PROFITING FROM MISERY SOUTH AFRICA’S COMPLICITY IN WAR CRIMES IN YEMEN An Open Secrets Investigation Published by Open Secrets in March 2021 Second Floor Community House 41 Salt River Road Salt River, Cape Town 7925 +27 21 447 2701 www.opensecrets.org.za PROFITING [email protected] @OpenSecretsZA @OpenSecrets.org.za @opensecrets_za YouTube: Open Secrets FROM MISERY LinkedIn: OpenSecretsZA SOUTH AFRICA’S COMPLICITY To communicate with us securely visit our website for more details: www.opensecrets.org.za/#contact IN WAR CRIMES IN YEMEN NPC number: 2017/078276/08 An Open Secrets Investigation Research by: Michael Marchant, Zen Mathe, Caryn Dolley, Hennie van Vuuren and Naushina Rahim Copy editor: Helen Douglas Designer: Gaelen Pinnock | www.polygram.co.za Copyright of Text: Open Secrets Copyright of Images: Copyright of Images: Respective Rights Holders, Getty Images, Mwatana. The publication of this report has been made possible by Open Secrets’ funders. They are the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Southern Africa oce), Joe Charitable Trust, Luminate, Open Society Foundation Human Rights Initiative, Open Society Foundation for South Africa and individual donors. Published by Open Secrets in March 2021 Second Floor Community House 41 Salt River Road Salt River, Cape Town 7925 +27 21 447 2701 www.opensecrets.org.za PROFITING [email protected] @OpenSecretsZA @OpenSecrets.org.za @opensecrets_za YouTube: Open Secrets FROM MISERY LinkedIn: OpenSecretsZA SOUTH AFRICA’S COMPLICITY To communicate with us securely visit our website for more details: www.opensecrets.org.za/#contact IN WAR CRIMES IN YEMEN NPC number: 2017/078276/08 An Open Secrets Investigation Research by: Michael Marchant, Zen Mathe, Caryn Dolley, Hennie van Vuuren and Naushina Rahim Copy editor: Helen Douglas Designer: Gaelen Pinnock | www.polygram.co.za Copyright of Text: Open Secrets Copyright of Images: Copyright of Images: Respective Rights Holders, Getty Images, Mwatana. The publication of this report has been made possible by Open Secrets’ funders. They are the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Southern Africa oce), Joe Charitable Trust, Luminate, Open Society Foundation Human Rights Initiative, Open Society Foundation for South Africa and individual donors. ‘ Yemen’s warring parties have IRAN PAKISTAN depended on policies of impunity, QATAR and as long as those policies hold, Yemeni men and women will continue to be trapped and left alone to deal with UAE grave violations by reckless warring parties. Taking concrete steps towards accountability OMAN and redress is necessary to protect civilians and to break the repeated cycles of violence in Yemen … ENLARGED AREA SAUDI ARABIA Sa'dah Sana'a YEMEN Hodeidah Dhamar Ta'izz Aden DJIBOUTI SOMALIA 02 IRAN PAKISTAN QATAR UAE OMAN ENLARGED AREA SAUDI ARABIA ... Even as the war continued, Yemen Sa'dah did not need to become the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. This happened because of Sana'a YEMEN the lack of accountability, and because of every Hodeidah war crime the parties to the conflict committed Dhamar without consequence. The international Ta'izz community must meet its responsibility to end the Aden policy of impunity and to ensure war criminals are DJIBOUTI held to account and victims receive redress.’ 1 A1 C2 B3 ~ Radhya Almutawakel, Chairperson of Mwatana for Human Rights SOMALIA PROFITING FROM MISERY – 03 END-USER KEY TERMS CERTIFICATE: A critical tool to ensure that munitions don’t end up in the wrong hands, an end-user certificate (EUC) is a documented contract between a country selling arms and the pur- ARMS TRADE chaser of the arms. It effectively means that a purchasing country needs to agree that the TREATY: munitions bought will not be transferred any An international treaty that regulates the further without the selling country’s permis- international trade of arms/conventional sion. weapons. EXPORT COALITION: PERMITS: Also known as the Arab coalition or Sau- di-led coalition, a group of several Arab Any company that wants to export ‘controlled countries involved in operations purportedly items’ from South Africa is required by law to against the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war. It is apply to the NCACC for an export permit. led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. GENEVA CONTROLLED CONVENTIONS: ITEMS: Rules established in the aftermath of the Sec- The National Conventional Arms Control ond World War that form the backbone of Act governs the export of what it calls ‘con- international humanitarian law regulating trolled items’. This is the catch-all term for armed conduct and deal with, among others, weapons and related products. The definition the protection of civilians during wartime. is broad and includes ‘weapons, munitions, explosives, bombs, armaments, vessels, ve- hicles and aircraft designed or manufactured GULF for use in war, and any other articles of war’. It also includes ‘any component, equipment, COOPERATION system, processes and technology of what- ever nature capable of being used in the de- COUNCIL: sign, development, manufacture, upgrading, refurbishment or maintenance’ of anything A political-economic alliance between the contemplated in the list above. Finally, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and definition includes dual-use goods that are Saudi Arabia. not exclusively for military use but can be used for a military purpose. Controlled items cannot be exported from South Africa with- HOUTHIS: out an export permit issued by the NCACC. The colloquial name for Ansar Allah, a fac- tion fighting in the Yemeni civil war. The Houthi movement is a Zaidi group based in northern Yemen bordering on Saudi Arabia. Zaidi people are a sect of Shia Islam and con- stitute roughly 30 to 35 percent of the Yemeni population. 04 – OPEN SECRETS NATIONAL CONVENTIONAL KEY FACTS ARMS CONTROL ACT: ! Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been among the biggest importers (NCACA) The South African legislation of South African munitions since setting out the parameters governing South 2014. Africa’s arms trade. ! South Africa’s approved exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE between NATIONAL 2010 and 2019 amount to over R11 billion and constitute more than CONVENTIONAL 20 percent of all approved exports ARMS CONTROL in this period. ! South Africa’s total approved COMMITTEE: exports to Saudi Arabi and the UAE (NCACC) A committee consisting of cab- since the outbreak of the civil war inet ministers and deputy ministers that in Yemen in 2015 amount to over is meant to be South Africa’s arms trade R7 billion. watchdog, upholding human rights and enforcing the National Conventional Arms ! In 2015 and 2016, approvals of Control Act. exports to Saudi Arabia and the UAE spiked and made up over 40 percent of all approved weapons SOUTHERN exports from South Africa. TRANSITIONAL Between 2015 and 2018, the United States COUNCIL: topped the list of arms exports to both Sau- di Arabia and the UAE – delivering around A secessionist group that has sought an in- $10 billion and $3 billion worth of weapons dependent state in Southern Yemen since to these two states respectively.2 For ex- 2007. ports to Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom was second on the list and delivered $2 bil- lion in weapons. In the case of the United ABBREVIATIONS States, these weapons deliveries constitute only around 10 percent of the weapons offers made to Saudi Arabia and the UAE in this AQAP Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula time period. In the case of the United King- DIRCO Dept. of International Relations & Cooperation dom, these figures do not include billions EUC end-user certificate more revenue made by British companies FRG Federal Republic of Germany by, amongst other things, servicing the fight- MBS Mohammed Bin Salman er jets they sell to Saudi Arabia. However, NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization while South Africa’s exports are dwarfed in NCACA National Conventional Arms Control Act monetary value by these two military giants, NCACC National Conventional Arms Control Committee it does not diminish the complicity of South RDM Rheinmetall Denel Munition African firms that export weapons that are SAMI Saudi Arabian Military Industries used against civilians and in the commission UAE United Arab Emirates of war crimes. UAV unmanned aerial vehicle UN United Nations PROFITING FROM MISERY – 05 MONEY FOR GUNS NUMBERS AT A GLANCE: SOUTH AFRICA'S EXPORTS TO THE PARTIES IN THE YEMEN WAR Proportion of Saudi United Arab All other weapons exports going to the UAE Arabia Emirates countries and Saudi Arabia 2010 R68 million R577 million R7,6 billion 7.8% 16 MILLION 2011 R228 million R279 million R8,6 billion 5.6% 2012 R279 million R1.4 billion R8.9 billion 15.7% PEOPLE IN YEMEN 2013 R6 million R99 million R3 billion 3.4% DO NOT HAVE ACCESS 2014 R333 million R806 million R1.8 billion 38.2% THE UN BELIEVES SAUDI 2015 R579 million R574 million R1.5 billion 42.1% ARABIA IS USING THIS AS A TACTIC IN THE CONFLICT 2016 R411 million R1.6 billion R2.1 billion 48.9% TO ENOUGH FOOD IN 2021 out in Yemen broke Civil war 2017 R331 million R987 million R2.1 billion 38.3% 2018 R383 million R1.2 billion R3.1 billion 33.9% 2019 R575 million R330 million R3.1 billion 22.3% 18 MILLION TOTAL R3.2 billion R7.8 billion R42 billion 20.8% YEMENIS WITH NO ACCESS TO DRINKING WATER IN 2019 & MORE THAN A MILLION WERE IMPACTED BY A CHOLERA OUTBREAK THE VALUE OF MUNITIONS APPROVED BY THE NCACC FOR EXPORT FROM SOUTH R1.2 BILLION AFRICA TO THE TWO MAIN STATES CIVILIANS KILLED OR INJURED IN VEHICLES, BOMBS & SHELLS SOLD TO THE UAE IN 2018 INVOLVED IN THE WAR IN YEMEN . BY SAUDI AIR RAIDS IN 2020 THE PROPORTION OF WEAPONS 54 OF THOSE KILLED WERE CHILDREN EXPORTS FROM SOUTH AFRICA 212 BETWEEN 2010 AND 2019 THAT WENT + R11 BILLION TO THE UAE AND SAUDI ARABIA.