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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com ^ Wednesday, December 19, 2018 5A
Truce brings hope for Yemen,
but peace could prove elusive
NARIMAN EL-MOFTYI Associated Press
A girl pulls water from a well in the home of Ahmed al-Kawkabani, leader of the
southern resistance unit in Hodeida, Yemen, Feb. 12, in al-Khoukha.
BY AHMED AL-HAJ AND SAMY MAGDY
Associated Press
SANAA, Yemen — A cease-fire on
Tuesday halted months of heavy fight
ing in the city of Hodeida, raising hopes
that the latest U.N.-led peace efforts
can end the civil war and alleviate the
world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
But the truce remains fragile, and
it’s unclear if the Saudi-backed govern
ment and the Iran-aligned Houthi reb
els can reach a wider peace agreement
despite mounting international pres
sure to end the war.
Yemeni officials said the fighting
in Hodeida subsided early Tuesday
as the cease-fire took effect, with only
sporadic fire from automatic weapons
heard across the city.
Some 70 percent of Yemen’s food
imports and humanitarian aid enter
through Hodeida, which remained
open even as the Saudi-led coalition
waged a months-long campaign that
failed to dislodge the rebels. Aid groups
feared the port’s closure could plunge
Yemen into famine.
The truce agreement, reached last
week at U.N.-brokered talks in Sweden,
calls on both sides to withdraw from
the city and its outskirts. A joint com
mittee led by U.N. officers will oversee
the cease-fire and the redeployment of
forces. Local authorities and police will
run the city and its three port facilities
under U.N. supervision.
U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has said
the committee will get to work swiftly
“to translate the momentum built up
in Sweden into achievements on the
ground.”
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric
said Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, who
has been appointed to head the coordi
nation committee overseeing the cease
fire, will depart New York with a team
later this week headed for Yemen.
He said the Dutch general will con
vene a first meeting of the committee,
which includes military and security
representatives from the government
and the rebels, by video conference on
Wednesday.
Yemen’s four-year conflict pits the
internationally recognized govern
ment, backed by a coalition led by
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates, against Shiite rebels known
as Houthis. Iran supports the rebels, but
denies allegations from the coalition,
Western countries and U.N. experts
that it is arming them.
The fighting has killed tens of thou
sands of people, and has driven mil
lions to the brink of starvation. The
U.N. calls it the world’s worst humani
tarian disaster.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy
Hunt welcomed the cease-fire, urg
ing all warring parties “to stick to the
terms agreed at peace talks last week
in Stockholm so we can achieve a
long-term political solution to this hor
rific crisis and end the suffering of so
many.”
The cease-fire is the first step in a
process the U.N. hopes will lead to a
province-wide truce in Hodeida and
the demilitarization of the Red Sea
trade corridor, said Peter Salisbury,
a senior analyst at the Brussels-based
International Crisis Group.
“But it’s important to note that the
deal itself is quite specific in saying
that this is not part of a wider peace
process: It’s an agreement made for
humanitarian rather than political rea
sons,” he said.
The United States, which supports
the Saudi-led coalition, has stepped up
pressure to end the fighting amid the
fallout from the killing of Saudi dis
sident journalist and Washington Post
columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi
agents, which brought renewed inter
national attention to Yemen’s stale
mated war.
That provided a boost to Griffiths’
efforts to bring the two sides together
in Sweden. In addition to agreeing on
a cease-fire for Hodeida, they also
exchanged lists of prisoners ahead of a
planned swap to be carried out with the
Red Cross.
But a wider agreement could prove
elusive.
The Houthis, who have seized and
held much of northern Yemen, includ
ing the capital, Sanaa, at great cost,
have consistently rejected the govern
ment’s demands that they withdraw
and give up their heavy weapons.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates, meanwhile, view the rebels
as an increasingly dangerous Iranian
proxy. The rebels have fired ballistic
missiles deep into Saudi Arabia and
have attacked vessels in the Red Sea.
The conflict has caused a humanitar
ian catastrophe. Emaciated children
are being brought to overwhelmed
clinics, and in some areas families are
surviving off leaves boiled into a sour
green paste. The fighting and displace
ment have also generated a cholera
epidemic.
U.N. Secretary-General Anto
nio Guterres warned Sunday that if
Yemen’s humanitarian situation does
not improve, 14 million people will be
in need of food aid in 2019, 6 million
more than this year.
“There is a high level of hunger in
Yemen,” he said, adding that even
though the situation has not technically
been declared a famine “does not in
any way diminish our huge concern
with the very high level of hunger that
exists.”
Last week, an international group
tracking Yemen’s civil war reported
that the conflict has killed more than
60,000 people, both combatants and
civilians, since 2016. That is much
higher than the U.N. figure of 10,000
civilian deaths, and has added to the
urgency to find a political resolution.
Accountability on
agenda at pope’s
sex abuse summit
BY NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY -
The Vatican on Tuesday
released the first details
of Pope Francis’ upcoming
high-stakes sex abuse pre
vention summit, making
clear that bishops attend
ing the gathering must
reach out to victims before
they get to Rome
and accountability
is very much on
the agenda.
Organizers of
the Feb. 21-24
summit warned
participants in
a letter that fail
ure to address
the scandal now
threatens the very credibil
ity of the Catholic Church
around the world.
As a first step, they
urged the estimated 130
presidents of national bish
ops’ conferences attending
the summit to meet with
survivors in their home
countries “to learn first
hand the suffering that
they have endured.”
Francis invited the
church leaders to the
meeting to develop a com
prehensive response to
what has become the grav
est threat to his papacy,
as the abuse and cover-up
scandal erupted anew this
year.
Survivors have been
dubious about what the
meeting can accomplish,
given the limited time, the
varied experiences and
needs of national churches
and the fact that the prob
lem has already been
known for years.
“They’re just now get
ting around to
this? Good Lord,
where’ve you
been?” marveled
Barbara Dorris, a
survivor of abuse
who has been a
longtime outspo
ken advocate for
victims.
Noting that the
U.S. scandal first emerged
in 2001, she said: “It’s been
17 years. If you haven’t
met with survivors in 17
years, I think that says a lot
right there.”
In revealing the first
details of the meeting,
the Vatican said it would
focus on three main areas:
responsibility, accountabil
ity and transparency. The
reference to accountability
suggests that church lead
ers will confront not only
the crimes of priests who
rape and molest minors,
but the cover-up by their
superiors as well.
Francis
‘TfCavtcCy
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