Armies of Liberation

The document of Pledge and Accord is posted here in English. The document was drafted as a last ditch effort to avoid a civil war in Yemen, and its recommendations were ignored. Fifteen years later, all the problems are the same but more so, including Saleh’s tendency to use al Qaeda to attack his opponents, and the solutions presented in the document remain a valid course of action to save the nation from imploding. The Yemenis’ answer in 1994 was power sharing and popular empowerment, as required by the constitution, but the criminal networks were and are too well entrenched in the Yemeni central government to allow that to happen. The document is also linked on the side bar under “Research Resources.” Ah, maybe I’ll just post it again for the people on subscription:

The Document of Pledge and Accord, 1994

Issued by the Political Forces Dialogue Committee,
18 January, 1994

Note by al Bab: This translation, originally published in the Yemen Times, is the only version currently available in English. Although it generally reflects the content of the document, there are some ambiguities and inaccuracies. Anyone intending to quote the document is advised to check the Arabic original.

Quote: Praised be the Lord who said, “Join hands together all of you around the truth of God and do not go separate ways.”

During the period from 1/6/1414 till 7/8/1414 H (equivalent to 23/11/93 till 18/l/1994), the Dialogue Committee of the Political Forces held steady and continued meetings in Sanaa and Aden in a national and sincere effort to contain the crisis which the nation has witnessed, and to arrive at real outlets for the unification procession which started on 22/5/1990, and to promote the process of consolidation of unity, democracy, stability, and construction of a state based on law and order and institutions.

The efforts of the Dialogue Committee came at a time when the crisis reached such levels that could not be neglected. So the people of Yemen joined hands in put a decisive end to the crisis and its destructive fall-out which would have impacted the unity, cohesion, and all the achievements of the people made over a long and arduous struggle in which the martyrs gave their lives and blood.

Yemen appeared to the world as if about to fall in a deep chasm because of the situation of lack of trust due to the mistakes, excesses, and dangerous overlapping of responsibilities and duties, lack of commitment to the laws and constitution all of which accumulated over time leading to a major deterioration in the security and economic conditions which have negatively affected our people in a sad way. (Read on …)

President Saleh has a lot of in-laws from his four wives. Many of these are also major land “owners” having confiscated public and private land. My 2006 list is of presidential relatives is here and includes economic holdings and stakes in corporations. For example, the head of Yemenia airlines is President Saleh’s son-in-law. Aden Press:

Below is a list of some of Saleh’s relatives that control key positions in the Republic of Yemen:

1. Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh – President’s son, Commander of the Republican Guard and Special Forces.
2. Yahya Mohammed Abdullah Saleh – nephew of President, Staff of the Central Security as a successor to his father.
3. Tareq Mohammed Abdullah Saleh – nephew of President, Saleh’s personal Guard Commander.
4. Ammar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh – nephew of President, the official in charge of national security. (Read on …)

(ed-This poor guy was just sitting in his car when the police grabbed him, tortured him brutally for three days and then shot him in the head in a bit of drunken hilarity.)

Thousands of Southern Yemenis marched in the funeral Monday of 28 year old Fares Zaid al Tamah, who died in police custody in Aden on January 30. Mr. al Tamah was allegedly tortured to death in the latest incident of escalating government violence against activists and protesters in Yemen.

Separatist sentiment is running high in southern Yemen where 70% of residents favor dissolution of the unified state. Activists claim they have been illegally occupied since 1994’s civil war while southern oil deposits and land were looted by the tribesmen and relatives of northern President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The deceased was arrested in Abyan in his Landcruiser, his relatives said, while he was listening to an audio of the singer Aboud Khawaga, whose material often includes political themes.

Mr. al Tamah was killed following three days of torture, activists allege. He was hung from the ceiling upside down for 12 hours, burnt with cigar butts and shocked with electricity, other prisoners in the Malla police station reported. On January 30, Mr. al Tamah was found dead on the floor in a pool of blood by visitors.

Stretching for miles, the funeral march began at Aljamohria hospital in Aden and concluded at the southern martyrs cemetery Radfan, Lahj . Mr. Al Tamah was buried alongside dozens of other southerners killed by Yemeni security forces.

Protests began in 2007 calling for equal rights and political inclusion and were met by mass arrests. Dozens of unarmed protesters have been killed by police in southern Yemen, Human Rights Watch found. A pattern of wide spread and brutal abuses characterized the state’s response to the growing protests, triggering a spiral of “repression, protests, and more repression.”

A report issued by a southern activist last week detailed 147 civilians killed by Yemeni security forces in the last year.

