SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Voicing the People's Anger, Yemen Parliament Calls for Drone Ban
Latest attack on wedding party, that left many civilians dead, shows destabilizing impact of US campaign
Dec 16, 2013
"If the government fails to stop American planes from... bombing the people of Yemen, then it has no rule over us." --tribal chief Ahmad al-Salmani
"Members of parliament voted to stop what drones are doing in Yemeni airspace, stressing the importance of preserving innocent civilian lives against any attack and maintaining Yemeni sovereignty," the state news agency SABA reported.
Though the nearly unanimous vote is considered "non-binding" under Yemeni law, a government official told CNN that the legislative move should be seen as "a strong warning" to Yemeni President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
"The Yemeni public is angered by the drone strikes," said the official, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to talk to reporters. "The people's representatives reflected on the tone of the streets."
Anti-drone activists in Yemen and abroad have been joined by foreign policy experts who all agree that the U.S. drone campaign in the country is having a counter-productive and destabilizing effect.
The U.S. government has so far refused to comment on the attack or take responsibility for the civilians killed, though a statement by the Hadi's Supreme Security Committee said the bombing targeted al-Qaeda leadership.
As Agence France-Presse reports:
In the car "were top leaders who plotted several terrorist attacks against the armed forces, police, civilians and vital government installations," it said.
The statement did not give a death toll for the strike, nor refer to any civilian casualties or acknowledge that the attack was launched by a US drone.
Security sources and witnesses said two missiles were fired, and that mostly civilians had died.
Amnesty International said confusion over who was behind the raid "exposes a serious lack of accountability for scores of civilian deaths in the country."
"Even if it turns out that this was a case of killing based on mistaken identity or dodgy intelligence, whoever was responsible needs to own up to the error and come clean about what happened in this incident," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director.
Relatives of the dead staged protests to denounce the killings and demanded an official apology as well as compensation.
Hundreds of people also blocked the road between Rada and Sanaa at Friday's funeral of 13 people but reopened a day later after reaching agreement on compensation with local military authorities.
"If the government fails to stop American planes from... bombing the people of Yemen, then it has no rule over us," tribal chief Ahmad al-Salmani told AFP on Saturday.
_____________________________________
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
"If the government fails to stop American planes from... bombing the people of Yemen, then it has no rule over us." --tribal chief Ahmad al-Salmani
"Members of parliament voted to stop what drones are doing in Yemeni airspace, stressing the importance of preserving innocent civilian lives against any attack and maintaining Yemeni sovereignty," the state news agency SABA reported.
Though the nearly unanimous vote is considered "non-binding" under Yemeni law, a government official told CNN that the legislative move should be seen as "a strong warning" to Yemeni President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
"The Yemeni public is angered by the drone strikes," said the official, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to talk to reporters. "The people's representatives reflected on the tone of the streets."
Anti-drone activists in Yemen and abroad have been joined by foreign policy experts who all agree that the U.S. drone campaign in the country is having a counter-productive and destabilizing effect.
The U.S. government has so far refused to comment on the attack or take responsibility for the civilians killed, though a statement by the Hadi's Supreme Security Committee said the bombing targeted al-Qaeda leadership.
As Agence France-Presse reports:
In the car "were top leaders who plotted several terrorist attacks against the armed forces, police, civilians and vital government installations," it said.
The statement did not give a death toll for the strike, nor refer to any civilian casualties or acknowledge that the attack was launched by a US drone.
Security sources and witnesses said two missiles were fired, and that mostly civilians had died.
Amnesty International said confusion over who was behind the raid "exposes a serious lack of accountability for scores of civilian deaths in the country."
"Even if it turns out that this was a case of killing based on mistaken identity or dodgy intelligence, whoever was responsible needs to own up to the error and come clean about what happened in this incident," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director.
Relatives of the dead staged protests to denounce the killings and demanded an official apology as well as compensation.
Hundreds of people also blocked the road between Rada and Sanaa at Friday's funeral of 13 people but reopened a day later after reaching agreement on compensation with local military authorities.
"If the government fails to stop American planes from... bombing the people of Yemen, then it has no rule over us," tribal chief Ahmad al-Salmani told AFP on Saturday.
_____________________________________
"If the government fails to stop American planes from... bombing the people of Yemen, then it has no rule over us." --tribal chief Ahmad al-Salmani
"Members of parliament voted to stop what drones are doing in Yemeni airspace, stressing the importance of preserving innocent civilian lives against any attack and maintaining Yemeni sovereignty," the state news agency SABA reported.
Though the nearly unanimous vote is considered "non-binding" under Yemeni law, a government official told CNN that the legislative move should be seen as "a strong warning" to Yemeni President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
"The Yemeni public is angered by the drone strikes," said the official, who spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to talk to reporters. "The people's representatives reflected on the tone of the streets."
Anti-drone activists in Yemen and abroad have been joined by foreign policy experts who all agree that the U.S. drone campaign in the country is having a counter-productive and destabilizing effect.
The U.S. government has so far refused to comment on the attack or take responsibility for the civilians killed, though a statement by the Hadi's Supreme Security Committee said the bombing targeted al-Qaeda leadership.
As Agence France-Presse reports:
In the car "were top leaders who plotted several terrorist attacks against the armed forces, police, civilians and vital government installations," it said.
The statement did not give a death toll for the strike, nor refer to any civilian casualties or acknowledge that the attack was launched by a US drone.
Security sources and witnesses said two missiles were fired, and that mostly civilians had died.
Amnesty International said confusion over who was behind the raid "exposes a serious lack of accountability for scores of civilian deaths in the country."
"Even if it turns out that this was a case of killing based on mistaken identity or dodgy intelligence, whoever was responsible needs to own up to the error and come clean about what happened in this incident," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa director.
Relatives of the dead staged protests to denounce the killings and demanded an official apology as well as compensation.
Hundreds of people also blocked the road between Rada and Sanaa at Friday's funeral of 13 people but reopened a day later after reaching agreement on compensation with local military authorities.
"If the government fails to stop American planes from... bombing the people of Yemen, then it has no rule over us," tribal chief Ahmad al-Salmani told AFP on Saturday.
_____________________________________
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.