Armies of Liberation

Yemen the main source of illegal arms to Somalia: UN
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Jane Novak for the Yemen Times

SANA’A, Dec. 27— A UN investigation found Yemen is the primary source of arms and ammunition to Somalia which has been under an arms embargo since 1992. The panel of independent experts monitoring the embargo also reported arms smuggling from Yemen intersects with acts of piracy and human trafficking. The findings were presented in a December 10 report to the UN Security Council.

The report notes commercial weapons imports from Yemen supply Somali retail markets as well as opposition and criminal groups. The Yemeni government’s inability to stem the large scale arms trafficking is “a key obstacle to the restoration of peace and security to Somalia,” the panel found. The UN Security Council extended the monitoring group’s mandate for another year.

Yemen plans to refute the charges. SABA news agency dubbed the report “misleading” and noted that “smuggling weapons is sometimes associated with the arriving of displaced Somalis.” A Foreign Ministry statement said that one million Somali refugees in Yemen create an economic burden that “sometimes leads to social, security and health repercussions.” Nearly 50,000 Somali refugees made the maritime crossing to Yemen in 2008, authorities reported.

In prior years, about 30,000 Somalis migrated annually.

The UN report ties together weapons smuggling, human trafficking and piracy, noting some small boats used in acts of piracy also “move refugees and economic migrants from Somalia to Yemen, bringing arms and ammunition on the return journey,” Piracy in the waters between Yemen and Somalia spiked dramatically with over 100 pirate attacks and over 40 vessels captured by pirates this year. The authorities in Puntland and Somaliland told the UN monitoring group that “maritime traffic from Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, remains their largest single source of arms.” Weapons purchased in Yemen are also smuggled to insurgent groups in Ethiopia, the investigation found. One intercepted shipment included 101 anti-tank mines, 100 hand grenades, 170 rocket-propelled grenade-7 rounds, and 170 boxes of 7.62 mm ammunition.

Increased activity by the Yemeni Coast Guard between Aden and al Mukalla impacted arms shipments from ports in the patrolled areas. However, the monitoring group found that the lack of regular patrols in al Mukalla “means that arms traffic continues unabated.” The group recommended capacity building programs for the Coast Guard and direct naval interdiction.

Yemen’s coast line extends 1906 km. The Coast Guard, created in 2003, is working towards taking control of Mocha and al Mukalla from the military. The Republican Guard and Central Security forces have authority at ports where the Coast Guard has limited presence. The Coast Guard has nine operational ships in a fleet of 15, and only two with deep water capacity.

Inadequate funding is an obstacle to increased capacity, Coast Guard Commander Ali Ahmed Ras’ee said in May.

The US provides some operational and training support and in 2004 donated seven patrol boats. With Italian financing, the Italian firm SELEX is implementing a coastal radar system that will eventually cover 450km of coast line including hot spots for piracy and smuggling.

Responding to the UN report, the Foreign Ministry said, “Yemen reiterates its readiness to cooperate with the UN and all regional concerned parties to fight piracy and all forms of weapon smuggling, the issues resulted due to the situation in Somalia where there is not a central government.”

Yemen has the second most heavily armed citizenry per capita after the United States. In August 2007, authorities implemented a ban against carrying weapons in cities and have confiscated over 150,000 weapons since the program began. Over 200 weapons shops were also closed.

Weapons smuggling from Yemen to Saudi Arabia is also a concern. In July, Saudi Arabia announced that in a three month period, border guards confiscated over a ton of explosives and a large number of arms including 13 rocket-propelled grenades, 99 sticks of dynamite, 100 fuses, 12 detonators, more than 100 guns and 15,000 cartridges.

Jan 2007

More than 1,000 Yemeni men went to Iraq to fight jihad during 2003 to 2006, most of them during 2006, and around 150 were killed, a local newspaper reported on Monday.

The Al Tajamo weekly paper said that 70 to 75 per cent of the men went to Iraq from Yemen while the remainder went there from other countries. Most of them were young, under 20, and were influenced by extremist religious discourse.

The Al Hekma Charitable Association which is based in Aden, Sanaa and Abyan helped the young men go to Iraq for jihad, the paper said. The Al Hekma association has denied the claim.

AOL
In its latest issue, Al-Tajamu Weekly said that security reports indicate that extremist elements having links with Al-Hikma Association, affiliated with the Yemeni Islah Party in Aden, Abyan and Sana’a, provided money and logistic aids to Al-Qaeda leaders from Yemen and Saudi Arabia to recruit fighters and smuggle them into Iraq.

