Sign and share! Syrian Statement in Solidarity with the People of Yemen

Yemeni children play in the rubble of a house destroyed by a Saudi-led airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen on Sept. 8, 2015 (Credit: AP/Hani Mohammed).

I don't know how, despite all the trauma and pain, some Syrian activists took the initiative to pull this together. So noble, so brave, so solidaristic. I signed and this is a call to sign/share here. 

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SYRIAN STATEMENT IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF YEMEN

While we bond first and foremost over our pursuit of justice, our shared, painful reality also brings us together. Civilians in both Syria and Yemen have borne the brunt of the violence, our schools, hospitals and markets bombed by Assad, Russian, Saudi and American aircraft; our communities withering under siege, dying a slow and painful death; and the delivery of our humanitarian aid politicized by international actors. For almost two years, Yemen has suffered under a naval, air, and water blockade imposed by Saudi Arabia, restricting the flow of food, medicine, and, importantly, information to and from the country. Our demands for the Assad regime to lift its sieges on Madaya, Daraya, Al-Waer, and countless other towns and neighborhoods ring hollow unless we make the same demands of Saudi Arabia and Ansar Allah (hereafter referred to as Houthis). End the sieges, now.

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the people of Yemen and their aspiration for freedom, democracy and social justice. Like other communities and cities in the region, thousands of Yemeni protesters took the streets in mid-January 2011 to protest peacefully the corruption and authoritarianism of the governments and Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule. As Syrian revolutionaries, we fully support the Yemeni people’s struggle for freedom, social justice, safety, health and dignity.

We as Syrians who seek democratic and genuine secular change in Syria see how regional power dynamics between Iran and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) have had catastrophic consequences on both Yemen and Syria. Without drawing false analogies between the Yemeni state and the Assad regime, the Houthis and the armed Syrian opposition, it does not escape us how the power struggles for Syria and Yemen includes the same regional actors and a mounting civilian death toll.

Specifically, KSA commits war crimes in the name of supporting the state in Yemen while Iran is responsible for large scale destruction in Syria through its support of the Assad regime. Furthermore, both KSA and Iran are responsible for supporting armed non-state actors (certain armed opposition groups in Syria, and the Houthis in Yemen respectively) without a strategy for de-escalating violence, ensuring accountability measures, and protecting civilians and their basic human rights. It is clear to us as Syrian revolutionaries, who took the streets peacefully -- not as Muslims or Christians, Sunnis or Alawites, Kurds or Arabs, but as people attempting to claim their citizenry as Syrians -- that these countries’ interference does not stem from their support of the people’s demands for social change, but rather from the exploitation of the people’s struggle, and the consumption of local human capital and natural resources to exercise control, maintain power, and build power.

Like in Syria, the international community’s inaction has failed Yemen. The UN has become a mechanism to uphold systematic violence, and the rising military presence of regional and international powers has contributed to prolonging the conflict and hindering the process of finding just and sustainable solutions.

Political Points

Foreign intervention in both countries has caused the people more sorrow than justice. We fiercely condemn KSA’s use of internationally banned weapons, use of cluster bombs, targeting of schools, hospitals, weddings, funerals among many other civilian inhabited neighborhoods. On this point, It should be clearly stated that KSA’s relationship with the U.S. has also been fueling war crimes in Yemen. Likewise in Syria but on a different level, the KSA and other Gulf countries’ support to some undemocratic groups and warlords in Syria, like Jaish Al-Islam in Ghouta, enhances counter-revolutionary forces that have been accused of kidnapping and assassinating activists in besieged Ghouta by several families, activists and writers. In addition, the Iranian-backed Houthis have been disrupting the political transition process and went against the popular Yemeni wish to remove Ali Abdullah Saleh. We equally condemn their mass atrocity crimes against civilian and minority communities in Yemen.

