UAE using mercenaries from Colombia to fight in Yemen

The United Arab Emirates(UAE) secretly sent hundreds of mercenaries from Colombia to Yemen to battle against the Houthi rebels who still control much territory in the east and north of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

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The program was originally run by a private company with connections to Erik Prince the founder of Blackwater. Blackwater was involved in a number of incidents in Iraq that outraged the Iraqi government. The UAE says the program is now run by the UAE military. Another 450 Latin American troops including fighters from Panama, Salvador, and Chile are in addition to the Saudis, UAE troops and locals loyal to the government of Mansour Hadi, all fighting against the rebel Houthis. The UAE may worry about losses to its own troops causing difficulties at home. In September one strike by the Houthis killed 45 troops, almost all from the UAE.

Sean McFate, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council:“Mercenaries are an attractive option for rich countries who wish to wage war yet whose citizens may not want to fight.The private military industry is global now.”He said the U.S. had legitimized the practice by relying heavily on contractors in iraq and Afghanistan. There are now 1,800 Latin American soldiers training at a military base in the UAE. Saudi Arabia has already sent hundreds of Sudanese soldiers to Yemen. A recent UN report also claimed that there are 400 Eritrean troops in Yemen. If this is true it could violate a UN resolution restricting Eritrean military activities.

The Colombian recruits get salaries from $2,000 to $3,000 a month. In Colombia they would make about $400 a month. If deployed to Yemen they get a bonus of $1,000 more a week, according to an anonymous former senior Colombian military officer who is involved in the project. The project began five years ago in 2010. The exodus of some of Colombia's best trained soldiers is causing some trouble in the fight against drugs in Colombia. Jaime Ruiz, the president of Colombia's Association of Retired Armed Forces Officials said: “These great offers, with good salaries and insurance, got the attention of our best soldiers.” Often money earned is sent to Colombia to support families of the troops.

There may be peace talks in the near future. Past efforts at peace have failed as the UN and the Hadi government in effect demand the Houthi withdraw from all the areas they have won and lay down their arms. The Saudi-led coalition seems bent on subjecting the Houthis to a humiliating defeat if they can.

Human Rights Watch(HRW) and other human rights groups have been critical of the Saudi-led bombing campaign. HRW claims at least 10 air strikes broke the laws of war killing civilians. Saudi Arabia simply denies such reports. The recent HRW report claims the strikes killed at least 309 civilians and wounded at least 414. They noted that it was an obligation of Saudi Arabia's allies to investigate possible war crimes The report notes: "Human Rights Watch found either no evident military target or that the attack failed to distinguish civilians from military objectives. Human Rights Watch is unaware of any investigations by Saudi Arabia or other coalition members in these or other reported cases."The attacks were on residential houses, market places, a factory, and a civilian prison. In the past, the Saudis also hit a Doctors Without Borders hospital and used cluster bombs in attacks in the north. Many of the weapons including cluster bombs are provided by the United States.

The UN claims about 5,700 people have been killed in the fighting since the Saudi-led bombing campaign began last March. More than 2,600 civilians are among those killed with about two-thirds of the civilian casualties caused by air strikes.

Palestinian poet sentenced to death for apostasy by Saudi court

A Saudi court sentenced Asharaf Fayadh, a Palestinian poet, to death for abandoning his Muslim faith, a form of apostasy punishable by death in Saudi Arabia and a number of other countries who implement Sharia law.

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Human Rights Watch researcher Adam Coogle reported on the sentence. Fayadh was first detained by the Saudi religious police in 2013 and rearrested and tried in the early part of 2014. At first a court sentenced him to four years in prison and 800 lashes, but after the sentence was appealed, another court sentenced him to death just three days ago.

The Saudi judicial system is based upon Sharia law with the judges being clerics from the Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam. In the groups' interpretation of Sharia law, religious crimes such as blasphemy and apostasy are punishable by death. This is an interpretation held by many Islamic scholars but not all. The issue is discussed at some length in the Wikipedia entry on apostasy in Islam. Other countries including Yemen, the UAE, and Afghanistan also have the death penalty as punishment for apostasy. Public support for the punishment varies from one Islamic country to another with Afghanistan having one of the highest levels of support.

