The National Committee to Combat TORTURE [Archives:1998/15/Front Page]
“There is a visible setback in our democratization effort,” a frustrated opposition politician said. He gave examples which he said pointed to a return to ‘the old ways’. The Security Apparatus regularly rings up political activists, journalists and newspapers to harass them and there is far less tolerance.
But the main worry is in the fact that citizens are subjected to numerous forms of physical and psychological abuse.
On April 16th, a number of intellectuals will meet in Sanaa to discuss torture in Yemen. They will launch the National Committee to Combat Torture (NCCT).
The evidence on torture in Yemen keeps mounting. The violators are the Political Security Organization (PSO), the General Administration for Investigations, and the General Security Apparatus.
Last week, the Human Rights and NGOs Committee of the Consultative Council presented a report on torture at the Hodeidah Investigations Office that shocked the community. It triggered the steps to establish the NCCT, the seed money for which is provided by the Yemen Times. Members of the legislature and public figures involved in human rights are founders of the NCCT.
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