In November, Amnesty International issued a statement noting that “torture and other ill-treatment are widespread practices in Yemen and are committed, generally with impunity, against both detainees held in connection with politically motivated acts or protests and ordinary criminal suspects. Methods of torture and other ill-treatment are reported to include beatings all over the body with sticks, rifle butts, punching, kicking, prolonged suspension by the wrists or ankles, burning with cigarettes, being stripped naked, denial of food and prompt access to medical help, as well as threats of sexual abuse.”

HOOD, a leading Yemeni civil rights advocacy group in Yemen, disclosed this week that it had obtained video evidence of prisoner torture at the Criminal Investigation Prison in Taiz province. Ammar al-Tayar, 23 years old, was in custody of the Shar’ab al-Salam Security after a family dispute on January 16, 2010. Al-Tayar alleged he was subjected to beatings, electric shock and burning at the prison by three men while he was blindfolded. The video tape revealed scars and other indications of the torture, which were on his upper region of the shoulders, back, fingers and different parts of his body.

The UN’s Committee against Torture found the “widespread practice of torture and ill-treatment” in Yemen. Yemen failed to appear as requested at the UN Committee’s examination.

Journalist Mohammed al Maqaleh described his four months of torture to a union representative in February as including severe beatings, mock executions and starvation. Amnesty International has repeatedly issued statements warning that southern editors Hasham, Hani and Mohammed Bashraheel are at risk of severe torture since their “arrest” in January.

Dawn

SANAA: One hundred and eighty-seven children have been killed since August in the conflict in north Yemen, a report by the local SEYAJ children’s rights organisation and the UN Children’s Fund said on Monday.

The report also accused both north Yemen Shiite rebels and a pro-government militia of using child soldiers. 71 per cent of the 187 were killed in the fighting, while the remainder died from lack of food or medical services, the report said.
The most recent round of a six-year conflict between the rebels, also known as Huthis, and government forces began on August 11, when the government launched an all-out offensive aiming to crush the uprising. (Read on …)

One of the many logical errors in Saleh’s statement is that he conflates the current southern movement with the 1994 secessionists, when today’s protesters are generally young people, many of whom weren’t born when unity occurred.

President: secessionism calls, anti-unity logos taken as major national felony
SANA’A, Feb. 16 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Tuesday that the call for secessionism and raising logos against the great Yemeni unity are a major national felony, and those who support such misleading ridiculous calls are those who harmed the Yemeni people in the south at the time of separation along 25 years and practiced various kinds of suppression, oppression and torture against them. (Read on …)

Press Release: Women Journalists without Chains

35th Sit in the Liberty Square : Security enhancements are great, continued preventing journalists and activists from photograph the sit-in, the protesters moved to the Justice Ministry to demand to stop unconstitutional special court for journalists and the release of Journalists: Bashrahil, Maqaleh, Ghanem, Saklady, Rashed, Rabeezy and to Free JAASHEEN in IBB governerate (Read on …)

The article is refreshingly accurate (considering its the quasi-governmental Yemen Observer) in stating no reconstruction in Sa’ada was ever accomplished since the war began in 2005. But the statement comes in the context of FM al Qirby begging for money. There were several reconstruction funds established, including by Qatar, and money was spent, just not to rebuild the destroyed houses. The Yemeni government announced several times that “loyal” villages would get aid first, and some funds were spent on villages that suffered no damage.

Homes, water facilities, schools and mosques were destroyed by Yemeni government and Saudi aerial bombing. (Houthis mortars targeted mostly government buildings and military targets.) Many homes in Yemen accommodate extended families of up to 20. If there’s 7000 homes destroyed, then 140,000 of 250,000 internal refugees are unable to return home. Even once the war stops for good, there’s still nowhere to go, and some of these kids haven’t been to school for five years. The ceasefire is still holding with a total of three Saudi prisoners released by the Houthis, but the rebels have redeployed instead of abandoning their border positions to Yemeni troops.

Yemen Observer: Yemeni foreign Minister Dr. Abu Bakr al-Qirbi called on neighboring countries and international donors to contribute to the reconstruction of Sa’adah upon the conclusion of the conflict.

Initial surveys of the damages in Sa’adah governorate are estimated in the billions of dollars, with upwards of 9,072 private and public institutions in need of reconstruction and development since the latest round of conflict erupted in August 4, 2009 between al-Houthi rebels and government forces.

The Sa’adah reconstruction Fund was established by presidential decree in July 2007 and was assigned YR 10 billion. However, since the establishment of the fund, nothing has been accomplished due to the continued disturbance and unrest in Sa’adah governorate.

