Yemen Targets HR Activist Amal Basha in Campaign of Attacks
What follows is the Arab Sisters Forum press release on the escalating attacks on Amal Basha, head of the organization. She was repeatedly threatened, had a liquid sprayed in her face on the street, the headquarters was broken into and trashed, and the brakes on her car were cut in an assassination attempt.
Triggers for the attacks include advocacy for arbitrarily detained prisoners and a report on torture in Yemen submitted by several Yemeni human rights organizations to the UN which contributed to the UN’s findings on November 19th, expressing “grave concern” and calling for an investigation of unlawful killings (murder) by security forces.
Its actions like these that belie the Saleh regime’s commitment to both democracy and stability and expose the administration as a thuggish mafia whose only goals are staying in power and stealing money.
The Saleh regime cannot be bribed with promises of funds for reform, whether from the Millennium Challenge account or from the GCC. Saleh understands well that authentic reform, financial or political, will result in his dis-empowerment. Ergo the strategy for years has been to target the instruments of progress and modernization, like Ms. Basha, while FM al Qirby mouths the words that the international community wants to hear and Saleh blames his victims in speeches to the domestic audience.
Among the plethora of new analysis and policy recommendations, there is not one that ponders the possibility that Saleh, who survives by generating crises, thrives on instability. All analysis assume Saleh as a rational actor. To the extent that the regime has a vested interest in being the regional basket case, his actions may be logical, but its a different kind of rationality. The Yemeni elites’ interest does not lie in the well being of the nation and its citizens but in criminal enterprises.
I find it stunning the way the international community leaves these people hanging. For example, in 2006 opposition election workers were fired, transferred or arrested en mass once the EU mission left the country, with nary a peep form the Mission. While the allegations of torture, murder and political disappearances have been widespread in Yemen, the UN’s formal documentation of the widespread nature of the abuses was previously lacking. Ms. Basha and others performed a great service to Yemen and the international community.
A similar situation it that of Mohammed al Maqelah, who in September reported on the military air strikes on civilian refugees which left 87 dead and many wounded in Sa’ada. It was the first time the issue of the military’s targeting civilians was so clearly exposed. Maqaleh was promptly snatched off the street and hasn’t been heard of since.
After cutting Ms.Basha’s car brakes a week ago, Sisters’ Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF) headquarters in Sana’a, Yemen had been subjected to attack.
On Sunday 22nd of November 2009 one of the windows metal was broken , drawers were searched and smashed. There was nothing had been taken from the Office from the office such as laptops, cameras, or any valuable devices.
This is not the first incident in recent times against the Office. The wire control system security of brakes of Ms.Basha’s car had been deliberately cut on Tuesday 17th of November 2009 as confirmed by a technical report issued by the United Insurance Company. Also, After Ms. Basha in her ways back from the Specialized Criminal Court to attend a session of the activists of peaceful movement in the South, anonymous had sprayed a liquid in her face while she was parking her car in the University .Ms. Basha had been exposed to repeated harassment over the telephone by a person claims to being a detective of the Assembly. All that comes after SAF and other organizations submitted the National Second Shadow Report on Torture to the Convention against Torture of the United Nations in Geneva in cooperation with the International Federation for Human Rights(FIDH), Human Rights Watch and the Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies. In addition, the United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) had released on 19th of November 2009 the Provisional concluding Observations to the Yemeni government in this regard. There are still copies of the film the Reality of Marginalized Women in Yemen had been produced by the Sisters’Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF) being held by the National Security at the airport for more than three months ago. In spite of regular staff are follow-up Ministry of Media and Ministry of Interior and the concerned authorities.
Issued by the Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights.
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Maged almadhaji
Media Officer
Sisters Arab Forum
for Human Rights
P.O.Box 14446
Tel.: 00967 1 211 937
Fax : 00967 1 212 432
Mobile: 00967 733275027
Sana’a – Yemen
