Armies of Liberation

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 Yemen Post adds a line to their write up on the car bombing: On Tuesday, reports surfaced that Al-Qaeda detainees in the Central Prison in Sana’a attacked Houthi detainees, beating them and leaving some of them in critical condition. Its unsurprising. This has been going on for years. This is not a lunchroom fight between two gangs. It is officially sanctioned, repetitive, and occurs in many jails. Al Eshteraki reports in this case, the violence occurred in the PSO prison in Sana’a (from which the the 23 al Qaeda operatives escaped in 2006): Assault on dozens of detainees, “Saada” political security in Yemen, al Eshteraki The revolving door for terrorists is frustrating but even when imprisoned, al Qaeda operatives often have a higher status than other prisoners and “perks.” The following Yemen Times article also touches on takfiri Friday sermons against Ismailis and other Shia sects, and that over 600 Houthi prisoners remain in jail despite the supposed amnesty.

Yemen Times: SANA’A, Nov. 24 — The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) have accused officials in the Political Security Prison of inciting detained Al-Qaeda suspects against their Shiite Zaydis counterparts in the prison.

The organization said in a press release dated Nov. 23, 2010, that officials in the prison provoked suspected Al-Qaeda members who are Sunnis to assault Zaydis detainees claiming that they are Shiites and thus are ‘non-believers’.

Ali Al-Dailami, the executive officer of HOOD told the Yemen Times that his organization reported several assaults against detainees of the Sa’ada war by Al-Qaeda suspects in the prison after they were incited by officials in the prison.

“Four days ago, ten detainees including Al-Ezzi Saleh Rajeh, Nabeel Al-Ezzi Al-Mutwakel, Mohamed Ali, Abdul-Jabbar Al-Jarmozi and others were severely beaten by other inmates,” said Al-Dailami. (Read on …)

Two entirely unrelated stories, 1) US freezes Anwar Awlaki’s assets and criminalizes providing material support to him; 2) After February truce agreement and May’s amnesty announcement, there’s still over 400 rebels in jail and dozens of southerners. In theory, Saleh agreed to release them but we’ve heard it dozens of times before. He uses the prisoners as a bargaining chip against the opposition and the general public.

Gulf Times: Yemen’s government has agreed to free more than 400 people, mostly northern rebels, as the Arab state tries to launch a dialogue with opposition groups, an opposition leader said yesterday.

An opposition coalition and the ruling General People’s Congress (GPC) party signed an agreement yesterday to set up a joint body for a national dialogue, state media reported.

The government is trying to halt conflict in the northern province of Saada with Shia rebels as well as with secessionists in the south.

“As demanded by the opposition in order to sign the agreement, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has issued a directive to free 27 from the southern movement and 400 with links to the fighting in Saada,” the opposition figure, who declined to be named, told Reuters. (Read on …)

Update: Apparently the security had no bullets. Yemen Times:

Last Saturday, armed people attacked the Political Security office in Al-Tawahi district, Aden governorate. They killed 13 people, including seven soldiers, four women and a child.

“What happened is a scandal,” private sources reported told the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. «Armed people attacked the Political Security office in Aden where the security guards could not stop them. They exceeded all the security barriers and entered the security office building without being shot at even once. In the end they departed the place chanting joyfully in a triumphant tone.”

The sources told the newspaper said that there are signs that the attackers were not confronted by the guards who had no guns. According to the locals in Al-Tawahi district, all people who were suspected to be working for political security secretly disappeared during the attack.

OP: That’s hysterical, al Gamish to investigate. Either al Gamish planned it or the arrests and subsequent jailbreak were the result of infighting like occurred with Hamza al Qaiti after all the mortars missed in 2008. There was quite a verbal sparring match between the two in which al Qaiti said he was betrayed by al Gamish. Then he got killed in a shoot-out (like al Fawaz al-Reibi and the Egyptian Dwieder). Head of the PSO, Al Gamish was promoted (or at least got a second position) after the 2006 jail break. He’s been around for decades. The PSO is largely subverted by al-Qaeda but then again, al-Qaeda is also largely subverted by the PSO and sometimes (some of them) act as mercenaries. It was Al-Gamish, along with Saleh who negotiated directly with Abu al Feida on behalf of al-Qa’ida back in 2006. Quite a favorable deal it was for both sides. Al Feida had nothing but praise for the way the Yemeni regime handles the brothers.

Yemen Post: Minister of information , Mr . Hasan Al-lowzi has conformed that Yemen is a partner for the international society in all plans and operations that aim to face terrorism and it is fighting its individuals , Al-thawranet reported.

