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A field study on” the behavioral and psychological impact of Saada war on Children”

A study conducted by (SEYAJ) organization for Childhood Protecting showed that 45, 5 % of children in Saada suffer psychological and behavioral disorders out of the war that they experienced in their areas during the past four years.

the study-which was carried out by a team of field researchers of Seyaj’s Volunteers by self- efforts- also showed that the children suffer from several psychological effects as depression , anxiety ,bedwetting, great fear of the voices of lightning or bullets being shot in wedding ceremonies .Sometimes it ends up with some children falling unconscious,.

The Study which was carried out during the months of (September and October 2008) aimed to measure the psychological and behavioral indications of war on children specifically in clash areas along with studying its impact on the present and future of children, their families, their surroundings and their education.

Moreover, the study showed that 38.8 % of children are living in constant fear while 12, 6 % are experiencing anxiety.

13.5 % of children surveyed from both sexual categories prefer to sit alone away from their families.

The Study that involved 1,018 children aged 7 -15 years old (61.8 male and 38.2 female) of the total target of 1100 demonstrated that (58.2 %) of the target have lost confidence in the future and have not believed in the importance of education any more.

Only 15.6 % of the total target think of leaving school because of the fear and frustration of the future while the same reasons affect 16 % of them with often desire to cry.

this study fulfilled in the Directorate of Razeh which is one of the least damaged areas in the province of Saada and showed that 21.7 % of those surveyed have been revealed reprisal trend having them feel a great desire to strike at their peers and take over them.

The study confirmed that (38.8 %) were having nightmares and disturbing dreams of seeing people in their sleep want to kidnap, kill them or some or all members of their families as well as seeing animals try to eat them.

As for displaced children who live in shelters or have lost their relatives or their homes because of armed confrontations, the study reveals the high rates of bad psychological conditions among them. However they could not be included in the study sample search since it is difficult to reach them.
Finally the study recommended that it is necessary to expedite the implementation programs of psychological and social rehabilitation and reintegrate children in areas of military confrontations.
It also recommended to accelerate the reconstruction of damaged schools and to remove all marks of a war in addition to craft facilities that create an attractive learning environment.

The study warned of the danger of carelessness in addressing the negative impacts of the war which definitely will result in negative behaviors and practices revealing social and economical problems which threaten stability of local communities in the future.

Arrests in Taiz

بيان”الشقائق” بخصوص الاعتقالات في محافظة تعز

يتابع منتدى الشقائق العربي لحقوق الإنسان بقلق الاعتداءات الأمنية التي تطال الحق بالتعبير عن الرأي والتقييد الواسع للحريات التي تلجأ له السلطات لمنع الاعتراض السلمي الذي يقوم به النشطاء السياسيين في عدد من المحافظات اليمنية للاعتراض على الإجراءات التمهيدية للانتخابات القادمة.
إن قيام النشطاء بتوزيع المنشورات والتظاهر السلمي وابدأ الرأي العلني هي حقوق مكفولة ونافذة بحكم الدستور والقانون و لا يجوز تقيدها والاعتداء عليها ضمن أي تفسير امني متشدد ينحو باتجاه تكيفها باتجاه أنها أعمال تحريض على الشغب،
وفي هذا يؤكد الشقائق على ضرورة التزام السلطات باحترام ممارسة هذه الأنشطة وعدم مضايقة القائمين عليها، كما يطالب بالإفراج العاجل عن النشطاء المعتقلين في محافظة تعز مطهر الشرجبي وجميل سالم الذين تم احتجازهم على ذمة منشورات سياسية تدعو لمقاطعة الانتخابات، كما يدعو “الشقائق” للإفراج عن عدد 21 معتقل لدى الأجهزة الأمنية في محافظة تعز على ذمة الاعتصام الذي نظمته أحزاب اللقاء المشترك يوم السبت الماضي.
إن تكرار هذه الممارسات الأمنية القمعية يؤدي إلى خرق حقوق أساسية مكفولة للمواطنين، ويؤدي إلى توتير المناخ العام، ولهذا يدعو “الشقائق” إلى وقف هذه الممارسات، كما يدعو النيابة العامة في محافظة تعز لوقف أي محاولة لتكيف تعسفي للتهم الموجهة للمعتقلين بغرض إدانتهم على ممارستهم حقوقهم الدستورية.

