Armies of Liberation

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 …)

When Saleh gets nervous, people bleed.

24 January 2011 Amnesty Intl: Yemeni activists detained in anti-government protests this weekend have told Amnesty International they fear the authorities’ crackdown on freedom of expression will worsen amid growing calls for reform. (Read on …)

When bribes, cloning, apologies and counter-protests are not enough, there’s always the threat of fines, death threats and hacking news sites. They can’t shoot protesters in the head in Sana’a like they do in Radfan and Habaylean, or bomb residential areas like they do in Saada. The state of Yemen is certainly not going to institute and implement any meaningful reforms, so it comes down to the same pile of tricks.

The streets in Sana’a are empty today and the “northern protest movement” may just fizzle out because the opposition parties are as afraid of disrupting the status quo as the regime and the people with jobs don’t want to risk their families’ dinner. Tawakkol Karaman has been leading protests in “Freedom Square” every Tuesday for at least a year. The new thing was the university students were charmed by the fall of Bin Ali, and it seems most of Yemen is chewing qat and watching TV. (The Egyptian protests are mesmerizing.)

Following the 2006 election, the JMP relinquished its claims of voter fraud and ballot stuffing in exchange for promises of electoral and constitutional reform, which never occurred, thereby leading to the postponement of the 2009 parliamentary election. But one strong factor in the decision at the time was the JMP’s fear of spiraling instability, a legitimate concern.

Yemen Online: Un-known hackers have manipulated yesterday by the last updated news that published on YemenOnline on the last events in Yemen . Yemenonline editors found the all the latest updates that covered the demonstrations against the president have been deleted .

It’ seems an undeclared war against freedom of expression and what happened means that there is control over the sites and there are those who intervene to manipulate by the news and articles using new technology ’ Jamal Al-Awadhi editor in chief of YemenOnline said.

Regarding the death threat on Tawakkol Karaman, Amnesty, UK reports:

Tawakkol Karman, the president of the Yemeni NGO Women Journalists without Chains, was arrested on 23 January for taking part in a student demonstration in Sana’a. The demonstration expressed solidarity with protests in Tunisia and called for an end to the rule of the current Yemeni president, who has been in power since 1978.

Ms Karman was released a day later and charged with taking part in an unlicensed protest. Dozens of other activists were also arrested and charged with the same offence.

According to information received by Amnesty, Tawakkol Karman’s brother was reported to have received a phone call on 26 January asking him to either confine his sister to her house or “those who weaken the whip of obedience would be killed”. (Read on …)

Below the fold is a write up on the churches in Aden that omits that there are many secret converts to Christianity in Yemen who are ostracized and threatened and several Christians are in jail for the crime of conversion. The following article is about Open Door’s annual listing of 10 worst persecutors of Christians and Yemen retains its place at number seven.

WND Exclusive FAITH UNDER FIRE, “Of the top 10 countries on the 2011 WWL, eight have Islamic majorities. Persecution has increased in seven of them,” the ministry reported today. (Read on …)

This is a huge development that will not please the Yemeni government in the least. The NDC is a grass roots initiative bringing together reformists and concerned citizens, including many prominent personalities from across the political and social spectrum including some from the GPC. They’ve held several consultative meetings and issued many statements. Some members (like Tawakkol Karaman and Ahmed Saif Hashid) resigned due to the committee’s non-performance. Others have accused the group of seeking to replace the parliament. But its more substantive than any other initiative for reconciliation including the Saleh regime’s endless barrage of threats, empty promises and lies.

Dialogue Committee, Houthi Group in Coordination Deal
Yemen Post: The national dialogue preparatory committee and the Houthi Group reached an agreement at their meeting in Saada on Thursday for forming a joint commission to coordinate addressing various national issues. (Read on …)

Update: a good game but they lost!!! They play again Thursday same time. Original: Yemen playing Saudi Arabia in the opening game today, 7:30 pm Aden time, 11: 30 am EST, Watch the pre-game show and the game live, streaming now at http://www.watchfomny.com/Sport-tv-3.php or, if that goes down, click here.

(Read on …)

This is a good thing.

MEOL: LONDON – The Right Start Foundation and the Chairman of its board of trustees, Amr Khaled, have launched the ultimate struggle to win over the Yemeni public’s hearts and minds, in a battle to favor Islam’s intermediacy and moderation. They have started a monumental project that confronts extremist ideology in Yemen.

The struggle will be waged across three fields.

The field of media and information includes a group of icons who represent Islamic preaching will accompany Khaled to Yemen, and will start an extended media campaign aided by the Yemeni Ministry of Information. The campaign will be propagated through all of Yemen’s media outlets, forums, websites, mosque pulpits and television channels.