He said also , responding the question of Al-arabia channel in terms of the armed attack of Al-Qaida in Yemen that aimed political security office in Aden , ” There is a supreme committee presided by General Ghaleb Alqamesh , chief of political security system and the deputy of interior minister , interrogating this event to know every thing about it” .

He clarified that this terroristic work was unexpected for a city that has settlement and security as Aden that he conformed it as a secured city and all its visitors recognize that .

He said ” Today we go to Aden and pass in its streets without escorts and arms , and what happened was unexpected for a city that really distinguished to have a strong security because it is totally forbidden to bear arms in Aden” .

And in terms of security situation in Yemen and efforts paid to face terrorism , Al-lowzi pointed out that there is a fight , country and people are fighting against terrorism works especially Al-Qaida , and war will not be ceased until the specific and marked purposes in security plans to be achieved .

Minister of information also said ” Yemen is fighting really against terrorism , and it is a partner for the international society at facing it and there are threats should be taken to consideration and to be on the alert in the all governorates .

Aden: 11 killed and 12 wounded
AQAP suspects set free from Political Security in Yemen

by Abdullah A. Qaid- For Armies of Liberation

Sana’a- 16 June- At least 11 were killed and 12 wounded Saturday morning in Aden, southern of Yemen, as unidentified gunmen attacked the Political Security office. Most of the dead people were soldiers.

The initial fingerprint of the operation is pointing to the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), security sources said.

About five gunmen wearing military uniforms stormed the security building in Attwahi with fired bullets and bombs that led to clashes inside the building.

During the attack, unknown numbers of prisoners suspected of being members of Al-Qaeda were set free by the operators, security source affirmed.

Although, the clash lasted for nearly half an hour, all the assailants together with the released prisoners escaped successfully.

Three women including the secretary of the director of the Political Security, along with a child was far from the Political Security, were among the dead persons.

The operation comes a day after a release by al-Qaeda threatened to ignite a fire under the earth what it called retaliation for the killing of women and children in Wadi Ubeeda of Marib.

The BBC correspondent in Sana’a quoted as a security source asked anonymity that the incident may come after collusion of security members within the political security.

The Attwahi district of Aden witnessed over the past months two explosions near the building of the Political Security and Television Broadcasting, in which the Director of the Political Security Attwahi and Al-Muala was killed.

According to Yemen News Agency (SABA), the Supreme Security Committee confirmed its intention to pursue the terrorist perpetrators and bring them to justice for their punishment and commended the cooperation of citizens in all provinces with the security services in calling upon everyone to report any presence of these misguided terrorist elements wherever they.

Update, AFP: They brought a bus. Witnesses also said the assailants “were seen leaving the building in a bus, taking people who had been detained there with them,” in what appeared to be a coordinated and well-planned operation.

Oh it just gets flakier and flakier: They all escaped in two cars with no prisoners after an hour of gun battles and RPG attacks. Another update: The local council denies and calls al Jazeera a liar.

(Read on …)

Also new battles leave many dead, wounded and missing.

Yemen Post: Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi has urged the Yemeni authority on the release of Houthi detainees and to convert what he called the declaration of May 22 to the ground.

According to a press release issued by Houthis Information Bureau, the power is still waffling on the release of the detainees so far, reported media sources, have got a copy of the statement. (Read on …)

26 May 2010, YAATC: Lawyer Osama Mansour said that security authorities in Aden arrested a number of persons last Friday in a campaign that targeted parents, activists and protesters who wanted to commemorate the so-called “Declaration of the disengagement” in the town of Sheikh Othman in Aden.

Mr. Mansour described the arrests as “kidnapping” and is calling for families of the detainees to determine their whereabouts.

The security authorities arrested a number of young activists in the campaign of arbitrary arrests, along with a number of residents and passers-by in the streets of Sheikh Osman on the morning of last Friday.

According to their counsel Mr. Mansour, among the newly arrested detainees (denied by the security, ie- disappeared) are activists Abdel Fattah al-Rubaie, the leader of the Youth Union and Walid al-Shuaibi, Mohamed Ahmed Hersi, Khalid Al Alawi.

Mr. Mansour said he received threats this morning to force him to abandon the issue of detainees. Prison is his fate, according to a communication he received.

Mansour commented that is a “a dangerous step,” stressing that he will continue to follow the issue of detainees, despite what he described as “threats.”

Human Rights Watch detailed the Yemeni government’s campaign of mass arbitrary arrests and violence against protesters in southern Yemen in a report entitled, In the Name of Unity.

