By ROBERT F. WORTH 27 \ 2 \2010
The New York Times
ADEN, Yemen — Less than an hour’s drive outside this dilapidated port town, the Yemeni government’s authority is scarcely visible, and a different flag appears, that of the old independent state of South Yemen.
The flags are one sign of a rapidly spreading protest movement across the south that now threatens to turn into a violent insurgency if its demands are not met. That could further destabilize Yemen, already the poorest and one of the most troubled countries in the Arab world, and create a broader haven for Al Qaeda here.
The movement’s leaders say the Yemeni government — based in the north — has systematically discriminated against the south, expropriating land, expelling southerners from their jobs and starving them of public money. They speak with deep nostalgia of the 128-year British occupation in South Yemen, saying the British, who withdrew in 1967, fostered the rule of law, tolerance and prosperity. The north, they say, respects only the gun.
In recent months, calls for secession have grown louder after a harsh government crackdown on demonstrations and opposition newspapers. The movement’s leaders say that they believe in peaceful protest, but that their ability to control younger and more violent supporters is fraying.
“It is too late for half measures or reforms,” said Zahra Saleh Abdullah, one of the few Southern Movement leaders who agreed to be identified in print. “We demand an independent southern republic, and we have the right to defend ourselves if they continue to kill us and imprison us.”
Another movement leader, sitting across the room, held up a coin minted under the British in 1964 and pointed to the words engraved on it: South Arabia.
“This is our true identity, not Yemen,” he said. “A southern republic or death.”
Public outrage swelled last month after Yemeni security forces laid siege to the house of a prominent newspaper editor in Aden, setting off a barrage of rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire as the editor and his young children cowered inside. (The government said he was stockpiling weapons.) They were not injured, but the clash left at least one of the family’s guards dead and others wounded, fueling more demonstrations. All told, more than 100 people have been killed in clashes with the police since the movement began in 2007, its leaders say, and about 1,500 supporters remain in prison.
In some rural areas of South Yemen, police officers refuse to wear their uniforms for fear of being shot, according to several accounts from local residents.
The Yemeni government has largely dismissed the movement as a small band of malcontents and has repeatedly accused its leaders of being affiliated with Al Qaeda.
The movement’s leaders call that an outrageous perversion of the truth: they say that they stand for law, tolerance and democracy, and that it is the north that has a history of using jihadists as proxy warriors. But some human rights workers say a shared hatred of the government could be creating a sense of unity between some members of the movement — which is broad and very loosely organized — and members of Al Qaeda.
Perhaps a greater danger, some say, is the spread of lawlessness across the south if the movement’s demands for greater equity are not addressed and it grows more violent. The movement’s own internal contradictions also pose a real threat.
“There is no clear leadership, everyone wants to be the boss,” said Afra Khaled Hariri, a lawyer here who has represented arrested members of the movement. The movement’s leaders include socialists and Islamists with wildly different goals and unresolved disputes dating to internal conflicts between socialist factions that left thousands of southerners dead during the 1980s.
“If the movement succeeds in making a separate state, I expect disaster because of our bloody past,” Ms. Hariri said. And Aden — the heart of the British protectorate and the base of the south’s intelligentsia — would be the chief victim, she added.
For that reason, some in the south say, the best solution is not secession, but a political accommodation in which the north agrees to address some of the movement’s main grievances about land expropriation and job discrimination. Many also say that moving away from Yemen’s highly centralized system of government and granting the provinces more power to govern themselves would ease tensions.
So far the government has shown little sign it intends to do that.
Behind the Southern Movement’s protests is an old belief that North and South Yemen are fundamentally different societies, and that their unification — achieved with great fanfare on both sides in 1990 — has been a failure.
The differences are apparent even to a first-time visitor. Aden has churches, parks, a smaller model of Big Ben and a stately garden where a statue of Queen Victoria presides. The roads, though a little faded, are generally better than those in the north. It is a commonplace that people respect red lights and driving lanes here, unlike in the north.
The people of the south are generally better educated, a legacy not only of the British but of the Socialist government that ruled here during the 1970s. Although they shattered the economy and suppressed their opponents brutally, the Socialists also put an end to harmful tribal practices like child marriage, championed women’s equality and achieved some of the highest literacy rates in the Arab world.
All those achievements have since collapsed: literacy and education have dropped precipitously across the south, child marriage has returned and lawlessness prevails.
Many here blame the north for all that. A brief civil war broke out in 1994, during which the north used jihadists who had fought in Afghanistan as proxy fighters.
“They want to push us into backwardness so we are like them,” said Ali Abdo, a professor of transportation engineering at Aden University and a member of a party that supports decentralization but not secession. “Aden was tolerant: there were Jews, Christians, Muslims all living together here. The North is not.”
The Southern Movement began in 2007 with protests led by former military officers who said they had been
mistreated and denied pensions after the 1994 civil war. Gradually, it has grown to encompass other groups. Last year, it received a large boost when Tareq al-Fadhli, a former Afghan jihadist and ally of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, defected to the movement.
The movement now includes a substantial body of powerful tribal figures as well as Aden-based intellectuals and political figures. There is a 42-member leadership committee, though it is not clear how many of the movement’s supporters it represents. Most supporters seem to acknowledge Ali Salim al-Bidh, the exiled former president of South Yemen, as their leader. Mr. Bidh emerged from years of silence recently and began actively advocating southern independence.
The movement has its own songs, which can be heard blasting from the open windows of cars in southern towns. “We swear to God, we will not put up with this corrupt dictator and his gang, even if the whole sky erupts in fire,” goes one song by Aboud Khawaja, a singer now based in Qatar.
This month, a 27-year-old man named Faris Tamah was arrested near Aden while playing that song from his car stereo, and he was later shot to death in prison after being tortured, said several movement supporters who know his family and say they saw a medical report. Yemen’s government-run newspapers later ran an article saying that Mr. Tamah was arrested for drunken driving and committed suicide in custody by grabbing an officer’s gun and shooting himself. “The movement began with demands, but they were refused and the pressure grew,” Professor Abdo said. “Now, the movement is in every house in the south.”
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Yemen sappers enter Shi'ite rebel stronghold
By Mohammed Ghobari
Reuters
February 27, 2010
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni army sappers entered a northern Shi'ite rebel stronghold to clear mines after rebels quit the city of Saada as part of a truce to end a war that has drawn in Saudi Arabia, the defense ministry said on Saturday.
But tension flared in southern Yemen where authorities imposed heightened security measures in a provincial capital to guard against attacks by separatists.
Yemen, the poorest Arab country, struck a truce on February 11 with rebels who have been fighting the state since 2004 over religious, economic and social grievances in the mountainous north.
The two-week-old northern truce has largely held, while a conflict with southern separatists has simmered.
ad_icon
The rebels left their Saada stronghold, some 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital Sanaa, on Thursday on condition they were masked, and that they were not followed by security.
"After the evacuation, special military engineering teams moved to survey the city and a number of roads and buildings to remove any mines," the defense ministry said in its online newspaper.
The engineers were also removing unexploded ordnance.
A number of displaced residents of the city had also begun to return to inspect their houses in Saada, the website said. The conflict in north Yemen has displaced 250,000 people.
Yemen has shot to the forefront of Western security concerns after the Yemeni arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December.
Western governments and neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability on several fronts in Yemen to recruit and train militants to launch attacks in the region and beyond.
Saudi Arabia was drawn into the conflict with northern rebels in November after the insurgents seized Saudi border territory and accused Riyadh of letting Yemeni troops attack them from Saudi ground.
In Riyadh, where Western and Arab donors were meeting to discuss economic aid for Yemen, a Yemeni official said Sanaa wanted "a faster march" to membership in the wealthier six-member Gulf Cooperation Council.
"Yemen is convinced that its integration within the GCC represents one of the most important means...to enable Yemen to contribute in consolidating regional and international security," said Abdulkareem al-Arhabi, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy, Planning and International Cooperation.
Yemen has previously said it wanted GCC membership by 2015.
In south Yemen on Saturday, authorities said they would toughen security measures in the provincial capital of Dalea, including a ban on carrying weapons in public, citing the possibility of separatist violence two days after a policeman was shot dead in an ambush in a nearby province.
An official earlier said a state of emergency was called in the city but the defense ministry website later denied this.
Hundreds demonstrating in Dalea on Saturday against recent arrests, some carrying the flag of the former South Yemen, which united with the North in 1990, residents and pro-southern websites said.
A southern leader called in a speech on the donors meeting in Riyadh to address the unresolved conflict in the south.
"The marches today ... carry a message to the Riyadh meeting and to the world (toward) the fulfillment of the just demands of the people of the south," Shalal Ali Shayeh told protesters.
People in south Yemen, home to most Yemeni oil facilities, complain that northerners have abused a 1990 agreement uniting the country to grab resources and discriminate against them.
Demonstrations were also held in several other cities, some shut by a strike call by southern activists, websites said. In Abyan province two people were wounded as security forces opened fire to disperse protesters blocking a road.
The policeman's death on Thursday brought to four the number of people killed in attacks on southern security men in a week as authorities also mounted arrest sweeps targeting separatists.
Tension flared after a protester was killed on February 13 by police. This ignited a week of unrest in which separatists burned northern-owned shops and tried to block a key road.
Security officials have since launched sweeps that netted at least 130 arrests in four southern provinces including Dalea.
Reuters
February 27, 2010
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni army sappers entered a northern Shi'ite rebel stronghold to clear mines after rebels quit the city of Saada as part of a truce to end a war that has drawn in Saudi Arabia, the defense ministry said on Saturday.
But tension flared in southern Yemen where authorities imposed heightened security measures in a provincial capital to guard against attacks by separatists.
Yemen, the poorest Arab country, struck a truce on February 11 with rebels who have been fighting the state since 2004 over religious, economic and social grievances in the mountainous north.
The two-week-old northern truce has largely held, while a conflict with southern separatists has simmered.
ad_icon
The rebels left their Saada stronghold, some 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital Sanaa, on Thursday on condition they were masked, and that they were not followed by security.
"After the evacuation, special military engineering teams moved to survey the city and a number of roads and buildings to remove any mines," the defense ministry said in its online newspaper.
The engineers were also removing unexploded ordnance.
A number of displaced residents of the city had also begun to return to inspect their houses in Saada, the website said. The conflict in north Yemen has displaced 250,000 people.
Yemen has shot to the forefront of Western security concerns after the Yemeni arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December.
Western governments and neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability on several fronts in Yemen to recruit and train militants to launch attacks in the region and beyond.
Saudi Arabia was drawn into the conflict with northern rebels in November after the insurgents seized Saudi border territory and accused Riyadh of letting Yemeni troops attack them from Saudi ground.
In Riyadh, where Western and Arab donors were meeting to discuss economic aid for Yemen, a Yemeni official said Sanaa wanted "a faster march" to membership in the wealthier six-member Gulf Cooperation Council.
"Yemen is convinced that its integration within the GCC represents one of the most important means...to enable Yemen to contribute in consolidating regional and international security," said Abdulkareem al-Arhabi, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy, Planning and International Cooperation.
Yemen has previously said it wanted GCC membership by 2015.
In south Yemen on Saturday, authorities said they would toughen security measures in the provincial capital of Dalea, including a ban on carrying weapons in public, citing the possibility of separatist violence two days after a policeman was shot dead in an ambush in a nearby province.
An official earlier said a state of emergency was called in the city but the defense ministry website later denied this.
Hundreds demonstrating in Dalea on Saturday against recent arrests, some carrying the flag of the former South Yemen, which united with the North in 1990, residents and pro-southern websites said.
A southern leader called in a speech on the donors meeting in Riyadh to address the unresolved conflict in the south.
"The marches today ... carry a message to the Riyadh meeting and to the world (toward) the fulfillment of the just demands of the people of the south," Shalal Ali Shayeh told protesters.
People in south Yemen, home to most Yemeni oil facilities, complain that northerners have abused a 1990 agreement uniting the country to grab resources and discriminate against them.
Demonstrations were also held in several other cities, some shut by a strike call by southern activists, websites said. In Abyan province two people were wounded as security forces opened fire to disperse protesters blocking a road.
The policeman's death on Thursday brought to four the number of people killed in attacks on southern security men in a week as authorities also mounted arrest sweeps targeting separatists.
Tension flared after a protester was killed on February 13 by police. This ignited a week of unrest in which separatists burned northern-owned shops and tried to block a key road.
Security officials have since launched sweeps that netted at least 130 arrests in four southern provinces including Dalea.
Emergency state against southern separatists
By Nasser Arrabyee/27/02/2010
An emergency state was imposed on a Yemeni southern province where separatists wanted to stage anti-unity demonstrations, official sources said Saturday.
"The city of Al Dhale'e was surrounded from all directions and all entrances were closed since very early morning to prevent any armed outlaws from entering the city to undermine the security," said the director of security in Al Dhale'e, Ghazi Al Ahwal.
Earlier the governor of Al Dhale'e, Ali Kasem Taleb, said he had a meeting with the security officials and decided to prevent any citizen from walking around with guns.
Local sources said that elements from the separatist southern movement were planning to stage demonstration in Al Dhale'e today Saturday to deliver an anti-unity message to the international and Gulf donors who meet on the same day in the Saudi capital Riyadh for helping Yemen maintain its unity, security and stability.
The separatists call themselves peaceful movement for returning the independent state of the south, which united with the north in 1990. Some of these separatist, however, take to the street with their guns, block roads, set fire to shops belonging to northerners, and sometimes kill northerners only because they are northerners.
"This is an armed movement and not peaceful movement," said the security director in Al Dhale'e, Ghazi Al Ahwal.
In Mukalla far east of the country, owners of the shops and commercial centres closed since early morning in fear of riot acts by disgruntled demonstrators who wanted also demonstrate in coincidence with the Riyadh conference which is reviewing the security and economic challenges facing Yemen.
An emergency state was imposed on a Yemeni southern province where separatists wanted to stage anti-unity demonstrations, official sources said Saturday.
"The city of Al Dhale'e was surrounded from all directions and all entrances were closed since very early morning to prevent any armed outlaws from entering the city to undermine the security," said the director of security in Al Dhale'e, Ghazi Al Ahwal.
Earlier the governor of Al Dhale'e, Ali Kasem Taleb, said he had a meeting with the security officials and decided to prevent any citizen from walking around with guns.
