Emirates in Yemen… A Record Full with Genocide, Secret prisons, and Plunder
After it was a dumping ground for the remnants of fishermen’s boats, the colonial powers made it during four decades a model for a unique federal government system in the Middle East. It is characterized by economic competitiveness among its six emirates, on the path of accelerating growth rates, but the non-Arab Emirates turned overnight into a mere cheap tool in the hands of Israel, Britain, America and France.
Investigation / Investigations management
What was not expected by international observers is that this statelet will become among the list of the world’s most criminal regimes, with what it committed in Yemen seven years ago. What is UAE’s role in the aggression on Yemen? Who are the colonial powers benefiting from this? Is there a problem between UAE and Yemen? What are the goals of UAE from occupying Socotra? And militarization of the Yemeni islands and gas installations in Shabwah? and how did they turn them into secret prisons for torture, murder and violations contrary to human norms…? And what is its relationship to the assassinations in the areas that they seized in the occupied governorates of Yemen?
These questions and others will be answered in the next file, from the reality of local and international human rights reports… to the details of the first episode of this file.
Under the title, “How did UAE destroy Yemen in order to achieve its regional goals”? The British “Middle East Eye” website published a report in which it talked about the role that UAE plays in undermining stability and deepening divisions in Yemen. In addition to committing, numerous violations, in pursuit of its unilateral objectives, outside the goals set by Saudi Arabia and its ally when forming the military coalition in Yemen, under false pretenses, that it soon became apparent. Pointing out that Abu Dhabi played a pivotal role in this war, in contrast to all the literature and goals announced by the coalition on the morning of March 26, 2015, throwing its military arrogance and dismantling practices of Yemeni society on the policy of its European master Britain (divide and rule) by supporting various security services and belts, which are fighting among themselves and engaging in fierce battles with Hadi government, on the West Coast, it established and supported the “Giant Brigades”, In the provinces of Abyan, Aden and Lahij, the “security belt” forces, or the security belts, in Hadhramaut and Shabwah, the Shabwani and Hadrami elites, but the most important thing in talking about the UAE’s role in the aggression is the financing dimension of the war, as international reports indicate that UAE has been spending monthly since the establishment of these formations about 1.3 billion dollars, equivalent to (16 billion dollars annually), approximately $120 billion since UAE joined a Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen (March 2015) as monthly spending on its forces in Yemen, a figure outside of its purchases of military weapons, according to billions of deals, not to mention its exorbitant expenditures in buying global loyalties and normalization with Israel.
Prison and torture crimes
Observers believe that the fragmentation – referred to previously – resulting from the Emirati role in the aggression against Yemen, constituted a dirty environment in which UAE practiced its most heinous crimes against humanity, with regard to UAE’s crimes and human rights violations of detainees in prisons, dozens of international human rights reports revealed that UAE, after taking control of areas in southern Yemen, established secret prisons in airports and oil and gas facilities. It obstructed the operation of Al-Rayyan Airport (the third largest airport in Yemen), and turned it into a secret and illegal prison, with the recognition of Hadi’s government, backed by Riyadh, the Emirati forces rejected Yemeni government’s directives to restart Al-Rayyan Airport in the city of Mukalla, according to government sources affiliated with Hadi’s government. Those sources added that UAE through the forces of the so-called “Hadrami Elite” affiliated with it; extended its absolute control over all cities and villages of Hadhramaut coast, and then it took Al-Rayyan Airport as a headquarters and a military base for its forces since 2016 for security reasons. At the end of November 2019, Al Rayyan Airport resumed its activities in civil flights, after suspension for nearly 5 years. However, it stopped at that time after a few flights, despite repeated calls for it to be restarted to end the suffering of residents and patients.