I know there are many different views on unity, the government and Yemen’s history itself, but one thing we can all agree on is that Yemen is an amazing country, worth all the effort and sacrifice that people put in over the last 20 years to make it better.

To mark the occasion, Saleh pardons everybody. The journalists will be the easiest to track and hopefully they all walk today. The Houthi rebels have been pardoned five times already, so its questionable whether they will really be released, but it would go a long way toward ratcheting down the tensions if they were. Many remain “disappeared” despite the peace deal. As for the southerners, many journalists and politicians are being held under charges of undermining unity and many others with no charges at all. Also we have to watch to see if there is an exodus of al Qaeda from the jails, which I think is rather likely.

More details from Nasser Arrabyee

“According to this dialogue, it is possible to form a government of all the influential political parties represented in the parliament,” said Saleh, speaking in the city of Taez, 230 kilometres (140 miles) southwest of Sanaa…He said the amnesty would apply to “all outlaws” — a reference to the southern separatists, and “anti-government elements who were arrested” in the north, where the Shiite rebels are based on the border with Saudi Arabia. The pardon would affect an estimated 800 prisoners linked to the southern separatists and about 2,000 Shiite rebels or sympathisers in the north. Saleh said that the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP), which is agitating to re-establish south Yemen as an independent state, would be a principal partner in the political dialogue.

Its not the YSP that is agitating for independence. Some YSP members have joined the southern movement but the party is seen by many southerners as a sell out to “northern” interests.

TAIZ, May 22 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh pardoned on Saturday all journalists on trial and those sentenced due to public right cases.

The pardon was granted as the president attended the festival organized on the 20th anniversary of unification in the western province of Taiz.

In his address to the nation on the eve of Unification Day, Saleh ordered to release all detainees held in connection with the Houthi rebellion in the far north, which ended in February this year, and the rioting in some southern provinces.

Aha, we are still waiting for Yemen to investigate itself on several issues including the September 2009 airstrikes that killed 87 civilian refugees sheltering in a field.

(Reuters) – The United Nations torture watchdog urged Syria, Yemen and Jordan Friday to investigate what it called numerous and credible allegations that their police and prison authorities routinely tortured detainees. Its 10 independent experts also voiced concern at “honor” crimes by family members in Syria and Jordan which go unpunished and violence against women and children in Yemen. (Read on …)

Oh yes and its a democracy too! The local elections were stupendous, the media is free and the anti-corruption efforts are zooming right along. They lie and lie and lie some more. The problem with reform efforts in Yemen is that no one in the Saleh administration will acknowledge basic realities. Illegal, retaliatory and arbitrary arrests are among the main drivers of instability and civil unrest. Political prisoners include journalists, children and activists as well as persons officially designated as “hostages” by the state, a particularly abhorrent practice of imprisoning an individual in order to pressure a wanted family member. The comments came at a “Friends of Yemen” technical meeting, held in the hopes of instigating judicial reform, but if the state insists the judiciary is perfect, then there’s nothing to discuss.

SABA: No political prisoner in Yemeni jails, says minister

No political prisoner in Yemeni jails, Minister of Justice Ghazi al-Aghbari re-confirmed on Wednesday. In his meeting with the technical team of Yemen Friends Group over justice and security, the minister said that there are only detainees on charges of committing crimes and outlaw acts based on the 1992 law of punishments.

He pointed out to the outlaw elements that blocked roads, looting and burning public and private possessions under pretext of asking rights and freedom of expression, saying no law in the world authorizes to do such crimes.

The minister reviewed needs of Yemen that might friends of Yemen could support in field of judicial reforms in the country.

Time after time, after time after time, Saleh makes promises and fails to deliver. The Bahsraheel sons are still in jail after last week’s announcement of their impending release and 30 prisoners in Hadramout are on a hunger strike to force the president to live up to his word that political prisoners in the governorate would be released. The strikes by a variety of unions are related to the failure of the state to implement the 2005 Wages Strategy that was devised following the fuel riots.

Yemen Times SANAA, April 20 (Xinhua) — Up to 30 Yemeni political prisoners arrested over anti-unity counts went on an open hunger strike, protesting not being released, security officials said Sunday.

The prisoners began an open hunger strike on Saturday to press local authorities to free them upon a pardon granted by the country’s president early this month, according to a statement signed by the relatives of the detainees. (Read on …)

No surprise there. Update: When I wrote the last article, I wasn’t sure of the break down between the rebels and the arbitrarily arrested, but if we take Abdelmalik’s figure of 1000 rebels in jail and Hassan Zaids figure of 1000 innocent civilians plus 500 disappeared, we come up something around HOOD’s figure of 2000 imprisoned in relation to the war.

