Yemen govt to probe alleged torture of detainees

Yemen’s internationally recognized government has created a committee to investigate allegations of human rights violations, a development that followed reports US military interrogators worked with forces from the UAE accused of torturing detainees in Yemen.
A copy of the order issued by Prime Minister Abdu Dagher was obtained Saturday by The Associated Press.
The six-member committee will be chaired by the justice minister and has 15 days to conclude its work and report its findings to Dagher.
The reports were revealed in an AP investigation that detailed a network of secret prisons across southern Yemen where hundreds are detained in the hunt for Al-Qaeda militants.
American defense officials said US forces have interrogated some detainees in Yemen but denied any participation in, or knowledge of, human rights abuses.
Pressure mounted on the US Defense Department Friday after multiple US senators called for investigations into the reports.
John McCain, Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the ranking Democrat, Jack Reed, called the reports “deeply disturbing.”
McCain and Reed wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis Thursday asking him to conduct an immediate review of the reported abuse and what US forces knew.
“Even the suggestion that the United States tolerates torture by our foreign partners compromises our national security mission by undermining the moral principle that distinguishes us from our enemies — our belief that all people possess basic human rights,” the senators wrote Mattis. “We are confident that you find these allegations as extremely troubling as we do.”

Source: Arab News