Armies of Liberation

As the title indicates, this is a guest post by Nedhal Moqbel

The South and the Northern Government: A Persistently Troubled Dialogue
By Nedhal Moqbel

A recent episode of “Agenda Maftouha” (Open Agenda) program, broadcast by BBC Arabic TV, discussed Yemen’s security situation. Among the program’s guests were the Southern activist Saleh Al-Jabwani and Colonel Abdullah Al-Hadri who represented President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s opposition. Mr. Al-Hadri dilated on Saleh’s crimes against protesters in Sanaa and Taiz squares and the destruction he left behind. However, Mr. Al-Hadri obviously got nervous and impatient when the issue of Southern secession was raised. As he responded to Mr. Al-Jabwani’s comments, Colonel Al-Hadri used an emotional speech and a sharp tone, contending that the current situation is the cause of the entire “Yemeni nation.”

“Our cause is one . . . why do you want to divide us amidst this continuous uprising?” added Mr. Al-Hadri. Wait a minute! Wasn’t it a “one Yemeni nation” when Southerners began their own uprising after 1994, demanding their right to a merely dignified life? Wasn’t it a “one Yemeni nation” when you and your boss (Saleh) brutally persecuted them? Weren’t those protesters your fellow citizens and, therefore, part of this “Yemeni nation”? Moreover, Mr. Al-Hadri stated that General Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar was an honest military man who refused to stand by a dictator, and so did Colonel Al-Hadri and many others in the military. He said, “Yes, we used to be Saleh’s partners before. But when he stained his hands with blood and began to distort the country and foster Al-Qaeda, we decided to stay away and choose the homeland and the nation.” How devious! How provocative!

In a sympathetic tone, Mr. Al-Hadri spoke of Saleh’s crimes during the recent protests in North Yemen, stressing that this bloodshed was the reason he (Al-Hadri) and others like General Al-Ahmar seceded from Saleh. As if Saleh’s hands were clean until before these protests! What about the blood he has shed in the South since 1994? What about the thousands of Southerners whom he and his allies killed and wounded in that short-term civil war with military tanks and rockets? What about many extra thousands of Southerners whom they have killed, detained, tortured, and wounded since the outset of the Southern Peaceful Hirak? Why did Mr. Al-Hadri and his fellow military men not distance themselves from Saleh while he was shedding those bloods in the South? Why did they continue to support him, to represent his iron fist over the South? Why did they turn against Saleh only when his victims were Northern citizens?

Of course, my intention is not to attack anyone. I simply reject the twisted language Mr. Al-Hadri used to obscure the Southern cause. He went on, using the same emotional appeal: “It’s shameful to talk about South and North now . . . our cause now is that of a homeland and a nation.” Well! What is really shameful is that Colonel Al-Hadri does not consider the Southern issue itself a cause of an entire homeland whose lands and natural resources and jobs have been robbed, an entire people that used to exist independently but now is under a real occupation. What is really shameful is that Mr. Al-Hadri’s words echoed Saleh’s attitudes toward the South even though the former was presented in the program as an anti-Saleh figure. The same old regime being reproduced! No wonder that most of the oppositional figures affiliated with the “new” government participated in various ways in the 1994 war against the South. No wonder that they still unjustly and irrationally compare the Southern cause (a cause of a homeland) with the Huthi issue (a cause of a sectarian group).

Northern military figures like Colonel Al-Hadri know well the many injustices from which Southerners have suffered too long. Therefore, it is unacceptable that he accuse them of having “ruptured the country.” The country has been torn apart since the 1994 civil war. I wonder if Mr. Al-Hadri still remembers when his citizens in the North celebrated their “victory’ over the South on 7/7/1994; the Sanaa official TV then displayed Northern women uttering trilling cries of joy and Northern men chanting on streets, “Allah Akbar! Long live our leader Ali Abdullah Saleh!” On the other side of the country, Southerners were collecting the dead bodies of their loved ones in order to bury them. This black day, with all the sad memories it carries to Southerners, was made an official holiday and a national day to celebrate annually. Technically, unification ended in 1994 and was replaced by an occupation of the South and a robbery of its natural resource revenues, history, culture, and dignity. Who, then, tore up the previously unified Yemen?