Yemen rebel group asks government to free 1,000 detained members, Earth Times

Sana’a, Yemen – A Shiite rebel group that fought the national army in northern Yemen for more than five years called upon the government Friday to free around 1,000 members of the group captured during the conflict that ended in February. (Read on …)

The following list names 39 men jailed in relation to the Sa’ada War, suspected of Houthism although they were not engaged in the war at all, who remain in jail despite the February ceasefire:

1 Name Location((zone)) in the prison from..
2 1 Abd urahman Muhamme Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years *ago
3 2 Muhammed Abd Ulkarym Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
4 3 Esma’ail Ali Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
5 4 Ali Hussayn Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
6 5 Mahmud Ali Hussain Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
7 6 Ali Muhammed Hasan Tamy Washa/Hajjah 3 years
8 7 Muhammed Ali Al Moa’aid Washa/Hajjah 3 years
9 8 Ali Hussayn Al Moa’aid Washa/Hajjah 3 years
10 9 Aziz Hussayn Al Moa’aid Washa/Hajjah 3 years
11 10 Abd Ulhakim Al Moa’aid Washa/Hajjah 3 years
12 11 Ali Muhammed Al rukhmy Washa/Hajjah 5 months
13 12 Ahmed Nasser Al waghirah Washa/Hajjah 5 m
14 13 Abd Ullah Abd Ullah Mashyb Washa/Hajjah 7 m
15 14 Jaber Hussain Mashyb Washa/Hajjah 7 m
16 15 Tawfiq Muhammed Haddan Sa’ada 2 Years
17 16 Ali Muhammed Al Moa’aid Aflah / Hajjah 3 years
18 17 Saleh Sa’aid Al hamdany Kutaf/Sa’ada 7 m
19 18 Qassim Hussain Daqea’a Haydan/Sa’ada 7 m
20 19 Jamal Hussain Hamed Athamer/Sa’ada 7 m
21 20 Muhammed Yahya Hamed Athamer/Sa’ada 7 m
22 21 Ahmed Hussain Al ssofi Athamer/Sa’ada 7 m
23 22 Abd Ulaziz Al mahbashi Al muhabisha/Hajjah 18 m
24 23 Ahmed Ajlan Al ne’emy Al muftah/Hajjah 18 m
25 24 Abd Usalam Al ne’emy Al muhabisha/Hajjah 7 m
26 25 Abd Ullah Muhammed Al muhadwary Al muhabisha/Hajjah 7 m
27 26 Fahd Mansowr Al aqhumy Kuhlan asharf/Hajjah 1 year
28 27 Abd Urahman Khaled al ne’emy Kuhlan asharf/Hajjah 1 year
29 28 Mattary Al muqrany Haydan/Sa’ada 7 m
30 29 Hameed Yahya Al muqrany Haydan/Sa’ada 7 m
31 30 Jaber Hussain Juhayz Aferah/Sa’ada 2 m
32 31 Jaber Al hezzy Aferah/Sa’ada 2 m
33 32 Abd Ulaziz Al awathy Ibb 2 m
34 33 Jaber Hussain Jabhan Razeh/Sa’ada 2 m
35 34 Sadan Hussain Jabhan Razeh/Sa’ada 2 m
36 35 Hasan Al rahwy Kuhlan asharf/Hajjah 3 m
37 36 Esma’ail Ahmed Al madwamy Al muhabisha/Hajjah 3 m
38 37 Jubran Hussain Majash Munabeh/Sa’ada 5 m
39 38 Abd Ullah Muhammed Al tha’eny Washa/Hajjah 5 m

In another version of the story, the police threw the bomb at the inmates. The Yemen Times recaps the protests and violence in Lahj and Dhalie. Update: 26 September says Interior Ministry denies the report (this is version four of the story) and says the media is repeating the news in an effort to create confusion.

SANAA, April 1 (Xinhua) — More than 30 detainees escaped on Thursday after a bomb attacked a prison in the troubled southern Yemeni province of al-Dhalee, security officials in al-Dhalee told Xinhua.

The attack took place early morning when pro-independence protesters took to street and headed to the Security Administration building in the capital city of al-Dhalee, demanding the release of their fellow jailed people, said the sources.

“They approached the security building in an attempt to break in and threw a bomb at the nearby door of the building’s prison,” said the security official on condition of anonymity.

