Inmates used plastic plates to describe life inside the prisons. The text in Arabic reads, "This is how prisoners were forced to be naked." Photos / AP
Inmates used plastic plates to describe life inside the prisons. The text in Arabic reads, "This is how prisoners were forced to be naked." Photos / AP
The torturers followed a schedule. Beatings on Saturdays, torture on Sundays, and Monday was a break. The next three days were the same routine. On Fridays, it was time for solitary confinement.
From inside a Yemeni prison controlled by the United Arab Emirates - a top United States ally - a Yemeni detainee held without charges chronicled torture and sexual abuses through drawings. Smuggled to the Associated Press from the Beir Ahmed prison in the southern city of Aden, the drawings offer a grim glimpse into a hidden world of flagrant human rights abuses by UAE officers acting with impunity.
Sexual violence is a primary tool aimed at brutalising the detainees and extracting "confessions", the artist and six other detainees told the AP.
The drawings - made on plastic plates - show a man hanging naked from chains while he is being subjected to electric shocks, another inmate on the floor surrounded by snarling dogs as several people kick him, and graphic depictions of anal rape.
"The worst thing about it is that I wish for death every day and I can't find it," the artist said, summing up nearly two years in detention that started last year after he spoke against the Emiratis in public.
The UAE's secret prisons and widespread torture were exposed by an AP investigation last June. The AP has since identified at least five prisons where security forces use sexual torture to brutalise and break inmates.
Yemen's war began in 2015, after Houthi rebels took over much of the country's north. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are leading a coalition to fight the rebels, but UAE forces have overtaken wide swathes of territory, towns and cities in the south. The US is backing the coalition with billions of dollars in arms, and partners with the Emiratis in anti-terrorism campaigns.
A drawing prisoners being abused at an Emirati-run prison in Yemen. Photo / AP
Emiratis have swept up hundreds of Yemeni men on suspicion of being al-Qaeda or Isis (Islamic State) militants. The prisoners are held in at least 18 hidden prisons without charges or trials.
Witnesses said Yemeni guards working under the direction of Emirati officers use various methods of sexual torture and humiliation. They rape detainees while filming the assaults. They subject prisoners' genitals to electric shocks or hang rocks from their testicles. They sexually violate others with wooden and steel poles.
"They strip you naked, then tie your hands to a steel pole from the right and the left so you are spread open in front of them. Then sodomising starts," said one father of four who has been in detention for more than two years and who, like other detainees, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
A former security chief who was involved in torturing to extract confessions told the AP that rape is used as a way to force detainees to co-operate with the Emiratis in spying.
"In some cases, they rape the detainee, film him while raping, use it as a way to force him to work for them," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of concerns for his safety. The official has since defected from the Emirates and fled the country.
American officials confirmed last year that the US had interrogated some detainees at the secret prisons run by the UAE. The Pentagon has insisted that it had no knowledge of human rights abuses. Obtaining intelligence extracted by torture would violate international law.
The AP first asked the Pentagon about grave rights abuses committed by the UAE, its partner, one year ago. But despite well-documented reports of UAE involvement in torture by the AP, human rights groups and even the United Nations, Marine Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the US had seen no evidence of detainee abuse in Yemen.
Still, he called the allegations "disturbing" and said, "The United States take all allegations of abuse seriously, although we have no substantiating information at this time."
On May 24, the House of Representatives voted to require Defence Secretary Jim Mattis to investigate the scope of US involvement in UAE black sites.
A drawing of a prisoner being abused at a prison in Yemen. Photo / AP
The language, which would still need to pass the Senate, would require the Defence Department to submit a report within 120 days to Congress.
Reacting to the AP's report, the State Department called the allegations "disturbing" and called on the UAE to investigate.
UAE officials did not respond to requests for comment, but the country's permanent mission to the United Nations in Geneva released a statement after publication.
"The UAE has never managed or run prisons or secret detention centres in Yemen," the mission said.
But Yemen's Interior Minister has said he does not have authority over prisons and must ask for UAE permission to enter Aden. Of five prisons where the AP found sexual torture, four are in Aden, according to three Yemeni security and military officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation.
One is at Aden's Buriqa base - the headquarters for the Emirati forces and where American officers were seen along with Colombian mercenaries, according to two prisoners and two security officials. Prisoners said that American personnel in uniform weren't directly involved but were aware of the torture - either by hearing the screams or seeing the marks.
"Americans use Emiratis as gloves to do their dirty work," said one senior security official at the Riyan prison in Mukalla, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
"Joining Isis and al-Qaeda became a way to take revenge for all the sexual abuses and sodomy," said a top Yemeni commander currently in Riyadh, referring to the Emiratis.
The United Nations envoy for Yemen says he fears "severe" humanitarian and political fallout if fighting intensifies in the crucial port city of Hodeida, but he's confident a pact can be forged to prevent increased violence.
A Saudi-led coalition backed by the United States is battling to regain control of large parts of Yemen. Photo / AP
Special Envoy Martin Griffiths has been trying to broker a ceasefire after a Saudi-led coalition launched an offensive last week to try to retake rebel-held Hodeida. The coalition is allied with Yemen's internationally recognised, exiled Government.
"I am confident that we can reach an agreement to avert any escalation of violence" in Hodeida, Griffiths said in a statement yesterday, noting that he feared any military escalation "would have severe political and humanitarian consequences." He said he was encouraged by meetings in recent days with leaders of the Shia rebels, known as Houthis, and plans to meet with government leaders.
Hodeida is the main entry point for food, humanitarian aid and fuel supplies to impoverished Yemen, already on the brink of famine after three years of war.
The war has killed more than 10,000 people and thrust the Arab world's poorest country into what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Around two-thirds of Yemen's population of 27 million relies on aid, and more than 8 million are at risk of starving.
Aid groups have expressed alarm about the Hodeida offensive, fearing a protracted fight could shut down the port and potentially tip millions of people into starvation.
Seeking to allay concerns, diplomats from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates outlined a roster of humanitarian activities and plans yesterday at a New York news conference.
"The coalition has made humanitarian relief a priority," the Emirati UN Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said as she and Saudi officials said their countries were providing tonnes of food, trucks and aircraft to transport humanitarian supplies, and other help.
The two nations also together gave more than US$900 million ($1.3 billion) to UN humanitarian efforts in Yemen earlier this year.
The coalition has faced criticism for a campaign of airstrikes that has killed civilians and destroyed hospitals and markets.
The Houthis, meanwhile, have laid land mines, killing and wounding civilians. They have also targeted religious minorities and imprisoned opponents.
Rebel leader Abdel-Malek al-Houthi vowed in a speech Thursday to continue the fight.
