Armies of Liberation

(For a long time, I thought there was only one lawyer in Yemen.)

Allaw:
“I also disagree with those who say that poverty is one of the main reasons for violence. Gulf countries are a case in point—they are very rich countries and they have violent acts too. I think the main and real reason behind violence is political autocracy and repression.”

“The biggest lie that we all live is that we are in a democratic country (in Yemen) and that we apply the institutions in our lives.”

Hittar says dialog. (Read on …)

Reprive, the question is for how long.

Married at 11, a mother of two by 14 when she was convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to death, raped and became pregnant in prison, death sentence postponed until the baby turns two. The execution is scheduled for next month. This is Saleh’s justice system. He is the chief executive officer. (Read on …)

DUBAI (Reuters) – Yemen’s former ambassador to Syria said on Friday he is seeking political asylum in Britain to protest against what he said was his own government’s discrimination of its southern citizens.

Tensions have existed between the conservative north and Marxist south since the two merged in 1990 to found the Yemeni state. Hostility between the two worsened after the south attempted to secede power during the 1994 civil war.

“Territories were occupied and their riches plundered … and people were driven away from their land,” Ahmed Abdullah al-Hasani told Al Arabiya television.

“We asked for political asylum in Britain on a number of grounds,” Hasani told the Arab satellite station by telephone. He did not elaborate.

Southerners still complain that north Yemen, home to the country’s capital Sanaa, is economically more privileged and that northerners are treated preferentially in the jobs market. The Sanaa government denies that.

In Sanaa, a Foreign Ministry source said Hasani’s term as ambassador to Syria ended two months ago and that the ambassador had told officials he was going to London for medical tests.

Hasani was relieved of his post as navy commander after 17 U.S. soldiers were killed in the 2000 suicide bombing against the U.S. destroyer Cole in the southern Yemeni port of Aden.

The British government refuses to comment on individual political asylum cases.

Abdo al-Naqeeb, a spokesman for the London-based Southern Democratic Assembly, which has criticised the Yemeni government’s policy in southern Yemen and is supporting Hasani, said the former ambassador had applied for asylum on Thursday.

“It’s too early to say if the application will be successful,” he told Reuters. “At the moment he has just filled in his application form and is talking to his solicitors.”

“But we’re hopeful,” he said, adding that another former Yemeni ambassador was recently granted asylum in Britain.

link and anotherand another.

World Press just posted my article on Bangladesh. They picked this from the article as the tag line: “Lately Bangladesh has gained notoriety for the spread of Islamic extremism, but jihadis don’t spring from the ground like mushrooms.”

Theres a proposed new press law in Yemen. This one include websites as well.

YT: Among the taboos and prohibitions that journalists cannot go beyond are; that they can not “criticize the head of the state” as well as “publishing or exchanging anything that directly and personally prejudices monarchs and heads of brotherly and friendly states.” “This draft law released the journalist as an individual from jail, but on the other hand put freedom of speech in a real cage,” Ali al-Jaradi of al-Nass Weekly summarized the demerits of the draft law.

UPdate: proposed law includes Death Penalty for Journalists. Saleh will call it reform. (Read on …)

More filing cabinet stuff. Just ignore me now. I may have a normal post soon.

YT: The North Sana’a Court of Appeals upheld the death sentence of a Muslim extremist convicted of assassinating prominent socialist politician Jarallah Omar and overturned the jail sentences of other five of his accomplices on Saturday.—

Ali was also convicted on charges stemming from his involvement in a plot that killed three Americans at a Southern Baptist missionary hospital in Jibla, two days after Omar’s assassination. He was also found guilty of forming a terror cell to buy weapons with the intention of killing other local intellectuals, writers and journalists, members of the al-Buhra religious sect and missionaries. —

Mohammed al-Mikhlafy, the advocate representing the late politician, was critical of the court’s decision to acquit the alleged accomplices in Omar’s killing.

“The court has now given the chance to the acquitted defendants to kill the remaining socialists and Westerners,” he said. “The court has dealt with the case as a personal criminal act, ignoring its political implications.” These are not just and fair verdicts; they are meant to satisfy the government’s intention to let this terrorist cell free-handed and give them a green light to target the socialist party.”—

In their meeting April 9, the Opposition Joint Meeting Coalition, including the socialists and Islah threatened to internationalize the inquiry into Omar’s assassination if the judiciary fails to investigate the murder properly, disclosing facts to the public. The socialists have always asked for interrogations of all the people whose names were mentioned during the investigations with the assassin, including prominent leaders of the Islah like Abdulmajeed al-Zindani, Mohammed al-Anisi and others, which the prosecution refused to carry out.

The socialist party, which is expected to officially comment on the verdict soon, have already accused some influential figures, including clerics, of cooperating with the terrorist group of Ali to assassin Omar and other socialist leaders and intellectuals. It demanded that the religious fatwa passed during the civil war of 1994 against the socialists should be abolished and that springs of extremism and terrorism should be dried.—

Human Rights Watch urged, in a letter addressed to President Ali Abdullah Saleh in August 2003, that government of Yemen should undertake “a full, independent, and impartial investigation” into the assassination of Omar. “There are serious and widespread allegations about possible involvement in this killing by government security officials and prominent Salafi political figures. These allegations need to be addressed in a transparent and serious manner, and dismissed or acted upon. We therefore call on you to authorize a special investigation, to be conducted in a thorough and impartial manner, into all aspects of this crime, and to make the results public,” the letter said.– (Read on …)

I’m saving this article here because the Yemen Observer links expire:

YO
Expelled students raise storm of protest
By Amira Al-Sharif& Mohammed Al-Attab
Apr 25, 2005 – Vol.VIII Issue 16
SANA’A – Eight hundred Sana’a University students gathered before the dentistry faculty Monday chanting “Dr. Saleh [Baserah], where is freedom, where is justice?” and “Enough, enough, enough of the dictator.”

Faculty of dentistry student Abdul-Rahman Al-Muzai said that “these students have gathered in my support to demand that the dean’s decision to suspend my studies be repealed.” (Read on …)

about Yemen is partialy incorrect, Cairo Magazine,

and was written by the person who also maintains this blog

Tharwa has a new webpage.