Armies of Liberation

*****Open Season On Journalists in Yemen*****

I cant even list it all. I’ll try to summerize. First Jamal Amer is kidnapped, beaten and threated. Then the local AP guy as well as Sami Ghalib, the editor of al-Nidaa newspaper, had their offices raided and files and computers stolen. Another journalist, Mohammed Saleh Hadiri, is reporting threats. Khaled Salman is facing charges for writing about corruption. The editor of socialists paper al-Thoury is going to court for the 13th time. And now the Yemeni Air Force has kidnapped Khaled Hamadi, Sanaa reporter for Alquds Al Arabia. He was later released. Al-Usboo, an independent newspaper: editor restricted and paper suspended for two months. This is all this week.

Maybe if there had been some kind of response (from anybody but the blogosphere, thank you people) last month when they did all this to al-Khaiwani and al-Shoura, there wouldn’t be this sense of impunity now. “Free speech is both a basic human right and an essential element of democratic goverance, as one petitioner for Mr. al-Khaiwani highlighted in a quote by the first U.S. Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson: ‘Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.’” Big props to Steven and Dean for their ongoing support for Yemeni journalists, who in general, refuse to be intimidated into silence by a violent, brutal, immoral, thoroughly corrupt regime.

The official Yemen News Agency:

“An official source in the defense ministry strongly warned local media and correspondents of foreign newspapers and news agencies not to deal with secrets related to armed forces and national security. The source said ” the prohibited materials and information related to armed forces are considered as military secrets and disclosing them harms the national security. The source warned that any body deals with such secrets would be interrogated. It considered the military secrets as redlines which journalists must not trespass.

I guess some of the secrets not to deal with is how corrupt the military is and how the Russian migs, that were part of a 350 million dollar weapons deal, keep crashing. The fact that the military is openly warning the journalists in this official english statement is troublesome.

The EU is giving Yemen 7.5 million euros “aiming at backing the Yemeni government efforts for poverty alleviation and enhancement of democracy.” Yes you read that correctly, the EU thinks the Yemeni government is working to enhance democracy and allieviate poverty. Later in the article we get this: “interest by the European Commission in encouraging efforts that Yemen is exerting for the consolidation of democratic successes and respect for human rights and aiding its efforts in fighting terror.”

Beginning of updates to original post:

Yemeni Government Threatens to Behead Journalist for Article on Corruption
Also beat him for four hours, threaten to cut out his tounge, shoot at him, threaten to throw him off a cliff, and threaten his kids if he discloses the incident or continues to document the rampent corruption among the very top officials in Yemen. They came in a presidential vehicle with government plates.

Update 8: The editor of Al Usboo, an independent newspaper, has been restricted from working for two months and the paper suspended. ADNKI:

One government-run publishing house refused to print the Al-Osboa newspaper on Wednesday last week. Al-Osboa’s editor said in a statement that the order came from the Press and Publication Prosecutor following a court verdict that the editor, should be suspended from his job for two months. Editor-in-chief Jamal Hassan, told the Yemen Observer that the prosecutor had continued to pursue the case, despite the newspaper printing an apology for the offending article, and even after the interior ministry dropped the case.

Update 7: (8/31/05) Now the Yemeni Air Force is snatching journalists :

A Yemeni journalist has been unheard of for more than day after being taken away by the command of the army`s air force, reports said Wednesday.

The independent Yemen News Web site quoted sources as saying that Khaled Hamadi, the Sanaa correspondent of the London-based Arabic daily al-Quds al-Arabi contacted a colleague and informed him that he was summoned by the air force command and taken to an unknown destination.

8/31/05 “The sources told “Sahwa net” that Al-Hamadi’s family told them of his disconnection with them since yesterday and that he told them that he received a call of parties of ministry of defense as he published news of falling a plane (another Russian Mig crashed) in Hodiedah.”

Update 6: al-Shawa 8/24 publishes the plate number as part of the YJS statement: “His family told YJS that anonymous persons embark army car No. 2111121 )….”

Update 5: The Yemen Times has updates from RSF, CPJ, and AI. The Yemen Observer doesnt mentioned any of the incidents but instead is calling for a law that prohibits “slander of the the powerful” and blames the journalists themselves for the violence against them: “The sporadic violence against journalists is merely a result of an unchecked democratic openness both in the mentality of the journalists and the readers.”V8.I34 (This is the same paper that ran an article calling me an extremist and another saying I’m a paid operative.)

Update 4: The next day security forces raid the offices Ahmed al-Hajj, an Associated Press journalist, and seize the computers and files AND they raided the offices of journalist Sami Ghalib, a journalist at al-Nidaa newspaper, and seized files and computers.

Update 3: YT I really can’t believe it. Every new article I find has more details. This one includes that they were shooting at him and threatened to throw him off the cliff.

“A group of armed men on board a vehicle with a military plate number waited for me near my house; when I arrived, they ordered me to go with them and threw me into their vehicle”, Jamal Amer said in a statement to the Yemen Times. “The attackers blindfolded me, bound my hands and bundled me into another car some time later after moving from the place of the incident.”

“I was then taken to a remote area outside the capital and threatened to be thrown from the peak of a mountain,” the victim added. “The merciless assailants hit me badly and fired shots in order to terrorize me.”

The perpetrators told the victim that his newspaper could criticize the government without naming any officials. One of them threatened to cut off his tongue if he dares write against government officials…. No official denounciation was made and no action was taken by the authorities at the time of going to the press….

Update2: That sleezy, slimey dirtbag of a government threatened his kids.