صادر عن منتدى الشقائق العربي لحقوق الإنسان

4 persons charged of al-Qaeda affiliation prosecuted
Monday, 24-November-2008
Almotamar.net – Specialized First Instance Court in Yemen decided entrusting the prosecution with addressing lawyers union to retain a lawyer for defending four persons accused of forming an armed gang for carrying out criminal acts and affiliation to al-Qaeda organisation and postponed their trial to the 24th of next December.

At the beginning of the sitting for trial of defendants Tawfiq Saad Ali al-Faqieh , 22, worker in Sana’a , Ali Ahmed al-Zaroud , 23, driver ,Sana’a Nabil Ahmed Ali al-Sarihi35, driver. Amran and Ismael Ali Hizam Ghurab, 23, bookshop owner, Ibb, the prosecution presented the indictment.

The indictment included the said defendants taking part in formation of n armed gang for committing criminal acts targeting foreign tourists, foreign, government and security institutions and hotels where there are foreigners. They have prepared explosives and detonation devices and explosive belts and for that purpose they had distributed tasks among them.

Indictment pointed out their training on use of various weapons and spotting tourist hotels in Sana’a, the old city in addition to plotting the Red Cross on the Yemeni-Saudi borders. The indictment disclosed the defendants planning to target tourists at Dar Hajar with explosive belts.

The court also held a sitting for the prosecution of Zain Ali Amer al-Amiri accused of the attempt to explode an oil pipeline in Sarwah, Mareb. But the defendant denied the charge of the attempt to explode the oil pipeline and confessed of highway robbery and opening fire on military posts. At the enc of the sitting the court decided to postpone the trial to 24 December 2008.

Alleged Qaeda members go on trial in Yemen

1 hour ago

SANAA (AFP) — Eight alleged members of Al-Qaeda cells have been brought before a special terrorism court in Sanaa accused of plotting to attack tourists and government facilities, a judicial source said on Tuesday.

Four suspected members of one cell made their first appearance before the court on Monday while the trial of the second group, also comprising four members, began on Tuesday, the source said.

Members of the first cell are accused of “forming an armed group with the intention of attacking tourists and hotels as well as government installations,” the charge sheet stated.

They are also alleged to have planned an attack against the Red Cross near the border between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

The four, all Yemenis aged between 22 and 35, are alleged to have prepared bombs and explosive belts. They allegedly had identified targets within Sanaa’s old city but were arrested before carrying out any attacks.

Their next hearing was fixed for December 24.

The second group, comprising four Yemenis aged between 15 and 24, are accused of plotting terrorist acts and of possessing explosives.

According to prosecutors, they wanted to launch attacks against tourists and government facilities to avenge the death at the hands of the security forces of a fellow militant, Hamza al-Kaithi.

Their trial was postponed to December 13.

A security official told AFP that the eight accused are among dozens of Yemenis suspected of being linked to Al-Qaeda. The authorities are still investigating charges of terrorism against some 60 other people.

Yemen has witnessed a series of attacks claimed by Al-Qaeda in recent months against oil facilities and the security forces.

The US intercepted this letter? Why isn’t it in a US paper? If Iran is funding and facilitiating AQ in Yemen, then things are a bit more crowded on the Yemen playground than I thought or in a different way anyway. Kinda an odd story yes?

Telegraph: Iran receives al Qaeda praise for role in terrorist attacks.

Fresh links between Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and al-Qaeda have been uncovered following interception of a letter from the terrorist leadership that hails Tehran’s support for a recent attack on the American embassy in Yemen, which killed 16 people.

Delivery of the letter exposed the rising role of Saad bin Laden, son of the al-Qaeda leader, Osama as an intermediary between the organisation and Iran. Saad bin Laden has been living in Iran since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, apparently under house arrest.

The letter, which was signed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda’s second in command, was written after the American embassy in Yemen was attacked by simultaneous suicide car bombs in September.

