Kuwait Times - 28 February, 2010
كويت تايمز: الالاف الجنوبيين يطالبون بالاستقلال

Thousands rallied across south Yemen yesterday after an appeal from the last president of the independent south for them to send international donors a message they want their state back. Ali Salem

Al-Baid, who led the south to unity with the north in 1990, called on Friday for "two days of southern anger" to coincide with a major Yemen donors' meeting in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Brandishing flags of the former south and of Saudi Arabia, crowds took to the streets of the major towns of the province
s of Dhaleh, Lahij, Abyan and Hadramawt where businesses remained closed for fear of clashes with security forces, witnesses and local officials said.

In Abyan, three civilians suffered bullet wounds when police moved to stop demonstrators cutting the highway between the provincial capital Zinjibar and the south's main city Aden, witnesses said. Southern Islamist leader Tareq Al-Fadhli called on demonstrators in the centre of Zinjibar "to continue your struggle until the south is freed from Yemeni occupation." Fadhli, a former jihadist who rallied to the southern cause, promised "victory soon" over the Sanaa government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Pr
otestors also demonstrated in the town of Lauder further northeast, witnesses said.

In Dhaleh, thousands gathered in defiance of a curfew which had been imposed overnight. Police stopped only vehicle traffic from circulating, residents said. In Lahej, thousands demonstrated in the towns of Hutah and Al-Habilain, and rallies were held in Mukallah, the main city of Hadramawt. In his appeal from exile, the former southern leader had called for mass protests to coincide with the two-day meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which gathers Yemen's wealthy Gulf neighbors and its other major donor
s.

I call on you over the next two days to send a message to our Arab brothers and to the representatives of the international community gathered in Riyadh underlining your rejection of the occupation and your commitment to self-determination," Baid said. "Our only weapon is our determination to recover our rights whatever the cost," he said, adding: "We will succeed in regaining our independence." Pro-independence demonstrations have multiplied in the south in recent months amid a worsening economic situati
on and complaints of discrimination in favor of northerners by the Sanaa government.

Western governments have been pushing for a sharp increase in aid to Yemen to help Sanaa tackle multiple sources of dissent. Zaidi Shiite rebels in the far north waged a seven-year uprising against government troops before a tenuous truce came into force on February 12. Yemen is also Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's ancestral homeland and the West fears growing Islamic militancy

http://www.gulfinthemedia.com/index....02&PHPSESSID=8