Yemeni terror suspects ask Saudi officials for freedom or trial

Yemeni terror suspects ask Saudi officials for freedom or trial
By Nasser Arrabyee/29/04/2009

A group of Yemenis being detained in Saudi Arabia for terror suspicion demanded that they be released or put on trial, Yemeni rights group said Wednesday.

The Yemeni National for Defending Rights and Liberties (HOOD) said it had received a complaint signed by 82 Yemeni detainees in Saudi Arabia in which they demanded their release.

"We were arrested inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for terror suspicion, five years ago without charges or trials," said the detainees from Al Kaseem political prison in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The names of the 82 detainees and periods of their detentions were shown in the complaint which was sent to the local Yemeni media by the rights group, HOOD.

The detainees said in the complaint they had been subjected to torture, inhumane and degrading treatments.

They also said that their prison is miserable and not suitable for human beings.

The detainees also expressed their surprise why Yemen has handed over many Saudi detainees to Saudi Arabia, but they were not released or handed to Yemen.

Soldier killed and others injured in Yemen clashes

Soldier killed and others injured in Yemen clashes
By Nasser Arrabyee/28/04/2009

One security man was killed and 14 others injured including four citizens when a group of gunmen clashed with security forces in Al Dhale'e south of Yemen, official sources said Tuesday.

The official sources said that two Members of Parliament were leading the armed group that attacked a check point between Al Dhale'e and Lahj.

"An armed gang of saboteurs led by the socialist MPs, Nasser Al Khubaji and Salah Al Shanfari and Shalal Ali Shaye'e attacked a check point at Habeel Al Raidah between Al Dhale'e and Lahj and fired at the security men killing one and injuring 14 others including four citizens," the official said.

On Monday, southern protesters calling for separation set fire to several commercial shops belonging to northerners in the coastal city of Mukalla but no casualties were reported.

Southern groups calling for independence of the south held on Monday a rally in Zunjubar capital of Abyan to mark what they called the "day of declaring the war against the south on April 27th, 1994"

Tareq Al Fadhli, a prominent tribal sheikh in Abyan, joined these groups, called south movement, only last month after he was one of the President Saleh's advisors since 1994 when he fought against the socialists in the south. Al Fadhli participated in Jihad with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan before he came back to take revenge on the socialists expelled his father in 1970s as a capitalist.


On the Monday's rally which was organized and sponsored by Al Fadhli in his home town Zunjubar, Abyan, he called for leaving behind all the differences among southerners and cooperating to "Drive away the occupation and have our own southern independence."

He said that former leaders of the south who are now in exile agreed with him on reconciliation and having the independence of the south.

The official media said that the Yemeni government had requested the governments of Saudi Arabia and Oman to hand over those leaders who are politically supporting the south movements.

In a similar rally held in the southern port of Aden on the same day Monday April 27th, the day of democracy as it was called by officials, bringing together the people from the three provinces of Aden, Lahj and Abyan, the vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who is originally from Abyan, said," Those elements who lost their interests and became isolated should stay away from dangerous paths, and they should know that patience has limits. "

Further, on April 25th, 2009, the President Ali Abdullah Saleh warned from a civil war in his country.

"Yemen, All forbid, will not divide into two partitions, south and north, but into villages and small states, and people will be fighting with each other from door to door and from window to window," he said in a big rally bringing together all state's official military and security commanders.

"There are negative repercussions refused by every one in political forces, and these negative repercussions return us back to square number 1 before May 22, 1990, and the regretful war of 1994."He said referring to the south movement activities.

He refused the talk about referendum on the continuation of unity saying, "Any referendum should have been conducted before unity not now after 19 years since it was proclaimed."

He attacked the southern leaders in exile accusing them of trying to enter Yemen into new wars and of being agents to the British colony. "It's not the right of any one to claim guardianship on revolution, unity, or and the south."

The south movement emerged in 2007 when a group of retired southerners from civil, military and security institutions started to complain they were excluded and marginalized by the northerners after the 1994 civil war. They also complained that influential northerners plundered a lot of lands.

"We treated the issue of retired people with 52 billion YR (US$ 125,000,000) and that the south is not possession of any one, and nobody has the right to take lands from the south, and everybody is responsible for solving these issues," Saleh said.

Two sons of Guantanamo detainee killed in Yemen

Two sons of Guantanamo detainee killed in Yemen

By Nasser Arrabyee/22/04/2009




Two sons of a Yemeni Guantanamo detainee were killed in their house in the Yemeni capital Sana'a late Wednesday after a hand grenade went off, family sources said.