“The explosion almost smashed the prison’s door,” said the source, adding that “undetermined (number of) inmates and policemen were wounded and more than 30 prisoners escaped.”

Additional security troops were deployed around and in the city of al-Dhalee in a bid to chase the escaped prisoners and arrest the rioters.

Meanwhile, in southern Yemeni province of Lahj, at least one southern protester was killed and two others injured Thursday when a demonstration to demand the release of pro-separatist prisoners sparked into clashes with security forces, according to the same source.

Its so brutal. Click here for first hand testimony from tortured prisoners.

Amnesty International
PUBLIC STATEMENT
27 November 2009
Index: MDE 31/017/2009

Yemen: Government should announce commitment to tackle ‘widespread’ torture
(Read on …)

Torture is common in Yemeni jails. The lack of food, medicine, sanitary waste removal contribute to inhumane conditions. Female prisoners regularly become pregnant in jail as a result of rape or forced prostitution. Children are housed with adults. Arbitrary and political arrests are the norm, and legal remedies inconsistently applied at best.

This morning 04/10/2009 Detainee, Bassam Tawfiq Abu Taleb, 20 years old, passed away in the Political Security prison in Sana’a -Yemen – as a result of negligence of the prison administration, where he suffered from epilepsy after being hit by shrapnel in the brain, where he was being infected with 5 to 8 cases of epilepsy a day. He has NEVER been taken to a hospital neither at least given sedatives analgesics.

It never ends. You can’t change reality arresting the journalists who report the news. The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate stopped advocating for jouranalists since the last YJS election.

Referred the political security file colleague Fouad Rashid, editor of Al-Mukalla Press on behalf of the state security, Rashid was arrested on 5 – May forum Alkhisp cultural Mukalla and deposited the Political Security Prison in Al-Mukalla and Sana’a, transfer to 23.6.2009 and since his relatives were allowed to Sanaa yesterday 2/9/2009 visit did not allow non-relatives, journalists and activists to visit him or visit the rest of the detainees at the disposal of mobility in the southern governorates
On the same level appealed to the family of our colleague Iyad Ghanem, who has been in prison since the patience of the province of pilgrimage 1/7/2009 (Read on …)

Al-Marsad and Hemayah Human Rights Organizations demand release of human rights activist Sadiq Al-Sharafi in Yemen.

An important figure at a human rights organization protested that the human rights activist Sadiq Al-Sharafi is still in the prison since 14th of July when the security authority took him to the jail of the National Security before taking him to the Political jail.

” Al-Sharafi’s family members and relatives did not feel any progress in his case except changing his prison from the National to the Political” said Abdulmutaleb Al-Shami- the responsible figure for the legal affairs at Hemayah for Human Rights Organization. (Read on …)

Appeal from the families of the detainees to intervene quickly in Hadramout

That what is happening to our children in Occupation prisons in the Yemeni province of Hadramout and physical torture myself over the past few months of their arrest in the pace of rising the occupier does not shy from using various forms of torture and ill-treatment is not something only for the purpose of humiliation and degradation of the South are eager for freedom and independence. (Read on …)

There’s a list no one can publish that names dozens of women who went into a specific jail and then had a baby more than a year later. The abuse (is that word strong enough?) of female prisoners is systemic and in some areas, organized. Its really very depressing, some of these are young girls.

Update: The post seems to be generating some response, including shock, so here’s a bit of our earlier coverage of the topic: Women Raped and Babies Sold from Jail, a report by the Sajeen Organization; Rape Victim Victimized a Second Time by the State, the cases of Susan M.S. Al-Mudhla’ and Anisa al-Shuaibi; Witness Testimony from Yemeni Prisons, heartbreaking stuff there; and CID Investigated on Rape Charge, not much happened…

The following is a bit from the current report from the Yemen Times:

Hodeida jails house large-scale human rights abuses, including rape, illegal detentions, overcrowding and shortages of food and water, according to a new report prepared by the National Forum for Human Rights.

The worst abuses take place when male guards are in charge of women, said Abdulhafidh Mu’jab, who prepared the report after a team of nine lawyers toured Hodeida detention centers.

“Women located in these unsafe places encourages violations or rapes,” he said.

And many women in Hodeida are detained before trial longer than is legal or humane, in facilities that are inadequate for female prisoners, he added.

“They should work on procedures to release women from prison and makes these procedures as fast as possible,” Mu’jab said.

According to Khalid Ayash, who heads the organization, women do not to report sexual assaults in jails because they fear the severe social stigma associated with rape in Yemen. (Read on …)