About YR 50 million was utilized in September 2007 as an operative expanses while agencies conducted an evaluation of the damages suffered in Sa’adah governorate suffered since the war began in June 2004.

Officials of the Sa’adah reconstruction fund have estimated the reconstruction losses to begin at $500 million, with that number expected to increase exponentially as the true extent of the damages come to light.

This case is a snap shot of the brutal tactics of Yemeni government in suppressing popular efforts to create a better Yemen. Al Wazir was kidnapped, held incommunicado, tortured, charged with bogus allegations, given an unfair trial and sentenced to eight years. Twenty-five rights organization are expressing full solidarity with al Wazir and demanding his release.

IFEX: – 4 February 2010 – The undersigned organizations wish to express their grave concern about the worrisome deterioration of the state of human rights in Yemen. The Yemeni authorities are increasingly taking retaliatory measures against human rights defenders who have the courage to expose human rights abuses in the country, both those occurring in the context of the war in Saada in the north and those accompanying the repression of social and political ferment in the south.

The undersigned organizations condemn in particular the unfair prosecution of rights defender Yasser al-Wazir, a member of the Yemeni Organization for the Defense of Rights and Democratic Freedoms, who just a few days ago was sentenced to eight years in prison. This wrongful punishment is only the most recent of a string of abuses targeting al-Wazir – abuses closely related to his activities as a rights activist and the role his organization plays in documenting abuses related to the war in Saada, where members of the Zaidi confession, who constitute a majority of the population in Saada, have been exposed to all manner of collective punishment, discrimination, and repression because of their faith.

Yasser al-Wazir was abducted more than 18 months ago by the political police. For more than three months, his whereabouts were unknown and he was denied family visits. It is believed that he was tortured and spent long stretches of time in solitary confinement during this period. Al-Wazir remained detained without charge until two months ago, when the authorities referred him to trial on trumped-up charges, including charges of forming an armed group, although al-Wazir was never questioned about this accusation.

His trial was conducted in semi-secret conditions, in closed sessions, and al-Wazir was not informed about the trial dates. His attorney did not attend the trial, which was conducted before the Special Criminal Court, a state security court whose constitutionality is questionable. Defendants in this court are not given the procedural and legal rights that guarantee due process and a fair trial.

The undersigned organizations express their full solidarity with Yasser al-Wazir and all members of the human rights movement in Yemen, which is currently working amid an atmosphere of fear in which the authorities are blocking all avenues of peaceful expression and silencing voices critical of the catastrophic policies of the Yemeni regime, which threaten to completely tear apart what remains of the central state structure. (Read on …)

First, AFP: The arrests of the 72 “outlaw partisans” were made on Tuesday in Lahj province, the ministry’s 26sep.net news website cited Mohsen al-Naqib, the province’s governor, as saying.

Second, Al Fadhli announces “a stone intifada” ratcheting up the civil unrest a level. But considering the fragmented nature of the southern movement, its not a decision that has the approval of all the factions. The movement was established two years before al Fadhli joined and has been dedicated to a non-violent strategy, as the following statement points out as the National Authority for the Independence of the South rejects al Fadhli’s invitation:

Statement issued by the Supreme National Authority for the independence of the South -
Brothers, heads and members of the components of this popular movement Abyan province and to all the loyal stakeholders in a peaceful popular movement in the southern province of Abyan. (Read on …)

As I noted earlier, corruption triggers media repression in Yemen. Often when journalists are kidnapped, beaten, imprisoned or, as in this case, murdered, it comes back to their investigative reporting on crime or corruption. While the extent of dire and growing water shortage is becoming clear, less obvious is the extensive black market on water, tied to powerful officials, sheiks and businessmen that impedes the implementation of water regulations and reforms. Al Rabue was murdered for exposing the dangerous quality of water sold by the water barons in Hajja. His family was attacked and injured a week earlier. In the climate of impunity established by the Saleh regime, a fair trial is unlikely.

Yemen Times: HAJJA, Feb. 17 — Journalist Mohammad Al-Rabue’, who wrote for Al-Sahwa and Al-Qahira newspapers, was murdered on his way to work, on Sunday, February 13, in Bani Qais district, Hajja governorate. The journalist, who wrote about the violations committed in the governorate was said to be killed by Ahmad Awoni and his four sons. (Read on …)

Lawyer and leading Human Rights activist Mohammed Allaow, at a symposium on the establishment of the new Special Press Court, expressed his opinion that the court was unconstitutional. He is not alone in this view. Many judicial experts also consider the Specialized Terrorism Court unconstitutional, based on their reading of the law. This week Allaow was charged with “insulting the judiciary” for his statements. The US State Department’s latest report on Human Rights in Yemen found that Yemen is not an electoral democracy, as Yemenis are unable to change their government. They are unable to discuss it without retribution either.

