Page 11 - aruba-today-20181208

A11
WORLD NEWS Saturday 8 december 2018

Ex-inmates: Torture rife in prisons run by Yemen rebels

By MAGGIE MICHAEL ed the deaths of civilians
Associated Press from strikes by drones in the
MARIB, Yemen (AP) — United States' campaign
Farouk Baakar's mistake against al-Qaida's branch
was taking a selfie. in Yemen.
The Yemeni medic was on Abuses by the Houthis have
duty at al-Rashid hospital been less visible to the out-
the day when a bleed- side world.
ing man was brought into Houthi leaders previously
the emergency room with have denied they engage
gunshot wounds and signs in torture, though they did
of torture. He had been not respond to repeated
dumped on the side of AP requests for comment in
a highway after being recent weeks. The Houthis'
held in a prison run by the Human Rights Ministry said
Houthi militiamen who con- in late 2016 that "there is no
trol northern Yemen. He'd policy or systematic use of
been whipped across the torture on prisoners."
back and hung by his wrists But within the movement, a
for days. moderate faction has ac-
Baakar spent hours remov- knowledged abuses and
ing bullets and repairing sought to end them. Yahia
ruptured intestine. He tend- al-Houthi, the brother of the
ed to the patient's recovery Nurses change the dressings on the severe burns covering Monir al-Sharqi, at the Marib General group's top leader, set up a
for 80 days and, at the end, Hospital in Yemen in this July 25, 2018 photo. committee in 2016 to inves-
agreed to pose for a selfie Associated Press tigate reports of torture. It
with him. helped free 13,500 prison-
Weeks later, Houthi secu- tigation found, suffered ex- United States. As a trust- to Sabah Mohammed, a ers in its first three months.
rity officials grabbed the treme torture — smashed building measure, the two representative of the group The committee sent a vid-
man again. They searched in their faces with batons, sides agreed to release in the city of Marib. eo report to the leader, Ab-
his phone and found the hung by their wrists or geni- several thousand prisoners, The mothers' group says del-Malek al-Houthi, show-
photo. tals for weeks at a time or though details still must be at least 126 prisoners have ing scenes of overcrowded
Militiamen stormed the hos- scorched with acid. hammered out. died from torture since the prison wards along with tes-
pital in the port city of Ho- The AP spoke with 23 peo- But while the government Houthis took over the capi- timony from senior Houthis
deida, blindfolded Baakar ple who said they survived would release captured tal, Sanaa, in late 2014. on the committee who said
and hustled him away in a or witnessed torture in Houthi fighters, the rebels Amnesty International says they saw signs of torture.
pickup truck. Because he'd Houthi detention sites, as would largely free civilians that "horrific human rights The video was not made
given medical help to an well as with eight relatives who, like Baakar, were im- abuses, as well as war public, but the AP obtained
enemy of the Houthis, they of detainees, five lawyers prisoned during sweeps crimes, are being commit- a copy.
told him, he was now their and rights activists, and aimed at suppressing op- ted throughout the country "What we saw would make
enemy too. After his arrest three security officers in- position and obtaining by all parties to the con- you cry tears of blood," one
in mid-2016, he spent 18 volved in previous prisoner captives who could be flict." committee member says in
months imprisoned. Dur- swaps who said they saw traded for ransom or ex- But international outrage the video.
ing that time, he says, they marks of torture on inmates. changed for Houthi fighters over the bloodshed in Ye- Abdel-Malek never re-
burned him, beat him and These accounts under- held by the other side. men has largely focused on sponded to the video. In-
chained him to the ceiling score the significance of an The Abductees' Mothers abuses carried out by the stead, hard-line security of-
by his wrists. agreement on a prisoner Union, an association of fe- U.S.-backed and Saudi-led ficials shut down the com-
Baakar and his patient swap reached in Sweden male relatives of detainees military coalition fighting on mittee and briefly detained
are among thousands im- on Thursday at the start of jailed by Houthis, has docu- the side of the Yemeni gov- two of its members.
prisoned by Houthi rebels U.N.-sponsored peace talks mented more than 18,000 ernment. The AP has ex- The video report echoes
during Yemen's four-year between Yemen's Shiite detainees in the last four posed torture at secret pris- the accounts victims gave
civil war. Many of them, Houthi rebels and the Ye- years, including 1,000 cas- ons run by the United Arab to the AP.q
an Associated Press inves- meni government, backed es of torture in a network of Emirates and their Yemeni
by Saudi Arabia and the secret prisons, according allies and has document-