Mwatana for Human Rights holds President Abdrabu Mansoor Hadi, Prime Minister Mohamed Salim Basindwah, and Minister of Defense Mohamed Nasir Ahmed responsible for the deadly attack by military soldiers on Tuesday, September 9, 2014, against a mostly peaceful protest. The attack led to the killing of six protesters and one paramedic from the Ministry of Health, injured at least seventy protesters with live bullets, and involved the assault of medical teams and a governmental hospital. The Head of Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, Abdelrasheed Alfaqih, affirmed, “The attack on peaceful protesters is a crime that should not pass without independent and prompt investigation to hold responsible those who gave the orders and executed them.”
Mwatana visited the site of the attack, collected testimonies, and examined video recordings and photos from different sources. The organization also visited the hospitals, listened to doctors and paramedics over two days, and arrived at an accurate account of the attack. Mwatana stated that soldiers from the army stationed around the buildings of the Cabinet and Radio of Sanaa, and on top of the buildings’ roofs, fired live ammunition randomly among thousands of unarmed protesters and into the air illegally, without being forced to do so. This was a flagrant violation of the right to life, international human rights law, and the basic principles of the UN pertaining to the use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials.
Eyewitnesses and injured protesters told the organization that the protest arrived at Radio Street, which connects Al-Adle Street and Cabinet Street, between 10:30 AM and 11:00 AM. The protest was stopped by a barrier of army soldiers, and the protesters began chanting slogans. A few minutes later, verbal altercations started between the protesters at the front and the soldiers. The soldiers backed up a few meters, then opened fire heavily and randomly in the air and towards the protesters. The protesters responded by throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. There were soldiers, some veiled, on the roofs of the governmental buildings and a private house, who were firing directly at the protesters. Afterward, the protesters established three large tents, and the number of soldiers increased with later enforcements from the riot police, who intervened with water cannons and tear gas grenades.
Eyewitnesses said that live ammunition continued to be fired for over half an hour and then intermittently. Military armor participated in the shootings using Kord-12.7 mm heavy machine guns. Furthermore, eyewitnesses from Radio Street told the organization that the soldiers chased the protesters through alleys and neighborhoods, firing directly during the chase. This led to a number of houses and water tanks being hit, and residents of the neighborhoods near the site of the attack were terrorized. The soldiers also assaulted protesters with the stocks of their rifles, injuring some of them.
The army forces were able to disperse the protest after about three hours, resulting in seven protesters being killed, more than seventy injured by live bullets, and dozens suffering from suffocation injuries. A paramedic told the organization that soldiers tried to prevent him from moving injured people to the hospital by raising their weapons at him. A number of paramedics were also harassed by soldiers because they were moving the wounded protesters to hospitals. Another paramedic, Mohammed Saeed Alnamir, 30 years old, was killed by a bullet to the head. His family told the organization that he was killed on his first day of work with the Ministry of Health while moving the wounded protesters to the hospital.
According to doctors’ statements, one of the soldiers broke into Kuwait Hospital at 2:30 PM after moving dead and wounded protesters there, to chase down one of the protesters who had run to the hospital seeking refuge. The hospital security detained the soldier, but soon, tens of soldiers stormed the hospital, breaking the main gate with an army armored vehicle after firing heavily. They withdrew minutes later after occupying the hospital and freeing the detained soldier.
The organization counted, according to medical sources, six killed protesters – Abdullah Hissain Alshayaghi (40 years old), Abdullah Ahmed Jaadan (22 years old), Ismael Albukhaity (30 years old), Muhsin Ahmed Shatir (30 years old), Waseem Alkhateeb (35 years old), and another person whose identity was not confirmed at the time of issuing this statement – in addition to the aforementioned paramedic, Mohammed Saeed Alnamir (30 years old). A doctor in Almo’ed Hospital told the organization that one of the killed protesters was hit with a bullet in the forehead, causing a 3-centimeter-wide hole, while the rest of the killed protesters who arrived at the hospital were shot in the face, head, and abdominal areas. At Al-Kuwait Hospital, the doctor stated that the three killed protesters who arrived at the hospital were shot in the heart, head, and back. Doctors in Almo’ed, Al-Kuwait, and Al-Thawrah Hospitals, whom the organization met with, said that the bullet wounds of the injured protesters were in the head, chest, abdomen, and limbs, and that there were very severe injuries.
The Mwatana Organization for Human Rights affirms that the Yemeni authorities must stop targeting protests with deadly force and issue public, clear instructions forbidding the use of live ammunition when dealing with protesters. They should also launch a prompt and neutral investigation and hold accountable those who ordered and carried out the firing.
The protest was part of the third escalation step announced by the "Ansar Allah Group" (Houthis), who were sponsoring the protests against the government. Two of the protesters were killed and five were wounded in an earlier attack by the security forces on a sit-in camp in Al-Jeraf area on Sunday, September 7, 2014. Ansar Allah called for an open sit-in in the Al-Jeraf Area, one of the streets leading to the airport, near three ministries – Communications, Electricity, and Interior – starting from Friday, August 22, 2014, until their three demands – to overthrow the government, cancel the lifting of oil subsidies, and implement the national dialogue outcomes – were met. The group escalated their protests in several stages in conjunction with the presence of armed groups affiliated with them around the capital Sanaa.
The basic principles of the UN pertaining to the use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials state that “law enforcement officials shall not use firearms against persons except in self-defense or defense of others against the imminent threat of death or serious injury, to prevent the perpetration of a particularly serious crime involving a grave threat to life, to arrest a person presenting such a danger and resisting their authority, or to prevent his or her escape, and only when less extreme means are insufficient to achieve these objectives. It is generally not permissible to use deadly firearms intentionally unless absolutely unavoidable to preserve life (Principle 9).”
Where injury or death is caused by the use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials, they shall report the incident promptly to their superiors. Governments shall ensure that the arbitrary or abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offense under their law (Principles 6 and 7). Persons affected by the use of force and firearms or their legal representatives shall have access to an independent process, including a judicial process. In the event of the death of such persons, this provision shall apply to their dependents accordingly (Principle 23). Not only those who used force shall be held responsible, but also the superior officers shall be held responsible if they know, or should have known, that law enforcement officials under their command are resorting, or have resorted, to the unlawful use of force and firearms, and they did not take all measures in their power to prevent, suppress, or report such use (Principle 23). According to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, it is not permissible to fire randomly at gatherings, and the use of firearms is only permissible to target an individual posing an imminent threat of death or serious injury. The use of firearms cannot be justified simply because a given gathering is deemed illegal or should be dispersed, and it is not permissible under the justification of protecting property.