An Al-Hikma Association official was arrested over his involvement in providing facilitations to get one of his accomplices into Iraq. However, Al-Tajamu Newspaper mentioned that this man was released following intervention by senior security leaders.

March 2009

Sheikh Dr. Aqeel Al-Maqtari is one of the most prominent leaders of the Salafi Moderate Hekma Group in Yemen and is the scientific official in the Al-Hekma Al-Yamania Charitable Society.

YP: Is it true that Salafis main idea on the ruler (president) is that people should not go against him, and those who do go against Islam?
AM: Some believe that going against the Muslim ruler is forbidden, even if he does wrong actions. Their view is that one should advise him when he goes wrong and nothing else. This practice was followed by many scholars.
However, there are others who believe that armed opposition against the ruler is important if you have the capacity, which means defeating the ruler, on condition that the ruler clearly declares going against Islam.
In the past, there were some scholars who clearly said that revolution against the disobedient ruler is an obligation and a duty, but when they saw that a lot of blood was spilled, they forbid it.

If Saleh ordered the Sa’ada prisoners released on 12/08 and they are still in jail, then its either a ploy or he can’t get his own directives implemented.

The order: (Read on …)

Nabi and others to be used against southern opposition

Interview:

Khaled Abdulnabi was the leader of the Salafist Jihad group in Yemen, one of the most prominent figures associated with Islamic groups and frameworks that have emerged in Yemen and the Arab states over the past three decades.

The man known as that of the jihadi leaders, which has fought through her advocacy of many of the stations in order to win respect of the ideas and values .. Where participation is seen as the elements of the Salafist Jihad group in Yemen in the battles to defend against the summer of Yemeni unity in 1994, and one of these stations, which uncovered the essence of the values and principles, which believes in it. (Read on …)

Spending 28% of income in low income homes.
Some children start chewing as young as seven.

Yemen Times

Julie G. Viloria-Williams has over 25 years of experience with the World Bank in sustainable people-based development. She held positions in Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Eastern and Central Asian countries before becoming the Middle East and North Africa regional expert in September last year. She is the team leader in the Qat dialogue task in Yemen, which represents the World Bank’s assistance to Yemen in dealing with this issue. Her job involves research into the issues and development needs of countries within the MENA region, and identification of potential threats, especially on the issues that affect the livelihood of citizens.

“Because of the urgency of the Qat problem in Yemen, it has become the World Bank’s fourth pillar in the bank’s new country assistance strategy along with growth, governance and the Millenium Development Goals,” she said. Based on the December country assistance strategy consultation, the World Bank’s assistance to Yemen will take the form of grants, rather than loans, to be provided over the next three years.

During her recent visit to Yemen, Viloria-Williams met with the various stakeholders and discussed with them the issue of Qat. She also attended some focus groups, during which she realized just how deep the problem is.

“In many families children as young as seven start chewing because of parental influence, especially because mothers, who are usually uneducated, think of Qat as means to bind their children to the family,” she said.

As a part of its campaign against Qat, the WB will be producing a documentary on Qat in Yemen, in both Arabic and English, she anticipates that it will be broadcast on Yemeni TV among other media channels in a bid to spread awareness.

Size of the problem

According to a detailed survey carried out by the World Bank in mid 2006, 72 percent of men and 33 percent of women chew Qat for an average of 6 hours per day. Qat absorbs 10 percent of the average household income and over 28 percent for low income groups. Qat production, trade and consumption accounts for 10 percent of GDP, and is the cause of many health problems. The study sampled more than four thousand Yemenis from around the Republic. (Read on …)

1- The regime itself talks to and is allied with al-Qaeda.

2- This seems a propaganda ploy to connect the southerners with terrorists. Next things will start blowing up (poorly and at 6 am), then security forces will have a four hour shoot out and kill some terror mastermind and the government will declare itself victorious.

3- The southerners dont need al-Qaeda if they decide to engage in violence, which they have not.

AKI
Sanaa, 24 Dec. (AKI) – Leaders of a Yemeni Al-Qaeda cell have reportedly allied themselves with separatists opposing the government in southern Yemen. Unnamed security sources told the daily , al-Quds al-Arabi, that leaders of the Al-Qaeda cell in Yemen recently held a summit with leaders of the separatist group.

