Al Mukalla: A top Yemeni army general has denied reports of torture in detention centres in areas under the control of the internationally-recognised Yemeni government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
Major General Faraj Salmeen Al Bahsani, Commander of the 2nd Military Region in Yemen’s south-eastern province of Hadramout, also said that Hadramout Elite Forces (HEF) that dislodged Al Qaida militants from Hadramout’s capital and neighbouring cities are part of the country’s standing army of Yemen, formed and commanded by the internationally-recognised president of Yemen.
In a statement to Gulf News on Tuesday, Al Bahsani strongly denied that his forces had abused or tortured prisoners and run secret prisons in the province of Hadramout.
He was responding to two reports by media and a human rights group claiming that the militias in southern Yemen, including HEF, are responsible for covertly creating secret prisons where people are tortured and abused.
“These forces [HEF] are not militias. The internationally-recognised president, Abd Rabbo Mansour [Hadi], has created, trained, and appointed commanders of HEF. These forces are led by veteran and renowned army commanders from the Yemeni army,” Al Bahsani said.
Speaking at a conference held in Al Mukalla earlier this week to defend his forces against these accusations, Al Bahsani said that although he is appreciative of the Saudi-led coalition in general and the UAE in particular for its help, he said that all prisons in the city of Al Mukalla are managed by local security and military authorities and are regularly checked by local rights activists.
“It is true that we still hold highly dangerous members of Al Qaida in highly secure prisons in Al Mukalla.” Those, he said, had plotted numerous attacks against government facilities and assassinated dozens of security officials.
Al Bahsani said that imprisoning those militia does not justify generalisations that security officials were abusing prisoners.
In April 2016, thousands of government forces backed by massive air support from the UAE military recaptured Al Mukalla, Sheher and Ghayel Bawzer from Al Qaida militants who held them for one year. From a military perspective, Al Bahsani said, only professional standing armies not militias can defeat Al Qaida at that rapid speed.
“The normalisation of life in the [liberated] cities of coastal Hadramout has been achieved in a smooth and quick way. This would not have happened without security and military apparatus operated by a state, not militias,” he said.
Regarding torture allegations, Al Bahsani said that detainees are treated “decently” and allowed to get in contact with relatives. Since Al Qaida militants destroyed prisons and security facilities during their reign, Al Bahsani said that suspected militants are being kept in makeshift prisons until a UAE-funded reconstruction process of prisons comes to an end.
“These prisons are operating under the aegis of the state’s security services. These are not secret. They are located in known places,” he said.