Western security officials said the missive thanked the leadership of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for providing assistance to al-Qaeda to set up its terrorist network in Yemen, which has suffered ten al-Qaeda-related terror attacks in the past year, including two bomb attacks against the American embassy. (Read on …)

Good, they need some inspection proceedures. There’s lots of counterfeit medicines, expired food and products etc. About 65% of all medicines is either counterfeit or smuggled.

Cotecna Signs Verification of Conformity (VoC) Contract With Yemen

GENEVA, Switzerland, November 21 /PRNewswire/ — On Nov. 19, 2008 Cotecna signed a contract for the implementation of the International Conformity Certification Program (ICCP) with the Republic of Yemen.

The two year renewable contract was signed with the Yemen Standardization , Metrology and Quality Control Organization (YSMO). Its objective is to provide protection of the health and safety of consumers through the ICCP. (Read on …)

The right to register verses the right to protest

Yemen Observer

The High Security Committee warned against attempts to prevent people from practicing their constitutional rights because of disruptions to the voters registration list amendments process following demonstrations by supporters of the Joint Meeting Parties in some area’s of Sana’a and Amran last week. (Read on …)

Yemen Post

The Security Information Office in the Ministry of Interior told media outlets that security officials in Khanfer, Abyan’s district found last Saturday 140 kilograms of dynamite and explosive devises near the security officials head office.

Further, they added that explosive experts in the army managed to disable the explosives and sent them to the Central Laboratory in Sana’a for further investigations.

Meanwhile, counterterrorism specialists warned from the rapid increase of explosives in Yemen, claiming that Somali smugglers bring explosives to neighboring countries for trade purposes.

It was my impression that Saleh paid for this out of his own pocket from his stash, where is it Germany? The articles seem to imply its state money. But then again, Saleh’s money is state money.

In suffering Yemen, a brand-new mosque

SAN’A, Yemen: The inauguration of an enormous new mosque named after the authoritarian president of Yemen has bewildered the people of this impoverished Arab country – especially when they learned it cost a staggering $60 million.

It is a massive sum in a country that ranks as the poorest in the Arab world and is beset by internal armed conflict, terrorism and severe malnutrition.

“We need schools and hospitals,” said Salem Ahmed, a government employee. “Many Yemenis have to travel abroad for medical treatment. This is hypocrisy.” (Read on …)

SANA’A,NewsYemen

The Yemeni Socialist Party said that a huge bombing on Saturday hit the electoral center 297 in al-Jalilah city of al-Dale province to indicate rising tension over preparations for the upcoming parliamentary elections, scheduled for April 27, 2009.

Several provinces witnessed more protests against the process of revising and updating voters’ list and field electoral committees which protestors considered as “illegal” and accuse them of counterfeiting the voters’ list. (Read on …)

Military spending is VERY HIGH, about a third of the total budget. This report notes the high degree of centralization and low health and water spending among other important statistics. The health ministry is one of the most corrupt anyway.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Nov 18 — A delegation from Civil Society Organizations Network for Development held a meeting with the Parliament’s Budget Committee and presented a study entitled The Equitable Distribution of Expenditures in the Public Budget from a Social Perspective.

The analytical study examined the final accounting report for 2007, draft budget plan for 2009 and the distribution of expenditures in the public budget from a social perspective. It was prepared by Dr. Mohammad Ali Jubran Professor of Accounting Sana’a University for the Civil Society Organizations Network for Development.

The study indicated that a substantial amount of the state budget was channeled towards governmental central offices at the expense of local authorities. (Read on …)

Hit “dialysis” in the search box for the “medical” category or the back story on stolen medicine, fraudulent medicines and the dialysis machines returned to Bangladesh.

Yemen Times

IBB , Nov. 17 — The number of people who have died due to renal failure in Ibb since the renal center was established there in the beginning of 2007 amounted to 100, while people who suffer from the disease are over 500, according to Faisal Abdu Hassan, manager of the renal center. The manager said that the center suffers from a huge shortage of capabilities amid a big number of renal failure patients who resort to the hospital. He pointed out that many patients have died as they couldn’t continue the process of dialysis [cleansing blood through a machine].