The separatists want to restore the former South Yemen regime, which was united with the Yemen Arab Republic, or North Yemen in 1994.

Among the Al-Qaeda leaders reported to have been at the meeting were Salem al-Radwui, who had returned from fighting in Afghanistan, and other militants wanted by police for allegedly taking part in terror attacks against Yemeni security forces and government institutions.

During the summit, the parties reportedly reached an agreement to carry out a series of attacks against businessmen and government buildings in the capital, Sanaa.

Police are reported to have discovered a terrorist hideout in the province of Abin in the past few days.

If the projects came to completion, they would have employed 26,000 people

Nearly 78 percent of investment projects in Aden have stalled, says a recent study

Yemen Times: A recent study conducted by the government revealed that 1132 investment projects in the Aden governorate have stalled or are no longer active, accounting for 78 percent of the total projects registered by the General Investment Authority.

The study was undertaken by a team from the branch of the investment authority in Aden and was headed by Mohammed Hilbub, professor of investment and supply in Aden University. The report also received support from the Germen Organization for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). According to the study, between 1992 and 2008, 601 projects have stalled and 531 remain registered by the authority but have failed to proceed as investors were unable to find land and supplies for the projects. (Read on …)

the Yemen Times

TAIZ, Dec. 21 — The Taiz Governorate has been hit hard by a recent outbreak of Dengue Fever, with Al-Jumhoori Hospital reporting up to 525 cases in the past three months alone.

Dengue Fever can be tested for by two methods, the Test Cassette and the Elisa Test, according to Dr. Ahmed Abddulaah Mansur, Chairman of Virology Department at Al-Jumhoori Hospital. However, the availability of such methods is reportedly inadequate. “The Elisa Test is available only at the Aljumhuri Hospital, where cases are referred to from all other private or public hospitals and laboratories,” Mansur said. (Read on …)

Yemen Post

As cold weather gripping several provinces in the republic dips to 2-6 degrees below zero affecting crops badly, two of the war-displaced people in the northern province of Saada died as a result of the low temperatures.

Some of the displaced at one of the displaced camps, where almost 450 citizens are living, confirmed Saleh Abdullah al-Urdha, 46, and Ali Nassir, 35, died as a direct result of cold weather as there was no sufficient medical care.

Citizens at these camps complain of slowness of authorities to provide an effective treatment of their conditions.

Earlier, competent authorities warned of bad low temperatures predicting cold weather could badly affect crops.

Last reports said the temperature in Sana’a, Dhamar and al-Dhale dipped below zero to 2 degrees; however, it was in some nearby areas 6 degrees below zero. As crops are affected by cold weather, their prices soar.

Thousand displaced people in the province live at camps after they fled confrontations between government troops and the Houthi rebels.

The rebellion ended in late July after almost more than four years of clashes.

The US-based Human Rights Watch then accused the government and the Houthis of hindering organizations from providing humanitarian aids to war-displaced people, saying they blocked free movement of aids to reach out the affected.

The administration is utterly dysfunctional.

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Dec 23 — As the spread of myiasis, a condition where animal or human tissue is infested with fly larvae or maggots, in the Mahwit governorate rapidly accelerates, field teams from the General Department for Animal Resources (GDAR) have ceased working towards combating this potentially fatal disease.

The teams stopped work three weeks ago because, according to Ahmed Al-Hasibi, director of the Animal Wealth Administration in Mahwit governorate, “the vector is out of control, it is a fly in the air.”

However, two teams in Bani Sa’ad, one in Al-Khabt and another in Milhan are still working towards eradicating the disease.

“At the moment, GDAR field teams have stopped fighting the epidemic. Because they have not received their salaries from the Ministry of Agriculture since the 3rd December, they have decided to quit,” Al-Hasibi said. (Read on …)

ME Online

Yemen has long provided a safe haven for jihadists. And there were some 3,000 Yemenis among the Afghan Arabs. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, the Yemeni authorities accepted returning Yemenis, but also jihadists from other countries. North and south Yemen united in 1990, but contradictions between the regime of Ali Abdallah Saleh and his southern Socialist partners were clear. During the 1994 civil war that followed, Afghan Arabs played a leading role in suppressing southern moves towards secession.