This media campaign will be led by Khaled and a group of preachers who call for intermediacy. In it, they will rebuff Al-Qaeda’s ideology and direct the Yemeni people to the ideas of temperance and moderation.

The field of youth leaders is a project that will achieve public presence through youth leaders from all the cities of Yemen, who are to be trained under the supervision of Khaled and his foundation. Thus, the campaign will have delegates confronting extremism in every city and governorate in Yemen.

The field of preachers is a campaign will select 100 renowned preachers and scholars who enjoy public approval, and train them under the supervision of Khaled and the International Right Start Foundation, aided by the Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf). They will be trained to broadcast the true Islamic thoughts that counter the thoughts of extremist ideology, and will be allowed access to media outlets and Friday sermons, thus empowering the circulation of the true Islamic ideas that defy extremism.

The security forces attacked the weekly Tuesday demonstration in “Freedom Square” held to highlight the plight of the al Jasheen, repression of journalists and the withholding of newspaper licenses to independents. Tawakkol Karaman, head of Woman Journalists Without Chains, was arrested and held for hours. Many others were injured and hospitalized from among both the activists and the displaced al Jasheen villagers. It appears 35 were arrested as well.

Statement of condemnation to not detain the long head of the Organization of Women Journalists Without Chains, and the attack on Atidip Director of the Organization and human rights activists and itinerant Aldjaashen a sit-in Tuesday

Condemned the Organization of Women Journalists Without Chains of what has happened president of the organization entrusted Salam Kerman, as well as the Executive Director of the Organization Bushra Ababi and dozens of activists and human rights defenders and itinerant Aldjaashen of a barbaric attack by the security of the capital during their participation in the sit-in and march in solidarity with itinerant Aldjaashen on Tuesday, 15/10 / 2010, where long-abuse protesters beating and firing live bullets were assaulted, trust in Kerman, president of the organization and then arrested in the Department of fodder for 3 hours, and the injury of the Executive Director of the Organization of press and human rights activist Bushra Ababi during photographed picketing a shot for rubber led to the burning of her clothes, her burns in the back and her husband, were transferred down to the Republican Hospital, as well as Matardt has dozens of displaced women and their children and their husbands severely beaten with rifle butts and threatened with death and guide weapons to Rwshn and other means of intimidation, with damage to five of the women Aldjaashen been moved two of them to hospital, a Republican, as well as the arrest of 35 someone from the itinerant Aldjaashen still 13 of them held in five police stations in Sana’a, and still detained until the moment of writing this statement, namely: (Read on …)

Update: Yemen ambassador to Moscow says they withdrew from the match and forfeited. How stupid this is.

Lahj net

Argument Net:
اتخذ وزير الشباب والرياضة الاستاذ حمود عباد قرارا يقضي باقالة اتحاد لعبة الشطرنج وشطب جميع اللاعبين المشاركين في اولمبياد العالم للشطرنج المقام حاليا في بلاروسيا بعد لقاءات جمعت لاعبين يمنيين بلاعبين اسرائيلين. Taken and the Minister of Youth and Sports Mr Hamoud slaves of a decision to dismiss the Union of the game of chess and write off all the players participating in the World Chess Olympics currently taking place in Belarus after the interviews collected for the players Yemeni players Israelis. (Read on …)

This is lovely news, and the organization certainly deserves to be honored after their tireless work on behalf of protecting children in Yemen.

Press Release: Child rights institution (IDE) in Switzerland has chosen SEYAJ organization for childhood protection as a typical organization of the month for August 2010 to honor it for its distinct role in protecting, monitoring, supporting and advocating the rights of the child in Yemen.

(See their page in English here: Introduction about SEYAJ, its role in protecting childhood in Yemen and its main activities & programs will be displayed in English, French and Germany on one of the main pages of IDE web site that dedicated to highlight on the selected institutions. (Read on …)

Apparently they widened the scope of the discussions beyond electoral reforms to include other national issues.

Yemen Observer: Yemeni political parties started Saturday their first meeting for national dialogue over political and electoral reforms before the coming parliamentary elections scheduled in April 2011. (Read on …)

The state reinforces tribal law at the expense of civil law.

Bikyamasr: Amnesty International has urged the Yemeni authorities to launch an immediate independent investigation into the extrajudicial execution of a man accused of murdering a tribal sheikh.

‘Ali ‘Abdullah Muhsin al-Rajhi had been accused of murdering the sheikh, but instead of being arrested and brought to trial by the authorities, he was handed over to the victim’s family and summarily killed.