In Saudi Arabia, liberal writer Raif Badawi was flogged 50 times after being sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for blasphemy. Although he remains in prison it appears that the international condemnation of the sentence has so far led to no repeat of the flogging. The judges need not sentence according to precedent but have leave to sentence according to their own interpretation of Sharia law. Hence Fayadh's first conviction was regarded as too lenient by the second cleric.

Sentences by lower courts can be heard by appeal courts and the supreme court. King Salman can pardon anyone. In Fayadh's case the lower court convicted him on the basis of a witness who claimed to have heard him cursing God, the Prophet Mohammad, and also Saudi Arabia. This last no doubt particularly irritates the monarchy. Evidence also came from a book he had written years ago. The appeals court sent the case back to the lower courts again to a different judge. That judge ruled out testimony from witnesses who had challenged the testimony of the prosecution witness. On November 17, he sentenced Fayadh to death.

Fayadh, 35, is a key member of the British-Saudi art organization. He has curated several art shows in Saudi Arabia. The recent death sentence was passed even though Fayadh repented. Often that would count to reduce the penalty. Fayadh told the Guaradian: “I was really shocked but it was expected, though I didn’t do anything that deserves death." Fayadh could still have his sentence changed by a higher court or be pardoned by King Salman.

Mona Kareem, an activist from Kuwait who leads a campaign for Fayadh's release, said the authorities promised Fayadh an appeal for years:“He was unable to assign a lawyer because his ID was confiscated when he was arrested [in January 2014]. Then they said you must have a retrial and we’ll change the prosecutor and the judges. The new judge didn’t even talk to him, he just made the verdict.”

Some of the poet's friends think that he is being severely punished because he posted on line a video showing the Saudi religious police lashing a man in public. The most one can expect from western leaders in response to this travesty of justice is a bit of a moral tongue-lashing. Arms shipments to the Saudis will continue as usual but at a quicker pace,as supplies have been used up in Saudi bombing, mostly in Yemen. The appended video shows the religious police busy forcing a woman to leave a mall because she has no gloves on.

Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son sentenced to death in Libya

- A Libyan court in the capital Tripoli sentenced Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam to death for war crimes, including the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising. Gaddafi, was killed by rebel forces after being captured near the city of Sirte.

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Among eight others sentenced to death by firing squad were the former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, and the ex-prime minister Baghdadia al-Mahmoudi, according to Sadiq al-Sur, chief investigator at the Tripoli state prosecutor's office. Eight other ex-officials of the Gaddafi regime were given life sentences. Four of the 37 defendants were acquitted while the rest received shorter jail terms. The death sentences will be appealed in the Libyan Supreme Court in 60 days.

Human Rights Watch(HRW) and others condemned the trial claiming it was full of legal flaws and in a setting of widespread lawlessness that was said to undermine the credibility of the judiciary. Legal experts claim the trial was flawed and politicized from the start. The written verdict is expected to spell out the charges upon which the verdict was based. Saif al-Islam was tried in absentia. He has been held since 2011 by the Zintan rebel group in a mountainous area outside of the control of the Tripoli government. The Zintanis do not trust Tripoli, and fear that if Saif were given to Tripoli authorities he might escape. However, they did allow him to be tried by Tripoli and he appeared via a video link at the beginning of his trial. Other defendants were held in Misrata a city under control of the Tripoli government.

HRW complained that defense lawyers for the accused did not have full or timely access to files for the cases. Several lawyers were unable to meet their clients in private. Two lawyers quit after threats. Joe Stork, of HRW said:"There are serious questions about whether judges and prosecutors can be truly independent where utter lawlessness prevails and certain groups are unashamedly shielded from justice," Joe Stork, HRW's deputy Middle East and North Africa director, said in an emailed statement.This trial was held in the midst of an armed conflict and a country divided by war where impunity has become the norm ...The victims of the serious crimes committed during the 2011 uprising deserve justice, but that can only be delivered through fair and transparent proceedings,"The UN Human Rights Office also condemned the trial as well as the incarceration of the defendants.

Originally the International Court of Justice(ICC) had wanted to try both Saif al-Islam and Senussi at the court in the Hague Netherlands. In 2013 the ICC granted Libya the right to try them. The trial began back in April of 2014.

