kayhan.ir

News ID: 41010
Publish Date : 24 June 2017 - 21:19

Saudi Arabia’s Torture Program in Yemen



By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
 
This just in: Saudi Arabia and its partners in crime have secret detention centers in Yemen specifically designed to torture Yemeni prisoners on the pretext of fighting terror.
To this end, hundreds of men have so far disappeared into 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.
Worse still, senior Pentagon officials acknowledge that U.S. forces have been involved in interrogations of detainees in Yemen as well. Silly enough, they also deny any participation in or knowledge of human rights abuses. This is while interrogating detainees who have been abused and tortured violates international law, which prohibits complicity in torture.
Official reports have documented at least 18 clandestine lockups across southern Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and created and trained by the United States, drawing on accounts from former detainees, families of prisoners, civil rights lawyers and Yemeni military officials. All are either hidden or off limits to Yemen’s government and the United Nations.
This is because the secret prisons are inside military bases, ports, and even an airport. Some detainees have been flown to an Emirati base across the Red Sea in Eritrea.
Several U.S. defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the topic, told the media that American forces do participate in interrogations and abuse of detainees at locations in Yemen, provide questions for others to ask, and receive transcripts of interrogations from Emirati allies. They say U.S. senior military leaders were aware of allegations of torture at the prisons in Yemen, looked into them, but were satisfied that there had not been any abuse when U.S. forces were present!
This is wishful thinking. Human Rights Watch says the abuses "show that the U.S. hasn’t learned the lesson that cooperating with forces that are torturing detainees and ripping families apart is not an effective way to fight extremist groups.”
Amnesty International has also called for a UN-led investigation "into Saudi Arabia’s, the UAE’s and other parties’ role in setting up this horrific network of torture” and into reports the U.S. interrogated detainees or received information possibly obtained from torture. "It would be a stretch to believe the U.S. did not know or could not have known that there was a real risk of torture.”
Judging from the above, it is clear that Saudi Arabia, the United States and their partners in crime never tried to turn the page on the Bush era. They promised to end the torture of terror suspects, arguing that these inhuman acts had undermined America’s credibility. But still they continued the Bush administration’s use of torture in Yemen. They even resurrected special military courts at the Guantanamo Bay – the place they had promised to shut down.  
By not prosecuting the torturers and those who ordered the torture, under the pretext of fighting terror, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the mere extras have become accessory to the war crimes the Bush administration began through the rendition program. The U.S. Statute states: Whoever, knowing that an offense has been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial or punishment, is an accessory after the fact.
In any case, the UN is expected to interfere and issue its observations and recommendations. It is expected to avoid politics and expose the truth about detainee torture and abuse, which is still part of an endemic system of abuse, not only at secret CIA prisons the world over, but in Yemen which is still under U.S.-backed, Saudi-led occupation and war.
With the Saudis and their American allies still crossing the line on torture and international law, and even acknowledging it, the UN should hold the Trump administration to account for relieving, comforting and assisting Saudi Arabia and all those who torture and countenance torture in Yemen. They have all stained themselves with crimes against humanity in the poorest country in the Middle East.