Yemenis must take matters into own hands: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Hussain al-Bukhaiti, an activist and political commentator, to discuss Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military aggression against Yemen.

Here is a rough transcription of the interview:

Press TV: Talk to us about the recent Saudi attacks on Yemen on the occasion of Eid al-Adha.

Bukhaiti: This latest strike hit homes in Sahar district. The number of killed has reached 7 and 11 injured and there is a report that it was a double-tap strike. The Saudis struck first and they waited 10 to 15 minutes and then conducted another strike killing some of the neighbors and civilians who went to rescue those people who were injured in the first strike.

And I just remembered that last year as well the Saudis have killed in the same Eid an entire family I believe of nine with women and children and what really makes me sad is to see that children wearing their Eid clothes but there are millions of Yemenis who cannot afford these new clothes, that we have millions of Yemenis who live under poverty line and we have this blockade and hundreds of thousands of people are displaced especially from Sa’ada and Hajjah region.

And it seems what the Saudis are good at in Eid is either killing Yemeni civilians including women and children in Yemen or killing pilgrims like they did last year in Mecca and we cannot see any end of this struggle in Yemen, we cannot see any help coming from outside especially from the intentional community because Yemeni people have been let down by almost everyone especially the UN and the UN envoy to Yemen, Ould Cheikh.

We have over 6,000 Yemenis who are stranded outside in airports especially in Jordan, in Cairo and in other areas. Most of them are sick who went outside to get the proper medical help but still Ould Cheikh when he promised the Sana’a delegates in Muscat that they will open Sana’a airport after they meet him, he did the same like he did before, he refused after that to do anything to let those people come back.

They want to see their families. There are reports that about 9 to 10 of these sick people outside in airports have died and many of them have been kicked out of hospital and as well kicked out of their homes because they were supposed to come back a month ago and now they cannot even afford to feed themselves and if the Saudi and so-called Hadi legitimacy, if they cannot protect 7,000 people outside Yemen who are stranded because of these Saudi airstrikes, how do they want us to believe them that they will bring peace to Yemen?

As we see in the south every day many people are killed by terrorist attacks by gangs. There is no security at all but at least in areas controlled by the Ansarullah, the Houthis and the Yemeni army we have the minimum, which is security, unlike them in those so-called liberated areas they have nothing at all and they are under the Saudi control.

Press TV: And also explain for us and our viewers about the dire humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding in Yemen in relation to the Saudi siege on the Arab country.

Bukhaiti: You can tell this from the number of the people who have died. As you mentioned there are over 9,000 who are killed by Saudi direct airstrikes and according to UNICEF there are 10,000 children who died this year because of the lack of medicine and lack of food and nutrition. If we compare this before the Saudi aggression those 10,000 kids were kind of extra if you compare it with previous years and this shows you the amount of this war and the damage it has caused to the Yemenis and the damage it has caused to the Yemeni infrastructure.

We have this blockade over 500 days, prices skyrocketed and fuel shortages and on top of that when they now stopped Sana’a airport  even the people who got some kind of money to get an attention outside Yemen, they are now dying in airports either in Cairo or in Jordan and I think that the Yemenis have to take things into their [own] hands and I believe that they must stop negotiation with the Saudis, they should cut all lines and contact with the UN envoy, Ould Cheikh and they should either come back to Yemen or stay in Muscat and as well they should increase their attacks against Saudi [Arabia] and I think we have reached now the point that we do not trust the international community, we do not trust the Saudis and we just must go to the Saudi land as they kill us we must kill their soldiers who are conducting those strikes.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk