Houthis disappear dozens of UN, NGO staff in civil society crackdown

Houthis disappear dozens of UN, NGO staff in civil society crackdown
A United Nations vehicle is parked outside as the UN special envoy for Yemen meets with local officials in the country's third city of Taez on February 12, 2024 (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 26 June 2024
Follow

Houthis disappear dozens of UN, NGO staff in civil society crackdown

Houthis disappear dozens of UN, NGO staff in civil society crackdown
  • Human Rights Watch calls for immediate release of detainees
  • ‘The Houthis are using arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances as a political tool’

London: Houthi authorities in Yemen must release dozens of people arrested and forcibly disappeared since May, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.

In a report, HRW said the Houthis have forcibly disappeared Yemenis in territory they control, including at least 13 UN staff, as part of a wider crackdown on civil society.

“The arbitrary arrests appear to be based on the detainees’ present or past employment,” HRW added.

Beginning May 31, Houthi forces began arresting employees of several NGOs, raiding homes and offices. One source said more than 60 people had been arrested as of June 12.

In all cases, Houthi forces “arrived unannounced at the homes of those they were aiming to arrest with several armored vehicles and an average of about 10 to 30 armed men,” HRW said.

“Almost all forces were wearing military uniforms and head and face coverings, sometimes with only their eyes showing. In many cases, the forces arrived early in the morning while families were still asleep.”

No search or arrest warrants were presented in any of the cases, and Houthi forces have denied requests from family members asking for the whereabouts of their kin. No formal charges have been brought against any of the detainees.

However, starting June 10, Houthi authorities began releasing a series of videos showing Yemeni men detained between 2021 and 2023 confessing to spying for Israel and the US.

HRW said there is a “high risk” that the confessions were coerced, and sources told the NGO that the timing of the releases was intended to “frame” the recently detained as part of a larger “spy network.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk have called on the Houthis to release all UN and NGO staff.

Since the start of the raids in late May, many people in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen have fled.

The existing “brain drain” from Houthi-controlled areas will only worsen as a result of the arrest campaign, one source told HRW.

Another said: “Although I managed to flee … I couldn’t sleep … I’ve had panic attacks every day since I fled from Sanaa … I’m very worried about my friends and colleagues in Sanaa who are just waiting for Houthis to arrest them.”

Since 2014, the Houthis have detained and forcibly disappeared hundreds of people, HRW said, warning that the militia regularly practices torture in detention facilities.

The Houthis have also “carried out significant violations of women’s rights and freedoms, have repressed freedom of speech and assembly, and have detained dozens of journalists, human rights defenders, academics, and political opponents,” the NGO added

Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at HRW, said: “The Houthis are using arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances as a political tool at a time when the people living in their territories lack even the most basic needs.

“The Houthis should immediately release all of these people, many of whom have spent their careers working to improve their country.

“The international community should be doing everything in their power to ensure that these people are immediately released.

“Many of them have been invaluable members of Yemeni civil society organizations and staff in UN agencies and nongovernmental international groups.”

One Yemeni living abroad told HRW: “It’s almost as if our life in Yemen is over after this. I thought I would move back and start a family there, and now it’s clear to me I can’t do that. We can’t live like this.”


Israel car ramming attack wounds 13 people at bus stop

Israel car ramming attack wounds 13 people at bus stop
Updated 3 sec ago
Follow

Israel car ramming attack wounds 13 people at bus stop

Israel car ramming attack wounds 13 people at bus stop
  • 13 people including a police officer were wounded
  • Israel’s first responders treated injured people at the site of the incident

JERUSALEM: Israeli police said a Palestinian man rammed a car into a bus stop in the north of the country on Thursday, wounding 13 civilians in an incident they were treating as a “terror” attack.
“At 16:17 today, Israel Police’s emergency dispatch received reports of a ramming attack at Karkur Junction, where a vehicle struck multiple civilians waiting at a bus stop,” police said in a statement.
Israel’s first responders, Magen David Adom, said a team treated injured people at the site of the incident, including a 17-year old girl who was in critical condition.
Police said 13 people, including a police officer, were wounded, and that two of them were in “serious” condition.
The suspect was a “53-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin area, (who) was residing in Israel unlawfully with his family,” the police statement said.
“The circumstances of his presence in Israel are under investigation,” the police said, adding that “preliminary findings indicate that he deliberately targeted civilians waiting at a bus stop.”
Israel’s military launched earlier this year a major offensive in the north of the occupied West Bank, deploying tanks into the area for the first time in 20 years.
Dubbed “Iron Wall” by the Israeli military, the operation came days after a ceasefire took effect in Gaza.
The raids have spanned multiple refugee camps near the cities of Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas.
Military operations are commonplace in Jenin’s refugee camp, a bastion of Palestinian militancy.


