Armies of Liberation

Update: As we all learn together to be more sensitive, my Yemeni friends reminded me the word Akhdam itself is disparaging term, meaning slave I think, so this is why the PR is calling them the marginalized. Black racial minority is also acceptable. Maybe African-Yemenis. Update: A new article also discusses the marginalization and segregation of black Yemenis in Aden.

Sawa’a Organization launched its open line for monitoring violations against marginalized people

Sawa’a Organization for Minorities’ Rights Defense and Anti-Discrimination is concerned about the escalation of violence against marginalized people in Taiz.

Sawa’a organization for minorities’ rights defense and anti-discrimination is watching with extreme concern the escalation of violence against the marginalized people in Taiz city which resulted in the fall of two killed people recently.

The organization monitored ,during the last week, the kill of a cleaner at the age of 22 years and another in his 7th decade was working as a guard in a land which was a place of dispute.

Sawa’a Organization for minorities’ rights defense and anti-discrimination says that the Interior ministry bears the full responsibility for what happened,and demands it to adjust the perpetrators and bring them to justice as soon as possible, and confirms that it monitored a slowdown by the security agencies in the prosecution of those accused of committing the crime of murder despite they know them.

The organization calls the security authorities in Taiz city to allow the marginalized people to express their views and opinions and not to resist their protests and protect them form any further attacks.

In this context, Sawa’a Organization launches its open line for monitoring violations to which the marginalized people are exposed and they are 01565182-711199279-77080744

e-mail: sawaa.org@gmail.com

Sawa’a Org. for Minorities’ Rights Defense and Anti-Discrimination – Sana’a

At least 184 protesters are confirmed as “disappeared” and assumed to be under torture by security forces. My concern about the missing protesters since February 2011 has been the mass graves.

Yemen Post: A Yemeni human rights group, HOOD, revealed that 184 protesters enforcedly disappeared, emphasizing that no official authority has stated about their fate.

A senior officer of Hood, Abdul-Rahman Barman, said that the organization handed over a list of the disappeared names to the Interior Minister, pointing out that their families look for them everywhere and they become more worried every day.

Hood expressed deep concern about this case, demanding the newly-formed military commission to disclose the fate of these people enforcedly disappeared, stressing that the enforced disappearance is a crime against humanity.

One family had found out its relative in the morgue of Alshorta hospital six months after he was arrested by armed men loyal to the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Yemen protesters had alleged that security and army services arbitrarily detained hundreds of peaceful protesters across the country, subjecting them to torture and ill-treatment, since anti-government demonstrations began in February 2011.

Some released prisoners affirmed that huge numbers of protesters and soldiers of the defected First Armored Division were being held in custodies belonging to military camps loyal to Saleh.

During several conferences held in Sana’a with some of freed prisoners, they made clear that they were subject to brutal forms of tortures, including electro-shock devices and beating with cables and whips after being blindfolded and handcuffed.

Yemenis have been demonstrating across the country demanding the release of detainees held by Security services which are still controlled by people loyal to Saleh.

The exact number of detainees being held by the authorities is unknown, but activists say that it could be as high as 1,400.

Saleh frequently resorted to denouncing his opponents in religious terms and framing armed clashes as legitimate jihad with fatwas from his clerics. The CCYR supports equal rights, intellectual freedom and a civil foundation for the impending state and is highlighting the increasing use of fatwas and taqfirism by hard liners to short circuit reform, and intimidate the public at large and activists in particular.

Yemen: Civic Coalition of Youth Revolution condemns Takfirism campaign

“The Civic Coalition of Youth Revolution” CCYR has reviewed the dangers besetting the homeland and revolution with its supreme goal of the new democratic civil Yemen, for sake of which people made big sacrifices.

The CCYR noticed a most important hint in such a historical moment represented in a return to language of Takfeer /Takfirism, exclusion and cancel of others . These are the same values practiced by the former regime throughout 33 years, for which the people of Yemen took to streets.

Most importantly is that it is an influential player within one of the biggest joint meeting parties’ components that practices such behavior and while such a player did not abide by the declared political program of the Islah party, it also did the same for the first goal of revolution represented through establishing the new civil democratic country that respect freedom of thought, belief and of expression.