The General People’s Congress and the Joint Meeting Parties are two faces of the same coin. The talk about having given Saleh immunity from prosecution is only half the truth. This “new” government has, in fact, given immunity to itself, too, since the majority of its officials were yesterday’s strong allies of Saleh’s. What we see now in the Sanaa government is the same old regime, and what we hear is the same old language, especially when it comes to the Southern problem. This government’s officials may undergo internal conflicts, but the Southern issue is always the thing that eventually brings them together due to their shared fear of losing the South with all its many treasures. Until Southerners achieve their goal of liberation, we will continue to hear the same rhetoric from Northern officials (and from Northern ordinary citizens) who often argue fearfully and impatiently, “there’s only one Yemen . . . unity is a red line . . . we’re ready to die for it . . . we’ll protect it with our own blood . . . unity or death.”

Comment by Jane: It is true that the atrocities toward the southern protesters (2007-2010) provoked little if any outrage in other parts of Yemen. During the Saada War, civil groups aligned themselves with the concept of civilian immunity without taking a stand on either side of conflict itself. Conversely during the southern protests, the arrests, torture and cold blooded killings elicited little sympathy. Beyond the absence of media attention, some in Sanaa expressed the opinion that southern protesters deserved it. In 2007/8, Southerners were really expecting that their counterparts in the north would join their uprising against the regime.

The lack of domestic solidarity against the state’s systematic attacks on unarmed southern protesters that in part caused the shift in demands from equal civil rights to independence. Remarkably, some of the current revolutionaries (who are seeking to overthrow the regime) deny that southerners have the right to seek independence although both movements deny the legitimacy of the state. From the outset of the current revolution, few efforts were made to reach out to the southern secessionists. And many southerners viewed the year long protests in Sanaa and other parts of the country in a disconnected way, not wholly unsympathetic, but as if the bloody events were occurring in another county. As I’ve said before, many view the unity government as an re-branding of northern power. some also view all northerners as privileged and part of the oppressive structure, when in fact disenfranchised northerners are very poverty stricken and thoroughly without basic services.

In terms of raw numbers, Saleh’s trail of blood, more southern protesters were killed than “northern” protester fatalities over the last year of the rev, and it occurred week after week in an atmosphere of domestic and international silence.

Free homicide through global decisions

written by
Amr Mohammed Al Raishi

Since the beginning of the Arab spring revolutions, different visions of political powers are found in the international community; toward every revolution is a different reaction from the other, according to criteria of interests that will result from this revolution or not.Theoretical and practically it is well known in the political world, what are the roots of the political double standards?

Have been seen strong international support to the revolutionaries in Libya, also international political support for the revolutionaries in Egypt, Syria and Tunisia also, Yemenis had eagerly awaited to see a Security Council resolution that would be be a real step to remove the cover of international legitimacy from SALEH as president.

Actually, Security Council resolution provoked outrage in Yemen for many main reasons .Regrettably, the Security Council resolution did not confess Yemeni revolution plus It was not compulsory for SALEH to step down. All that was so extremely clear through terms of resolution. Security Council resolution had portrayed a current situation in Yemen as a “Political Crisis,” not a popular revolution & this is shown visibly by the Security Council resolution statement which states: “and calls on all parties to refrain immediately from using violence to achieve political goals.”.

Resolution was not fair as it equated the executioner and the victim.

Yemenis after spending more than nine months of violence and struggle against the SALEH regime who caused the killing of civilians & peaceful demonstrators, plus using excessive force against innocent people even women & child ,just to intimidate Yemenis and create chaos inside Yemen , to put Yemenis revolution under blame and placed it under suspicion and conspiracy theories from Yemen` enemy, and that resulting instability on the social peace in Yemen .

These dirty tactics, unfortunately, succeeded increasing some sort of lack of clarity in the international community. Using (Al Qaeda) terrorism, give permission to central security & republic guard forces kill innocent people in civilian clothing to mislead world who is the real murderer? Therefore and it will Be based on the vision like as a conflict between opposition and supporters of the governor.