He is reported to have been shot dead by a relative of the murdered sheikh on 18 July 2010 in front of a crowd outside a mosque in the village of al-Hajfa, south-east of the capital Sana’a. (Read on …)

The head of the bipartisan and inclusive National Dialog Committee withdrew from the National Dialog announced by the ruling GPC and opposition JMP where each submitted a list of 100 representatives. Bassandawa is urging dialog to be held under international auspices and address the full range of Yemen’s national crisis including consideration of a federal system. He seems to think the opposition caved to regime and international pressures which prioritize agreement on the (already postponed) Parliamentary elections in 2011 ahead of comprehensive national reform. Bassandawa is “convinced of the futility” of any discussions where the ruling party seeks only agreement on electoral reforms not the fundamental crises that face the nation. He also urges inclusion of all national forces including the southerners and opposition abroad. The Houthis for their part have said their participation is conditional on approving the terms and scope of the dialog, which they have yet to see.

Al Masdar The Chairman announced that preparations for national dialogue Mohamed Salem Bassandawa boycott of the dialogue sessions with the Authority and the ruling party, on condition to participate in the dialogue to be sponsored by regional, Arab and international.

وكان حزب المؤتمر الشعبي الحاكم وتكتل اللقاء المشترك وقعا أمس الخميس على محضر تبادل أسماء ممثلي الطرفين في اللجنة المشتركة للإعداد والتهيئة للحوار الوطني، وتضم القائمتان مائة عضو لكل طرف، وبين قائمة المشترك باسندوة. The Popular Congress Party, the ruling bloc, signed a joint meeting on Thursday to record the exchange of names of representatives of the parties in the Joint Commission for the preparation and configuration of the national dialogue, and lists, which contain a hundred members of each party, and the list of common Basendwah.

وفي تصريحات لـ”المصدر أونلاين” من العاصمة الأردنية عمان التي يتواجد فيها حالياً قال باسندوة ان “الانتخابات تحتل المرتبة الأولى في اهتمام الحزب الحاكم وليس إيجاد حل للأزمات التي تعصف بالبلاد”. In statements to “online source” of the Jordanian capital Amman, where there are currently Bassandawa said that “the elections is ranked first in the interest of the ruling party and not find a solution to crises that racked country.” (Read on …)

This is from the 8th but I need to get it into the archives.

Arab News: SANAA: A third power station in southern Yemen caught fire on Thursday after two others were engulfed in flames earlier in the week in what the government said were attacks by secessionists. (Read on …)

Al Beidh still a no show. The Preparatory Dialog Committee is working to create an alliance for a reformed, unified Yemen and the Houthis have signed on, but the hard-core southerners think its a ploy to dilute authentic opposition and keep Saleh in power through stalling tactics. (Not that Al-Beidh has done anything worthwhile but issue statements calling for demosntrations…) Others see a Saudi hand. The PDC defines the root of the crisis in Yemen as family rule. Saleh Habra’s speech on behalf of Abdelmalik al Houthi is pasted below. WJWC’s Tawwakol Karaman and MP Ahmed Saif Hashid recently resigned because they say all the PDC does is issue statements and it is not transparent or democratic in structure, fair points that can be applied to many civil society organizations. Some opposition political and civil leaders hold seminars and pass papers back and forth diagnosing the main problem as the centralization of power in Yemen, but there is nothing stopping them from modeling democracy themselves and they don’t.

Yemen Observer: Yemeni Media sources said that a meeting of the internal opposition and external opposition was held in Cairo. The meeting came out with terms of dialogue on unification efforts. The internal opposition was represented by a number of JMP leaders including Abdulwahab al-Anisi, Yasin Saeed Norman, Sultan al-Atwani as well as leaders from the PDC including Aidros al-Naqib, Sakhr al-Wjih, Ali Abdo Rabo al-Qadi and on top of them Mohammed Salem Ba Sondwa. Sheikh Hamis al-Ahmar who has prepared and financed the meeting was absent from this meeting. (Read on …)

Taking a page from that ship to Gaza apparently, good! One important point here is that the convoy is coming from Taiz, the largest city in Yemen. If the police kill the Taiz protesters, it will inflame Taiz and get the city on its feet. I don’t mean to be cold, but deaths are a likely outcome. The Yemeni government has been killing southern protesters in cold blood for years. Neither is the blockade and shelling of Dhalie unexpected, its the same tactics of collective punishment of civilians used in the Saada Wars since 2005. The US is allied with and enabling a war criminal.

Yemen Post: A source at the public movement for justice and change in Taiz Province said on Tuesday that the movement in association with a number of activists, religious clerics, lawmakers and social figures is sending a humanitarian and peace convoy within efforts to lift the blockade on and condemn violence in Dhale Province in the south.