The assailants, dressed in plain clothes but driving a vehicle with military license plates, beat Amer and threatened to kill him. They warned Amer that his children’s safety would be threatened if he continued with his investigative reporting or reported his abduction to the authorities. Reports say the assailants condemned Amer for writing on corruption within the government and interrogated him about other writers and editors at Al-Wasat.

Update: they threatened to cut out his tounge or behead him for an article on corruption in doling out scholarships. (summary of the article on scholarships follows)

Jamal ‘Amir, editor in chief of the Yemenite independent weekly Al-Wasat said armed men blindfolded him, pushed him into a vehicle and took him to a remote location near the capital ‘Sana.

They beat him and threatened to cut off his tongue or to kill him and behead him, the London-based Al-Hayyat reported. He was released more than four hours later….

Al-Hayyat added that the paper published a list of children of senior officials who are studying in the United States, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, with large oil companies footing the bills.

This is a summary of the offending article that I got in the mailbag before the editor was kidnapped and honestly I didnt think it was that big of a deal considering all the corruption in Yemen, so I didnt even post it. But I guess since it named the top officials, it pushed a few buttons. Apparently what they find reeeeally annoying is naming names. Ill keep that in mind for sure:

“A note of information that you should be privy to. The Alwasat weekly newspaper has published an article reporting on who is sent for college studies in the U.S., England, and Canada. The article is quite informative in that it stated that the amount of students (56) sent to the three nations on government scholarships are all sons of ministers, prominent sheiks, Ambassadors, relatives of Ali Saleh, etc… Most were not worthy of the scholarships…They got the scholarships by way of orders from the Prime Minister himself, by the President, or by other high officials. The article goes on to emphasise that most of the students sent to the three countries on government shcholarships were also receiving monthly allotments from other sources, for example, the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of Defense, the Interior Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Yemeni Oil Company.”

Original post follows:

Un-fricking-believable

Its like the Twilight Zone over there, complete anarchy, the only rule is power. They take this editor and beat him up and tell him not to write about government officials. They took him in a military car. Lets review normal intimidation tactics on the journos in Yemen: death threats, threats against their kids, slander, arrests, taking newspapers, cloning newspapers, assaults, letter bombs, the list goes on. This more than anything else shows Yemen is not anything close to a democracy but instead is a repressive dictatorship.

Jamal Amer, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly newspaper al-Wassat, told Reuters armed men blindfolded him, forced him into a military car and took him to a remote area outside the capital Sanaa where they beat him.

“They warned me about slandering state officials and questioned me about writers and editors at the newspaper, and about our sources and funding,” he said. Officials were not immediately available for comment.

Here’s another article thats expands on the dangers of exposing the thievery of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his band of crooks:

SD: SANAA, Yemen, Aug. 23 — The incident, the latest in a series of moves aimed at terrorizing the local press, outraged the press syndicate which issued a strongly worded statement condemning “the unprecedented wave of oppression targeting journalists.”

“The press body in Yemen is experiencing the age of terror, especially since the publications started speaking openly about corruption and scandals in which officials are involved, including the Yemeni president personally,” the statement said.

Another journalist, Mohammed Saleh Hadiri, has been complaining of anonymous harassment and threats following the publication of his article on the corruption of the regime which he described as “futile.” In the past Hadiri has been imprisoned and barred from writing for a year. A third journalist, Khaled Salman, is scheduled to appear before a press court Wednesday regarding a report he published entitled “Those who are robbing the nation’s wealth.”

HOOD: Article 42 of the constitution declares: “Every citizen has the right to contribute to the political, social and cultural life. The state guarantees the freedom of thought and the expression of opinion by utterance, writing and taking photos within the limits of the law.”

Yemen Times : Journalists have also openly criticized the corruption and abuse of power by the highest officials in the Government, including President Ali Abdullah Saleh, and apparently this is what has provoked the recent series of attacks against outspoken journalists.

The Yemen Observer has nothing on the kidnapping but IFEX is all over it:“Jamal Amer was kidnapped outside his home by gunmen using a Presidential Guard vehicle…RSF said, “This case serves as a reminder that it is still very difficult to work as an independent journalist in this country and we call on the Interior Ministry to conduct a thorough investigation in order to identify those responsible.” (The Interior Minister? Are they trying to be funny? Who is responsible? I can tell who is responsible from here in Jersey. Im not trashing RSF which is a good organization but when the thugs arrive in a presidential vehicle, it should be apparent who is responsible.)

In related news, the editor of the socialists paper is going before the prosecutor for the 13th time (24/8/2005 al-Shawa): “Editor of (Al-THawri ) newspaper , khalid Salman, was stood before prosecution of journalism and printed matters according to summoning sent to him last Monday because of publishing an investigation around practicing business by some of authority leaders. In the meanwhile, Al-Thawri newspaper was stood, today, before municipality west-south court on a case sued by financial office manager against journalist Mohammad Al-Jaafi, The court adjourned Taiz financial case to 17 pronounce a judgment. According to special statistics to “Sahwa net” , this arraignment is the thirteenth for “AL THawri” newspaper ” mouthpiece of Yemeni socialist party “.

In an propagnda move designed for the West, Saleh is mumbling things about fighting corruption and reducing excessive public spending. But of course, if Saleh was serious about fighting corruption, he would welcome the list of the 58 corrupt officials published in al-Wasat by Jamal Amer instead of sending some Republican Guards to beat him up.

