Armies of Liberation

IN response to Zindani’s call for an Islamic state, a heated letter defending the principles of the revolution. Its in Arabic but I thought it was important to note the vast majority of protesters are committed to equal rights including the right to worship freely. A secular government is not a God-less one as Zawaheri asserts, but one that affords all equal protections and equal rights to all sects. Religious tolerance is a concept that threatens the foundation of the Saudi theocracy perhaps even more than democracy. However I have a hard time buying Zindani at face value whatever he says; he’s been Saleh’s stooge for years.

Hurriyatsudan:
Statement issued by a number of Yemeni intellectuals and activists on the legitimacy of the civil revolution

“Zindani approach” to the oppression of Islam and the abuse of the revolution
With the dawn of the revolution in the arena of popular youth change in Sanaa, the Zindani and his current hard-line jihadi incitement against the state civil. Like this current horror inside Yemen and the Arab and international, pushing large numbers of the University of radical faith to the scene. (Read on …)

Bara’a, a Yemeni activist in the anti-Saleh protests was “kidnapped and beaten for seven hours,” according to video testimony here.

Mareb Press reports Tawwakol Karman’s house was trashed, and her brother kidnapped. She accused the commander of the Republican Guard, Brigadier General Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, and his cousin, Ammar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, Undersecretary of the National Security Agency, of being behind the raid and looting her home, studio and the Organization of Women Journalists Without Chains. Her brother, the poet Tariq Abdel-Salam Kerman, disappeared four days ago in Taiz, and Karman confirmed that he had been kidnapped by the National Security Agency, after he announced his joining the People’s Revolution for the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

al Sahwa: Reporters Without Borders condemns Al-Sahwa.net correspondent Yahia Al-Thanaya’s abduction at a checkpoint near the Al-Dailami air-base, a few kilometres outside Sanaa, on the night of 19 June, just a few days after he reported that the government was illegally holding activists at a secret detention centre within the base. Reporters Without Borders calls for his immediate release.

The editor of the opposition weekly Al-Wahdawi, Ahmed Sayeed Nasser, was threatened on 16 April by a phone caller who accused him of insulting the president and his family in various articles. The caller also said some of the newspaper’s reporters could be in danger as a result of the publication of documents shedding light on North Yemen President Ibrahim Al-Hamdi’s assassination in 1977.

Hassan Baoum is the subject of a new letter by HRW . Leader of the Southern (pro-independence) Movement Hassan Bauom and his son Fawaz have been missing since February, in the custody of the Yemeni authorities.

Authorities had detained Hassan and Fawaz Baoum three previous times since 2007 on charges that included planning illegal demonstrations and instigating riots. (Read on …)

Beeb: The UN has added two groups in Yemen and two in Iraq to its annual list of those recruiting or abusing children during armed conflicts.

During Yemen’s recent civil war, as many as 15% of the pro-government militia and 20% of the Huthi rebels were made up of children, the UN says.

Even though that conflict was now over, nobody knew where the children were, said a UN special representative.

The annual report said children were involved in warfare in 22 countries.

“2010 proved another tragic year for children in conflicts all over the world,” said Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict

The Saada Wars were fought by children and the state’s policies of collective punishment targeted children. The kids interviewed had been fighting for years already. The age of maturity in Yemen is 15– by that age many are married, armed, working and chewing qat.

The Obama admin exempted Yemen from legal repercussions for the use of child soldiers.

Yemen: Stop Using Children in Armed Forces HRW: Child Soldiers Recruited by Army Now Deployed by Opposition

(New York) – Child soldiers recruited by the Yemeni army are now being used by a breakaway unit to protect anti-government protesters, Human Rights Watch said today. The United States and other governments should call for an immediate end to the use of children as soldiers or in other security forces, whether for the Yemeni government or the opposition. (Read on …)

State.gov: The main government human rights abuses included severe limitations on citizens’ ability to change their government due to, among other factors, corruption, fraudulent voter registration, administrative weakness, and close political-military relationships at high levels. Arbitrary and unlawful killings, politically motivated disappearances, and reports of torture and other physical abuse accompanied the use of excessive force against civilians in internal conflict. Prisons and detention centers were in poor condition, and some private, largely tribal, ones operated without legal authorization or control. Arbitrary arrest and detention, sometimes incommunicado, and denial of fair public trial were widespread. Official impunity was common. The government restricted civil liberties, including freedoms of speech and of the press, including access to the Internet, peaceful assembly, and religious freedom. The judiciary was weak, corrupt, and lacked independence. Official corruption and lack of government transparency were severe problems. International humanitarian groups estimated more than 300,000 persons were internally displaced as a result of the Saada conflict. Pervasive discrimination against women continued, as did early marriage, child labor, and child trafficking. Discrimination on the basis of religion, sect, and ethnicity was common. Workers’ rights were restricted.

“The Moment of Truth” covers the repression of the current protests, including random violence against demonstrators that left over 100 killed, and the lingering crimes that were never investigated including Saada and the south.

Report can be downloaded here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE31/007/2011/en

Update: live from Tagheer in Sanaa: http://suhailtv.afkarvas.com/

The latest is Ms. Afrah Nasser as profiled by Global Voices Online: Yemeni blogger, Afrah Nasser, lives near the anti-government protest area in the capital Sana’a and has been uploading photos and posts calling for revolution. Nasser is also a journalist at the Yemen Observer Newspaper. She received the following life-threatening message on Facebook on March 13 and decided to post it on her blog the next day, “so the entire world reads it“.

Reuters

The Houthis, Jadban said, want effective representation in a national dialogue to take place if the popular movement manages to remove Saleh from office.

Jadban was until recently a member of Saleh’s ruling party, the General People’s Congress Party until he resigned last week along with 11 other parliamentarians to protest Saleh’s refusal to meet street demands to step down. (Read on …)

The reason Yemen blocked al Masdar Online this week is because the news site was providing Yemenis with the facts about events occurring inside Yemen; its the same reason they blocked me in 2007. There are few quick fixes for the region’s myriad of issues, but free satellite internet access would be one. Luckily for humanity, Walid al Saqqaf devised a work around for governmental censorship of the internet, connecting Yemenis to each other, the world and reality. An article about Yemen Portal and Alkasir from Fast Co:

Yemeni Journalist Offers Facebook and Twitter Access, Piercing Government Blocks

Alkasir makes access to Facebook and Twitter possible in the face of oppressive regimes’ attempts to block them.

Walid Al-Saqaf’s Alkasir is an unsung hero in the recent political overhaul in Egypt and the Arab world. Alkasir–meaning “circumventor”–is what has allowed many ordinary citizens to access Facebook and Twitter and share vital information despite government blocks. (Read on …)

Its such a thug regime. Update: maybe everyone is freed already but its not double confirmed as all Yemen news needs to be. Also Tawakkol may still face charges and a court case, its unclear. Updating the update: yes everybody was freed this afternoon. What a stupid stunt that was… Update 3: from the Yemen Times:

Ali Al-Dailami, one of the activists who were arrested on Sunday, said that they spent twenty-seven-and-a-half hours in an underground “dirty” jail. Al-Dailami is head of the Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms and he said that he was taken violently from the street and shoved into a police car. He also said that police hit him on his neck. Al-Dailami said that they couldn’t bear the smell and the dirt of the Central Prison so they donated money to its officials and made the prison guards buy cleaning detergents.

“We spent most of our time there cleaning the jail,” he said.

Original post-

Yemeni Organization condemns the arrest of its member

By Yemen Organization for Defending Rights , Democratic & Freedoms

The Yemeni Organization is condemning the arrest of Ali al-Dailami Executive Director of the Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights , Democratic & Freedoms along with more than 20 human rights activists. (Read on …)

Why must they do this to me on the day of the NY JETS game? Tawakkol Karaman was arrested at 1:00 am returning from a meeting with an Islah official, triggering protests today. When Khaled al Ansi and Ali al Dailami went to inquire about her status, they were also arrested. Crisis creation is standard policy in Yemen. (Read on …)

1.8 million are out of school, many work on family farms in addition to the half million street children. Poverty drives child marriage and child trafficking in addition to child labor.

Yemen Observer: More than 500 thousand children working in the streets

Article Date: Dec 20, 2010 – 4:19:37 PM

More than 500 thousand children are working in the streets, according to new statistics from the Central Bureau for Statistics. This number has been documented to the Social Affairs Ministry through several implemented surveys. (Read on …)

Hopes of an authentic Yemeni democracy suffered a blow last week when a controversial new election law was approved by Parliament. The move triggered a protest by opposition MP’s in parliament as well as civil activists outside the building, where they were attacked by riot police. The following video was shot on December 14 and shows protesters chanting, “No to injustice, no to tyranny,” prior to an assault by riot police. The protest was organized by Women Journalists without Chains and brought together journalists, human rights activists as well as concerned citizens and opposition party members.

Following Yemen’s 2006 presidential election, the Joint Meeting Parties, the coalition of major opposition parties dropped its challenges to the election result (which predictable returned President Saleh to his throne) in return for an agreement to revise the election laws. The ruling GPC and the JMP agreed to a reform agenda that was largely in line with recommendations from the EU. One topic explicitly included was changing the voting method from “first past the post” to a proportional representation or list method. The current system gives a strong advantage to the ruling party and over the years has diminished the ability of opposition parties, minorities, independents and women to gain seats.

With no progress or meaningful negotiations concluded following the 2006 election, Yemen’s 2009 parliamentary elections were delayed until 2011 to allow time for meaningful negotiations. The two sides again failed to reach common ground or even hold prolonged discussions. The JMP termed the new law “a coup against democracy” and legal experts consider the law unconstitutional. The state’s unilateral decision to forsake consensus further undermines public trust in an already de-legitimized government and will increase instability.

Amnesty International statement on behalf of Zahra Salih follows. God help her. She certainly is at risk of torture or ill treatment.

