Armies of Liberation

The Yemeni military bombed the hell out of Dhayan city during the Saada wars, toppling mosques and homes. It is a historic center of Zaidism for hundred of years. Here is a link to a 2008 MSF report on the state turning back ambulances trying to reach the injured. Food and medical supplies were withheld as a matter of policy, a violation of international law, not to mention carpet bombing civilians…

What they are chanting in the following video is: al-sha’b urid isaqt al-nidham or The People want to topple the regime

a still from Al Eshteraki:

The signs say “The People want to overthrow the regime” [big banner] ; and “Yes to downfall of regime”, “the stooge regime must go”, and and other slogans against oppression and unjustice but no slogans against the US. Al Masdar: protest was organized by Abdelmalik al Houthi in conjunction with the JMP.

Al Eshteraki: Thousands of citizens on Monday in the city of Saada, calling for toppling President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The demonstrators chant under the slogan “the people wanted to overthrow the regime” and “go home employment system.”

He said a local source of socialist Net that the demonstrators set off from the market until the city of Cedar Dahyan Adham estimated tens of thousands. (Read on …)

One confirmed dead in Khormaksar on Sunday.

Ali Saleh can’t keep track of his lies already. Last week he said he wasn’t going to run for president again (which he said prior to the last 2 elections he won) and this week he says: SMH: “If they want me to quit, I will only leave through the ballot box,” Saleh told a news conference as the protesters, including opposition MPs, gathered outside Sanaa University.

Also not to be outdone by Saif al Islam’s dozy of a speech last time in Libya, President Saleh says, “This is a virus and is not part of our heritage or the culture of the Yemeni people,” he told reporters. “It’s a virus that came from Tunisia to Egypt. And to some regions, the scent of the fever is like influenza. As soon as you sit with someone who is infected, you’ll be infected.”

Issued by the Freedoms Committee at the Press Syndicate:

Journalist, Dr. Dr. Abdel-Karim Salaam, correspondent was battered until blood flowed from him and he was taken to the hospital. Salaam was assaulted by thugs who were hiding near the university during his coverage of the sit-in in front of the University of Sana’a.

Accordingly, the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate strongly condemns the unjust assault on our colleague, the journalist Abdul Karim Salaam, and says the security services and officials who run these bullies have the responsibility for their actions.

It also renewed its claim for reporters not to be subjected to attack and calling for the implementation of the directions of the president yesterday not to attack them.

Several hundred civil society organizations from 15 countries issue one unified statement. A regional framework for democratic transition is a good concept. These are the hard core, hard working often beaten and imprisoned democracy activists in these countries who have endured against great odds. I know their work and many of them personally. This is the real deal. English below:

منظمات المجتمع المدني تحيي الشعب المصري

وتدين الاسخدام المفرط للقوة و الرصاص الحي و تجييش “البلطجية”

ضد الاحتجاجات الشعبية السلمية في البحرين وليبيا واليمن والأردن والجزائر والسودان

(Read on …)

Urgent communication to the international organizations on the bloody violations in Aden

SOHR, February 18, 2011

Sirs and madams in the international organizations for human rights
The Southern Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) presents its compliments to you and informs you of horrible crimes against citizens staging peaceful demonstrations in the city of Aden during the last three days, raising banners demand freedom, democracy and the departure of the regime of the Yemeni President.

A number of demonstrators were demonstrating in al-Rwishan Square for more than a weak, led by young people who were launching a sit-in peacefully for more than a week in al-Rwishan Square in al-Mansoura city – Aden, until Wednesday 16.02.2011, after the noon prayer, when Yemeni security forces came unexpectedly using tear gas grenades which led to dispersing them to residential neighborhoods,
but the security forces continued to chase them using live bullets against them, which resulted in the murdering of a number of people and wounding many others, amounted to 4 dead and 32 wounded.
As a result of the people’s anger at that, the demonstrators set fire to the headquarters of the Local Council, the municipality and burned vehicles belong to the municipality, and they also burned the headquarters of the General People’s Congress / Mansoura Branch, after that they went to besiege the police station in al-Mansoura city. Everyone was in hit and run with the armed forces that went in using live ammunition to disperse and chase the protesters. (Read on …)