The CCRY, having condemned such behavior of past black era logic, confirms continue peaceful struggle against any obstacles facing the new Yemen dream of the people.

The CCYR calls Islah leadership to express their attitude towards such practices in a clear manner, for it is an influencing individuals in Islah party who did so.

The CCYR informs all forces of modernization and civilians with care about future of Yemen to practice role of raising awareness on such risks and to fight them everywhere.

The CCYR confirms solidarity with all involved in the Takfirism campaign, Bushra Almaqtary, Fikry Qassem, Salah Aldakak, Muhsen Aed, Sami Shamsan, Adel no’man being last of them.

This is about a week out of date but indicative of what’s going on in terms of smears, slander and threats, from the victims’ view:

Dear Sir or Madam,
We would like to inform you that the a leader of the islamist Al-Islah party, head of the department of information in Aden branch, threatened the publishing team of the blog and Newsletter blog “Aden Alghad” because of their coverage of the violence in Almualla-Aden between members and sympathizers of the Alharak Aljanoubi Assilmi on one side and members of the Islamist Isalh party on the other side on February 3rd 2012. This happened when the Islah leader, Khalid Haidan, with the publishing editor, Fathi Bin lazraq, at the same day. The Islamist leader said that his party will prosecute the team of “Aden Alghad” and that his party might tolerate everything but not the blood of his members. When asked if this was a threat, the Islamist leader replied “consider it as you like”.

This is not the first time that Mr. Lazraq and his team are exposed to threat from leaders of the Islah party. On December 02nd 2011, another leader of the Islah party in Aden, Nabeel Assanii, threatened Mr.Lazraq because of republishing an article written by Assanii in which he describes participants of a demonstration organized by Alharak Aljanoubi Assilmi as drunk and drug-addicted.

We consider such activities by leaders of the Islah Party as a radical threat of the press freedom and the civilian life especially in such a peaceful city like Aden. We condemn the aggressive behavior of the leaders of the Islah which considers itself as one of the changing powers in Yemen and is participating in the current government and of its leader is a Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2011. We would like herewith to ask you to solidarise with Mr. Lazraq and the team of “Aden Alghad” against these threats and to support them in their struggle for freedom of expression. We warn from any aggression against the team members of “Aden Alghad” and bear the Islah party the full responsibility for the health and wellbeing of Mr. Lazraq and his team members.

The denial of medical care is one method of collective punishment indicative of the Saleh regime and was prevalent and well enforced during the Saada War. going back to 2005. How much urgent and necessary medical care Saleh is getting in the Ritz Carlton is questionable.

Yemen: Unlawful Attacks, Denial of Medical Care in Taizz
US, EU, Gulf Should Reject Immunity for Saleh, Aides

(New York, February 8, 2012) – Yemeni security forces stormed and shelled hospitals, evicted patients at gunpoint, and beat medics during an assault on Yemen’s protest movement that killed at least 120 people in the flashpoint city of Taizz last year, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is in the United States receiving medical treatment, received amnesty in Yemen for such attacks.

In the 75-page report, “‘No Safe Places’: Yemen’s Crackdown on Protests in Taizz,” Human Rights Watch called on the United States, the European Union, and Persian Gulf states to publicly acknowledge that the domestic immunity granted Saleh and his aides last month has no legal effect outside Yemen.

“President Saleh’s forces killed and wounded hundreds of civilians, evicted hospital patients, and blocked war wounded from reaching care,” said Letta Tayler, Yemen researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Saleh is entitled to medical treatment, but he and his aides have no right to immunity from prosecution for international crimes.”

When Yemenis took to the streets in January 2011 to demand an end to Saleh’s 33-year rule, Taizz, 250 kilometers south of the capital, Sanaa, became a center of both peaceful and armed resistance – and the scene of numerous human rights abuses and violations of the laws of war. “No Safe Places” is based on more than 170 interviews with protesters, doctors, human rights defenders, and other witnesses to attacks in Taizz by state security forces and pro-Saleh gangs from February to December 2011.
(Read on …)

Rejecting Taqfirism flat out. And they are correct that a civil state does not reject religion but protects the rights of all religious persuasions equally.