Resolution let Yemenis feel unsatisfactory & disappointing after their sacrifices and aspirations to achieve dignity and freedom to them self. Frankly Security Council resolution is toothless along with variation in the terms of the resolution, If we focus al little bit when Security Council resolution says:
(Read on …)

The Yemeni nation among evasion and revolution
by Amr Mohammed Al Raishi

Ali Saleh president is known throughout the period of his rule as a devious & unpredictable leader. He had caused Yemeni lives to be filled with misery and all kinds of humiliation and who let Yemen become a failed state, despite the availability of resources in Yemen which are capable to make the Yemeni economic growth and social stability.

But President Saleh took advantage of the wealth and resources of Yemen to transfer to his own person and his family to achieve one goal, which is building up an empire of oppression and corruption to continue his dictatorship.

The question that presents itself … What is the secret of survival of President Saleh throughout these long years?

Simply Saleh excelled in creating internal crises and dissemination of regional and sectarian strife> He even keep going to create a dispute between major tribes in Yemen. Most of Yemen people know very well how Saleh facilitates sale of weapons to fighting tribes from the army stores.

Saleh regime had mislead Yemenis through use of dirty tactics such as occurrence of separation in the south and that Yemen will be invaded by Islamists in the case of Saleh leaving ruling of Yemen.

Unfortunately he also succeeded in misleading international community under pretext of fighting terrorism.

And on the other side, he is supporting and make a lot of facilities to Al Qaeda in order to continue in reaping to himself the benefits from international support against terrorism.

Saleh president has invested in Al Qaeda terrorism and promoted it overseas, in order to achieve some political and financial benefits

the repressive rule of president Saleh never paid attention that will cause a negative influence regarding the reputation of the Yemeni people .

The ultimate proof against Saleh and his deceitful by the use of terrorism is why was Al Qaeda not confined in spite of international support, especially U.S. Aid ?

Yemeni people’s patience is over. It is time to eradicate this nightmare that has been 33 years.

The time has come that the entire international community, especially America, in relation to political initiatives to transfer power peacefully to understand that these will not never work with Saleh

Many times he has promised to sign an agreement to transfer power to vice president Mr. Hadi as per the Gulf initiative , but he always backed out at last moments for unreasonable reasons.

Saleh’s evasion drives Yemen to military conflict which leads the country to more killings and bath of blood. Most of Yemenis have determined to continue their revolution till they achieve victory .

Finally, the Yemeni revolution emerged from the womb of Yemenis’ suffering from oppression, humiliation, injustice and inequality in rights and duties, which has been practiced by Saleh intentionally.

Revolutionaries in Yemen have been convinced and there is an exorbitant price will pay for getting freedom and dignity.

Yemeni is in urgent need from countries of the world’s great powers, especially USA , to contribute effectively to remove the cover of international legitimacy from President Saleh’s regime and to be on the side of the oppressed people of Yemen.

Along with standing firmly against those who support President Saleh, just For keeping the revolution in Yemen away from victory, in order to prevent winds of change from entering their countries.

Amr Mohammed Al Raishi

The following article by a southern activist is a good snapshot of the southern viewpoint and distrust of the revolution and Hamid al Ahmar in particular. It makes the point, which seems accurate in my view, that southerners have been sitting out the rev, and few have changed their goal of independence. Many view it as a mechanism to retain the proceeds from natural resources which are found mostly in the south.

From the inception of the revolution, there have been no formal overtures to the southerners and it was assumed they would come around or that there really wasn’t strong support for the two state solution. Part of the huge disconnect between north and south is a function of the regime’s censorship and poor infrastructure.

Many northerners were quite shocked when southern protests broke out in 2007, and apparently shocked again that the 23 southern leaders resigned the national council last week. Southerners were shocked the north did not rise up with them years ago, and that the atrocities committed by the Saleh regime were largely met with silence in Sanaa and elsewhere. Some leaders in the national council were active against the south in the 1994 civil war.

The Yemen’s Southern Movement and the Saleh-Hamid Game
By Nedhal Moqbel

Amidst the growing political crisis in Yemen , the Southern cause remains South Yemenis’ top priority. The injured president, who is being treated in Saudi Arabia , left behind unresolved political conflicts, and multiple parties and individuals are now competing for power. President Saleh’s return is becoming more possible as the state seems to be falling apart. Moreover, violence is escalating, and the Islamic extremists are gaining more strength. While the country’s future is unknown, the well known fact now is that most Southerners are maintaining their goal of secession.

