( أصداء و متابعات إخبارية): القضية الجنوبية في الصحافة العالمية

[Ganoob67]

One Yemeni paper facing government wrath

Al-Ayyam finds itself in hot water in troubled Yemen but the 50-year-old paper is no stranger to pressure.

By Christian Chaise - ADEN, Yemen
Published 2009-06-05

High calibre bullets have peppered the place -- a wall in the children's room on the first floor, in shattered windows and on the facade of the building.
The compound in downtown Aden housing the office of Al-Ayyam, the biggest daily newspaper in southern Yemen, was the scene of a deadly shootout on May 13 between security forces and armed guards.
One man was killed and three were wounded in the hour-long battle.
Police and soldiers had arrived to arrest Al-Ayyam owner Hisham Basharaheel, 66, in connection with a killing more than a year ago in Sanaa, the capital, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Aden.
But Basharaheel and those close to him say the arrest warrant was a direct result of the secessionist unrest that erupted in southern Yemen in late April that has claimed 16 lives.
South Yemen, then run by a socialist government allied to the former Soviet Union, was an independent state until unification with the north on May 22, 1990.
Al-Ayyam is one of eight publications that were forced by the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh to cease publication early last month for allegedly working against Yemeni unity.
The violence broke out in Radfan district in Lahaj province north of Aden. Eight people, including four soldiers, were killed between April 27 and May 3 in clashes between protesters and security forces.
For several days in a row, pictures of the dead and wounded featured on Al-Ayyam's front page.
"When Al-Ayyam stopped publishing we were printing 78,000 copies a day," a huge number for Yemen, "and we were selling 100 percent," said Basharaheel Basharaheel, one of the owner's three sons, who heads the foreign desk.
He said average daily circulation was normally around 50,000, although it has not been possible to verify these figures independently.
After a spate of incidents early last month, when delivery trucks were stopped by armed civilians or security forces and thousands of copies seized and destroyed, Al-Ayyam decided to suspend publication on May 5 as it could no longer distribute, he says.
On May 6, the paper's Internet site was blocked, and the next day the government announced the publishing ban on Al-Ayyam and seven weeklies.
For Al-Ayyam the situation was about to get even worse.
A prosecutor issued an arrest warrant against Hisham Basharaheel in connection with a shooting on February 12, 2008 in Sanaa between armed men and a security guard at the newspaper's office there.
One person was killed and the guard was arrested. Basharaheel stood accused of encouraging the guard to open fire.
Basharaheel's son said his father was prepared to appear in an Aden court to answer the charge, but not in Sanaa where he would fear for his life.
The authorities and Al-Ayyam offer conflicting versions of what happened next -- the gun battle at the newspaper's Aden compound.
Police said Al-Ayyam guards opened fire first, but Basharaheel Basharaheel is adamant to the contrary.
"They (the security forces) just opened fire all of a sudden," he said. The security guards "fired back. That's their job."
The building is also home to the Basharaheel family.
"There were twenty women and children in the compound at the time," the younger Basharaheel said. His wife and two children, aged five years and just six months, were among them.
"By a miracle, my wife and two kids had left the room a few seconds before," he said, pointing to bullet holes in the wall just above a child's bed.
Hundreds of Al-Ayyam supporters rushed to the scene after the shooting, and they now take turns to keep vigil outside the building which has become a fortress.
"Basically, we're trapped," the young Basharaheel said.
The security forces may have pulled back, but they are still doing their utmost to keep the family isolated.
They tried to prevent an AFP reporter from visiting Al-Ayyam, and also forced an AFP photographer to delete pictures he had taken.
It is not the first time Al-Ayyam has found itself in hot water. Established in 1958, the paper was suspended for 23 years between 1967 and 1990, during socialist rule in the south. "They told us 'You should suspend the publication for one week pending licensing procedures'," the younger Basharaheel recalled with a smile. "The licence came 23 years later..."

[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

[Ganoob67]

