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RIYADH: According to most reports, Yemen’s Houthi militia just burned nearly 500 African immigrants alive. But where is the outrage among the great defenders of human rights or among liberal commentators? This is not a rhetorical question, but rather a serious question.
To be sure, selective global outrage is nothing new; It has been around since the birth of the international community and the early days of the human rights movement. But the deafening silence of those claiming the role of international moral arbiters over the latest outrage by the Houthis is a scandal in itself.
Even by the standards of the Houthis’ disregard for the safety of civilians, what happened on March 7 at a detention center in Sanaa was despicable. The militia used force to end a strike by migrants protesting cruel treatment, extortion and poor conditions inside the facilities, the Geneva-based SAM Organization for Rights and Freedoms said on the basis of interviews with some survivors.
His conclusion left no room for confusion on the part of the usual suspects: “The Houthis were directly and systematically responsible for the deaths and injuries of approximately 450 migrants, mostly Ethiopians, in a detention center on March 7, 2021, in a fire caused by bombs. apparently shot by Houthi forces. “
Several local independent groups have concurred with the finding. Mwatana, a leading Yemeni human rights organization, blamed the Houthis for the fire and accused them of arbitrarily detaining survivors and relatives of the victims to prevent them from speaking about the incident.
“The Ansar Allah (Houthi) group killed and injured dozens of African immigrants by starting a deadly fire in a crowded detention center in Sanaa on March 7,” Mwatana said in a statement.
On the other hand, Women Solidarity Network accused the Houthis of using live bullets and explosive devices to suppress protests by migrants and demanded that the UN protect survivors from such intimidation.
“We urge international organizations, including the United Nations, to provide protection to migrants who have been hospitalized,” the group said.
“Our sources raised the alarm that the Houthis were promising migrants in hospitals to issue cards in exchange for their silence. According to information gathered from witnesses, the Houthis detained illegal African immigrants, including children, at their homes to force them to recruit them as combatants to send them to the conflict fronts. “
Muammar Al-Eryani, an internationally recognized Yemeni government information minister, said the Houthis have been intimidating survivors and their families to influence their media accounts or any future international investigation.
Noting that survivors and other witnesses would not give fair testimony if they remained within Houthi-controlled areas, he asked the UN migration agency IOM to evacuate them to other locations, away from pressure from the Houthis.
Abdurrahman Barman, a Yemeni human rights defender and director of the American Center for Justice, said his organization had interviewed some survivors who blamed the Houthis for the tragedy, accusing them of putting hundreds of Ethiopians in the detention center, which caused overcrowding.
He said the Houthis had prevented monitors from the American Center for Justice from visiting survivors in Sanaa hospitals, adding that survivors’ accounts indicate the death toll was between 200 and 300.
In a deeply ironic twist, the Sanaa massacre occurred around the same time that the American city of Minneapolis agreed to pay $ 27 million to settle a civil lawsuit over the death last year of a single black man, George Floyd, in police custody.
The Minneapolis City Council announced the record-setting settlement, the largest pre-trial civil rights settlement in history, described as a powerful message that black lives do matter and police brutality against people of color must end.
“George Floyd’s death ignited an incandescent social movement,” wrote Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in an open address to The Guardian in June last year. “In every state and around the world, people of all colors, genders and ages are coming together to march in fury and hope, to renounce the past and redeem the future.”
Sadly, if history is any guide, “people of all colors, genders and ages” are unlikely to come together “to march in fury and hope” for the loss of hundreds of Ethiopian lives in Yemen. Never mind that a #HouthiHolocaust hashtag has been trending on Arabic-language Twitter, reflecting the depth of public outrage over the deaths in the Middle East.
To his credit, Michael Aron, the UK Ambassador to Yemen, strongly condemned the deaths and called for an immediate and objective investigation and unhindered access to the injured migrants.
“Shocked by the fire at the Houthi-controlled migrant center in Sanaa,” he said on Twitter on Friday. “OHCHR and humanitarian agencies need immediate and unrestricted access to the site and the wounded. A credible, transparent and independent investigation must be carried out, including a full account of the deaths and injuries. “
Aron did not argue about who or what was to blame for the fire and loss of life. “It is the inhumane treatment of migrants by the Houthis, including the creation of overcrowded conditions in the center, that led to this terrible loss of human life,” he said.
Speaking to Arab News, Badr Al-Qahtani, Yemen editor of the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, put the silent outrage of international organizations in the context of Yemen’s political realities. Whether it is the death of migrants or the kidnapping of civilians, the problem for the UN and other organizations that carry out humanitarian work in large parts of the country is the same: the ability of the Houthis to create problems.
“They live in fear of the Houthis because the militia can make life more difficult for them. The tactic works. They deal with the militia with security as their main concern, ”Al-Qahtani said, referring to humanitarian groups.
“When interacting with sovereign governments, such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, or similar entities, they have a different relationship as opposed to their approach with the Houthis, as they do not have to deal with threats of violence.”
Developing this point, Al-Qahtani said: “International organizations are always careful when dealing with any problems in Houthi controlled areas to achieve their humanitarian goals. His reactions to the deadly incident in Sanaa are proof of this.
“Compare this incident with other issues involving some of the same groups and the UN-recognized Yemeni government. In Aden, for example, a problem arose related to migrants from Africa. The same organizations and activists took a tough stance against the government and made all kinds of demands.
“The government took care of these organizations in view of their stature and international reputation, and complied with their demands. These organizations always work with the government and deal with it directly, without problems or apprehensions ”.
On the contrary, the Houthis will not hesitate to use heavy-handed tactics. “They can delay their papers at the airport, in transport or at work. Therefore, organizations prefer not to confront them. They can leak information, but they cannot raise their voices, ”Al-Qahtani said.
“You must realize that there is a recently established Houthi body whose purpose is to completely control international organizations. Even foreign governments sometimes take this factor into account. When the British ambassador speaks openly about an issue, you can be sure of the scope of the challenge. “
Barman of the American Center for Justice was blunt in his criticism of international organizations, as well as the international community, for turning a blind eye to the actions of the Houthis.
“This is a heinous crime,” he told Arab News, referring to the deaths in Sanaa. “The world would have set a scene if the burned migrants were white. And if the perpetrators were not the Houthis, the Security Council would have met immediately. “