“Every day, we receive 32 to 40 cases suffering from renal failure and the number of dialysis machines is limited as we only have 12. Every machine is supposed to cover only two patients a day as the dialysis process takes 4 hours,” said Hassan. “Due to the high demand, we are obliged to do three to five dialysis operations with the same machine every day and reduce the time of every case from four to three hours.” (Read on …)

by fiat

I thought one of Saleh’s campaign pledges was to reduce the electoral terms.

al-Motamar

Parliament extends local councils term four years
Sunday, 23-November-2008
Almotamar.net, SABA – Parliament passed on Sunday an amendment stipulated extending the term of the current local councils four years.

The extension will begin from the date of the expiration of the current local councils, according to the amendment law draft for article 171 of law No. 25 for 2002 concerning the amendment of the Local Council Law No. 4 for 2000.

The amendment also provided that internal elections of the Secretary-General and heads of specialized committees should be held in half of the tenure of local councils.

Under the chairmanship of the Speaker Yahya al-Rae’i, the Parliament also ratified the extra finance agreement for updating Civil Service signed between the government and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) worth $ 14 million.

SANA’A, NewsYemen

The Parliament on Sunday extended the term of local councils to four years starting from April 2009.

The Parliament said the general secretaries of the local councils will be elected every two years. It said that the local councils elections will coincide with the parliamentary elections in April 27, 2009, and that will burden Yemen more expenditures.

The blocs of opposition parties, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), have condemned the decision and said it is “a coup” and “aggressive”. They said the GPC pushes the state to failure through its majority in the Parliament and refused to delay the election of local councils.

Wow, I had no idea. “What are the BOBs? The BOBs are the world’s largest international Weblog awards for Weblogs, podcasts and videoblogs. The awards are given out in 11 different languages.” (I think Im the only American in the finals.)

Vote for Armies of Liberation as world’s best press freedom blogger: click here!

This is their description: A blog written by New Jersey housewife Jane Novak, about internal affairs in Yemen, mostly. She is fighting for the freedom of renowned journalist Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, one of Yemen’s most prominent democracy advocates, who was arrested in 2007. The site has since been banned in Yemen and Novak has become a sort of celebrity in the country.

Actually he was arrested in 2004 and that was the first petition. And 2007 was the second time. I have a whole category for Abdulkarim Al-Khaiwani and my “media” category where I put all the stories about journalists in Yemen has hundreds of entries.

Online voting runs until November 26
Over 8,500 blogs, videoblogs and podcasts were nominated in 16 categories for the BOBs this year – a new record for the BOBs. We would like to thank all of our users who participated.

Those long lists have been narrowed down by our jury members to the top eleven and now it’s your turn to take part..

I went to see who the finalists were and the only blog I recognized was mine.

Nifty gif yes? I love blog bling.

First an Oped in the Guardian

Far from her home village, which was bombed by government warplanes in May, Fatima spoke in a low voice that showed her fear of arrest. She was telling me why she had fled to Yemen’s capital, San’a.

“The planes and helicopters attacked the rebels for seven hours, so we fled,” she said. “We went back after two weeks but our house was totally destroyed, and some villagers had been killed by the government’s bombs. We went to a different village but three weeks later army tanks attacked that village too, so we fled again and came back to San’a.”

Fatima and up to 130,000 fellow Yemenis are the invisible victims of a war in the country’s northernmost governorate of Sa’da that the Yemeni authorities would prefer you not to hear about. In its four-year conflict with armed rebels from an Islamist revivalist movement called “The Believing Youth,” or Huthis, after their founder Husain al-Huthi, the government has banned journalists from the conflict zone. It has arbitrarily arrested those who report on civilian casualties and has cut off most mobile phone services in the region.

Worse still, the government has systematically prevented aid agencies from reaching tens of thousands of people in desperate need of food, water, shelter, and healthcare. About 60,000 of them, mostly women and children who sought refuge in the town of Sa’da, received limited help after the most recent round of fighting ended in July.

