[The report said Saudi Arabia and its coalition allies — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan — had been responsible for 60 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen in 2015.]
By Rick Gladstone
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Houthi supporters during
a protest against Saudi-led airstrikes in Sanaa,
Yemen in July. The
Saudi-led coalition had been included in a U.N.
list in June of armies
that kill and maim children.
Credit Khaled
Abdullah/Reuters
|
Saudi Arabia’s fury over its inclusion in a
United Nations report on armies that kill and maim children resurfaced on
Tuesday in a Security Council meeting, two months after the Saudis pressed
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon into temporarily removing the designation.
At a council meeting on children and armed
conflict, Mr. Ban said a review of Saudi Arabia’s original inclusion in the
annual report was still incomplete. He also said that the Saudis had furnished
new information “to prevent and end grave violations against children.”
Mr. Ban did not specify the nature of the
information or its source. Also left unclear was whether Saudi Arabia’s removal
from the list would remain temporary.
The Saudi outrage at Mr. Ban exploded in June
when the report was first disclosed; it showed that a Saudi-led military
coalition fighting insurgents in Yemen had been included in the report’s annex
of armies that kill children.
Within days, Mr. Ban announced that he had been
coerced by the Saudis into temporarily removing the coalition from the annex,
which is regarded as an annual blacklist of shame.
Mr. Ban said at the time that Saudi Arabia,
among the most generous donors to United Nations relief causes, had threatened
to withhold financing if he refused. He described the decision as one of the
most difficult of his nearly decade-long tenure, which ends this year.
Saudi officials contested Mr. Ban’s version
of events, insisting that they had issued no threats. Still, the episode
offered a telling glimpse into the limits of a secretary general’s power at the
193-member United Nations and the influence of its wealthiest contributors.
Human rights groups have criticized Mr. Ban’s
decision, describing at as a capitulation that eroded the moral authority of
the United Nations.
Mr. Ban reiterated to the Security Council on
Tuesday that he stood by the information in the annual report, which chronicled
violations of children’s rights in war zones around the world.
The report said Saudi Arabia and its
coalition allies — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt,
Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan — had been responsible for 60 percent of
child deaths and injuries in Yemen in 2015.
“We will continue our engagement to ensure
that concrete measures to protect children are implemented,” Mr. Ban said. In
an apparent reference to the stigma of inclusion in the report’s annex, he also
said: “Today I renew my appeal to every member state and every party to
conflict: If you want to protect your image, protect children.”
The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations,
Abdullah al-Mouallimi, who was among those invited to address the Security
Council on Tuesday, said his country and its partners were “committed to
abiding by international law” in the Yemen conflict, and that their original
inclusion in the annex was done “without any valid reasons.”
He also said the allies had undertaken a
“periodic comprehensive review to avoid adverse effects on the civilian
population,” and that the Saudis had allocated more than $3 billion to help in
aiding and rebuilding Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East.
The United Nations report has created
diplomatic awkwardness for the United States, a Saudi ally and military
supplier, which has frequently called upon the Saudis to exercise restraint in
Yemen to avoid civilian casualties.
Speaking to the council on Tuesday, Samantha
Power, the American ambassador, emphasized what she called the need for all
member states to cooperate with the secretary general’s investigations of
atrocities against children in war.
Ms. Power described Mr. Ban’s report as a
“bleak, yet unsurprising, picture of the human rights violations committed
against children in conflicts, many of which are actually worsening.”
She added: “Even if we governments do not
ultimately agree with certain U.N. findings or conclusions, we must maintain
support for the United Nations, such a vital organization that is aiming, as
we’ve heard today, to help children everywhere.”