Press Freedom First Casualty Of Yemen Unrest

Friday June 5th, 2009 / 6h37ADEN (AFP)--The growing separatist unrest in southern Yemen and the ensuing government crackdown has already made a casualty of press freedom.
Eight publications independent or critical of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's *****istration were suspended in early May when police halted their distribution and seized all copies.
The information ministry accused them of violating the press law which bans the publication of anything that could threaten the unity of Yemen, the poorest Arab country.
The regime accused the seven weeklies and the main southern daily, Aden-based Al-Ayyam, of siding with anti-government protesters in the south.
A total of 16 people, including five members of the security forces, have been killed in the south since the new wave of unrest erupted in late April.
Some of the four-million-strong population of southern Yemen, the most impoverished part of the country and until May 1990 an independent state, feel discriminated against by the central government which is controlled by northerners, and are now demanding independence.
"I am against independence but I understand the demands of our brothers in the south," said Samir Jubran, the young founder and editor-in-chief of Al-Masdar (The Source), one of the eight publications that were shut down.
Jubran believes the problem is that the government considers any publication that doesn't toe the official line to be supporting the opposition.
The government has also decided to set up a special court to deal exclusively with press-related offenses.
"These actions are a clear effort to silence independent voices in Yemen," New York-based Human Rights Watch said May 16, calling on Saleh to "end this campaign of intimidation and censorship."
Information Minister Hassan Ahmad al-Lawzi didn't give an interview, despite several requests.
But Justice Minister Ghazi al-Aghbari said that establishing the court was merely a "technical measure" aimed at "protecting the dignity of journalists," not at silencing them.
However, journalists remain skeptical. Jubran, for example, is convinced the new court "will not be independent."
Many Yemeni publications have never been afraid of vigorously criticizing the government. This is rare in Arab countries, where the press is either censored by the authorities or practices self-censorship.
Press freedom has deteriorated alarmingly in the past few years, especially since the start of an uprising in the north in 2004 by Zaidi rebels.
An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in the mainly Sunni country, but they are a majority in the Saada governorate in the far north.
Journalist Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, 43, has been jailed four times and has spent a total of 359 days behind bars over the past five years on charges of supporting the Zaidi rebels.
A former editor-in-chief of the opposition weekly Ash-Shura, he has harsh words for the government over the way it has tried to crush the uprising.
Khaiwani was last sentenced in June 2008 to six years in jail, before being pardoned by Saleh in September, but he has had to give up writing for the time being.
He says he was simply doing his job by trying to present the rebels' point of view.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, in a report late last month on "Yemen: Defusing the Saada Time Bomb," cited the Zaidi rebellion as carrying "grave risks for Yemen's political, sectarian and social equilibrium."
As with the Zaidi conflict in the north, a similar situation seems to be developing regarding secessionist sentiment in the south.
"The fall of the regime might come from the south," Khaiwani said.
Jubran said he had already been interrogated three times over his weekly's coverage of the unrest in the south, especially over seven articles published in one edition.
He believes the aim of the government is to bully the newspapers into submission, but also that if the situation in the south deteriorates even further, "it might well shut down all of them."
Monday, Qatar-based watchdog the Doha Centre for Media Freedom pointed the finger at Sanaa, saying: "There can be no doubt that the Sanaa authorities have sacrificed press freedom in their efforts to control unrest in the south of the country."


[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

[عدن برس]

اقتباس   المشاركة الأصلية كتبت بواسطة Ganoob67 Press Freedom First Casualty Of Yemen Unrest Friday June 5th, 2009 / 6h37ADEN (AFP)--The growing separatist unrest in southern Yemen and the ensuing government crackdown has already made a casualty of press freedom. Eight publications independent or critical of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's *****istration were suspended in early May when police halted their distribution and seized all copies. The information ministry accused them of violating the press law which bans the publication of anything that could threaten the unity of Yemen, the poorest Arab country. The regime accused the seven weeklies and the main southern daily, Aden-based Al-Ayyam, of siding with anti-government protesters in the south. A total of 16 people, including five members of the security forces, have been killed in the south since the new wave of unrest erupted in late April. Some of the four-million-strong population of southern Yemen, the most impoverished part of the country and until May 1990 an independent state, feel discriminated against by the central government which is controlled by northerners, and are now demanding independence. "I am against independence but I understand the demands of our brothers in the south," said Samir Jubran, the young founder and editor-in-chief of Al-Masdar (The Source), one of the eight publications that were shut down. Jubran believes the problem is that the government considers any publication that doesn't toe the official line to be supporting the opposition. The government has also decided to set up a special court to deal exclusively with press-related offenses. "These actions are a clear effort to silence independent voices in Yemen," New York-based Human Rights Watch said May 16, calling on Saleh to "end this campaign of intimidation and censorship." Information Minister Hassan Ahmad al-Lawzi didn't give an interview, despite several requests. But Justice Minister Ghazi al-Aghbari said that establishing the court was merely a "technical measure" aimed at "protecting the dignity of journalists," not at silencing them. However, journalists remain skeptical. Jubran, for example, is convinced the new court "will not be independent." Many Yemeni publications have never been afraid of vigorously criticizing the government. This is rare in Arab countries, where the press is either censored by the authorities or practices self-censorship. Press freedom has deteriorated alarmingly in the past few years, especially since the start of an uprising in the north in 2004 by Zaidi rebels. An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in the mainly Sunni country, but they are a majority in the Saada governorate in the far north. Journalist Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, 43, has been jailed four times and has spent a total of 359 days behind bars over the past five years on charges of supporting the Zaidi rebels. A former editor-in-chief of the opposition weekly Ash-Shura, he has harsh words for the government over the way it has tried to crush the uprising. Khaiwani was last sentenced in June 2008 to six years in jail, before being pardoned by Saleh in September, but he has had to give up writing for the time being. He says he was simply doing his job by trying to present the rebels' point of view. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, in a report late last month on "Yemen: Defusing the Saada Time Bomb," cited the Zaidi rebellion as carrying "grave risks for Yemen's political, sectarian and social equilibrium." As with the Zaidi conflict in the north, a similar situation seems to be developing regarding secessionist sentiment in the south. "The fall of the regime might come from the south," Khaiwani said. Jubran said he had already been interrogated three times over his weekly's coverage of the unrest in the south, especially over seven articles published in one edition. He believes the aim of the government is to bully the newspapers into submission, but also that if the situation in the south deteriorates even further, "it might well shut down all of them." Monday, Qatar-based watchdog the Doha Centre for Media Freedom pointed the finger at Sanaa, saying: "There can be no doubt that the Sanaa authorities have sacrificed press freedom in their efforts to control unrest in the south of the country." [فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

