Every morning, Zina Mishaal goes out to a nearby place next to her house overlooking the road leading to her small village, on a daily basis for 38 years. She almost does the same practice every morning without getting bored; She thinks perhaps she will see her son, who has been forcibly disappeared since that time, coming back home. So half of her life has gone, and she is there, sitting and waiting, hoping that he will return back tomorrow, but so far he has not come back yet.
She could not carry out her daily habit on a morning in the last month of May, because her slim body was besieged by sickness mixed with longing, and she could not go to her usual place for a meeting that was long overdue. She took a resting place from the balcony of her house overlooking the entrance of the village, while waiting for the time when her son may appear and cross that path towards the house. She was lying in her bed but she did not lose hope despite the many years passed, she looked from one moment to another outside, she looked at the horizon, and she was well covered. She slept her last sleep, and her son had not yet returned.
The beginning of the story
It had not been seven days since the return of Abdul Jalil Al-Odaini (Zina son) since his return from the land where he was a migrant running his modest business in order to support his family, until he disappeared again in a strangeness that seems the cruelest to all. This time of the new migration, there are no papers to write some messages of reassurance to his family members. And even the audio cassette in which he recorded some of his words and sent to his mother and young children has never reached to them.
On the evening of June 25, 1983, Al-Odaini left his home in the village of Karmadi (one of the villages of the district of Bani Yusef, west of Ibb Governorate) for a tour that was the last, or rather, the first and last since his return from his migration in one of the Gulf countries. Fouad Abdel Jalil, the eldest son of the forcibly disappeared father, told "Khuyut" that his father went that day to the governorate center with his companions and did not return after that. Since then, Zina and Abdul Jalil's young children have been waiting for their father's return.
Subsequently, there were conflicting news arose of the whereabouts of father and his two comrades, one of which was that they had been forcibly disappeared. The children at that time did not understand the meaning of enforced disappearance, and the village mother did not know anything about this term, all she knew was that something bad happened to her son.
A meeting Trap!
Al-Odaini was not associated with any political party, and this is what made people ask many questions about the reason for his disappearance. All in the matter was that he had a strong relationship and close friendship with his comrade AbdulWahed Shamsan, one of the known persons and sheikhs in the region. According to what Fouad told "Khuyut", he went out that evening, accompanied by AbdulWahed Shamsan and the driver, Musaad Saeed, in order to respond to an invitation from the governor of Ibb governorate to attend an emergency meeting that included many of the region’s dignitaries.
After the three friends headed to the governorate office, everyone was surprised that there was no meeting, then everyone decided to return back home, but later they decided to stay at the house of one of their friends in the city of Al-Odain, and after everyone had eaten the Suhoor meal, they decided to continue the road and return to their village. On the way back, specifically at the entrance to the eastern branch of Al-Odain district, they were stopped at a government military checkpoint where a large number of security and military persons were present, and they were detained there, and this is the last place where the three friends were seen.
Enforced Disappearance
During the period between 1978 and 1985, many people have been subject to enforced disappearance without any prior warning as the security situation in that time was very tense, especially since the rise of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to power.
At that time, the authority carried out widespread intimidation and kidnapping of various people, particularly in the central regions, especially after the emergence of political groups calling for the improvement of the situation, which began to improve very considerably, and the emergence of other armed movements that wanted to overthrow the existing political system by force of arms which was negatively reflected over the lives of many innocent people.
At that time, the main target of detention was AbdulWahed Shamsan, who was known in the seventies of the last century as a social figure who served his area through the provision of many basic service projects for the region, including the establishment of a school for the village and he was appointed as the school manager at the time. Shamsan was striving by all means to provide the most basic needs for the citizens, which prompted people to rally around and support him, and he was loved and respected by public in appreciation for his endeavors to improve their lives.
According to statement by Walid Shamsan, the eldest son of the disappeared AbdulWahed, who said that his father was a member of the Development Cooperative Authority until 1976, after which the people elected him as head of the authority. This authority was in charge of implementing local governmental infrastructure projects for the region, and it is also the executive body for the (five-year plan) project developed by the late President Ibrahim Al-Hamdi.
Walid confirms to "Khuyut" that his father was not affiliated with any political party or a suspicious political group at that time. On the contrary, he was a simple government employee, striving hard for the people of the region and supporting local development through simple service projects. Suddenly, things worsened and had a negative impact on him and those who were around him.
Many of the people of the region who lived in that period witnessed tragic acts of oppression to which people like Abdul-waid shamsan were exposed to, their abduction and forcible disappearance without any justification, and they know very well what AbdulWahed offered for the benefit of the region.
During that period, families of the disappeared persons kept searching for their family head or members from one place to another, but to no avail. Since that year, Sadiq, the brother of AbdulWahed, has followed up and searched for him from one place to another, and all ways were closed, and no one knew where they were or disclosed anything about their fate, and after the search process which lasted for many years, the families came to the conclusion that their sons were surely under the grip of the Political Security, according to Fouad Abdel Jalil.
Many of the forcible disappeared
There are many forcibly disappeared persons who were forcibly disappeared in that era, and their families do not know their whereabouts until now. In previous years, local media revealed that there are hundreds of forcibly disappeared, and this issue has remained one of the most mysterious issues in Yemen that no one has been able to approach or search for its details.
In the year 2011, there were many calls for the disclosure of the fate of the forcibly disappeared, and there were many conflicting reports about their whereabouts. At that time, hope returned to many of the families to start searching again about them, and many new names were revealed, but soon the case was closed.
In 2012, the painter Murad Subai’ and a group of artists with painters organized an initiative entitled “Walls Remember Their Faces” by drawing different murals which included drawings of hundreds the forcibly disappeared people in many places in Sana’a. Moreover, numerous appeals were also put at the National Dialogue Conference for disclosing the fate of the forcibly disappeared , but in vein.