International human rights organizations have accused it of establishing a secret prison at the airport and the disappearance of dozens of Yemenis and the perpetration of serious violations against them, where Mwatana Organization for Human Rights has achieved at least 38 incidents of arbitrary detention and 10 incidents of torture in their prison center at Al-Rayyan Airport, and at least 13 cases of arbitrary detention and 17 cases of torture in Al-Jala’a camp in Al Buraiqeh district, Aden province, affiliated with the Emirati-backed Transitional Council, during the period from May 2016 to April 2020.
Former detainees complained to the organization that they were kept in cramped and dark warehouses and were subjected to various forms of torture and other ill-treatment, including deprivation of food and water, electric shocks, kicks, beatings with whips, and burning with cigarettes. They were also subjected to humiliating forms of cruel treatment, such as deprivation from performing religious rites and being forced to strip and prostrate to UAE flag, according to the organization.
The organization said: UAE, through these forces, is trying to hide thousands of Yemenis, including political opponents and opinion-holders, and even civilians, without bringing any accusation or presentation to the judicial authorities. It explained that it had monitored many prisons in Mukalla, the capital of Hadhramaut, and Azzan in Shabwah, and prisons in Abyan and Lahij, and Mocha and Al Khawkhah on the western coast. This was also confirmed by Human Rights Watch, which accused UAE of committing crimes of torture in Yemen. and that it provides support to Yemeni forces who have arbitrarily detained and forcibly disappeared dozens of people during security operations, it explained that UAE runs two official detention centers in Aden: the Central Prison and the Criminal Investigation Department.
The French newspaper “Le Monde” revealed earlier that there was a secret prison in a military base set up by UAE in mid-2017 on part of Balhaf LNG facilities in Shabwah province, Balhaf facility is one of the most important natural gas cities in the Middle East, and it was controlled at the request of Hadi government, disguised by the French Total Group to be a part of it.
A report published by the British Guardian newspaper confirms that the detainees of October seven prison in Al-Rawa area of Khanfar district, Abyan province, which is controlled by UAE-backed Security Belt Forces, they are subjected to the most horrific forms of torture and harsh conditions. They were forced to drink urine and beaten with hammers, and sexually tortured to death. The British Guardian quoted on eyewitnesses, saying that the bodies of some detainees were dumped in the courtyard of a hospital near the prison. Confirming that the organizations documented during the period (May 2016 to April 2020) more than 1,600 arbitrary arrests and 770 enforced disappearances and 344 cases of torture, attributed to all warring parties in Yemen.
The American “Associated Press” agency revealed that the cases of torture that prisoners are subjected to inside a Yemeni prison administered by UAE amount to physical attacks and rapes. Emphasizing that the systematic torture inside the prison linked to a specific timetable, these are weekly violations against detainees, including beatings on Saturdays, and torture on Sundays and Mondays break, on the other three days, the same routine is repeated, and every Friday comes the time of solitary confinement.
The Associated Press of America and in a report published in the year 2017. It quoted on US officials – whose names were not mentioned – as saying that the Americans participated in the interrogation of detainees inside those sites, they submitted interrogation questions to other forces, and they obtained a copy of the transcripts of the interrogations. The officials added that the Americans were aware of the abuse allegations. In reference to the Americans’ attempt to conceal or distort the facts, however, a former official at the Ministry of Defense, who asked not to be named, because he discusses sensitive issues, he said: The ministry recommended its members not to visit prisons outside the country; to avoid holding them “responsible for doing something about their situation.”
Observers said: the sites run by UAE inside Yemen remind us of the “black sites” of US Central Intelligence Agency, which witnessed US forces torturing dozens of suspected terrorists after events of September 11, explaining that there is a clear US role in UAE’s crimes in Yemen, and that Americans responsible for the investigations did not take any step that would bring justice to the victims, especially considering the presence of American elements next to the Emiratis inside the coalition camp. They never pressured the coalition to stop committing these crimes.