But the government earlier blocked all commercial traffic, including basic foods and fuel, a policy of collective punishment outlawed by international law. Today up to 70,000 additional people in need of help remain in remote areas where aid agencies still have little if any access. In some cases, the rebels have also blocked access by aid agencies

In preventing aid agencies from reaching civilians caught between the warring sides, Yemen has failed to respect its international legal obligations to ensure that Fatima and tens of thousands like her at risk from armed conflict obtain humanitarian aid essential to their survival.

Over the past years security forces have also arbitrarily detained hundreds of men not taking part in the fighting simply because they come from the same region as the rebels, locking them up without charge or trial. A number were detained as hostages to force relatives to surrender, or even because they were journalists who published stories about the conflict. In detaining hundreds of people without charge or trial, Yemen has violated its fundamental human rights obligations.

How has Yemen gotten away with it? Yemen’s neighbor, Saudi Arabia, provides unquestioning support. More disturbing has been the public silence from the United States and European Union member states – countries that provide tens of millions of dollars in aid to Yemen. Their silence in the face of such serious human rights violations can only fuel instability in Yemen. When the West – concerned about the government’s fragile hold on power in a country known to shelter al-Qaida militants – stays quiet about flagrant abuses occurring right under their noses, the Yemeni public sees them as siding with an abusive regime.

Those who provide aid should press Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, to end arbitrary detention and to release the dozens of people still held without charge. And with the onset of cold weather, the government and the Huthis need to stop blocking the life-saving work of the humanitarian agencies that are essential to help women like Fatima and the tens of thousands of desperate invisible victims of Yemen’s forgotten war.

A few from my enormous stock of pictures of dead Yemeni civilians, these photos are of villagers digging out a family killed by the Yemeni government’s bombardment of residential areas in the northern Sa’ada region: (Read on …)

They have collaborators in other places too. Asharq Alawasat interviews pirates:

Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- A negotiator for the pirates holding the Saudi supertanker “Sirius Star” off the Somali coasts has disclosed that 40 hijackers seized control of the Saudi vessel and that negotiations were continuing between them and its owners. He added that the “hijackers’ love” for Saudi Arabia because it is a Muslim country would reduce the ransom and also disclosed that the pirates received help from other countries that are providing them with information about the routes used by ships.

One of the hijackers said in a telephone contact with Asharq al-Awsat who said his name was “Jami Adam” (35 years old) and talked through an interpreter by a cell phone linked to satellites that the negotiations were continuing with the Saudi tanker’s owners…

He added: “We had to bear many expenses to hijack it; $ 500,000 was paid for information and expenses for the people who hijack ships.”

Though he did not set a time period for ending the negotiations with the tanker’s owners, he said that they handed back in the past 10 ships belonging to Asian countries, among them China and Japan, whose owners paid ransoms ranging between $1 million and $1.8 million and added: “Some of them paid 1 million, 1.5 million, and 800,000. There is nothing fixed. It is negotiation.” Adam disclosed that the pirates benefit from information they receive from their partners who support and provide them with information from other countries and said: “We have countries that give us information about the ships in the sea, if there are commercial ships or sailing in our way.” He added that these neighboring countries are Yemen, Eritrea, Kenya, and South Africa. Asked how they follow the ships, he said: “We have radars and know every ship’s location. We have collaborators in Kenya, Sri Lanka, Yemen, and Dubai.” He pointed out that these collaborators have nothing to do with the money “and they only provide us with the information.” Jami Adam stressed that the pirates’ partners who are present in more than one Arab, African, and Asian country raise the costs of their operating expenditures in the single hijack, adding that the cost of a hijacking might reach $500,000.

HT: Crossroads Arabia

The Roots of Protest: Prior Elections Impact Future Polls

Voter registration committees triggered protests on Thursday that drew crowds estimated at hundreds of thousands. The registration process was launched November 11 in preparation for April’s Parliamentary election. (Read on …)

WP

Guantanamo’s Yemeni Detainees Epitomize a U.S. Security Concern

The single biggest opportunity — and potential difficulty — for the incoming administration’s plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, comes from the same group of Yemeni prisoners, who make up fully 40 percent of the detainees still held there.

