Rights groups show solidarity with the 18 Yemeni migrants burned by Saudi police

By: Saddam Al-Ashmouri For the Yemen Times

Yemeni illegal migrants to Saudi Arabia, including this man, have claimed that Saudi police set fire to the hole in the ground where they were hiding. SANAA, MAY 28- Local rights groups organized a campaign to show solidarity with 18 Yemeni citizens who were allegedly burnt by Saudi authorities while they were trying to hide themselves from security authorities in Khamis Bani Mushait, a town on the Saudi side of the Yemen- Saudi border. The campaign was organized on May 26 in Sana’a city with participating rights groups, who said the Yemeni migrants have authorized them to defend their case in court, which will be filed against the responsible Saudi authorities. Member of Parliament Hashid Saif, who is also the head of Al-Tagheer Legal Organization, said evidence and data are being gathered by a legal team within his organization, and a file copy will be sent to the attorney general and the ministries of the interior and human rights. He said the legal team will contact international organizations to start filing a case against the Saudi authorities sometime in the near future. During the campaign, the 18 citizens recalled their ordeal. “We were 25 men in Khamis Bani Mushait area,” said Mohammed Yahya Mawdah, one of the 18 burn victims. “At 5 p.m., we entered a big hole, which we dug to hide ourselves from police. The hole was [located] seven kilometers outside of Khamis Bani Mushait.” The young man said four police vehicles carrying a total of 12 policemen chased them. “We thought we had managed to escape them and we remained in the hole. Seven of us ran away and another 18 remained in the hole,” Mawdah added. “We didn’t expect the policemen would pour diesel into the hole and set it on fire. We left the fiery hole after our bodies were burnt.” Another victim, Ali Hussein Bukari, said the police brought them despite their bad burns to the police station instead of the hospital. “We were crying out for help. But the police questioned us,” said Bukari. “They called us dogs – garbage – while we were crying out in pain,” he added. A man identifying himself only as “Darweesh,”who was also in the group of burn victims, said he wished to die at that moment. “We were like dogs in front of the Saudi policemen. How cheap a Yemeni citizen is!” Following the police investigations, the group was moved to a nearby hospital. According to Darweesh, doctors treated them only every four days, which worsened their health conditions. “We remained in the hospital for nine days and then were brought again to the police. A police officer said to us, ‘either you go back to Yemen or stay here until you recover and write waivers’,” he added. According to him, the young men wrote waivers and then they deported them- in groups- into Al-Twal, another border v The men that were burned say that Saudi police did not take them to hospital after they were set on fire; instead, they say they went immediately to the police station for interrogations. illage. “There we saw Yemeni border soldiers. When we told them we were burnt by Saudi policemen, they replied, ‘May Allah help you to recover’,” said Darweesh. The group returned to their area, Bajel, in the western province of Al-Hodeidah, one of the poorest provinces in Yemen. The men said they were in a very miserable condition when they got there. They received medical assistance in a local hospital at the expense of a local non-governmental organization (NGO). Saudi authorities denied such allegations as reported by local media in Yemen. Brigadier Abdullah Al-Qarni, a senior Saudi security official, said the incident was groundless, adding Yemeni illegal migrants are treated kindly by the authorities. He said a fire broke out in a garbage collection area where the Yemenis were hiding and that the fire was not caused by the police. Al-Qarni expressed his surprise at the news that the young men said that they were treated badly, adding they were deported to Yemen only after receiving medical care. A number of Yemeni local organizations condemned the incident and showed solidarity with the burn victims. Human Rights Watch, an international organization dedicated to eradicating human rights abuses, has asked the Saudi authorities to investigate the policemen who burned the Yemeni migrants. “The allegations that the Saudi police had intentionally set fire to the hole in which the Yemeni migrants hid were horrible and reveal complete underrating of human beings,” said Sarah Watson, the executive manager of Human Rights Watch in the Middle East and Northern Africa. “It looks like the Saudi officials are interested in protecting the police officers more than revealing the truth.”

http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1159&p=front&a=2

Saudi Arabia: Interior Ministry Protects Officers Implicated in Inhumane Act

(New York, May 14, 2008) – The Saudi government should investigate Khamis Mushayit police officers who allegedly set fire to the hiding place of Yemeni migrants, 18 of whom suffered serious burn injuries, Human Rights Watch said (yesterday). Victim accounts of the incident contradict Ministry of Interior and Civil Defense denials that the fire was accidentally set by the victims and not ignited by the police.  

“Claims that the police deliberately burned the shelter of Yemeni migrants are shocking and show total disregard for human life,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Yet officials seem more concerned about protecting the officers than finding out the truth by launching a credible inquiry.”  
 
On March 9, 2008, police apparently seeking to arrest a group of 25 undocumented Yemenis, including several children, allegedly set fire to the garbage dump in which they were hiding, apparently to force them to come out. At least 18 Yemenis suffered severe burns. Human Rights Watch spoke to one of the Yemeni burn victims, and has spoken to a Yemeni journalist who published online videotaped interviews with six other Yemeni burn victims (http://www.almostashar.net/yemenat/). The men told the journalist that they were working in the garbage dump in Khamis Mushayit, a city in southwestern Saudi Arabia, collecting aluminum, cartons, and plastic material to sell to recycling companies.  
 
The Yemeni victims allege that instead of transporting them to the hospital, the police took them in an ambulance to the Northern Police Station for questioning. “We were screaming from the pain of the burns, begging them for first aid,” burn victim Majid Shami told Human Rights Watch.  
 