Local sources said that elements from the separatist southern movement were planning to stage demonstration in Al Dhale'e today Saturday to deliver an anti-unity message to the international and Gulf donors who meet on the same day in the Saudi capital Riyadh for helping Yemen maintain its unity, security and stability.
The separatists call themselves peaceful movement for returning the independent state of the south, which united with the north in 1990. Some of these separatist, however, take to the street with their guns, block roads, set fire to shops belonging to northerners, and sometimes kill northerners only because they are northerners.
"This is an armed movement and not peaceful movement," said the security director in Al Dhale'e, Ghazi Al Ahwal.
In Mukalla far east of the country, owners of the shops and commercial centres closed since early morning in fear of riot acts by disgruntled demonstrators who wanted also demonstrate in coincidence with the Riyadh conference which is reviewing the security and economic challenges facing Yemen.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Al Houthi rebels leave the old city of Sa'ada
By Nasser Arrabyee/26/02/2010
All Al Houthi rebels will withdraw today Friday from the houses of the citizens in the old city of Sa'ada while the displaced people will return to their houses, said a mediator Friday.
"We agreed with the representative of Al Houthi rebels that their followers who barricade in some houses of the old city, will all withdraw today Friday," said Ali Abu Hulaika, the chairman of the mediation committee in Sa'ada city.
The people, who left their houses after the war erupted last August, will return to their houses in the old city, said Abu Hulaika.
Abu Hulaika said the time set for implementing the conditions of ending the war is now almost over while his committee did not finish everything they should have done.
"The procrastination of the Al Houthi rebels was behind that delay, but we applied for giving us additional time to finish our task," he said.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, said in press statements Thursday , that his government is ready to launch a new round of war if Al Houthi rebels did not fully abide by the six conditions for ending the conflict.
The decree of ending the war came only after the rebels yielded to the six conditions, which were set by the government from the first moment of the war. If the rebels recanted at any point, this decree will be reconsidered , Mujawar said.
All Al Houthi rebels will withdraw today Friday from the houses of the citizens in the old city of Sa'ada while the displaced people will return to their houses, said a mediator Friday.
"We agreed with the representative of Al Houthi rebels that their followers who barricade in some houses of the old city, will all withdraw today Friday," said Ali Abu Hulaika, the chairman of the mediation committee in Sa'ada city.
The people, who left their houses after the war erupted last August, will return to their houses in the old city, said Abu Hulaika.
Abu Hulaika said the time set for implementing the conditions of ending the war is now almost over while his committee did not finish everything they should have done.
"The procrastination of the Al Houthi rebels was behind that delay, but we applied for giving us additional time to finish our task," he said.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, said in press statements Thursday , that his government is ready to launch a new round of war if Al Houthi rebels did not fully abide by the six conditions for ending the conflict.
The decree of ending the war came only after the rebels yielded to the six conditions, which were set by the government from the first moment of the war. If the rebels recanted at any point, this decree will be reconsidered , Mujawar said.
Donors meet in Riyadh to help Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee/25/02/2010
The representatives of the international and GCC donors will meet in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday February 27, 2010, for discussing mechanisms of implementing the pledges of the donors to help Yemen overcome its major challenges.
The meeting is a follow up for the London conference held late last January, after a call from the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Abdul Kareem Al Arahbi, who will head the Yemeni delegation to Riyadh, said Thursday that ministers of finance and representatives of funds of GCC will attend the meeting.
Representatives from US, EU, UN and WB will also attend the meeting, said Al Arahabi who leaves Sana'a for Riyadh on Friday.
The meeting discusses the status of the donors pledges, and difficulties facing the projects funded by them, the official said. The mechanisms of coordination and communication between Yemen and the donors will be discussed.
The needs of Yemen for reforms during 2011-2015 will also be discussed in the meeting. The meeting will pave the way for the meeting of the friends of Yemen which will held in Berlin next month.
On the same day, the Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, and the Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Azeez, will sign six agreements to finance development projects in Yemen.
The development projects include roads, electricity, education, health, and vocational training.
The meeting is the 19th round of the Yemeni-Saudi coordination council.
The representatives of the international and GCC donors will meet in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Saturday February 27, 2010, for discussing mechanisms of implementing the pledges of the donors to help Yemen overcome its major challenges.
The meeting is a follow up for the London conference held late last January, after a call from the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The Yemeni Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Abdul Kareem Al Arahbi, who will head the Yemeni delegation to Riyadh, said Thursday that ministers of finance and representatives of funds of GCC will attend the meeting.
Representatives from US, EU, UN and WB will also attend the meeting, said Al Arahabi who leaves Sana'a for Riyadh on Friday.
The meeting discusses the status of the donors pledges, and difficulties facing the projects funded by them, the official said. The mechanisms of coordination and communication between Yemen and the donors will be discussed.
The needs of Yemen for reforms during 2011-2015 will also be discussed in the meeting. The meeting will pave the way for the meeting of the friends of Yemen which will held in Berlin next month.
On the same day, the Yemeni Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Mujawar, and the Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Azeez, will sign six agreements to finance development projects in Yemen.
The development projects include roads, electricity, education, health, and vocational training.
The meeting is the 19th round of the Yemeni-Saudi coordination council.
Graves of the two dead Saudi soldiers located
By Nasser Arrabyee 25/02/2010
Al Houthi rebels have determined the place where the two missing Saud soldiers were killed and buried, the mediators said Thursday.
"The rebels told us today the place where they buried the two Saudi soldiers who, they said, they were not alive," said Addul Wahab Al Durah member of the mediation committee in Al Malahaid, west of Sa'ada.
Earlier, Al Houthi rebels said they had handed over all the Saudi captured soldiers after Riyadh received three of them. The Saudi army, however, previously said five soldiers went missing in the battles with the rebels.
Al Durah said no single rebel is now positioning in the Saudi-Yemeni borders, but he said efforts of removing mines planted by the rebels are still going on.
The rebels would permanently go down from the remaining mountains and barricades as soon as the local authority starts its work in the areas which were under their control , said member the mediation committee, Al Durah.
For the displaced people, Al Durah said that some displaced people have already returned to their houses and villages and some have not, because their areas are not cleaned from the mines yet.
Some mediators complain that Al Houthi rebels have not handed all the maps of the mines planted in the mountains, roads, farms and houses.
Othman Mujali, member the mediation committee in Sa'ada city, resigned from the committee on Wednesday because he said Al Houthi did not hand over all the maps, which show all planted mines in the areas around Sa'ada city.
"The mines still planted would kill hundreds of people," said Mujali, who is a tribal sheikh from Sa'ada, who is in a tribal feud with Al Houthi rebels.
In an attempt to normalize the situation in the war-torn Sa'ada, the director of education in the province of Sa'ada, Mohammed Al Shamiri, said that more 130,000 students would go to schools starting from Saturday February 27th, 2010.
Al Houthi rebels have determined the place where the two missing Saud soldiers were killed and buried, the mediators said Thursday.
"The rebels told us today the place where they buried the two Saudi soldiers who, they said, they were not alive," said Addul Wahab Al Durah member of the mediation committee in Al Malahaid, west of Sa'ada.
Earlier, Al Houthi rebels said they had handed over all the Saudi captured soldiers after Riyadh received three of them. The Saudi army, however, previously said five soldiers went missing in the battles with the rebels.
Al Durah said no single rebel is now positioning in the Saudi-Yemeni borders, but he said efforts of removing mines planted by the rebels are still going on.
The rebels would permanently go down from the remaining mountains and barricades as soon as the local authority starts its work in the areas which were under their control , said member the mediation committee, Al Durah.
For the displaced people, Al Durah said that some displaced people have already returned to their houses and villages and some have not, because their areas are not cleaned from the mines yet.
Some mediators complain that Al Houthi rebels have not handed all the maps of the mines planted in the mountains, roads, farms and houses.
Othman Mujali, member the mediation committee in Sa'ada city, resigned from the committee on Wednesday because he said Al Houthi did not hand over all the maps, which show all planted mines in the areas around Sa'ada city.
"The mines still planted would kill hundreds of people," said Mujali, who is a tribal sheikh from Sa'ada, who is in a tribal feud with Al Houthi rebels.
In an attempt to normalize the situation in the war-torn Sa'ada, the director of education in the province of Sa'ada, Mohammed Al Shamiri, said that more 130,000 students would go to schools starting from Saturday February 27th, 2010.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Two missing Saudi soldiers died, Al Houthi rebels say
By Nasser Arrabyee/24/02/2010
The two Saudi soldiers captured by Al Houthi rebels are not alive, said a statement by the rebels Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Al Houthi rebels handed over three Saudi soldiers to the Saudi authorities via the Yemeni government as a part of the six conditions accepted by the rebels for ending the war.
According to the Saudi army, five Saudi soldiers went missing during the battles with the rebels who attacked the territories of Saudi Arabia early November before they were driven out in about 45 days later.
This statement came after the government said the rebels were procrastinating in handing over the Saudi and Yemeni captured soldiers, and that they were trying to prevent the Yemeni army from deployment in some places.
Since both sides announced the truce in February 12, the mediation committees have been working on implementation of the six conditions, which include the rebels going down from the mountains and handing over the heavy and medium-sized weapons.
The committees say, the rebels did not hand over the weapons, they even kept the mines which were removed from the roads which were reopened, and they have not yet descended from the mountains and they have not removed all the barricades in the houses, heights and farms.
Return to war in statements
By Nasser Arrabyee/23/02/2010
The spokesman of Al Houthi rebels said Tuesday that the Yemeni government has not stopped fighting against them, and the situation of war is still standing.
Sources from the old city of Sa'ada, said that the rebels who still barricade in some houses did not allow the mediation committee to enter for removing the mines.
Earlier in the day, the government's supreme security committee said Al Houthi rebels are not implementing all the six conditions they accepted for ending the war and they started to do the same things they did before the previous wars.
Al Houthi rebels have come back to kidnapping citizens, plundering their houses, and these practices recalled what they were doing before the sixth round of war which erupted in August last year, said the committee in a statement carried out by the state-run media.
"The only thing that Al Houthi rebels have done so far is, reopening some roads, removing some mines," The statement said.
The committee held the rebels responsible for any failure in implementing all the six conditions set by the government from the very beginning of war, and the rebels accepted them all after six months of war.
However, Al Houthi, refused to hand over the removed mines, and refused to hand over the heavy weapons, and military and civil equipments they plundered during the war, and they did not released the people they kidnapped from Saudis and Yemenis, the statement said.
Some observers say that Al Houthi rebels only focus on solving the conflict with Saudi Arabia and keep procrastinating with the Yemeni government to gain time for re-organizing themselves for a new round of war.
In spite of all these difficulties, all four committees, in charge of supervising the implementation of six conditions, are continuing their work in the four main places, the areas around Sa'ada, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Arabia.
But, Mohammed Al Hawri, chairman of the mediation committee at the borders with Saudi Arabia, said the credibility or incredibility of Al Houthi rebels will be very clear when all districts under the control of the rebels are handed over to the local authority officials and security forces.
"The mediation committees are now waiting for the local authority officials to take over the districts, which were under the rebellion, and then can understand the credibility of Al Houthi," said Al Hawri.
'Al Houthi rebels want to return to war'
By Nasser Arrabyee/23/02/2010
Al Houthi rebels are not implementing all the six conditions they accepted for ending the war and they started to do the same things they did before the previous wars, said the Yemen's supreme security committee Tuesday.
Al Houthi rebels have come back to kidnapping citizens, plundering their houses, and these practices recalled what they were doing before the sixth round of war which erupted in August last year, said the committee in a statement carried out by the state-run media.
"The only thing that Al Houthi rebels have done so far is, reopening some roads, removing some mines," The statement said.
The committee held the rebels responsible for any failure in implementing all the six conditions set by the government from the very beginning of war, and the rebels accepted them all after six months of war.
However, Al Houthi, refused to hand over the removed mines, and refused to hand over the heavy weapons, and military and civil equipments they plundered during the war, and they did not released the people they kidnapped from Saudis and Yemenis, the statement said.
Al Houthi rebels did not comment on this statement, neither did they comment on similar previous statements by the government accusing them of breaching the cease-fire.
Some observers say that Al Houthi rebels only focus on solving the conflict with Saudi Arabia and keep procrastinating with the Yemeni government to gain time for re-organizing themselves for a new round of war.
In spite of all these difficulties, all four committees, in charge of supervising the implementation of six conditions, are continuing their work in the four main places, the areas around Sa'ada, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Arabia.
But, Mohammed Al Hawri, chairman of the mediation committee at the borders with Saudi Arabia, said the credibility or incredibility of Al Houthi rebels will be very clear when all districts under the control of the rebels are handed over to the local authority officials and security forces.
"The mediation committees are now waiting for the local authority officials to take over the districts, which were under the rebellion, and then can understand the credibility of Al Houthi," said Al Hawri.
Monday, 22 February 2010
US OKs $150 million to help Yemen fight terrorism
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Monday, February 22, 2010
Washington Post
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has approved $150 million in military assistance to Yemen, the country where al-Qaida linked militants planned the failed Christmas Day airliner attack over Detroit, The Associated Press has learned.
Administration officials said the money was approved Friday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and is more than double the amount of U.S. aid to Yemen last year. It will pay for military equipment and training for Yemeni forces.
U.S. officials worry that Yemen is becoming the next significant terrorist staging ground, amid ongoing signs that lower-level al-Qaida operatives have been moving into the country from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Al-Qaida groups in Yemen and Saudi Arabia merged last year to become al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and - as demonstrated by the Dec. 25 attack - are openly working to target the U.S. and other western interests.
The money planned for Yemen is a sizable chunk of the $350 million that the Pentagon will dole out to allies this year. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, had requested the additional aid for Yemen and had said all along the U.S. needed to spend more than last year's $67 million.
Officials spoke about the funding on condition of anonymity because it had not been publicly announced.
Details of the financial package approved by Gates were not disclosed, but officials said they expect it to include additional money for other U.S. allies, including some involved in the Afghanistan war.
President Barack Obama, in his budget proposal, is looking to boost the amount of military aid the U.S. gives to other countries to help them counter the terror threats within their borders. Under that plan, the Pentagon fund for training and equipment would jump from $350 million this year to $500 million in 2011.
Gates signaled earlier this month that aid to Yemen was a priority, telling Congress, "It's obvious to us that helping (Yemen's leaders) build their own capabilities in lieu of eventually perhaps having to have U.S. forces present on the ground in substantial numbers or doing this ourselves is clearly much cheaper and much better for us."