(This is a carnivalized post: the Raging Rinos are at Big Cat Chronicles, the Carnival of the Revolutions is simply amazing at One Free Korea this week, the Jersey Carnival features a cool interactive map by PDC Ryan that shows where everyone is blogging from. And the Ladies Cotillion continues to take the world by storm. Also thanks for the trackys, comments, and linky love peps. )

Ok, Im not going to apologize for the IRA either. And the point that when terrorists kill Muslims it gets less media attention is valid. From the article in question.

With this realization, the only apologies that would need to be made would be to those whose lives could have been saved were we all working together to solve these serious problems rather than blaming one another for them.

It is time for all the peoples of the world to tell murdering terrorists, marauding armies and hate mongering media moguls “We have had enough.” And none of us need to apologize.

I couldnt agree more.

Islam and terror: Time to drop double standards by John R. Bradley, who actually uses the phrase “tiny minority of extremists,” discusses the article.

In A recent column published in the Dubai-based Gulf News, a prominent Arab journalist, Mr Khaled Al-Maeena, had a stark personal message for those who argue that moderate Muslims such as himself should apologise on behalf of those who carry out acts of terror in the name of Islam.

‘I state here and now that I will not apologise,’ he wrote, with
uncharacteristic bluntness.

‘Let us all stop asking one another to take the blame for the problems
that plague all of mankind.’

Mr Al-Maeena is a progressive secularist who once described himself to
me, without apparent irony, as a ‘liberal extremist’, and whose writing
has consistently condemned the violence and ideology of radical
Islamists.

(Read on …)

YT: In a surprising decision, district judge Robert Doumar, in Norfolk Virginia today said “there was enough evidence the Sudanese government co-operated with al-Qaida and its leader, Osama bin Laden, to allow the lawsuit to go forward.”

The victims of the Seventeen US sailors, who died in the USS Cole bombing in the Port of Aden in October 12, 2000, are suing the government of the Sudan for US $ 105 million for allegedly facilitating the movement of terrorists who were involved in the bomb attack. With a guilty verdict, the victims’ families expect the US government to pay them out of frozen assets of the Sudanese Government held with it.

The suit also says bin Laden and Sudan operated joint businesses and a bank that provided financing for the Cole attack.

The hearing is scheduled for March 7, 2006, but the families’ lawyer suggests that there will probably be a delay.

“Sudan provided no support for the bombing of the Cole,” said Washington lawyer Knox Bemis, before being cut off by Doumar, who questioned the bank connection and why Sudan would allow operatives to come in and out of the country freely.

Nice move. There’s a few other people they can sue in Yemen. Theres a document admitted in Yemeni court that details Yemeni goverment complicity. More on the Sudan ruling here.

Yemen infested with corruption, says UNDP
By Observer Staff
Aug 23, 2005 - Vol. VIII Issue 33
SANA’A - A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report has said that Yemen is in the throes of major administrative lapses and the country is “infested with corruption” which has engulfed all basic employment, including its monitoring and control bodies, as well as the judicial service, Gulf News reports.

The report said trust in the Yemeni judiciary system had fallen to a low ebb due to the state of the judiciary and issues related to corruption. The situation was incompatible with the government’s future approach of ensuring equality before the law.

The 2005 report, which is based on good governance, launched by the Arab Regional Office of the UNDP, pointed out that the Yemeni judiciary was facing a number of problems and obstacles. Notable among them, the report said, was the unsuitability of existing laws and legislations. It said there is a lack of coordination between the government and law implementation, adding that the judiciary’s authority and entity were also ineffective. The report described the Yemeni judiciary as fragile and attributed the reason behind this fragility to various factors including lack of qualification and training for some of the judges, bad monitoring system on the courts and the general prosecution and lack of enough protection for judges.

It also said the government lacks effective system of exposing and checking corruption, adding that Yemen scored 19 on the Personal Accountability Index, whereas an average score by countries from the Middle East and North Africa stood at 32, while the average score of low-income countries stood at 38.

On the Quality Administration Index (IQA), Yemen scored 33.5 points compared to 46 points for countries in the Middle East and North Africa and 30 points for low-income countries. Under the Governance Quality Index (IGQ), Yemen scored 22.5 points against 37 points for countries in the Middle East and North Africa and 28 points for low-income countries.
The report said government units lack review and internal control methods and this “encourages corruption, lack of accountability and conflict of interest.”

It said Yemen is one of the world’s poorest countries with its per capita income in 2003 pegged at $564.89, adding that the country’s education and health system is very poor, while population growth continues to rise at a rate of 3.03 per cent between 2001 and 2003, up from 2.84 per cent in 2000.

http://www.yobserver.com/cgi-bin/yobserver/exec/view.cgi/1/7887

Yemen 18 exactly where I wanted it: the Arab News in Saudi Arabia. They did a good editing job. I wrote this article hoping to get it in this exact paper, which was a bit of a challenge considering they are brotherly neighboring countries, have a complicated relationship, and I wanted to talk about corruption and the push for change in Yemen.

This is one guy who always nails it. He’s the editor of the Arab Times in Kuwait.

“We can confidently say it is the international community and not the Palestinian uprising, which has kicked Israel out of Gaza.”

Some Palestinians insist on describing the liberation of Gaza as a victory for resistance groups, Hamas and Al-Jihad. They are like most Arabs. We are concentrating on Gaza because the mission is not yet complete. It will be complete only when the West Bank and Jerusalem are liberated and an independent Palestinian state is established. For this to happen we must wake up from our dreams and start living in reality. We must admit the establishment of any new state depends on several factors, especially international decisions and circumstances. We should understand we can’t take a single step towards fulfilling the rest of our mission without learning to live with the international community.

(Read on …)

Released Extremists rearrested. More re-education in the works?

