AN air strike, conducted by the Saudi-led alliance of Arab countries in their bid to ‘protect the integrity of Saudi Arabia’, killed 45 people at a camp for displaced persons in northwest Yemen as Arab warplanes continue to bombard rebels around the country.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, 45 displaced people were killed and 65 wounded at Al Mazrak camp in the Hajja province. What more, the Saudi-led air strikes are acting on ground intelligence provided by the US military.

Now the Yemen people get the same medicine that our tribal areas have been getting for so many years and the accompanying claims that there was no or hardly any what they call cynically ‘collateral damage’.

And while IOM is only protesting, it is Russia that has called up an emergency UN Security Council session to put on pause Saudi-led coalition air strikes for humanitarian purposes in an effort to quell the violence that is impacting civilians.

Moscow is calling for a diplomatic solution to the conflict emphasising that foreign military intervention would only lead to more civilian deaths, while Iran has already been highlighting that only a negotiated solution can help and spare Yemenis from further death and destruction.

While Pakistan is endlessly debating if and how to join the Saudi coalition, it would be much more prudent to join the forces that are calling for reason and ceasefire.

Pakistan has been suffering from such bombings and drone attacks that have killed and injured thousands of civilians and brought misery to Pakistani people. We should take an example for a change from our neighbour India that has been openly supporting a political solution to the Yemen crisis and supported a UN resolution to that end.

It is against Pakistan’s national interest to take the side of the Saudi-led war coalition that is bombing not only refugee camps but civilian installations like dairy producing units, thus destroying the basis for life in Yemen. Pakistan can’t support that.

Ali Ashraf Khan

Karachi

Published in Dawn, April 11th, 2015

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