In the past year, the Pentagon has provided money for air surveillance including drones, counterterrorism training by special operations forces and efforts to defeat roadside bombs, border and maritime security and other equipment.
U.S. officials have become increasingly worried about the al-Qaida terror threat taking hold in Yemen's vast ungoverned spaces and have been pressing Yemeni officials to clamp down on the militants.
In recent months, Yemeni forces have launched operations against insurgents, but government leaders say they need more equipment and aid for their security forces.
At the same time, the Yemeni officials are careful not to appear too close to the Americans, fearful it would cause a backlash among the population. The Yemeni people are virulently anti-Israel, and by extension anti-American. Sensitive to that concern, U.S. officials have played down the Pentagon's efforts to provide intelligence and other assistance to the Yemeni military.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the 23-year-old Nigerian suspect in the Dec. 25 airliner bombing attempt, has been cooperating with the FBI and provided information about his contacts in Yemen and the al-Qaida affiliate that operates there.
He also has turned against the U.S.-born Yemeni cleric who claims to be his teacher and has helped the U.S. hunt for the radical preacher, according to law enforcement officials.
The cleric, Anwar Al-Awlaki, has emerged as a prominent al-Qaida recruiter and has been tied to the 9/11 hijackers, Abdulmutallab and the suspect in November's deadly shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas.
187 children killed in Al Houthi rebellion war
By Nasser Arrabyee/22/02/2010
A total of 187 children were killed in the war between the Yemeni government and Al Houthi rebels in Sa'ada north of the country, rights group said Monday.
About 71 percent of those died by weapons, and 29 died because of not having food and medical services, said the Seyaj organization for children care, a local NGO, in a report released Monday in Sana'a.
The report also said that 87 children became disabled.
Four children were sexually abused , 43 were exploited for begging, 158 children were beaten, 232 children were ignored, and 89000 children were displaced from their houses.
Al Houthi rebels recruited 402 children as fighters and the tribesmen loyal to the government recruited 282 children.
A total of 383,332 children were deprived from education because of the war, which means 93 per cent of the children in Sa'ada province were deprived from education because of the war.
ِ A total of 17 schools and education utilities were destroyed out of 701 utilities in the province of Sa'ada, and 16 of them were used for purpose of the war.
five health utilities were destroyed out of 49 health and two of them were used for purposes of the war, the report said.
A total of 187 children were killed in the war between the Yemeni government and Al Houthi rebels in Sa'ada north of the country, rights group said Monday.
About 71 percent of those died by weapons, and 29 died because of not having food and medical services, said the Seyaj organization for children care, a local NGO, in a report released Monday in Sana'a.
The report also said that 87 children became disabled.
Four children were sexually abused , 43 were exploited for begging, 158 children were beaten, 232 children were ignored, and 89000 children were displaced from their houses.
Al Houthi rebels recruited 402 children as fighters and the tribesmen loyal to the government recruited 282 children.
A total of 383,332 children were deprived from education because of the war, which means 93 per cent of the children in Sa'ada province were deprived from education because of the war.
ِ A total of 17 schools and education utilities were destroyed out of 701 utilities in the province of Sa'ada, and 16 of them were used for purpose of the war.
five health utilities were destroyed out of 49 health and two of them were used for purposes of the war, the report said.
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Is AlQaeda in Yemen the only threat left?
Source: AFP
WASHINGTON — Al-Qaeda is becoming less of a threat across much of the Middle East and south Asia with the clear exception of Yemen, top US general David Petraeus said Sunday.
"Our assessment is that over the course of the last year or so, Al-Qaeda has been diminished in that area," Petraeus, said referring to his zone of command stretching from east Africa through the Middle East to Pakistan and Kazakhstan.
"Saudi Arabia and the other peninsula countries have continued to make gains with the obvious exception of Yemen," Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, told NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.
Yemen is home to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot branch of Osama bin Laden's terror network that claimed responsibility for the botched Christmas Day suicide bombing of a Detroit-bound passenger plane.
A radical Yemeni cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, had reported links to both major Nidal Hasan, who went on a deadly shooting rampage in Texas in November, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young Nigerian detained for the failed jet bombing.
"Progress has continued against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, although again, there are certainly remaining threats there and we see those periodically shown in the form of horrific, barbaric attacks," Petraeus said.
"There has been progress against Al-Qaeda's senior leadership in the (Pakistani) Federally Administered Tribal areas as well," he said.
Petraeus, however, warned that Al-Qaeda was "flexible" and "adaptable".
"It may be barbaric. It may believe in extremist ideology as it does, but this is a thinking, adaptive enemy. We must maintain pressure on it everywhere. It is a network."
WASHINGTON — Al-Qaeda is becoming less of a threat across much of the Middle East and south Asia with the clear exception of Yemen, top US general David Petraeus said Sunday.
"Our assessment is that over the course of the last year or so, Al-Qaeda has been diminished in that area," Petraeus, said referring to his zone of command stretching from east Africa through the Middle East to Pakistan and Kazakhstan.
"Saudi Arabia and the other peninsula countries have continued to make gains with the obvious exception of Yemen," Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, told NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.
Yemen is home to Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot branch of Osama bin Laden's terror network that claimed responsibility for the botched Christmas Day suicide bombing of a Detroit-bound passenger plane.
A radical Yemeni cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, had reported links to both major Nidal Hasan, who went on a deadly shooting rampage in Texas in November, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the young Nigerian detained for the failed jet bombing.
"Progress has continued against Al-Qaeda in Iraq, although again, there are certainly remaining threats there and we see those periodically shown in the form of horrific, barbaric attacks," Petraeus said.
"There has been progress against Al-Qaeda's senior leadership in the (Pakistani) Federally Administered Tribal areas as well," he said.
Petraeus, however, warned that Al-Qaeda was "flexible" and "adaptable".
"It may be barbaric. It may believe in extremist ideology as it does, but this is a thinking, adaptive enemy. We must maintain pressure on it everywhere. It is a network."
America afraid of Americans radicalized in Yemen?
By EILEEN SULLIVAN 21/02/2010 Washington post
WASHINGTON -- Americans who turn to terrorism and plot against the U.S. are now as big a concern as international terrorists, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday.
The government is just starting to confront this reality and does not have a good handle on how to prevent someone from becoming a violent extremist, she said.
In the last year, Napolitano said, she's witnessed a movement from international extremism to domestic extremism - cases in which Americans radicalized and decided to plot attacks against the country.
"What really is it that draws a young person being raised in the United States to want to go and be at a camp in Yemen and then come back to the United States with the idea of committing harm within the United States?" Napolitano asked without citing specific cases. "Where in that person's formulation is there an opportunity to break that cycle?"
One case is that of Najibullah Zazi, the Denver airport driver who has been charged with plotting to use explosives to attack the U.S.
Born in Afghanistan, Zazi had lived in the U.S. since he was 14 years old. In recent years, prosecutors say, he traveled overseas to receive training from al-Qaida.
Speaking to governors who are in Washington for their annual conference, Napolitano said this problem is one that needs to be drilled down and analyzed.
Napolitano was in a wheelchair Sunday because she broke her ankle playing tennis a few weeks ago, a Homeland Security official said.
John Brennan, President Barack Obama's homeland security adviser, echoed Napolitano's concerns about violent extremism Sunday.
Countering violent extremism is not just a federal issue, Brennan told the governors; it's something that needs to be addressed as a nation.
The White House hosted a meeting to discuss these issues Friday, Brennan said.
"There needs to be community engagement," he said.
Brennan pointed to a case from late last year when five young Pakistani men living in Northern Virginia traveled to Pakistan seeking training from al-Qaida.
The FBI learned of the missing men from their families. After the men disappeared in late November, their families, members of the local Muslim community, sought help from a non-governmental organization, which put them in touch with the FBI.
"It's that engagement with those local communities that's going to be the critically important mechanism to detect that radicalization even before they depart," Brennan said.
The government has been engaged in this sort of outreach for years. Homeland Security officials have periodic meetings with Muslim communities. And FBI agents in certain parts of the country regularly reach out to Muslim communities and leaders.
WASHINGTON -- Americans who turn to terrorism and plot against the U.S. are now as big a concern as international terrorists, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday.
The government is just starting to confront this reality and does not have a good handle on how to prevent someone from becoming a violent extremist, she said.
In the last year, Napolitano said, she's witnessed a movement from international extremism to domestic extremism - cases in which Americans radicalized and decided to plot attacks against the country.
"What really is it that draws a young person being raised in the United States to want to go and be at a camp in Yemen and then come back to the United States with the idea of committing harm within the United States?" Napolitano asked without citing specific cases. "Where in that person's formulation is there an opportunity to break that cycle?"
One case is that of Najibullah Zazi, the Denver airport driver who has been charged with plotting to use explosives to attack the U.S.
Born in Afghanistan, Zazi had lived in the U.S. since he was 14 years old. In recent years, prosecutors say, he traveled overseas to receive training from al-Qaida.
Speaking to governors who are in Washington for their annual conference, Napolitano said this problem is one that needs to be drilled down and analyzed.
Napolitano was in a wheelchair Sunday because she broke her ankle playing tennis a few weeks ago, a Homeland Security official said.
John Brennan, President Barack Obama's homeland security adviser, echoed Napolitano's concerns about violent extremism Sunday.
Countering violent extremism is not just a federal issue, Brennan told the governors; it's something that needs to be addressed as a nation.
The White House hosted a meeting to discuss these issues Friday, Brennan said.
"There needs to be community engagement," he said.
Brennan pointed to a case from late last year when five young Pakistani men living in Northern Virginia traveled to Pakistan seeking training from al-Qaida.
The FBI learned of the missing men from their families. After the men disappeared in late November, their families, members of the local Muslim community, sought help from a non-governmental organization, which put them in touch with the FBI.
"It's that engagement with those local communities that's going to be the critically important mechanism to detect that radicalization even before they depart," Brennan said.
The government has been engaged in this sort of outreach for years. Homeland Security officials have periodic meetings with Muslim communities. And FBI agents in certain parts of the country regularly reach out to Muslim communities and leaders.
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Efforts of ending Al Houthi rebellion continue despite obstacles
By Nasser Arrabyee/21/02/2010
The efforts of ending the armed rebellion in northern Yemen are continuing despite repeated breaches by rebels who try to obstruct the army from deployment in some positions and try to keep the heavy weapons including the removed mines, sources close to the mediators said Sunday.
The sources confirmed that the four committees in charge of supervising the implementation of the six conditions set by the government and accepted by the rebels for ending the war, were working according to the agreed mechanism and time table in the four main areas: the areas around Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Arabia.
The strategic road, which connects the Yemeni capital Sana'a with the province of Sa'ada via the mountainous areas of Harf Sufyan, was opened Saturday.
More than 20 Lorries carrying food and relief materials for the displaced peopled moved from Sana'a to Sa'ada through this road for the first time since the war erupted last August 10th.
"Re-opening the road of Harf Sufyan- Sa'ada is a big achievement for ending the war and brining the peace to Sa'ada," said the MP and tribal sheikh, Ali Abdu Rabu Al Qadi, chairman of the mediation committee in Harf Sufyan.
"We are determined to bring peace and ignore all breaches and difficulties facing the implementation of the six conditions," Al Qadi added.
The relief Lorries passed through the most difficult and most sensitive positions of the rebels until they arrived in the city of Sa'ada.
The tribal sheikh Ali Nasser Kersha, the mediator between the government and rebels and a team of engineers for removing mines were with the caravan which passed through Harf Sufyan, Shabarek, Al Heyrah, Waset, Al Amashyah, Al Zala, Al amar, Al Mahather, Al Okab, reaching the city of Sa'ada late afternoon Saturday.
"The citizens here were very happy after the caravan arrived, because reopening this strategic road increased their hopes for ending the war permanently," said Ali Abu Hulaika, chairman of the mediation committee in Sa'ada.
Abu Halikah also said that his committee is working around the clock on implementing the six conditions in the areas around Sa'ada city despite the breaches and the procrastinations of the rebels over some issues, like barricades in some places and the heavy weapons, and also army deployment in some places.
For the two committees in Al Malahaid and the borders with Saudi Arabia, they held a joint meeting late Saturday along with the heads of five districts which were under the control of Al Houthi rebels.
The meeting asked the directors of the districts of Razeh, Al Malahaid, Shada, Ghamer, and Manbah, who resumed their work as heads of local authority only this week after more than six months of absence, asked them to present suggestions on how to make their authority on these areas effective.
Abdul Wahab Al Durah, member of Al Malahaid mediation committee, said Sunday that additional 40 mine engineers had arrived to help the team already there in removing the mines in Al Malahaid and the border areas as soon as possible.
Mines are among the obstacles facing the army who were not able to deploy in some positions partly because of the loitering of the rebels and partly because of the mines planted everywhere.
Yemeni army deployed in the positions of the rebels
By Nasser Arrabyee/20/02/2010
The Yemeni army redeployed at the borders with Saudi Arabia where Al Houthi rebels were positioning before the war stopped earlier this month, sources close to the mediators said Saturday.
Deployment of the Yemeni army at the borders instead of the rebels is the second thing that Saudi Arabia wanted from the rebels after releasing the Saudi detainees.
Earlier last week, Al Houthi rebels handed over three Saudi soldiers captured by the rebels during battles erupted between the two parties after the rebels attacked the Saudi territories last November.
Al Houthi rebels hinted that the three captives handed were all they had, but the Saudi authorities kept saying five soldiers went missing in the battles with Al Houthis.
Over the last eight days since the cease-fire was declared by the conflicting parties, the mediators have been exerting great of efforts to meet these two conditions of Saudi Arabia, reopening the blocked roads, removing mines , check points, barriers, and barricades.
Today, Saturday, the local authorities have started to work in their offices in the areas which were under the control of the rebels, said mediators.
Abdul Wahab Yahya Al Durah, member of the mediation committee in Al Malahaid, west of Sa'ada, said that local authority officials returned to their offices and started working late last week and today Saturday in six districts in Sa'ada, which were under the control of the rebels. The six districts are Ketaf, Razeh, Al Hashwah, Al Safra, Al Malahaid, and Shada.
On February 12, Al Houthi rebels accepted to implement all the six conditions set by the Yemeni government for ending the war through four separate mediation committees in which Al Houthi rebels were represented.
The four committees were to supervise the implementation of the six conditions in the areas around Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Araibia.