4000 killed first rebellion

Students deported, schools closed

SA: 280,000 deported: The Saudi authorities have revealed than 280,000 intruders and smugglers have been arrested over the last six months by the Saudi border forces, thanks in part to the use of hi-tech cameras placed along the border. Huge quantities of weapons, ammunition and drugs have been seized, including 11 bombs, 13,800 dynamite sticks and 76 kilogrammes of explosives.

Communications technology

Appropriation of legally owned property

New Political Party: The Justice and Democracy Party.

Subsidies and smuggling

Not enough dialysis machines, 100 dead. Related: The majority of them have two sessions of dialysis per week and many others of patients have only one per week. In fact, the standard of dialysis is three times per a week. Other medical disasters for the public

Yemen and a dozen other least developed countries seeking duty free access to US markets. US labor disputing Bangladesh because of their labor practices.

President Bush mentions Yemen: He said: “Their most prominent leader is a Jordanian named Zarqawi, who has declared his allegiance with Osama bin Laden. The ranks of these folks are filled with foreign fighters who come from places like Saudi Arabia and Syria and Iran and Egypt and Sudan and Yemen and Libya.”

YO: A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report has said that Yemen is in the throes of major administrative lapses and the country is “infested with corruption” which has engulfed all basic employment, including its monitoring and control bodies, as well as the judicial service, Gulf News reports.

The report said trust in the Yemeni judiciary system had fallen to a low ebb due to the state of the judiciary and issues related to corruption. The situation was incompatible with the government’s future approach of ensuring equality before the law.

Corruption : The ministry of oil headed the list of shame, followed by the ministries of electricity, health, agriculture, local administration, public works, sports, education, vocational training and interior. more

Ministry unable to pursue legal action: An official source in the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor has said that the ministry is yet to raise the necessary funds to sue some 400 charities suspected of supporting religious schools that operate in contravention of Yemeni law.

The source said that the Ministry of Finance had refused to pay for legal action, including lawyers’ fees, and that the ministry was seeking alternative funding to pursue its case….

A source formerly of the Ministry of Endowment and Guidance said that the majority of the schools and centers were funded and run by local charities, most by the Socialist Islah Charity and dozens more by the Al-Hurmeen charity. The latter organization had been suspended, with its activities frozen, in October of 2004 by Saudi authorities which accuse its of funding terrorism through charities belonging to political parties in Yemen.

Child Marriages 3 (this is a very informative and analytical series) : Around a half of Yemen’s population consists of children between the ages of 1 month to 14 years of age. Yemen suffers from high maternal mortality rates due to early marriage, and has 351 maternal deaths per 100,000 births. Yemen is considered to have one of the highest rates in the region with 5000 maternal deaths per year because of early marriage.

Qat and Water

Maybe Ill make a commercial: The maximum ad rate on Channel One for imported brand products during afternoon hours (from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.) are $300 per 30 seconds between programs and $390 per 30 seconds during programs. (The newspapers have a much higher ad rate indicating perhaps that not that many people watch the one state run TV channel.)

Travel Guide cool photos, descriptions, it made me hungry.

Heritage: index of economic freedom (mostly unfree) :
Yemen remains a cauldron of political intrigue with an economy that remains hamstrung by rampant unemployment, frequent water shortages, high population growth rates, and an often-corrupt bureaucracy that has permeated all levels of the government, including the judiciary….According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, “The judiciary is generally under-trained, inefficient and seen as corrupt.” The U.S. Department of State reports that enforcement of laws and contracts “remains problematic at best and nonexistent at worst.”
2005 132 of 161 least free economy, 3.70 out of 5 (mostly unfree and .29 away from repressed.)

Soccer update, HQ stormed by security forces: The reasons for the sanctions, he said, included the security forces’ storming of the association headquarters. The association is a FIFA representative office in Yemen. Sheikh Al-Ahmar said: “We had warned of breaking into the headquarters, but no one listened to us. I myself contacted the minister of sport and warned him of the consequences, but to no avail.”

18? Well anyways, this is it at World Press, (A Fair Election in Yemen). And Townhall 8/22: Foreign Policy. The article follows:

(Read on …)

Never know when I’ll need it. You are in my filing cabinet you know.

The Maritime Board estimates that the number of vessels arriving annually in the Bab Al-Mandab Straits is 20,000 ships, including oil tankers carrying 85 million tons of oil. YO

There’s really a lot of people working very hard in the Middle East to encourage a higher level of popular participation in the political system but they are almost always opposed by the various authoritiarian regimes, who apparently are afraid of their own people. These domestic and international groups can be so effective even in difficult circumstances that China is studying them to determine how to better undermine them.

Reuters: Participants at the conference stressed the need for establishing a culture of dialogue that should be instilled in society through education and the school curricula.

This, they said, would ensure freedom of political parties, open doors for a free media, and international monitoring of elections.

The event, which was also attended by some Arab human rights activists and lawyers, recommended greater participation for women in politics.

In addition, there was a call for the youth and rural people to be empowered and brought into the political decision making process, so that they can contribute in building and improving their societies.

Kuwaiti lawyer, Abdulkareem Jasem, described the event as a good opportunity for everyone to discuss future plans and how they can play an active role in the development process at large.

“Civil society organisations are trying their best. However, it is unfortunate that their recommendations and decisions clash with political regimes that do not believe in democracy and good governance principles,” he said.

“The world, in this era of globalisation, is witnessing a lot of historic changes in various areas and the Arab regimes must cope with this and turn to public participation,” he added.

and guess which direction they were moving

ML: Saudi authorities have seized large quantities of ammunition and explosives smuggled from Yemen over the past few days. The Commander of the Saudi Border Guards Operations said the arms were seized in the south.

