NEWSDESK
"Around 4-5 p.m., we hid from the Saudi police [when we saw them approach], as usual…. We hid in the garbage dump of the so-called industrial area … [under] a tin sheet … after they chased us … Then, police officers launched a flammable substance [that started a fire], causing us to come out of the place as the flames engulfed us. We all came out burning … They shot into the air to prevent us from fleeing."Another Yemeni, who witnessed the events, Hamza Muhammad, said that "the [police] used a white material, a powder, which increased the fire." The seven men interviewed by the journalist and Human Rights Watch all said that the police had seen them and knew where they were hiding, and that setting the garbage dump on fire was not an accident. "When the police saw us, we escaped and hid, so they [responded by] burn[ing] wood and tires. [As] we came out, we got burned," said Hasan.The Saudi government has claimed it had rescued the Yemeni victims from an accidental fire, suggesting that the victims' allegations are not credible because they are merely undocumented garbage pickers. On April 25, the Saudi newspaper Okaz carried a statement by the Khamis Mushayit Civil Defense spokesperson Maj. Muhammad al-'Isami claiming that, "the fire broke out in the tires and garbage and spread to an area of 50 meters. … [T]he injured … were present in the area rummaging in the garbage." On April 28, Interior Ministry spokesperson Col. Abdullah al-Qarni said at a press conference that, "these Yemenis of unknown identity were injured… because of a fire that broke out in the garbage dump … [and that] they are of those [types] who resort to infiltration into the region of 'Asir to thieve, rob, and plunder."Six burn victims remain in a local hospital in Yemen, while the others are receiving treatment at their homes. Some are too poor to afford medication. The Yemeni authorities have begun an investigation and called in the Saudi ambassador for an explanation.Human Rights Watch urged the Saudi authorities to promptly and impartially investigate the allegations that police officers were responsible for setting the fire that harmed the Yemenis and then denied them access to adequate medical treatment. All those responsible should be fully prosecuted and appropriately punished."The Saudi government's inaction in the face of this alleged police inhumanity is outrageous," Whitson said. "Riyadh has a responsibility to conduct a criminal investigation."
