Armies of Liberation

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 …)

Yemen’s NRC Deplores Bombing of Taiz City, Medical Supplies Urgently Needed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sanaa, Yemen (October 6, 2011)—Yemen’s Revolutionary National Council condemned the Sana’a regime’s random shelling of Taiz City and highlighted the urgent need for medical supplies for wounded citizens. (Read on …)

The Houthis are irrationally paranoid and conspiracy minded about everything. As you may recall it was the Houthis, not the Islamists of Islah, that strenuously objected to and cancelled the “Together against Terrorism” nation wide march in Yemen for the 9/11 anniversary, pissing me off entirely. If the Houthis had any contact with the outside world, they would know MSF is an apolitical organization of charitable doctors from across the globe that altruistically volunteer their time to help people in need. And in Saada, after years of war, some children have never seen a doctor in their life. The Houthis apparently fail to recall it was MSF volunteers that drove through the state’s random shelling of Dhyan City in order to care for wounded civilians. MSF statement here doesn’t mention threats; al Masdar is also reporting threats on the medical workers. Others say a power struggle between the Houthis and the govt health office.

Yemen Post: A Non-Governmental Organization working in the northern province of Sa’ada announced today that it was suspending its operations after its staff had been attacked by al Houthi Shi’ite group….The organization reported today that it had been the target of al-houthi’s intimidation tactics as the (Houthi) tribe disagreed with its field work.

The MSF which so far has been mainly distributing food and medecine to the region’s most vulnerable has been accused by al-Houthi of really conducting a “Christianization” campaign.

Residents in Sa’ada have confirmed that the organization has been the victim of a hate campaign by the al-Houthi as the group tried to have the NGO shut down.

Yemen Post: As Yemen is living through its worst spell of violence since the beginning of its popular uprising, with several hundred casualties awaiting medical treatment, the Red Cross is accusing the Yemeni government of theft and abuses.

According to Valerie Petitpierre, the deputy head of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s delegation in Yemen, government forces would have physically assaulted some of her staff as they were trying to confiscate their medical supplies.

“The ICRC delegation is receiving very worrying reports of armed confrontations taking place in Al-Gomhori Hospital and placing many innocent lives at risk,” she said.

Eye witnesses within the hospitals confirmed the allegations, saying that several members of the Red Cross staffs had been beaten and threatened of further reprisals if they insisted in helping the wounded.

Petitpierre went further in her declaration mentioning that “in some cases they have had equipment confiscated, and there have also been incidents in which they were denied access to people in need of first aid.”

She stressed that it was the government’s moral duty to ensure and facilitate medical treatment to all, beyond prejudice or feelings of revenge. “Anyone injured or wounded must be able to receive life-saving health care without undue delay.”

The documents HOOD published were translated by Yemen Rights Monitor, an excellent site in English to follow all the news of the rev.

Regarding the heightened and unusual effects of the tear gas on the protesters, it says in document that the smoke bombs are expired and cause long term health problems, addressed to the interior minister Rashad Al-Masri.

I wrote about a mass grave in Aden in February and as well as later reports of security forces kidnapping wounded protesters to artificially reduce the number of fatalities.

Hood also spoke of its possession of official documents reveal the crimes committed by official orders and official complicity to conceal, other crimes committed, related to some political backgrounds.
Hood confirmed that it received information and testimonies written and documented about the central security forces and gunmen in civilian clothes attacking the demonstrators with live bullets, sharp weapons and poison gas on Saturday night 04/09/2011 in Zubairy Street and Ring Road, which led to the downfall of a number of dead and wounded. Hood quoted witnesses saying that “Nearly 20 people were pulled to some personnel carriers and government vehicles transferred to an unknown destination and their injuries were at the head, neck, chest, abdomen and some of them had died.” Also, confirmed that it had received “certificates for a mass graves in the area of “ Bait Boss , body parts were found in trash barrels in that area, it is believed it belong to protesters who were arrested during the massacre of Kentucky Round in Sana’a. Attorney General has received a notification of this.”
Below is the doctors’ report on the body parts found in Beit Bous.

Crap. Over three hundred infected, mostly children, and six dead. I am not certain its actually small pox, hopefully and more likely, its chicken pox. Many of the children of Saada have never seen a doctor in their lives and a number have not been vaccinated despite the good efforts of international medical organizations.