FEMALE activist detained incommunicado

Zahra Salih, an activist in the Southern Movement in Yemen, has been held incommunicado since 8 November. She is at risk of being tortured or suffering other ill-treatment. Amnesty International is concerned that she may be held solely for the peaceful expression of her right to freedom of expression and assembly, and therefore may be a prisoner of conscience.

Zahra Salih, aged 39, was arrested by security force members on 8 November in Aden, southern Yemen, while she was in a car on her way to a hotel. She has since been detained without access to a lawyer or her family. She is believed to be held at the Criminal Investigation Unit in Aden. (Read on …)

Women Journalists Without Chains also tallies HR violations against journalists by perpetrator, finding the National Security at the top of the list.

Yemen security services ranked first as human rights violators
9/12/2010 – Sahwa Net: National Forum of Human Rights has said that human rights violations sharply increased in last month, November, pointing out that Security services were at the top of the human rights violators list after al-Qaeda organization and other armed groups. (Read on …)

25 Zaids arrested on al Ghadeer day for celebrating the holiday including a 60 year old Imam. His son was arrested when he went to the police station to inquire about his father.

Yemen Times: SANA’A, Dec.1 — Human rights activist Mohammad Al-Moayad was detained by police in Amran yesterday when he went to the police station to enquire why Zaidis were arrested last Friday.

Police arrested at least 25 Zaidis on Friday when they commemorated Al-Ghadeer day, a Shiite religious ceremony. Al-Moayad is a member of the Yemeni Democratic Organization for Defending Human Rights that had obtained permission from the Supreme Court to investigate police charges against the Zaidis. (Read on …)

URGENT ACTION, POLITICAL ACTIVIST DETAINED INCOMMUNICADO
A leader of a political opposition group in southern Yemen has been held in incommunicado detention since 9 November. Amnesty International fears for Hassan Ba’oom’s health and is concerned that he may be held solely for the peaceful expression of his right to freedom of expression and therefore a prisoner of conscience. (Read on …)

The Southern Democratic Assembly (TAJ), appeal to all the countries of the free world, the Arab League, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the UN Security Council and all international and humanitarian organizations concerned with human rights to act urgently against the practice of the Yemeni Authority and the siege imposed on cities and villages of South Arabia, and especially in the Capital Aden.
(Read on …)

Update: the baby was released from prison after 24 hours. Prison conditions in Yemen are truly horrific. Another young detainee is 15 year old Moataz Alasiaii.

Sabri Ahmed Mohsen Suhaibi, three years old, was arrested along with his father on Saturday in the city of Habilayn, Lahj. Aden FM reports his fifty year old father pleaded, “Take me and leave him.”

Local reports indicate “Habilayn was bombed with light and heavy weapons and aircraft flying in the sky of the city today after a protest against the arrest of one of the citizens named Mohsen Suhaibi, a citizen 50 years and his son, child 3 years old. Mohsen Suhaibi does not recognize the authority of the occupation regime.”

For God’s sake, get this child out of jail. Furthermore, it was a perfectly legitimate protest. Who wouldn’t protest the arrest of a three year old? And in response to the demonstration, the military attacks the city, instead of releasing the kid. Next they will call him al Qaeda. Beyond the immorality and inhumanity of arresting a child to torture the parent, the act is surely against international law.

Update: The Yemen Post reports on the arrests and ensuing clashes:

Fierce clashes erupted between the military camp stationing in downtown Al-Habilain in Lahj Province and gunmen in which light and medium weapons were used…The fighting started after soldiers arrested a separatist activist, Muhsen Al-Suhaibi, 43, from Yafi’a, the sources said, adding that the arrest took place while on his way back after he drove his kids to school.

Also lets take a look at this, the PSO torturing imprisoned democracy activists with electric batons in Hadramout:

Local sources said on Friday that the Yemeni occupation forces proceeded to torture ثلاثة من نشطاء الحراك الجنوبي السلمي في وادي حضرموت خلال احتجازهم Three of the southern movement of peaceful activists in Wadi Hadhramaut during their detention بسجن الامن السياسي بسيؤن. Political Security Prison Bsiwn. (Read on …)

A journalist for the state news agency, SABA, Shaea had interviewed Anwar al Awlaki, who is his good friend according to Shaea’s statements at the time. Earlier Shaea had interviewed Nasir al Wahishi and later interviewed Fahd al Quso for al Jazeera. He is being charged with promoting AQAP, but interviews are not a crime. Abdulelah was reportedly scouting targets for al Qaeda attacks and encouraging the assassination of President Saleh and his son, Prince Ahmed. His arrest comes amid an ongoing and worsening crackdown on the media in Yemen and after appearances on al Jazeera that displeased the regime.

RSF press release via Bikyamasr: When the fourth hearing in imprisoned journalist Abdul Ilah Haydar Shae’s trial was held before a special state security court in Sanaa today, prosecutors submitted the contents of his computer as evidence but his lawyer accused them of deception, pointing out that they had produced the computer seized when he was briefly arrested on 11 July, not the one seized when he was arrested a second time on 16 August. (Read on …)