Only after interrogating the injured Yemenis did the police transfer them to a local hospital, where they were treated for nine days and released into police custody before their burn injuries had properly healed. The Yemenis remained with the police for two days with “no medication, no food or drink,” according to another victim, Sa`id Husain Hasan. Officers allegedly compelled all in the group to sign a statement that the police officers were not responsible for their burn injuries and that they would not press any charges. Soon after, the Preventive Security Department deported all 18 migrants that suffered burns to Yemen in small groups.  
 
Burn victim Majid Shami told Human Rights Watch:  

“Around 4-5 p.m., we hid from the Saudi police [when we saw them approach], as usual…. We hid in the garbage dump of the so-called industrial area … [under] a tin sheet … after they chased us … Then, police officers launched a flammable substance [that started a fire], causing us to come out of the place as the flames engulfed us. We all came out burning … They shot into the air to prevent us from fleeing.”

 
Another Yemeni, who witnessed the events, Hamza Muhammad, said that “the [police] used a white material, a powder, which increased the fire.” The seven men interviewed by the journalist and Human Rights Watch all said that the police had seen them and knew where they were hiding, and that setting the garbage dump on fire was not an accident. “When the police saw us, we escaped and hid, so they [responded by] burn[ing] wood and tires. [As] we came out, we got burned,” said Hasan.  
 
The Saudi government has claimed it had rescued the Yemeni victims from an accidental fire, suggesting that the victims’ allegations are not credible because they are merely undocumented garbage pickers. On April 25, the Saudi newspaper Okaz carried a statement by the Khamis Mushayit Civil Defense spokesperson Maj. Muhammad al-`Isami claiming that, “the fire broke out in the tires and garbage and spread to an area of 50 meters. … [T]he injured … were present in the area rummaging in the garbage.” On April 28, Interior Ministry spokesperson Col. Abdullah al-Qarni said at a press conference that, “these Yemenis of unknown identity were injured… because of a fire that broke out in the garbage dump … [and that] they are of those [types] who resort to infiltration into the region of `Asir to thieve, rob, and plunder.”  
 
Six burn victims remain in a local hospital in Yemen, while the others are receiving treatment at their homes. Some are too poor to afford medication. The Yemeni authorities have begun an investigation and called in the Saudi ambassador for an explanation.  
 
Human Rights Watch urged the Saudi authorities to promptly and impartially investigate the allegations that police officers were responsible for setting the fire that harmed the Yemenis and then denied them access to adequate medical treatment. All those responsible should be fully prosecuted and appropriately punished.  
 
“The Saudi government’s inaction in the face of this alleged police inhumanity is outrageous,” Whitson said. “Riyadh has a responsibility to conduct a criminal investigation.”

Saudi Holocaust against Yemeni citizens

By: Abdulbasit Al-Hubeishi YemenTimes

Most of Yemeni people, who watched some of the victims burned by Saudi authorities while trying to cross into the kingdom, were not shocked by the incident, nor did they react to it. The Yemeni victims, who attempted to cross illegally into the bordering Arab country in search of better work to provide for their vulnerable families, were severely beaten and burned by Saudi security authorities on different parts of their bodies while Yemeni government took no action regarding such a hooligan human rights abuse. The way the Yemeni citizens were tortured was never seen anytime before even during the time of Nazi Holocaust against the Jews more than 60 years ago. People of Yemen have not denounced such an inhuman action or procedure that contravenes all the divine and human legislations because many of them have been for years subjected to such agonies and torture. People of Yemen don’t care about those who cross the Yemeni-Saudi border in search of better work to provide for their families, but die at the border as a result of torture and agony merciless policemen of Saudi Arabia practice against them. In addition, the Saudi security authorities deport thousands of Yemeni immigrants who entered their territory illegally and transport them back to the border on trucks, which they use for carrying sheep and cattle. They accuse Yemeni illegal immigrants of begging in their cities, particularly as they realize that Yemeni government never reacts to what happens to its citizens, nor does it care about compensating them for the injustice they suffer. Thousands of people from Latin America cross borders of the United States of America on a daily basis, and the federal U.S. government spends billions of dollars to prevent entry of illegal immigrants into its territory because the phenomenon, according to the U.S. authorities, create numerous economic and social problems. Such an example is given for comparison. Unlike Arabs in the kingdom who harshly torture their Yemeni brothers for illegal entry into their cities, the Americans only attempt to prevent entry of illegal migrants coming from South America without harming them. There are more than 12 million illegal expatriates in the United States and such a phenomenon continues to worsen. A few years ago, two of the American border guards fired in the air with the aim of stopping illegal immigrants attempting to cross the border without injuring anyone of them, but both guards have been – since then and until now – jailed in isolated cells as a punishment for violating human rights. For us the Yemeni people, our dignity was insulted many years ago and our relatives and beloved ones are killed at the Yemeni-Saudi border on a daily basis at the hands of Arabs who claim to respect Islam and human rights. My use of the term “Holocaust”, which may enrage some people, is based on a real comparison between the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews in Germany in the 40s of the last century and the an unannounced Saudi Holocaust, which the Saudi authorities launched in the 60s of the last Century, following breakout of Yemen’s 26 September Revolution, and still practice against their brothers fleeing Yemen in search of work. Source: Al-Wahdawi.net