Yemen's Minister of Human Rights Mohammed Askar speaks at a press conference in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi - Yemen minister Mohammed Askar said: "Our delegation is already in Geneva."
Published: Fri 7 Sep 2018, 9:28 PM
Yemen's minister of human rights has said that Houthi rebels have no intention of respecting international community and the UN peace efforts.
Questioning Houthi militia's willingness to cooperate in peace talks, Mohammed Askar said: "Our delegation is already in Geneva. These militias have proven in front of the international community that they are not keen to respect international organisations and the UN delegation.
"Till now, they are saying they haven't received authorisation to leave Yemen to attend the talks knowing we did give it to them," said Askar, rubbishing the Iran-backed rebels' claims that they haven't received permission to visit Geneva.
The Houthi delegation and the Yemeni government representatives were expected to sit down for the first round of UN-mediated negotiations on Thursday. The talks got postponed to Friday due to the absence of Houthis.
Mohammed Askar told media on Thursday that his country will issue a report next week on the human rights situation in Yemen as a 'strong response' to the UN findings that accused coalition and Yemeni forces of war crimes.
Elaborating on the inaccuracies of the recently published UN report, the minister said: "The reports published by the UN experts haven't spoken about the realities on the ground. They have included some details but they are far from being accurate."
The findings of the report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights published on August 28 pointed out that war crimes may have been committed by both sides, including the coalition forces. The report alleged both parties had targeted civilians, restricted humanitarian aid and carried out arbitrary detentions.
The Saudi-led coalition has rejected the report, saying "false allegations" have been levelled against it based on misleading reports by some non-governmental organisations.
"We have been surprised and astonished that the reports worked by these experts have been trespassed completely and they haven't spoken about the realities as they are. And they have put some of the details in certain forms that are far from being accurate."
"Therefore, this report is completely false. It is not neutral. It is not accurate. We in the Yemeni government are preparing a formal response which includes all that has been mentioned in report and answers to it," said Askar.
According to the figures released by Yemen's Ministry of Human Rights, a total of 14,220 people, including 1,500 children and 865 women, have died in the Yemen war during September 2014 to August 2018. Among the 31,127 injured, 4,080 were children and 4,253 women, who were injured in the clashes when Houthi rebels occupied large parts of the country's provinces in the north.
According to the figures included in the soon-to-be-released report, 1,413 people were injured or permanently disabled by mines planted by the Houthis. A total of 21,706 people were abducted and 2,875 people still remain in detention.
The report also mentions cases of torture of 83 detainees in prisons run by the militia.
But, the minister said, the UN report has not mentioned what the Houthis were doing. "They haven't visited the city that was destroyed, that is Taiz, where there were grave human rights violations.
"The report has not really mentioned, even in one word, the Houthi occupation of Yemeni cities and the temporary capital of Aden. Many international organisations have documented the Houthi violations like their bombardment of electricity grids and water wells, and the use of civilians as human shield."
Among other things, the minister said, the report also ignored war crimes like laying of mines by the Houthi militia.
"We have already cleared more than one quarter of mines. We know they have planted two million mines which have claimed the lives of hundreds of children and women. But the UN report has not mentioned it even once."
On the bombing incident in Saada, Askar admitted that "it was painful".
The minister also thanked the UAE for its support to the Yemeni people.
anjana@khaleejtimes.com
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