Human rights group demand release of prisoners

Human rights groups in Yemen demanded on Tuesday that all detainees of a conflict in northern Yemen be released without exception, in accordance to a presidential pardon issued in September 2005. The group said that relatives of the detainees had complained that most of those pardoned were still in prison. Roughly 630 followers of the Shi’ite cleric Badr Eddin Al-Houthi, who led a two-year armed rebellion in Sa’ada, in the north of the country, were detained between 2004 and 2006. The anti-government movement accused Sana’a of being pro-US. The authorities in turn said the dissidents were promoting hatred in mosques against the west and promoting extremism in the country. In June 2004 troops were sent to quell the movement in Sa’ada. "Most of the relatives told us that only about 150 detainees had been released so far," Amal Basha, chairperson of the local NGO, Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights (SAF) said in Sana’a. "We want the President's pardon decree to be implemented by releasing all detainees without any exception," she added. President Ali Abdullah Saleh had issued a pardon decree on 25 September 2005, ordering the release of all detainees held over the Sa’ada war. No number was given in the decree. He also ordered fair compensation for those affected by the conflict, as well as the allocation of $150 million for development projects in the governorate. On 3 March 2006, the state-run media announced the release of 630 supporters after 80 MPs had visited the war-affected areas in Sa’ada. "The pardon decree should not suppress the truth, there have been violations of the laws and international conventions in that war," said Basha. "There is no transparency, everyone is keeping the information ‘top secret’, including the president, the political security (intelligence) and the media," she said. The human rights activist demanded the formation of a committee to determine who is responsible for the decree. Amnesty International (AI) also demanded the execution of the presidential decree as soon as possible. "The problem facing us here is that we do not know exactly how many prisoners are included in the pardon decree, we cannot find a certain body responsible for the implementation of this decree and the mechanism being used to implement it," said Dina Al-Mamon, AI representative, who is currently visiting Yemen for this issue. No one from the government would comment on this issue. Thousands of people from both sides were killed and injured in the two-year long war. Al-Houthi himself was killed by government forces in 2005.