We echo the demands of Yemeni civil society activists to implement UNSC Resolution 2216, which calls on an end to violence by all parties in Yemen, Saudis and Houthis alike. The cessation of hostilities in Yemen is the first step to peace in the country; it will allow space for Yemeni to Yemeni negotiations.

So too do we stand with the people of Yemen in their quest for accountability and justice, a necessary step on the path to reconciliation and stability. Yemeni civil society and international human rights groups have repeatedly made calls for an independent investigation into war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflict. This is a critical first step toward accountability. Saudi Arabia last year successfully blocked a UN Human Rights Council resolution to establish an international commission of inquiry, which would have undoubtedly primarily incriminated the Gulf state. Syrians are no stranger to the politics of such demands --although the Human Rights Council established a commission to investigate war crimes allegations in Syria dating back to the start of the revolution in March 2011, Russian and Chinese UN Security Council vetoes have blocked meaningful action in the form of a referral to the International Criminal Court. All state and non-state actors in Yemen and Syria should be held accountable according to
the dictates of international law. No exceptions.


Signatures:

Shiyam Galyon
Maryam Saleh
Razan Ghazzawi
Rula Asad
Yasser Munif
Mohja Kahf
Ramah Kudaimi
Tariq Samman
Lilah Khoja
Suzan Boulad
Leila Shami
Robin Yassin Kasab
Ali Kaakarli
Sumayya Saleh
Hiba Shaban
Mohamad Abou Ghazala
Salma Kahale
Faress Jouejati
Rand Sabbagh
Yazan Al-Saadi
Afrah Nasser
Laila Alodaat
Khuloud Saba
Rua Al Taweel
Joseph Daher
Safi Ghazal
Malak Chabkoun
Osama Salloum
Mohamad Alshlash
Dima Nashawi
Yazan Badran
Rowida Kanaan
Mansor Iesa
Suliman ِAli
Safi Ghazal, activist
Rima Majed
Mansor Iesa
Suliman ِAli
عبدالعزيز العائدي
Dirar Khattab
Bassam Al Ahmad (A Syrian Human Rights Defender)
Ruben Lagattolla
ahmad mohamad
Grégoire Bali
Nader Atassi
Wejdan Nassif
Mais Atassi
Andrew Berman, Veterans for Peace
Afra Jalabi
Adnan Al Mhamied
انا متضامن مع الشعب اليمني
Mahmoud Sisouno
Tasneem Sannah
Budour Hassan
Joey Ayoub
fouad roueiha
آرمانج أمي
آرمانج أمين
Noura Mansour
كل التضامن مع الشعب اليمني
Mohammed Alsaud
Lina Smoudi
Mohammed Alsaud
Muhammad alhaj
Sonia Pecoraro
Farouk Nashar
Hayat Zarzour
نعم
لانا البحرة
Shiyar khaleal
Bilquis allahabi
Musaab Balchi
أحمد دراوشة
Nisreen Mobayed
Alicia Fernández Gómez
Rama Alhoussaini
Banah Ghadbian
مغير الهندي
Denisse Alanis
Omar Abbas
Walid Daou
Yasmeen Mobayed
علا صالح
Aghyan Alzuabi
Pierre
Fouad Roueiha
Rouba Choufi
Noor alkhatib
Aram Khoury
Khalid kalthum
Mohammad Abu Hajar
Assem Hamsho
دالي عقيل
أمل محمد
Hani sayed
Aman bezreh
Ameenah A. Sawwan
Dellair Youssef
Razan Saffour
Hana alamine
Manar Shabouk
Shuruq Abdullah
Sammy Hamdi
Adi Hussein Yassin
مها العمري
Marah Alsafadi
Iris Aulbach

Organizations:

Dawlaty
Socialist Forum-Lebanon.
Souryana Al Amal
Najda now international
Intellectuals for Building Syria Gathering | تجمع مثقفون لبناء سوريا
شبكة المرأة السورية
The Working Group For Syrian Detainees
Comitato Khaled Bakrawi - Italia