As the backstage facts of the anti-Saleh protests are gradually revealed, the Southern struggle is standing out with its spontaneous outset and clear goal. According to an article by Jumana Farahat of the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper (dated April 9, 2011), the current protests against Saleh were basically a plot by the powerful political and tribal figure Hamid Al-Ahmar, a scenario he began to prepare for in 2009. Citing several Wikileaks cables, Farahat assures that Hamid has been in contact with the American embassy in Sana’a since 2009, providing officials there with some details of his plot to overthrow the president, which they did not take seriously. His plan centered on weakening Saleh by opening up multiple communication avenues with the latter’s enemies in Sa’ada and the South, urging them to escalate their pressures. Regardless of the responses he received from them, Hamid did not give the green light for the anti-Saleh protests until he was sure the time was right.

Additionally, a Reuters article published on June 1st this year reveals one reason why yesterday’s friends (Saleh and Hamid) are now today’s enemies. The article refers to a “confidential State Department cable” that confirms a “long-standing monopoly” by Hamid Al-Ahmar and Arcadia Petroleum, an oil trading firm owned by Norway’s billionaire John Fredriksen, of Yemen’s oil exports. Because he was the firm’s undeclared agent in Yemen , Hamid used his powerful connections to let Arcadia win most oil export tenders at below market prices, earning in return a big fortune from the firm. However, Saleh managed in 2009 to break this monopoly, handing the case to an oil council under the control of his own son.

This verifies that hidden internal disputes upon Yemen ’s rich resources – most of which exist in the South – were behind the recent protests. Hamid first pushed for “organized chaos,” using Farahat’s words, through increasing the pressures upon Saleh by his North and South opponents. After that, he set the stage for the protest movement that demanded the president’s departure. However, loyalists of Saleh responded with massive demonstrations in support of their president, which caused riots on North Yemen ’s streets to be significantly divided.

On the other hand, one sees a different picture when it comes to the Southern Movement. This struggle did not spring from “organized chaos,” but from shared discrimination at the hands of the Northern government. The long-standing persecution of Southerners that particularly began in 1994 was translated in 2007 into an organized entity called the Southern Peaceful Movement that represents all South Yemenis. Its goal is the restoration of the occupied South, with its immense natural resources over which Hamid and Saleh have been fighting.

Unlike the divided protest movements in Sana’a and Taiz (pro-Saleh and anti-Saleh demonstrations), the Southern protests have always chanted the same slogans, raised the same flag (that of the pre-unification South Yemen ), and demanded one thing: the liberation of their land from the Northern troops that invaded the South in 1994. This peaceful struggle is continuous despite the government’s violent and suppressive response to it.

Saleh fought the Southern cause brutally, Hamid Al-Ahmar made use of it in his battle with Saleh, and those standing today on the Yemeni political stage are in disagreement about it. While Hamid now is more powerful than before, Yemen is still run by Saleh’s sons, relatives, and allies who still control the security authorities and a significant chunk of the military. The scene is foggy, and the game is not over. However, whoever wins this power game will have to eventually confront the persistent Southern struggle for secession.

Guest post: Will the U.S Support the Southern Movement to Combat Terrorism? written by Ayad al-Shaibi

Talks about “terrorism and Al Qaeda” in Yemen or what has become known as “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” is still closely linked with the regime of the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, from the perspective of many observers, analysts and Arab and Western intelligence departments. This link is not reinforced by the “loose” concept promoted by the media of the exhausted Yemeni regime’s forces under the banner of “fighting terrorism.” (Read on …)

A Yemeni activist thanks the UN for sending an envoy. While it is a satirical note, the tribal Saleh regime employs collective punishment as a pressure point against its enemies on a regular basis.

Your Excellency, Mr. Ban-ki Moon,

In the name of the Yemeni people, we would like to express our appreciation to you in person for closely and regularly following up the situation in Yemen through visits made by the different UN missions. We are particularly grateful to the relatively long visits such as the one currently taking place by your envoy, and the one by the UN human rights mission earlier this month. These visits bring along significant improvement in the quality of the livelihoods of the average people. We suddenly have electricity for 12-15 hours per day ( instead of 2 hours only), the piles of garbage mounting for weeks in the different streets are cleaned up, the long lines of cars waiting for gas are cleared up (though the need left unfulfilled), and the gun fire in each city is silenced!