RSF condemns the Takfeer campaign against Yemeni writers

A statement released by Revolution Salvation Front (RSF) on the apostasy campaign against the Yemeni writer, Bushra al-Maqtari

Condemnation Statement

O’ great people..O’ revolutionaries and freedom seekers in all squares of freedom and change
In deliberate abuse to the freedom of belief and approaching elimination and dominance of religion employing, the Yemeni writer Mrs. Bushra al-Maqtari, subjected to Takfeer (apostasy) campaign by known extremist groups.

Recently, these groups issued Fatwa, an Islamic edict by clerics, named as “The Olama’s Fatwa on abuse the Islam and Allah”, in which they named four writers: Bushra al-Maqtari, Fikry Kasim, Muhsin A’aid and Sami Shamsan of being “abused Islam” and described with “apostasy” and “Kufrism”.

The Fatwa elaborated by talking about an article of writer Bushra Maqtari, reported some of severed phrases from the article and interpreted it according their special orientation and political purpose for abuse and incitement to murder against the writer.

The RSF deplores and condemns this unjust Fatwa and that was not in fact Fatwa as it is just exploitation of religion for the liquidation of opponents to insert illegal ambitions, seeking to provoke sedition in society and exclusion of political opponent bigotry and bad interpretation of words away from its meanings.

It rejects the Takfeer at all. The so-called “Olama’s Fatwa on abuse the Islam and Allah” only regarded as a matter of political exploitation of religion to rein the other opinion and intellectually terrify. Such method already used by the same extremist groups against others and authorized the killing of children and women during previous political conflicts especially those infamous fatwa issued against the Yemen southerners during the civil war in 1994, misbelieved as “the war of apostasy and separation”. As well, many writers subjected to such Fatwas, as Dr. Abdul Aziz al-Maqalih and Dr. Hamood al-Awdi.

The RSF warns against going too far in using and monopoly religious and national eligibility by a group extremists and radicalists as Saleh’s regime did to weaken and exclude opposition opponents. Such behavior regarded as a crime must not be silent by the community.

It considered use of the mosques and public spaces to incite against other faiths, beliefs and ideologies as a blatant open call for incitement to murder and crime must be punished.

In this regard, the RSF calls upon the Ministry of Endowment to prevent the use of mosques to religious Takfeer, sedition and hatred in the community.

RSF also calls on political parties, human rights and civil society organizations, social and revolutionary representations, thinkers, writers and all the people to respond to such serious actions that threaten the security, stability and safety of the community.

RSF condemns the sites that published writings of abusive terms such as NabaNews and YemenPress, demanding to be prosecuted in accordance with the law.

Issued by The Peaceful Revolution Salvation Front
Date 03/02/2012

Fatwa is here and Gt’d here in article entitled: “The text of the fatwa, and the image” .. scientists Yemen opinion about insulting the divine: the article described Bushra Maqtari, and demanding closure of sites that published her article, and called for abusers to declare repentance”

Interesting to note that AQAP in Jaar banned some of the same newspapers that the scholars are also railing against.

She’s doing well and going in the right directions (for example closing private prisons) but the question is whether she will be allowed to cross the red lines or thwarted by ye ol powerful and guilty persons even though they have immunity. On a related note, on e report holds that Gen Kiran got a false passport and is planning to escape Yemen. Beyond his recent crimes against protesters in Aden and Taiz, Kiran also has a court case pending for the death by torture of Ahmed Darwish in an Aden prison cell.

Yemen Post: Yemen Human Rights Horia Mashhoor said on Wednesday that an independent commission will be formed with the aim of investigating violations committed against human rights since the outbreak of anti-regime protests in last February.

“Probes about killing of protesters in Sana’a , Taiz and Abyan lack transparency, and Yemen’s judiciary lack enough fairness,” she added.

In her meeting with Middle East and North Africa director of the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy(NED) Abdul Rahman Al-Jubouri, she made clear that Yemen needs special legalizations that cope with international laws.

Mashhoor revealed that the ministry seeks to hold a national dialogue conference to solve Yemen’s problems and come up with joint national views on human rights.

She revealed that Human Rights Ministry would be shifted to an independent supreme authority which enjoys impartiality.

For his part, Al-Jabouri stressed that NED seeks to help Yemen in the field of enacting legislations of the constitution and election laws, pointing out that NED would support and train the consultative body belonging to the Human Rights through Ministry.

