SANAA, 18 June 2004 — Yemen will lift restrictions next month on entry visa for foreign visitors imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as part of its efforts to keep terrorists out, Interior Minister Brig. Gen. Rashad Al-Alimi said in remarks published yesterday.
“The extraordinary visa procedures imposed in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks would be canceled as from July,” Al-Alimi told the Defense Ministry’s weekly newspaper 26 September.
“Starting in July, we’ll adopt smoother visa measures on foreigners visiting Yemen,” the minister said, adding that under the new visa policy, citizens of Arab and non-Arab countries would be able to enter Yemen with visa obtained from Yemeni ports and border posts.
Sanaa beefed up its visa measures after Washington voiced concern over reports that Al-Qaeda members have sought refuge in lawless areas of Yemen.
Separately, the newspaper said Yemen had been informed by the Red Cross about the detention of five Yemenis, including a prominent businessman called Abdul Salam Al-Hila, by the US forces Afghanistan.
The men are held in the Bagram air force base north of the Afghan capital Kabul on suspensions of havinglinks to Al-Qaeda network.
Yemeni authorities have said that Al-Hila, who is also a leading member of the ruling GPC party, had disappeared during a business trip to Egypt in September 2002, and Yemeni officials said at the time Cairo handed him over to Washington.
US authorities believe Al-Hila has information about Yemeni militants who joined the ‘Arab Afghans’ in the anti-Soviet fight in Afghanistan in mid-1980s and some of them then joined Al-Qaeda. No details about thefour other detainees were provided.
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh had reportedly asked US officials he met during his US visit last week to release Al-Hila and other Yemeni terror suspects held by the United States.
