Press TV has conducted an interview with Ajamu Baraka, a human rights activist in Cali, to discuss the dire humanitarian situation in Yemen.
The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: How do you feel about the humanitarian situation in Yemen? Certainly even before this entire aggression of the Saudis began, the humanitarian situation there was not very good?
Baraka: No it was not. The continued criminal assault on the people of Yemen has resulted in a crisis very unique. Here we have an entire people who are now suffering as a consequence of state terrorism but yet they are not getting any real support, any relief from the international community. A nation in which over 90 percent of its full needs are imported and now being subjected to a blockade by a government, something that has been orchestrated by the US and the result being what we see today in Yemen.
Press TV: On a political level here, the Saudis say that they are doing all of this for the Yemeni people but certainly they are not winning any hearts and minds, are they?
Baraka: No it is the same kind of rationale that the US uses that basically they are going to save the people by bombing them to the so-called Middle Ages, the same kind of moral rationale. If the Saudis were committed to the people of Yemen, then they would stop the military assault on people. If they want a diplomatic solution to the situation in Yemen, then they would be serious about trying to pursue that but right now their only concern now is to assert their hegemony in Yemen and to do that they are putting enormous pressure on the Yemenis people.
Press TV: And when you talk about this pressure, I am wondering although the Yemenis have been standing firm and resisting the Saudi aggression courageously, in front of the world as well, I wonder how much longer they can hold out considering this aggression continues?
Baraka: Well I think that the leadership adheres to be prepared to hold out as long as they need to protect their dignity. The Yemeni people are proud people and they are going to resist for as long as it takes. The only way that this can be resolved militarily would be for the Saudis to involve itself into a ground invasion. They are unprepared and reluctant to do that.
So what we are going to see now is coming weeks of continued state terrorism, continued suffering, continued dying in Yemen until the international community finally intervenes to stop this carnage.
AHK/MKA