According to Gulf News, the material seized included thousands of dynamite sticks and booby-trapped wires, live ammunition, as well as drugs, large amounts of cash in Yemenite currency and CDs of pornographic films.

The international terrorist organization Al-Qa’ida has been smuggling arms and terrorists into Saudi Arabia through the Saudi-Yemenite border for several years, in an effort to target locals and Westerners in the kingdom.

The Saudi government has beefed up its surveillance measures on the border to prevent terrorists, arms, and other illegal material from entering.

At least they intercepted it. I guess this is the same incident:

WT The daily newspaper al-Watan quoted the police chief in the region of Jazan, Brig. Gen. Marih Assiri, as saying that security forces in the past three days seized 1,200 dynamite sticks, bullets and explosive powder in addition to 2,745 kilograms of drugs and 300 banned videos.
Assiri said the smugglers have been using children and teenagers in their operations.
He said hundreds of Yemeni children are being smuggled through the 1,125-mile-long border annually.
The Saudi authorities expelled more than 150,000 Yemenis last year, including 9,815 children smuggled into the country for slavery and labor.

Update: Now I know why everybody puts the star instead of the o in p*rn.

We report, you decide.

This is a translation of an interview with Intissar al-Sayani, a woman currently on trial in Yemen for terrorism and supporting the Houthi rebellion. In the interview, she says her confession was coerced. ( This al-Jazeera article says she was in the court room chanting Death to America with all the other lovely people. This AN article and also this MEOL article say she was not present in the court and is being tried in absensia because she is pregnant.)

alnida issue no 10 wed 18 may 2005 page 6

interview by nabil subae

intsar says at 10 or 10 .30 pm may 3 , she was in her apartment
which is two seperate section seperated by a door , her husband hani was in the guest room in the other section and she was in the family section , suddenly the door of the apartment was opened they had keys with them , they started inspection of the apartment i did not what was going on. she took her coat and her vail quickly and went to the bed room. she was hearing them looking for and inspecting the apartment i did not know what they were looking for. some times i could not hear any thing as if thewre was no body in the apartment.

at 12 oclock on the same day they came with a female police officer and
six men they said they were going to take her to the nieghborhod chief
house of her fathers house . theyt took me to chief house at 1.30 am they took her alone she asked them to let that police women come with her but they did not let that. they took her in white car to aljiraf where her fathers house is inthe house of the nieghboorhod chief . she stayed there until 4 pm the next day then they started interrogation . they
interrogated her from 4 pm to 12 midnight without stop . she was
frightened specialy when they refused to let her call her family. they
quistioned her about strange thing, arms , being a member of gang planing for some thing i do not know.

(Read on …)

Arrested for not paying the sheiks, so the state is in effect enforcing the demands of the sheiks for payments, reinforcing their authority and eroding that of the central government but then the security forces pretty much are private muscle not public servents

Sahwa 15/8/2005 Detention of 16 citizens at Bani Qais district in Hajjah province

Relatives of detainees accused the administration security of Bani-Qais district, west of Hajjah province, that it arrested 16 citizens since more than 2 weeks in the area prison illegally.

A memorandum was addressed to the security manager of the Hajjah signatured by 16 citizens said that they were jailed illegally and without any reason, but because of their refusal arbitrary instructions of sheiks and influentials who imposed tributes and called them for payment to build a school in another area; which is far of them and that they are in no need for it because they have one.

The families of detains demand their immediate release and to begin with lawful investigation with officials; also they appealed the country and civil organizations to stand with them .

Yemen

Tharwa: Consequently, the government launched a comprehensive war using all kinds of weapons and making no distinction between Zaydi Shiites and Imami Shiites, and conducted a cleansing campaign against everything that is Shiite in the region. From the very beginning, the state resorted to indecent tactics by using the media as a tool to propagate false news. The official media sometimes claimed that Al Huthi is pretending to a prophet and sometimes claimed that he is the expected Mahdi. In addition, the government revived the Salafi radical movement and supplied it with money and weapons. After two days of the beginning of the war, Wahabi fatwas (religious decrees) were issued permitting the killing of Shiite Twelvers because they are “infidels”, “atheists” and “miscreants”, and because of this Wahabi incitement, Twelvers were included in this anti-Shiite campaign alongside Zaydis, during which the following government goals were achieved:

1- Shiite Zaydi and Twelvers followers were arbitrarily detained.
2- All Shiite Zaydi and Twelvers libraries were closed down.
3- Shiite Lebanese and Yemeni book publishers were prohibited from taking part in Sana’a Book Fair.
4- Twelvers’ sympathizers were prosecuted.
5- Some Shiite Twelvers’ books like Mafateeh Al Jinan (Keas of Heavens), Muraja’at (Revisions), Asr Al Zuhour (Era of the Reappearance) and others were confiscated.
6- Zaydi educational centers in Sa،da, Hajja and Sana’a governorates were closed down.
7- Whole Shiite villages were wiped out (not sparing women and children).
8- Shiites from all confessions were dismissed from government positions.

Half the kids in Yemen “suffer from malnutrition,” meaning they never get enough food for even a tiny body to live on. Day after day, week after week, year after year, everyday is a hungry day for millions of kids:

YO: A report issued by the World Bank states that the 18.5 million people in Yemen are the poorest population in the world.

The WB president said that since average individual income was 460$ per year, lower income brackets mean that 18 % of the population does not receive sufficient nutrition and 46 % of 5 year-olds suffer from malnutrition. (a similiar percentage of 6 year olds never attend first grade.)