HOOD Online: Mansour Shayee, head of Yemen’s new “Special Press Court,” has transferred charges against Mohammed Naji Allaow, a leading human rights activist, to the prosecution.

Mr. Allaow, a lawyer and former Parliamentarian, was charged with insulting the judiciary. Allaow is chairman of the Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, a pioneering rights group, better known as HOOD.

The court’s decision was based on Allaow’s criticism of the establishment of the Special Press Court itself. Allaow’s remarks came during a symposium held by Sajeen organization in March 2009.

Al-Balagh newspaper published the proceedings of the symposium, and the newspaper was also referred to trial. The session will be on February 27, 2010.
(Read on …)

We knew that but its nice to have documentation. Dozens of Yemeni political and news sites are blocked in Yemen. Yemen Portal publishes their content. (see “English translated pages” and then on the right side, “page blocked sites” for automatic translation of the blocked sites.)

Al Sahwa – Yemen Net, the only provider of internet in Yemen has admitted that it blocked Almasdar Online (www.almasdaronline.com) on the bases of security directions. Deputy Manager of Yemen Net, Yasser al-Emad told the management of Almasdar Online that the security authorities ordered the block of the news website. (Read on …)

An article by Dhaif Alsoolani, the editor of Adengulf.net and YAATC representative in Yemen. On January 31, security authorities raided his home in Aden and arrested his younger brother, age 25, and two of his relatives, 19 and 15 years old. The prisoners were beaten with rifle butts at the PSO prison, (Alfateh). More here. In June 2009, another editor of the website was targeted, details here.

The Official Yemeni Terrorism: Roots and Origins

By Dhaif Hussein Al-Solani

During the times and eras, Yemen (Yemen Arab Republic) was and still a country full of weapons, with different kinds (sorts) and marks, and on all different occasions the Yemeni officials are proud of this state which specify their country to other neighboring and far Arab countries without any reasons to cause that type of pride. According to the last census by more than one local rightful and media organizations, there are more than 60 million pieces of Kalashnikov gun machines available for the Yemeni public, in addition to the other different medium-sized and heavy weaponry owned by the big tribes backed up personally by the Yemeni President such as the Hashed, Baked, Maareb, Hajjah, Al-Mahweet, Sa’adah, and Amran tribes.

The storage of such huge weapons has no logic meaning of being proud, moreover, it has made Yemen a hot center point for permanent fighting between the people in all situations over nonsense reasons for long different periods of the history. Many overseers agree that Yemen is the most known country in the world for the smuggling of weapons and mainly exporters, even to present today there are still countryside weapon markets surrounding and spreading to the capital city of Sana’a and other main cities and this is the best evidence of an environment with the color of blood and gun powder. (Read on …)

Food, medicine, blankets would be nice…

SANAA, 16 February 2010 (IRIN) – Government officials and aid workers are gearing up to carry out humanitarian needs’ assessments in previously inaccessible areas, thanks to an 11 February truce between Yemen’s army and Houthi rebels in the northern province of Saada which appears to be holding.

“Once security conditions allow it, a comprehensive needs’ assessment will be carried out in all war-affected districts,” Pratibha Mehta, the UN resident coordinator in Yemen, told IRIN.

“This [the ceasefire] will enable humanitarian assistance to reach civilian populations who have been cut off from services since the outbreak of the sixth round of fighting in August 2009,” she said.

Aid workers and local government officials are keen to make the most of the calm, but the track record of such ceasefires is not good, and helping the 250,000 internally displaced persons [IDPs] – scattered in several camps or staying with relatives – is difficult.

According to Saada Governor Taha Hajer, the ceasefire would help the government reconstruct Saada and allow IDPs to return to their homes. “We should put the tragic past [six months of fighting] behind us.”

With renewed focus on al Qaeda threats emanating from Yemen, the US is substantially increasing support to several branches of the Yemeni military. However, Yemen’s military and security forces are often involved in for-profit ventures, on both overt and covert levels. The task of building up Yemen’s Coast Guard demonstrates such difficulties. (Read on …)

The fifth round of the Sa’ada War ended Thursday when Yemeni President Saleh agreed to a cease fire with the Houthi rebels. The six point truce requires the rebels to unblock roads, withdraw from government buildings, return arms and release all prisoners including Saudi soldiers. The rebels also pledged not to attack Saudi Arabia.

