Defected troops prevent protesters from marching in Sana’a

Protesters shift from sit-ins to marches in many cities in an escalation step.

By Nasser Arrabyee/04/03/2011

The defected army prevented protesters from marching in the streets of Sana’a to condemn the violence which killed and injured dozens earlier in the day in the city of Taiz, said protesters late Monday.

Yesterday Sunday the same troops prevented hundreds of teachers from marching the cabinet buildings.

“We wanted to march in the streets of Sana’a late this afternoon to express our refusal of the repression against our colleagues in Taiz, but the army prevented us,” said the activist and protester Najeeb Abdul Rehman Al Sadi.

The army troops that prevented the protesters from marching belong to the defected army general Ali Muhsen who declared his support to the peaceful revolution against President Saleh earlier last month.

Although the defected Muhsen troops who surround the sit-in camps in Sana’a from all directions say to the protesters the prevention is for their safety, a lot of protesters refuse this say they are fed up and want to come to the end whatever the results or the victims are.

“A lot of young people here are fed up of staying in these sit-in camps, they think that marching will topple the regime and finish everything,” Al Sadi said.

“But it seems that we are also blockaded by Ali Muhsen’s troops now, as we were blockaded by Yahya Saleh’s central security, from blockade to blockade, no difference,” Al Sadi complained.

Earlier in the day, at least 15 protesters and two soldiers were killed and many others injured including soldiers when the security forces prevented angry protesters from storming the main buildings of Taiz local government, according to protesters and official sources.

“The troops started kill the protesters when start to occupy the buildings of the local government,” Said Ms. Bushra al Maktari, one of the leading organizers of the protests in Taiz.


“We were a million-man march converging from three different places to the government’s buildings and governor’s office, with the aim of occupying them, but peacefully and without weapons,” Ms. Al Maktari added.

The governor of Taiz Hamoud Al Sufi, that armed groups from the opposition parties came to occupy the offices.

-Clashes in Yemen as protesters try to march forward not only keep in their sit-in places in Taiz, Hudeida, Aden and Sana’a.


Earlier in the day, at least three protesters were killed and tens others injured when security forces tried to prevent angry protesters from storming the Presidential Palace and the government buildings of the local authority of Taiz province.


The sources, who are participating in the marches, said the clashes are continuing as protesters are insisting on marching and surrounding the government buildings. “I myself saw one protester dead in the hospital,” said Riyadh Al Adeeb, journalist and activist in Taiz.

In coastal city of Hudieda in the west of the country, clashes between security forces and angry protesters are also continuing.


“The new thing today and yesterday is that the protesters are marching in the streets and not sitting in their sit-in places,” the protester Abdul Hafez Al Nehari, one of the leading protesters in Hudeida, said.

“About 400 were injured by the tear gas used by the security forces today and yesterday,” Al Nehari added.

The protesters seem to be planning for marching forward and surrounding the important government buildings, in an escalation step to press Saleh to step down.
On Sunday April 3, 2011, more than hundred were slightly injured when security forces used tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who tried to do the first march of this kind to the buildings compound of the local government in Taiz city.


One hour before this march, hundreds of women, only women, did a similar march in the same streets and returned peacefully to their sit-in square in Safer, Taiz city.
In Sana’a, hundreds of teachers were stopped by the defected army from implementing a march from the sit-in square nearby the university to the cabinet buildings.


“The army soldiers of general Ali Muhsen prevented the teachers from marching to the cabinet for their safety,” Said Adel Abdu Arrabyee, member of the media committee of the young people in the sit-in square at the gate of Sana’a university. The army of general Ali Muhsen, who declared earlier last month his support for a peaceful revolution against Saleh, are surrounding the protesters nearby the university from all directions.

“The soldiers also told the teachers that the president Saleh loyal security forces and republican guards will shoot at them if they march,” Arrabyee added.
In Aden the protesters have been trying over the last few days to implement and call for a civil disobedience in the city.