Hundreds of Yemeni families are still clinging to the hope of meeting their close relatives who were forcibly disappeared by the authorities that ruled the country north and south, for political, regional, or sectarian reasons since the 1960s, passing through the period of the assassination of President Ibrahim Al-Hamdi and beyond, until the summer war of 1994.

These hopes and aspirations have not dimmed with the continuation and increase of victims of violations and enforced disappearance practices during the six Saada wars and the subsequent events during the revolution of February 11, 2011, and the war that has been erupting since the year 2015 until now. Consequently, the memory of the families of the disappeared refuses to forget, as they say during their conversations filled with sorrow and pain with "Khuyut,",  while the anniversary of the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, which falls on August 30, comes to revive those wounds and the pain in the hearts of those who lost a loved one or relative.

Actually, enforced disappearance has frequently been used as a strategy to spread terror within the society. The feeling of insecurity generated by this practice is not limited to the close relatives of the disappeared, but also affects their communities and society as a whole.

The families of the victims, experience slow mental anguish, not knowing whether the victim is still alive and, if so, where he or she is being held, under what conditions, and in what state of health. During periods of political conflict, the search for the truth has exposed many families and human rights activists to more dangers and threats.

A Disturbing Issue

Saleh Muqbil Saleh, from Al-Dhalea Governorate, was unable to stay after the summer war of 1994 in the city of Aden in southern Yemen, where he has lived with his family since he was a rocket artillery officer in Al-Jalaa Camp in the late 1980s, due to security concerns.

However, soon after, he decided to go to Hadhramaut Governorate (southeast of Yemen), and since then, it is believed that Saleh was subjected to enforced disappearance by the victorious forces in the War of Secession, as it was called at the time, according to Ahmed, the son of the forcibly disappeared Saleh Muqbil.

Ahmed adds during his talk to "Khuyut”: “Since those moments, we no longer know the fate of my father, whether he is alive, dead, imprisoned, or assassinated.”

Salwa Zuhra remembers how the pain of her father’s disappearance has haunted her family since she was young: "We have suffered a lot from the pain of separation. Every day we have been waiting to hear news about my father, whether he is still alive or how he is. No one knows the pain of loss like the one who has experienced it."

The issue of forcibly disappeared people has emerged in South Yemen since the events resulting from the power struggle following the departure of the British occupation, from the 1960s until the 1980s.

In this regard, the head of the Yemeni Women’s Union, Fathia Abdullah, explains to "Khuyut" how the issue of the forcibly disappeared people continued to worry and haunt families in southern Yemen, who have suffered greatly and still continue to suffer to this day.

Likewise, in this context, the Saleh regime’s authority followed a method of rejection, intransigence, and camouflage with this dossier of enforced disappearance, which is the same approach it used to deal with the inquiries from international organizations working in the field of human rights. It insisted on denying and not acknowledging the existence of forcibly disappeared persons other than those involved in the events of the political conflicts in the southern regions during the era of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen.

According to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992 as a body of principles for all States, an enforced disappearance occurs when: "persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law."

Public Move

Following the February 11 revolution, the dossier of forcibly disappeared people was opened. The youth revolution encouraged the families of the victims to speak out and reveal their injustice, which they did not dare talk about during the period preceding February 11, 2011. Further,  Salwa, the daughter of the forcibly disappeared Ali Qanaf Zuhra, was one of the victims who took it upon themselves to revive the issue of enforced disappearance by monitoring and inventorying the dossiers of the disappeared, drawing the attention of local and international organizations concerned with rights and freedoms to the importance of knowing their fate.

Hours after the assassination of the late Yemeni President Ibrahim Al-Hamdi, on October 11, 1977, in the capital, Sana’a, Brigadier General Ali Qanaf Zuhra, who was commander of the Seventh Armored Brigade, was kidnapped and forcibly disappeared in an unknown location until now.

In her interview with "Khuyut", his daughter Salwa Zuhra recalls how the pain of her father’s disappearance has haunted her family since she was young, saying: "We suffered a lot from the pain of separation. Every day we have been waiting to hear news about my father, whether he is still alive or how he is. No one knows the pain of loss like the one who has experienced it."

In 2012, Salwa, together with a number of close relatives of the victims of enforced disappearance and others in Sanaa, founded the “Yemeni Association for Families of the Forcibly Disappeared.”

In this respect, Zuhra explains that she and other relatives of the disappeared had no international or local support to talk about their oppression before 2011, as anyone who approached the dossier of the disappeared or referred to them was himself subjected to disappearance.

Everyone is a Victim

None of the politicians, political party leaders, or even those concerned with human rights issues welcomed us as an association concerned with the forcibly disappeared in Yemen; because this dossier would reveal many of those involved who were and still claim that they are working for the interests, freedom, and dignity of the Yemeni citizen.

On the other hand, Zuhra notes the role provided to them by Mwatana Organization for Human Rights, at a time when many refused to cooperate with them, by the leadership of the organization, which she refers to by name, the human rights activists Abdul-Rasheed alfaqih and Radhya Al-Mutawakkil, as they opened the doors of their offices and headquarters, as Zuhra says, to receive the victims’ families and assist them, in addition to providing consulting and legal support.

Despite the obstacles and difficulties that the association faced at its beginning, it was an outlet for many relatives of victims of enforced disappearance who consider themselves victims like the disappeared, and at that time many victims were monitored to hear their complaints.

Salwa Zuhra points out that the association has been able to document more than 80 files of forcibly disappeared people in various areas. In addition to conducting many activities and organizing marches and demonstrations to advocate for the oppressed and forcibly disappeared.

Furthermore, it also organized several campaigns that worked to draw the attention of the local and international community to the importance of moving and opening the dossier of the disappeared, such as the "Walls Remember Their Faces" campaign, which is drawings by Yemeni artists that were painted on the walls of a number of streets in the capital, Sana’a.

In addition, there was also another move that focused on the National Dialogue Conference held in March 2013, where Hala Al-Qurashi, the daughter of Sultan Al-Qurashi, who has been forcibly disappeared since 1978, called on the participants in the dialogue conference to pay attention to this dossier and to feel the suffering that the families of the forcibly disappeared are experiencing, and for that suffering to be reflected in the transitional justice law that was planned to be adopted and approved after the National Dialogue Conference in a way that would contribute to overcoming the consequences of this phenomenon, but that did not happen.

Thus, the transitional period that followed the revolution of February 11, 2011, represented a glimmer of hope for the families of the forcibly disappeared; however, the situation did not last due to the outbreak of war in 2015, while the victims and affected families continue to cling to hope. As Salwa Zuhra says, in the words of relatives of victims of enforced disappearance, "We are still looking for our relatives, and we are still seeking to approve the law on the prevention of enforced disappearance, and the hope still exists".

‍