There have been demonstrations against the decision in the city of Bani Walid a former Gadaffi stronghold. The green flags of the Gaddafi regime are evident. There were also protests in Sirte one of Gaddafi's home towns but now controlled by the Islamic State. In spite of the fact that Gaddafi persecuted radical Islamists one can see the green flags of the regime at the Sirte protest.

For the second time in a month after a ceasefire was declared in Yemen, fighting has continued. Saudi bombing began just hours after the earlier ceasefire and allies of the exiled government launched an offensive in Aden.

In the earlier ceasefire, the Saudis claimed that they were not subject to it and had not agreed to it.

Just a day after this new ceasefire was announced by the Saudis and Mansour Hadi, the president of the Yemeni government-in-exile, the fighting on the ground at least is escalating. The Saudis blame the Houthis, which could very well be correct this time around, although the Houthis claim there was no communication with them as to when the ceasefire was to begin. The Houthis are wary of a ceasefire when the last time the Saudis not only continued bombing but were able to take over the port of Aden. However, the takeover of the port in a successful offensive may also be related to talks between the Houthi ally former president Saleh and western diplomats. The appended video reports Houthi leaders rejected the ceasefire claiming it would benefit Al Qaeda(AQAP) and the Islamic State. However, it would also allow humanitarian supplies that are desperately needed to be delivered if the fighting ceased.

There is a Saudi blockade of Yemen that has made it difficult for aid to be delivered, especially to areas controlled by the Houthis and their allies. The Saudi coalition announced the ceasefire would take place at one minute before midnight on Sunday local time. Just hours after the truce, Houthi forces shelled a northern region on the Saudi border and the Saudis immediately retaliated. Just after midnight several areas of Aden also reported that they were subject to Houthi artillery fire. A pro-Hadi news agency said that the Houthis had shelled parts of Dalea about 105 miles north of Aden. The Saudi state news agency also claimed that Houthis had launched attacks in the central city of Taiz.

Oxfam reports that fighting in Yemen along with the blockade has resulted in more than six million people being on the brink of starvation. The Saudi-led coalition began a bombing campaign on the 25th of March. Since that time Oxfam estimates that an extra 25,000 people each day are going without food and provisions. Oxfam claims that the conflict is threatening to produce the highest ever recorded number of people living in hunger.

Human Rights Watch(HRW) claims that recent airstrikes in the Houthi-controlled port city of Mokha on July 24 killed at least 65 civilians including 10 children. Coalition planes repeatedly struck two residential compounds of the Mokha Steam Power Plant which house workers and their families. The group described the attack as an apparent war crime. HRW said that the UN Human Rights Council should set up a committee to investigate allegations of war crimes by all parties to the conflict.

Human Rights Watch accuses internationally-recognized Libyan government of torture

Human Rights Watch(HRW) said the internationally-recognized Libyan government based in Tobruk, with its allied forces, was responsible for arbitrary detentions, torture and other ill treatment of prisoners.

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The Tobruk government or House of Representatives(HoR) is based in eastern Libya. The rights group had access to jails in Benghazi and Bayda. Detainees said they had been forced to confess under torture to crimes they did not commit. They complained of other abuses as well such as lack of medical care and any due process. A common torture practice was to beat detainees on the soles of their feet with plastic pipes but some said they were beaten with electrical cables, chains, or even sticks.

The jails inspected held 450 prisoners and were controlled by the army or interior ministry. All of the detainees said that they were not allowed to talk to lawyers,go before a judge, or even be formally charged. HRW said: "The lack of central government authority has spawned a widespread breakdown in law and order and the virtual collapse of the justice system, resulting in arbitrary detentions." Sarah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director for HRW said: "Government ministers, military commanders, and prison directors should immediately declare a non-tolerance policy against torture and hold anyone who abuses detainees to account," 73 prisoners were interviewed by HRW.

Mistreatment of prisoners is not restricted to the Tobruk government. VICE news has a series of videos, one of which is appended, which show jails in areas controlled by the Tripoli government showing the horrible conditions under which captured immigrants are kept. All sides in Libya are guilty of abuses according to a UN report. There are many jails run by different militias that may not even have any connection to either government.