In an interview with the state-run 26 September newspaper, Mashhoor made reference to the existence of a big gap between laws and their application on the ground.

Mashhoor has said she seeks to shut down private custodies (ed-private prisons) run by some officials and tribal leaders, stressing that the existence of such custodies contradicts Yemen laws and international conventions.
Mashhoor has vowed to release all political prisoners held in security forces.

Separately, Mashour stated that Yemen’s high-ranking officials take over 90 percent of allowances and benefits allocated to government ministries while low-ranking employees get nothing.

She affirmed that Yemen’s financial systems encourage corruption, demanding to carry out significant financial reforms.

Source link: Akhbaral Yemen:

- Altagheer squares seemed to have changed a lot, which rises concerns regarding differences among constituents of these squares. Do you think that the change squares of 2012 is different from that of 2011, what are the reasons?

There has been no difference, the change square still under control of Islah opposing party that is actually heavily saturated with tribal ideology and fundamentalism. The party, with its influential powers, is the major reason behind constant tensions and violations committed against revolutionaries. These powers cause the anti-saleh regime revolution and its goals to become weak and unable to achieve brilliant success. They are hindering the silent society segment from joining the revolution, and had this party not steered the revolution since its first day, it would have been succeeded since months, if not within one or two months. It is the influential regime-affiliates Islah who conspired against an abortive revolution and let many opportunities missing, starting with Dignity Friday, then the Taiz holocaust of the change square, and finally the life rally. They changed the Sana’a square into a jail for revolutionaries. Unfortunately this is the truth that should be known.

- What are the latest developments of the committee formed to tackle disputes occurred last month between Houthi and Islah affiliates?

The other joint meeting parties (JMPs) actually played a secondary role in relation to the Islah party, which plays, represented by its influential powers, the most crucial role at change square of Sana’a. The role of the other parties is no more than decoration of an alleged partnership that is much more pitiful than be condemned, and had there been minimum of independence of those parties, a mutual decision making process, there would not have been such a difficult situation. The violated rights of revolutionaries would be stopped as well as the unilateral decision making process since first day, yet these violations continued and became more intense recently. In fact, the other (JMPs) can neither take decisions nor can they stop any violations, but are only a decoration of the leaderships’ influencing in Islah. I call these parties to revolt against all of Islah unilateralism and the crimes committed against revolutionaries. What add insult to injury is the daily violations committed by revolution-defaming Islah party, which is more atrocious than the regime we all demand its step-down.
(Read on …)

Niiiiice, long time friend of this website, Yemen and me personally, Naser al Weddady gets a nice write up in the Atlantic recognizing his work and his amazing contribution to supporting freedom and civil rights in some of the darkest corners of earth, the Middle East. Naser helped me a lot with strategy, advice and moral support for both of the campaigns for al Khaiwani (2005, 2008) and his door is always open when I’m confused (or furious). A very smart guy, Nasser is dedicated to changing the world and is actually doing it. Read it all at the Atlantic.

Thats funny, so I thought maybe I should stop gushing about Naser for a minute and read the entire article (I got the link off twitter) before I posted it and there I was too:

Testifying to the global reach of the cyber activists, Jane Novak, a New Jersey housewife, has established herself as a highly-regarded source on all things Yemen, even, at one point, consulting with the U.S. State Department. Her Twitter feed and blog, armiesofliberation.com, are consulted by activists and journalists. She is well-known among policy makers, activists and reporters in the country’s besieged capital, Sana’a. And she has never been to Yemen.

“She doesn’t speak a word of Arabic, she hasn’t set foot in the Middle East, but she still became an authority,” Weddady says. He claims her influence helped secure the 2008 release of Yemeni journalist Abdulkarim al-Khawaini, who had been convicted of defaming President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

To clarify, I gave a 2008 presentation at the Carnegie Institute, at the invitation of State, on media repression in Yemen. I said many of the attacks on press freedom are retribution for journalists who exposed mass corruption at the highest levels of the US allied Saleh regime.

Its funny that Naser describes the fact that I don’t speak Arabic or visit Yemen in a positive light, when the na-na-nana-na crowd always tries to use it to depreciate my work and me personally. My ten thousand Yemeni friends don’t hold it against me though.