Press Freedom First Casualty Of Yemen Unrest Friday June 5th, 2009 / 6h37ADEN (AFP)--The growing separatist unrest in southern Yemen and the ensuing government crackdown has already made a casualty of press freedom. Eight publications independent or critical of President Ali Abdullah Saleh's *****istration were suspended in early May when police halted their distribution and seized all copies. The information ministry accused them of violating the press law which bans the publication of anything that could threaten the unity of Yemen, the poorest Arab country. The regime accused the seven weeklies and the main southern daily, Aden-based Al-Ayyam, of siding with anti-government protesters in the south. A total of 16 people, including five members of the security forces, have been killed in the south since the new wave of unrest erupted in late April. Some of the four-million-strong population of southern Yemen, the most impoverished part of the country and until May 1990 an independent state, feel discriminated against by the central government which is controlled by northerners, and are now demanding independence. "I am against independence but I understand the demands of our brothers in the south," said Samir Jubran, the young founder and editor-in-chief of Al-Masdar (The Source), one of the eight publications that were shut down. Jubran believes the problem is that the government considers any publication that doesn't toe the official line to be supporting the opposition. The government has also decided to set up a special court to deal exclusively with press-related offenses. "These actions are a clear effort to silence independent voices in Yemen," New York-based Human Rights Watch said May 16, calling on Saleh to "end this campaign of intimidation and censorship." Information Minister Hassan Ahmad al-Lawzi didn't give an interview, despite several requests. But Justice Minister Ghazi al-Aghbari said that establishing the court was merely a "technical measure" aimed at "protecting the dignity of journalists," not at silencing them. However, journalists remain skeptical. Jubran, for example, is convinced the new court "will not be independent." Many Yemeni publications have never been afraid of vigorously criticizing the government. This is rare in Arab countries, where the press is either censored by the authorities or practices self-censorship. Press freedom has deteriorated alarmingly in the past few years, especially since the start of an uprising in the north in 2004 by Zaidi rebels. An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in the mainly Sunni country, but they are a majority in the Saada governorate in the far north. Journalist Abdul Karim al-Khaiwani, 43, has been jailed four times and has spent a total of 359 days behind bars over the past five years on charges of supporting the Zaidi rebels. A former editor-in-chief of the opposition weekly Ash-Shura, he has harsh words for the government over the way it has tried to crush the uprising. Khaiwani was last sentenced in June 2008 to six years in jail, before being pardoned by Saleh in September, but he has had to give up writing for the time being. He says he was simply doing his job by trying to present the rebels' point of view. The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, in a report late last month on "Yemen: Defusing the Saada Time Bomb," cited the Zaidi rebellion as carrying "grave risks for Yemen's political, sectarian and social equilibrium." As with the Zaidi conflict in the north, a similar situation seems to be developing regarding secessionist sentiment in the south. "The fall of the regime might come from the south," Khaiwani said. Jubran said he had already been interrogated three times over his weekly's coverage of the unrest in the south, especially over seven articles published in one edition. He believes the aim of the government is to bully the newspapers into submission, but also that if the situation in the south deteriorates even further, "it might well shut down all of them." Monday, Qatar-based watchdog the Doha Centre for Media Freedom pointed the finger at Sanaa, saying: "There can be no doubt that the Sanaa authorities have sacrificed press freedom in their efforts to control unrest in the south of the country." [فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل] __________________
حرية الصحافة في اليمن أولى ضحايا الاضطرابات