"Omar 10, and Yousef, 11, were killed while they were playing with a hand grenade in the house this after noon," Nabil Al Heelah, brother of the Guantanamo detainee, Abdul Salam Al Heelah, told Gulf News without giving anymore details.

Earlier, Abdul Salam Al Heelah told his family over phone that he does not believe in the promises that he and other prisoners will be released home.


"If Ali Abdullah Saleh and Obama come over to tell me about their promises, this will never change any thing in my situation. They just talk," said Al Heelah, who has been languishing in Guantanamo since 2002.

The US President Barack Obama ordered on his second day in office last January the closure of the detention in one year. Two days later, the Yemeni President Saleh said that 94 Yemenis will return home within 90 days. Saleh said at the time a rehabilitation centre will be built for the returnees.


"If I had a European passport, all Europe would have demanded my release and return home," Al Heelah told his family in Sana'a over phone from the Cuban bay of Guantanamo in cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC.


Al Heelah, who is one of about 100 Yemenis among the 250 detainees remaining in Guantanamo, criticized his Yemeni government for not working on their release.


"The investigators, translators, and lawyers make fun of the Yemeni government, they say it's a beggar," He said in the conversation which was recorded and distributed by the family to media.


"Whenever they ask the government to receive the Yemenis, they say give us 10 million dollars, they beg in our names , they degraded us and degraded themselves," said Al Heelah who was a businessman in Yemen before being lured to Egypt in 2002 where he was kidnapped to Guantanamo.


About the rehabilitation centre, which the two governments speak about as a condition for the release of the men, he said "If every Yemeni pays 1000 YR, they would build 1000 centres, and we would not need the Americans, people should tell the President Ali Abdullah Saleh"


"They keep me in prison without charges or trials, and now they speak about rehabilitation, what rehabilitation," he wondered.


The family sources said, the mother did not speak to her son in the recent conversation, because she gets sad when she speaks with him over phone especially after he told her in one of the previous telephone conversations " See you in paradise, mum"

Pakistani dies in Yemen's prison

Pakistani dies in Yemen's prison
By Nasser Arrabyee/20/04/2009

A Pakistani man died in a prison in Yemen where he was serving a 25-year term for trading drugs, the prison officials said Monday.

"Nabi Bakhsh Ibrahim, 52, has died on Sunday morning in Al Jumhury hospital after he was hit by cancer," said Mutahar Ali Naji, director of the central prison in Sana'a.

"We transferred him to the hospital for treatment from cancer, but he died," he said.

Ibrahim, from Karachi, was among 15 Pakistanis who were sentenced to 25 years in prison each early last March by the State Security Court that convicted them of trading and bringing to Yemeni waters about 10 tons of Hasish. The 16th Pakistani man, the leader of the group, was sentenced to death.


The court also ordered destruction of the quantity of drugs and confiscation of the boat of the convicted men.

The convicted Pakistanis, at the time, shouted with insulting words against the Judge and the prosecutor after the Judge recited the verdict.

Unjust verdict, unjust verdict, American verdict, they shouted.

One of them said, "Yemen is not Muslim, it has neither Islam nor laws."

The alliance of the International forces arrested the 16 Pakistanis last April in the territorial waters of Yemen and handed them to the Yemeni authorities who started trying them on October 2008.

Guantanamo detainee claims more abuses

Guantanamo detainee claims more abuses
By Nasser Arrabyee/18/04/2009

A Yemeni detainee in Guantanamo Bay said mistreatment against prisoners has worsened after the US President Barack Obama ordered the closure of the detention last January.


"Oppression has increased, torture has increased and insults have increased," said Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif, a Yemeni national held since 2001.

"I have seen death so many times," he wrote in a letter to his American lawyer dated to April, a copy of which was sent to Gulf News.

"Everything is over; life is going to hell in my situation. America! What has happened to you," wondered Abdul Latif, who is one of about 94 Yemenis of the 250 prisoners remaining in the detention.

David Remes, Abdul Latif's lawyer, told Gulf News over phone from Washington that he had seen evidence of the alleged abuses on his client during meetings at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. The last trip to Guantanamo made by Mr. Remes was last month.

"I've seen the marks on these men, I've taken inventories that show the scars, that show the open wounds, that show the rashes," said Mr. Remes who is the director of the Appeal for Justice, a human rights and civil liberties litigation firm.

"We have met with our clients, we know the men and the experiences are uniform and universal," he added.

"Abdul Latif has a badly dislocated shoulder blade. I've seen the evidence of physical torture and I've also heard about the evidence of psychological torture."