The UN has been attempting for ages to get the rival governments to agree to a unity government. The UN special envoy to Libya, Bernardino Leon hoped to have an agreement before Ramadan but Ramadan began today. There seems to be no news the last few days about the progress of the talks although both parties responded to the last draft. One positive development has been the signing of truce and peace agreements with some factions in the west of Libya who had been in conflict with the Tripoli government. The head of the Tobruk government forces Khalifa Haftar has said that he will not negotiate with the forces of the Tripoli government which he calls terrorists. Even if there were an agreement it seems that it could not be enforced.

Human Rights Watch statement on Houthi rebels in Yemen's mistreatment of journalists

This came to me courtesy of  Munir Alhemyari a resident of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen:

Statement of HRW Yemen: Attacks on Journalists Escalate

End Arbitrary Detention, Mistreatment

MARCH 23, 2015

© 2015 Nadia Abdullah

(Sanaa) – Houthi forces and others in Yemen have committed a spate of attacks and other abuses against the media amid deteriorating political and security conditions.

In recent weeks, there has been an increase in arbitrary arrests and violence against journalists and other media workers by Ansar Allah, the Zaidi Shia armed group known as the Houthis that now controls the capital, Sanaa. Armed Ansar Allah militia has stormed the headquarters of three media outlets since January 2015. Other groups may also be involved in attacks. On March 18, unidentified gunmenkilled Abdul Karim Mohammed al-Khaiwani, an Ansar Allah supporter and critic of the former government, near his home in Sanaa.

“The breakdown in security across Yemen has put the country’s media in particular danger,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa director. “All sides in Yemen should send a clear message to their forces to stop threats and attacks against journalists.”

Ansar Allah has controlled much of northern Yemen since September 2014, and in January 2015 effectively ousted President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, sparking widespread protests. On February 8, Yemen’s interim interior minister ordered Sanaa police to prevent all unauthorized demonstrations due to “the exceptional circumstances” in Yemen. This indefinite ban on public protests violates the right to peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said. Five employees of state broadcast and print media outlets told Human Rights Watch that since taking control of Sanaa, Ansar Allah has inserted its own people into senior positions at various media outlets.

Human Rights Watch documented seven incidents involving attacks on journalists and the media between December 31, 2014, and March 7, 2015. Ma`d al-Zekri, a cameraman for Azal TV, told Human Rights Watch that armed men took him and his 20-year-old brother from their home at 1:30 a.m. on December 31, 2014, blindfolded them, and drove them to a building where the men held the brothers in separate rooms. Al-Zekri said a man interrogated him about a news clip he had made about the Islamist militant group Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) that had aired in October, and demanded to know where an AQAP leader al-Zekri had interviewed could be found.

The cameraman said he was kept blindfolded, given electric shocks, had dirty water poured over him, and was given food and a restroom visit only once each day. “On the third day some men came in, apologized for having detained me, and said it had been a mistake,” al-Zekri told Human Rights Watch. They then warned him “not to write about or against Al-Qaeda as much,” and freed him and his brother. Al-Zekri filed a complaint with the police and the attorney general but the authorities told him they could do nothing and he should take his complaint to Ansar Allah directly.

Kamal Gamal of Suhail TV told Human Rights Watch that armed men in civilian clothes detained him and a cameraman, Yahya al-A`awar, on February 3, 2015, as they filmed a political polling process among students at Sanaa University. Gamal said the two men spoke into walkie talkies, told them that no photography or filming was permitted, and detained them when they kept filming. The armed men held the two journalists on the campus until police came and took them to a police station. Hours later, the police returned their equipment and released them.

Saif al-Haddiri, chairman of the al-Shumoa Press Foundation, which prints four publications, told Human Rights Watch that about 40 armed men believed to be Ansar Allah forced their way into the foundation’s offices on February 5. They ordered all staff to leave the five-story building, then seized computers, broadcasting and other equipment, videos, and CDs whose total value he estimated at US$18,600. Some wore military-style uniforms while others were in civilian clothes and carried slogans in support of Ansar Allah. More than a month later, the men still control the foundation’s building and continue to remove property from it, al-Haddiri said.