الجمعة يونيو 5th ، 2009 / 6h37ADEN (اف ب) -- تزايد الاضطرابات الانفصالية في جنوب اليمن ، وأعقبت ذلك حملة الحكومة بالفعل ضحية لحرية الصحافة.
ثمانية منشورات مستقلة أو تنتقد الرئيس علي عبد الله صالح الادارة علقت في مطلع ايار / مايو عندما اوقفت الشرطة توزيعها واستولت على جميع نسخ.
وزارة الاعلام واتهمتها بانتهاك قانون الصحافة الذي يحظر نشر أي شيء يمكن أن يهدد وحدة اليمن ، أفقر بلد عربي.
واتهم النظام السبعة الأسبوعية واليومية الرئيسية في الجنوب ، ومقرها عدن الأيام ، بالانحياز متظاهرين مناهضين للحكومة في الجنوب.
ما مجموعه 16 شخصا من بينهم خمسة أفراد من قوات الأمن ، قد لقوا مصرعهم في جنوب البلاد منذ موجة جديدة من الاضطرابات التي اندلعت في اواخر نيسان / ابريل.
بعض من أربعة ملايين نسمة في جنوب اليمن ، والأكثر فقرا من البلاد وحتى أيار / مايو 1990 في دولة مستقلة ، وتشعر للتمييز من جانب الحكومة المركزية التي يسيطر عليها في الشمال ، والآن يطالبون بالاستقلال.
"أنا ضد الاستقلال ولكن أنا أفهم مطالب اخواننا في الجنوب" وقال سمير جبران ، الشاب مؤسس ورئيس تحرير شركة مصدر (المصدر) ، وهو واحد من ثمانية من المنشورات التي تم إغلاقها.
جبران يعتقد أن المشكلة تكمن في أن الحكومة ترى أن أي نشر لا تسير على الخط الرسمي أن يدعم المعارضة.
وقررت الحكومة أيضا على إنشاء محكمة خاصة للتعامل مع الصحافة حصرا في الجرائم المتعلقة.
"إن هذه الأعمال هي جهود واضحة لإسكات الأصوات المستقلة في اليمن" ، من نيويورك مقرا لها قالت هيومن رايتس ووتش في 16 ايار / مايو ودعا صالح الى "وضع حد لهذه الحملة من التخويف والرقابة".
وزير الإعلام حسن أحمد اللوزي لم يعط مقابلة ، على الرغم من عدة طلبات.
لكن وزير العدل غازي Aghbari قال إن إنشاء المحكمة هو مجرد "تدبير التقنية" التي تهدف الى "حماية كرامة الصحافيين ،" لا إسكاتهم.
ومع ذلك ، لا يزال متشككا تجاه الصحفيين. جبران ، على سبيل المثال ، على اقتناع المحكمة الجديدة "لن تكون مستقلة".
العديد من المطبوعات اليمنية لم تكن تخاف من انتقاد الحكومة بشدة. هذا أمر نادر في البلدان العربية ، حيث لا رقابة على الصحافة من قبل السلطات أو ممارسات الرقابة الذاتية.
حرية الصحافة تدهورت بصورة مفزعة في السنوات القليلة الماضية ، وخصوصا منذ بدء الانتفاضة في الشمال في عام 2004 من قبل المتمردين زيدي.
فرع من المذهب الشيعي ، وأبناء الطائفة الزيدية هم اقلية في البلد الذي يغلب على سكانه السنة ، لكنها أغلبية في محافظة صعدة في أقصى الشمال.
الصحفي عبد الكريم الخيواني (43 عاما) بالسجن أربع مرات وقضى ما مجموعه 359 يوما خلف القضبان على مدى السنوات الخمس الماضية بتهمة دعم المتمردين من الطائفة الزيدية.
سابقا رئيس تحرير اسبوعية للمعارضة الرماد الشورى ، فقد وجه كلمات لاذعة الى الحكومة بسبب الطريقة التي حاولت سحق الانتفاضة.
الخيواني للمرة الاخيرة في حزيران / يونيو 2008 بالسجن لمدة ست سنوات في السجن قبل ان يتم العفو عنهم من قبل صالح في أيلول / سبتمبر ، لكنه كان لا يتخلى عن الكتابة لبعض الوقت.
ويقول انه كان يؤدي وظيفته لمجرد محاولة من جانب المتمردين لعرض وجهة نظر.
من بروكسل مقرا لها المجموعة الدولية لمعالجة الازمات في تقرير لها أواخر الشهر الماضي عن "اليمن : صعدة نزع فتيل قنبلة موقوتة" واستشهد التمرد الزيدي كما تحمل "مخاطر جسيمة في اليمن السياسية والطائفية والتوازن الاجتماعي."
وكما هو الحال مع الصراع الزيدي في الشمال ، وضعا مماثلا ويبدو أن البلدان النامية فيما يتعلق المشاعر الانفصالية في الجنوب.
"ان سقوط النظام قد يأتي من الجنوب" الخيواني.
جبران وقال انه تم استجواب أكثر من ثلاث مرات في خطابه الاسبوعي تغطية الاضطرابات في الجنوب ، ولا سيما ما يزيد على سبع مقالات نشرت في طبعة واحدة.
انه يعتقد ان الهدف من الحكومة للضغط في الصحف على الخضوع ، وإنما أيضا أنه إذا كان الوضع في الجنوب يزداد الوضع تدهورا "قد اغلقت كل منهم".
الاثنين ، قطر ومقرها الدوحة لمركز حرية الإعلام اصابع الاتهام الى صنعاء ، قائلا : "مما لا شك فيه أن سلطات صنعاء ضحوا حرية الصحافة في جهودها الرامية الى السيطرة على الاضطرابات في جنوب البلاد".


