{"id":16620,"date":"2018-09-28T07:24:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T07:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=16620"},"modified":"2018-09-28T07:24:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T07:24:00","slug":"merkel-erdogan-hold-tense-talks-in-shadow-of-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=16620","title":{"rendered":"Merkel, Erdogan hold tense talks in shadow of protests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nGENEVA: A Yemeni activist who was held and allegedly tortured for months by Houthi rebels this week criticized the UN-backed peace process for his country as \u201cnaive,\u201d warning against \u201chumanizing\u201d his captors.
Hisham Al-Omeisy, an outspoken activist, journalist and political commentator, was arrested in August 2017 after speaking out against restrictions and corruption in rebel-held areas of the war-ravaged country.
Omeisy, who has also harshly criticized the actions of the Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting the rebels since 2015, says the Houthis accused him of being an American and Saudi spy.
\u201cI was tortured in prison… They employed barbaric measures,\u201d he told AFP in an interview on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He warned that UN officials trying to bring both sides to the table to hammer out a peace deal were being \u201cplayed by the Houthis.\u201d
Omeisy was finally released in January after an international campaign to secure his freedom. He lives in Cairo but says he still follows the situation at home.
Yemen\u2019s war pits forces loyal to President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi\u2019s government against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who seized control of the capital Sanaa in 2014.
Some 10,000 people have died since the conflict escalated in 2015 when the Saudi-led coalition entered the fighting to support the government.
UN mediator Martin Griffiths tried earlier this month to organize the first negotiations between Yemen\u2019s warring sides in two years, but the Houthis failed to show up in Geneva.
Omeisy said the rebels refusal to come should not have been a surprise, and questioned whether those trying to broker peace sufficiently understand the complexities of the conflict.
\u201cThe process came off as very naive and overly simplistic,\u201d he said.
A major mistake, he said, was trying to \u201chumanize\u201d the Houthis.
Omeisy said he knew from his time in Houthi custody how brutal they were.
\u201cThey would hang me from the wall, beat me up. I had cuts and bruises all over my body,\u201d he said, displaying scars on his wrists from metal cuffs and a stab-wound on the back of one hand.
He also had pictures of big, red scars on his back and thigh.
His interrogators demanded that he confess on video to being a spy, but Omeisy said he refused, pointing out that if he had given in, \u201cI know I would have been executed.\u201d
He said he was held alone in a tiny concrete cell with no light and no toilet, and was often denied food and water.
\u201cThey dehumanize you,\u201d he said, adding that he knew of at least 16 journalists who were held in his block. He says he is haunted by their screams.
The UN insists there is no military solution to Yemen\u2019s conflict, but Omeisy insisted it would be preferable to go in quickly to retake the areas under Houthi control, instead of allowing the conflict to drag on.
The impression on the ground, he said, is that \u201cthe international community, and especially the Saudis, are willing to fight this war to the last Yemeni.\u201d
He described the Yemen conflict as Syria \u201con steroids.\u201d While Syria\u2019s war has been raging for more than seven years, he warned that Yemen\u2019s conflict could \u201cdrag on for 70.\u201d
The UN process was \u201cflawed,\u201d he said. \u201cYou need something beyond just good intentions. You need a solid strategy, and you need a solid implementation.\u201d
Omeisy meanwhile said he strongly supported the work of a group of investigators appointed by the UN Human Rights Council a year ago to probe violations in Yemen.
In a report presented to the council Wednesday, the investigators said there was reason to believe that all sides in Yemen\u2019s conflict had committed \u201cwar crimes.\u201d
The council is due to determine this week if the probe can continue for another year, but Saudi Arabia and others are opposed to extending its mandate.
The investigators \u201care independent\u201d and enjoy \u201cenormous credibility on the ground,\u201d Omeisy said, adding that it was \u201cextraordinarily important that it continues its work.\u201d
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GENEVA: A Yemeni activist who was held and allegedly tortured for months by Houthi rebels this week criticized the UN-backed peace process for his country as \u201cnaive,\u201d warning against \u201chumanizing\u201d his captors.Hisham Al-Omeisy, an outspoken activist, journalist and political commentator, was arrested in August 2017 after speaking out against restrictions and corruption in rebel-held areas…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":16621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}