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POLITICS-YEMEN: An Ally Fights the U.S. Shadow
By Nabil Sultan
SANA'A, Jan 20, 2003 (IPS) - A move to secure the return of two Yemenis being held
as terrorist suspects in Germany is being seen as a test of national
sovereignty.
The two Yemeni nationals were arrested in a hotel in Frankfurt in Germany
January 11 following a U.S. request. Officials in Yemen say they were kept in
the dark by the U.S. and German governments about any plans to arrest the two.
"Yemen requests the government of the Federal Republic of Germany to hand
the Yemeni citizens to her and not to any other party," the government said
in an official statement. "The concerned Yemeni authorities will interrogate
them on the charges made against them." Germany has turned down the request.
The arrests come in a long line of U.S. intelligence-led operations that
are embarrassing the Yemeni government, political analyst Mohammad al-Kabisy
told IPS.
Last November an unmanned U.S. Predator aircraft carried out an attack in
Yemen killing six people suspected to be Al Qaeda members. The CIA (Central
Intelligence Agency) then leaked the attack story. Many people in Yemen found
the operation an insult to their national sovereignty.
Last month U.S. and Spanish ships halted the North Korean freighter So San
carrying Scud missiles to Yemen. Again, authorities in Yemen were not
informed of the move.
A U.S. official described Yemen as an "uneasy ally" after that raid. But
President Ali Abdallah Saleh was able to persuade U.S. Vice-President Dick
Cheney to release the missiles.
The latest standoff centres around Al-Moayyed, 58, one of the two men
arrested in Frankfurt. U.S. authorities say he is an Al Qaeda leader, and
that Yemeni authorities cannot be trusted because they failed to arrest him.
The second man is Mohammad Mohsein Zaid.
Al-Moayyed is a senior preacher at the Great Mosque in Sana'a, and many
have rallied to his side. "My father is not a terrorist," says his son
Ibrahim. "He is a leading member of Islah Party and friendly with all people
whether in the (opposition) Islah Party or the (ruling) General Peoples
Congress Party."
Al-Moayyed runs the Al-Ehsan Charitable Centre and has helped more than
8,000 orphans and poor people, Ibrahim says. People who gathered at his house
following his arrest said that he had spoken often against terrorism.
Al-Moayyed told Yemeni ambassador in Germany Mohialdin Al-Dabhi that he
had been invited to Germany by a man who had offered to make a donation to
his charitable trusts. The man gave him a cheque and disappeared two days
before his arrest, he said. Al-Moayyed says this was a plot to arrest him.
"These actions of the United States make all Muslims Al Qaeda members,"
says Hamoud Hashem Al Zerahi, member of the Supreme Council of the Islah
Party. "The U.S. does not distinguish between moderates and extremists, and
this makes us think the accused is Islam, not terrorism."
U.S. authorities say Al-Moayyed was preaching terrorism against the U.S.
at the Great Mosque. They cite an agreement with Germany to claim that he
should now be extradited to the U.S.
"If the U.S. authorities have clear evidence proving the involvement of
the two Yemenis in terrorist acts, it should provide that evidence to Yemeni
authorities," an official said. The U.S. is not giving Yemen a chance to take
its own measures to crack down on terrorists, he said.
President Saleh has called upon security forces to step up the fight
against terrorism, and asked the police to prevent any recruitment of
extremists. The Yemeni measures follow an agreement between the government
and U.S. authorities to step up the fight against terrorism following the
September 11 attacks.
One of the measures agreed was to reduce poverty, and therefore limit
conditions for the promotion of terrorism. The U.S. Agency for International
Development (AID) resumed health, education and agriculture projects in Yemen
in December after an eight-year suspension following the civil war which
broke out in 1994.
Yemenis feel grateful for this but suchaid is not enough to wipe out the
need for charitable societies such as Al-Moayyed's, says political researcher
Yaya Mansur.
Al-Moayyed had not been in hiding, officials point out. He was active in
running the Al-Ehsan charity and also the Al-Aqsa Charitable Society in
Sana'a for helping Palestinians. The U.S. did not suggest to Yemeni
authorities all this while that he was an Al Qaeda member, officials say. His
supporters say he had gone to Germany to buy medicines, not to engage in
terrorist activities.
The conflicting demands of Yemen and the U.S. place Germany in a difficult
situation. But Germany, which has had good relations with Yemen, says the
Yemeni request is illegal.
Yemeni officials claim that Yemen has a judicial cooperation treaty with
Germany signed in 1971 providing that neither country can hand a suspect over
to a third country.
The Yemeni government and the opposition Islah Party are making common
cause over Al-Moayyed. The Islah Party has engaged a lawyer to defend him in
Germany. "Germany must produce concrete evidence, otherwise it would be
illegal for them either to detain the suspects or to extradite them to the
U.S.," lawyer Yahya Allawo told IPS. (END)
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