However, the issue of prisoner exchanges is threatening to undermine the fragile peace in Yemen’s long simmering northern war. The Saudis issued a 48 hour ultimatum for the return of their soldiers, but the status of rebel prisoners in Saudi and Yemeni custody has not been addressed. A video posted to LiveLeak shows Saudi authorities brutally whipping the feet of prisoners, purported to be suspected Yemeni rebels. (Read on …)

A bloody day. Update: Second person killed by police; second man, Saeed Abdullah Alcaoui…in the vicinity of Haoutat pilgrimage, and hours after the fall of the “Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah Albagheri.

Police ‘kill protester’ in Yemen hospital shooting

SANAA — A demonstrator was killed and six others were wounded on Saturday as police opened fire during an operation to remove the body of a dead protester from a hospital in south Yemen, witnesses told AFP. (Read on …)

Update: He worked for the very good organization, SEYAJ for the protection of children: SEYAJ Organization Condemns the assassination of Muhammad AL-Rboey one of its staff in Hajjah governorate ” a journalist and defender volunteers jurist

SEYAJ Organization for Childhood Protecting
Yemen-Sana’a- New University Sq.
Phone:009671228184
Fax:009671228145
Mobile:00967712020332
Hotline:009671257505
PO Box:5642
E-mail: info@seyaj.org
Website: www.seyaj.org

His family was attacked last Thursday by the same gang and three persons are hospitalized. They don’t do this unless they know they can get away with it. An investigative journalist killed by “a gang” that he had written about. Most criminal enterprises in Yemen are partners with state officials. Mareb Press

قتل اليوم السبت بمحافظة حجة الزميل محمد الربوعي على يد مسلحين. Was killed Saturday province argument colleague Mohamed Rabuai by gunmen. وقالت معلومات إن عصابة إجرامية أقدمت على قتل الربوعي في محافظة حجة على خلفية قضية نشر, مضيفة أن الزميل الربوعي قام بكشف الأعمال الإجرامية لتلك العصابة وتعرض لعدة تهديدات بالتصفية الجسدية. The information that a criminal gang proceeded to kill Rabuai in the province of the argument against the background of the issue of publication, adding that his colleague Rabuai reveal the criminal activities of this gang and subjected to numerous threats of physical liquidation.

وقد تلقت الأوساط الإعلامية اليمنية نبأ مقتل الزميل محمد الربوعي مراسل صحيفة القاهرة المحلية بمديرية بني قيس والذي مثل فاجعة كبيرة للأقلام الحرة بالمحافظة إثر تعرضه لاعتداء آثم من قبل عصابة فجر اليوم على خلفية قضايا نشر صحفية. Has received among the media of the killing of a fellow Yemeni Mohammad Rabuai reporter Cairo local Department Bani Qais, who represented the great tragedy of the free pens to maintain he was exposed to a vicious assault by a gang at dawn today against the background of deployment issues a press release.

An Islah MP gave an interview to al Sahwa following the delay in the parliamentary session meant to discuss the airstrike in Abyan that killed dozens of civilians. Abdul Karim Shiban said that the “al Qaeda” killed in the strike were released from a PSO prison two years earlier. Since then, they moved back and forth from Shabwa to Abyan openly and freely. It was known by the security forces who would have been able to capture them easily. In fact, the men used to chew khat with security officials and received an allowance from the state.

al Sahwa Those targeted in the strike were closely linked to power (Read on …)

A quick note on the post below: casualty number 87 through 135 were killed in the December 17th air raid in Abyan on the Qaeda camp next to the Bedouin village. There’s at least one al Qaeda terrorist in there, maybe more. By the same token, there are also several children among the 48 causalities listed by name. The villagers complained to local authorities about the al Qaeda presence in the weeks before they were bombed.

This was the raid that prompted President Obama to call President Saleh with congratulations, even before the full details had emerged. There was never any mention of the civilians by the US, and western media outlets still refer to 30 terrorists killed. The air strike was widely perceived at the time in the south as the beginning of an air war against the southerners, similar to the carpet bombing of Sa’ada and the earlier bombing of civilians in Lahj. There was a great deal of insecurity, and little has been done since to alleviate that sense of deliberate targeting of political opposition.

However since that time, as I mentioned before, the US flag has been raised (not burned) at southern protests. Its quite an unusual occurrence in the Middle East and worth a second look. I wish I could think of a better analogy than Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who (We are here! We are here!) but that’s what’s coming to mind after a week of being snowed in with my kids. Then there’s al Fadhli and the Star Spangled Banner. That was funky. Yes, I realize the stripes are going the wrong way on the photo below, but they get points for effort.