Day 10: other developments; Al Tagheer: Taiz: police, professors join protest, more women, GPC local council officials resign

SIFY: Aden resident kills policeman? Protester? We don’t know. – There was no protest in all Aden’s districts today, but in Khour Maksar district, around 10 protesters armed with rifles gunned down a police officer while he was standing near a police patrol car. The gunmen disappeared in the neighbourhood,’ a police officer said. Same link: 1500 in Ibb but its not the first protest.

Sanaa: Al Masdar: protesters control the University square and are setting up tents. Saleh holds big conference and blames foreign influences.A vid of the shooting in Sanaa yesterday is on FB. I didn’t count but it was about a dozen shots randomly fired into the crowd.

Yemen police arrest southern opposition leader: son (AFP) : ADEN, Yemen — Yemeni police arrested the main southern opposition leader, Hassan Baoum, on Sunday, shortly after he arrived in the regional capital Aden to take part in an anti-government protest, his son said. Baoum was arrested along with his son Fawaz at the Naqib hospital after he had undergone some medical tests, another son said.

He said that Baoum arrived in the port city from nearby Lahij earlier in the day with the intention of joining the protest. Police have killed 10 people in Aden in the past week, according to an AFP tally, as they resorted to gunfire to disperse frequent protests against the government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
(Read on …)

Al Tagheer points out the contradiction of their current statement saying most protesters are JMP members, when earlier they denied any connection to the protests. Article also notes Abdelmalik al Houthi’s earlier statement supporting the right of people to peaceful protest. I find it astounding the nearly a decade after their establishment, the JMP is still unable to issue a statement in English. But even in Arabic, its an ambiguous statement. Update: but to follow is a full English translation of the al Tagheer article:

Yemeni opposition announces its renewed refusal of dialogue with the regime

19/02/2011 at 17:33:00, Al-Tagyeer, Sana’a, Special

Yemeni opposition announced today Saturday its refusal of any dialogue with the authority of General People’s Congress amid spontaneous protests of thousands of citizens in a number of provinces demanding the toppling of the regime. The rotating Chairman of of the JMP coalition said “there can be no dialogue with an authority using thugs and violence against peaceful demonstrators “.

Yemeni parliamentary opposition had confirmed nearly a week ago its agreement to resume dialogue with the ruling party under the initiative of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, which included the cancellation of the constitutional amendments in particular and the postponement of the elections. (Read on …)

Important Statement on the current developments in Yemen

The National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, (HOOD), expresses its deepest condolences to the Yemeni civilians and the victims’ families. Ten demonstrators died over the last two days of peaceful protests in the al-Mansurah district and al-Sheikh Othman in Aden. Eighty seven civilians in Taiz were injured after security forces threw a bomb at the demonstrators in Tahrir square and one of them is in the state of brain death. These attacks occurred while practicing their legitimate right to freedom of expression and their obligation to refuse oppression and corruption. (Read on …)

Awful stuff, I put it below the fold, warning: graphic. For Bahrain, follow @byshr on twitter, sign up for Newsletter click here, has many updates & details.

(Read on …)

This was the first Friday before many thousands more arrived. Protesters in Taiz have one chant: Ali Saleh must go

Damn the police open fire all the time in the south, I thought they wouldn’t do it in Sana’a. On the tenth day of protests, they did. Update: despite my witness and this news story, others are saying there is no fatality, but instead an extremely serious injury, and I hope its true.

Yemeni riot police shot dead a protester and injured five others on Saturday when they opened fire on thousands marching in the 10th day of unrest rocking the capital Sanaa. Protesters began marching early in the morning from the University of Sanaa to the Ministry of Justice while chanting, ‘the people want the fall of the regime,’ until they were met by riot police.