A big controversy has been going on over the Yemeni detainees, the largest group, since last January when US President Obama ordered on his second day in office the closure of the detention in one year. Two days after Obama's order, the Yemeni President Saleh, expected that 94 Yemenis will return home within 90 days. Saleh said at the time a rehabilitation centre will be built for the returnees. Neither the men were not released nor was the centre built until now.

The American administration hinted many times it would like to hand the Yemenis to Saudi Arabia to be rehabilitated, because it does not trust the capability of the Yemeni government to control the men and prevent them from joining terrorist groups once again. Only 15 Yemenis were released home, while most of the 230 Saudi nationals were released.

Yemen alone can not build the rehabilitation centre which may cost about $US12 million.

"If the government has this money, it will use it in building schools for children rather than building this centre," a senior official told Gulf News on condition of anonymity.

"We want our men to be released to Yemen not anywhere else, and the Americans should help us to rehabilitate and re-integrate them into society."

Beating drums of new war in Yemen

Beating drums of new war in Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee/16/04/2009


The Yemeni government accused Thursday the Al Houthi rebels of beating drums of a new war in Sa'ada north of the country.

Earlier in the week, Al Houthi spokesman, Saleh Habra, said the problem of Sa'ada will be solved only by abiding by the Qatari-brokered deal between government and rebels which was made in 2007.

"Al Houthi and those outlaws with him like Habra, who beat the drums of war, were the first to refuse the Doha agreement and all peace efforts," said an official statement published by the government media.


"Saleh Habra was and still thinking that Doha agreement will bestow a lot of money and personal advantages on him."


On his part, Saleh Habra, in a statement sent to journalists, said, "If the Yemenis want a solution for Sa'ada problem, they should demand the government to abide by the Doha agreement."




"I'm sill adhering to Doha agreement and if the government does not want me as a person, it does not mean that the agreement is no longer valid."

He said they will defend themselves against any possible attack, warning all Yemenis from taking the position of lookers on.

"If everybody keeps just watching and doing nothing, then they all will pay the price for that attitude, and they will be held accountable to Allah. For us, we will defend ourselves." He said.

The government accused the rebels of violating the truce which was declared by President Ali Abdullah Saleh on July17th, 2008 to end a four-year sporadic war.

"Those deviant and astray elements are still doing banditry and sabotage acts, undermining security and social tranquility, plundering private and public properties, killing and assassinations of tribal sheikhs and social dignitaries from Sa'ada province," said the official statement.


Al Houthi and his subordinate Habra do not like the climates of peace and security, because they get a lot of advantages from wars, they get money and they mislead naive young people to the battles, the statement added.



The statement said the rebels built new trenches and ditches in the mountains like the Ghaflah in Galahad, and they are now building ditches and fortifications and refuges in the mountains which overlook the roads in Maran.

"The rebels kidnapped an employee from the communication building in Sakeen town, in Sa'ada, and bombed a house of a citizen there, and fired at the positions of the government troops in Lahman, Jaza'a and Mosoh mountains in Haidan and Malahaidh districts."


Meanwhile, the opposition parties called for a national solution for the armed rebellion in Sa'ada.



"The quick fix solutions are not enough; there should be national solutions based on good knowledge of the reasons behind this war," said Sultan al Atwani, the chairman of the supreme council of opposition alliance.


"The constitution and laws should govern the government and Al Houthis, interest of the nation should be above interests of individuals," he said.


These developments came after government accused Al Houthi rebels of killing two road workers and injuring two others in Al Mahather area in Sa'ada earlier this week. The rebels also were accused of assassinating a prominent tribal Shiekh and his son who are loyal to the government.

Efforts to reduce early marriage

Some 80 % of Yemeni women get married early, official report
By Nasser Arrabyee/16/04/2009


About 80 % of the Yemeni women get married early, said a recent government report.

Early marriage is one of the main reasons behind the economic, health and social problems facing the development in Yemen, said the report which was presented last week to the cabinet by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour.

Some 24.6 % of the women get married when they are 10-14 years old, while 56 % of them get married when they are 15-19 years old, the report detailed.

The early marriage is a phenomenon in Yemen with respect to males and females, and it's widespread in both rural and urban areas, the report added.
Some 48 % of the women under 15 years old get married early, and about 45 % of males and females get married when they are about 10 years, the report said.

The report said steps will be taken to reduce the early marriage through a ministerial committee made up of the ministers of social affairs, justice, legal affairs, health, guidance and Islamic affairs, and human rights.

The steps will include support for making the minimum age of marriage 17 years for both males and females.

A controversy has been going on in Yemen since February 11th, 2009, when some Islamist MPs supported by some clerics refused as not Islamic the 17 years as the minimum age of marriage although it was voted for by the majority of the House of Representatives.