POLITICS-YEMEN: Unrest over Detained Leaders Grows

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Nabil Sultan

SANA'A, Jun 2 2003 (IPS) - Public unrest is rising over the detention of two Yemenis in Germany following claims by the U.S. that they are members of Al-Qaeda.

Thousands of men and women took to the streets last weekend in protest against the detention of Sheikh Al-Moayed and his companion Mohammed Zaid. Al-Moayed is a leader well regarded in Yemen for his work with an Islamic charity.

Demonstrations of this kind have not been seen since the Iraq war.

The demonstrators also sought the release of Yemeni official Abdul Salam Al- Helah who went missing in Egypt in September last year. The new demonstrations followed some reports that Germany plans to extradite the two detained men to the U.S. The two men were detained in January on suspicion that their organisations finance the Al-Qaeda network and the Palestinian movement Hamas.

Al-Moayed has denied the U.S. allegations. "I am prepared to be beheaded if evidence is found against me," he said in a statement released through his lawyer Anis Al-Doais. "The Yemeni and the Muslim public should know the reality. We are not terrorists."

Al-Moayed said a man who promised to arrange donations for his charity duped him into travelling to Germany. He said the man was working for the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).

"Al-Moayed was one of those who condemned the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, and called the hijackers people who damage Islam," Al-Moayed’s friend and member of Parliament Haza’a Al-Maswari told IPS.

Concern is also growing over the fate of Al-Helah. He had played a key role in expelling some Afghans from Yemen during the Afghan war with the former Soviet Union. He is believed to have vital information on Afghans with Egyptian connections.

Egyptian officials have said that Al-Helah had left Egypt for another country.

Relatives of the three men have asked President Ali Abdallah Saleh to secure their return to Yemen. They have also written to the National Organisation for Defending Human Rights.

The demands backed by the protests have created a difficult situation for the new government, which is looking for good relations with the U.S., Germany and Egypt.

President Saleh has said he will take up the case of Al-Moayed during a visit to Germany due soon. He also said he would pursue the case of Al-Helah with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The new government has been calling on people to provide information on Al- Qaeda suspects who escaped from a prison in Aden in April. But the cases of the three men in Germany and Egypt mean that the appeal could lose public support.

"The protests should continue, and detainees in and outside Yemen should be released," Mohammed Naji Allawo, coordinator for the National Commission for Defending Rights and Freedoms said at the last rally. "The German and the Egyptian governments are responsible for the safety and the rights of the detainees."

Al-Moayed’s son Ibrahim told IPS that "my father has always believed that poverty and injustice are the real terrors." The government must do more to secure the release of the "father of the poor", he said.

Leaders of some tribes have said that U.S. and German interests in Yemen will be targeted if Al-Moayed and his companion are extradited to the U.S.