[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]
_________________

[Ganoob67]

Southern Yemen an impoverished hotbed of unrest

by Christian Chaise

ADEN, Yemen, June 3, 2009 (AFP) - Almost two decades after unification and 15 years after a failed secession bid, southern Yemen feels so estranged from the north that the country's very unity has been thrown into question.
Anger among a large part of the some four million people living in the highly impoverished south has reignited separatist sentiment and caused an upsurge in violence in recent weeks.
Sixteen people, including five members of the security forces, have been killed in clashes in the south since demonstrations erupted in April.
"It has reached dangerous levels of racial hatred. It's like the northerners are another race," one local journalist said.
A businessman in Aden who asked not to be identified told AFP it was "clear" that the violence would escalate in the coming months.
The confrontation "could be long and bloody, since it won't be a battle between two armies," as in the short-lived attempt at secession by the south in 1994, he said.
The current unrest has its roots in the years after Yemeni unification which was proclaimed on May 22, 1990, particularly in the period that followed the 1994 civil war which lasted less than two months.
Known from 1970 as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen and run by a socialist government, the south, which was part of the Soviet bloc, was independent from 1967 when the British left until 1990.
"As soon as the northerners came here they just helped themselves -- they looted the land and the economic resources," the businessman said. The north "acted in 1994 as if they were an invader in a defeated country."
The issue of land ownership is particularly thorny. Stories of northerners given huge free tracts of land in the south abound.
"It's mainly people in power, especially military personnel," the Aden businessman said.
But Sheikh Salem Banaffa, general manager of the real estate and urban planning department in Aden province, said: "There is no advantage, no privilege for anybody."
"These are rumours," he said of the free land allegations. "It's not true."
In addition to the land ownership issue, disenchantment with employment conditions runs deep, with many southerners convinced that jobs in the south are reserved for northerners.
'Separation is not a viable option'
Estimated at 40 percent for the whole country, unemployment is thought to be much higher in the south.
A minister who resigned last year, Abdul Kader Hilal, is now a member of a government commission on the south.
He sees "some similarities" between the current situation in Yemen and in Germany after 1989 when the West merged with the ex-communist East, a former Soviet satellite.
"The southerners do not care about separation, about the north or the south. What they care about is their rights, health, education, electricity and water supply services," he told AFP, indirectly confirming the state's failure to provide basic services.
Many such factors have combined to rekindle separatist ideas, with some southerners claiming their region has been "colonised" by the north.
Such sentiment has led to the birth of the "Southern Movement," a loose coalition of opposition groups from former socialists who were in power in Aden until 1990 to hard-core Islamists who fought in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s along with Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Even Al-Qaeda's Arabian Peninsula wing has publicly pledged its support for the south against the central government.
Government circles blame the current unrest on the economic crisis, insisting that some unemployed are being manipulated and exploited by the supporters of southern independence, as others are by Al-Qaeda.
This viewpoint looks upon the problem not as one of discrimination but of a lack of development.
Whatever the reason, there is no doubt that the Sanaa government is worried, with President Ali Abdullah Saleh himself warning in April of the risks of Yemen breaking up into "several entities."
Hilal thinks the solution lies in "giving local authorities full responsibilities," and says reform to that effect is in the pipeline.
For many in the south it will be too little too late, but not everyone in the south believes that independence is the solution.
"Separation is not a viable option, because 80 percent of the population of Yemen (estimated at 24 million) live in the north, but the north only has 20 percent of the resources," the businessman said, referring to the fact that most oil and gas fields are in the south. Independence of the south would create "a powderkeg," with northerners rushing south en masse, he predicted.
</DIV>

[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

[Ganoob67]

Southern crisis tests Yemen ******'s grip on power


Experts warn Yemen’s south is on the verge of exploding in most serious problem facing Saleh.
By Christian Chaise - ADEN
First Published 2009-06-03