-Press Release-

Yemeni delegation meets with the International Criminal Court’s Officials

(The Hague, 22/01/2012) On Friday, January 20, 2012, a delegation of representatives of the Yemeni civil society and International non-governmental Human Rights organizations led by Dr. Yasin Al Qubati, President of the Yemen Centre for Transitional Justice (YCTJ), and Mrs. Anna Kotzeva, Director of the Peace and Justice Initiative (PJI) based in The Hague, visited the seat of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands, and met with officials from the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), the Presidency and the Registry to discuss the way forward and the procedures for the ratification by Yemen of the Rome Statute, the treaty which established the ICC.

The delegation also informed the ICC officials of the recent developments in Yemen and pledged to submit a documented communication under article 15 of the Rome Statute to contain data on Crimes Against Humanity that have been committed against civilians at tens of Yemeni cities by the Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh regime’s Security Forces and Death Squads since the start of the Yemeni uprising in 11Februry 2011.

The delegation informed the OTP of more than 2000 cases of death and more than 14000 cases of injury, in addition to more than 1500 cases of forced disappearances and 3000 cases of arbitrary detention, most of them are documented. The delegation said that the Yemeni civil society organizations are visiting now different cities of Yemen to collect evidence and document crimes thus far to have taken place in Yemen since 11-02-2011, adding that there are significant indications of mass graves hidden in Yemen from 1978 up till now. These mass graves include particularly victims of Saadah’s six wars that took place between 2004 and 2010.

The delegation concluded their meeting with the ICC’s OTP by promising to work towards the signature and ratification by the new Yemeni elected government of the ICC’s Rome Statute to ensure that Yemen will accept the jurisdiction of the ICC to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes.

The delegation’s visit was followed by a reception organised by the Peace and Justice Initiative in the Mercure Hotel in the Hague Centre. Around thirty diplomats and workers in International Tribunals and Courts attended the reception and listened to Dr. Al Qubati providing information documented by photos and videos about the escalation of the events in Yenen, with a focus on the victims affected by the crimes committed by the Yemeni regime and mass punishments of the communities in all the cities including depreviation from all general services like Electricity , water, gaz for huoses and fuel for operating all kinds of machiniries. to oppress the uprising. Dr. Al Qubati pressed for the international community to consider the Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh and all the members of his family in the commendres of the army to have lost legitimacy and to refer Saleh and other representatives of his regime to the ICC.

Excellent interview!! Ms Mansour has a big job and perhaps it is the most critical ministry. If respect for human rights is the linchpin of the new Yemen, then she is correct, the youth will be satisfied, AQAP’s reach will diminish and the free market economy can take root.

Yemen Fox: Houria Mashhoor is one of Yemeni women who rebelled against Yemeni traditions and decided to take part in everything that used to be restricted to men.

Mashhoor is a Yemeni influential politician who is reputed to have neutral positions; even though she was a part of the previous regime.

Mashhoor has defected to the Yemeni revolution and become the spokeswoman for the youth revolutionary council. After the Saudi-brokered initiative had been signed in November, the conciliatory government was formed accordingly and Mashhoor was among the ministers who have been nominated. (Read on …)

Qiran is also indicted in the murder of Ahmed Darwish in an Aden prison.

12/12/12

NYT

TAIZ, Yemen — Armed tribesmen had finally retreated from a pocket of this city, handing back to the state an education building they had occupied in recent weeks. The governor, elated, called it a breakthrough.

Dozens of people had been killed during weeks of violence. Cease-fires had come and gone. Now, the building handover again raised the possibility of a truce. For eight hours, the streets were quiet.

Then the tribesmen retook the building.

“I think we will succeed. Or not,” the governor, Hamoud al-Sofi, said Thursday, sounding exasperated. “We will see.”

Yemen has been caught in a cycle of protest, repression and factional fighting that simply will not let go, even though, as in Taiz, there are many moments that appear to signal a breakthrough, as when the president agreed to step down. The interim government that took power in Yemen last week amid guarded optimism faces an array of daunting challenges. (Read on …)

The Southern Observatory for Human Rights issued its detailed monthly report on violence and human rights violations in South Yemen, with names, dates and graphic photos of the dead.

