Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Yemen Prepared for Dialog with Guantanamo Returnees- Official | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page

Taiz, Asharq Al-Awsat- Yemeni Minister of Religious Trusts Hamud al-Hattar al-Qadi has stressed to Asharq Al-Awsat that his country is prepared for dialog with the returnees from Guantanamo detention camp as soon as they are handed over by the US Administration. Al-Qadi stated that there are 90 Yemeni citizens left in Guantanamo, and that his country has extensive experience in the dialog with the extremists.

Al-Qadi told Asharq Al-Awsat that: “We have conducted dialogs with large numbers of Al-Qaeda members. The dialog is conducted in three stages. The first stage is surveillance, which has a security part, and an intellectual one. This stage is followed by conducting training courses in human development in order to try to integrate them in society.”

The minister of religious trusts stresses that these training courses have had great influence in changing the mindset of these youths, before the beginning of the third stage, which is the direct integration in society through providing them with real job opportunities.

“We have participated in solving some of the pending problems of these individuals, be they problems with their families, or marital problems. We have participated in this, and hence our attempts have been fruitful.” Al-Qadi added.

The Yemeni minister also revealed that the dialog with its three stages is conducted in complete secrecy, and that the names of the individuals are not announced in order to protect them socially after the integration stage.

The minister praised the positive effects of dialogue and the hope that is strengthened in the hearts of those that participate, “especially as some of them have spent long years following the course of intellectual extremism.” According to Al-Qadi, “It has not been easy to bring them back to the right path except through restoring to them the hope for a dignified life; in this we have relied on the foundations of religion, which invite us to be optimistic and to build the universe.”