The National Consultation Meeting
The Bin Shamlan quote is telling. Yemen Times:
SANA’A May 24 — A number of recommendations considered a basis for national dialogue on the country’s urgent issues were outlined during the National Consultation Meeting, which concluded its activities on Thursday.
The country is undergoing a comprehensive crisis unprecedented in contemporary history due to practices and policies of the government which undermine the bases of national partnership and political partisan plurality, according to participants.
Power and resources of the country are exploited by individuals amid rampant nationwide corruption and chaos, participants said. The national crisis threatens the political entity of the country, social structure and national peace, they added
They summarized the Yemeni crisis in the following.
First, the government failed to run the project of unity and did not deal with conditions and challenges that followed the war that broke out in1994. It refused any national political project aimed to eliminate impacts of the war and undermined bases of political plurality and multiple-party system as well as principles of the national partnership that constituted the basis of the peaceful unity achieved in 1990.
They confirmed that the government laid out tens of thousands of southern governorates’ citizens, both military and civil employees with little regards to their rights. Additionally, the public sector was specialized through corruption which only benefited the influential whereas the majority remained jobless. Farmers were dismissed from their lands and government’s plantations and lands were confiscated and re-distributed and illegally appropriated by a small group of elite.
Second, participants confirmed that Sa’ada repeated wars and the tragic impacts need comprehensive treatment, the affected people should be compensated and affected areas reconstructed. They stressed that procedures should be taken to tackle the situation to prevent any potential breakout of a new war and violence. They advised that the Sa’ada issue should be included in the list of a comprehensive national dialogue in which Houthis be a party, pointing out that this issue shouldn’t remain restricted to Houthis and the government but, rather, it should be addressed by all those concerned for the country’s future.
Third, the democratic project and rules of the civil life were affected, liberties were violated, political parties and civil society organizations were split and press was intimidated, according to participants. They added that journalists are subjected to arrests, intimidation and imprisonment, rights were confiscated, peaceful political activities were suppressed and monitoring and legislative institutions were idled and became a tool in the hand of individual rule.
Fourth, the national role of the armed forces and security as institutions concerned with protecting democratic and political life was confiscated.
Fifth, economic indicators confirm that there is deterioration in the social and economic rights of citizens. People’s rights to lead a decent life were violated by the government which neglected carrying out economic policies.
Participants said that citizens bear the sequences of the failed and wrong economic policies whereas influential seized resources and revenues of the country and wasted public funds, further pointing out that the government deals with businessmen and investors in an opportunist and discriminative methodology which reflects the government’s bias toward its political objectives and narrow interests of its elite at the expense of the national interests.
Sixth, the government fixed the disintegrative culture to face of the national project and played a negative role in national development. It encouraged corruption and undermined national bonds on behalf of a culture that promotes loyalty to the government.
Seventh, the government depended on an extremist initiative based on using force to face all forms of the national struggle and the different activities and peaceful demands. This resulted in another extremism supported by terrorism which depends also on force and violence, which made the government the biggest cause of crises and their aggravation.
In the same context, Faisal Bin Shamlan, the candidate of the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) for the presidential elections conducted in 2006, said during the meeting attended by over 1200 participants that there is a prevailing feeling in the southern government that unity and partnership came to an end. He pointed out that achieving unity was based on equal partnership, demanding that necessary reforms be taken to avoid separation of the two parts of the country.
For his part, Mohammed Ba Sendwa, the president’s advisor, showed his concern about seriousness of this stage. He said that the crises that Yemen is currently witnessing are unprecedented.
Ba Sendwa confirmed that unity should be based on partnership and equal distribution of power and resources. “If we don’t say this, we are useless and if the ruler doesn’t hear it, then he is useless too,” he added.
The JMP had already called on political powers, social dignitaries, civil society organizations, religious scholars and intellectuals as well as businessmen to hold a national consultation under the umbrella of unity and democracy to discuss all national issues, confirming that the national crisis can only dealt with through group work and national consensus.
The meeting announced forming a preparatory committee for the dialogue consisting of 90 members and formed committees of social groups to run the dialogue and prepare for a conference for the national dialogue.
Concerning demonstrations that took place last Thursday in Al-Sheikh Othman city in Aden on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of Yemeni unity, hundreds of members of the National Consultation Meeting staged a sit-in following Friday prayers in the hall where the meeting was held in protest against killing and injuring dozens of people who participated in the demonstration.
Thousands of people who came from a number of governorates gathered at Al-Hashimi square in Aden to celebrate the 19th anniversary of unity but a number of demonstrators raised secessionist slogans and chanted against the regime, according to security authorities.
Security scattered the demonstrators using gunfire, which resulted in fife citizens killed and around 30 injured, according to different sources. The security also detained around 750 demonstrators and sent dozens of them to Sana’a by military transportation planes, according to unconfirmed sources.
The sources said that security chased some demonstrators and arrested them and arrested a number of injured people who received treatment at Al-Naqib Private Hospital. Security sources in Aden said that gunfire targeted members of security from a house in the neighborhood while they were scattering demonstrators. Three soldiers were injured, according to security sources.