….rural communities where 75% of the population reside, despite the geographical difficulties which make agriculture hard and provision of services a challenge.

The report also said that 90% of Yemenis are lacking necessary water. Girls and women in rural areas are forced to travel long distances to obtain water. (also 70% of the people in rural areas dont have access to a doctor, no doctor at all.) The report also put the rate of unemployment in 2001 at 25%

What to do? It is painfully clear what the solutions are. Everybody knows how to improve the situtation. But when for example, the guy who is in charge of judicial reform is harassed by the top people in the government, the obstacles to just governence and a healthy economy are those people with vested interests in the status quo that have governmental power.

WB support to Yemen is based on the following:

Improving the administration of the public sector by improving public resources allocation, responsibility and transparency and fighting corruption, tackling shortcomings in the civil service at central and local levels, the jurisdictional system and security forces.

All this includes political renovations especially in decentralization to help local government in building facilities and promoting skills.

Do I need to translate that?

SFG They just can’t help themselves anymore, its become a compulsive thing. Everything in Yemen is tampered with, including soccer:

The suspension takes effect immediately and includes all matches involving Yemen’s national and club sides playing abroad, as well as matches involving foreign teams played in the country.

“On several occasions both FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation had warned the Yemeni Ministry of Youth and Sport that it needed to respect FIFA’s principles of independence, democracy and due process for its member associations,” FIFA said in a statement.

But “the government chose a path of persistent disrespect of these principles,” world soccer’s governing body added. “Blatant governmental interference in local football affairs in contravention of FIFA principles cannot be accepted.”

dictotards (retarded dictatorial regime)

update: Yemeni football officials deny any knowledge of the latest decision of suspension made by the FIFA.

errr….yeah

Sanaa, 12 August (AKI) - A group of Yemeni journalists and parliamentarians are calling for the country’s ministry of information to be abolished, saying the department - considered a source of media censorship by many - is undemocratic. The call came at the end of a two-day workshop this week on how to obtain legal guarantees for the freedom of the press, the Emirates-based newspaper Gulf News reports.

Those participating in the workshop - which was organised by the Yemen Female Journalists Forum and funded by the British embassy in Sanaa - also urged the House of Representatives, the Shura Council, the government in charge of drafting the new press law and the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, to introduce a new press law, in line with international legislation.

They also called for a new article to be added to the country’s constitution, providing for freedom of opinion and expression without restrictions, and which would eradicate government control of the media.

In its annual report released earlier this year, the human rights organisation Amnesty International highlighted the targeting of journalists in Yemen last year, saying punitive measures, including imprisonment, detentions and fines, increased. It gave as one example the case of Saeed Thabet, a Yemeni correspondent for a London-based news agency, who was detained for a week in March for reporting that the Yemeni president’s son had been shot.

In September last year, Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, editor-in-chief of the al-Shura opposition magazine was accused of supporting the rebel leader Hussain Badruddin al-Houthi and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment after he criticised the Yemeni president and security force activities. He was then pardoned by the President Saleh in March 2005.

al-Khaiwani…now why does that name sound familiar? But seriously, the journos in Yemen are at the forefront of the calls for reform and they pay the price for it.

JP: In a move to prevent the spread of radicalism, Indonesia and Yemen have agreed to deny entry of Indonesians intending to study at universities unaccredited or unrecommended by the government of the Middle East country…

An Indonesian official said earlier that the government had asked students studying at Yemeni universities and Islamic schools suspected of sowing radicalism to move to other universities there or return home, otherwise the government would revoke their passports.

The Yemeni government has also sent home a number of Indonesians studying at particular Islamic schools there because of the same fear.

But, but, but, I thought Yemen had closed all the extremist universities that sow radicalism…..

Niche blogging has its advantages: you never have to decide what to write about, you develop of good body of research, and you get associated with your topic.

Harvard University’s “Global Voices Online” now has a voice from Yemen. Guess who? This is the tag for Armies of Liberation: Watchblog, critical of the Yemeni government, by a conservative American commentator. (hmmmm……yes, thats it exactly.) And if you click on Yemen here, you get a copy of my blog. There’s already 18 subcribers, and its only been up for a day. So that is very neat. Global Voices is a great project and is doing many interesting things to promote free expression and greater understanding and coordination throughout the global cyber community.

The Daily Star, Editorial:

In fact, many people now feel more comfortable with the assessment that Saleh has manipulated his nation by instigating the riots in order to prompt the political parties and players to beg him to stay in office…..So if Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and others have a problem with reluctance to release their grips on power, in Yemen, we have an outright in-your-face deception. Saleh’s maneuverings are a flagrant manipulation of the political process in order to maintain his control. What kind of legitimacy could Saleh hope to gain from this kind of deceit? Saleh, who seems to be taking his cues from the old stalinist school of thought, is forging a leadership born out of coercion.

No FOR SURE, Saleh was speaking sincerely when he pledged to step down, and it was a wonderful moment of clarity. It will be a historic achievement and put the Yemeni people on the path of a regular transition of executive power and a greater degree of self-determination.

No of course not….its all a plot to tarnish the reputation of the country by those EVIL journalists.

The Commander of the Central Security of Shabwa said the kidnapping of three Spanish tourists by tribesmen on Sunday (as reported by Al-Shabwa and Al-Wahdawi) never happened. Brigadier Abdul Wahab Al-Radhi told Akbar Al-Yawm daily (The Daily News) that the papers reporting it are trying to create chaos. “no tourists abducted in the governorate”.

