A new round of “prisoner consultations”: hopes for a big deal

Sana’a | Once again, the United Nations has completed its preparations for a new round of consultations on prisoners, and has called on the Yemeni parties to the conflict and the countries of the coalition of aggression to participate in them, setting next Thursday as the date for their launch in the Jordanian capital, Amman. This tour aims to resolve the files that were postponed in the Swiss consultations in Montreux at the end of last September. While welcoming the invitation of the “Committee on Prisoner and Detainee Affairs” in the capital Sanaa and expressing its willingness to participate, the government of outgoing President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi has yet to respond.

The Prisoners Committee of Sana’a expressed its hope that the next round will contribute to ending the suffering of hundreds of prisoners and highlighted its willingness to offer all facilities and concessions to make it a success. He asked that the file be handled humanely, away from extortion and political recruitment, pointing out that the multiplicity of parties concerned about the prisoners’ file makes it difficult to end their suffering in accordance with the “everyone for everyone” rule. The head of the commission, Abdul Qadir Al-Murtado, said in a press release that “the agenda for the next negotiations aims to implement the second part of the Amman Agreement signed between the two parties in mid-February, and the agreement on a new agreement “, hoping that the latter will be” larger than the agreement that was concluded under the auspices of the United Nations in the Montreux consultations in Switzerland, according to which 1,082 prisoners from both sides of the conflict were released in the middle of the month Al-Murtado indicated that “among the agenda of the new consultations is the exchange of 200 prisoners from the army and popular committees, in exchange for 100 prisoners from parties loyal to the coalition of aggression.” The other parties agreed on the terms “.

Sana’a demanded that the United Arab Emirates join the negotiators as a fourth party and partner in the aggression.

The Sana’a government, realizing that the decision to end the prisoner file is not in the hands of the Hadi government or the militias loyal to the United Arab Emirates, but Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, called on the United Nations to include representatives from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in upcoming consultations. According to Al-Murtado, “his insistence on the Emirati presence is due to the fact that Abu Dhabi has forces on the ground, in addition to its affiliated factions”, also highlighting the need for “the Saudi side to be present in its capacity as leader of the aggression, and of negotiating their prisoners with the army and the popular committees ”. The Sanaa leadership had negotiated, in the Montreux consultations, three parties: the Hadi government, the “southern resistance” and the Saudi side, and today it calls for the incorporation of the United Arab Emirates as the fourth party and partner in the aggression. .
And after the “Ansar Allah” movement showed its willingness to negotiate the names of the former Defense Minister in the Hadi Mahmoud Al-Subaihi government and Major General Faisal Rajab, commander of the “Fourth Military Region” loyal to the president who resigned and leader of the “reform” party, Muhammad Qahtan, in exchange for specific demands from the “coalition” and the forces. I was surprised by the fact that those loyal to the aggression turned over the detained Yemeni Samira Marsh, whom the Committee Prisoners in Sana’a almost managed to free the “coalition” through an exchange agreement sought by tribal mediators between Sana’a and Ma’rib. According to human rights sources, Marsh, a 35-year-old woman and mother of five, was arrested by Hadi’s forces in late 2018 in the vicinity of Al-Hazm city in Al-Jawf governorate accused of collaborating with the forces of Sanaa. Earlier this month, she was secretly transferred from the Ma’rib jails controlled by the “Reform Party militia.” “To Riyadh, which aroused the ire of large sections of Yemen.
According to observers, more than 10,000 prisoners from both sides of the conflict remain behind bars, and some of them are years old. In light of the outbreak of the “Covid-19” pandemic and the record of dozens of injuries and several deaths in the occupied southern governorates in recent years, the risks of prisoners remaining on both sides necessitate the provision of more facilities for end the file. At the end of last month, the “Prisoners Committee” in Sanaa announced that it had received 35 prisoners from Saudi prisons, who were captured on the Ma’rib, Al-Jawf, Shabwa and Al-Bayda fronts and were sold to the Saudi side. , for the latter to use in negotiations over his prisoners.

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