We Do Give A Damn

On her Facebook page, Emily Tornberry offers this translation of her joint article with Rolf Mützenich: 

This week, Yemen enters its fifth year of civil war, sparked when the country’s Houthi rebels ousted the elected President Hadi, and a Saudi-led coalition started Operation Decisive Storm to restore him to power. 

Tens of thousands of Yemeni children have died since then, from Saudi air strikes or Houthi rockets, from malnutrition, from cholera and other diseases. Hundreds of thousands more are still facing those deathly threats every day.

And even if they make it through this conflict, millions of Yemeni children will carry the physical and mental scars into their adult lives, as well as the inevitable lasting damage from spending years denied an education in anything other than the horrors of war. 

Throughout the war, every European country has faced the question of how to respond to the rising toll of civilian deaths, and the escalating humanitarian crisis, and for too many of our governments, the answer has been a shrug of the shoulders. 

They call for ceasefires, they urge humanitarian corridors, they condemn the Houthis for their atrocities, they express sorrow when a Saudi bomb hits a wedding, or a funeral, or a school bus, and urge the coalition to stop blockading Yemen’s ports and allow food and medicine in. 

But ultimately, beyond their words, the only actual difference most of those governments have made to the war so far is to continue stoking it, by selling Saudi Arabia and its allies the planes and weapons that they have been using to carry out their air strikes, enforce their deadly blockade, and continue their ground assault on Houthi-held towns. 

However, during the coalition talks in January 2018 the SPD took action and pushed for a restrictive position on arms exports towards those countries that are directly involved in the Yemen war. 

In the British Parliament, the political decision on arms export restriction that Germany has taken has been warmly welcomed by politicians from all parties as an example for the entire West to follow, especially in the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, which brought home to all of us the reality of what the Saudi government stands for. 

But Theresa May feels differently, which is why we saw the disgraceful spectacle last month of the British Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, visiting Berlin and lecturing the German government that it should put the profits of the arms industry before the lives of innocent people in Yemen. 

We as Labour and Social Democratic MPs in London and Berlin do not share the view of the British government. 

We strongly support the decision of the German Government in taking a suitably strong response to the outrage of the Khashoggi murder, and it was absolutely right this week to maintain that action, and keep the pressure on other countries to follow suit. 

And those other countries are listening. 

The actions of the German government have resonated in London, in Paris, and vitally in Washington, where Donald Trump will soon be forced to use his presidential veto if he wants to maintain American support for the war. 

We think it is time to reinforce the European ideal that, at our best, we are a community of democracies based on common values, and our approach to international relations is based on working together to uphold a world based on rules. 

And that clearly includes the rule that our countries should not sell arms to other countries that are using them to violate international law or abuse human rights, and that we should instead do our utmost in conflict regions to promote peace rather than promote arms sales, as it was put forth in the Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP of 8 December 2008. 

A decision to restore arms sales for use in the war in Yemen would totally undermine that rule. That is why we are convinced it is politically and morally right to reject that choice, and that is why we appreciate that British MPs from all parties will continue to urge their government to follow suit.

We all know that beyond the rules we believe in, and beyond the headlines created by the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, what we have to keep in mind is the fact that the Arabian Peninsula is a conflict region. 

The region does not need more weapons but peace talks guided by the United Nations and their Special Envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths. What must drive us above all is the hidden death toll of men, women and children in Yemen that keeps rising with every passing month and year.

After all, as Dr Mekkia Mahdi recently told reporters from The New York Times from her health clinic in Northern Yemen, crammed with malnourished children, starving and dying all around her every day as a result of this brutal war: “We’re surprised the Khashoggi case is getting so much attention, while millions of Yemeni children are suffering and nobody gives a damn about them.” 

We do give a damn and we strongly urge our governments to concentrate on political action and supporting peace talks instead of delivering more weapons to countries at war, in which innocent people are the victims of political struggle.