President Ali Abdullah Saleh's grip on power in Yemen faces a major new challenge from southern separatism, adding to a raft of problems including a festering rebellion in the north, analysts say.
The country also faces an increasing risk of attack by Al-Qaeda's local branch, which has been bolstered by Saudi militants, and an economic crisis that has dramatically cut oil income to the Arab world's poorest nation.
Experts warn that the south, which was independent between 1967 and 1990 under a socialist government allied with the former Soviet Union, is on the verge of exploding in the most serious problem facing the veteran Saleh.
"The situation in the south is much more serious than ever before," said one foreign analyst in Sanaa, capital of today's Yemen and also of the former North Yemen.
"At this moment, there is a real risk of a violent conflict in the south," he said on condition of anonymity.
In Aden, capital of what used to be the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, and in other southern provinces security checkpoints have mushroomed and clashes are becoming more and more frequent.
In all, 16 people have been killed since late April in violence between demonstrators and security forces.
Saleh, who came to power in North Yemen in 1978, became president of a united Yemen in 1990 before crushing a secession bid in the south four years later.
In addition to secessionist sentiment in the south, the sporadic Shiite Zaidi rebellion in the north's Saada province could erupt again at any time despite a shaky truce, the International Crisis Group said.
In a report entitled "Yemen: Defusing the Saada Time Bomb," the ICG said the Saada conflict "carries grave risks for Yemen's political, sectarian and social equilibrium."
Saleh, a wily 67-year-old tactician, has so far managed to weather one crisis after another by supporting some rivals in an effort to neutralise others.
And despite dealing with radical Islamists close to Al-Qaeda, he has also succeeded since 2000 in retaining Western support, first and foremost in the United States which considers him a key ally in the fight against terrorism.
'All the tribes of the south are united'
But the question now being widely asked in Yemen and in Western embassies is whether violence in the south will not prove one crisis too many.
"I think that he is not even aware of the gravity of the situation," said a businessman from Aden who asked not to be identified.
"All the tribes of the south are united (against him). We have never seen such a thing," he said.
According to Nadia al-Sakkaf, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Yemen Times, Saleh "is like in an ivory tower," detached from reality.
A Western diplomat in Sanaa compared the president to the central character in Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez's acclaimed novel "The Autumn of the Patriarch" -- a sharp mockery of Latin American dictators.
Power, the diplomat said, is no longer exercised by the government but by a small shadowy group of close Saleh relatives who all hold key security posts.
Addressing the nation ahead of unification day on May 22, Saleh invited his adversaries to resolve the crisis through talks and confirmed the constitution would be amended soon, mainly to increase decentralisation.
The ruling party and opposition have already agreed to delay a general election, which had been due in April, for two years.
But Saleh made no mention of wider political autonomy for the south, which sits on 80 percent of Yemen's oil and gas resources.
Diplomats believe that if the situation in the south deteriorates further, Saleh will not hesitate to send in more troops as he did with the Saada rebellion in 2004.
But some believe that not all units would follow orders and that Saleh would have to rely on what one diplomat called "the regime's protection forces."
'They all know Yemen is fragile'
These include the Special Forces, the Republican Guards and the 1st armoured division, all recruited from the president's own tribe and led by faithful officers.
Saleh could also "buy some (tribal) chiefs in the south to divide and rule" -- a tactic he is master of, said a diplomat.
But Saleh's room for manoeuvre has also been drastically narrowed because of the economic crisis.
According to central bank figures published in May, oil revenue fell by a massive 74.5 percent to 254.8 million dollars in the first quarter from the same period in of 2008 because of the sharp drop in crude prices.
This is all the more worrying for Saleh because crude exports represent 70 percent of government revenues and 30 percent of gross domestic product.
Saleh recently lost a key ally in the south, Islamist ****** Tariq al-Fadhli who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan along with Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the 1980s and then helped Saleh crush southern separatists in 1994.
By switching sides, Fadhli has now allied himself with his former enemies, the remnants of the socialists who used to run South Yemen.
"I believe that the regime in its current form cannot last for long," predicted the Aden businessman. Saleh "is the main player in the regime, so he will have either to go by himself or be forced to leave."
The regime's survival "depends on the foreign support that it will be able to get," he added.
For now such support appears strong, with Saleh banking on his image as the only man who can stop terrorism and prevent a slide into chaos.
The United States and the European Union, as well as neighbouring Saudi Arabia which fears for its own stability, have all stressed support for a united Yemen.
Shiite Iran has also done so, despite being suspected by Sanaa of supporting the Zaidi rebellion. "They all know that Yemen is a fragile country... (but) if there is an alternative (for the regime), they will jump on it," the businessman added.

[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

[Ganoob67]

Yemen tries former envoy for threatening unity
SANAA, June 2 (Reuters) -

Yemen, scrambling to silence secession calls in the south, took a former ambassador to court on Tuesday on charges of threatening national unity.

Former envoy to Mauritania Qasem Jobran denied the charges at the inaugural hearing and declined to answer questions until he had legal representation.

Jobran "has committed criminal acts with the intention of harming the country's unity and inciting armed dissent against authorities", prosecutors said in a charge sheet presented to a state security court.

People in the south, home to most of Yemen's oil facilities, have long complained that northerners have abused a unity agreement to grab their resources and discriminate against them.

It was not clear in what context Jobran made the alleged calls for armed resistance.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday to ask King Abdullah to block the flow of funds from Yemeni expatriates to separatists in the south, a Yemeni government source said.

Four people were killed in clashes this weekend in the southern town of Dalea between Yemeni police and protesters, residents said.

Ali Abdullah Saleh took power in former North Yemen in 1978 and has been president since union with the south in 1990. He fought a brief war in 1994 against southern separatists after their ****** Ali Salem al-Beidh declared an end to the union.

In May, Saleh called on Yemenis to hold a dialogue to maintain national unity following a week of clashes in the south between the police and locals.

The poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula is trying to shake off an image of violence and lawlessness to promote tourism and foreign investment. It is battling al Qaeda, calls for secession in the south and Shi'ite rebels in the north.

Demonstrations over army pensions turned violent in Aden in 2007 and job protests in the south degenerated into riots last year. Some southern ******s have openly called for secession.

