Yemeni child’s letter to Ban ki-Moon

On June 2, 2016, the UN in a report placed the anti-Yemen military coalition of Saudi regime and its accomplices in the black list of children’s rights violators due to massacring Yemeni children and blamed the Saudi coalition for the death of 60% of Yemeni children. But the UN renounced the decision very soon.

Following the Saudi threat to cut off UN financial aid, the UN chief Ban ki-Moon on June 9 declared that the name of Saudi Arabia has been removed from a child killers’ list; an act which astounded the global public opinion.

After this decision, the Yemeni children converged in front of the UN mission in Sana to protest against removal of the Saudi regime from the black list of children’s rights violators and by chanting the slogan “Yemeni people gift money to the UN” called on it to resist against the Saudi pressure. They collected their pocket money and put it on the UN flag so that this international body becomes needles of the Saudi bribe and pay attention to the country’s war crimes.

A Yemeni child wrote a letter to Moon and expressed his meaningful protest as follows: “I and my friends have agreed to collect money to fund the UN because Saudi Arabia has said it would cut its aids to it." The boy continued "Don't be afraid of Saudi Arabia because it is massacring the Yemenis not the UN.”

The Yemeni child continued "when I grow up and conclude my studies, I would become a UN secretary general and so I would bring Saudi Arabia to justice for killing my friend Ahmad who was sitting by me at classroom. I wouldn't fear them even if they threatened me because I would be great.” The complaining Yemeni boy concluded. "I'm not writing my name because Saudi Arabia will kill me, and I don't like death."

Although this letter expresses a childish wish it shows the deep and indelible wound on the body of children who seek love and affection. Certainly the hidden grief of this child who witnessed his friend’s heart-rending death will turn into a great wrath.

In all religions and creeds, children are the symbol of hope and dynamism, beauty, honesty and pure nature. A look at children revives their sweet dreams in minds and makes the future hopeful. The United Nations Children's Emergency Fund UNICEF founded children’s rights convention with the introduction that children should grow up in an atmosphere of prosperity, affection and understanding.

Taking care of and meeting the initial needs of children in the initial years of their life, efforts for reducing disease, death and supporting them in war and natural disasters are considered among the most important objectives of his human right organ. But unfortunately today we receive many news reports of killing, imprisoning and torturing children all over the world especially in West Asia. Most of signatories of this law are themselves violators of children’s rights directly or indirectly.

With continuation of war in Yemen, thousands of children are exposed to diseases resulting from malnutrition. According to UNICEF, one million and three hundred thousand Yemeni children suffer from malnutrition. UNICEF Representative in Yemen, Julien Harneis says the situation is very dangerous. Hospitals are full of patients and even ambulances are stolen and children are killed and wounded and they have no option except fleeing. The health of Yemeni children is in danger and they cannot go to school.

All war parties are duty bound to provide security for children. If the children under foreign invaders’ oppression are not killed in war regions they live with permanent fear and anxiety and if they manage to leave their homes along with their families, they will certainly be homeless. Children are the first victims of wars and local, regional and international violence and there is no clear perspective for ending wars and violence.

Experiences of the past wars show that the war-ravaged generation can hardly forget violence. In view of the lasting effect on children, violence is transferred to the next generations and in fact one can witness a repeated round of violence after wars.

In 1996, the representative of the UN Secretary General Grassa Maashel, regarding the issues of children of war-hit regions, wrote: Mankind will finally declare that childhood is the period of immunity and children should be immune from the deadly impacts of military wars. Now after the passage of years, we see that children in Kandahar, Gaza strip; Fallujah, Yemen and Bahrain are no more peace regions and still become victims of war and violence. In fact, war in some countries lasts more than childhood of children and they will never see peace in their childhood.”

The harms inflicted on children are not merely restricted to the war time. The mined spots at children’s playground take victims years after war. As a result of war in Yemen a great human tragedy is taking place. But can the Saudi threats justify the UN withdrawal from carrying out its legal and human duty?

Analysts believe that the UN and Ban ki- Moon himself have legalized the present and future massacre of children in the world. After facing severe criticism, the UN chief justified his decision as follows: this was one of the most painful and difficult decisions I had to make, and that it raised the very real prospect that millions of other children would face the suffering resulting from halting UN budgets in Palestine, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and other regions!!!!!!

It seems that Ban ki-Moon thinks that, by ignoring killing of hundreds of Yemeni kids, he has provided water and bread for thousands of deprived children.

Meanwhile, the UN act in removing the name of Riyadh from the black list of the murderers of children does not mean that this country has been acquitted from shedding the blood of thousands of Yemenis. None of these can reduce the heavy burden of their crimes. Saudi crimes in Yemen are so heavy and heinous that they cannot be wiped out with removing its name from the black list.

According to figures, within nearly 15 months of Saudi military attack on Yemen, over 10, 000 civilians have been killed, over 20,000 have been wounded and thousands of houses, mosques and infrastructures have been demolished and the criminals of Riyadh have even bombed farmlands and gardens.

The analyst of the Arab world Abdul Bair Atwan wrote on the UN act: Human rights bodies have provided documentaries of Saudi massacre and killing in Yemen and they will be presented against the Saudis and then neither the spokesman for Operation Decisive Storm Ahmad Al-Assiri, nor the Saudi representative in the UN will be able to deny the air raids of Saudi war fighter jets on Shahar hospital in Sa’da province in northern Yemen. It is the hospital which is administrated by an international human right body and the missiles of Saudi fighters tore into pieces the bodies of its doctors and patients.

They also will not be able to deny the attack of Saudi planes on wedding ceremony in Ta’az city of Yemen or bombing a crowded market in San’a under the pretext of presence of one top officials of Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement. The Arab analyst added: Ban ki-Moon has undermined the UN prestige and showed that this international body is complicit in the wars in which innocent people are targeted and it does not adhere to human rights criteria.

FK/RM/SS