International Crisis Group: Sa’ada Report
Its such a relief after all these years, as were the HRW reports, to read this sentence, because its entirely true and its been true since 2005: The destruction of entire villages and infrastructure by army shelling, air bombardment and indiscriminate military and police violence exacerbated grievances…
Its doubtful the Yemeni regime will learn anything from all this careful research or change its behavior, as it is so fractured and self interested that its barely rational. For example, Saleh’s arms dealers are selling weapons to the rebels. The executive summary is here and notes the financial benefit of the war to some:
The conflict has become self-perpetuating, giving rise to a war economy as tribes, army officers and state officials have seized the opportunity to control the porous border with Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea coastline. Tribal leaders and senior officials have amassed military hardware and profit from illegal sales of army stockpiles. Continued operations have justified increased military budgets without government or independent oversight. As competition over resources intensified, the benefits of war exceeded its drawbacks – at least for the elites involved.
With only some exceptions, the international community has not recognised the Saada conflict’s destabilising potential or pressured the government to shift course. That is partly related to the West’s single-minded focus on Yemen’s struggle with al-Qaeda and the regime’s adroit portrayal of the Huthis as a subset of the so-called war on terror. It also is related to the regime’s denial of access to Saada to many if not most governments and humanitarian agencies.
Full report PDF, here.