Ameen Dabwan, a correspondent for Yemen Shabab TV, told Human Rights Watch that five armed men in police uniforms with Ansar Allah stickers detained him on February 6 as he filmed an anti-Ansar Allah demonstration in Sanaa’s Change Square. They took his camera and later his cell phone and detained him overnight at the police station with five arrested protesters, threatening to beat them. Police released him after 24 hours but did not return his camera or his phone.

Nabil al-Sharabi, an editor at Akhbar al-Yom newspaper, told Human Rights Watch that on March 5, five men carrying assault rifles bearing Ansar Allah stickers broke into the building housing the newspaper’s staff.

US continues aid and support to Egypt in spite of its repressive policies

In spite of the fact that since the overthrow of elected president Mohamed Morsi led by then army chief Abdel al-Sisi, the regime has become even more repressive since his election as president and the Obama administration has become more supportive.

In September President Al-Sisi met with Bill and Hillary Clinton as well as former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. In late September, Obama also met with al-Sisi and "touted the longstanding relationship between the United States and Egypt as a cornerstone of American security policy in the Middle East." In June, Human Rights Watch claimed that the post-coup era in Egypt has included "the worst incident of mass unlawful killings in Egypt's recent history". The situation became even worse as: “judicial authorities have handed down unprecedented large-scale death sentences and security forces have carried out mass arrests and torture that harken back to the darkest days of former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule.” Even the New York Times in an editorial said: “Egypt today is in many ways more repressive than it was during the darkest periods of the reign of deposed strongman Hosni Mubarak.”
 Yet even back in April US officials promised to ensure that some of the $1.5 million in aid to Egypt, most of it military, would be released including 10 Apache helicopter gunships to be used in operations in the Sinai against militants. In June, Secretary of State John Kerry also met with al-Sisi and US officials announced that $572 million in aid that had been frozen after the crackdown last October, has now been released.
 An Egyptian court recently dismissed all charges against previous president Hosni Mubarak. The charges involved the killing of 239 protesters in 2011. Mubarak's interior minister and six aides were also cleared. Mubarak was also cleared of two corruption charges. Although one charge was upheld it will not likely entail any more prison time. While Mubarak was cleared of charges a total of 188 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were found guilty and sentenced to death en masse for the killing of 11 police officers during an ant-Sisi protest. This is the third mass sentencing of hundreds in the last year. Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch said: “It is just one more piece of evidence that the judiciary is just a political tool the government uses to prosecute its enemies and free the people it wants to be freed,”
 Al-Sisi refused to condemn the dropping of charges against Mubarak. He said that Egypt should "look to the future" and "cannot ever go back" echoing President Obama's justifications for not prosecuting any of the torturers and others from the Bush era black site times.Obama had said that "we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards". No doubt Egypt can look forward to further repression and mass sentencing.
 During the Tahrir Square demonstrations, the US applauded the drive towards democracy even though they had for years supported Mubarak and even used his torturers to extract information for them on occasion. In March of 2009 Hillary Clinton said: “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family.” Perhaps if Hillary becomes US president, President Al-Sisi will become friends of her family. Expect that Al-Sisi will also be friends with Putin and even with Israel.

Georgia admits to using cluster bombs in South Ossetia

Group: Georgia admits to dropping cluster bombs
Human Rights Watch says Georgia admits to dropping cluster bombs in S. Ossetia
StaffAP News
Sep 01, 2008 06:23 EST
A prominent human rights group says Georgia has admitted dropping cluster bombs in its military offensive to assert control over the restive province of South Ossetia.







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This is from wiredispatch.
These bombs should be banned but great powers such as the U.S. and Russia are opposed to a ban. The article does not say where the bombs were made but it sounds as if they were made in Israel or perhaps supplied by Israel since Israel used them in its war in Lebanon. Israel has been helping train the Georgian army and seems to have some influence with the government. As the article notes Russia also may have used the bombs in Georgia although Russia in this case denies doing so.



Human Rights Watch says it has received an official letter from Georgia's Defense Ministry that acknowledges use of the M85 cluster munition near the Roki tunnel that connects South Ossetia with Russia.
The M85 is the same weapon that was used extensively by Israel in its 2006 war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
HRW arms division researcher Bonnie Docherty told reporters in Geneva on Monday that Russia undoubtedly used cluster munition in several places during the conflict. However, Russia has denied using the weapon.
Source: AP News