[News] Drone attacks bring Yemeni government to brink of no confidence vote

[Anti-Imperialist News]

*Drone attacks bring Yemeni government to brink of no confidence vote*

Yemeni parliamentarians are today challenging the legitimacy of 
President Hadi's government, following the administration's failure to 
stop repeated US drone attacks.

MPs are planning a vote of no confidence if President Hadi's ministers 
do not attend parliament to answer questions on the drone program; some 
are calling for an immediate dissolution of the government.

The parliament's attack on the Hadi administration follows a 
particularly deadly drone strike on Al Bayda on April 19, in which 
Reprieve has discovered that four builders were killed on their way to 
work, leaving 20 children without fathers. The Yemeni government has 
admitted that their killing was a mistake.

The strike violated last December's parliamentary resolution banning the 
use of drones on Yemeni territory. Yemeni lawmakers are furious that the 
administration has repeatedly failed to enforce the ban, and 
that President Hadi's Minister of Defence, Minister of the 
Interior and Minister of Oil have refused to attend several 
parliamentary meetings on the subject.

*Shawki al-Qadhi, an MP in the Yemeni parliament and a member of the 
parliament's Committee on Freedoms and Human Rights said: "*How can we 
talk about the rule of law when another country kills our citizens 
without charge or trial? How can we talk about governance when 
Parliament's resolutions are ignored by the both the US and Yemeni 
administrations? We Yemenis are the people who suffer most from the 
unrest in our country, and as we have heard recently, the majority of 
people causing the unrest are foreigners who come from outside Yemen. We 
would obviously welcome external help in dealing with the problem, but 
only if Yemen has clear agreements and control over what takes place. As 
MPs we have a responsibility to protect our constituents and to uphold 
the values of our country. Drones undermine both. Our citizens are less 
safe with drones in the air-- not only are they vulnerable to mistaken 
targeting but we have seen time and time again that when civilians are 
killed, it immediately swells the ranks of the armed groups. We even 
lack a clear law about compensating the families of the victims, which 
is something we urgently need. Drones are undermining our nascent 
democratic institutions."

ENDS


Notes to editors

1. For further information, please contact katherine.oshea at reprieve.org 
<mailto:katherine.oshea at reprieve.org> / +1 917 855 8064 
<tel:%2B1%20917%20855%208064>.

2. Yemeni MP Shawki al-Qadhi, quoted above, is an MP in the Yemeni 
parliament, and a member of the parliament's Committee on Freedoms and 
Human Rights. To arrange an interview, please contact 
katherine.oshea at reprieve.org <mailto:katherine.oshea at reprieve.org>.

3. The ministers summoned by Yemeni parliamentarians were the Minister 
of Defence, Major General Mohammed Nasser Ahmed and the Minister of 
Interior, Major General Abdo Hussein Al-Tareb.

4. Reprieve US opened in New York City in February 2014. A partner 
organization to Reprieve UK, Reprieve US provides advocacy and 
litigation aimed at stopping abuses in the death penalty and in 
counter-terrorism. For information about the work of Reprieve US please 
visit reprieve.org 
<http://reprieve.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=d176b31fc0ccbde9f3f3a6349&id=2effc5e926&e=f8755a10f3> or 
contact Katherine O'Shea on katherine.oshea at reprieve.org 
<mailto:katherine.oshea at reprieve.org> or +1 917 855 8064 
<tel:%2B1%20917%20855%208064>.
-- 
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