The international media in particular have quoted drawings reflecting the most heinous images of torture of a Yemeni painter who was arbitrarily arrested. But, with his talent, he succeeded in detailing the ways of torture and sexual abuse he subjected to through his drawings that were smuggled from “Bir Ahmed” prison in the city of Aden, it carries with it a bleak glimpse into a hidden world of flagrant human rights violations committed by Emirati officers, free from accountability and punishment. This prompted Amnesty International to issue a report calling for an investigation into a network of secret prisons in southern Yemen. it said that it witnesses “terrible violations,” torture, and the disappearance of prisoners, explaining that it had investigated the circumstances of the arrest of 51 prisoners during the period (March 2016 – May 2018), who were arrested by government forces and Emirati forces that are training the forces of the authority in southern Yemen. It added that 19 of them lost their tracks.
While Human Rights Watch and the Associated Press have documented more than 18 secret prisons run by UAE in Yemen, the United Nations announced in July 2018, that it had reason to believe that Yemeni prisoners had been subjected to ill-treatment, torture and sexual abuse by members of UAE forces. This came after the spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Liz Throssell, confirmed in statements to Anadolu Agency that UAE runs secret prisons in Yemen.
In 2019, a document published by “Al-Khaleej Online” revealed the liquidation of 23 Yemeni detainees inside the secret Emirati prisons in Aden. In February 2021, a human rights report issued by Rights Radar revealed the deaths under torture, at the hands of armed formations backed by UAE, which include (the Security Belt Forces, Hadrami and Shabwani Elite Forces, the Guards of the Republic, the Giants Brigades, and Abu al-Abbas Brigades). Included 55 cases, seven cases committed by Al-Qaeda, four cases of killing under torture were attributed to government forces (affiliated with Hadi’s government).
UAE’s crimes did not stop at closed rooms and court prisons, rather, it went out to reach every voice raised by human rights defenders, civilians and Yemeni expatriates returning to their areas under the control of the coalition of aggression or affiliated with the rescue Government in Sana’a. Some of them were forcibly hidden for years, and some did not appear, while, some of them were killed in a crowd of passers-by , and cameras documented in the hands of UAE-backed security belt forces, while human rights organizations say that dozens are still forcibly disappeared in Aden,Hadhramaut, Shabwah, Lahij and other coalition-controlled areas that witness secret prisons run by Abu Dhabi regime in Yemen.
As for the crimes of genocide committed by Emirates Airlines, along with Saudi, American and Israeli airlines, It is clear that UAE contributed with barbarism and barbarity in the aggression and siege on Yemen. Barbarian massacres were committed against civilians in all cities and villages of Yemen. Its aggressive raids affected factories, laboratories, schools, mosques, funerals and weddings. Even prisons, the most horrific of which was targeting Sa’dah Reserve prison, whose building leveled to the ground, including prisoners in civil cases and legal violations.
Plundering wealth
At the field levels, UAE forces tended to militarily control the economic resources and service capabilities of revenue-generating electricity, water, trade, and others. In addition to the militarization of oil and gas facilities, in Shabwah, Abu Dhabi sought to militarize Balhaf facility, It robbed Yemen of its sovereign right to export liquefied natural gas produced in one of the most important factories in Middle East for natural gas, as it is considered the largest Yemeni economic project, the cost of its establishment amounted to about $5.4 billion in 2006, Its total production capacity is 6.7 million metric tons annually, While official reports indicate that revenues from gas exports contributed about 5.1% to 6.9% of total revenues for the general budget of the Yemeni state during the years 2014-2015, however, the Emirati forces tightened control over it, as a colonial control, in order to paralyze the Yemeni treasury’s imports of hard currency on the one hand, and on the other hand, to please Tel Aviv and France in the first place, as UAE has become a glove for the colonial powers.
