On Sixth Anniversary, “Great Hall” Crime Difficult to Erase from Human History

The sixth anniversary of the coalition bombing passes the funeral hall of Al-Ruwaishan family in the Grand Hall, south of the capital, Sana’a, which included a gathering of hundreds of mourners, including senior civil and military leaders in the state and tribal sheikhs, in addition to children.

The horrific crime of the Great Hall in the capital, Sana’a, which the coalition committed by bombing warplanes on October 8, 2016, remains alive in the memory of Yemenis, witnessing the largest massacre of civilians in Yemen, which reflects the bloody and criminality of the coalition.

Two consecutive strikes, seven minutes apart, confirm that the coalition deliberately targeted the mourners in the hall and committing the crime, and then paramedics and the wounded under the rubble caused the deadliest massacre in Yemen.

The crime claimed the lives of 940 civilians, of whom 156 were killed, and 784 were wounded, including 13 bodies whose identity was not known as a result of charring while the bodies of a number of victims were not found as a result of the direct bombing, in addition, 20 children were injured by the bombing, most of them causing permanent disabilities.

America is evading its crime

This massacre committed by the coalition with a US weapon and decision, according to “Human Rights”, which confirmed that the US-made Paveway ll GBU-12 weapon, weighing 225 kilograms, guided by a laser type (MK82), is a full-fledged war crime in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The crime of targeting a funeral hall in the Grand Hall in the capital, Sana’a, had international and regional reactions that denounced the crime of the coalition, starting with the United States of America, which tried to shake off the dust of its crime from the American mantle, where US National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said that “US security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank check. “In light of this and other recent incidents, we have taken an immediate review of our already significantly curtailed support for the Saudi-led coalition,” Price added.

Alliance’s evasion

The coalition tried to evade the crime by denying its involvement, claiming that the crime was an internal conflict between Sana’a government officials.

Despite the coalition’s attempts to evade responsibility for the crime, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, said that initial reports indicate the responsibility of the Saudi-led coalition for the bombing; initially the coalition denied these accusations.

BBC revealed that Saudi Arabia admitted unannounced that one of the warplanes of the military coalition it is leading bombed a funeral in Sana’a, justifying the crime as a mistake in providing information by the staff of “Hadi Government” Ministry of Defense.

At that time, the so-called Joint Incidents Assessment Team of the Saudi coalition issued regarding the incident targeting the Great Hall in Sana’a on Saturday, October 15, a statement carried by “a party in the forces of “Hadi government” that provided false information about the presence of leaders in the armed forces of Sana’a inside the hall, and the Operations Direction Center in Yemen authorized the raid without the permission of the coalition leadership.

International reactions to the Great Hall massacre

As for the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, he commented on this crime by saying: “Initial reports regarding the attack on the funeral hall in Sana’a indicate the Arab coalition’s “responsibility” for it. At the time, he demanded the formation of an international investigation committee into the attack. Ki-moon added, in statements to reporters at the headquarters of the international organization in New York, after the crime, “Initial reports indicate that what happened in the funeral was an attack by the coalition forces. He considered it a “brutal attack on civilians and a shameful violation to international humanitarian law.” It was a social center known to all, crowded with people, families and children.

The UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, said: “Everything must be done to bring the perpetrators of these heinous attacks to justice. We are all touched by the fact that these attacks occurred at a time when important progress was being made following long negotiations, and at a time when we were negotiating on a permanent agreement.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran also sent a letter of protest for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, through Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, expressing Iran’s anger and strong condemnation to the horrific and tragic Saudi air raid that targeted a funeral in Sana’a.

The Italian government, represented by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Paolo Gentiloni, condemned the crime of the Great Hall, stressing at the time that the escalation of military attacks on civilians was “unacceptable.”