NGOs slam using children as human shields by rebels

SANA'A, Sept.07 (Saba) - Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) for childhood care in Yemen have expressed their conviction to using children as human shields by the rebels group in some areas of Yemen's
northern province of Saada.

In a statement issued by those organizations, they described those acts as
irresponsible and reckless, affirming their condemnation for the criminal acts
carried out by
al-Houthi rebels against children and involving them in fighting.
Meanwhile, the organizations denounced in its statement the genocide of ten
children and six women by al-Houthi rebels in Thuaib area in Saada province
recently.
They considered this operation as a dangerous sign and an act opposing Islam and
all international laws and pacts related to childhood protection.
The Yemeni organizations called on all national and international organizations and
the World Commission on the Rights of Child to work together to face up to this
criminal
group, requesting to penalize it for what it committed against children.
A local source in Saada province has announced that this group force families to
direct their children to carry weapons and send them to the battlefronts beside the
rebellion
fighters.
For its part, SEYAJ organization for childhood protection has decried using
children in fighting by the rebels as well as using villages inhabited by people
for sheltering,
saying that expose the civilians to the risk of death and dislodging them from their
homes and these styles are convicted and unacceptable.
The inhuman acts by the al-Houthi followers come as the army has recently expanded
an offensive against them and which was prompted by continued violence and
lawbreaking
by the rebels.
The relief organizations face difficulties while trying to get the displaced
because most of the people are not at camps. Many families moved to their relatives
in other
nearby areas.
Al- Houthi rebels have been launching intermittent wars against the troops since 2004.
Since the fighting erupted in 2004, thousands of people, soldiers and insurgents
have been killed in Saada province, which located close to border with Saudi
Arabia, after
the rebel group was founded by rebel leader Hussein al- Houthi.
Hussein, the eldest brother of the current group leader Abdul-Malik, was killed by
the army in September 2004.
The Yemeni government accuses the Houthi group of trying to reinstall the rule of
imams, which was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.
According to the UN mission there are more than 160.000 displaced people due to the
recent confrontations between the army and rebels.
BA