President Saleh’s To-Do List
1) Resign from the judiciary as promised.
2) Hold the next shingdig to announce the GPC nominee for president.
3) Find those pesky al-Qaeda escapees, or wrap up negotiations with them.
4) Implement the Houthi amnesty.
From Reuters:
“Most of the relatives told us that only about 150 detainees had been released so far,” Amal Basha, chairperson of the local NGO, Arab Sisters Forum for Human Rights (SAF) said in Sana’a. “We want the President’s pardon decree to be implemented by releasing all detainees without any exception,” she added. President Ali Abdullah Saleh had issued a pardon decree on 25 September 2005, ordering the release of all detainees held over the Sa’ada war. No number was given in the decree. He also ordered fair compensation for those affected by the conflict, as well as the allocation of $150 million for development projects in the governorate.
On 3 March 2006, the state-run media announced the release of 630 supporters after 80 MPs had visited the war-affected areas in Sa’ada. “The pardon decree should not suppress the truth, there have been violations of the laws and international conventions in that war,” said Basha. “There is no transparency, everyone is keeping the information ‘top secret’, including the president, the political security (intelligence) and the media,” she said.
More from the YT:
Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) member Mohamed Al-Maqaleh affirmed that President Saleh’s amnesty is good, as it aimed to end the fighting. He said Yemen is governed by two authorities: one represented by constitutional institutions – Parliament and the president, while the other is a hidden authority whose presence indicates absence of the other authority.
This dual authority was manifested during Sa’ada fighting when the hidden authority played an active role, leading involved parties to dispense with Parliament and the government, Al-Maqaleh added.
According to Al-Maqaleh, nobody has dared talk about the Sa’ada War. Hussein Al-Dailami was arrested for staging a sit-in to end the fighting, while amnesty has not been implemented due to conflicts between authorities unable to reach consensus.
5) After five rounds of announcements about closing some overseas embassys as a cost cutting measure, so far its just Romania.