For that we are urging Your Excellency to give orders to your missions to remain longer if not forever! Of course, we would still be left with problems of gas availability, food prices rocketing to the sky complicating the malnutrition crisis in the country, and the rise of a hunger epidemic. In this regard, you may as well include us in the current Horn of Africa Crisis! Our “drought”, however, is not caused by an indirect intervention of man in nature, but rather a very direct and intentional one. The Saleh regime, intends to starve us in an attempt to have us give up our dream of freedom. They refuse to understand that we have chosen to live free or to die with our human dignity; the same dignity that UN charters and declarations have often spoken of. We shall compromise no more Sir, and we invite your envoys to come and witness that.

In peace (salam)

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أبين… بين فكي النظام والموت القادم من الشمال؟!

كفى الهاشلي

أبين المدينة التي يقف على عتبات أبواب منازلها غول يدعى الإرهاب وقطعت أوصال جسدها المتهالك الضربات على قرى بلداتها فخرج أهاليها على ذوي الإنفجارات وصوت الرصاص المتناثر هنا وهناك فارين إلى عدن التي لم تضمد جراحها بعد؟!

النظام اليمني – الذي أسقط الشعب شرعيته – يبرر توجيه ضرباته وقصفه بأنه استهدف مجموعات مسلحة إرهابية بسطت على مقار حكومية لكن الشاهد على ما يحدث يقول أن القصف تجاوز حدوده المكانية إلى الكود وبئر الشيخ والمسيمير وجعار وزنجبار والمخزن .

يحكي الإعلام الرسمي عبر قنواته بأن نظامه يحقق انتصارات على تلك المجاميع المسلحة ويقول تارة أخرى أنه يحقق انتصارات على مطلوبين يصفهم بأنهم من تنظيم القاعدة ؟!!!
(Read on …)

SANAA, July 15, 2011

Saleh and Al-Qaeda: Who Empowered Who? BY: Nedhal Moqbel

The current Yemeni scene is full of question marks regarding the country’s present and future. Opponents are still protesting in the North, Southerners are maintaining their call for secession, and violent conflicts dominate the situation of this fragile country. Amidst this dilemma, Al-Qaeda has strongly reemerged and taken over Zinjibar, the capital city of the Southern governorate of Abyan, simultaneously extending its control throughout the entire governorate.

President Saleh did send his intended message to prove right his previous warning. “If I quit, Al-Qaeda could take over,” he once said in response to the mass protests in Taiz and Sanaa. There is no doubt that Saleh is replaying the terrorism card in an attempt to protect his reign. Logically, how could a small number of Al-Qaeda fighters, who came down some Abyan mountains, besiege and defeat two prominent brigades in Abyan (25th Mechanized and Al-Amaliqa)? How could they quickly capture Zinjibar and gain control of the government facilities? How can one believe that an entire government, with huge government troops, could fall into the hands of a few hundred fighters?

On the other hand, one wonders how Southern fighters in Radfan, whose number is much larger that of Al-Qaeda militias, have not been able to defeat only two battalions of government troops there. For several months, these fighters, who came from multiple areas to defend Radfan, could not put an end to their fierce battles with the government forces. These troops have besieged the area, frequently shelled it, and fought with all kinds of weapons.

Therefore, what happened in Abyan was not a real battle but an obvious collusion whose outcome was the handing of the governorate to an armed terrorist group. This collusion reveals close ties and mutual benefits between Saleh’s government and Al-Qaeda, which goes back to the 1990s. Several times, Saleh’s government allowed and eased the escape of a countless number of Al-Qaeda inmates from Yemeni prisons. In 2003, for example, eight of those prisoners involved in the Al-Qaeda Cole operation in Aden escaped, and about twenty-two others followed them later. In 2006, twenty-three Al-Qaeda prisoners fled a Sanaa jail, and much more (around sixty-three inmates) escaped last month from a prison in Mukalla.

Plausibly, Saleh and Al-Qaeda have empowered each other for decades. This group sprang from Saleh’s own Republican Palace to be his fundamental card through which he got more Western support and fought his internal enemies. When the world is angry at him, Saleh would imprison his Al-Qaeda men to calm it down. But when he needs them, the world would wake up to news of their escapes.