Some 17 people injured in anti-unity demonstration

By Nasser Arrabyee/27/03/2010


More than 17 people were injured and some others were arrested when the security forces dispersed an anti-unity demonstration in Al Dhale'e, south of Yemen, eyewitnesses said Saturday.

The demonstrators, many of them armed, were carrying pictures and the former President of the south, Ali Salem Al Baid, flag of separation, chanting anti-unity slogans.

The demonstration coincided with the Arab summit in the Libyan city of Sert and the meeting of the Friends of Yemen to be held in Abu Dhabi next Monday, March 29, 2010 for supporting Yemen's economy, good governance, justice, and rule of law.

The security forces used tear gas and live bullets to prevent angry demonstrators from storming the hospital of Al Dhale'e north of the city, to take by force a dead body of man killed in a previous demonstration, according to eyewitnesses.

Security sources said the demonstrators wanted to uses the dead body to inflame the feelings of anger and hatred. The dead body was returned to the hospital by the family until the situation calms down, the sources said.

Increasing disgruntled groups complaining from being politically and socially marginalized, have been demanding separation of the south, which united with the north in 1990.

Last week, the exiled leader of the separatists, Ali Salem Al Baid, based in Germany now, called the angry groups in the south to continue struggle until the "northern occupation" gets out, and " we have the second independence" in reference to the independence of the south 1967 from the British colony.

The President of united Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh said today Saturday in press statements that "the culture of separation is very limited, isolated and rejected".