Ray News

According to medical sources in Saada province that there is a widespread heavy to smallpox in the province under the complete lack of health services.
وأكدت المصادر الطبية لــ ” التغيير ” أن حالات الإصابة بمرض الجدري وصل إلى 360 إصابة معظمهم من الأطفال والشباب, منها 6 حالات وفاة, موضحة أن هذا المرض خطير وهو من الأمراض المعدية. The sources said that the medical “change” that the incidence of smallpox arrived to 360 injured, mostly children and young people, including 6 deaths, adding that this is a serious disease of infectious diseases.
وناشدت المصادر الطبية وزارة الصحة العامة والسكان سرعة النزول للمحافظة وتوفير العلاج اللازم لهذا المرض. And appealed to medical sources, the Ministry of Public Health and Population speed down to maintain and provide the necessary treatment for this disease.

This statement links the doctors’ kidnapping with President Saleh’s address trashing female political participation as immoral because it encourages mixing. (From the same man who promised and reneged on female quotas in the 2006 election and promised and reneged on a minimum marriage age of 15.)

This statement also notes that the units of the security forces that are slaughtering the protesters are the same that have received increased US support, funding and training over the last year in an effort to stand up viable counter-terror units, the Central Security and the Republican Guard. While Saleh’s agreement to let western CT teams roam the country side was considered a success in itself, predictably the US efforts did not produce significant results in dismantling the AQAP network.

Its remarkable that Saleh, a pathological liar, has even a shred of credibility left with the international community. Everything he is doing now is a stall tactic. Saleh has no intention of resigning. Its disappointing the US military pinned US national security on a documented war criminal who openly murdered his own citizens in cold blood for a decade. Equally disappointing is the US failure to understand who and what they are dealing with even at this late stage.

Today, the Saleh’s Central Security Forces and troops of thugs Kidnapped four female doctors from the ambulances trucks where they were providing humanitarian relief for wounded young protesters Sana’a. The doctors with other young protesters were led to National Security detention which is technically and financially supported by U.S.A, and managed by Saleh’s nephew, Ammar Saleh.

The central security forces and thugs attacked the peaceful demonstrators with heavy stacks, poison gas and live bullets. Three young protesters killed and hundreds injured

According to eyewitnesses, security forces were shooting gas bombs directly to the bodies of the protesters. Also the security forces shielded the thugs and enabled them to shoot protesters with live bullets.

The demonstration of today came after Sale’s statement of last Friday which he criticized the participation of women side by side with men in the protest squares and described it as “haram”. That statement encouraged Saleh’s thugs to gather today and to call women protesters as dishonored. They also called others to break into the square where women are sit-in.

It is worth mentioning that the series of killings, abductions, crimes against humanity and crimes of mass murder carried out by Saleh’s against the peaceful protesters demanding Saleh to step down from power are continuing for 3 months now killed more than 200, thousands wounded and hundreds are kidnapped.

Peoples of the world especially women and humanitarian organizations please help Yemen and demand your governments to make Saleh’s step down from power immediate.

Update: At the Hague, Yemen says they were internationally approved CS and CN types of riot control gasses and, “Despite of the results of this report which refutes the use of toxic gases , the Yemeni government has made a formal request to the World Health Organization to send experts from the organization to examine the cases.” That would be good. via SABA

Original: That makes sense, anybody remember the lab that was found in oh 2009 in Sanaa. The Saddamists in Sanaa have always been a negative influence, including in Saaada, where co-incidentally there were also reports of chemical weapon use. I can’t believe the international community hasn’t rushed in there to test it at the first report and that the US embassy came out with some mealy mouth statement that the US does not have the capacity to determine the ingredients and can’t help in any way on the issue. Imagine the response if it was Iran? If its homecooked, the US really should get some testing going otherwise it is going to be widely perceived as of US origin. And you would think the US would want to know if anyone in Yemen is cooking their own nerve gas for many reasons. Mohammed Qatan is a leading reformist member of Islah. France24 has more doctors disputing the possibility that tear gas caused the symptoms of some protesters.

al Baida News: The protesters called for allowing ambulances to transport the injured, and demanded from the Yemeni army forces to protect them from the special forces, security and ruling party militants, according to one of the protesters.

Medical sources said that the U.S. made gas as it is written on it in bottles

To that revealed to Muhammad Qahtan spokesman for the joint opposition bloc that “they have information that the gas in which they are beating the protesters are prepared in private rooms in the special forces led by the son of Yemeni President Ali Ahmed and Dean are being prepared by Iraqi experts.”

Of course I’m wondering if its the same as the old gas from 2005…

Most of the protesters reach to the portable hospital in case of loss of consciousness for short times, dizziness, and significant decrease in blood pressure, cold extremities and shortness in breath.

The protesters whose breath this type of gases (which is first time seen by me, where I am a physician –in medical services of internal ministry), really I don’t have an idea from where this stuff is coming from?