The two committees in Al Malahaid, and at the borders, which are close to each other, and both of them being in the far west of Sa'ada, apparently face less difficulties in implementing the six conditions which include the rebels going down from the mountains and handing over the weapons and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
The committee in Sa'ada, however, has complained of repeated violations and breaches by the rebels while the committee in Harf Sufyan says they did not start working because the rebels did not send their representatives yet.
The Yemeni army redeployed at the borders with Saudi Arabia where Al Houthi rebels were positioning before the war stopped earlier this month, sources close to the mediators said Saturday.
Deployment of the Yemeni army at the borders instead of the rebels is the second thing that Saudi Arabia wanted from the rebels after releasing the Saudi detainees.
Earlier last week, Al Houthi rebels handed over three Saudi soldiers captured by the rebels during battles erupted between the two parties after the rebels attacked the Saudi territories last November.
Al Houthi rebels hinted that the three captives handed were all they had, but the Saudi authorities kept saying five soldiers went missing in the battles with Al Houthis.
Over the last eight days since the cease-fire was declared by the conflicting parties, the mediators have been exerting great of efforts to meet these two conditions of Saudi Arabia, reopening the blocked roads, removing mines , check points, barriers, and barricades.
Today, Saturday, the local authorities have started to work in their offices in the areas which were under the control of the rebels, said mediators.
Abdul Wahab Yahya Al Durah, member of the mediation committee in Al Malahaid, west of Sa'ada, said that local authority officials returned to their offices and started working late last week and today Saturday in six districts in Sa'ada, which were under the control of the rebels. The six districts are Ketaf, Razeh, Al Hashwah, Al Safra, Al Malahaid, and Shada.
On February 12, Al Houthi rebels accepted to implement all the six conditions set by the Yemeni government for ending the war through four separate mediation committees in which Al Houthi rebels were represented.
The four committees were to supervise the implementation of the six conditions in the areas around Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Araibia.
The two committees in Al Malahaid, and at the borders, which are close to each other, and both of them being in the far west of Sa'ada, apparently face less difficulties in implementing the six conditions which include the rebels going down from the mountains and handing over the weapons and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
The committee in Sa'ada, however, has complained of repeated violations and breaches by the rebels while the committee in Harf Sufyan says they did not start working because the rebels did not send their representatives yet.
Friday, 19 February 2010
Two killed, including security official, and two injured in south Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee/19/02/2010
A senior security officer and a soldier were killed and two others injured when gunmen believed to be secessionists opened fire on a car carrying government officials in Al Dhale'e , south of Yemen local and government sources said late Friday.
The gunmen made an ambush in Al Azarek area killing the Major Ali Al Halimi, director of criminal investigations in Al Dhale'e and the soldier Mohammed Muhsen Jawhar, and injuring Ahmed Hassan Nasher, director of agriculture in Al Dhale'e and the soldier Mohammed Saleh Hamoud, the sources said.
The deputy governor of Al Dhale'e, Lahsoon Saleh Musleh said "separatists, saboteurs and outlaws were behind the cowardly criminal act, and that security forces are hunting them down and will bring them to justice."
Al Dhale'e is one of three southern governorates (Al Dhale'e, Abyan, and Lahj) where disgruntled groups have been calling for separation of the south because of alleged political and social marginalization.
Dozens were killed and injured over the last three years in clashes between these restive groups, who call themselves, the southern peaceful movement, and the security forces who call them outlaws. Many of these groups take to the streets for anti-government demonstrations with their personal arms.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Efforts of ending war continue, mediators blame Al Houthi rebels for lagging
By Nasser Arrabyee/18/02/2010
The implementation of the six conditions for ending the war in Sa'ada is continuing despite some breaches by Al Houthi rebels, sources close to mediation committee said Thursday.
The roads were reopened in the three main areas of fighting: around Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and life are gradually getting back to normal to these areas.
Efforts of removing mines, barricades and checkpoints are also continuing, but rebels are still having the weapons and are still lagging and loitering over some issues relating to spreading the influence of the State in their areas, said the sources who preferred not to be named.
The government troops have not yet deployed in the areas and positions, which were under the control of the rebels.
The rebels are transferring the heavy weapons to the inner strongholds like Haidan, Maran, Mutrah, and Al Naqa'a instead of handing them to the State, the matter which raises suspicions over their intentions to end the war, the sources said.
Abdul Malik Al Mekhlafi, member of the national committee which supervises the implementation of the government's six conditions for ending the war, said ," We try our best to implement the conditions as soon as possible , but we need patience because we face obstacles, and the task is very difficult."
"So far, the level of implementation is good, after reopening the roads: Sa'ada- Sufyan, Al Makash- Al Talah where people have started to move normally, and farmers are back in their farms after removing the mines."
The member of the committee, Yahya Mukbel, urged the rebels to abide by the deal and implement the six conditions without any delay or selectivity. He said the rebels tried to prevent some displaced people from returning to their houses in Bakem, far north of Sa'ada.
The implementation of the six conditions for ending the war in Sa'ada is continuing despite some breaches by Al Houthi rebels, sources close to mediation committee said Thursday.
The roads were reopened in the three main areas of fighting: around Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and life are gradually getting back to normal to these areas.
Efforts of removing mines, barricades and checkpoints are also continuing, but rebels are still having the weapons and are still lagging and loitering over some issues relating to spreading the influence of the State in their areas, said the sources who preferred not to be named.
The government troops have not yet deployed in the areas and positions, which were under the control of the rebels.
The rebels are transferring the heavy weapons to the inner strongholds like Haidan, Maran, Mutrah, and Al Naqa'a instead of handing them to the State, the matter which raises suspicions over their intentions to end the war, the sources said.
Abdul Malik Al Mekhlafi, member of the national committee which supervises the implementation of the government's six conditions for ending the war, said ," We try our best to implement the conditions as soon as possible , but we need patience because we face obstacles, and the task is very difficult."
"So far, the level of implementation is good, after reopening the roads: Sa'ada- Sufyan, Al Makash- Al Talah where people have started to move normally, and farmers are back in their farms after removing the mines."
The member of the committee, Yahya Mukbel, urged the rebels to abide by the deal and implement the six conditions without any delay or selectivity. He said the rebels tried to prevent some displaced people from returning to their houses in Bakem, far north of Sa'ada.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Is the Yemen war over, or just in warriors break?
Is the Yemen war over, or just in warriors break?
By Nasser Arrabyee/17/02/2010
The war in Yemen is over. However, no good guarantees that it will not erupt again.
The Shiite Al Houthi rebels accepted last week all the six conditions set by the government for ending the conflict, which cost the poor country a lot .
Both sides declared a cease-fire on February 12 to end the sixth round of fighting that lasted for more than six months, the longest and the most violent of the 6-year old sporadic war, which claimed thousands of lives, and displaced about 250,000 people.
The international community, which exercised an obvious pressure on Sana'a to end the war, welcomed the decision of ending the war and supported unity and stability of the country which faces two more challenges also: separation calls in the south and an open war with Al Qaeda, which exploits this unrest for more recruiting.
"The United States supports a unified, stable, democratic and prosperous Yemen," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said who was in a middle eastern trip.
The decree of ending the war comes also before the international donors meet in Riyadh at the end of this month for supporting Yemen and helping it face its major challenges.
The President Ali Abdullah Saleh has chosen 20 members of the parliament from all parties and formed four separate committees for supervising the implementation of the six conditions, which included the rebels going down from the mountains and handing over the heavy weapons, during 45 days.
One of these four committees is in charge of supervising the implementation of the conditions at the borders with Saudi Arabia, which wants its five soldiers captured by the rebels to be released as the first and foremost.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also wants the Yemeni army to deploy in the borders instead of the rebels who attacked its territories last November and were driven out by the Saudi forces about 40 days later.
The rebels released only one injured Saudi soldier to the Yemeni government which in turn handed him over to Riyadh, but they held back the remaining four, saying they want the governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen to release their detainees first.
This was not in the declared conditions. The Saudi authorities, repeatedly said, they would not deal with the rebels over any issue whatsoever, but they would deal only with the Sana'a legitimate government.
The Saudi officials would only hand over Al Houthi rebels, if any, only to their government as Yemenis.
The Saudi captives are one of the most sensitive issues that may obstruct the efforts of the mediation committees. The second issue that may obstruct the reconciliation and bringing peace to the war-torn Sa'ada, is the tribal blood feuds between tribesmen who are divided in terms of loyalty between the government and the Al Houthi rebels.
For instance, a senior military officer was killed Tuesday when a group of Al Houthi rebels attacked a checkpoint in Al Jawf province, southeast of Sa'ada, according local and security sources.
The five gunmen of Al Houthi rebels attacked and killed Colonel Ali Darban, 51, while he was performing his duty in the checkpoint between the area of Al Samoom and Al Zaher, in Al Jawf province.
The officer belongs to Shulan tribe (loyal to the government) and the attackers belong to Al Ashraf (loyal to the Al Houthi rebels), and the two tribes had an unsolved blood feud for about 30 years.
The government considered the incident as a breach of the cease-fire, while Al Houthi said it was only a tribal dispute.
Such exchange of accusations started only hours after the two side declared the cease-fire when Al Houthi rebels tried to assassinate the top security official in Sa'ada city, Mohammed Al Kawsi, and killed two soldiers.
The government said Tuesday, in a statement disseminated by the state-run media, that Al Houthi rebels exploded a courthouse and five other houses and plundered properties belonging to Al Othman tribes in Bakem area, far north of Sa'ada.
However, independent sources said that before Al Houthi rebels did this, a group of gunmen from Al Othman had killed a number of rebels in an ambush made in Bakem.
A tribal feud between Al Othman and Al Houthi loyal tribesmen in the district of Bakem erupted even before the war between the rebels and the government troops.
These two incidents, in Al Jawf and Bakem, show how difficult it is for both sides to implement the six conditions of the cease-fire while there are tribal groups who are not under their control.
There are tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi rebels and others loyal to the government, but they care only for their own interests.
Despite these difficulties, some observers are optimistic about a permanent end of the war.
Ahmed Al Sufi, political analyst and chairman of the Yemeni Institute for Democratic Development said the decision of ending the war was a strategic for both sides.
"Two things imposed the end of the war: The government came out from the London conference with many commitments to solve its problems in Sa'ada, south, and with Al Qaeda. Al Houthi rebels have almost finished all their resources, even the Iranian support stopped, and they were almost to be defeated," Al Sufi told Al Ahram Weekly.
"The President Saleh was shrewd enough to declare the end of the war, and he is now a winner as a State, but loser as a military commander."
"For Al Houthi, he wants to be a winner politically, but he is almost defeated militarily."
The governor of Sa'ada, Taha Hajer, said Tuesday that the displaced people started to return to their villages and houses in Sa'ada.
The governor, who accused the rebels of being slow in responding to the mechanism of implementing the six conditions of ending the war, also said that the government officials, especially the heads of the districts , returned to their offices and started working on Monday in four districts out of 11 under the control of the rebels: Ketaf, Razeh, Al Hashwah, and Al Safra.
Despite breaches and exchange of accusations, the four field committees, in which Al Houthi rebels are represented, have been working on reopening the blocked roads, removing mines, and lifting checkpoints and barricades since Friday February 12, when the cease-fire was announced.
The committee in the borders with Saudi Arabia, the chairman Mohammed Al Hawri, said they visited the areas of Shada and Razeh after the rebels removed barriers, mines, and barricades.
But, Al Hawri said no new about the Saudi prisoners issue which is the most important issue for this committee in particular.
Zaid Al Shami, chairman of the committee in Al Malahaid far west of Sa'ada, said also that he met with Al Houthi representative Yousef Al Faishi, and that they reopened the road which led to Al Malahaid after removing the mines, and barriers and barricades.
The chairman of the committee in Sa'ada city, Ali Abu Hulaikah said he met with the representatives of Al Houthi rebels, Saleh Al Sumad, and Taha Al Madani, and reopened the roads from Sa'ada, Al Okab, Al Mahather, Al Ain, Suk Al Lail, Al Amashia reaching to Harf Sufyan.
By Nasser Arrabyee/17/02/2010
The war in Yemen is over. However, no good guarantees that it will not erupt again.
The Shiite Al Houthi rebels accepted last week all the six conditions set by the government for ending the conflict, which cost the poor country a lot .
Both sides declared a cease-fire on February 12 to end the sixth round of fighting that lasted for more than six months, the longest and the most violent of the 6-year old sporadic war, which claimed thousands of lives, and displaced about 250,000 people.
The international community, which exercised an obvious pressure on Sana'a to end the war, welcomed the decision of ending the war and supported unity and stability of the country which faces two more challenges also: separation calls in the south and an open war with Al Qaeda, which exploits this unrest for more recruiting.
"The United States supports a unified, stable, democratic and prosperous Yemen," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said who was in a middle eastern trip.
The decree of ending the war comes also before the international donors meet in Riyadh at the end of this month for supporting Yemen and helping it face its major challenges.
The President Ali Abdullah Saleh has chosen 20 members of the parliament from all parties and formed four separate committees for supervising the implementation of the six conditions, which included the rebels going down from the mountains and handing over the heavy weapons, during 45 days.
One of these four committees is in charge of supervising the implementation of the conditions at the borders with Saudi Arabia, which wants its five soldiers captured by the rebels to be released as the first and foremost.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also wants the Yemeni army to deploy in the borders instead of the rebels who attacked its territories last November and were driven out by the Saudi forces about 40 days later.
The rebels released only one injured Saudi soldier to the Yemeni government which in turn handed him over to Riyadh, but they held back the remaining four, saying they want the governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen to release their detainees first.
This was not in the declared conditions. The Saudi authorities, repeatedly said, they would not deal with the rebels over any issue whatsoever, but they would deal only with the Sana'a legitimate government.
The Saudi officials would only hand over Al Houthi rebels, if any, only to their government as Yemenis.
The Saudi captives are one of the most sensitive issues that may obstruct the efforts of the mediation committees. The second issue that may obstruct the reconciliation and bringing peace to the war-torn Sa'ada, is the tribal blood feuds between tribesmen who are divided in terms of loyalty between the government and the Al Houthi rebels.
For instance, a senior military officer was killed Tuesday when a group of Al Houthi rebels attacked a checkpoint in Al Jawf province, southeast of Sa'ada, according local and security sources.
The five gunmen of Al Houthi rebels attacked and killed Colonel Ali Darban, 51, while he was performing his duty in the checkpoint between the area of Al Samoom and Al Zaher, in Al Jawf province.