Yemen is also the ancestral home of the Bin Laden family. And after 9/11, Yemen came under heavy pressure amid US suspicions that the country was a logistical base for militants. According to a specialist in jihadist networks based in the Yemeni capital Sana’a: “There has been no al-Qaida operation without a link to Yemen: It is always either a source of arms or money, or one of the perpetrators is a Yemeni, or one of the operatives has passed through it.” Fearing a US attack on Yemen, Saleh flew to Washington and agreed to cooperate with the US war on terror. However, Yemeni policy towards jihadist movements was multi-layered: While dozens of jihadists were arrested after 9/11, including the Egyptian jihad theoretician Sayed Imam al-Sharif (better known as Doctor Fadl), others remained at large.

Opening a dialogue

The Yemeni authorities also launched a project to establish dialogue with imprisoned jihadists, led by Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, now minister of religious affairs. “The dialogue project is one of the cornerstones of official Yemeni policies to fight terrorism,” he told me.

“We found that every terrorist movement has an ideological basis, and that ideas can only be countered by an opposing idea. The use of force in Afghanistan and Iraq has failed to bring peace and stability to those regions. Al-Qaida is based on two ideas: takfir of Arab regimes and ejecting foreign armies. In our dialogue we show that the Yemeni government is legitimate. We also show that differences in religion or religious practices cannot justify war.”

The dialogue project was designed to correct these misconceptions based on religious references. Al-Hitar said the project ended in 2005, as a result of pressure from within the Yemeni government, which wanted to use other means to fight “terrorism.” He added that the project had been for Afghan Arabs but not for returnees from Iraq. (Read on …)

Aden, Laziqia ports to be twined
LAZIQIA, Dec. 19 (Saba) – Yemen ambassador to Syria Abdul-Wahab Tawaf discussed on Friday with the governor of the Syrian city governorate of El-Laziqia the executive procedures of the Joint Yemeni-Syrian Committee regarding twining the two ports of Aden city and El-Laziqia as well as establishing a direct sea line between them.

The discussed the executive steps of the cabinet regarding Yemen’s joining to the Syrian-Jordanian Company for Maritime Navigation.

On the other hand, Tawaf also met with rector of Tashreen University of El-Laziqia Mohammed Muala and discussed with him situations of Yemeni students in the university and means of reinforcing scientific cooperation between Yemeni and Syrian universities

They need to get corruption and spending on military hardware under control, but the people who have to do it are the same ones profiting.

Salaries exempt from 50 percent cuts in 2009 budget
almotamar.net,Saba – An official source at the Cabinet said on Saturday the cabinet has approved 50 percent cuts in the 2009 general budget.

Under the decision No. 467 for 2008, which was approved at the minister council last meeting, salaries are exempt from the cuts, the source says.

The move comes due to the fall in oil prices which slumped down $ 36 for the barrel of crude oil lately, the source made clear, adding the drop in oil prices will consequently lead to financial deficit in the 2009 budget increasing from YR 427 billion to YR 532 billion as the price of a barrel reaches $ 30.

The Reality of Female Participation in Public Institutions

Yemen Times

Despite the presence of women in elections, their contribution in decision-making is still weak. In the legislative field, there is a single seat for women in the entire parliament, from a total of 301. In the Shura Council, women occupy only 2 of 111 seats. On the level of the executive authority, only 2 of 33 ministries are directed by women. There are 39 women deputy ministers and assistants compared with 1210 men in similar positions. Out of 44490 general directors in Yemen, only 168 of them are women. In the diplomatic field, women represent a mere 10 percent of all diplomats, and in the judiciary field they represent 7 percent.

Female participation in the parliamentary elections of 1993 was low as they represented only 18 percent of the total voters. In 1997, this level of participation increased to 27 percent, and by the 2003 elections, the level of women participation increased to 42 percent of the total voters.

Interestingly, it is true that the number of women candidates decreases whenever the number of women voters increases. In the 1993 elections, women candidates represented 1.3 percent, yet in 1997 the percentage of women candidates was down to 1.4. This trend has continued, as in the 2003 elections the ratio of women candidates was only .8 percent.

The GPC attains the highest ratio of women votes, such as in the 2003 elections where it captured 60 percent of the female vote – 43 percent of the total votes for that party. The Islah party received 22 percent of the female vote, which represented 40 percent of the total votes for that party. Only 5 percent of female votes went to the socialist party, which represented 39 percent of the total votes that the party attained. The Nasserite party gained 2 percent of the women’s votes, which represented 39 percent of the party’s total.

