I. Summary and RecommendationsIn the context of recurring armed conflict with Huthi rebels in the northern Sa’da governorate since 2004, Yemen’s security forces have carried out hundreds of arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances of civilians. Since 2007, but especially in the first half of 2008, the extent of arbitrary arrests and “disappearances” expanded, with the government broadening its targets to include persons reporting on the war’s impact on civilians. After negotiations, on July 17, 2008 hostilities in the latest round of fighting ceased, and on August 17 Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced the release of some prisoners. Nevertheless, tens if not hundreds of persons remain in detention, and new arrests have taken place. As documented in this report, the ease and impunity with which security forces arbitrarily arrest and sometimes “disappear” persons warrants a prompt, thorough and independent investigation, and greatly enhanced judicial oversight to prevent such violations from recurring in the future. Those found responsible for arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, whatever their position or rank, should be held to account. The armed conflict between Yemeni government forces and Huthi rebels began in 2004. Husain al-Huthi founded the Believing Youth movement in the 1990s, aimed at reviving Zaidi Islam, a branch of Shi’ism found mainly in Yemen, to counter growing fundamentalist Sunni trends in the northern Yemeni governorates where Zaidis dominate. The conflict began as isolated clashes of the Believing Youth movement (Huthis) with the army in Sa’da. Thereafter, anti-Israel and anti-US demonstrations led by Huthis in San’a, Yemen’s capital, which embarrassed the government after it had embraced US counter-terrorism efforts, led to arrests of Huthis and further clashes with them. Zaidi Hashemites, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, led the Huthi movement. They had ruled Yemen for a millennium and comprised the state’s religious and governing elite until the army-led revolution in 1962, also supported by some Zaidi tribes, deposed them. Zaidi Hashemites are especially prominent in the Sa’da area, where there has not historically been a significant government law enforcement presence. Since the clashes of 2004 there have been five periods of sustained fighting, mostly in the countryside, but in June 2008 escalating to the outskirts of San’a. So far an estimated 130,000 persons have been displaced from their homes in the northern governorates, although some may have returned since July 2008. Over the decade preceding the outbreak of the conflict, Yemen made some advances in the rule of law, especially by setting out rights in the constitution and other legislation, such as the penal code and criminal procedure code. However, these have been eroded by hundreds of enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrests, mainly in the context of the Huthi rebellion but also relating to the government’s domestic counter-terrorism efforts and its crackdown on social unrest in southern Yemen. Estimates of the numbers of persons disappeared or detained vary—Yemeni human rights organizations have documented tens of disappeared, and hundreds arbitrarily arrested at various stages since 2004. In August 2008, officials spoke of approximately 1,200 political prisoners remaining detained, some 130 of whom were gradually being released. Human Rights Watch investigated 62 cases of disappearance and arbitrary arrest linked to the Huthi rebellion for this report. In nearly all of the cases, arresting officials did not identify themselves or inform the detainee or his family why he was being arrested and where he was being taken. The families of persons forcibly disappeared did not know for weeks or months after their arrest whether their loved ones were alive or not, who their captors were, or where they were being held. Some still do not know. Most detainees, when they reappeared, did so at the Political Security Organization, the security and intelligence agency directly linked to the office of President Saleh, after having been effectively “disappeared” for weeks or months without acknowledgement of their location. Some remain missing—the earliest unresolved enforced disappearance investigated by Human Rights Watch dates back to June 2007. Those arbitrarily arrested included a wide range of persons, including many who were not actively participating in hostilities against government forces. They can be grouped into three categories. First are persons effectively held hostage to pressure a wanted family member to surrender or end their human rights activities. Second are Hashemites, adherents of Zaidi Shi’ism who may have been targeted by the security forces on the basis of their religious activism. Third are Zaidis going to or returning from areas of recent fighting between the army and Huthi rebels, or who are otherwise suspected of sympathizing with them. A new and separate category which has emerged over the past two years is that of persons arbitrarily arrested for publishing information about the armed conflict, including journalists and website writers. The government has also cracked down on Hashemite preachers and scholars in Zaidi religious institutions and mosques, apparently conflating the religious motivations that gave rise to the original Believing Youth movement with armed rebellion. Human Rights Watch documented 14 cases of arrests where Hashemite identity or one’s profession as a Hashemite scholar or preacher appeared to be the paramount reason for the arrest. Even activities such as teenagers visiting Zaidi summer camps and attending religious lectures have raised suspicion with the authorities. In 2008 tight government control over information about the conflict