Houthis playing the “victims’ to gain sympathy of int’l community

Islam Mohammed

Accused of committing a multitude of violations against human rights and international instruments in Yemen, the Iran-backed Houthi militia is trying hard to appear as the “the wronged victim.”

The militia has claimed that up to 65,000 of its elements were injured, and nearly 5,000 became disabled, since carrying out a coup against legitimacy in Yemen.

The claims were made during an event by the Houthi “The Injured Foundation (Al-Jarha) marking its second anniversary.

Al-Jarha, and a host of similar bodies, focus their work on the Houthi elements killed or wounded in the war. They build and decorate tombs for the dead, collecting huge sums of money from traders, by force, for the alleged “charity work they run.”

The pro-Houthi media highlight the terrorist group’s losses in the ongoing war in Yemen portraying them as heroic sacrifices. However, this media neglects the fact that most of the sacrifices were the result of forcing children to join the war, even pushing them to the frontlines.

Many of the injuries took place during attacks launched by the coupist militia itself, and were falsely attributed to the Saudi-led Arab coalition supporting legitimacy in Yemen. These include the attack that targeted a fish market and a public hospital in Al Hudaydah, west. Initially, the militia laid the blame on the Arab coalition, but it was soon proved that the Houthis were behind the terrorist attack, and many similar ones.

In addition, the Houthi shelling has targeted civilian houses in the governorates of Ta’az, Hajjah and Al Hudaydah, and other provinces, during the battles against the Arab coalition and the Yemeni Army. Many civilians were killed or injured in the battles.

Moreover, the militia has planted up to one million landmines, recently estimated at one million.

Human Rights Watch said last June: “Landmines have killed and maimed civilians, disrupted civilian life, hindered humanitarian access, and prevented civilians’ safe return home in affected areas in Yemen.”

A month later, the Washington Institute stressed that the “Houthis may not be the first warring party to use landmines in Yemen, but they are using them at an astonishingly high rate.

Saudi Arabia last June started a project to clear liberated areas in Yemen of the Houthis’ landmines and to educate nine million people in the dangers of the anti-personnel devices.

The project is expected to take a long time to achieve the aspired goals, as the militia has been active in developing and planting the landmines. They have developed landmines camouflaged to look like rocks, or a children’s toy, claiming more victims.

A media war and twist facts

The Houthis’ endeavors to play the victim is part of a policy of twisting facts adopted by the militia to cover up its crimes against the Yemeni people, and its grave violations against civilians,  among them children and women, Mohammed Abadi, a specialized researcher in the affairs of Shiite movements said.

The Houthis started the war; They were the aggressors,  and they recruited thousands of Yemeni children to fight and fuel their military adventures, Abadi told Al Marjie (The Reference)

The anti-personnel landmines the militia has planted in residential areas, roads and public places constitute in themselves a “war crime”, he stressed.