The injuries which are reach us rather than gases accidents are about 6 cases of gun shuts, one of them record a direct head shut, in dangerous status in operation room right now.
And the other 5 cases are 3 of them had a superficial injuries including upper and lower limbs.

And 2-3 cases of “rubber gun shuts” directed to a sensitive areas like lower back.

The police also use the electrical rods on the chest region directly-the police man who are using this electrical tools don’t know that like this voltage of electricity affecting a camel or an ox to fall down- how about this youth who don’t have any type of tools to defense?

Are they cattle prods or are they tasers approved for use on humans?

The massacre in Aden Feb 25-26 killed many. We previously identified 19 by name, and about half of the 122 wounded. With the addition of the three fatalities listed below, the new total is 22 killed. As earlier reported, bodies of dead protesters were collected from hospitals in Aden and sent to Basuhaib Military hospital in Tawahi. The new information is that early Sunday morning, Feb 27, the military buried some of the corpses stored at the Ba-Suhaib military hospital in one grave at a military camp in Salahu Deen just outside little Aden. Many protesters in Aden were arrested, some pulled wounded from hospitals. The state continues to withhold information from families regarding who is in state custody in jail.

1. Mohammed Ahmed Saleh
2. Tareq Khalid Alwan
3. Waseem Ali Taha

in Arabic: (Read on …)

I try so hard not to curse and some days its really difficult. Al Masdar and very credible local sources are reporting that security forces collected the dead from Aden hospitals and moved them to Basuhaib Military hospital in Tawahi, controlled by the defense ministry. Security forces at the Basuhaib hospital refused to release the corpses to their families, as Yemeni authorities are attempting to disguise the scale of yesterday’s death toll.

Related: HRW

, YEMEN, FEB 26: The casualty toll from last night’s attacks on protesters in Aden is rising. This afternoon, we spoke to doctors from two out of three hospitals that received the victims last night. One hospital treated 29 wounded victims, one of whom died and two remain in critical condition. The wounds, according to the doctor, were mostly in the legs.
Two victims had been wounded by machine-gun bullets, the doctor said. (Read on …)

Yemen blocked medical supplies and arrested doctors throughout the Saada Wars (2004-2010) as policy. It was horrendous, especially as the state was bombing residential civilian areas, villages and cities.

Violence escalates in Yemen: Two protesters are shot dead and others injured

By: Nisreen Shadad, hoodonline, edited by: Jane Novak

The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, (HOOD), has been informed about the attack against the demonstrators on February 22, 2011, close to Sana’a University. Two protesters died and about eighteen are injured.
(Read on …)

Its not hidden, its just that no body talks about it.

JPost: According to Dr. Hisham Al-Nabhani, a psychiatrist at Al Amal psychiatric hospital, about six cases like Samir’s cross his door every month seeking treatment for alcohol abuse.

“They usually come after drinking for three or four years,” Al-Nabhani told The Media Line. “Most of them have high economic status, are the sons of military officers or businessmen who have money and therefore access to alcohol.”

Al-Nabhani said most of them had lived in Saudi Arabia for extended periods. (Read on …)

Summary: The Houthis captured AQAP operatives and Dammaj “students” -perhaps teachers- Hussain al-Tais and Mashhour al Ahdel in al Jawf in August. Al Tais, a former Gitmo detainee, was active in Saada, associated with General Ali Mohsen and Ammar al Waeli and thought to be involved with the kidnapping of the Germans in June 09. The rebels turned the two over to the security forces. AQAP then kidnapped the deputy director of the PSO in Saada, Ali Hosam, and issued a deadline for al Tais’s release. There was no further news on al Hosam. The two suicide attacks this week on the Houthis are thought to be in retaliation for al Tais’s capture. Yesterday AQAP kidnapped the head of the hospital in Saada to bargain for al-Tais’s release. They took him to the Wadi Abu Jubarah al Qaeda training camp. Ali Mohsen negotiated successfully with the AQAP kidnappers for the doctor’s release, based on a promise of the prisoners’ release, according to al Eshteraki and Yemen Online. Or possibly blacklisted weapons dealer Fares Manna did the negotiating, according to AFP via al Sahwa:

“Dhafer al-Shihri was freed after mediation led by a tribal chief, Sheikh Fares Mannaa,” the source told AFP, on condition of anonymity. He said the kidnappers who seized the doctor on Sunday had agreed to the release after a pledge that one of the jailed men, Abdullah al-Dibai, held for more than a year on charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda, would be freed…

“The kidnappers drove the hostage to the region of Wadi al-Ghabara,” 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Saada, a local official who asked not to be identified told AFP. They had demanded the release of nine members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) imprisoned in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

“Among them are Saleh al-Tyss (ed- a/k/a Hussain al Tais) and Abdullah al-Ahdal (ed- a/k/a Mashhour al Ahdal per an earlier AQAP statement), two leaders of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula held in Yemen, and Saleh al-Shihri, another AQAP leader jailed in Saudi Arabia,” the local official added….