characterized the war. The government attempted to prevent details of the conflict from becoming public by preventing journalists and humanitarian workers from going to the conflict zone, by disconnecting all but a select number of mobile telephone numbers, by threatening journalists with reprisal if they report on the conflict, and by arresting persons who transmitted information, or who could have information, about the conflict because they had recently been to or fled the area. The government is particularly sensitive to videos and photographs of the war. Political Security detained a 13-year-old child at the airport for having CDs of Huthi rebels. He remained in incommunicado detention for one and a half months, and was released only after seven months. The government in February 2007 and July 2008 has even arrested persons it had officially appointed to mediate between itself and the Huthis, in an attempt to suppress their activities, when they were about to criticize the government’s commitment to come to a peaceful solution. Despite hostilities ceasing in July 2008, security forces continued to arbitrarily arrest persons from the conflict areas. Displaced persons in the capital remained extremely fearful of arrest. Three groups of internally displaced persons from Sa’da governorate declined to meet with Human Rights Watch because of fears for their own safety. Earlier in 2008, the government arrested persons who had attempted to visit recent conflict areas to assess damage to their property or to bring trapped relatives to safety. The politics of the Huthi-government conflict reach beyond the boundaries of the affected areas. Security forces have also arrested persons of Iranian origin, or suspected of links with Iran or its embassy. The Yemeni government has in the past accused Iran of providing financial and political support to the Huthi rebels. This report does not address allegations of torture that Yemeni human rights organizations have made concerning some of the cases Human Rights Watch investigated. We did not receive first-hand information relating to torture, but enforced disappearances greatly heighten the risk of torture, and allegations of physical or mental pain detainees suffered at hands of the captors, jailors or interrogators should form an integral part of any investigation into “disappearances” and arbitrary arrests. Human Rights Watch urges the government of Yemen to take immediate measures to end the practice of enforced disappearances, release all persons arbitrarily arrested and detained, and promptly try persons charged with a cognizable criminal offense before a court that meets international fair trial standards. The government should also put an end to the violation of the rights to freedom of expression and religion. The authorities should also investigate and discipline or prosecute as appropriate all members of the security forces responsible for “disappearances” and arbitrary arrests. Human Rights Watch further recommends that the international community closely monitor Yemen’s progress in those areas. RecommendationsTo the government of Yemen:With regard to enforced disappearances
With regard to arbitrary arrest and detention
With regard to freedom of expression and religion
To the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United States, member states of the European Union, and the United Nations specialized programs:
MethodologyTwo Human Rights Watch researchers and a consultant visited Yemen for two and a half weeks in July 2008. We conducted 95 interviews with victims and eyewitnesses of alleged human rights violations, local journalists, human rights activists, intellectuals and academics, politicians, and government officials. Of these interviews, 35 concerned cases of arrest and detention, detailing 62 individual cases, plus nine accounts of large groups of persons arrested in the context of the war. Among those we interviewed were former detainees, families of detainees, and others with first-hand knowledge of arrests. In most cases, independent accounts in the media or by human rights organizations confirmed the detention of a person and, occasionally, the reasons for detention. These include the detention of Lu’ai al-Mu’ayyad, Yasir al-Wazir, Abd al-Ilah al-Mahdi, Muhammad Muftah, and Isma’il Ghanima. Interlocutors who helped Human Rights Watch contact victims and persons with firsthand knowledge about arrests, or from the conflict area, included local human rights organizations and members of the Socialist Party, the Islah Party, the Haqq Party (largely representing Zaidis), and the ruling General People’s Congress. We consulted documentation by human rights groups, including the Dialogue (Hewar) Forum, the Yemeni Organization for the Defense of Democratic Rights and Freedoms, the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD), the Yemen Observatory for Human Rights, including lists of persons alleged to be forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily arrested. We had access to extensive court documentation relating to the arrests and trials of groups of alleged Huthi sympathizers and supporters in 2004-2005 and in 2007-2008. We conducted most interviews in Arabic; two Yemenis, a woman and a man, interpreted for one researcher and the consultant; the third researcher spoke in Arabic. We conducted all but two interviews in the capital, San’a. We are grateful to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Human Rights for promptly accommodating our requests to meet them. While in Yemen, Human Rights Watch requested—by telephone on July 23 and in writing on July 28—official permission to travel to Sa’da, but we received no response from the government. Where persons so requested, we have concealed their identities, and used pseudonyms consisting only of a first name. |