“a child dies every 10 minutes in Yemen”
Young British Yemeni Soldier, Ahmed Al-Babati, has been arrested outside Downing Street and is being investigated by the Royal Military Police for protesting against arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Al-Babati has been arrested for vocalising a genuine grievance that many people in this country express openly and without repercussion – the humanitarian crisis in Yemen as a result of a criminal proxy war led by the Saudi regime and supported by the UK government through arms sales. The Saudi regime, he points out, is “killing innocents, targeting hospitals and breaking international law” and are “responsible for blocking aid from going into the country… leaving 24 million people in need of emergency aid”
Al-Babati is clear that the UK government “has blood on its hands” and has announced that he refuses to continue his military service “until the arms trade with Saudi Arabia has been put to an end”. In Al-Babati eyes the British government is “corrupt” for arming and supporting “terrorism”. He adds that he’d “rather sleep peacefully in a cell than stay silent for a paycheck”
Al-Babati has also set up a new movement called ‘Stand up for Justice’ whose primary objective is to peacefully raise awareness of inequality and injustice and to give topics the attention they deserve (but are not currently getting) from the UK government and so are not being dealt with fairly.
