Yemen’s government has opened an investigation into alleged torture and forced disappearances by the United Arab Emirates and its allied Yemeni forces in the country’s south. Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr on Saturday ordered a six-member committee, chaired by Justice Minister Mohamed Omar, to focus its probe on areas recaptured from Houthi fighters and their allies.
The panel has 15 days to conclude its investigations and report back to Dhagr. The reports of abuses were revealed in two separate investigations conducted by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) group and the Associated Press (AP) news agency. HRW and AP said the UAE financed, armed and trained Yemeni forces that have arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared, tortured and abused dozens of people during security operations in the southern governorates of Aden and Hadramawt. The UAE and the forces it created – the Security Belt force in Aden and the Hadrami Elite in Hadramawt – were accused of operating a clandestine network of prisons where hundreds are detained in inhumane conditions. The revelations have prompted concern in Washington about alleged US complicity. The UAE has denied the allegations.
In Washington, multiple senators called for an investigation after AP reported that US military interrogators had worked with the forces accused of torture. The UAE is part of a Saudi-led coalition formed to help President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s government fight the Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/yemen-orders-probe-alleged-torture…