The officer belongs to Shulan tribe (loyal to the government) and the attackers belong to Al Ashraf (loyal to the Al Houthi rebels), and the two tribes had an unsolved blood feud for about 30 years.
The government considered the incident as a breach of the cease-fire, while Al Houthi said it was only a tribal dispute.
Such exchange of accusations started only hours after the two side declared the cease-fire when Al Houthi rebels tried to assassinate the top security official in Sa'ada city, Mohammed Al Kawsi, and killed two soldiers.
The government said Tuesday, in a statement disseminated by the state-run media, that Al Houthi rebels exploded a courthouse and five other houses and plundered properties belonging to Al Othman tribes in Bakem area, far north of Sa'ada.
However, independent sources said that before Al Houthi rebels did this, a group of gunmen from Al Othman had killed a number of rebels in an ambush made in Bakem.
A tribal feud between Al Othman and Al Houthi loyal tribesmen in the district of Bakem erupted even before the war between the rebels and the government troops.
These two incidents, in Al Jawf and Bakem, show how difficult it is for both sides to implement the six conditions of the cease-fire while there are tribal groups who are not under their control.
There are tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi rebels and others loyal to the government, but they care only for their own interests.
Despite these difficulties, some observers are optimistic about a permanent end of the war.
Ahmed Al Sufi, political analyst and chairman of the Yemeni Institute for Democratic Development said the decision of ending the war was a strategic for both sides.
"Two things imposed the end of the war: The government came out from the London conference with many commitments to solve its problems in Sa'ada, south, and with Al Qaeda. Al Houthi rebels have almost finished all their resources, even the Iranian support stopped, and they were almost to be defeated," Al Sufi told Al Ahram Weekly.
"The President Saleh was shrewd enough to declare the end of the war, and he is now a winner as a State, but loser as a military commander."
"For Al Houthi, he wants to be a winner politically, but he is almost defeated militarily."
The governor of Sa'ada, Taha Hajer, said Tuesday that the displaced people started to return to their villages and houses in Sa'ada.
The governor, who accused the rebels of being slow in responding to the mechanism of implementing the six conditions of ending the war, also said that the government officials, especially the heads of the districts , returned to their offices and started working on Monday in four districts out of 11 under the control of the rebels: Ketaf, Razeh, Al Hashwah, and Al Safra.
Despite breaches and exchange of accusations, the four field committees, in which Al Houthi rebels are represented, have been working on reopening the blocked roads, removing mines, and lifting checkpoints and barricades since Friday February 12, when the cease-fire was announced.
The committee in the borders with Saudi Arabia, the chairman Mohammed Al Hawri, said they visited the areas of Shada and Razeh after the rebels removed barriers, mines, and barricades.
But, Al Hawri said no new about the Saudi prisoners issue which is the most important issue for this committee in particular.
Zaid Al Shami, chairman of the committee in Al Malahaid far west of Sa'ada, said also that he met with Al Houthi representative Yousef Al Faishi, and that they reopened the road which led to Al Malahaid after removing the mines, and barriers and barricades.
The chairman of the committee in Sa'ada city, Ali Abu Hulaikah said he met with the representatives of Al Houthi rebels, Saleh Al Sumad, and Taha Al Madani, and reopened the roads from Sa'ada, Al Okab, Al Mahather, Al Ain, Suk Al Lail, Al Amashia reaching to Harf Sufyan.
Monday, 15 February 2010
Senior officer killed, Al Houthi rebels accused of breaching the cease-fire
By Nasser Arrbyee/16/02/2010
A senior military officer was killed when a group of Al Houthi rebels attacked a checkpoint in Al Jawf province, southeast of Sa'ada, said security sources Tuesday.
Five gunmen of Al Houthi rebels attacked and killed Colonel Ali Darban, 51, while he was performing his duty in the checkpoint between the area of Al Samoom and Al Zaher, in Al Jawf province, the security sources.
The incident comes within the framework of a long-standing feud between two tribes in Al Jawf, one loyal to the government and the other loyal to Al Houthi rebels.
The Yemeni government accused Al Houthi rebels of breaching the cease-fire, which was announced by both sides, on February 12, 2010.
The government said Tuesday, in a statement disseminated by the state-run media, that Al Houthi rebels exploded Monday a courthouse and five other houses and plundered properties belonging to Al Othman tribes in Bakem area far north of Sa'ada.
Independent sources said, before Al Houthi rebels did this, a group of gunmen from Al Othman had killed a number of the rebels in an ambush made in Bakem.
A tribal feud between Al Othman and Al Houthi loyal tribesmen in the district of Bakem erupted even before the war between the rebels and the government troops.
These two incidents, in Al Jawf and Bakem, show how difficult it is for both sides to implement the six conditions of the cease-fire while there are tribal groups who are not, hundred per cent, under their control.
There are tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi rebels and others loyal to the government, but they look only for their own interests.
Meanwhile, the governor of Sa'ada, Taha Hajer, said Tuesday that the displaced people started to return to their villages and houses in Sa'ada where the 6-year old war forced about 250,000 people to leave their houses since 2004.
The governor also said that the government officials, especially the heads of the district, returned to their offices and started working on Monday in four districts out 11 under the control of the rebels: Ketaf, Razeh, Al Hashwah, and Al Safra.
A senior military officer was killed when a group of Al Houthi rebels attacked a checkpoint in Al Jawf province, southeast of Sa'ada, said security sources Tuesday.
Five gunmen of Al Houthi rebels attacked and killed Colonel Ali Darban, 51, while he was performing his duty in the checkpoint between the area of Al Samoom and Al Zaher, in Al Jawf province, the security sources.
The incident comes within the framework of a long-standing feud between two tribes in Al Jawf, one loyal to the government and the other loyal to Al Houthi rebels.
The Yemeni government accused Al Houthi rebels of breaching the cease-fire, which was announced by both sides, on February 12, 2010.
The government said Tuesday, in a statement disseminated by the state-run media, that Al Houthi rebels exploded Monday a courthouse and five other houses and plundered properties belonging to Al Othman tribes in Bakem area far north of Sa'ada.
Independent sources said, before Al Houthi rebels did this, a group of gunmen from Al Othman had killed a number of the rebels in an ambush made in Bakem.
A tribal feud between Al Othman and Al Houthi loyal tribesmen in the district of Bakem erupted even before the war between the rebels and the government troops.
These two incidents, in Al Jawf and Bakem, show how difficult it is for both sides to implement the six conditions of the cease-fire while there are tribal groups who are not, hundred per cent, under their control.
There are tribesmen loyal to Al Houthi rebels and others loyal to the government, but they look only for their own interests.
Meanwhile, the governor of Sa'ada, Taha Hajer, said Tuesday that the displaced people started to return to their villages and houses in Sa'ada where the 6-year old war forced about 250,000 people to leave their houses since 2004.
The governor also said that the government officials, especially the heads of the district, returned to their offices and started working on Monday in four districts out 11 under the control of the rebels: Ketaf, Razeh, Al Hashwah, and Al Safra.
8 mediators killed in Sa'ada while removing mines, Saudi prisoner handed over
By Nasser Arrabyee/15/02/2010
A total of 8 people were killed and several others injured when an anti-tank mine exploded in an area around the Sa'ada city where a field committee for removing mines was working, local sources said Monday.
Two soldiers and six other local people including three representatives of Al Houthi rebels in the field committee were killed , the sources said.
The mine exploded when the people tried to pull out a broken ( damaged) mine sweeper in Al Okab where the joint field committee was working on removing mines and barriers and barricades, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Al Houthi rebels handed over to a mediation committee one Saudi prisoner keeping four others with them until Saudi Arabia hands over their prisoners, independent and Al Houthi sources said Monday.
The spokesman for the rebels, Mohammed Abdul Salam, said that they handed the Saudi prisoner Yahya Abdullah to show good intention to both Yemen and Saudi governments and also because the injuries of the prisoner.
Al Houthi wants his prisoners to be released first by both governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen said the independent sources.
Holding back the remaining four Saudi prisoners may obstruct the work of the field committees, which supervise the implementation of the government's six conditions accepted by Al Houthi rebels for ending the 6-year old armed rebellion.
However, the field committees have been working on reopening the blocked roads, removing mines, and lifting checkpoints and barricades since Friday February 12, when the cease-fire was announced.
The only committee, which has not started working is the one in Harf Sufyan, where the representatives of Al Houthi in the committee did not come yet.
The tribal sheikh Sagheer Azeez, chairman of the committee in Harf Sufyan, said Al Houthi rebels did not agree on who would represent them in the committee. The local tribal sheikh also said that the rebels violated the cease-fire killing five soldiers on Monday.
For the committee in the borders with Saudi Arabia, the chairman Mohammed Al Hawri, said they visited the areas of Shada and Razeh after the rebels removed barriers, mines, and barricades.
But Al Hawri said no new about the Saudi prisoners issue which is the most important issue for this committee in particular.
Zaid Al Shami, chairman of the committee in Al Malahaid far west of Sa'ada, said also that he met with Al Houthi representative Yousef Al Faishi, and that they reopened the road which led to Al Malahaid after removing the mines, and barriers and barricades.
The chairman of the committee in Sa'ada city, Ali Abu Hulaikah said he met with the representatives of Al Houthi rebels, Saleh Al Sumad, and Taha Al Madani, and reopened the roads from Sa'ada, Al Okab, Al Mahather, Al Ain, Suk Al Lail, Al Amashia reaching to Harf Sufyan.
A total of 8 people were killed and several others injured when an anti-tank mine exploded in an area around the Sa'ada city where a field committee for removing mines was working, local sources said Monday.
Two soldiers and six other local people including three representatives of Al Houthi rebels in the field committee were killed , the sources said.
The mine exploded when the people tried to pull out a broken ( damaged) mine sweeper in Al Okab where the joint field committee was working on removing mines and barriers and barricades, the sources said.
Meanwhile, Al Houthi rebels handed over to a mediation committee one Saudi prisoner keeping four others with them until Saudi Arabia hands over their prisoners, independent and Al Houthi sources said Monday.
The spokesman for the rebels, Mohammed Abdul Salam, said that they handed the Saudi prisoner Yahya Abdullah to show good intention to both Yemen and Saudi governments and also because the injuries of the prisoner.
Al Houthi wants his prisoners to be released first by both governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen said the independent sources.
Holding back the remaining four Saudi prisoners may obstruct the work of the field committees, which supervise the implementation of the government's six conditions accepted by Al Houthi rebels for ending the 6-year old armed rebellion.
However, the field committees have been working on reopening the blocked roads, removing mines, and lifting checkpoints and barricades since Friday February 12, when the cease-fire was announced.
The only committee, which has not started working is the one in Harf Sufyan, where the representatives of Al Houthi in the committee did not come yet.
The tribal sheikh Sagheer Azeez, chairman of the committee in Harf Sufyan, said Al Houthi rebels did not agree on who would represent them in the committee. The local tribal sheikh also said that the rebels violated the cease-fire killing five soldiers on Monday.
For the committee in the borders with Saudi Arabia, the chairman Mohammed Al Hawri, said they visited the areas of Shada and Razeh after the rebels removed barriers, mines, and barricades.
But Al Hawri said no new about the Saudi prisoners issue which is the most important issue for this committee in particular.
Zaid Al Shami, chairman of the committee in Al Malahaid far west of Sa'ada, said also that he met with Al Houthi representative Yousef Al Faishi, and that they reopened the road which led to Al Malahaid after removing the mines, and barriers and barricades.
The chairman of the committee in Sa'ada city, Ali Abu Hulaikah said he met with the representatives of Al Houthi rebels, Saleh Al Sumad, and Taha Al Madani, and reopened the roads from Sa'ada, Al Okab, Al Mahather, Al Ain, Suk Al Lail, Al Amashia reaching to Harf Sufyan.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Tensions over shaky truce after Al Houthi holds back Saudi prisoners
By Nasser Arrabyee/14/02/2010
Al Houthi rebels refused to hand over the five Saudi prisoners saying Saudi Arabia should first release their prisoners, sources close to mediation committees said Sunday.
With this refusal of this essential issue, Al Houthi rebels are recanting the first and for most important step they accepted to do immediately after the cease-fire, which enters its fourth day.
Re-opening the blocked roads and releasing the Yemeni and Saudi "kidnapped" people is the first thing that the two governments wanted the rebels to do before starting to implement the Yemeni government's six conditions for ending the six year-old armed rebellion.
This refusal also came after the end of a 48-hour ultimatum given to Al Houthi rebels by the Saudi deputy minister of defense Khaled bin Sultan. The ultimatum ended at 1:00 pm Sunday.
Mohammed Al Hawri, chairman of the field committee in charge of prisoners and the borders, said today that he met with the representatives of Al Houthi in Al Malahaid city after the rebels reopened the road, which leads to the city. The official Al Hawri did not give any more details.
However, sources confirmed that Al Houthi rebels did not hand over the Saudi prisoners as it was agreed upon, because the rebels wanted to swap them with their prisoners in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi authorities, repeatedly said, they would not deal with the rebels over any issue whatsoever, but they would deal only with the Sana'a legitimate government.
The Saudi officials would only hand over Al Houthi rebels only to their government as Yemenis.
Saturday, 13 February 2010
The Saudi prisoners to be handed over today
By Nasser Arrabyee/14/02/2010
The five Saudi prisoners, held by Al Houthi rebels during the war, will be handed over to the Yemeni government, who will hand them to the Saudi authorities, said sources close the mediation Sunday.
Sheikh Nasser Kersha, the tribal sheikh from Sa'ada, who is leading the mediation between the Yemeni government and Al Houthi rebels, will hand the five Saudi prisoners to the Yemeni government today Sunday, the sources said.
Handing over the Saudi prisoners was the first condition by the Saudi government. The Saudi authorities want also the Yemeni troops to deploy in the border areas where Al Houthi rebels position as the second condition by the Saudis.
The spokesman of Al Houthi rebels, Mohammed Abdul Al Salam, said the Saudi prisoners would be handed to the mediator Nasser Kersha on Saturday.
The Saudi army liberated about 25 prisoners after Al Houthi rebels arrested about 30 Saudi soldiers during the battles with the Saudi forces, which erupted early Novmber after the rebels attacked the Saudi territories.
Meanwhile, Al Houthi rebels said Sunday they have opened the roads in the areas around Sa'ada city, ended the barricades and lifted the checkpoints, as the first step for implementing the government's six conditions they previously accepted for ending the war.
