[06/February/2010]

Translated by: Fuad Rajeh

SANA'A, Feb. 06 (Saba) – The Ministry of Human Rights has refuted the report of the Human Rights Watch released in mid-December, saying it was totally baseless carrying misinformation about the situations in some Yemeni cities.

The report that focused on the eastern and southern provinces contained fabrications and untrue facts, the ministry said in a statement replying to the report.

The government always takes international reports on Yemen transparently to deal with and answer them, and it also believes that international human rights monitoring and reporting are a healthy phenomenon that can help emerging democracies to have abroad knowledge about human rights and freedom, the ministry said.

'We found the report of the HRW was negatively employed and politically motivated, providing no incentives to ensure better human rights and public freedom in the country.'

'Anyone who goes deeply through the report lines can discover those who conducted it had been partial and relied on unconfirmed stories. The report also did not separate between the concepts of combating crime and violation.'

The first concept is legal, while the second remains attacking the people and their rights on illegal grounds, the ministry said.

Moreover, the report did not specify field sources of its information including fabricated violations and it regrettably re-reported stories posted and published by websites and papers run by the opposition, the ministry said, adding that the report did not take into account mandatory measures the government may take to defend the country's and the people's interest and impose the rule of law.

Urging reporters to exercise maximum accuracy as to what they report, the ministry refuted the report as following:

- The report interviewed only 80 people, that it called victims and eyewitnesses.
- The team who conducted it comprised only of three people, and if we take into account information it contained and the time the three spent in Yemen, almost two weeks, we will find they relied on previously readied information.

- The team met with officials and diplomats but never published their accounts and the report might be leaked to the HRW before meeting Yemeni officials.
- The report was based on information from uncensored outlets including videos, mainly made during protests and on website information mainly youtubes, contradicting the HRW's view of freedom of media.
- The report claimed that the team of the HRW accurately investigated all videos and shots and there were not armed protestors as the government said, though most of protests included armed acts by outlaw elements.
- The team approved they were never faced by direct intervention by the government.
- The team said they were advised not to pay visits to Radfan in Lahj, Dhale, Shabwa and Abyan as it was risky to go their; hence, there was not an accurate field coverage of the situation in these regions. This also means that the team proved armed outlaw elements were roaming in allegedly covered areas.
- The HRW also said that authorities showed readiness to meet its teams and missions.

Background Refutation:

The report included that in 1993 parliamentary elections, the people in the south elected southern candidates, Socialist Party Nominees, and the people in the north elected northern candidates, members of the Ruling and Reform Parties; and this proved that those who conducted the report had no idea about the emerging democracy in Yemen.

- The report accused northern tribes of attacking southern military unites in Amran, a move that triggered the 1994 war, but all this was untrue.
- The report accused the government of sending southern officers to coercive retirement and replacing them with northern military officers. It also noted that the southern people did not get shares of the wealth in their lands, leading to the emergence of the secessionist movement. What the report said in this regard lacked evidence because the government has already established treatments to rights demands and the wealth the report talked about is within sovereign public resources.

- The report said that all security systems and institutions in Yemen were involved in violations against the people in the south and doubted the jurisdictions of the authorities. The ministry: the report bore sophism on this point because it mentioned systems that had nothing to do with the situations in the south and all said about the security authorities were just baseless facts derived from outlaw elements.


Refuting the Report on the Southern Secessionist Movement ( Al Hirak):

- The report said that the first emergence of the movement started with simple demands including reinstating the retirees, claiming the government oppressed protestors from the first moment. In fact, what the report said was untrue because the government has since 2007 embarked on resolving demands, with about 95 per cent of them done. The rest 5 per cent were illegal demands that included unreal and dead names in 1970s and 1980s.


- The report also noted that among the demands of the movement were reducing prices, creating more job opportunities and providing better public services. The refutation is that these demands remained general sought by all the Yemeni people amid economic difficulties in Yemen.

- The report contradicted itself when it said that there was unanimity among all the southern people towards the Hirak, though it pointed at the same time that the Hirak was not fixed and cohesive.
- It also contradicted itself when it said that the HRW team had investigated the photos and videos on protests and there were not armed protestors, though later it said that there were armed clashes between police and protestors.
- What the report said about northerners harassed in the south by secessionists was also a clear evidence of the report contradiction, as it said that the movement was peaceful.

- In this context, the report accused people, it named as sympathizers with the movement, of committing subversive acts in an effort to clear the secessionists of lawbreaking.
- Moreover, it said that members of the Hirak carried out attacks on military posts in the countryside killing troops, in confirmation that the members of the movement took guns against the authorities.
- The report said that the team was briefed on a video that showed members of the movement attacking military camps with automatic guns, contradicting previous words in it that said there were no armed members of the Hirak. These sentences also confirmed how violent the movement was against the authorities.
- The organization also said that it saw armed protestors around the house of Tariq Al Fadhli, a prominent leader in the movement, which clashed with police and also said that it got videos showing armed members of the Hirak surrounding the house carrying machine guns, missile launchers and anti-tank missiles, who later took part in protests and clashed with police.
-The report pointed to the suffering of the northerners living in the south, saying some of them were killed and their shops looted after they declined warnings about their staying in the south.

- Though the report said that the northerners killed haggled with their killers they would give up all their rights if they were not killed, it never pointed to the acts as violations and outlaw crimes.

