Yemen: start of negotiations in Geneva on an exchange of prisoners
Yemeni prisoners arriving at Sanaa airport following an exchange, Thursday, October 15, 2020. AP Photo/Hani Mohammed
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Representatives of the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels in Yemen began talks on a prisoner swap in Geneva on Saturday March 11, with the United Nations calling on the two sides to engage in “serious”
discussions
.
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The opening of these discussions, which are expected to last 11 days, takes place the day after the announcement of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia, which supports the government in its war against the Houthis, and Iran, which supports these rebels.
"
I hope that the parties are ready to engage in serious discussions
(...)
to agree on the release of as many detainees as possible
," said UN special envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg. in a press release.
"
As the (Muslim fasting month of) Ramadan approaches, I urge the parties to honor the commitments they have made, not only to each other, but also to the thousands of Yemeni families who have been waiting too a long time to reunite with their loved ones
,” he added.
This is the seventh meeting to implement a prisoner swap agreement reached in Stockholm five years ago, the UN said.
As part of this agreement, the parties agreed "
to
release all prisoners
, detainees, missing persons, persons arbitrarily detained and victims of enforced disappearance, and those under house arrest
", in the context of the conflict that has lasted since 2014 in Yemen. , “
without any exception or condition
".
Meetings that have taken place in the past, mediated by the UN, have already "
resulted in the release of prisoners on both sides
", the ICRC told AFP.
"
Agree on the details
"
In 2020, for example, "
more than 1,050 detainees were released and returned to their region of origin or their country of origin
", according to the same source.
“
The ICRC is committed to supporting the implementation of future releases and exchanges of detainees, and to repatriating or transferring released detainees across the front lines to their respective homes,
” the organization said.
The objective of the talks is "
to reach an agreement on the details
" of an exchange of prisoners, said Majed Fadail, a member of the Yemeni government delegation, quoted by the official Saba news agency.
In a message posted on Twitter, the main Houthi delegate to the Geneva talks, Abdelkader Al-Mourtada, said he hoped that this round of negotiations would be "
decisive
".
At the end of March 2022, the Houthis announced a prisoner exchange which was to allow 1,400 rebels and 823 fighters from pro-government forces to return to their respective camps.
This announcement was followed by meetings in Amman, but without concrete progress.
The Houthis took control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa in early 2015, prompting the intervention in March of the same year of a Saudi-led coalition in support of the government.
Since then, the war has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and plunged this country, the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula, into one of the worst humanitarian tragedies in the world.
►Also read: Yemen: Saudi-led coalition frees Houthi rebels
(
With
AFP)
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