With the United States of America dragging the release process of 56 Yemeni nationals from its terror penitentiary institution in Guantanamo, activists and families in Yemen have warned they would increase their pressure on both their government and the media to draw attention to such blatant injustice.
A reported 166 Yemeni nationals held in Guantanamo have either been cleared of all charges or awaiting trial without charges, and have done so for over a decade.
In an interview to Mc Clatchy in March, Yemen Human Rights Minister noted "For them to spend such a long time without trial is simply lawless." She quickly added "Ultimately Yemen wants Obama to fulfill his previous promise to close the Guantanamo detention center and either send the detainees home or have them face criminal charges."
Hundreds of protesters gathered on Sunday in Sana'a - the Yemeni capital - before the U.S embassy, demanding the immediate release of all prisoners. It is important to note that detainees' prolonged detention and Washington's failure to arrange for their repatriation has to do with a moratorium imposed by U.S President Barack Obama in the wake of attacks plotted in recent years by Ansar al-Sharia, an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Despite promises made in March 2013 by the Yemeni government that its officials would coordinate with their American counterparts as to find a solution to Guantanamo conundrum, no concrete solution was brought forward so far, only promises of a swift resolution.
HOOD - prominent Yemeni rights group - has condemned what it calls "the illegal detention of Yemeni nationals on American ground", urging both Yemen President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi and American President Obama to apply the rule of law.
With a great majority of Yemeni detainees on an ongoing-hunger strike, stakes are running high back in Yemen, with families looking to its leadership for a political breakthrough. While the hunger strike was sparked by the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran by Guantanamo guards, detainees' frustration and hopelessness were the main catalyst of what is fast becoming an opposition movement.
On Friday, the United Nations’ top human rights official, Navi Pillay, reiterated her calls that the Guantanamo detention center be closed. “The continuing indefinite incarceration of many of the detainees amounts to arbitrary detention and is in clear breach of international law,” she said.
The publication in the New York Times of one Guantanamo detainee's tell all report sent shock-waves through Yemen, as families and fellow nationals woke up to the horror hunger-strikers are experiencing by the hand of the American authorities.
Force-fed twice a day through a tube to his nose, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel
described to the New York Times his pain and humiliation.
“I will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube up my nose ... I wanted to vomit, but I couldn’t. There was agony in my chest, throat and stomach. I had never experienced such pain before. I would not wish this cruel punishment upon anyone.”
After a decade in Guantanamo Moqbel has yet to be charged by the American government.
The U.S. advocacy group, Physicians for Human Rights, argues that force-feeding hunger strikers is a violation of medical ethics.
“If someone who is mentally competent expresses the wish not to be fed or hydrated, medical personnel are ethically obligated to accede to that person’s wishes,” said Dr. Vincent Iacopino, an expert with the rights group. “Under those circumstances, to go ahead and force-feed a person is not only an ethical violation but may rise to the level of torture or ill-treatment.”
On Monday, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirby met with U.S Ambassador Gerald Feierstein to discuss the visit of a Yemeni delegation to Guantanamo Bay; Human Rights Minister Mashour, who has been very early on keeping up with every developments is said to be traveling with the delegation.
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