SOHR, English, violations in South Yemen Sept 2011

SOHR, Arabic violations in South Yemen, Sept 2011

A closer look at the nature of those violations makes us aware that these violations have exceeded the character of heinousness to be upgraded to the level of crimes against humanity, as they included shooting peaceful demonstrators, killing dozens, wounding hundreds and arresting thousands of them, in addition to the acts of the worst kinds of torture against them….

Soldiers of the regime’s forces on Wednesday evening, September 14, fired on a number of young people in the district of Mansoura, governorate of Aden, when they gathered after an explosion rocked the city. The Web site, “Aden Alghad,” cited the story saying that the shooting caused the young child, Mahd Hassan Mahboob (13 years,) to be (killed) and the child Lutfi Ahadjila (14 years) to be wounded….

The situation in the governorate of Abyan is not a vague mystery,
according to the young person of Zanzibar, but its clear truth is that the regime of President Saleh is behind it, to be under its service, for
information confirms that the constant reinforcements easily and without difficulties arrive to those groups from the northern provinces, including the arms, money and supplies, despite the fact that the entrances and exits of those provinces are under the control of the authorities and the military forces and government.

Excellent! It shows the acres and acres of daylight between them: “Zindani: Nobel Prize is not supervised by a Moslem and is given to the Jews and their collaborators” who undermine Muslims, promote mixing of the genders, hatch plots blah blah. I was rather surprised by several leading US conservatives who, upon hearing the news of the Nobel Peace Prize, promptly published incorrect conclusions and/or speculation about Tawakkol and her relationship to Islah and Zindani without any real knowledge of any of them or of the position of the Yemeni revolutionaries on the political parties, religious pluralism or equal rights.

These public innuendos were made in the media without even researching Karman’s years of work in defense of civil liberties, to raise the marriage age, on behalf of Yemeni Jews, journalists, poor villagers, dialysis patients etc etc. Instead they wondered how she feels about…bin Laden without a shred of evidence beyond a strained and tenuous relationship with Islah, which is a very complex party to start with. This should streamline my response to one sentence: al Zindani’s son called her a Zionist.

Update: No, I’m not a Muslim, but a Roman Catholic Republican New Yorker (for the brain surgeons asking me to identify my religion), and I know who the extremists are in Yemen and who the heroes are. (Read on …)

The Yemeni Observatory for Human Rights calls for urgent intervention to prevent Yahya Saleh from storming its head quarters in Sanaa, http://bit.ly/qaaZB2 (ar). The Sana’a regime in Yemen, getting closer to a long overdue war crimes trial in the ICC, is attacking the keepers of the evidence; HOOD’s library of human rights abuses was previously burnt to the ground. Idiot Saleh fails to realize that the state’s conduct of the Saada war in and of itself is enough to convict him of collective punishment; the repetitive lethal attacks on southern protesters (2007-2011) are also crimes against humanity. The 500+ protesters killed by state security forces since February are a third and separate range of crimes.

Update: this is Tawakkol’s English website at Woman Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) that has all her reports on press freedom and clips of several of her interviews. I’m posting it for those people who have no idea of who she is, fail to do research and yet feel compelled to jump to bizarre conclusions based on her association with Islah, a relationship which is in reality quite fractured. Islah is the main opposition party in Yemen and contains many wings- tribal, reformist, fundamentalist, activist and modernist- it’s a compendium of often competing interests. Islah formed an alliance in 2003 with the Shiite parties, the Socialists, the Nasserites and the Baathists that is called the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP). The Youth Revolution of which Tawakkol is a leader notes the JMP is ineffectual, corrupt and opportunistic, and the youth have rejected all JMP negotiations on their behalf. And al Zindani was a long time ally of President Saleh; in fact, Saleh launched his presidential campaign from al Iman university in 2006.

Original: I’m rather touched and very happy to learn of Tawakkol Karman winning the Nobel. Not only did Tawwakol lead the Yemeni protests since February, she led them in Freedom Square for the two years prior, protesting for a newspaper license and media freedom and a range of other causes that came along. I’m glad the committee made such a good choice this year. Tawwakol heads a journalist organization since 2005 which for published semi-annual reports on widespread abuses and denial of media freedom, and they published several on corruption showing exactly who in the the state stole the billions where and how. Tawakkol supported a wide range of civil rights issues in Yemen. She is a leader of the current Yemeni revolution, always on the front lines facing down the rifles. Update: “Yemen will remain happy, and will even spread it’s happiness to the whole world,” Tawakol Karman said today.
(Read on …)

More activists are receiving threats over the phone by security personnel of detention if they dont stop their activism.

