify the Houthis as a terrorist group
English - Thursday 16 December 2021 الساعة 04:33 pm
Aden, NewsYemen:
In a joint statement, more than 100 Yemeni, American and European organizations called on the presidency of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers of the European Union to impose sanctions on the Iranian-backed Houthi militia to ensure that its leaders do not go unpunished for the systematic crimes it is committing against civilians.
The statement listed the Houthi militia's crimes against the Yemeni people, which varied between killing, torture, kidnapping, arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, child recruitment, siege of cities, bombing of homes, and laying land and sea mines of all kinds.
He pointed out that the Houthi militia has adopted a policy of impoverishment and starvation, represented in stealing employee salaries, stealing humanitarian aid and selling it on the black market, in addition to preventing humanitarian aid from reaching its beneficiaries, as documented by reports of international organizations.
The Houthis also turned Sanaa International Airport into a military barracks to bomb civilian facilities and receive Iranian weapons in violation of Resolution 2216, and made ports such as the port of Hodeidah a launching pad for boats and war mines to threaten international navigation, contrary to what was agreed upon in Stockholm, which enabled the Houthi group to commit more crimes and violations, according to the statement.
The statement revealed that the Houthi militia has forcibly recruited more than 30,000 children since the coup in late 2014, and used schools and educational facilities as training camps for youngsters.
It also "uses an educational system that incites violence derived from their ideology based on violence and extremist ideas, in addition to issuing death sentences, and recently executed 9 civilians, including a minor, and there are still women and minors sentenced to death," according to the statement.
He pointed to the crimes and violations committed by the Houthi militia against women, which amounted to murder, physical assault, kidnapping and sexual violence.
According to the statement, the number of female detainees in the prisons of the Houthi militia has reached more than 1,800 women, including civil society activists.
It added, "Houthi militias deliberately widen the gap of human suffering and threaten the security and safety of civilians and the displaced, including women, children and the elderly, and their continued planting of mines and taking the displaced as human shields."
The joint statement of human rights organizations called on the European Parliament to quickly impose mechanisms to hold the Houthi militia accountable, punish it and classify it as a terrorist group.
