Yemeni religious committee to guide youths arriving from Afghanistan

The Yemeni "September 26th" daily said on Thursday evening that the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the formation of a committee including senior men of religion in order to deliver lectures and maintain dialogues with the Yemeni youths especially those who are arriving from Afghanistan in order to "orient them with correct concepts and thoughts of the Islamic religion."

Afghanistan is regarded as having been a training center for Islamist militants from different countries.

The Yemeni weekly which is issued by the Yemeni ministry of defense said that the committee which includes scores of preachers and men of religion will start during next week convening several meetings with those youths. It added that the men of religion who are members of the committee will hold open dialogue sessions and deliver lectures to correct thoughts and ideas mistakenly carried by Yemeni youths who have arrived back from Afghanistan.

The paper did not mention number of youths effected by this step nor the areas where they do exist.

However, Yemeni political sources said that the men of religion committee will start activities for the group of youths who arrived back in Yemen from Afghanistan and arrested by the authorities in several detention centers since after September 11, events.

Non- governmental Yemeni organizations in charge of defending freedoms estimate the number of detainees in the Yemeni jails, on "terrorism charges" of being members in al-Qaida organization and the Islamic Jihad movements, at several hundred, while Yemeni authorities confirm that only 84 Yemenis are arrested in this regard with many of them arrested following the explosion of US USS Cole ship on October 12, 2000.