Voting for parties is not based entirely on their programs. It is right that women in the Yemeni society have a negative view of the extremist religious powers and their rigid stance toward women. However, votes are also affected by other issues. The presence of women in these parties affects the distribution of votes. For example, women represent 31 percent of GPC members, which may account for its popularity among women voters. In the GPC’s General Committee, women represent 12.8 percent of its members, and 9.1 percent of its Permanent Committee.

In the Islah Shura Council, women represent 9.1 percent, and in its General Secretariat they represent 6.3 percent of the total members. Women represent 9.01 percent of the total members in the Socialist Party’s Central Committee, and 10.52 percent in the General Secretariat.

Yemen Post

The State Specialized Penal Prosecution has just completed its investigations with three people accused of spying for Israel and their case will soon be referred to the Penal Court for trial.

Informed official sources revealed that the three individuals admitted to their crime, spying for the Israeli intelligence, Mossad. The sources added that the suspects used to contact the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Israeli Intelligence Agencies and showed readiness to provide them with information over the net.

Moreover, the Israelis accepted the suspects’ offer; however, they conditioned that they work regionally for them and not just to provide information about Yemen.

Two months ago, a security source noted that the terrorist cell whose members were arrested last October, belonging to Islamic Jihad Organizations have connections with the Israeli intelligence, hinting that the organizations have posted different threats to target foreign and Arab embassies in Yemen including the embassies of Saudi Arabia, America, Britain and United Arab Emirates.

The source also revealed correspondence between one of the cell members and Israel where the former sought financial support to launch terrorist operations in Yemen.

Dated 2/23/09 Yes the article was thrown in the archives directly.

YT

Hajar told the Yemen Times that as many as 265 death sentences were endorsed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh between 2004 and 2005, pointing out that such scores multiplied over the following years.

Because Yemen ratified the optional protocol to annul the death penalty as part of its endorsement of the international human rights legislations, it doesn’t attempt to make its local laws homogenize with international legislations, according to Secretary General of the Social Democratic Forum Nabeel Abdulhafeez Majed. “Yemeni laws are limited to those provisions on death penalties other than what is stipulated by the Islamic Sharia law,” Majed went on to say.

“Cases of execution that contravene Islamic Sharia law number up to 315; these executions were committed under just four separate Yemeni laws,” said lawyer Ahmad Al-Wadei. “120 of those execution cases are contained in the Penal Law of 1994, as many as 166 cases in the Military Penal Law, 33 cases in the Anti-Drug Law, and 90 cases in the Anti-Kidnapping and Highway Robbery Law.”

Presenting a paper on “Death Sentence in Yemeni Legislation” at a symposium in Sana’a last year, Al-Wadei argued that Yemeni legislators deliberated to leave the ‘death sentence part’ in the Penal Law unlimited by using ambiguous and unspecific statements.

Al-Wadei maintained that Article 128 of the Penal Law stipulates passing the death sentence on any individual working for a foreign state hurts the political status of the Republic of Yemen. The law doesn’t specify what type, form, or kind of work for a foreign state this would include. “Working for a foreign state is an unspecific statement with numerous interpretations, and its assessment is left to the relevant judge,” the lawyer clarified.

Sponsored by Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance and the American Islamic Congress. From what I can gather, al-Khaiwani is a judge, that’s neat.

