A Saudi-led coalition committee established to implement the Riyadh agreement, a peace deal signed between the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC), should ensure the release of wrongfully held detainees and investigate alleged human rights abuses in Yemen, a leading human rights watchdog said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2019) A Saudi-led coalition committee established to implement the Riyadh agreement, a peace deal signed between the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council (STC), should ensure the release of wrongfully held detainees and investigate alleged human rights abuses in Yemen, a leading human rights watchdog said on Thursday.
"The Riyadh agreement doesn't address the enduring problem of Yemeni security forces abusing local residents with impunity," Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement published on the watchdog's website.
The Riyadh agreement, signed in November, stipulates that the STC's security forces will merge into the state Ministries of Interior and Defense. The terms of the agreement envision that Aden, a former STC stronghold, would return to the government's control after a fierce power struggle.
HRW alleges that the peace deal has ignored human rights issues, such as the arbitrary detention of 40 citizens in August and September during clashes between the Yemeni government and the STC.
"The parties to the agreement need to start rebuilding the trust that has all but vanished due to abuses by these security agencies," Page said.
Local sources informed HRW that security forces ransacked houses and burned shops in the port city of Aden, during outbreaks of violence between the government and the STC.
In a letter sent to the watchdog, a member of the STC's presidential committee claimed that arbitrary arrests were only conducted if security forces considered that detainees were prisoners of war, HRW reported.
The STC was created in 2017 and is a secessionist movement in Yemen, backed by the United Arab Emirates. The separatist forces have been allied with the government during ongoing fighting against the Houthi rebel movement. The alliance looked threatened after the STC seized Aden in August, which led to fighting in the city before the Yemeni government and the STC signed the Riyadh agreement on November 5.