Insecurity in Yemen has affected international companies developing the oil and gas sector, while attacks on foreigners -- including kidnappings by disgruntled tribesmen -- have hit tourism. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Inal Ersan; editing by Mark Trevelyan)



[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

[Ganoob67]

Yemeni former ambassador on trial for 'support' to secessionists

Posted : Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:35:43 GMTAuthor : DPA

Sana'a, [فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

- Yemen's former ambassador to Mauritania appeared before a state security court in Sana'a Tuesday charged with inciting an armed disobedience by allegedly calling for the south of Yemen to secede from the north. Qassim Askar Jubran, who served as Yemen's ambassador to Mauritania from 2002 to 2006, was charged with "seeking to destabilise the country, harm national unity and spread the culture of hatred."

Prosecutors told the[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل] that Jubran was among southern opposition ******s who called for protests in southern cities that led to clashes between protesters and security forces over the past few weeks.

The diplomat was arrested on April 17 in the southern [فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]of Aden.

Jubran refused to offer a plea to the charges against him, saying the trial was "political."

He read out a statement from behind bars saying he was supporting a "peaceful struggle by the people of the south that is being faced by violence, oppression and tyrannical military force."

"My trial is political and this court is an emergency court," he said.

The trial was adjourned until June 9.

Violent protests have rocked several cities in southern Yemen the last few weeks, leaving dozens of dead and wounded among both the protesters and security force members.

The protests were organised by southern secessionist groups that want the south to secede from the north claiming that the central government exercises discriminatory policies against southerners.

North and South Yemen were [فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل] in 1990. In 1994, southern ******s announced the secession of the south and battled northern forces led by President Saleh for 10 weeks in a civil war that ended in their defeat.

The violence highlights the increasing discontent by the southerners and tensions between southern and northern Yemen, 15 years after the civil war.

[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

[Ganoob67]

Yemen unity remains a mirage

By Fred Halliday, Special to Gulf News
Published: June 01, 2009, 23:07

From a land that is often the source of exotic or disconcerting news, the reports of recent weeks coming out of Yemen have been especially worrying. The news is bad for the stability and security of the region in which Yemen is located, for the broader regional conflict between radical, terroristic, Islamism and its opponents, and, most of all, for the 20 or more million long-suffering people of that country itself.
At a time when Yemen’s oil revenues, never large (output hit, at the most, 400,000 barrels a day), have started to decline, when tourism has all but come to a halt, and when a zone of insecurity reigns in the waters of Aden and in neighbouring Somalia, mass protests have broken out in the southern part of the country.
In the port of Aden demonstrators have been killed, newspaper offices occupied by the army and closed. In the far north of the country, around Sada, a tribal insurrection, led by elements of the Al Huti family, continues. In a country where political statements are usually chloroformed in formal terminology, a tone of palpable alarm can be heard.
In what must count as a serious warning to the political ******s of the Yemen, and their opponents, the presidential adviser and former ****** of FLOSY, the pro-Egyptian nationalist movement against the British in Aden, Mohammad Basendwah, has declared that the country is now in the most serious crisis he has ever seen – and he is a man who has seen a protracted war in the north in the 1960s, years of guerrilla war against the British in the south, two wars between independent Yemeni states and the inter-Yemeni civil war of 1994.
Meanwhile Sheikh Hamad Al Ahmar, son of the once powerful tribal ****** Abdullah Al Ahmar, who, as I learnt when I visited him in 1992, had a house in Sanaa that included a private jail in the basement, has called on behalf of the united opposition forces for a change of policy and recognition of the seriousness of the situation.
Among his associates are the Yemeni Socialist Party, former rulers of the pro-Soviet south: Al Ahmar and others are now called for the return from exile of YSP ******s who fled the country after the north-south civil war of 1994, in which the north vanquished the south. Chief among these is Ali Al Bid, former secretary-general of the YSP, who has lived, almost incommunicado, in Muscat since that time.
The roots of this crisis lie in the flawed unification of two separate Yemeni states in May 1990, of what were formerly the Yemeni Arabic Republic in the north, and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, in the south. No unification is easy – as the histories of Germany, Italy and the USA remind us – but this one was exceptionally badly planned and executed.
No-one who knew Yemen in the 1970s and 1980s, as I did, could doubt the deep commitment to unity which nearly all Yemenis, ordinary people and intellectuals alike, felt. The sense of historic and cultural unity, fragmented in the early eighteenth century, was compounded by a belief that, once united, the Yemenis would be able to face up to their greatest enemies, the Saudis, and reclaim their rightful place as, with Egypt, the most ancient of Arab lands.
After two decades of rivalry between the two Yemeni regimes, with their capitals in Sanaa and Aden respectively, and two wars in which the two states tried by force to impose their own conception of ‘unity’ on the other ( the north invading the south in 1972, with support from Libya and Saudi Arabia, the south invading the north in 1979), a gradual rapprochement took place in the late 1980s: the lessening of Soviet support to the south under Gorbachev, the exhaustion of the PDRY’s experiment in Soviet-style socialism, and the prospect of oil revenues that would boost the economy of both, led Presidents Ali Abdullah Saleh and Ali al Bidh to commit to unity in May 1990.
The unification process was, however, flawed from the start. The decision to go for unity, and within a matter of months, was taken spontaneously by the two ******s, so, it is, said, while driving in a car through a tunnel in Aden, and without the consent of many of their advisers or any serious thought to implementation.
External factors may also have played a part: apart from receiving a green light from, respectively Riyadh and Washington (for Sanaa) and Moscow (for Aden), the two ******s were greatly encouraged by Iraq: Saddam, at that time recovering from the war with Iran which ended in August 1988, and looking to build a broad anti-Saudi and anti-Egyptian alliance provided political and, it is said, some financial support to the two ******ships.
The full import of the Iraqi support for a united, and, implicitly, anti-Saudi Yemen only became clear some months later, with the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. This provoked a major crisis for Yemen: hundreds of thousands of Yemenis were summarily expelled by Saudi Arabia, which, as did Washington, cut off all aid to Saleh.
Yemen was also, to its misfortune, in the international limelight holding at that time a seat on the UN Security Council: represented by its long-standing representative, Abdullah Al Ashtal, it abstained in the crucial vote on armed action against Iraq, and, in so doing, incurred the wrath of the USA.
The years that followed only served further to sour the initial and genuine popular enthusiasm of May 1990. The northern elite around Saleh saw unification as an opportunity to take hold of the resources of the south – oil revenues, British colonial villas in Aden, local trade.
The negotiated merger of 1990 soon gave way to conflict and in May 1994 the President launched a war to destroy the military and political presence of the YSP in the south: in ‘The Seventy Day War’, which ended with the occupation and pillage of Aden in July 1994, the northern army, with superior weapons and numbers, the benefit of surprise and, not least, the support of Islamist militia forces linked to Al Qaida, prevailed.
The story since then has been one of increased tension, and resentment, between the two former states. Some measures have been taken to disguise this process: some of the southern political and military ******ship were incorporate into the northern state; periodic, but in effect meaningless, elections were held for parliament and the presidency; gestures of reconciliation and political reform were made to assuage credulous western governments and NGOs.
In the south, however, these meant little and southerners came increasingly to resent northern intrusion, referring to northerners as atrak, ‘Turks’, a reference back to the Ottoman occupation of the nineteenth century, and dahbashah, the name of a criminal family in a TV series.
Regime spokesmen are these days blaming foreigners and enemies of Yemen for the crisis: however, the main responsibility for this conflict, and for the squandering of what was, in its inception, an important and positive unificatory initative, must lie with Saleh, his close associates and his relatives: ‘Abu Ahmad’, as he is known, the architect of Yemeni unity, has also been the person who has done more than anyone else to destroy it.
Fred Halliday is ICREA Research Professor at the Barcelona Institute for International Affairs.