"We have completed the withdrawal from the areas around the airport of Sa'ada, where the airplane can now land, and we opened the roads in Al Okab and the areas around Sa'ada city, where there is no more barricades and check points, " said the rebels spokesman.
However, the committee in charge of supervising the implementation of the six conditions, said the first thing the rebels should do is to open the strategic high way, Sa'ada-Bakem, the road which passes through the most important strongholds of the rebels, to the far north of Sa'ada province.
Despite of the cease-fire, the security sources said that snipers of Al Houthi injured five soldiers Saturday in different places.
Three soldiers were injured with Al Houthi bullets in the checkpoints of Al Ain, and one in the old city of Sa'ada, and the fiveth in Al Safra district east of Sa'ada, the security sources said. The security agencies urged Al Houthi rebels to take the chance of peace and stop violating the cease-fire.
Two men killed and seven others injured in clashes between armed demonstrators and security forces in south Yemen
By Nasser Arrabyee/13/02/2010
Two Yemenis were killed and seven others injured Saturday in Al Hota city in the southern governorate of Lahj when, disgruntled and armed demonstrators calling for separation of the south, clashed with the security forces.
The angry demonstrators, many of them armed, wanted to take by force a dead body of man, killed last week in a similar demonstration, from the hospital of Ibn Kheldoon in the city of Al Hotah, local sources and eyewitnesses said.
The clashes happened when the security forces refused to hand over the dead body to the demonstrators, saying the dead body will only be handed over to his family, who must directly take it to the cemetery.
The demonstrators wanted to use the dead body for attracting more people to their demonstration in which they called for armed revolution against what they called the "northern occupation".
Last week, a man was killed when the security forces tried to prevent armed demonstrators from setting fire to shops belonging to people originally from the north.
The security director of Lahj province, Ali Al Ameri said that the security forces applied the law against those who tried to break it by using violence in the demonstrations.
"Some separatists and saboteurs tried to attack the government's offices, and fired randomly at the police patrols and threw hand grenades killing one and injuring three others," said Al Ameri.
Meanwhile, in the southern province of Shabwah, a soldier was killed and three others injured when gunmen believed to be Al Qaeda operatives attacked a military vehicle patrolling at the outskirt of the city of Atak, the capital of Shabwah, local sources said Saturday.
Friday, 12 February 2010
Al Houthi wants stable cease-fire to go down from mountains
By Nasser Arrabyee/13/02/2010
The Yemen rebels said they would go down from the mountains only after the announced cease-fire got stable.
This came after the Yemeni government accused the rebels of breaking their pledge that they would open the roads, remove the check points and mines, and going down from mountains and barricades, immediately after the announcement of the cease-fire.
After more than 24 hours since the cease-fire was announced, the Al Houthi rebels did not comply with this pledge, did not send their representatives to participate with the field committees to supervise the implementations of the six conditions, they previously accepted, for ending the war, said the government.
"When the cease-fire gets stable, we will open the roads, lift the check points, end the barricades from all areas of fighting," said Al Houthi Saturday in a statement sent through emails.
On Friday, hours after the cease-fire, Al Houthi rebels tried to assassinate the top security official in Sa'ada city, Mohammed Abdullah Al Kawsi. The rebels also killed two soldiers and injured four others at least in the areas around Sa'ada city, despite the cease-fire.
The four field committees, made from different parties in the parliament, in charge of supervising the implementation of the six conditions, arrived Friday in the four areas of fighting: Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Arabia. Al Houthi representatives in these committees did not arrive until late Friday.
Before the announcement of the cease-fire, Al Houthi rebels pledged they would open the blocked roads, lift the check points, remove the mines, end the barricades, hand over the kidnapped people from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, let the Yemeni army deploy in the borders with Saudi Arabia, and evacuate the government's buildings and installations.
They pledged, the government said, they would do these things immediately after the announcement of the cease-fire as the first the step, which will be followed by other steps to implement all the six conditions they accepted for ending the war.
The government's six conditions accepted by Al Houthi rebels include the rebels going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons, and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
The Yemen rebels said they would go down from the mountains only after the announced cease-fire got stable.
This came after the Yemeni government accused the rebels of breaking their pledge that they would open the roads, remove the check points and mines, and going down from mountains and barricades, immediately after the announcement of the cease-fire.
After more than 24 hours since the cease-fire was announced, the Al Houthi rebels did not comply with this pledge, did not send their representatives to participate with the field committees to supervise the implementations of the six conditions, they previously accepted, for ending the war, said the government.
"When the cease-fire gets stable, we will open the roads, lift the check points, end the barricades from all areas of fighting," said Al Houthi Saturday in a statement sent through emails.
On Friday, hours after the cease-fire, Al Houthi rebels tried to assassinate the top security official in Sa'ada city, Mohammed Abdullah Al Kawsi. The rebels also killed two soldiers and injured four others at least in the areas around Sa'ada city, despite the cease-fire.
The four field committees, made from different parties in the parliament, in charge of supervising the implementation of the six conditions, arrived Friday in the four areas of fighting: Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Arabia. Al Houthi representatives in these committees did not arrive until late Friday.
Before the announcement of the cease-fire, Al Houthi rebels pledged they would open the blocked roads, lift the check points, remove the mines, end the barricades, hand over the kidnapped people from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, let the Yemeni army deploy in the borders with Saudi Arabia, and evacuate the government's buildings and installations.
They pledged, the government said, they would do these things immediately after the announcement of the cease-fire as the first the step, which will be followed by other steps to implement all the six conditions they accepted for ending the war.
The government's six conditions accepted by Al Houthi rebels include the rebels going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons, and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
Thursday, 11 February 2010
End of Yemen's war announced from both sides
By Nasser Arrabyee/12/02/2010
The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced late Thursday the end of the war between his troops and Al Houthi rebels starting from the first hour of Friday February 12th, 2010.
The rebels from their side announced the end of the war starting from same time.
Saleh's decree to stop the war came he held meeting with the national committee to supervise the implementation of the government's six conditions accepted by the rebels for ending the war.
Four subcommittees were also formed with participation of members from Al Houthi sides to supervise the implementation of the six conditions in areas around Sa'ada, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Arabia.
Earlier in the day, official sources said the war between Al Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government will end in the coming few hours after reaching a deal to end the 6-year conflict.
A national committee from the Yemeni parliament was formed to supervise the implementation of the six conditions set by the government for ending the war, said the sources.
This committee, which has also field subcommittees including members from Al Houthi side, will start its work immediately after the military operations stop.
The sources said the government would announce a permanent halt of the military operations in the coming few hours in all frontlines.
The sources said that the President Ali Abdullah Saleh is very keen to bring peace and save blood, and start the process of development, building and reconstruction.
Opening the blocked roads, and the rebels descending from the mountains and barricades, retuning of the displaced people to their villages, and releasing of the detainees, all these will be the first things to do immediately the announcement of the halt of the military operations.
Among the subcommittees, there will be a committee for treating the social and material impacts of the war. A general compromise, agreed upon by all, will be reached to prevent any retaliation, new attacks, or revenges in all the war-affected areas the after math of the war.
Al Houthi elements will participate in the field subcommittees which will supervise the implementation of the six conditions previously accepted by Al Houthis, to end the war.
The purpose of these subcommittees is to prevent or solve any possible dispute that may happen during the implementation of the six conditions according to the time table and mechanism which was agreed by Al Houthis.
The conditions, which Al Houthis accepted to end the war, include the rebels' going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons, and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the new governor of Sa'ada, Taha Hajer, in his first meeting with the leaders of the province of Sa'ada, said Wednesday, Sa'ada will witness a new stage of peace and development.
Earlier this week, Hajer was appointed as the governor of Sa'ada, replacing Hassan Mana'a.
The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced late Thursday the end of the war between his troops and Al Houthi rebels starting from the first hour of Friday February 12th, 2010.
The rebels from their side announced the end of the war starting from same time.
Saleh's decree to stop the war came he held meeting with the national committee to supervise the implementation of the government's six conditions accepted by the rebels for ending the war.
Four subcommittees were also formed with participation of members from Al Houthi sides to supervise the implementation of the six conditions in areas around Sa'ada, Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and the borders with Saudi Arabia.
Earlier in the day, official sources said the war between Al Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government will end in the coming few hours after reaching a deal to end the 6-year conflict.
A national committee from the Yemeni parliament was formed to supervise the implementation of the six conditions set by the government for ending the war, said the sources.
This committee, which has also field subcommittees including members from Al Houthi side, will start its work immediately after the military operations stop.
The sources said the government would announce a permanent halt of the military operations in the coming few hours in all frontlines.
The sources said that the President Ali Abdullah Saleh is very keen to bring peace and save blood, and start the process of development, building and reconstruction.
Opening the blocked roads, and the rebels descending from the mountains and barricades, retuning of the displaced people to their villages, and releasing of the detainees, all these will be the first things to do immediately the announcement of the halt of the military operations.
Among the subcommittees, there will be a committee for treating the social and material impacts of the war. A general compromise, agreed upon by all, will be reached to prevent any retaliation, new attacks, or revenges in all the war-affected areas the after math of the war.
Al Houthi elements will participate in the field subcommittees which will supervise the implementation of the six conditions previously accepted by Al Houthis, to end the war.
The purpose of these subcommittees is to prevent or solve any possible dispute that may happen during the implementation of the six conditions according to the time table and mechanism which was agreed by Al Houthis.
The conditions, which Al Houthis accepted to end the war, include the rebels' going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons, and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the new governor of Sa'ada, Taha Hajer, in his first meeting with the leaders of the province of Sa'ada, said Wednesday, Sa'ada will witness a new stage of peace and development.
Earlier this week, Hajer was appointed as the governor of Sa'ada, replacing Hassan Mana'a.
Yemen war might stop for ever, official sources
By Nasser Arrabyee/11/02/2010
The war between Al Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government will end in the coming few hours after reaching a deal to end the 6-year conflict, official sources said Thursday.
A national committee from the Yemeni parliament was formed to supervise the implementation of the six conditions set by the government for ending the war, said the sources.
This committee, which has also field subcommittees including members from Al Houthi side, will start its work immediately after the military operations stop.
The sources said the government would announce a permanent halt of the military operations in the coming few hours in all frontlines.
The sources said that the President Ali Abdullah Saleh is very keen to bring peace and save blood, and start the process of development, building and reconstruction.
Opening the blocked roads, and the rebels descending from the mountains and barricades, retuning of the displaced people to their villages, and releasing of the detainees, all these will be the first things to do immediately the announcement of the halt of the military operations.
Among the subcommittees, there will be a committee for treating the social and material impacts of the war. A general compromise, agreed upon by all, will be reached to prevent any retaliation, new attacks, or revenges in all the war-affected areas the after math of the war.
Al Houthi elements will participate in the field subcommittees which will supervise the implementation of the six conditions previously accepted by Al Houthis, to end the war.
The purpose of these subcommittees is to prevent or solve any possible dispute that may happen during the implementation of the six conditions according to the time table and mechanism which was agreed by Al Houthis.
The conditions, which Al Houthis accepted to end the war, include the rebels' going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons, and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the new governor of Sa'ada, Taha Hajer, in his first meeting with the leaders of the province of Sa'ada, said Wednesday, Sa'ada will witness a new stage of peace and development.
Earlier this week, Hajer was appointed as the governor of Sa'ada, replacing Hassan Mana'a.
The war between Al Houthi rebels and the Yemeni government will end in the coming few hours after reaching a deal to end the 6-year conflict, official sources said Thursday.
A national committee from the Yemeni parliament was formed to supervise the implementation of the six conditions set by the government for ending the war, said the sources.
This committee, which has also field subcommittees including members from Al Houthi side, will start its work immediately after the military operations stop.
The sources said the government would announce a permanent halt of the military operations in the coming few hours in all frontlines.
The sources said that the President Ali Abdullah Saleh is very keen to bring peace and save blood, and start the process of development, building and reconstruction.
Opening the blocked roads, and the rebels descending from the mountains and barricades, retuning of the displaced people to their villages, and releasing of the detainees, all these will be the first things to do immediately the announcement of the halt of the military operations.
Among the subcommittees, there will be a committee for treating the social and material impacts of the war. A general compromise, agreed upon by all, will be reached to prevent any retaliation, new attacks, or revenges in all the war-affected areas the after math of the war.
Al Houthi elements will participate in the field subcommittees which will supervise the implementation of the six conditions previously accepted by Al Houthis, to end the war.
The purpose of these subcommittees is to prevent or solve any possible dispute that may happen during the implementation of the six conditions according to the time table and mechanism which was agreed by Al Houthis.
The conditions, which Al Houthis accepted to end the war, include the rebels' going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons, and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the new governor of Sa'ada, Taha Hajer, in his first meeting with the leaders of the province of Sa'ada, said Wednesday, Sa'ada will witness a new stage of peace and development.
Earlier this week, Hajer was appointed as the governor of Sa'ada, replacing Hassan Mana'a.
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Al Houthi rebels kill 10 teachers and injure 15
By Nasser Arrabyee/11/02/2010
A total of 10 teachers were killed and 15 others in injured in different attacks by Al Houthi rebels on dozens of schools in Sa'ada, said an official Thursday.
Mohammed Al Shamiri, director of education in Sa'ada governorate, said his office received reports that 10 teachers were killed and 15 others injured in addition to unspecified number of students who were killed or injured since the beginning of the war with Al Houthi rebels in August 10, 2009.
The official said that four schools were destroyed and all other schools in the areas under the control of the rebels were turned to barricades.
The schools in the areas under the control of the government or tribesmen loyal to the government were almost all turned to refugee camps for those who escaped the war, the official added.
Before the war erupted last August, the rebels took control over about 30 schools dismissing all teachers and replacing them with ones believing in Al Houthi ideology. The new teachers replaced the national anthem with Al Houthi slogan: God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse to Jews, and victory to Islam.
A total of 10 teachers were killed and 15 others in injured in different attacks by Al Houthi rebels on dozens of schools in Sa'ada, said an official Thursday.
Mohammed Al Shamiri, director of education in Sa'ada governorate, said his office received reports that 10 teachers were killed and 15 others injured in addition to unspecified number of students who were killed or injured since the beginning of the war with Al Houthi rebels in August 10, 2009.
The official said that four schools were destroyed and all other schools in the areas under the control of the rebels were turned to barricades.
The schools in the areas under the control of the government or tribesmen loyal to the government were almost all turned to refugee camps for those who escaped the war, the official added.