الممثل خالد أبو النجا والخيواني ضمن لجنة التحكيم
مسابقة “الحلم المؤجل” الرابعة … جوائز للشباب عن مقالات الحقوق المدنية..
تنظم منظمة للعام الرابع على التوالي مسابقة الحلم المؤجل الذي تقدمها منظمة المؤتمر الاسلامي الأميركي للشباب دون سن السادسة والعشرين في الشرق الاوسط يتنافس فيها شباب المنطقة على كتابة مقالات عن الحرية والحقوق المدنية ووصف احلامهم المؤجلة في منطقة الشرق الأوسط التي تصفها الأمم المتحدة بأنها أقل مناطق العالم حرية.
ووفقا لقواعد المسابقة فإنه ينبغي على الشباب الكتابة في احدى ثلاثة محاور: الأول الرد على سؤال لماذا تعد الحقوق الفردية مهمة بالنسبة لك؟ يستعرض فيها الكاتب تجربة شخصية منعته فيها القيود من التعبير عن نفسك – كموقف منعه فيه الخوف من الحديث بصراحة, أو كنت منعه من الإطلاع على معلومات كونها ممنوعة بأمر من الرقابة, أو أنه كان هدفاُ للتمييز العنصري بسبب الهوية, وينبغي على الكاتب أن يناقش هذا السؤال من خلال تناول تأثير القمع على المجتم و على حياته الشخصية, مستعينا بأمثلة حية لشرح وجهة نظره، ويمكنه قراءة قصيدة الحلم المؤجل (عنوان المسابقة) لانجستون هيوز لمزيد من الإلهام.
المحور الثاني : كيف تستطيع كفرد دعم الكفاح من أجل الحقوق المدنية؟ على الرغم من تفشي القمع, تتاح الآن فرصا جديدة للتعبير عن رأيك و الوقوف في وجه الظلم, فإن توافرت لك الوسائل التكنولوجية الحديثة و الإنترنت و مساعدة الآخرين في الدول الأخرى المهتمين بالقضية, كيف يمكنك أخذ المبادرة العملية لإصلاح مجتمعك, أطلعنا على أفكارك الخلاقة بشأن الحملات و البرامج الهادفة إلى حماية الحقوق الفردية.
المحور الثالث: ما هو “حلمك المؤجل” أي رؤيتك لمجتمعك حيث يمتلك فيه الكل حقوقهم المدنية؟ أعرض أفكارك حول مستقبل يخلو من القمع. صف ما يجري الآن في الشوارع و النقاشات في الفصول الدراسية و النقد العلني للزعماء في وسائل الإعلام. صف كيف يمكن أن تؤثر المساواة في الحقوق للمرأة و الأقليات على مجريات الحياة اليومية. إن كنت تريد، أجب السؤال بكتابة مقال صحفي في سنة2010 معلقاً فيه على حدث جذري.
ويشترط للدخول في المسابقة أن لا يزيد طول المقال عن 2000 كلمة ولا يقل عن 600 كلمة، لا تدخل فيها الهوامش والاقتباسات، وبإمكان الراغبين في الاطلاع زيارة موقع مبادرة همسه للحقوق المدنية للاطلاع على المقالات الفائزة في العام الماضي لكسب المزيد من الالهام وذلك على الرابط التالي: http://www.hamsaweb.org/essay/ar-index.html، وعبر ذات الموقع يمكن ارسال المقالة..
وتعرض المقالات على هيئة التحكيم التي تضم عددا من المهتمين أبرزهم زينب السويج رئيس منظمة المؤتمر الاسلامي الأميركي، والممثل السينمائي المصري ومقدم البرامج خالد أبو النجا، والصحفي اليمني عبدالكريم الخيواني والمفكر العالمي الدكتور توم بالمر من جامعة كاتو، وآخرين..
وتقدر الجائزة الأولى بمبلغ 2000 دولار لأفضل مقالة، والثانية 1500 دولار، والثالثة 500 دولار، بالاضافة إلى عدد من الكتب والاصدارات المتعلقة بالحقوق المدنية، كما سيكون أصحاب المقالات من بين المدعوين لحضور فعاليات وانشطة منظمة المؤتمر الاسلامي التي تقام سنويا في بعض دول الشرق الأوسط كالأردن والمغرب ومصر، وآخر يوم لتقديم المقالات هو التاسع من يناير 2009.

The UN monitoring group on the 1992 arms embargo on Somalia finds “Yemen remains the most important source of commercial arms transfers to Somalia.”

One shipment for the ONLF in Ethiopia contained 101 anti-tank mines, 100 hand grenades, 170 rocket-propelled grenade-7 rounds, and 170 boxes of 7.62 mm ammunition, each containing 440 rounds. The mines were packed in rice sacks from a company in Sana’a. The same boats that bring the migrants bring back weapons and are involved in piracy.

143. Not surprisingly, there appears to be an intersection between piracy and other
criminal activities, such as arms trafficking and human trafficking, both of which
involve the movement of small craft across the Gulf of Aden. One sub-group of the
Puntland network, based in the Bari region, allegedly uses the same boats employed
for piracy to move refugees and economic migrants from Somalia to Yemen,
bringing arms and ammunition on the return journey.

Of course, commercial weapons trafficing in Yemen is often sponsored by those in official positions. The purported largest weapons dealers (for example, Faris Manna, Regent Street, Sana’a) are said to be partners with some very top officials (Salah & family). This is part of the reason the military budget is so high. Not only is this hooked in with piracy and refugee smuggling but also drug and oil smuggling. Its John Gotti with an air force.