Traditionally the US allied National Security under Ammar Saleh has perpetrated most attacks on journalists and activists and may have the lead again in personal threats and assault against the democracy activists now.

al Sahwa: Reporters Without Borders has condemned the arrest of Suhail TV cameraman Ahmad Firas by soldiers form Daylami airbase on the afternoon of 12 August as he was driving with his wife and children, who were released a few hours later.

The same military airbase previously arrested Al-Sahwa reporter Yahi Al-Thalayan and held him for 10 days before letting him go. (Read on …)

Seeks a savior

Hodiedah: In an interview with Marib Press, 12 year old “Hanadi” said she was forced into marriage by her impoverished father to pay a debt. Her husband tried repeatedly to rape her, her tears were no deterrent, and he threatened to beat her. After three days, he drugged by her with sleeping pills in her juice. She woke up bruised, confused and bleeding. The child ran away and is currently in the Hodiedah CID, appealing to Human Rights Organizations to save her. A medical exam proves the child was violently raped. The father and husband were interviewed by police. The father asserts the husband promised not to engage in intercourse until she was older. The husband says he didn’t touch her.

“12 year old Hanadi launched a distress call to the Ministry of Human Rights and human rights organizations demanding urgent intervention and to direct the security agencies to arrest the looter of her childhood and to investigate him and refer him to the judiciary.”

The issue is where is she going to go live. And its questionable if either the father or husband will be charged with a crime. There is no law in Yemen designating a minimum marriage age. Without publicity, she might have to go back. If she does not return to her husband, the father’s debt is still in force because she was basically sold like a slave. Children are frequently used as chattel. At least half of all marriages in Yemen occur before 16. Unsurprisingly, Yemen’s youthful female revolutionaries are quite determined to overthrow the system.

Excellent, now lets see some consequences for the Salehs and all their murders. Is there going to be an Atrocities Czar to go along with the Atrocities Prevention Board? Well its something, but what happens when the war criminals are also our supposed allies against AQ? Then they are not labeled as war criminals.

Related Update: “The Organizational Committee of the People’s Youth Revolution condemns the resumption of U.S. military support for the remnants of the (Saleh) family regime and the use of U.S. weapons in the killing of peaceful civilians and puts a big question mark attached to the U.S. contradictory positions.”

FACT SHEET: President Obama Directs New Steps to Prevent Mass Atrocities and Impose Consequences on Serious Human Rights Violators

“The United States is committed to working with our allies, and to strengthening our own internal capabilities, in order to ensure that the United States and the international community are proactively engaged in a strategic effort to prevent mass atrocities and genocide. In the event that prevention fails, the United States will work both multilaterally and bilaterally to mobilize diplomatic, humanitarian, financial, and—in certain instances—military means to prevent and respond to genocide and mass atrocities.”

–National Security Strategy of the United States, May 2010

President Obama is committed to strengthening the United States Government’s ability to prevent mass atrocities and serious human rights violations. In 2010, he created the first-ever White House position dedicated to preventing and responding to mass atrocities and war crimes. And in Kyrgyzstan, Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, Sudan, and elsewhere, this Administration has prioritized the protection of civilians and the prevention of mass atrocity and serious human rights violations, and employed a wide range of economic, diplomatic, and other tools in service of those ends.

Today, President Obama is directing a comprehensive review to strengthen the United States’ ability to prevent mass atrocities. The President’s directive creates an important new tool in this effort, establishing a standing interagency Atrocities Prevention Board with the authority to develop prevention strategies and to ensure that concerns are elevated for senior decision-making so that we are better able to work with our allies and partners to be responsive to early warning signs and prevent potential atrocities. Today he is also issuing a proclamation that, for the first time, explicitly bars entry into the United States of persons who organize or participate in war crimes, crimes against humanity, and serious violations of human rights. (Read on …)