Experts: UAE, Saudis may have committed war crimes in Yemen

Three experts working for the UN's top human rights body say the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia may have been responsible for war crimes including rape, torture, disappearances and "deprivation of the right to life" during three abd a half years of escalated fighting against rebels in Yemen.

In their first report for the Human Rights Council, the experts also point to possible crimes by rebel Shiite militia in Yemen, who have been fighting the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen's government in a civil war since March 2015.

The experts have also chronicled the damages from coalition airstrikes, the single most lethal force in the fighting, over the last year.

They urged the international community to "refrain from providing arms that could be used in the conflict" an apparent reference to countries including the United States and Britain that help arm the Saudi-led coalition, as well as Iran, which the coalition has accused of arming the Houthis.

The experts visited some but not all parts of Yemen as they compiled the report.

"(We have) reasonable grounds to believe that the governments of Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are responsible for human rights violations," the report said. It cited violations including unlawful "deprivation of the right to life," arbitrary detention, rape, torture, enforced disappearances and child recruitment.

Saudi, Emirati and Yemen officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment today.

On Twitter, Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash wrote that the UAE "must review it, answer its merits and review what it says about the horrors of the Houthis."
They questioned the JIAT's explanations for the airstrikes that have killed civilians, and challenged its "independence and its ability to carry out impartial investigations."
The experts also said nearly a dozen deadly airstrikes they investigated over the last year "raise serious questions about the targeting process applied by the coalition