Dassault Aviation, Thales and Mbda are accused of having provided weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates who have caused the death of civilians.
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It is a deluge of fire among so many others in a war that kept getting bogged down in Yemen. In early December 2016, during seventy -two hours, several waves of aircraft of the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (water), which has been working since 2015 against the Houth rebellion -supported by Iran -, are on Saada. A city that Riyadh and his allies consider a fief of rebellion. Among the remains of the ammunition used against a residential area lies, in the middle of the ruins, a Storm Shadow/Scalp Air-Solp missile. A weapon from a Franco-English project led by MBDA UK and MBDA France companies.
This strike, among 26 others, is at the heart of a complaint filed in Paris, Thursday, June 2, against three French industrialists for “complicity of war crimes” by NGOs Mwatana, a Yemeni human rights organization , and European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (Ecchr), based in Berlin, joined by the Sherpa association, and with the support of Amnesty International France.
This complaint, which follows a parallel procedure filed in December 2019 with the International Criminal Court, again raises the sensitive question of French arms exports, and the opacity that surrounds these deliveries, to countries allies and at war.
are thus targeted Dassault Aviation, which exports and notably ensures the maintenance of Mirage 2000 equipping the air forces of water; MBDA France and the MBDA group, for the production and export of Storm Shadow and Scalp Air-Solp missiles, as well as the Thales group, for the supply of Damocles guidance pods to Saudi Arabia and water intended to guide bombs to their targets. These three entities are among the largest weapons suppliers to the countries of the Arab coalition.
thousand documented raids
Four hospitals, three schools, displaced camps … The incriminated strikes have all targeted civilians and civil infrastructure, far from any military target, according to the complainants, and are therefore possibly constitutive of war crimes, engaging responsibility Weapons suppliers to coalition countries. They are part of the thousand raids documented over the years of war on the ground by the NGO Mwatana, who caused nearly 3,000 civilians, according to Abdulrasheed al-Faqih, its executive director.
“By exporting weapons to the coalition, knowing that this coalition has committed war crimes since 2015, we can make yourself accomplices, because in French criminal law the act of complicity, here the supply and the Weapons maintenance, may have facilitated the achievement of the crime, “explains Cinnamon Lavite, co -director of the Business and Human Rights Department of the Ecchr.
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