Report text below the fold: (Read on …)

IRIN

SANAA, 20 January 2009 (IRIN) – The maternal mortality rate (MMR) remains high as a result of poor health care and harmful social practices, including child marriage and female genital mutilation, a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) official in Yemen has said.

“Maternal mortality is very high in Yemen. Some 360 women die per 100,000 live births and that figure could be higher,” said Naseem Ur-Rehman, UNICEF’s chief information officer in Yemen, at a press briefing on 18 January to launch the State of the World’s Children 2009 report.

Eight women or girls die from pregnancy or childbirth complications every day in Yemen, he said; globally the figure is 1,500.

According to the UNICEF report, the lifetime risk of maternal death in Yemen is 1:39, making it the highest in the Middle East.

At the same time Yemen has the lowest percentage of births in the Middle East at which a skilled attendant is present: Delivery care coverage is 36 percent, and 24 percent of births take place in hospitals.

The report said a study by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that female genital mutilation/cutting, which is widespread in rural areas, affected the reproductive health of women: It caused severe pain, prolonged bleeding, infection, infertility and even death.

The report defines maternal mortality as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the pregnancy’s termination, regardless of the site or duration of the pregnancy, from any cause related to, or aggravated by, the pregnancy or its management”.

Shortage of health workers

UNICEF’s Ur-Rehman said the lack of health workers was one of the reasons for the high MMR and neonatal mortality rates, adding that Yemen was among 57 countries where “the shortage of health workers is acute”.

“Worldwide, there is a shortage of 4.3 million health workers who provide care at the time of pregnancy and delivery,” he said, adding that there should be a minimum of 2.28 health workers per 1,000 people.

Yemeni health officials estimate there is one doctor per 10,000 people and that health services reach only 60 percent of the country’s 21 million people.

Child marriages

Ur-Rehman said child marriage, which aggravates high fertility rates by giving girls a longer period in which to have children, added to the risks.

“Yemen faces this problem of child marriages. There are a large number of child marriages and they ultimately contribute to the deaths of children,” he said.

Nabil Mohammed al-Ammari, executive director of the Yemeni Family Care Association, said lack of awareness about family planning and reproductive health care services also translated into a higher MMR.

He said his association carried out a survey in 2007 in 15 of the 21 governorates on the use of family planning methods and found that people preferred not to use them for fear of possible side effects.

Al-Ammari said social attitudes also had an impact on MMR. “A father of four or five daughters would love to have a boy even at the cost of having many children,” he said.

According to UNICEF’s Ur-Rehman, three things can reduce the high MMR: better community and family support for pregnant women; comprehensive health insurance to cover the costs associated with pregnancy, child birth and post-natal care; and the setting up of establishments where pregnant women from remote areas can go for advice and help prior to their due date.

“Many of these women who are dying are too poor to get to health facilities. Some families take the mother to hospital, but she turns out to be dead on arrival,” he said.

The implication here is the British Embassy was responding to pressure from the Bahraini authorities not to issue the visa, or else the embassy is totally incompetent and “forgot” to process the application despite the fact the guy was calling every day. Activists in the Middle East are under tremendous pressure, and they are willing to endure a lot to gain their rights. We in the West need to ensure that our governments help them as much as possible or at least do not support the efforts of these repressive governments to censor their voices.

Due to his Participation in a Human Rights Symposium in the British House of Lords:

The British Embassy in Bahrain prevents a human rights activist from getting a visa

Manama, Oslo – 17 December 2008

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights -BYSHR and the Arab-Euro Center for Human Rights and International Law-AECHR express their deep concern regarding the measures the British embassy in Bahrain took in delaying the procedures of obtaining a visa for entering the British lands for Mr. Mohammed Al-Maskati – president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights – in order to participate in a symposium held by Lord Eric Avebury – member of the British House of Lords [[i]] – regarding human rights issues in Bahrain. Mr. Avebury had extended an invitation to Mr. Al-Maskati to participate with a paper on human rights issues in Bahrain on 18 December 2008 at the headquarters of the British House of Lords in London.

Mr. Al-Maskati stated that he received the invitation on 30 November 2008, and on 4 December he applied for a visa and he attached the letter addressed to the British embassy in Bahrain to facilitate obtaining the visa. For 13 days he continuously and for several times kept checking with the people in charge of extracting visas, and he also checked with the visa department in the British embassy. This continuous follow-up did not give any results whether with a rejection or approval, nor did the embassy even ask for additional documents other than the invitation letter that was attached to the visa application. (Read on …)