09/07/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/07/2022 14:11
Senators' call follows GAO report detailing DoD and State's failures to determine how U.S. military support to Saudi-led coalition has contributed to civilian harm in Yemen
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) sent letters to the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of State (State), calling on the Departments to thoroughly investigate how U.S. military support to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen may have led to civilian harm and analyze to the effectiveness of civilian harm reduction efforts by the Saudi and Emirati governments. The senators' letter follows a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report which found that DoD and State have failed to determine how military support provided by the U.S. has contributed to civilian harm in Yemen.
"The United States should not contribute in any way to the suffering of millions of innocent Yemenis caught in a devastating Saudi-led war,"said Senator Warren. "The U.S. government has a moral and legal obligation to ensure its actions are not exacerbating a dire humanitarian crisis, and there is strong bipartisan support for thorough investigations into possible U.S. complicity to civilian harm in Yemen."
For more than eight years, Yemen has suffered a devastating civil war killing more than 150,000 people and with alarming numbers of civilian casualties. The Saudi-led coalition has recklessly launched strikes killing nearly 15,000 innocent civilians and U.S.-origin weapons have been reportedly used in a number of these strikes, including a 2018 strike on a school bus that killed 40 children. Between 2015 through 2020, the U.S. provided more than $54.2 billion in defense articles and defense services to the Saudi and Emirati governments, in addition to nearly $650 million in military training.
The senators note that under the Arms Export Control Act, DoD and State are required to investigate potential end-use violations of arms, including harm to civilians. However, the GAO report found that DoD has "not fully determined the extent to which U.S. military support has contributed to civilian harm in Yemen," including DoD failing to fully measure the "extent to which its advising and training [of the Saudi and Emirati governments] have facilitated civilian harm reduction in Yemen"; and that State has "not fully determined the extent to which U.S. military support has contributed to civilian harm in Yemen," including State not investigating whether U.S. equipment was being used for "unauthorized purposes or against anything other than legitimate military targets," despite having indications that it was doing so.
"As the United States begins to reckon with the harm it has caused to civilians through its own military operations, it is imperative we do the same with the weapons we produce and send to countries abroad. A failure to reckon with the devastation the United States may be complicit to in Yemen would represent a failure in the Biden administration's stated prioritization of human rights and our core democratic values," wrote the senators.
Senators Warren, Sanders, and Lee are calling on DoD to review if its training and advising has led to a reduction in civilian harm, and if not, to halt the provision of support until it can assess the impact of future aid. They are calling State to review whether the Saudi and Emirati governments are taking necessary precautions to prevent civilian harm in Yemen, and if not, to halt all arms sales to either country until verification that they are taking steps to protect civilians. The senators are also calling on DoD and State to answer a set of questions about shortcomings identified by the GAO's report by October 7, 2022.
Senator Warren has led the call for accountability for U.S. military operations that harm innocent civilians and to end any U.S. complicity in the devastating Yemeni civil war:
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