Yemen former President Saleh calls for reconciliation as millions of his supporters rally around him

Yemen former President Saleh calls for reconciliation as millions of his supporters rally around him

President Hadi tries to put down unprecedented  uprising in the south 

By Nasser Arrabyee 02/03/2013

The Yemeni ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh called for tolerance and reconciliation .

Saleh called his party and its allies and all supporters and lovers to stand with President Hadi for sake of security, stability and unity and succeessful dialogue.  He called Yemenis to  let  bygones be bygones and start new chapter.  

 Saleh was speaking today Wednesday among hundreds of thousands  of his supporters who assembled in the country's biggest square of Sabeen ( 70) to   celebrate the first anniversary of peaceful transfer of power and to express faithfulness and  gratitude to Saleh as the first President in the Arab World to implement this principle.  

Supporters of Saleh came from all over the country to attend the rally of  faithfulness as they called it.  

The President is currently in the south. The south is uprising. Killing, burning, road blockings  are continuing despite efforts to contain the situation. The south wants  independence. 

A total of 12 groups and movements at top of which comes the supreme council of peaceful Hirak for liberating the south, issued a statement on Monday February 25, 2013, vowing to continue struggle until "northern occupation" is defeated and the State of south is declared. 

However, the  President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who flew to the south immediately after the unprecedented uprising started on February 21,2013, still plays down the violence and chaos .

 Hadi, who is originally from the south, said in a speech he delivered in Aden on Monday that the majority of southerners would go to the  national dialogue scheduled to start on March 18, 2013 and only few who refuse it.  This is the first visit for Hadi to Aden since he was elected as President in February 21, 2012.

"There is a lot of forces who want the dialogue, and there is few who have no interests in dialogue whether here or there in Beirut," said Hadi in meeting with officials in the capital of the south, Aden, referring mainly to the exiled top leader of separatists, Ali Salem Al Beidh who inspires his followers from the Lebanese capital  Beirut.  

President Hadi repeatedly accused  Al Beidh of receiving money and weapons from Iran to do all that violence in the south with the purpose of foiling the dialogue the whole  political process, which is supported mainly by US and Saudi Arabia. 

However, there are 12 more  groups and movements other than Al Beidh group  who also  refuse the dialogue and insist on  independence.

"The dialogue and violence are like two parallel lines  that never meet. This call for dialogue is like the call of Israel to Palestinians for dialogue while its troops kill and force people to leave their houses," said the statement of the south forces. 

The south forces called the international community to rescue them from crimes of the occupation of the Arab Republic of Yemen, the name of northern Yemen before declaration of unity in 1990.

The current uprising started on February 21,2013 when the semi-ruling Islamist party clashed with separatists over celebration of the day Feb 21.

The Islamists, Yemen brotherhood, wanted to celebrate the day of election of President Hadi and separatists wanted to celebrate the day of refusing Hadi and his  election and they called it the day of Karama, dignity.

So far,  more than 25 separatists were killed and 120 injured  according to the statement of south forces of Hirak issued on Monday.  The Islamist Islah party, dominated by tribal, religious, and military leader from the north, insisted  on holding its celebration rally in the same square of separatists in Khor Maksar in Aden and this is  how and why  bloody clashes started. 

The separatists say that a lot of those who were clashing with them came from the north.

"A lot of groups were brought from the Arab Republic of Yemen in coordination with Islah, the Islamist party," said the statement of the south forces. 

The president Hadi was not  enthusiastic about celebration of his election day in Aden after he received a lot of advices not to allow Islamists in fear of clashes. But Hadi yielded to the pressure of the Islamist party Islah who wanted to impose themselves by force in the south.

 While clashes were happening on the first day of this uprising (Feb21) in Aden, President Hadi was speaking in Sanaa , " We do not want to  make this day an occasion for celebrating every  year although this day witnessed the first ever process of peaceful transfer of power." This tells that Hadi himself did not want that to happen but he could not stop the Islamists.

One day before the clashes that led to the uprising, the most important leaders of separatist Hirak were arrested by storming their houses at night or early morning such as Kasem Askar, the secretary general of Hirak loyal to Al Beidh.

The Aden-based official 14 October daily, said in its editorial that the Islamist governor of Aden Waheed Rashid used his constitional powers as head of the security committee in the city to repress the separatists and  portray and strengthen his party as a force  that can not be defeated.

The daily paper said that local people saw the Islamists of Islah assembling  in one of the military camps close to the square of Khor Maksar before they implemented their violence against separatists. "military camps have never ever been used for favor of a party against others, except at the time of brotherhood," said the paper. 

The big question now in minds of a lot of Yemenis is why President Hadi allowed Islamists to do all that. 

The leftist activist Samia Al Aghbari advised President Hadi not to be deceived by Islamists and ignoring others.

 "Do not believe them, they will make a pagan of you, and then when they get angry, they will eat you."

Another  analyst says that the northern  tribal, military and religious leaders dominating the Islamist party wanted to show how important they are for Hadi in the south and the north.

"The Islah wanted to endorse the election of Hadi with southern blood to widen the psychological gap between Hadi and southerners, and then make him (Hadi) depend on Islah not only in the north but also in the south," said  Ali Al Bukhaiti, political activist.