On Socotra Island, Abu Dhabi continued to target the Yemeni identity, an attempt to separate the archipelago from the map of the Republic of Yemen, socially, geographically, sovereignly and as an official identity. It initially focused on pumping huge blocks of Emirati currency into the archipelago’s markets and cities, with a view to carrying and circulating it in commercial transactions, up to making it an official currency, and contribution to collapse of the value of Yemeni riyal versus foreign currencies and the deterioration of citizens’ savings.
Banking sources in the Archipelago province reported that Abu Dhabi spent 500 dirhams for each member of the Transitional Council. Then, accordingly, the Emirati Khalifa Corporation began working in trading domestic gas on the island, obligating citizens to buy gas in Emirati currency at the rate of 105 Emirati dirhams. While reports confirm that UAE has acquired the archipelago’s economic resources, starting with uprooting trees to set up its own investment projects, and work on transporting rare trees and wild creatures to UAE and trading them in international auctions.
Reports indicate that UAE worked for nine months in the vicinity of the island, with giant merchant ships that swept more than 900,000 tons of fish, the environment and coral reefs were destroyed, the marine environment was polluted, causing the death and disappearance of a large number of fish.
UAE was not satisfied with that, but rather monopolized the purchase of the fish brought by the fishermen, preventing them from fishing in large areas of territorial waters, and established a factory for canning fish and transporting them to foreign markets, what raised prices in the local markets, to the extent of depriving the citizens of the archipelago of its marine resources.
As for electricity sector, it was not spared from Emirati control, since 2018, it have privatized the branch of the Electricity Corporation on the island of Socotra, which was legally affiliated with the electricity of the coast of Hadhramaut province. In the name of UAE Company, “Dixom Power Generators”, it completely took over the assets and generators of the State Electricity Corporation, It replaced its meters and increased consumption by 500% for the population and 800% for the commercial sector. It also dominated the trade sector, movement of exports and imports; it monopolized the import and distribution of oil derivatives through UAE Company ADNOC.
The Emirati aggression and the Yemeni response
There is a long series of paradoxes for the sudden aggressive role of the Emirates, as well as the foundation in the formation of the Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia where Abu Dhabi comes second after Riyadh in terms of practical preparation and joint bombing, and the outrageous expenses referred to earlier, but the most important question that has remained a preoccupation for international media and observers, he: Why did the missile forces, the Yemeni army, and Yemeni People’s Committees avoid it, throughout the years of the war until 2022?
The answer is very clear, UAE does not have any geographical borders with Yemen, there is no past of wars and enmities between them, or an eternal problem based on a historical record of wars, as in the case of Yemen with its neighbor Saudi Arabia, due to the nature of Al-Saud regime expansionist, which excluded, abolished and annihilated many and multiple countries in Najd and Hijaz. Half of the Yemeni Idriss region (Asir, Jizan and Najran) were devoured, which constitutes a logical retaliation for the internecine war to erupt at any time. The state of Emirates – which meets with Saudi Arabia in a clear reference made by Britain – was in not in need of her war against the Yemeni people, who were ignorant of the founding references, and look with Arab nationalism affection, to the positions of Sheikh Zayed, may Allah have mercy on him, who drew the features of a federal state project to which didn’t apply on it the previous expansionist, abolition and aggressive criteria.
The most important explanation for the Yemeni response delay is that the revolutionary, political and governmental leadership in Sana’a, the Yemeni army and popular committees, although it was aware of UAE’s dependence on Israel from an early age. It did not intend to direct its earth-shattering missiles at Emirati territory, but the nature of the malicious role played by the Emirates in serving America and Israel made the rescue Government in Sana’a face a historical necessity that requires a deterrent response, but after obligating Abu Dhabi, the clear and unequivocal argument.
This Yemeni wisdom was manifested in the fact that the leader of September 21 revolution, Sayyid Abdul-Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, may Allah protect him, did not hint at any response against Abu Dhabi at first, during the first two years of the war, from his wise point of view, the battle was settled with the Emirati military forces present on Yemeni soil, as invading forces, they received the first harsh blows on Marib land in Safer camp, killing about 54 Emirati officers and individuals who had previously sentenced themselves to death by entering the invaders’ cemetery.
