Weapons in Yemen
SANAA: “I have cannons, missiles, Kalashnikovs, anti-aircraft guns and hand grenades,” said community leader Mohammad Naji, sitting cross-legged in his house in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa. “This is a part of our culture, and a tribesman can give up everything except his gun.”
Though not everyone in Yemen has an arms cache the size of Naji’s, almost every household has at least one gun. Arms possession is particularly common in the north and northwest of the country.
Ethnic vendettas are a common problem in Yemen, resulting in the deaths of more than 2,000 people annually, according to government figures.
In one example, revenge killings between the Hajerah and Annis tribes in Ibb and Thamar provinces, south of Sanaa, claimed the lives of more than 30 people and wounded 100 more in early July 2005. That particular vendetta, centered on a land dispute, has flared up intermittently for the last five years.
The crime rate in Yemen is soaring, with shootings almost daily to resolve disputes – or even just when tempers rise. The Interior Ministry reported that 34,655 crimes were committed in 2005, and government studies have blamed this high crime rate on the proliferation of firearms in the country.
Following the recent wave of kidnappings of foreign tourists in December 2005 and January this year, there has been growing pressure on the government to tackle the problem of arms proliferation.
Even before the kidnappings, protesters took to the streets of Sanaa in September 2005 to demand a parliamentary debate on a draft law to control the ownership and use of firearms.
Led by Sanaa Mayor Ahmad al-Kuhlani, protesters marched from Tahrir Square to the Parliament, where they delivered a letter demanding immediate action to stop the proliferation of weapons in Yemen’s cities. However, the parliamentary debate did not result in any legislation.
There are no exact figures for the number of firearms in circulation in Yemen, but unofficial estimates suggest that there are almost 17 million weapons circulating in the country, which according to the latest census in March 2005 has a population of 19.7 million.
Whatever the absolute numbers, firearms are widely available and sold throughout Yemen. In addition to several markets dedicated exclusively to the trade, there are also an estimated 300 small gun shops in the country, with an average inventory of 100 weapons each. Some influential ethnic leaders in Yemen are also involved in the weapons trade.
In theory, arms traders need a license from the Interior Ministry and have to give the government a list of buyers and their purchases.
“The reality is different,” Eizz Eddin Saeed al-Asbahi, director of human rights information and training center in Sanaa said. “These provisions of the law are not enacted at all … the new stockpiles of firearms show they are coming from outside the country.”
For Yemenis, guns are not merely instruments of hunting, defense and attack, but symbols of status, power, manhood, responsibility, wealth – and celebration. Firing guns in the air is a traditional means of celebrating important social occasions, including weddings.
Ethnic customs, or qabalyi, also emphasize defense of the community, defense of land, water wells, women and honor. As these usually involve forms of violence, or at least the threat of violence, most entail the possession of weapons.
International campaigners against small arms emphasize the importance of addressing customs and practices that promote firearm ownership when tackling the proliferation of small arms.
There are several reasons for the widespread availability of firearms in Yemen over the last two centuries – and the enormous increase in recent years.
Colonial forces, such as the Ottomans and British in the 19th and mid-20th centuries, brought a large volume of weapons to Yemen. This pattern was exacerbated when the former Soviet Union became a strong force in southern Yemen following the British withdrawal in 1967.
The division of Yemen in the 1960s produced two warring states, the Yemen Arab Republic in the north and the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen in the south. The two sides fought a number of border conflicts – each requiring new arms supplies – in the 1970s and 1980s.
When the north finally conquered the south in 1994, under President Ali Abdullah Saleh, most of the southern stockpiles of Soviet small arms disappeared into the countryside.
Another factor that has helped promote the culture of firearms in Yemen, according to local observers, is the phenomenon of heavily armed escorts that accompany social dignitaries, from government officials to community leaders. Some 75,000 men work as armed escorts, including 1,500 who work for members of Parliament alone, according to media reports.
Current legislation in Yemen exempts the president, his deputies, current and past ministers, MPs, officials appointed by decree, police and military officers, judges, prosecutors and diplomats working in the country from needing a license to carry a firearm.
Yemen’s current gun-control legislation dates back to 1992, but the law does not designate the necessary authority to control arms proliferation, according to the Interior Ministry.
In 1999, rising crime and violence involving firearms led the Cabinet to draft a new bill to regulate the possession of weapons. The draft law stipulated that Yemenis living in urban areas obtain a license for each weapon they possess. It also gave the Interior Ministry more power to control arms, since it reduced the number of people entitled to licenses.
However, that draft has languished in Parliament for the past seven years.
In March 2005, however, the General People’s Congress (GPC) parliamentary bloc of President Saleh, under popular pressure on the issue, threw its weight behind the draft law and voted to begin parliamentary debate the following September.
Although the group stressed the urgency of discussing and endorsing the draft bill, the debate yielded nothing concrete.
At present, there is no law banning the trade of firearms.
“We believe that the question of trade in firearms is very dangerous and that the importing of weapons should be limited to the government only,” said Sultan al-Barakani, head of the GPC bloc of MPs. “It is interesting that the government has taken a decision banning the trade of explosives, but it should also control the trade of firearms.”
The government’s new interest in arms control stems from its campaign against terrorism. Officials said that terrorist elements have flourished in the larger context of ethnic feuds and plentiful weapons. In an effort to remove heavy weapons belonging to ethnic communities from circulation, the government started a buy-back program with the support of the United States.
The effort has floundered, however, as a result of inadequate funding.
“Yemen spent 8 billion riyals [$43.7 million] to purchase weapons from the tribesmen,” said Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi. “We need to control the situation.”
The problem of arms possession in Yemen extends beyond its borders. There are serious concerns about weapons smuggled out of the country and used to fuel violent conflicts in the Horn of Africa, and notably in Somalia.
A report submitted to the United Nations Security Council in November 2003 named Yemen as the chief source of weapons to a number of East African and Horn of Africa countries, including Kenya and Ethiopia. The report said it was relatively easy to obtain surface-to-air missiles in Yemen and export them to Somalia, noting that the missiles used in the failed attack on an Israeli airplane leaving the coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa in November 2002 were brought through Somalia from Yemen.
Following reports that some of the guns used in the Al-Qaeda attacks against the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in January 2005 belonged to the Yemeni Army – which its government denied – Yemen announced on October 27, 2005, that it had taken some measures to prohibit weapons traders from purchasing weapons for the Yemeni military. This came after pressure by the US and Saudi Arabia, which accused Yemen of not controlling its borders and doing enough to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Saudi territories.
The decision was welcomed by the US and considered a good step toward controlling arms trafficking in Yemen.
Qirbi agreed that weapons smuggling is a very serious problem and said that Yemen was doing all it could to put a stop to it. He cited a coast guard project, which was started some years ago with the help of donors, including the US, and is expected to cost $60 million and require around 150 boats and aims to patrol and monitor the coastal waters.
“We have a long coastline of 2,500 kilometers that needs a lot of logistical support for the coast guards,” Qirbi said. “We hope donors will help us control the smuggling of weapons.” – IRIN
