Demonstration Against Guns
Crime Stats
Major General, Al-Qawsi, the Ministry of Interior’s deputy, confirmed that the ratio of crime had declined by 35 percent during the last week of August. “1522 weapons caches have been controlled, of which 48 percent are from the capital secretariat of Sana’a,” Al-Qawsi declared.
However, the Ministry of Interior had mentioned, in its annual report on mortality, that deaths and injuries due to the use of fire-arms during the period from 2004 to 2006 stands at 23, 577. .
According to the report, an astonishing 84,72% of these incidents and crimes are caused by the spread of fire-arms between people.
Moreover, in 2004, a law had been issued to regulate carrying,, as well as possessing weapons. However, the law faced strong objection by the parliamentarians as they have a significant number of bodyguards.
http://www.almotamar.net/en/3293.htm
Amotamar.net – Yemeni civil society organisations organised Tuesday a massive demonstration in the capital to denounce the phenomenon of carrying weapons and its negative impact on development and security and stability of Yemen.
Demonstrators who walked the streets of the capital and gathered at the square near the cabinet building raised banners with slogans denouncing and refusing carrying weapons and walk with them inside the cities.
At the gathering place addresses were delivered by representatives of the General Federation of Women in Yemen, political parties and organisations and civil society organisations, demanding cooperation of all official, party and people’s efforts for curbing spread of weapons among the citizens, regulating the citizens’ possession of light weapons and banning walking in the streets with them inside the cities.
The speeches warned against the danger of this phenomenon continuation without treatment in the possibility of using it for political purposes, feeding crime tendencies and destabilization of security and stability as well as public safety.
The speeches delivered at the gathering pointed out that the figures revealed in official reports of by the interior ministry that 69% of crimes committed in Yemen are caused by spread of firearms in addition to spread of different medium weapons.The gathering blessed the serious steps taken by the government, especially the interior ministry for banning weapons inside the Yemeni cities beginning from the 1rst of next September. They stressed the importance that those steps are a beginning for more steps in this regard. The speeches also called on the parliament to speed up passing the draft law presented by the government concerning regulating carrying and possessing weapons in the manner treating shortcomings in the present law.
On the other hand the deputy premier, the minister of interior Dr Rashad al-Alimi met with representatives of civil society organisations organising the demonstration, expressing his appreciation of the organisations initiative for organising it for the purpose of calling the attention to danger of spread of weapons. He clarified that the ministry is about to take strict measures to ban carrying weapons inside the cities and would be carried out in a timetable.