On al-Qaeda:

what the report said that the government linked the organization to the Hirak in an attempt to beat the movement, citing a statement by the leader of al-Qaeda in Yemen Nasser al-Wuhaishi that said the organization supports the Hirak, was contradictory.

The terror operations in al-Ma'ajala area in Abyan by coutnerterror forces and the position of the Hirak and al-Qaeda on them also proved they are in relationship.

Illegal Use of ' Excessive Deadly Power against Protestors':

Those who conducted the report had no idea about the Yemeni law on the organization of demonstrations, with the report team saying that those who want to hold a protest must take permission from the three authorities, while the law enshrines that permission must be taken from the Interior Ministry. The report also said that the international law on human rights gives the right to the governments to take necessary measures against violent and armed protestors, affirming protestors in south Yemen had guns and attacked the people from northern cities and troops.


The question remains: how can the government preserve security and stability amid such gangs, if the report forbids all measures taken even those under human rights laws?
- In all the details of the report on some protests in the south, it was noticed that all stories in the report were told by protestors; hence, it is logic that what they told was partial and unfair.

Anyway, the report was totally partial in favor of the outlaw elements and lacked objectivity and the words used in this regard such as oppression and murdering were exaggerated and untrue.

Refuting the Report on Tyrannical Arrests and Unfair Trials:

The report said that all arrests by the authorities of outlaw elements were tyrannical and illegitimate as well as an act of confiscating freedom of expression, criticizing security and judicial authorities, though it said that the people were armed protestors, attacked military and economic facilities and attacked the people and looted their properties.
- It cited the texts of international and Yemeni laws that allow the governments to assume their responsibilities for protecting personal freedom and the public dignity, accusing the government of humiliating outlaw elements, as if the laws were established only for these people, with the rights of other people who were killed and whose their properties were confiscated and displaced by outlaws being neglected.
- The report relied on interviews with some people who were arrested and who spoke of unreal stories and treatment, totally rejected by Islam and the Yemeni authorities and society. The HRW team should have investigated all information through concerned authorities while conducting the report.

Refuting the Report on Press Censorship and Violations against the Press:

- The report contained allegations that the government confiscated freedom of expression, suspended publications, blocked websites and attacked some TV channels, as it noted all information about the situation in the south were based on concentrated media coverage.

- It also confirmed that the reporter team did not pay field visits to investigate the facts, and the questions is: how did the organization get such allegations, if it did not take them from outlaw elements?
- The report brought up the suspension of al-Ayyam Newspaper, saying the move was illegal but ignoring that it was within the enforced law and constitution that stipulate a paper must be closed in case it commits illegal acts, like the paper itself did:
-The paper spread the culture of hatred, regionalism, incitement and violence.
- It promulgated the acts of outlaws and subversives.
- It incited committing illegal acts including killing police and people and attacking their properties.
- It did not exercise credibility and accuracy as well as press partiality.

Refuting the Report on Arresting Some Academics and Opinion Leaders:

- The report noted that academic institutions in the south had elements supporting outlaws and cadres who contributed to igniting protests and illegal writing and lectures, and at the same time it accused the government of arresting the people and confiscating their rights. The fact remains that outlaw elements who use academic institutions as stage to ignite the situation, should help enforce the rule of law and avoid being inciters and suspected outlaws.

- The report retold the allegations that all heads of academies and universities in the south were from northern provinces, while in fact this was evidence that the team did not exercise the simplest credibility standards when reporting. Rectors of the Aden and Hadramout Universities are from Shabwa and Hadramout in the south and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Saleh BaSurrah is from Hadramout as well.


Refuting the Recommendations:

- The recommendations in the report were directed for the government, the Hirak and donors, and were supported by allegations of outlaws. They urged the government to abandon violence, tyrannical arrest, unfair trials, and amend the laws on the measures to prevent the confiscation of freedom of expression. They also urged the government to close all illegal jails. But they remain based on baseless stories like the report.

On the recommendation to the Hirak: the report advised the seccessionists to abandon violence and condemn it as if the HRW wanted to notify the secessionists they may exercise violence but they should not announce. The report also advised the secessionists to report to the HRW on any measures the government may take against them, encouraging them to go further with their subversion and violence.

The recommendation to donors and Yemen's neighbors:
Doubtless the recommendation exposed the report's goals, with the HRW inciting donors not to support Yemen and to place conditions for aid to the country. And this implied an obvious call for interfering in Yemen's own matters and depriving Yemen of international aid. The report as whole was aimed at direct and public incitement against Yemen's stability; hence, the ministry had to explain its untrue facts to the public.

General Views of the Report:

True information in the report were employed to serve the outlaw elements, exaggerating about the measures taken to deal with the situations in the country as follows:
- The report said that police replied to protests through using the deadly force against peaceful demonstrators without clear reasons and early warnings, in a violation of international standards for using the deadly force. It cited some events.

- The contradiction of the report: though the report said protests were peaceful, it noted that stones were thrown by protestors forcing anti-riot police to use the deadly force. In the six protests in which the organization went deeply investigating the violations by the government, the report found the government violated all principles and when protests turned violent the government then used the deadly force.

- The report ignored that the outlaw elements incited regionalism, murdered citizens, attacked and killed some police, and sheltered wanted criminals.
Saba