8/8/2005 Three Spanish hostages freed

Al-Sahwa net- Three Spaniards, including a woman, were freed unscathed several hours after they were taken hostage by Yemeni tribesmen hailing from Shabwa province earlier on Sunday, security sources reported.

The sources said that the release came after the province authorities contacted the captors and convinced them to set free the trio.

The province’s governor, Ali Al-Rasas, met the liberated tourists and apologized to them for such an unfortunate incident, according to the sources. The abduction was aimed at ratcheting up pressures on the authorities to release one of the kidnappers’ relatives who is being imprisoned in an Aden jail at the backdrop of a criminal case.

The kidnappings also reported by the Arab News in Saudi Arabia.

Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Did I mention bullshit?

Gee Rusty’s vacation did wonders for him.
(See the Kos/Clift post)

YO 8/7: President Ali Abdullah Saleh has instructed the release of all minors accused of being involved in last month’s riots against the rise in oil prices. This is a good first step, after weeks in jail, to let these kids out. How about the other kids in Saada prisons and elsewhere?

a) a relative of the president

b) a crony

c) a troublesome adversary, for example an opposition presidential candidate

(To be fair, there’s this two posts down: “Minister of Justice, Adnan Al-Jefry, has said that intense pressure has been put on the ministry to cease its efforts to implement judicial reforms….Al-Jefry also revealed that he had received numerous threats.” )

Yemen’s President is very good at manipulating the media and the West. Just today, he pulls out three Iraqi guys, in jail without lawyers for two years, and puts them on trial to demonstrate his continuing cooperation in the WOT.

SANAA — Three former Iraqi intelligence officers are to stand trial in Yemen today charged with plotting to attack Western targets, a judicial source said yesterday.

The three men are to face charges of forming an armed group and conspiring to blow up Western targets, including the British and US embassies in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, the source told DPA.

What the media is failing to note is that Yemen actively recruited Saddams generals after the fall of Baghdad and many are currently active in Yemen’s military. Further, there have been reports that “Yemen is home to training camps for exiled members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party….the camps are run by subversive (al-Qaeda) elements from Yemen’s secret services.” Further the top Yemeni Shia cleric said that Saddams generals in the Yemeni military “encouraged Saleh to kill Shiias in the country as did Saddam in Iraq.” And apparently he took that advice, as the slaughter in the Saada region has been termed a jihad by Sistani, and according to witness testimony, its very damned bloody. So I’m not saying the three Iraqis are guilty or innocent, I’m just saying its no indication of cooperation in the WOT, although its designed to look that way.

Update: This also may or may not be true- The accused pleaded innocent, insisting they were coerced into confessing to the plot. Defendant al-Zubaidi told the court his confession was extracted by force and that he came to Yemen in January 2003 as an import-export businessman.

And while we’re on the subject of cooperation in the WOT (not the struggle against extremism), this article says the UNSC sanctions committee is unhappy with Yemen’s level of compliance and there is additional concern about the movement of arms from Yemen. (Remember the 143 terrorist bank accounts not frozen, the Yemeni weapons pipeline? I have to find this new report in English. ) Update: this will do:

The United Nations have made renewed demands to Yemen for detailed reports on the measures that have been taken concerning nine persons and organizations accused of having links with and financing Al-Qaeda.

Media sources have reported that the requests relate to financial connections between those organizations and branches in Yemen, and the Taliban movement and Osama Bin Laden.

UN sources said: “The UN committees to combat terrorism and to control arms regard Yemen as one of the countries not providing reports on the action it has taken against individuals and organizations named by the committee for combating terrorism….

The American demands included, in addition to the Al-Qaeda-linked persons, the government’s policy towards weapons and the local arms market.

Yemen News website quoted the UN report as saying that Yemen was one of the countries that has failed to respond to 19 questions the UN had sent a year previously, related to the movement of arms and arms dealers, even though Yemeni law was very clear about arms.

Threats on anti-corruption minister: Minister of Justice, Adnan Al-Jefry, has said that intense pressure has been put on the ministry to cease its efforts to implement judicial reforms, particularly those which have resulted in the investigation of 22 judges suspected of infringing the law, and the putting under observation of a further 3.

Al-Jefry also revealed that he had received nurmerous threats from senior figures telling him that he would be excluded in the next government unless he met their demands.

In a press conference held last Monday, Al-Jefry revealed that he had received over 450 letters, telephone calls, and direct contacts attempting to persuade him to nominate judges or move them from one position to another. The contacts came, he said, from PM Bajamal, Abdullah Bin Hussein Al-Ahmar, speaker of the parliament, Abdulkarim Al-Eryani, political advisor to the President, and Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar, a senior military official, among others.

“Sheikhs, and some politicians and judges are proving a stumbling-block to attempts to put our strategy into effect and modernize and improve the judicial system,” Al-Jefry said.

Corruption: A treatise from the Central Organization for Control and Auditing has recently unveiled that the state treasury lost YR2.5 billion and more than a $1 million in 68 corruption charges.

The treatise being discussed by the Shura Council confirmed that what was disbursed without official documents amounted to YR6.5 billion and $7.3 million in violation of the Finance Law.

The article goes on listing gross financial improprieties. (Keep in mind half the people are below the poverty line and there’s no schools, no water, ect.) So of course the state will take action against the thieves and “former ministers will take up positions in diplomatic missions abroad, the Shura council, while others will retire.” Acccountability in action.

