Local Editor
A group of human rights, civil liberties, and religious organizations sent a joint letter to the US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Mike Pompeo, and the Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Andrew McCabe urging them to “make public to the fullest extent possible without disclosing sources and methods, any reviews conducted by your agencies into allegations that US-allied forces of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and UAE-backed Yemeni forces have been responsible for serious abuses in Yemen.”
Last month, an AP investigation revealed a secret network of prisons in southern Yemen where abuse is routine and torture extreme — including the “grill,” in which the victim is tied to a spit like a roast and spun in a circle of fire.
AP documented at least 18 clandestine lockups across southern Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates or by Yemeni forces created and trained by the Gulf nation, drawing on accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials.
The joint letter, sent on August 2, read asked the agencies to “publicly disclose any actions the United States has taken with respect to any UAE or Yemeni forces implicated in serious abuses.”
The organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International USA also called for reviews to be conducted to clarify if the involvement of the US military in some interrogations.
The groups express their concerns regarding “comments from several U.S. defense officials and military leaders that they had looked into allegations of abuse by UAE and Yemeni forces but were confident no abuses had taken place ‘when US forces [were] present.’”
They also called on the United States to “inquire into and report on credible allegations” from family members of detainees and Yemeni regime officials that some prisoners had been transferred from UAE or Yemeni custody to a UAE-run military base in Eritrea without a fair means to contest the transfer, urging it to “press the UAE and other forces implicated to make publicly available a list of all detention sites and provide information on all those in custody or who died in detention.”
The UAE is part of a Saudi-led, U.S.-backed coalition meant to forcefully reinstate the former regime of resigned President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi. At the same time, the coalition is helping the U.S. target al-Qaida’s local branch, one of the most dangerous in the world, as well as Islamic State militants.
A small contingent of American forces routinely moves in and out of Yemen, the Pentagon says, operating largely along the southern coast. Under the Trump administration, the U.S. has escalated drone strikes in the country to more than 80 so far this year, up from around 21 in 2016, the U.S. military said. At least two commando raids were ordered against al-Qaida, including one in which a Navy SEAL was killed along with at least 25 civilians.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by Website Team