The convoy comes in protest at carnage, anonymous violence and vandalism the people are suffering in Dhale and bring the worsening situation and the months-long blockade to the media and human rights organizations, the source said.

The movement has been preparing the convoy for days and medics, lawyers and civil society organizations are participating in it, the source added.

MP Sultan Al-Sami’e, the spokesman for the convoy, said it comes as a symbol act in solidarity with the people in Dhale who have been under attacks and siege for months.

Furthermore, it comes to demonstrate our refusal to using force against the civilians and even in resolving problems, he said.

About 70 to 100 peace activists are taking part in the convoy carrying placards reading ‘ lift the blockade of Dhale’.

Almost two weeks ago, violence hit the blockaded Dhale killing and injuring more than a dozen people and destroying many homes.

The government blamed outlaws and separatists for the violence. But local sources said the city came under missile attacks from various directions by military camps around it.

The violence comes as the south can’t calm down amid an increasing wave of protest and rioting in the south with the people demanding resolving standing issues including injustices and sometimes seeking separation of the south.

Months ago, the government imposed a security cordon around the city in search for terrorists and outlaws.

Many protests and sit-inns have been staged to protest what the people said is militarizing the civil life in the city, one of the southern cities worst hit by rioting.

The Society for Charitable Welfare does good work in Yemen, actually delivering services to the poor, unlike some others.

Intel Wire : A spokesman for the Yemen-based Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW) has denied an INTELWIRE report that the charity is linked to Al Qaeda figures Anwar Awlaki and Abdul Majid Zindani. INTELWIRE stands by the story.

“All information in this article is baseless and fabricated,” said Dr. Jamal Al-Haddi, the program manager of CSSW’s of ACCESS-Plus Program, wrote in an e-mail on Wednesday, June 2, 2010.

The program, intended to to fight child labor and child trafficking, is funded by a $3.5 million partner-grant from the U.S. Department of Labor starting in 2008 and slated to run for three years. The grant is shared by CHF International, a Maryland-based foundation. The funding was granted despite CSSW’s apparent links to extremism and terrorism financing. INTELWIRE is continuing to investigate the grant, and additional stories will follow.

According to Al-Haddi, “Abdulmajeed Al-Zendani or Anwar Al-Awlaki never have been part of CSSW either as founders, members of Managerial Boards, employees, consultants volunteers or any position in CSSW.”

But substantial documentation supports the reported claims. (Read on …)

My God, there might be a shred of hope yet. They say that the only accomplishment of the National Dialog Committee (NDC) is an extremely long document that talks about democracy, but the NDC doesn’t practice democracy internally and they have not set up democratic structures. Their financial accounting is not transparent. All they do is hold seminars and issue papers. They haven’t connected with or mobilized the people or gotten their input.

I wrote something like that, very small, two sentences, when I wrote the article announcing the NDC statement and website. And its true. The political parties are just as authoritarian as the regime and while they face risks, there’s no risk in having a regular transfer of power or financial transparency. They could model democracy but they don’t.

Subject: resignation from membership of the Preparatory Committee for National Dialogue.

We are pleased and we put between your hands resignations this to assure you in the beginning not to dispute personal to us with one invited us to make, as far as our protest on the work of the Commission and the management mechanism and its decision-making, and the occurrence of what we fear the conversion of the Preparatory Committee for National Dialogue to an entity which alternative will be built on the ruins of the parties At the forefront of the political parties of the joint meeting as well as all other civilian components, thus giving a personal project for a small entity is a mixture civilian and non-political.

Dear Brothers:

I have disappointed all expectations in the contribution of the preparatory committee for national dialogue in the work of the mobility and the popular uprising, a real turn off collapse and the imposition of the political reform agenda to the Governor, but in practice did not do anything as far as has turned to the phenomenon of audio information contented itself with holding seminars and issuing statements, she turned as well as to comedy and brake components of the struggles of the political parties and civil society organizations and social figures, and public.

We have seen too .. That this Committee does not pay attention to all democratic principles and standards to be observed in organizations and political alliances, the recycling league office and free circulation to the presidency of the Committee and its committees and its Secretariat. (Read on …)

Yemen Observer – The General Labor Union in Yemen (GLU) called all workers in Yemen to initiate a general strike starting on Saturday, May 15. (Read on …)

SEYAJ is such a good organization, advocating for children on such issues as tainted formula, child labor, child marriage, child imprisonment, child abuse, child soldiers, education. Its amazing what a few determined individuals can do when they put their minds and efforts on a goal, even a goal as large as rescuing millions of kids.

News Release: Emad’s story chosen to participate in Aljazeera International Documentary Film Festival (Read on …)