Al-Houthi: AL HOUTHI ABDULMALIK DECLARES A HALT IN THE NEGOCIATION WITH GOV BECAUSE OF CONTINIOUS TORTURE OF PRISONER AND CONTINUED ATTACK AGAINEST ZAIDI SCHOOL AND FORCING PEOPLE TO CONVERT TO WAHABI (forcing people to convert to Wahabbi= making them go to Wahabbi Friday prayers at gunpoint, outlawing other teachings, destroying the Zaidya literature, ect. Torture=torture, not loud music)

Yemen’s Theological Dialogue Committee will resume next week a new round of “reeducation” of 600 followers of oppositionist Hussien Badruddin al-Houthi. Committee chairman Hamoud Al-Hetar said the committee would report to higher authorities on the result of the sessions and then the persons involved in criminal acts will face court. According to Yemen sources, militants whose “thoughts never translated” into actions will be freed. (So they are in jail for their thoughts not actions. The government is striving for religious homogeneity in order to end sectarian differences you see. /s)

Journos Arrested and beat up during the riots:

In other incidents of concern to the journalists meeting on Saturday, Yemeni correspondents for foreign media were barred from sending news reports using Yemeni TV satellite stations despite agreements that allow them to do so.

“When I was reporting on the riots, policemen arrested me and put me in jail for three days,” said Ali al-Awadhi from the weekly Al-Asima newspaper. “I was accused of instigating the riots. I was put in a small cell with another 16 prisoners.”

“The Ministry of Interior has not seriously dealt with continuous complaints issued by the YJS,” al-Bukari said. The government always tries to block coverage of such events in fear of bad publicity, he added.

“We have intervened to get some of our colleagues released,” he said. “We cannot accept such practices, and some officials from the Ministry of Interior should have attended this debate.” The government declined to comment on the issue when contacted on Tuesday by IRIN.

IFEX: The army and security forces in Yemen have arrested a number of journalists covering the events and attacked others, confiscating their cameras and film. Some journalists have been banned from covering the events. In other cases, Yemeni correspondents for foreign media have been barred from sending news reports using Yemeni TV satellite stations despite agreements that allow them to do so.

Illiterate Girls: It said some 5,800 girls drop out of school in the Sanaa province each year due also to poor education levels, the high cost of education and preferential treatment for boys, whereas education is reserved for males in case of limited family resources. (The illiteracy rate for women in Yemen is about 75% One big problem: not enough schools, not enough resources for the schools that do exist. They are really in pathetically bad shape for kids to attend.) 82% of girls married before 18, poverty one factor in this trend also.

Human Rights, Little Progress: UN

The Human Rights Committee rejected the government’s argument that it was not possible “to abide at the same time by religious principles and some obligations under the Covenant” on Civil and Political Rights.

The independence of the judiciary, discrimination suffered by women, domestic violence, so-called ‘honour killings’, the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), and alleged grave rights violations in the name of combating terrorism were among the matters that most concerned committee experts. Other concerns included the high rate of illiteracy, child labour, and the trafficking of women and children.

Yemen, the committee said, should ensure that the judiciary was free of any interference, in particular from the executive; should work towards establishing a national human rights institution; and review its laws in order to ensure full equality between men and women in matters of personal status.

Saleh interrogates the prisoners from the riots himself (This is a machine translation.) Good President on Abdullah assumes himself interrogation of the citizens arrested in the demonstrations objectionable on raising madness of the fuel which uncle of the cities Yemeni, on the basis of what newspaper came in “the middle” in her number today Wednesday. Where mentioned that President called last Sunday numbers of arrested and their interrogation rose in himself in ministry interior, host that the interrogation continued from the hour seventh until tenth evening. (He’s cracking up, seeing devils everywhere. In the end, he’ll blame the Houthis.)

Heathcare? No. Only 30% of rural areas have access to primary health care and out-of-pocket contribution to health cost is more than 91%.

Policy Paper: NGO’s controlled by the government.
Policy Paper: Little incentive to curb corruption.

MIEPA: Also, if someone done a crime and police found out, the criminal could give police a small amount of money so they would not cought him or say that they saw him, and 99% of police do that….The government does not do it job and it does not provide safety living condition for the people. In urban cities there is no police station and also in villigas. Even in big cities there is one police station in case of any emregency. The government does not provide all safety for the people.

1999: Firstly, the old opposition parties must bury their differences and develop some ideas with a broad popular appeal. Secondly, the government should be less fearful of engaging with the opposition on equal terms.

One constructive step which the government could take would be to reform the rules for selecting presidential candidates. The current requirement is that nominees need the support of 10% of parliament. In a first-past-the post electoral system that threshold is almost always going to be too high for all but the two largest parties.

Tribal battles: Battles between the two biggest tribes in Jouf province has been going on for more than a week. (So where is all that military hardware that was so prominent on the streets of Sanaa recently? Just let them battle it out? Thats the strategy?) Sheikh Hasan Abdullah Al-Iraqi, Secretary General of the Local Council of Al-Jawf also Head of the GPC branch in the Governorate, shot in the head and was immediately taken to Azal private hospital. Newsyemen reported that the Sheikh was just released from the detention of the Ministry of Defence based on armed clashes between his tribe, Hamdan, and Al-Shawlan tribe headed by Parliament Member Sheikh Ameen Al-Okaimi. (The parliament is comprised of many Sheiks and tribal leaders.)

Polio Immunisation The Ministry of Health in Yemen has announced the completion in July of two rounds of a nationwide campaign to immunise children following a polio outbreak in May, and reported a high level of success in reaching vulnerable children. Yemen now has 369 confirmed polio cases, but the rate is slowing, according to World Health Organization (WHO) figures. As of early July, there were 300 cases.

Please, no locusts.

Discrimination against Southerners: “intimidation, illegal detention and death threats from the state security services.”

And this I dont understand even slightly: Eritrea and Yemen