The commandments of the dead imams.. Houthi bulldozing of the endowments lands in Sana'a

English - Sunday 16 April 2023 الساعة 09:56 pm
Sana'a, NewsYemen, exclusive:

The Houthi militia - Iran's arm in  Yemen, is practicing a wide plan to level the endowment lands in Sana'a and the rest of its areas of control, through organized looting led by Houthi leaders, under the justification of "recovering the ancient right."

Recently, Houthi leaders, through the Ministry of Awqaf under their control in Sana'a, began confiscating an entire residential neighborhood west of Sana'a, and planning to remove more than 500 old shops from the old city of Sana'a.  Not to mention the expansion and seizure of large areas and real estate belonging to the Ministry of Awqaf in Sana'a, which are under its control, and others belonging to citizens that were taken by force of arms under flimsy justifications and manuscripts dating back about 7 centuries.

 organized looting

 The looting operations led by prominent Houthi leaders are organized and deliberate, and this matter emerged in the process of confiscating the Asr neighborhood, one of the western neighborhoods in Sana'a, which has been inhabited by hundreds of families for decades.  Planning began to seize this neighborhood, including buildings, agricultural lands, and heights, about a year ago, by claiming that they had a document of one of the imams 700 years ago, stating that the neighborhood stood for the Houthi dynasty only.

The head of the so-called “Awqaf Authority,” Abdul Majeed al-Houthi, and the Houthi supervisor of the city of Sana’a, Khaled al-Madani, are leading the process of confiscating the lands of the Asr neighborhood, after imposing a 20 percent levy, as the main residents were pressured to acknowledge that their homes, lands, and shops are not theirs.  In addition to imposing monthly contracts that force them to pay monthly rents for the Houthis.

During the past years, the names of Houthi leaders have emerged in Sana'a, supervising the confiscation of endowment lands and real estate, in the largest bulldozing operation the city has witnessed in many decades.  During the last three years, these leaders managed to extend and seize large areas of endowment property worth more than millions of riyals, as those leaders transfer the ownership of what they loot to the names of the Houthi senior leaders.

The Ambassador of Yemen to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Muhammad Jumaih, confirmed that the Houthi militia has established wings, apparatus, institutions and positions for the purpose of confiscating lands and looting public and private institutions, and the most prominent of these institutions is the so-called "military committee" and the "justice system" not to mention "  Endowments Authority” and the so-called “judicial guard”.

He added that these institutions and their leaders give legal justifications for looting citizens' lands, robbing commercial markets and civil institutions, and confiscating the money and property of thousands of citizens.  These institutions and apparatuses belong to different power centers within the Houthi group and act as private investment institutions for their leaders.

international monitoring

And the latest reports of the United Nations Committee of Experts mentioned that the Houthis confiscated citizens’ lands in more than one area, and the report confirmed their confiscation of an area estimated at about 13 million square meters of the population’s lands in only one district of Al-Hodeidah Governorate, which is the Bayt Al-Faqih district, not to mention other lands in the governorate estimated  Its value is $190 million, and these lands belong to citizens and tribes whose ownership has been proven and inherited for centuries.

The report of the International Sanctions Expert Group also documented the Houthis' confiscation of the lands of the Bani Matar area, west of Sana'a, specifically in Wadi Al-Jaadab, Beit Naama, Wadi Al-Masjid and Bani Hatem.  He accused the militias of pursuing a wide, violent strategy to control real estate, with areas of thousands of kilometers in several governorates, as part of the militia's efforts to enhance its financial resources.

Archaeological sites a new target

 The archaeological and historical sites in Sana'a were not spared from the Houthi bulldozing process, as the militias began planning to remove more than 500 shops in 4 craft markets in the heart of the old city of Sana'a, which is on the list of World Heritage Sites, with the aim of establishing Shiite shrines similar to those in Iran and Iraq.  The Houthi move prompted the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) to break its silence and send warnings to the Houthi militia against harming these markets or making developments within the historic city.

UNESCO Director Audrey Azoulay said that the international organization opposes any step that could harm the traditional character of Sana'a and threaten its inclusion on the World Heritage List.  The Houthi plan calls for the demolition of a number of markets in the old city, namely: "Al-Halaqa, Al-Mahdada, Al-Manqala, Al-Arj and Al-Assoub", which are historical and cultural landmarks included in the world heritage.

The Ambassador of Yemen to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Muhammad Jumaih, stated that various institutions affiliated with the Houthi militia in Sana'a revealed a project to establish modern religious facilities in the heart of the old city of Sana'a, which is classified on the UNESCO World Heritage List, as the Houthis published designs for the new plan, which  They intend to implement it in the heart of the historic city, ignoring the fact that these new constructions will harm Sana'a's status on the World Heritage List, in which no change should be made according to UNESCO regulations.

He explained that the Houthi developments will be a substitute for the traditional markets that contain hundreds of small shops in the heart of the historic city.  Where the Houthis justified this by saying that these markets are the "endowment of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib," claiming that the imam arrived in Sana'a and people gathered around him to listen to him, and therefore all those areas that constitute a large part of old Sana'a have become an endowment for the imam.