More than 1,000 Syrians died in airport prison under Assad, report says

More than 1,000 Syrians died in airport prison under Assad, report says
Updated 9 min 37 sec ago
Follow

More than 1,000 Syrians died in airport prison under Assad, report says

More than 1,000 Syrians died in airport prison under Assad, report says
  • Grave sites identified using a combination of witness testimony, satellite imagery and documents

DAMASCUS: More than 1,000 Syrians died in detention at a military airport on the outskirts of Damascus, killed by execution, torture or maltreatment at a site that was widely feared, according to a report to be published Thursday tracing the deaths to seven suspected grave sites.

In the report, the Syria Justice and Accountability Center said it identified the grave sites by using a combination of witness testimony, satellite imagery and documents photographed at the military airport in the Damascus suburb of Mezzeh after the ouster of President Bashar Assad in December.

Some sites were on the airport grounds. Others were across Damascus.

Two of the sites, one on the Mezzeh airport property and another at a cemetery in Najha, show clear signs of long trenches dug during periods consistent with witness testimony from SJAC.

Shadi Haroun, one of the report’s authors, said he was among the captives. Held over several months in 2011-2012 for organizing protests, he described daily interrogations with physical and psychological torture intended to force him into baseless confessions.

Death came in many forms, he said.

Although detainees saw nothing except their cell walls or the interrogation room, they could hear “occasional shootings, shot by shot, every couple of days.”

Then there were the injuries inflicted by their tormentors.

“A small wound on the foot of one of the detainees, caused by a whipping he received during torture, was left unsterilized or untreated for days, which gradually turned into gangrene and his condition worsened until it reached the point of amputation of the entire foot,” Haroun said, describing a cellmate’s plight.

In addition to obtaining the documents, SJAC and the Association for the Detained and Missing Persons in Sednaya Prison interviewed 156 survivors and eight former members of air force intelligence, Syria’s security service that was tasked with the surveillance, imprisonment and killing of regime critics.

The new government has issued a decree forbidding former regime officials from speaking publicly and none were available to comment.

“Although some of the graves mentioned in the report had not been discovered before, the discovery itself does not surprise us, as we know that there are more than 100,000 missing persons in Assad’s prisons who did not come out during the days of liberation in early December,” said a colonel in the new government’s Interior Ministry who identified himself by his military alias, Abu Baker.

“Discovering the fates of those missing persons and searching for more graves is one of the greatest legacies left by the Assad regime,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians are estimated to have been killed since 2011, when Assad’s crackdown on protests spiraled into a full-scale war. Both Assad and his father Hafez, who preceded him as president and died in 2000, have long been accused by rights groups, foreign governments and war-crimes prosecutors of widespread extrajudicial killings, including mass executions within the country’s prison system and using chemical weapons against the Syrian people.


Sustainable City — Yiti and Ahli Islamic Oman sign partnership to advance sustainable urban development

Sustainable City — Yiti and Ahli Islamic Oman sign partnership to advance sustainable urban development
Updated 27 February 2025
Follow

Sustainable City — Yiti and Ahli Islamic Oman sign partnership to advance sustainable urban development

Sustainable City — Yiti and Ahli Islamic Oman sign partnership to advance sustainable urban development
  • As Oman’s largest sustainable urban development, Yiti integrates renewable energy, food production, water and waste recycling, smart mobility and climate-resilient infrastructure to create a “future-ready” community

MUSCAT: The Sustainable City — Yiti, Oman’s flagship sustainable development and the pioneering net zero emissions community, signed a strategic partnership on Thursday with Ahli Islamic Oman bank.

The partnership was formalized at a signing ceremony held on-site at The Sustainable City — Yiti, attended by senior executives from Yiti and Ahli Islamic Oman, along with key stakeholders.

