Minister warns & security violates [Archives:2003/662/Opinion]

By Hassan al-Zaidi
Yemen Times Staff
Day by day, flagrant violations against citizens are increasing as a result of unjust security practices adopted mostly by security bodies. Those bodies usually claim that they perform their duties in carrying out orders. Whereas, in reality, they violate orders, a matter which is against the law.
Moreover, there are daily violations committed against citizens and are practiced by some security law-breakers.
This manifests itself in a time in which prisons and cells alike have been swarming with thousands of prisoners and detainees. Strict warnings and instructions are given to police and security bodies and are also informed of applying strict punishment in case of violating or breaking the law against citizens.
All these have been mentioned during a speech delivered by the interior minister, Dr. Rashad al-Alemi to thousands of policemen and officers belonging to the central security forces.
In his speech, Dr. al-Alemi stressed that respecting human rights have become a fixed trend in the state's policy and that punishment procedures are to be applied against policemen in case of violating orders.
But the question which poses itself is the issuance of some direct and indirect orders issued by the interior minister and executed by the security bodies affiliated to the interior minister. Not even a sense of respect has been paid to law, human rights or even morals. I will give a simple example of such violations practiced by some security men.
Orders were given to seven armed men to stay before my home waiting impatiently for me to be detained. This took place on August 6. I didn't reach home at that time. My 14-year younger brother came out of the house and the security men rushed and took him into custody.
Why did they detain him? Nobody knows! Did they issue orders to detain him? Why only the 14-year younger brother was detained? The armed men were entrusted with unlawful mission and returned empty-handed.
Perhaps, they follow such orders which they think are lawful. If they prove to be powerless to detain the convict, they resort to detain his brother, if not, a nearest relative of his.
The second example is when a major colonel and a group of armed security men had stormed into a ward belonging to al-Motawkil hospital where another brother was kept in custody.
What are the reasons behind his detention for about one week in the prison of the Capital Secretariat Investigation?
But the orders issued by the interior minister to set him free have rescued him from death and the state he underwent, while his companion is still kept into custody.
All those violations have been practiced in the full knowledge of the interior minister, despite of warnings and the necessity to respect of human rights.
I have tried several times to inform him of such violations but of no avail.
A friend of mine told me that the interior ministry is unable to do anything, because some top security men have utilized the law for their own benefit.
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