Rejoinder to Yemens response to US human rights report Underground cell still waiting! [Archives:2002/29/Focus]

BY HASAN AL-ZAIDI
A JOURNALIST
The official Yemeni government response to the 2001 Human Rights Report of the US government caused dismay and concern among pro-democracy individuals all over the country. This is because the governments response rejected many incidents published in the report, giving the illusion that those cases were baseless.
It is not up to me to decide whether the government was right or wrong in its response overall, but I surely have a word to say about the response that came from the government concerning my own case mentioned in the original report.
The US annual report mentioned my detention as a journalist at the Yemen Time newspaper along with Nabeel al-Amodi, another journalist. Whoever reads the American report would conclude that I was imprisoned because of my writings or my journalist duties, which is correct.
But in this respect, the governments official report responded to the American report by saying that I was imprisoned because I was involved in the kidnapping of former German Commercial Attaché in Sana’a on September 8 2001. I was indeed detained and put to prison after the diplomat was kidnapped and was released just after he was released, but that does not mean that I was involved.
By detaining me, the government has confiscated my constitutional and legal rights as a citizen for no reason but to prevent me from writing. But even after I was released, instead of admitting that my detention was because of my reporting in Yemen Times or at least because of a mistake, the government tried to justify by accusing me of being a kidnapper.
I myself have called upon the security forces and officials to take me to court. Yes, I challenged them to file a lawsuit against me if I am a kidnapper or if I were linked to the kidnappers in any way. I demanded that I be treated as a suspect not as a defendant. I am still insisting that they bring whatever evidence they have to prove me wrong because I remember the questions they asked me in confinement about my writings and journalist reports.
Unfortunately, again and again, the government keeps on violating our rights and we can do nothing about it. I could myself raise a lawsuit against the government as I have the right to do so, but in a country with a corrupt judicial system, you cannot guarantee your human rights at all.
On the other hand, if I were a kidnapper or one of the accomplices, why would they let me free even after the kidnapped was released? Dont I deserve to stay and be punished for what I have been accused of?
Similarly, if I were cooperating with the kidnappers, why would I be let out just after the kidnapped was released, wasnt that because the authorities feared that I could reach the kidnapped and interview him, or perhaps expose the malfunctioning security system of the country?
I wanted to speak up and let everyone know the truth. I am not trying to remind of the wounds of the past, but I surely dont want the readers to believe what has been said about my involvement in any kidnapping. The response may have had things that are right, but certainly, what has been written about me was totally wrong.
My freedom was seized by the government under the pretext of having relations with abductors. In the same year, I was put in an underground cell by the Political Security Office in Sanaa and remained there for 16 days. I was detained under the pretext of exceeding the red lines in my writings and articles with no trial and with no case against me.
Frankly speaking, what we desire is to put an end to journalists arbitrary detention which is against international conventions ratified by our country. Our duty is to make sure that we are progressing in our democracy by opening the way for more freedoms and not suppressing journalists who report honestly.
Our freedom is a guarantee for a brighter tomorrow with better human rights records and with a free generation of intellectuals, scientists, students, academicians, and journalist who could speak their mind without fearing that there is a dark underground cell waiting for them.

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