As Oman’s largest sustainable urban development, Yiti integrates renewable energy, food production, water and waste recycling, smart mobility and climate-resilient infrastructure to create a “future-ready” community.

With 96 percent of its infrastructure already completed, the project is progressing toward its full realization by 2026, bringing together residential, commercial, hospitality and educational spaces designed to advance sustainable living.

“With an investment of nearly $1 billion, we are redefining the real estate landscape by integrating sustainability, innovation, and long-term value creation. This collaboration with Ahli reinforces our commitment to responsible growth, ensuring that we deliver a world-class, net-zero emissions community that aligns with Oman’s Vision 2040 and sets a benchmark for sustainable cities worldwide,” said Mohammed Al-Ghufaili, COO of Oman Tourism Development Company (OMRAN) Group and a board member of Yiti.

Yousuf Al-Rawahi, head of Ahli Islamic Oman, said: “Our collaboration with The Sustainable City — Yiti reflects the overall commitment and endeavor to support Sharia-compliant and sustainable investments that align with Oman Vision 2040.

“By providing the needed financial solutions, we empower individuals and businesses to be part of a groundbreaking net-zero emissions community. Together, we are fostering a responsible urban grown society, while ensuring long-term value creation, and contributing to a more sustainable future for many in the Sultanate of Oman.”

Developed by Diamond Developers in collaboration with OMRAN, Yiti spans nearly one million square meters along the Gulf of Oman coastline, and offers smart infrastructure, low-carbon living and sustainable tourism.

The development features a mix of residential, commercial, hospitality, educational spaces, two hotels, alongside essential community infrastructure such as schools, a nursery, an equestrian center, an indoor sports complex and outdoor leisure areas.

It has been designed to achieve net zero emissions by 2040, as a key contributor to Oman’s environmental and economic transformation.


Ocalan calls for PKK to drop weapons, be dissolved

Ocalan calls for PKK to drop weapons, be dissolved
Updated 27 February 2025
Follow

Ocalan calls for PKK to drop weapons, be dissolved

Ocalan calls for PKK to drop weapons, be dissolved
  • “All groups must lay down their arms and PKK must dissolve itself,” he said in a declaration
  • His words were read out by a delegation of lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM party

ISTANBUL: Jailed PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan on Thursday called for his Kurdish militant group to lay down its weapons and dissolve itself in a landmark declaration read out in Istanbul.
“All groups must lay down their arms and PKK must dissolve itself,” he said in a declaration drawn up in his cell on Imrali prison island where he has been held in solitary confinement since 1999.
The call came four months after Ankara offered an olive branch to the 75-year-old who founded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that has cost tens of thousands of lives.
His words were read out by a delegation of lawmakers from the pro-Kurdish DEM party who visited him earlier on Thursday.
“I am making a call for the laying down of arms, and I take on the historical responsibility of this call,” he said.
Since Ocalan was jailed in 1999, there have been various attempts to end the bloodshed which erupted in 1984 and has cost more than 40,000 lives.
The last round of talks collapsed amid violence in 2015.
After that, there was no contact until October when hard-line nationalist MHP leader Devlet Bahceli offered Ocalan a surprise peace gesture if he would reject violence in a move endorsed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.


Libya’s Haftar meets French President Macron in Paris

Libya’s Haftar meets French President Macron in Paris
Updated 27 February 2025
Follow

Libya’s Haftar meets French President Macron in Paris

Libya’s Haftar meets French President Macron in Paris
  • Haftar and Macron discussed “developments in the political process in Libya”
  • The statement said Macron emphasized Haftar’s “central role” in Libya’s political process

BENGHAZI: Libya’s eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar met French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in the French capital, his Benghazi-based forces said in a statement.
Haftar and Macron discussed “developments in the political process in Libya and the importance of supporting the UN mission’s efforts,” according to the statement posted on social media Wednesday evening.
Libya has struggled to recover from years of unrest since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that overthrew longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi.
The country remains split between the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity and a rival administration in the east aligned with Haftar.
A picture accompanying the statement showed Haftar and Macron shaking hands.
The statement said Macron emphasized Haftar’s “central role” in Libya’s political process and stability.
Contacted by AFP, the Elysee declined to confirm or deny the meeting.