Tension has been rife between the Shiite rebels and AQAP in northern Yemen since the rebels detained five Al-Qaeda members whom they handed over to Yemeni authorities over the past two weeks.

Also the doctor in an interview after his release reports seeing three other kidnapped Yemenis, including a military officer, so that’s a hopeful indication of the fate of kidnapped PSO Commander Hosam.

(Read on …)

A 14 year old girl was raped by her father and became pregnant. For God’s sakes, why would the judge put her in jail and not a hospital?

al Tagheer: Lawyer Adnan Al Jabri, who pleads in the case of a child raped in the governorate of Ibb, expressed his displeasure at what was happened to Sumaia M. A. A. (14 years) who was raped by her father and then sent to prison, when he tried to release her through a number of memoranda from many authorities, including human rights, but all the attempts have failed.

The Yemeni police has arrested on October 5, 2010 a person accused of raping his daughter, who made pregnant.

According to exclusive sources of “Al Thagheer” the Security Administration in Khadeer Al Odein in Ibb governorate accused “M. A. A. 37-year-old,” of raping his daughter (Sumaia) 14-year, last month.

Lawyer Al Jabri, said in a statement to “Al Thagheer” that the head of Mudaikhara Court, Judge Ali Issa, is insisting on imprisoning her without justification.

Al Jabri added: she was investigated just as a defendant and was taken into the custody of the central prison in Ibb, rather than taking care of her in any social department, and her only fault that she was raped by her father and made her pregnant, which caused her psychological health to decline, as well as the continuous delay of the DNA examination, pointing out that the lack of such tests in such issues, which happen to lives of female children, that the scarcity of centers or private hospitals is the biggest obstacle in the proceedings of the case, stressing that such an examination identifies the perpetrator of the crime and according to it the litigation continues. (Read on …)

Local authorities do nothing, again. Lets hope its not screw worm again because that’s communicable.

al Tagheer: He appealed to the people of the Beni Department Bakary Jabal Habashi in Taiz governorate and the Ministry of Agriculture and the local authority to maintain the speed of intervention to curb the epidemic of strange cause the deaths of dozens of cattle a few days ago. (Read on …)

Thank God. What happens when a baby gets tetanus, usually through infection of the umbilical cord after birth, is that it withers and dies, slowly and painfully. As I noted in my recent article, one third of under five deaths in Yemen are from vaccine preventable illnesses. (And another significant portion can be traced to dirty water.) The maternal mortality rates may be understated in the following article. Its difficult to say anything about Yemen with clarity, but some estimates go as high as 340 deaths per 10,000 births. With two vaccine doses, the mother is able to provide some immunity for her newborn. Public awareness of the importance of keeping the umbilical cord clean is another issue. The medical workers still can’t get into Sa’ada though.

Up 1.7 mln women to be immunized against tetanus in Yemen
[09/أكتوبر/2010] SABA

SANA’A, Oct. 09 (Saba)– The Ministry of Public Health and Population in collaboration with UNICEF will launch on Saturday a weeklong Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus Elimination (MNTE) Campaign from 9-14 of October 2010. In a press release, UNICEF said that the campaign will target 1.7 million women of child-bearing age (15-49) in 202 districts in 14 Yemeni provinces. (Read on …)

Yemen Times

HODEIDA, August 18 — Dialysis patients in Hodeida have been waiting since last Sunday without treatment due to lack of materials in the governmental Center for Nephrology and Urology in the city.

On Sunday, women and men waited outside the center for treatment, although the materials required for dialysis had run out. (Read on …)

The issue of non-iodized salt has come up before and its a change that could positively impact the nation.

Yemen Post: 70 per cent of salt at the Yemeni markets is non-iodized, a study by the UNICEF Nutrition Program has said. (Read on …)

Yemen Post

Head of the Association for Rehabilitation and Care of Yemeni Disabled Ali Ahmed Al-Wajih said on Thursday that 10 per cent of the Yemeni population is disabled. Roughly two million of the total population estimated at more than 20 million people are disabled, he said.

Hundreds of Yemeni people become physically and mentally disabled a day due to conflicts, tribal disputes and road and work-related accidents, he made clear. (Read on …)