Despite intensive diplomatic discussions in recent months, and the Yemeni government’s promise to put released prisoners through a rehabilitation program, the Bush administration remains unconvinced that the impoverished Arab nation is capable of absorbing a group of men that officials believe includes hardened extremists. (Read on …)

Some good stats, the analysis seems a bit insistant that Yemen is a powerless victims with no ties, contradicting the pirates themselves.

ANALYSIS-Yemen powerless to combat Somali piracy
Thu 20 Nov 2008, 12:59 GMT

Reuters

[-] Text [+] By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

BEIRUT, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Somali pirates preying on shipping in the Gulf of Aden have struck most often off the coast of Yemen, an unstable, impoverished Arab state that has few resources to tackle the maritime scourge.

Ships often take sea lanes near Yemen to avoid proximity to pirate lairs in lawless Somalia or its breakaway Somaliland and Puntland regions, but there is no sign of Yemeni involvement in the attacks, diplomats in Sanaa and some analysts say.

They do not exclude links between Somali pirates and some of the several hundred thousand Somali refugees and migrants in Yemen, but cannot confirm theories that pirates have forged ties with criminal networks there during years of people-smuggling. (Read on …)

When you factor in the flood and the impact of piracy inhibiting the growth and diversification of the economy, things look really bad. The end of oil is coming but the drop in prices (124 to 55) is going to have an immediate impact. The failure to rationalize government expenditures is pathetic. Saleh recently was a shopping spree with Russia and China and just upgraded the Mig’s to enable the delivery of smart bombs.

Beeb

Yemen is facing an economic and political crisis as the country’s oil resources near exhaustion, a report by a London-based think-tank says.

The Royal Institute for International Affairs warns that instability there could expand a zone of lawlessness from northern Kenya to Saudi Arabia.

It describes Yemen’s democracy as “fragile” and points to armed conflicts with Islamists and tribal insurgents.

One diplomat says that the country’s prospects get worse every month.

The World Bank predicts that Yemen’s oil and gas revenues will plummet over the next two years and fall to zero by 2017 as supplies run out.

Given that they provide around 90% of the country’s exports, this could be catastrophic.

An unnamed energy expert is quoted in the report as saying that this points to economic collapse within four of five years time.

Democracy ‘distorted’

Although Yemen was the first democratic nation on the Arabian peninsula, its democracy is described as fragile and distorted by what the report calls the northern tribal system of patronage around President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The president is already facing Islamist insurgents as well as conflicts with tribal groups, and must stand down in 2013 after 35 years in power.

The report concludes with a grim warning that a failed state in Yemen could threaten stability across the region.

It says it could open the way to piracy, smuggling and a flourishing jihad with implications for the security of shipping routes and the transit of oil through the Suez Canal.

Oh my, implying security officials had something to do with the embassy attack, tsk tsk.

YEMEN: Website blocked, blogger harassed
Menassat

CAIRO, November 19, 2008 (ANHRI/IFEX) – The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information has strongly condemned the harassment and threats against engineer Nashwan Abdu Ali Ghanim, whose blog on Katib website http://helal08.katib.org is now blocked in Yemen by the state security. The threats and harassment are based on his articles about the consequences of a terrorist operation targeting the U.S. embassy in Yemen, in which he accused certain political and military leaders of being involved in the attacks.

ANHRI denounces the harassment, which violates international laws and conventions, as well as Yemen’s own constitution. ANHRI considers this action a breach of democratic principles, which the regime in Yemen claims to protect, and calls on Yemeni authorities to end the threats against Ghanim and guarantee his safety. The group also demands the immediate withdrawal of troops surrounding Ghanim’s house, the investigation of his case and the immediate unblocking of his blog.

ANHRI reminds the Yemeni authorities of their obligations towards international conventions following their participation in a 2006 donor conference for states adopting democracy. In particular, ANHRI reminds the authorities to respect Article 19 of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights and of the International Convention for Civil and Political Rights, which deals with freedom of expression.

In the same context, ANHRI calls on human rights organizations at the local, regional and international level, as well as donor institutions, to support Ghanim and pressure the Yemeni authorities to guarantee his physical integrity and end persecutions against expression and opinion activists.