Security forces backed by plain clothes elements opened fire on them and threw stones. A medical official said one man was shot in the neck and killed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. Read more: Daily Mail

Game changer in Yemen as protests swell – Yemen Headlines

In Egypt and Tunisia, the stance of the military was pivotal in the success of popular uprisings; in Yemen, it may be the tribes that are the determining factor.

Anti-government protests across Yemen show no signs of abating. In Taiz, Yemen’s largest governorate, many who arrived last Friday are still in the city center a week later. Their numbers have grown as citizens from outside the city center have joined the sit-in demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. A grenade attack today injured eight. (Read on …)

Nice coherent article Xinhua Net lists 3 killed and 76 injured today. Doesn’t include the car that the grenade was lobbed from is registered to nephew of the governor who also works as a GPC guard in Parliament. (Read on …)

Last week’s analysis had background on why no one in Yemen was even remotely excited by President Saleh’s promise to step down as well as a history of unrest and political maneuvering over the last few years: In Yemen, many protests, one villain at the Atlantic Sentinel.

This week’s article recounts events over the last week including Saleh’s allies rapidly peeling off and opposition re-posturing: Game changer in Yemen as protests swell at Examiner.com

They note over 300 killed in southern Yemen and thousands injured since 2007 (true) , condemn violence in Sanaa and Taiz and urge the international community to restrain the murderous thug. On a national level, their support is as polarizing as the al Ahmar boys recent statements and unlikely to encourage national consensus. But they do endorse a unified uprising. Update: English write up

Yemen Post: Southern politicians living in exile attacked on Saturday the Saleh regime, saying it is inciting violence and hiring bullies to attack anti-government protesters killing and injuring many of them in several cities. (Read on …)

Police torture in Yemen is systemic and brutal. Several prisoners have died in police custody in the last year or two. Click here for MP Ahmed Saif Hashid’s 2007 interviews with prisoners in jails around Yemen where prisoners including 12 years describe brutal torture by authorities.

PROTESTERS DETAINED IN YEMEN, RISK OF TORTURE
Scores of protesters arrested following demonstrations in the city of Aden, in southern Yemen, are being held incommunicado and are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Amnesty International is concerned that they may be held solely for the peaceful expression of their right to freedom of expression and assembly, and therefore may be prisoners of conscience. (Read on …)

Council of the Alliance of Marib and Al-Jawf tribes denounces the massacre of Aden and salutes Tai’z youth, the station of change and train engine of freedom: Mareb Press.

To recap, both Saleh’s allies and opposition are experiencing fractures. The pillars of the regime are peeling away and causing some polarization of the public. Hussain al Ahmar from Amran is promising Hasid tribal protection for the protesters in Sanaa. The tribes in Marib and al Jawf are throwing in with the democracy movement. al Zindani is calling for replacing the regime with a national unity government and for the people to go peacefully to the streets. Two youth different groups were calling for nationwide protests on the 24th and 25th, but I think its going to happen tomorrow whether they are ready or not. The JMP however has not revised its position to advocate the fall of the Saleh regime, only change and reform. (Read on …)

http://www.yemen-tv.net/ now says:

Leave .. People do not want you

Enough 33 years of hunger

A peaceful revolution

(update: and its back to normal.)

Hussein al Ahmar is head of the tribal grouping, the National Solidarity Grouping, not to be confused with Hamid al Ahmar head of the National Dialog Committee. Hussein is a bit of a polarizing figure to say the least. In my view, tribal power is one of the few existing effective checks on executive power in Yemen. These statements were made to journalists (not on the march to Sana’a and could be bargaining.) The statement by Zindani also reveals more allies peeling away from Saleh.

Al Hadath: The chairman of the National Solidarity Sheikh Hussein bin Abdullah bin Hussein Al-Ahmar said that a rally would intervene to protect the protesters in the governorate of Sana’a, if the regime continued to take down what have become known as “bullies” to abuse. (Read on …)