War in Yemen: a complaint against three French arms companies
Sanaa airport buildings damaged by coalition strikes, December 21, 2021 (Illustration images).
REUTERS - KHALED ABDULLAH
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
It is on behalf of the civilians killed in the conflict in Yemen that a complaint was filed this Thursday morning June 2 in Paris by several NGOs Sherpa, Mwatana for Human Rights and ECCHR, a first.
The complaint targets three French arms companies for alleged "
complicity in war crimes
" and "
complicity in crimes against humanity
".
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“
We must break the chain of impunity
,” explains Abdul Rasheed Al Faqih of the Yemeni human rights organization Mwatana.
The man explains that his NGO has documented a thousand air raids carried out by the coalition which supports the Yemeni power against the rebels.
Attacks that claimed the lives of 3,000 civilians and injured 4,000, according to Mwatana.
The complaint filed Thursday in Paris targets three French companies in the arms sector which, among their customers, include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two countries at war in Yemen.
►Also read: These French weapons used in the war in Yemen
“
The first is Dassault Aviation, it concerns the export and maintenance of Mirage to the United Arab Emirates, which we know are used in the context of the conflict in Yemen.
That's roughly 59-60 Mirages out of an Emirates air fleet of between 130 and 150 planes,
says Cannelle Lavite, of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)
.
We then talk about MBDA France and MBDA UK which jointly produce bombs and missiles called Storm Shadow and SCALP which are also, according to the information we have, used by the coalition in Yemen.
And finally, we are talking about Thales, which produces guidance and precision pods, deployed by missiles and bombs and which are also, according to our information, used in Yemen since 2015.
Accomplices in war crimes and against humanity?
Can companies that sell arms be complicit in the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by their customers?
“
Yes
”, also believes Cannelle Lavite, of the European Center for Constitutional Rights and Human Rights (ECCHR).
"
Companies have their own responsibility to do their risk assessment and they have been trading with Saudi Arabia and the UAE for years, they are their preferred partners
," she said.
.
So, it is reasonable to expect that they would have been aware of all these abundant and consistent international reports that document the coalition's violations in systematic Yemen.
They should no longer be unaware that their exports can lead to possible criminal liability.
»
What we also know, believe the NGOs, is that
"coalition airstrikes, since 2015, have been the major cause of civilian deaths and that to carry out airstrikes, you need planes, bombs and designation pods.
So, by exporting all this material to the coalition, these companies may have facilitated the commission of these war crimes or potential crimes against humanity as well, so that could translate into complicity
”.
The NGOs that file a complaint are now awaiting the opening of an investigation by the French courts.
The truce
between the Houthi rebellion and government forces has been renewed in Yemen.
It came into effect on April 2.
A ceasefire that comes after 7 years of war.
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Yemen
Saudi Arabia
United Arab Emirates
France