Before the war erupted last August, the rebels took control over about 30 schools dismissing all teachers and replacing them with ones believing in Al Houthi ideology. The new teachers replaced the national anthem with Al Houthi slogan: God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse to Jews, and victory to Islam.
Monday, 8 February 2010
Al Houthi rebels refuse mechanism for ending the war
By Nasser Arrabyee/08/02/2010
Al Houthi rebels refused a government mechanism for implementing the conditions they previously accepted for ending the war.
The mechanism cannot be implemented in the ground, said the mediator, Hassan Zaid late Monday after he handed over the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh a proposal from the rebels on how to implement the six conditions for ending the war.
Earlier this week, the government handed over a timetable and mechanism to the rebels on how to implement its six conditions for ending the 7-month
old sixth round of the 6-year old sporadic war.
The conditions include the rebels going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons and not attacking the territories of the neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The war in the ground is continuing. More than 10 soldiers and 15 rebels were killed on Monday in clashes between the two sides in the three main frontlines in the areas around Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, and Al Malahaid, according to independent and military sources.
Meanwhile, General Yahya Saleh, commander of the Yemen's Central Security, said the attempts to end the war with the rebels would fail expecting a new round of war with them.
The General Yahaya Saleh , who is the nephew of President Saleh, said Monday that the six conditions accepted by the rebels represent the weaknesses of the government and not the strengths.
"The government must have set only one condition asking the rebels to surrender themselves and hand over all weapons they have, and then the rebels leaders must be put on trial," Said Yahya Saleh, in a press conference held Monday in Sana'a after he sent food and medical assistance caravan worth 40 million YR to the displaced people from the war in Sa'ada.
The caravan which includes hundreds of cars laden food and shelter stuffs, was sent in the name of the Kanan organization for Palestine, a Yemeni NGO concerned with the Palestinian issue headed by General Yahya Saleh.
Al Houthi rebels refused a government mechanism for implementing the conditions they previously accepted for ending the war.
The mechanism cannot be implemented in the ground, said the mediator, Hassan Zaid late Monday after he handed over the Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh a proposal from the rebels on how to implement the six conditions for ending the war.
Earlier this week, the government handed over a timetable and mechanism to the rebels on how to implement its six conditions for ending the 7-month
old sixth round of the 6-year old sporadic war.
The conditions include the rebels going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons and not attacking the territories of the neighboring Saudi Arabia.
The war in the ground is continuing. More than 10 soldiers and 15 rebels were killed on Monday in clashes between the two sides in the three main frontlines in the areas around Sa'ada city, Harf Sufyan, and Al Malahaid, according to independent and military sources.
Meanwhile, General Yahya Saleh, commander of the Yemen's Central Security, said the attempts to end the war with the rebels would fail expecting a new round of war with them.
The General Yahaya Saleh , who is the nephew of President Saleh, said Monday that the six conditions accepted by the rebels represent the weaknesses of the government and not the strengths.
"The government must have set only one condition asking the rebels to surrender themselves and hand over all weapons they have, and then the rebels leaders must be put on trial," Said Yahya Saleh, in a press conference held Monday in Sana'a after he sent food and medical assistance caravan worth 40 million YR to the displaced people from the war in Sa'ada.
The caravan which includes hundreds of cars laden food and shelter stuffs, was sent in the name of the Kanan organization for Palestine, a Yemeni NGO concerned with the Palestinian issue headed by General Yahya Saleh.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Yemeni Journalist Nasser Arrabyee: US Involvement Undermines Sound Response to Yemen-Based Militants
By Democracy Now
Watch
Yemen has been the focus of growing international concern over insecurity and Islamist extremism. US officials say the suspect in the failed Christmas Day bombing is now providing valuable intelligence in hunting the US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who the Obama administration has approved for assassination. Democracy Now!’s Anjali Kamat speaks to Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee, who writes for the Dubai-based Gulf News and the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Yemen, which has been the focus of growing international concern over insecurity and Islamist extremism. US officials say the suspect in the failed Christmas Day bombing is now providing valuable intelligence in hunting the US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who the Obama administration has approved for assassination. He’s been accused of having ties to the failed Christmas Day airline bombing, as well as the shooting at Fort Hood.
Well, last week, the Washington Post reported the US military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops that have killed scores of people, including civilians and suspected al-Qaeda leaders in recent weeks. The operations have been approved by President Obama and involve several dozen troops from the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC.
US ally Saudi Arabia has also launched attacks inside Yemen. Earlier today, Yemeni rebels said Saudi Arabia killed fifteen people in a bombing near the Yemen-Saudi border.
Well, Democracy Now!‘s Anjali Kamat recently spoke to Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee, who writes for the Dubai-based Gulf News and the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly. She asked him about his expectations from a recent international conference on Yemen.
NASSER ARRABYEE: The London conference, which was called by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown—the Yemeni people or the—the Yemeni people are expecting from this conference to help Yemen in a way that makes it get out of its problems, not to make it worse. Yemeni people, at the same time, are very concerned that this conference will come out with any sort of direct intervention to Yemen, because this will make it worse and worse.
ANJALI KAMAT: Nasser, Yemen has been very much in the news here in the United States as a haven for al-Qaeda. As a longtime Yemeni journalist, what do you see as the main concerns of people in Yemen?
NASSER ARRABYEE: In fact, Yemen now is facing three challenges at least, mega-challenges, and al-Qaeda is only one of them. But unfortunately, the Western media is focusing only on al-Qaeda. And al-Qaeda maybe is only, as I told you, is only one of these three challenges: I mean, the armed rebellion in the north and the separation calls in the south and al-Qaeda. And also, there is some—the third challenge, which is the economy. There’s a lot of economic problems and economic hardships the people are facing.
ANJALI KAMAT: Can you talk a little bit about each of these challenges? You mentioned four: one being the war in the north, which has been going on since 2004; the separatists in the south; and the presence of al-Qaeda; and also you mentioned the economy. Latest figures I’ve seen, unemployment is up to 40 percent.
NASSER ARRABYEE: Exactly, yes. So, the armed rebellion in the north started in 2004, but it stopped, and it was on and off during this time. But now it started in August, in August 2009, and now it’s still carrying on. It is still going on. And I think now, internally, it is the biggest challenge Yemen is facing. It is the biggest. And I mean for Yemenis, it is the biggest.
And the separation calls in the south is the second challenge Yemen is facing. But as I said, it is not that challenge, because it can be politically solved.
ANJALI KAMAT: And in terms of the rebellion in the north, can you talk a little bit about how many people have been displaced by this? What the Yemeni government has been fighting, this all-out war against the north, what‘s been the effect on people living in the area?
NASSER ARRABYEE: Unfortunately, more than 200,000 people displaced because of this war in the north, and the number is increasing, and the situation is getting worse and worse.
ANJALI KAMAT: How easy is it for you as a journalist to go to the north and cover what’s happening in the north?
NASSER ARRABYEE: Unfortunately, nobody can go. And this is a big problem. The government cannot—the government will not allow anyone to go there. And this is a problem.
ANJALI KAMAT: And talk about the recent news reports of US drone attacks against al-Qaeda targets, also reports of Yemeni airplanes bombing al-Qaeda targets. A number of civilians have died in some of these attacks.
NASSER ARRABYEE: There were about fifty—about fifty civilians who were killed in one of these strikes, which targeted al-Qaeda, a training camp.
ANJALI KAMAT: Who carried out these strikes?
NASSER ARRABYEE: The Yemeni government. The Yemeni government with support from the American government.
ANJALI KAMAT: Talk about the US relationship with Yemen.
NASSER ARRABYEE: Without the help of the United States and Saudi Arabia, I think Yemen will be in—will collapse, if there is no. But at the same time, United States should be very careful in providing the assistance to and the support to Yemen, because, for example, if there’s any direct intervention, it will be in the interests of al-Qaeda, not the interests of combating al-Qaeda. The United States focuses on the intelligence and security. And US military, for example, they fund now special forces, or what they call anti-terror special forces. So the Yemeni—the American government always focuses on the security issue at the expense of the development and democracy. And this is, in fact, not good and—because they can also combat terrorism by supporting development and the other issues.
ANJALI KAMAT: And the Saudi support for Yemen?
NASSER ARRABYEE: It’s different. The Saudi now is supporting Yemen in everything to the extent that they were involved in the war against the rebels.
ANJALI KAMAT: Al-Qaeda has had a long presence in Yemen. It didn’t just appear this past year. Would you say the Yemeni government has allowed al-Qaeda to grow in Yemen? Or have they been taking a strong stance against al-Qaeda over these past several years?
NASSER ARRABYEE: In fact, before December 17th, 2009, the government has been some lenient with al-Qaeda, or the government was using al-Qaeda sometimes in some political things. And this is a very bad thing. For example, like in the summer, political opponents. But after December 17th, I think the government was clear to declare the war against al-Qaeda, and there is now very strong crackdown against al-Qaeda in Yemen.
ANJALI KAMAT: You mentioned these multiple crises that Yemen is going through right now. What’s been the impact of the Yemeni government’s military response to the war in the north, to the rebellion in the north and the uprising in the south, on civil liberties in the country? How are activists and journalists being targeted? What’s their response?
NASSER ARRABYEE: In fact, the civil liberties are always the victim of this curse, if I can say, because, you know, the government sometimes uses what is going on as an excuse to repress the human rights activists and the journalists. And this is a very bad thing. There have been arrests. There have been harassments against journalists, intimidations and also trials. And these things were happening a lot during this year and last year.
AMY GOODMAN: Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee, he writes for the Gulf News in Dubai and the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly.
Watch
Yemen has been the focus of growing international concern over insecurity and Islamist extremism. US officials say the suspect in the failed Christmas Day bombing is now providing valuable intelligence in hunting the US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who the Obama administration has approved for assassination. Democracy Now!’s Anjali Kamat speaks to Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee, who writes for the Dubai-based Gulf News and the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to Yemen, which has been the focus of growing international concern over insecurity and Islamist extremism. US officials say the suspect in the failed Christmas Day bombing is now providing valuable intelligence in hunting the US-born Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who the Obama administration has approved for assassination. He’s been accused of having ties to the failed Christmas Day airline bombing, as well as the shooting at Fort Hood.
Well, last week, the Washington Post reported the US military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops that have killed scores of people, including civilians and suspected al-Qaeda leaders in recent weeks. The operations have been approved by President Obama and involve several dozen troops from the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC.
US ally Saudi Arabia has also launched attacks inside Yemen. Earlier today, Yemeni rebels said Saudi Arabia killed fifteen people in a bombing near the Yemen-Saudi border.
Well, Democracy Now!‘s Anjali Kamat recently spoke to Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee, who writes for the Dubai-based Gulf News and the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly. She asked him about his expectations from a recent international conference on Yemen.
NASSER ARRABYEE: The London conference, which was called by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown—the Yemeni people or the—the Yemeni people are expecting from this conference to help Yemen in a way that makes it get out of its problems, not to make it worse. Yemeni people, at the same time, are very concerned that this conference will come out with any sort of direct intervention to Yemen, because this will make it worse and worse.
ANJALI KAMAT: Nasser, Yemen has been very much in the news here in the United States as a haven for al-Qaeda. As a longtime Yemeni journalist, what do you see as the main concerns of people in Yemen?
NASSER ARRABYEE: In fact, Yemen now is facing three challenges at least, mega-challenges, and al-Qaeda is only one of them. But unfortunately, the Western media is focusing only on al-Qaeda. And al-Qaeda maybe is only, as I told you, is only one of these three challenges: I mean, the armed rebellion in the north and the separation calls in the south and al-Qaeda. And also, there is some—the third challenge, which is the economy. There’s a lot of economic problems and economic hardships the people are facing.
ANJALI KAMAT: Can you talk a little bit about each of these challenges? You mentioned four: one being the war in the north, which has been going on since 2004; the separatists in the south; and the presence of al-Qaeda; and also you mentioned the economy. Latest figures I’ve seen, unemployment is up to 40 percent.
NASSER ARRABYEE: Exactly, yes. So, the armed rebellion in the north started in 2004, but it stopped, and it was on and off during this time. But now it started in August, in August 2009, and now it’s still carrying on. It is still going on. And I think now, internally, it is the biggest challenge Yemen is facing. It is the biggest. And I mean for Yemenis, it is the biggest.
And the separation calls in the south is the second challenge Yemen is facing. But as I said, it is not that challenge, because it can be politically solved.
ANJALI KAMAT: And in terms of the rebellion in the north, can you talk a little bit about how many people have been displaced by this? What the Yemeni government has been fighting, this all-out war against the north, what‘s been the effect on people living in the area?
NASSER ARRABYEE: Unfortunately, more than 200,000 people displaced because of this war in the north, and the number is increasing, and the situation is getting worse and worse.
ANJALI KAMAT: How easy is it for you as a journalist to go to the north and cover what’s happening in the north?
NASSER ARRABYEE: Unfortunately, nobody can go. And this is a big problem. The government cannot—the government will not allow anyone to go there. And this is a problem.
ANJALI KAMAT: And talk about the recent news reports of US drone attacks against al-Qaeda targets, also reports of Yemeni airplanes bombing al-Qaeda targets. A number of civilians have died in some of these attacks.
NASSER ARRABYEE: There were about fifty—about fifty civilians who were killed in one of these strikes, which targeted al-Qaeda, a training camp.
ANJALI KAMAT: Who carried out these strikes?
NASSER ARRABYEE: The Yemeni government. The Yemeni government with support from the American government.
ANJALI KAMAT: Talk about the US relationship with Yemen.
NASSER ARRABYEE: Without the help of the United States and Saudi Arabia, I think Yemen will be in—will collapse, if there is no. But at the same time, United States should be very careful in providing the assistance to and the support to Yemen, because, for example, if there’s any direct intervention, it will be in the interests of al-Qaeda, not the interests of combating al-Qaeda. The United States focuses on the intelligence and security. And US military, for example, they fund now special forces, or what they call anti-terror special forces. So the Yemeni—the American government always focuses on the security issue at the expense of the development and democracy. And this is, in fact, not good and—because they can also combat terrorism by supporting development and the other issues.
ANJALI KAMAT: And the Saudi support for Yemen?
NASSER ARRABYEE: It’s different. The Saudi now is supporting Yemen in everything to the extent that they were involved in the war against the rebels.
ANJALI KAMAT: Al-Qaeda has had a long presence in Yemen. It didn’t just appear this past year. Would you say the Yemeni government has allowed al-Qaeda to grow in Yemen? Or have they been taking a strong stance against al-Qaeda over these past several years?