[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

[Ganoob67]

Media Watchdog Lambasts Yemen Press Crackdown

DOHA, Qatar (AFP)--

The Yemeni government has "sacrificed" press freedom in attempting to control unrest in the southern regions, a Doha-based media watchdog said Monday.
"There can be no doubt the Sana'a authorities have sacrificed press freedom in their efforts to control unrest in the south of the country," the Doha Centre for Media Freedom said in a statement.
The government of President President Ali Abdullah Saleh decided in May to close eight newspapers it accused of inciting separatism in southern Yemen, where 16 people have been killed in clashes since late April, including five members of the security forces.
"We call for an end to official censorship and unfair arrests," it said, commenting on the release of online journalist Yahya Bamahfoud Friday after being held by state security in the southeastern town of Mukalla for three weeks.
"Another online journalist is still being held in blatant disregard for the most basic human rights. Eight newspapers are officially censored in Yemen. The army has even been sent with grenades and machine guns to arrest journalists," the centre added.
South Yemen was united in 1990 with North Yemen to form the current republic.
Socialists who formerly ruled the south led a secession bid in 1994 that sparked a two-month civil war before the uprising was crushed by northern forces loyal to Saleh.



[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]

[Ganoob67]

Yemen needs a plan of dialogue

• Last Updated: May 31. 2009 7:23PM UAE / May 31. 2009 3:23PM GMT

The London-based daily Al Sharq al Awsat featured an opinion piece by Abdul Rahman al Rashed, who wrote: “When the Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh described secessionists as “swine flu”, he did not realise that he had praised them. After all, the epidemic, by nature, is fatal and can spread rapidly. Ironically, these are the qualities of effective opposition.”

The opposition in Yemen are of two types. One is official, a part of the political system and acts according to the law. The other is outside of the law, rebellious and against the political system. It is based in the north and the south.
It is not suitable at all now for Yemen to be described in “epidemiological” terms at a time when it was going through a critical situation as admitted by the Yemeni president himself who warmed the separatists that their revolt might lead to the dismemberment of the country.

The situation may get worse given Yemen’s geographical location bordering “the pirates’ sea”, a further challenge to its stability. In view of all these factors, there is no solution to the crisis other than opening a dialogue with southerners. “Secessionists need to be invited to a political dialogue, and enlarge their political participation as long as this option would serve the national interests. The government equally needs to promote development by providing sufficient public services in remote areas.”


[فقط الأعضاء المسجلين والمفعلين يمكنهم رؤية الوصلات . إضغط هنا للتسجيل]