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WORLD NEWS Thursday 21 June 2018

Sexual abuses rampant in UAE-controlled prisons in Yemen

By MAGGIE MICHAEL a Pentagon spokesman,
Associated Press said that the U.S. has seen
CAIRO (AP) — The torturers no evidence of detainee
followed a schedule. abuse in Yemen.
Beatings on Saturdays, tor- "U.S. forces are required
ture on Sundays, and Mon- to report credible allega-
day was a break. The next tions of detainee abuse,"
three days were the same he said. "We have received
routine. On Fridays, it was no credible allegations that
time for solitary confine- would substantiate the al-
ment. legations put forth in your
From inside a Yemeni prison line of question/story."
controlled by the United On May 24, the House of
Arab Emirates — a top U.S. Representatives voted to
ally — a Yemeni detain- require Defense Secretary
ee held without charges Jim Mattis to investigate
chronicled torture and sex- the scope of U.S. involve-
ual abuses through draw- ment in UAE black sites. The
ings. Smuggled to The As- This undated photo obtained by The Associated Press shows a drawing of prisoners being language, which would still
sociated Press from the Beir transported in a pickup truck to an Emirati-run prison in Yemen. need to pass the Senate,
Ahmed prison in the south- Associated Press would require the Defense
ern city of Aden, the draw- Department to submit a
ings offer a grim glimpse were exposed by an AP direction of Emirati officers the detainee, film him while report within 120 days to
into a hidden world of fla- investigation last June. The use various methods of sex- raping, use it as a way to Congress.
grant human rights abuses AP has since identified at ual torture and humiliation. force him to work for them," Reacting to the AP's re-
by UAE officers acting with least five prisons where se- They rape detainees while he said, speaking on condi- port, the State Department
impunity. curity forces use sexual tor- filming the assaults. They tion of anonymity because called the allegations "dis-
Sexual violence is a primary ture to brutalize and break subject prisoners' genitals of concerns for his safety. turbing" and called on the
tool aimed at brutalizing inmates. to electric shocks or hang The official has since de- UAE to investigate.
the detainees and extract- Yemen's war began in rocks from their testicles. fected from the Emirates UAE officials did not re-
ing "confessions," the art- 2015, after Iranian-backed They sexually violate oth- and fled the country. spond to requests for com-
ist and six other detainees Houthi rebels took over ers with wooden and steel American officials con- ment, but the country's
told the AP. much of the country's poles. firmed last year that the permanent mission to the
The drawings — made on north. Saudi Arabia and "They strip you naked, then U.S. has interrogated some United Nations in Geneva
plastic plates — show a man the UAE are leading a co- tie your hands to a steel detainees at the secret released a statement after
hanging naked from chains alition to fight the rebels, pole from the right and the prisons run by the UAE. The publication.
while he is being subjected but UAE forces have over- left so you are spread open Pentagon has insisted that "The UAE has never man-
to electric shocks, another taken wide swaths of terri- in front of them. Then sod- it had no knowledge of hu- aged or run prisons or se-
inmate on the floor sur- tory, towns and cities in the omizing starts," said one fa- man rights abuses. Obtain- cret detention centers in
rounded by snarling dogs south. The U.S. is backing ther of four who has been ing intelligence extracted Yemen," the mission said.
as several people kick him, the coalition with billions of in detention for more than by torture would violate in- But Yemen's interior min-
and graphic depictions of dollars in arms, and part- two years and who, like ternational law. ister has said he does not
anal rape. ners with the Emiratis in anti- other detainees, spoke on The AP first asked the Pen- have authority over prisons
"The worst thing about it terrorism campaigns. condition of anonymity for tagon about grave rights and must ask for UAE per-
is that I wish for death ev- Emiratis have swept up fear of retaliation. abuses committed by the mission to enter Aden. Of
ery day and I can't find it," hundreds of Yemeni men A former security chief who UAE, its partner, one year five prisons where the AP
the artist said, summing up on suspicion of being al- was involved in torturing to ago. But despite well- found sexual torture, four
nearly two years in deten- Qaida or Islamic State mili- extract confessions told the documented reports of are in Aden, according to
tion that started last year tants. The prisoners are held AP that rape is used as a UAE involvement in torture three Yemeni security and
after he spoke against the in at least 18 hidden prisons way to force detainees to by the AP, human rights military officials who spoke
Emiratis in public. without charges or trials. cooperate with the Emiratis groups and even the Unit- on condition of anonym-
The UAE's secret prisons Witnesses said Yemeni in spying. ed Nations, Marine Maj. ity because they feared
and widespread torture guards working under the "In some cases, they rape Adrian Rankine-Galloway, retalitation.q