Mareb al-Ward
What if the internationally recognized government asked the UN and international organizations operating in areas under its control to organize meetings with their staff for five days in Aden to discuss humanitarian work challenges and how to cooperate to move forward in a way that serves the needy and beneficiaries?
I can assume that the organizations would respond with surprise that the proposed time is excessive and that everything that concerns both parties can be discussed in three hours, and there would be no need for justification, and I expect the government to agree without reproach or comment.
What if I told you now that these organizations and their leaders were overjoyed when the Houthis asked them to do so and specified everything that would be discussed, to the extent that the attendance of employees is limited to listening to what undermines the independence of their work and diminishes their value, and even to repeating their official slogan known as “Al-sarkhah,” as if they were members of the group and not employees obligated to neutrality according to their regulations and international humanitarian law.
All this happened over five days at the Officers’ Club of the Armed Forces in the capital, Sana’a, and the “meetings” were closer to the “cultural courses” that the Houthis hold and take this minimum amount of time, and their contents do not differ much from what was discussed with the UN employees.
We will stop here temporarily to recount the details of the joy that gripped the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator, Julien Harneis, and directors of UN and international non-governmental organizations when the Houthis asked them to prepare for what they called “meetings,” which turned out to be “cultural courses” as we will show later.
In one of his meetings with the regional directors at the United Nations and international non-governmental organizations, Harneis, who was appointed to his position last February, appeared to be a Houthi in UN attire. This was clearly demonstrated when he informed the attendees that the Houthis had “won the war” and that the role of the United Nations was limited to supporting them, and these details were mentioned by more than fifty local civil society organizations and institutions in a joint statement a few days ago.
The man’s statements have stripped him of the respect and mandate granted to him, allowing him to deviate from his mission, which gives the government the right to consider him a persona non grata and request his replacement. But will they do so when they tried to do so years ago and quickly retreated, despite having more leverage than they do today?
The story is not over yet. At the beginning of this month, the World Food Programme Director, Pierre Hononore, described their upcoming meetings with the Houthis as an opportunity to rebuild trust with them and prove that the program is a reliable and credible partner, which it is for them as well.
It seems to be a fierce competition among these officials to win the Houthis’ favor. This is what we will notice in the security director of the food program’s statement that these meetings are an opportunity to “show respect” to the Houthis. What is left now? Employees were notified to leave their phones at home or silence them, and were prohibited from recording the meeting or taking pictures, as stated in the aforementioned organizations’ statement.
Now you must be eager to know the details of the “cultural course,” and you are right to be so. It differs somewhat in terms of place and type of food from those held for others in unknown locations.
The fair-skinned Harneis is leading the participants, along with the directors and deputies of the health and food organizations, and approximately 3,287 employees according to Houthi media, participated and listened to a religious sermon delivered by the Houthi leader Ibrahim al-Hamli, Secretary-General of the “Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation”.
This council is an intelligence apparatus that has been established within parallel institutions structure. Its job is to determine the lists of beneficiaries, provide permits for any movements of relief organization staff, and determine which local institutions are qualified to work in the distribution of aid as contractors or local implementation partners or third-party supervisors of humanitarian projects.
While al-Hamli was making derogatory jokes about female employees, their male colleagues laughed, and then the World Health Organization and World Food Programme employees performed the “Al-sarkhah” in front of their managers. In contrast, their colleagues at UNICEF and the United Nations Development Programme refused to do so.
According to the journalist Sadeq al-Wasabi, a former UN employee, al-Hamli demanded that organizations treat Yemen like Afghanistan with regard to covering the travel costs of the Mahram for female employees, and insisted on the need to empower men first and affirmed that female employees wishing to travel should get married.
Meanwhile, al-Hamli was keen to convey his group’s message to the organizations, which is to replace foreign employees with Yemeni employees and grant them the same privileges.
This proposal may seem acceptable to those who view it from the perspective of the interests of Yemenis, but it is not, because the localization that the Houthis seek and Harneis strongly supports does not give Yemeni people with competence, qualifications, and experience an opportunity as much as it opens the door to those affiliated with them, loyal to them, and who meet their criteria.
The evidence of this is a circular issued by al-Hamli himself to representatives of international organizations, requesting them to quickly send their organizational structures, specifying the job title and the name of the employee occupying the position, and committing to obtaining prior approval from the council, which he heads, before completing the recruitment procedures for any local or foreign cadre.
According to the same circular, representatives of the organizations agreed to this in a prior agreement, which means they have abandoned the principles of neutrality, independence, and their terms of references without any resistance.
As soon as the localization process begins, the Houthis will have almost complete control over the organizations, as they will replace foreign staff with their members and loyalists, joining their supporters already present there.
What does this mean? First, it means implementing the Houthis’ ideological vision for the organizations, which includes preventing the use of disease vaccines, considering them a Jewish conspiracy without a scientific basis. This happened when they rejected the WHO’s request for COVID-19 vaccination, claiming at the time that maintaining immunity and health lies in adhering to their leader’s instructions.
Currently, they are rejecting the polio vaccination campaign, regardless of the severity of the disease that is spreading in the areas under their control. They also refuse to acknowledge the outbreak of cholera and allow campaigns to combat it, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch.
Secondly, the Houthis continue to consolidate their near-complete control over the resources, operations, and programs of organizations in a way that serves their political agenda to dominate society and indoctrinate children, bringing in millions of dollars. It is sufficient to note that the total financial funding for organizations over the years of war has reached 20 billion dollars, according to some estimates.
A report by the Counter Extremism Project has shown the gains that the Houthis make from aid directed to Yemen, with a rough and conservative estimate that the budget of this aid is about 2 billion dollars annually, and assuming that about 1.5 billion dollars of aid is directed towards the areas they control, and this aid arrives in the form of unconditional transfers of resources.
And one might ask, what do the organizations gain in this situation? The answer is that those who run them are concerned with staying in their positions and maintaining their personal privileges and running operations within the available space to ensure the continuation of funding. For this reason, the United Nations overlooks the Houthis’ violations and evades setting specific lines that obligate them not to cross.
Finally, it should be borne in mind that organizations can, at any time they feel a decline in funding, resort to exaggerating talk of the imminent threat of famine and the proliferation of epidemics, not out of love for the population, but out of a love for milking support.
Harneis should simply abandon his tie in line with his commitment to the Houthi identity and participate in their weekly gathering in al-Sab’een and chew Qat with one of his Houthi friends.
