Kidnapping, siege, intimidation and Houthi terrorism suffocating the village of Burkan in Saada
English - Tuesday 07 February 2023 الساعة 06:27 pm
Saada, NewsYemen, exclusive:
The village of Burkan in the Razeh district of Saada governorate, north of Yemen, is subjected to a military campaign and a suffocating siege, after the people refused to seize their land and turn it into a landfill.
Sources told "NewsYemen" that dozens of military vehicles and armored vehicles stormed the village of Burkan, and proceeded to humiliate and terrorize the people against the background of their refusal to hand over their private lands and their looting by prominent Houthi leaders in the governorate, which is the main stronghold of the Houthi militia, Iran's arm in Yemen, explaining that the Houthi leaders, after thwarting the process of seizing the lands of the people of the village, tended to issue directives to turn these lands into a garbage dump in response to the people's refusal to hand over their lands.
The sources indicated that the Houthi militia launched bombing and targeting of citizens' homes in the village in order to intimidate them and force them to accept the decision to turn their private lands into a dumping ground for waste.
Meanwhile, the militias kidnapped a number of the villagers on the grounds of their rejection of the military campaign, and charged them with malicious accusations in order to put them in their prisons.
According to the sources, the kidnapping campaign also targeted a number of residents of Razeh district and Saada governorate, who rejected the campaign and were in solidarity with the people of Barkan. Among them is the Houthi leader called Qassem Suleiman, who was appointed by the militias as a general supervisor in the Razeh of his condemnation of these practices against the people of the village of Burkan, describing them as a war crime and an unjustified siege.
Human rights denunciation
What the people of Burkan are being subjected to in Saada prompted many Yemeni human rights activists to launch an electronic campaign of solidarity with the residents who object to abuse at the hands of the Houthi militias controlling the governorate, amid calls for the need for international and international intervention to stop this systematic terrorism that affects civilians.
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms condemned the Houthi militia's conduct of a military campaign against the people of Burkan village in Razeh district, Saada governorate, and the imposition of a tight siege on civilians in the area for days, in an attempt to force them to turn their lands into a dumping ground for waste.
The network expressed its strong condemnation of these heinous practices, and the continuation of the kidnapping and arrest campaign, in the face of an unjustified silence by the international community, pointing out that the latest of these crimes and violations is its orders to execute 16 abductees and imprison 13 others from the governorate who reject its coup, on fabricated malicious charges in mock trials in illegal courts.
The Yemeni Network for Rights and Freedoms called on the international community, the United Nations, UN and US envoys, and human rights organizations and bodies to condemn these criminal practices, and to intervene urgently to rescue the detainees, calling on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations and other international organizations to condemn these practices, and put pressure on this militia to release them and all those who were arbitrarily kidnapped and forcibly disappeared, and to take deterrent measures against the Houthi militia.
Saada is paying a heavy price
In turn, the Yemeni Minister of Information, Muammar Al-Eryani, described the siege and violations against the people of Burkan in Saada as a continuation of the series of crimes committed by the Houthi militia against the people of the province who reject the Iranian project.
In his statements, the minister said, “The governorate of Saada has paid, and still is, a heavy price for Houthi terrorism, and has suffered, and is still suffering, from its aggressive behavior towards all those who reject its misguided ideology and criminal practices, and among those crimes is its recent orders to execute 16 of the governorate’s residents who reject its coup, on fabricated malicious charges in sham trials.
Al-Eryani called on the international community, the United Nations, its special envoy, and human rights organizations and bodies to condemn the Houthi crimes and violations against citizens in their areas of control, including the crime of besieging and bombing civilians in the village of Barkan in the Razih district, and to exert real pressure to immediately lift the military campaign and siege on the area.
