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| Saleh in US for treatment | |||||
| 2012-01-30 | |||||
NEW YORK: The embattled president of Yemen arrived Saturday in the United States for medical treatment for burns he suffered during an assassination attempt in June.
The one-line Yemeni statement said Saleh was in the US for a “short-term private medical visit.” His staff has said he is in the United States to be treated for injuries suffered during the assassination attempt. He was burned over much of his body and had shards of wood embedded into his chest by the explosion that ripped through his palace mosque as he prayed. After months of unrest, Saleh agreed in November to end his 33-year-rule of the Arabian state. His trip to the US comes as Yemen, a key counterterrorism partner, prepares for an election on Feb. 21 to select his successor. Human Rights Watch, which says it has documented the deaths of hundreds of anti-government protesters in confrontations with Saleh’s security forces, was outraged by the Yemeni president’s travel to the US for medical treatment. “It’s appalling that President Saleh arrives here for first-rate medical treatment while hundreds of Yemeni victims, assaulted by his security forces have neither proper medical care nor justice for the crimes they’ve suffered,” Balkees Jarrah, international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said in an e-mailed statement. “The Obama administration should insist those responsible for atrocities in Yemen be brought to the dock.”
American officials donÂ’t wish him to settle in the US, however, over concerns that it would be seen as harboring an autocratic leader accused by many of his countrymen of using violence to remain in power. Opponents have accused him of trying to interfere in YemenÂ’s new unity government, even after he supposedly relinquished authority two months ago. He spent three months previously in Saudi Arabia for medical treatment, only to return to Yemen, prompting more protests.
He had been traveling on a chartered Emirates plane with a private doctor, several armed guards and relatives, according to an official in the Yemeni presidentÂ’s office. The Obama administration agreed last week to allow Saleh to come to the US temporarily for the medical treatment, a move aimed at easing the political transition in Yemen. Saleh initially requested a US visa in December, putting the Obama administration in the awkward position of either having to bar a friendly president from US soil or risking appearing to harbor an autocrat with blood on his hands.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 The HRW people would complain if they were hanged with a new rope From your lips to... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2012-01-30 13:31 |