In 2017, his Eminence frankly threatened UAE with missile strikes on its own backyard if it continued its malicious plans to tear the country apart, calling on businessmen to leave, after the Emirati practices increased against Yemenis in Socotra, Shabwah, the western coast, Hadhramaut , and others.. This made the observers surprised by this threat coupled with the intense and unprecedented tone, stressing that UAE was in the crosshairs of the Yemeni missiles.
Most importantly, these threats were not exceptional in view of being the first in the battle against aggression and siege, rather, based on the knowledge of the coalition and the world that the revolution leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi is not a man of politics and religious preaching speeches, but rather a man of action, meaning what he says. In this context, the great Arab media analyst and observer Abdel Bari Atwan said, referring to the explicit threats in Al-Sayed’s speech: The element of surprise lies in the fact that it was the first time that the leader of “Ansar Allah” directed such threats to the UAE, and its capital Abu Dhabi in particular. Since the start of Yemeni crisis two and a half years ago, and most importantly, he has warned Western companies that they should see to UAE as a country that is no longer safe.”
Atwan sees these threats and the way they were formulated, its source is the realization of Anssarallah that the plans of UAE and its next steps, which have become a strategic threat to the unity of Yemeni fabric, especially with the continued growing military buildup led by UAE and its military leadership in Yemen, in preparation for an imminent land, sea and air attack to seize Hodeidah port, which is the only and most important sea port for Houthis to the outside world, that all food, commercial and military needs pass through it.”
Despite the patience that Yemen, represented by its revolutionary leadership, pursued, in the hope that UAE would turn back from its wrongdoing and its crimes in Yemen, which have no geographical borders, nor historical problems, revenges and wars, as there is no history of Emirates as a state, it is just started in the past four decades, however, UAE continued to meet any advice, threats, with sarcasm and disdain. It was necessary to wake it up from its slumber, as the missiles of Sana’a reached Abu Dhabi more than three times, and if it continues its crimes in Yemen, and imposes the de-facto authority as a colonial power serving Israel, America, France and Britain, its losses are likely to increase by many times what it lost of its soldiers, and its reputation, which it built on an aura of fraud and media fallacies, Its material losses will also continue to increase, in light of the draining of its financial resources to spend on the war in Yemen and other countries in the region in which UAE is interfering in its affairs. International reports confirm that UAE has lost – in its military interventions outside its borders since 2015 – about 111 members of its military forces, most of them in Yemen, according to a recent research paper issued by Emask Center for Studies.
Exposing the truth of federal model
The most important thing is to talk about the exposure of Emirates reality as a step-state of Israel, not as a country with a typical federal system, as some people imagine. Geopolitical studies confirmed beyond any doubt and ambiguity, that UAE is nothing but a mini-state, a visual balloon and an acoustic phenomenon inflated by colonialism, at a time when they are nothing but colonial territorial gloves in the hands of Britain, America and France.The most important of these countries is Israel, which seeks through UAE movements and its militarization of the Yemeni islands and ports on the Arabian Sea and the southern Red Sea, to control world trade routes, Emphasizing that the entry of UAE into Yemen did not reveal its fragility and loss of the civilized dimension that Abu Dhabi was claiming, rather, it ended its status as a federal model that did not exceed the fourth decade of its life, It is still devoid of spirit, values, and originality, oil revenues is the only thing that covered her.
US website, “Intelligence”, stated that “ UAE has hired former American officers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan to improve the performance of its forces in Yemen.” But it was not found in the path of improving its image in front of Israel and the West. The evidence is the internal human rights situation and the great violations and grievances it contains, in addition to the declining level of popular satisfaction with the practices of UAE state and its normalization with the Zionist entity, that has usurped Arab land and religious sanctities in Palestine…