Amnesty International has announced that lawsuits and protest activities are being organized in several European ports in protest of the resumption of a cargo ship’s activity this week. The Saudi-owned ship had previously transported weapons with tens of millions of dollars used in the Yemen war.
After the Saudi cargo ship, “Nahari Yanbu”, stopped on a transatlantic flight in the United States and Canada last month, it is expected that it will depart from, Sunday, in five European ports, before continuing its journey towards Saudi Arabia.
It is related to the Premiere Haven ports in Germany, Antwerp in Belgium, and Tilbury Docks in the United Kingdom, in addition to the French ports of Cherbourg and Genoa, Italy.
During a similar trip last May, protests and lawsuits prevented some of the weapons destined for Yemen from being loaded onto the ship, but despite that tens of millions of dollars worth of military aircraft and other weapons were leaked to the ship.
Protests against the new voyage of the “Bahri Yanbu” ship will include the filing of three Belgian non-governmental organizations with a lawsuit aimed at issuing a court order against the Belgian government that allows the transfer of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
It also includes two demonstrations by Amnesty International volunteers in the French ports of Cherbourg and Genoa, and the implementation of a strike by Italian port workers, as Italian labor unions have repeatedly expressed their opposition to exploiting the port to load goods intended for military use in Yemen.
The organization says that it does not have – given the secrecy that always surrounds the contents of the ship – clear evidence confirming that it is currently transporting weapons to Saudi Arabia, but the circumstances of the current flight and the black record of this ship raise – according to the organization – real doubts that it is actually in the process of transferring arms shipments, and that the European countries once again failed to fulfill their obligations to stop illegal arms transfers.
Patrick Wilkin, a researcher on human rights and arms control, stresses that several countries have failed miserably to fulfill their international obligations to stop arms transfers for use in war crimes and serious human rights violations.
“The political will of governments to respect their legal obligations is again under test… activists and port workers are on high alert while a ship in Yanbu tries to violate international law again in the name of profitable arms deals that fuel the extrajudicial killing of civilians and cause a serious humanitarian catastrophe,” Wilkin added.”
It is noteworthy that Amnesty International protested, along with its partner Spanish NGOs, last December against the arrival of another Saudi ship called “Bahri Abha” to the port of Sagunto, near the Spanish city of Seville.
According to Patrick Wilkin, a researcher for human rights and arms control in Amnesty International, “protests and court cases prevented the loading of weapons destined for Yemen on a similar flight in May 2019.”
He added, however, that parts of military aircraft and other weapons, estimated at tens of millions of dollars, had passed.
Wilkin pointed out that many countries failed miserably to fulfill their international obligations, to stop arms transfers, for use in war crimes and serious human rights violations.
“Now, the political will of governments to respect their legal obligations is being tested,” he added.
He noted that “activists and port workers are on high alert, as (Bahri Yanbu) threatens to violate international law again in the name of lucrative arms deals fueling the unlawful killing of civilians, and the humanitarian catastrophe is dangerous in Yemen.”
During a similar trip last May, protests and lawsuits prevented some of the weapons destined for Yemen from being loaded onto the ship.
The protest demonstrations against the new voyage of the “Bahri Yanbu” ship will include the filing of three Belgian non-governmental organizations with a lawsuit aimed at issuing a court order against the Belgian government that allows the transfer of weapons to Saudi Arabia.
It also includes two demonstrations by Amnesty International volunteers in the French ports of Cherbourg and Genoa, and the implementation of a strike by Italian port workers.
The Italian trade unions have repeatedly expressed their opposition to the exploitation of the port in loading goods intended for military use in Yemen.
“Amnesty International” says that, given the secrecy that always surrounds the contents of the ship, it does not have clear evidence confirming that it is currently transporting weapons to Saudi Arabia, but the current flight conditions and the black record of this ship “raise real doubts, that it is actually in the process of transporting shipments. a weapon”.
According to the international organization and the bonds of its analysis, since the war began in Yemen in 2015, “Bahri Yanbu” transported military equipment with an estimated $360 million, on 10 trips from the United States of America to Saudi Arabia.
She added that on her previous trip, which visited European ports in May 2019, the Saudi cargo ship was loaded with US-made military equipment worth $47 million, most of which are linked to military aircraft.
Arms containers were loaded in Belgium and Spain, and howitzers were to be loaded in France, where NGOs took legal action to stop the arms transfers.
Also, the ship was carrying light armored vehicles on board at that time.
A war is taking place in Yemen, in which tens of thousands have been killed, as an alliance led by the Al Saud and the Emirates is fighting, as the war has left the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.