Yemen Releases 69 Detainees in the War in the North

Responding to mounting pressure from Human Rights Watch and local human rights groups, President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen ordered the release of 69 detainees who had been arbitrarily arrested in a conflict between government forces and rebels in the north. Human Rights Watch issued two reports on this underreported crisis in recent months, one on unlawful detentions, including the detention of journalists and family members of wanted rebels, and the second on the difficulties of getting humanitarian assistance to civilian communities caught in the fighting. After releasing the second report in Sanaa, we met with high-level officials, demanding that they investigate arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances. Local human rights groups became more outspoken in their demands for the detainees’ release, emboldened by the international attention we drew to their cause. Yemeni activists staged a sit-in at a mosque and presented a petition to the president, calling on him to release the detainees. Human Rights Watch continues to monitor violations of international law in the conflict between the government and rebels in Yemen.