NASSER ARRABYEE: In fact, before December 17th, 2009, the government has been some lenient with al-Qaeda, or the government was using al-Qaeda sometimes in some political things. And this is a very bad thing. For example, like in the summer, political opponents. But after December 17th, I think the government was clear to declare the war against al-Qaeda, and there is now very strong crackdown against al-Qaeda in Yemen.
ANJALI KAMAT: You mentioned these multiple crises that Yemen is going through right now. What’s been the impact of the Yemeni government’s military response to the war in the north, to the rebellion in the north and the uprising in the south, on civil liberties in the country? How are activists and journalists being targeted? What’s their response?
NASSER ARRABYEE: In fact, the civil liberties are always the victim of this curse, if I can say, because, you know, the government sometimes uses what is going on as an excuse to repress the human rights activists and the journalists. And this is a very bad thing. There have been arrests. There have been harassments against journalists, intimidations and also trials. And these things were happening a lot during this year and last year.
AMY GOODMAN: Yemeni journalist Nasser Arrabyee, he writes for the Gulf News in Dubai and the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Road map for ending Al Houthi armed rebellion
By Nasser Arrabyee/06/02/2010
The Yemeni government has handed over to the Al Houthi rebels a timetable and a mechanism (road map) to implement its six conditions for ending the war.
If Al Houthi agrees on this mechanism, the military operations will stop immediately, said the political advisor of President Ali Abdullah Saleh on press conference held in Sana'a Saturday.
The first step of this mechanism, which was handed to the rebels through mediators, is to open the blocked roads in the whole governorate of Sa'ada particularly in the three main frontlines Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and around Sa'ada city.
Al Irayni said that five committees were formed from the upper and lower chambers of the Parliament (Shura Council and House of Representatives) to supervise the implementation of the six conditions by Al Houthi rebels.
The five committees include Saudi members to participate in supervising the implementation of the sixth condition, which stipulates not to attack the territories of Saudi Arabian and handing over the five Saudi detainees.
One of the five committees will be supervising the implementation of the conditions in Harf Sufyan, south of Sa'ada, the second will be for the areas around Sa'ada city, and the third for Al Malahaid, far west of Sa'ada close to the border of Saudi Arabia, the fourth is called the committee of borders and the fifth is called the committee of handing over the weapons.
This development came after Al Houthi rebels announced five times over two weeks that they would accept all the conditions set by the government for ending the war. The conditions include the rebels going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
The Yemeni government has handed over to the Al Houthi rebels a timetable and a mechanism (road map) to implement its six conditions for ending the war.
If Al Houthi agrees on this mechanism, the military operations will stop immediately, said the political advisor of President Ali Abdullah Saleh on press conference held in Sana'a Saturday.
The first step of this mechanism, which was handed to the rebels through mediators, is to open the blocked roads in the whole governorate of Sa'ada particularly in the three main frontlines Harf Sufyan, Al Malahaid, and around Sa'ada city.
Al Irayni said that five committees were formed from the upper and lower chambers of the Parliament (Shura Council and House of Representatives) to supervise the implementation of the six conditions by Al Houthi rebels.
The five committees include Saudi members to participate in supervising the implementation of the sixth condition, which stipulates not to attack the territories of Saudi Arabian and handing over the five Saudi detainees.
One of the five committees will be supervising the implementation of the conditions in Harf Sufyan, south of Sa'ada, the second will be for the areas around Sa'ada city, and the third for Al Malahaid, far west of Sa'ada close to the border of Saudi Arabia, the fourth is called the committee of borders and the fifth is called the committee of handing over the weapons.
This development came after Al Houthi rebels announced five times over two weeks that they would accept all the conditions set by the government for ending the war. The conditions include the rebels going down from the mountains, handing over the weapons and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia.
Friday, 5 February 2010
Al Houthi sentenced to 15 years in prison
By Nasser Arrabyee/06/02/2010
The Yemen State Security Court sentenced the political leader of Al Houthi armed rebellion, Yahya Al Houthi, to 15 years in prison on Saturday.
The court's Judge Muhsen Alwan, considered Al Houthi, who is currently living in German, as fugitive from justice and tried him in absentia.
Yahya Al Houthi, brother of the top rebel’s leader Abdul Malik Al Houthi, is accused of forming a militia to overthrow the current republican system and to restore the royal clerical rule by force. Al Houthi also was accused of ordering people in Sa'ada not to pay Zakat for the state.
" Yahya Badr Al Deen Al Houthi participated in forming an armed terrorist gang and led it during 2004-2010 for carrying out sabotage and criminal acts in a number of places in Yemen and the capital Sana'a," said the prosecutor.
"He prepared all means and weapons, ammunitions, explosives, transportation and communication equipments, required for that."
This gang implemented their criminal plan by killing a number of citizens, and soldiers and destructing public and private properties, and they planned for assassinating a number of personalities including the US ambassador," said the prosecutor.
Yemen has requested from the Interpol to arrest Al Houthi and extradite him as soon as possible.
The Yemen State Security Court sentenced the political leader of Al Houthi armed rebellion, Yahya Al Houthi, to 15 years in prison on Saturday.
The court's Judge Muhsen Alwan, considered Al Houthi, who is currently living in German, as fugitive from justice and tried him in absentia.
Yahya Al Houthi, brother of the top rebel’s leader Abdul Malik Al Houthi, is accused of forming a militia to overthrow the current republican system and to restore the royal clerical rule by force. Al Houthi also was accused of ordering people in Sa'ada not to pay Zakat for the state.
" Yahya Badr Al Deen Al Houthi participated in forming an armed terrorist gang and led it during 2004-2010 for carrying out sabotage and criminal acts in a number of places in Yemen and the capital Sana'a," said the prosecutor.
"He prepared all means and weapons, ammunitions, explosives, transportation and communication equipments, required for that."
This gang implemented their criminal plan by killing a number of citizens, and soldiers and destructing public and private properties, and they planned for assassinating a number of personalities including the US ambassador," said the prosecutor.
Yemen has requested from the Interpol to arrest Al Houthi and extradite him as soon as possible.
War continues and Saudis won't talk to rebels
By Nasser Arrabyee/06/02/2010
The war between Al Houthi rebels and the government troops continued in northern Yemen despite the rebels' announcement of accepting all conditions set by the government for ending the war.
At least 11 Al Houthi rebels were killed in fierce battles in the areas around Sa'ada city, where rebels still implement suicide attacks on the troops, military and independent sources said Saturday.
A total of five rebels were killed when a group of them implemented a suicide attack on the troops in Al Makash ans Al Okab, the military source said.
The source identified the five rebels who were killed as Abdul Qader Hussein, Fadhel Al Wabashi, Saher Masoud, Nabil Muhsen, Hussein Mahdi.
And six more rebels were killed when a group of tried to infiltrate to the hill of Dares around the city of Sa’ada.
The sources also said that the tribal leader Ahmed Mohammed who was providing the rebels with weapons , was arrested and referred to investigations.
The independent sources said that five people at least were killed when Al Houthi rebels bombarded the house of the tribal Shiekh Othman Mujali. The son of the government loyal sheikh, Hamid, was among the dead.
Al Houthi rebels on their side, said Friday the Saudi forces implemented 13 air strikes and fired 174 missiles on the border areas of Shada and Dhaher.
Thesedevelopments came after Al Houthi rebels announced their acceptance of the six conditions set by the government for ending the war.
The government insists that the rebels should start implement the conditions by going down from the mountains and handing over the weapons and releasing the Saudi and Yemeni “kidnapped” people .
The Saudi assistant minister of defense , Khaled Bin Sultan said on Friday the Kingdom would only speak with the Yemeni government about five Saudi missing soldiers .
“We will not talk with Al Houthi infiltrators about the five missing soldiers , we will talk only with the Yemeni government, and Al Houthis know this more than others,”said the prince Khaled Bin Sultan, commenting on a previous statement by Al Houthi rebels that they would swap prisoners with Saudi Arabia.
The war between Al Houthi rebels and the government troops continued in northern Yemen despite the rebels' announcement of accepting all conditions set by the government for ending the war.
At least 11 Al Houthi rebels were killed in fierce battles in the areas around Sa'ada city, where rebels still implement suicide attacks on the troops, military and independent sources said Saturday.
A total of five rebels were killed when a group of them implemented a suicide attack on the troops in Al Makash ans Al Okab, the military source said.
The source identified the five rebels who were killed as Abdul Qader Hussein, Fadhel Al Wabashi, Saher Masoud, Nabil Muhsen, Hussein Mahdi.
And six more rebels were killed when a group of tried to infiltrate to the hill of Dares around the city of Sa’ada.
The sources also said that the tribal leader Ahmed Mohammed who was providing the rebels with weapons , was arrested and referred to investigations.
The independent sources said that five people at least were killed when Al Houthi rebels bombarded the house of the tribal Shiekh Othman Mujali. The son of the government loyal sheikh, Hamid, was among the dead.
Al Houthi rebels on their side, said Friday the Saudi forces implemented 13 air strikes and fired 174 missiles on the border areas of Shada and Dhaher.
Thesedevelopments came after Al Houthi rebels announced their acceptance of the six conditions set by the government for ending the war.
The government insists that the rebels should start implement the conditions by going down from the mountains and handing over the weapons and releasing the Saudi and Yemeni “kidnapped” people .
The Saudi assistant minister of defense , Khaled Bin Sultan said on Friday the Kingdom would only speak with the Yemeni government about five Saudi missing soldiers .
“We will not talk with Al Houthi infiltrators about the five missing soldiers , we will talk only with the Yemeni government, and Al Houthis know this more than others,”said the prince Khaled Bin Sultan, commenting on a previous statement by Al Houthi rebels that they would swap prisoners with Saudi Arabia.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Al Houthi rebels kill 1500 civilians
By Nasser Arrabyee/05/02/2010
A total of 1500 civilians were killed by Al Houthi rebels over the last period of the war, said the governor of Sa'ada Hassan Mana'a on Friday.
Mana'a said that Al Houthi announcement of accepting the conditions for ending the war was only lies and deceptions. He said the government would not allow the rebels to deceive it this time.
"Al Houthi announcement of accepting the conditions of ending the war was only lies and deceptions, they deceived us six times, we will not allow them to deceive any more," said the governor in press statement.
The official said that the number of the displaced people by the war was 350,000.
The sixth round of the 6-year old sporadic war erupted in August 2009.
A total of 250,000 displaced people in Sa'ada city and the areas around it, while 100,000 are in Al Mazrak refugee camp in Hajjah governorate, in the far west of Sa'ada close to the border with Saudi Arabia according to governor Mana'a.
The official's statements came after Al Houthi rebels announced for the 4th time they would accept the six conditions set by the government for ending the war which included going down from the mountains and handing over the weapons and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia, the northern neighbor.
The government wants the rebels to start implementing the conditions before it stops the military operations, and also wants the rebels to speak in their statements as Yemeni citizens within the framework of the Yemeni State not as an independent group or identity.
A total of 1500 civilians were killed by Al Houthi rebels over the last period of the war, said the governor of Sa'ada Hassan Mana'a on Friday.
Mana'a said that Al Houthi announcement of accepting the conditions for ending the war was only lies and deceptions. He said the government would not allow the rebels to deceive it this time.
"Al Houthi announcement of accepting the conditions of ending the war was only lies and deceptions, they deceived us six times, we will not allow them to deceive any more," said the governor in press statement.
The official said that the number of the displaced people by the war was 350,000.
The sixth round of the 6-year old sporadic war erupted in August 2009.
A total of 250,000 displaced people in Sa'ada city and the areas around it, while 100,000 are in Al Mazrak refugee camp in Hajjah governorate, in the far west of Sa'ada close to the border with Saudi Arabia according to governor Mana'a.
The official's statements came after Al Houthi rebels announced for the 4th time they would accept the six conditions set by the government for ending the war which included going down from the mountains and handing over the weapons and not attacking the territories of Saudi Arabia, the northern neighbor.
The government wants the rebels to start implementing the conditions before it stops the military operations, and also wants the rebels to speak in their statements as Yemeni citizens within the framework of the Yemeni State not as an independent group or identity.
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Saudi-Yemeni committee to supervise ending the rebellion in Sa'ada, sources
By Nasser Arrabyee/03/02/2010
A Yemeni-Saudi joint committee will supervise the implementation of the government's six conditions which Al Houthi rebels accepted for ending the war in Sa'ada, well-informed sources said Wednesday.
The sources said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh assigned 20 members of the parliament to go down to Sa'ada for supervising the implementation of the six conditions which included not attacking territories of Saudi Arabia and going down from the mountains and handing over the weapons.
The Saudi committee will arrive in Sana'a over the coming few days to talk with the Yemeni official about Al Houthi's commitment of the condition of not attacking the Saudi territories, the sources said.
This came after Al Houthi rebels said on Tuesday they would accept the six conditions set by the government for ending the war. However, the government asked them to start implementing the conditions by going down from the mountains and handing over the weapons if they want the military operations to stop.
The war in the ground is still going on, and clashes between the rebels and Saudi forces are continuing until Wednesday.
The army keeps saying it is advancing in all frontlines and that the end of the rebels has become imminent.
At least 17 Al Houthi rebels were killed including field leaders in different places in Sa'ada over the last 24 hours said a military statement Wednesday.
The military statement said that 5 rebels at least were killed when the hideouts of the field leaders Saleh Habra and Abu Hussein in Al Anad and Razeh respectively were destroyed.
At least 10 rebels including the leader Yousef Al Faishi were killed in Haidan in air strikes implemented against the hideout of the Al Faishi.
The field leaders Hassan Al Hakli (Abu badr) and Ahmed Saeed Al Ruzami were killed in special operations which targeted the car of the Al Hakli in Al Jaradat area, and the hideout of Al Ruzami in Dhahyan.
The military statement also said that the prominent filed leader Yousef Al Madani, brother in law of the top leader Abdul Malik, was injured in Al Malahaid and replaced by Abdul Khalek Al Houthi.
On their side, Al Houthi rebels said that the Saudi fighter jets implemented dozens of air strikes on Marran , Dhahyan, Kataber, Bani Muath, and Bani Fadhel, over the last 24 hours.
Those areas are inside the depth of Sa'ada not at the borders with Saudi Arabia. Eyewitnesses from those areas said, the Yemeni fighter jets were bombing those areas over the last few days as the strongholds of the rebels.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
