THE Peace Pledge Union (PPU) announced today that this year’s white-poppy campaign for Remembrance Day will be dedicated to the people of Yemen.

The PPU’s white poppies represent remembrance for victims of conflict, a commitment to peace and a challenge to the glamorisation of war.

The PPU said that Remembrance Day, marked on November 11, risks becoming a “festival of forgetting” if the war against Yemen and other conflicts are ignored by the commemorations.

The war on Yemen — in which Saudi Arabia is using warplanes, bombs, rockets and other weapons supplied by British arms manufacturers — has so far killed 20,000 civilians and left 10 million people on the brink of starvation.

The PPU wants this year’s commemorations to use the slogan “Remember Yemen” alongside the customary “Remember Them All.”

PPU’s remembrance project manager Geoff Tibbs said: “White poppies stand for remembrance of all victims of war — including those it suits the UK government to forget.

“Many white-poppy wearers this year will remember Yemen, where British-trained pilots are dropping bombs from British-made planes.

“White poppies challenge militarism as well as the hypocrisy of those who talk of remembering the past while ignoring the present.”

Adhiyan Jeevathol of London Students for Yemen said that the conflict must be remembered “because we are in part responsible for the misery in Yemen if we do not take a stand against the policies of the UK government and arms companies. 

“Through remembrance we can endeavour not to be responsible for another Yemen.”