Armies of Liberation

The story that just keeps on giving… The arms dealers, including an MP and Shoura Council Member, who imported the mystery ship of Chinese weapons blocked the road in Marib to pressure the authorities to release the contents of the ship, which is missing.

Nearly all organized crime in Yemen is perpetuated by, or in conjunction with, top government officials, whether drug smuggling, currency counterfeiting, deisel smuggling, weapons as in this case, human or organs trafficing. It all leads back to the top of the regime which both formally and informally is populated by loyalist Sheiks and presidential relatives.

Yemen Post: The threads of the suspected ships carrying Chinese-made weapons which was said to have anchored in western Yemen have started to appear after gunmen blocked a road in Mareb province in northeast Yemen.

The gunmen, believed to be gangs employed by arms dealer in the country, in the road linking Mareb city to Safer area where one of Yemen’s important oil fields is located in Mareb province, have demanded the Defense Ministry to release the ship carrying weapons they had imported from China. (Read on …)

Continuing our previous discussion of the huge explosion on Midi Island, news from Al Motamar

On the other hand Yemeni security apparatuses arrested 107 African migrants in the island of Midi holding Nigerian, Chadian and Sudanese nationalities. The security men also said 2 of the African migrants; one Nigerian youth and a woman in her 6th decade have died and doctors said the death was natural.

The rest of the African migrants were transported to the Centre Al-Jazeera Leadership for investigation and then they were detained in Hudeida province. It is to be noted that this is the third rime African migrants to attempt to infiltrate into Yemeni territories via the island of Midi. On most occasions investigations proved that the African migrants, mostly Sudanese, were intending to infiltrate into Saudi territories across Yemeni territories.

This is the third fishing boat to explode since May. Are they smuggling explosives, fishing with explosives? It is described as a massive explosion. The location is Maydi in Hajjah, near the Saudi border, south of Sa’ada. We earlier noted Maydi (Medi) Island is a new way station for human smuggling from Sudan.

Also note the the port is under the direction of the Border Guards which fall under the Defense Ministry, not the Coast Guard. As earlier noted regarding weapons trafficking, the ports with the highest rates of arms smuggling are those under military control, not the Coast Guard. The Border Guard and the Coast Guard have been involved in several scuffles when the BG interferes in CG efforts to combat smuggling. To the extent that the US is interested in border control, the facilitation of smuggling by aspects of the Yemeni security forces is an important consideration.

al Tagheer: أفادت مصادر مطلعة عن دوي انفجار شديد في ميناء الصيد بمديرية ميدي التابعة لمحافظة حجة صباح الاثنين في حوالي الساعة الرابعة فجرا تضرر فيه ثلاثة قوارب صيد احدهم يتبع ضباط بالجيش ويدعى محمد حنيش. Informed sources said a loud blast in the fishing port MIDI Directorate in the province of argument on Monday morning at about four o’clock am the damaged fishing boats, one of three military officers followed, Mohammed Hanish. (Read on …)

The relationship between Yemen and China is quite strong and well established. Yemen balances its external relations in a similiar manner to its internal affairs. Yemen’s alliance with the US is offset by its relation with China, Russia, Iran, even Cuba. Yemen supports the Chinese position on Taiwan, and China never pressures Yemen on Human Rights issues, of course. First up, we have Yemen quite understanding of the Chinese crackdown on the Uighur’s and insisting its some conspiracy, which is the standard line for the Yemeni government regarding civil unrest in Yemen.

CNN: The July 5 riot in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is an internal affair of China, the Yemeni ambassador to China said on Wednesday. Yemen supports China’s efforts to defend its national sovereignty, to safeguard its social stability, and the people’s security and property, Abdulmalek Mualemi said in a written interview with Xinhua.

The riot in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, left 197 people dead and more than 1,680 injured….

“Considering the grave loss of lives and property caused by the violence, we believe the incident did not happen spontaneously as some people have claimed, instead, it was premeditated and organized,” he said.

AQAP may target Chinese interests in Yemen- report.

Bloomberg: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said it will target the 50,000 Chinese workers in Algeria and Chinese nationals and projects across northwestern Africa, said Stirling Assynt, which has offices in London and Hong Kong….“Some of these individuals have been actively seeking information on China’s interests in the Muslim world which they could use for targeting purposes,” Stirling Assynt said, adding locations included North Africa, Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen. Other militant groups may make similar threats and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula “could well target Chinese projects in Yemen,” according to the report.

More from Yemen Observer and al Sahwa.

Next: Chinese investment in Yemen, the overt kind. China needs to secure energy supplies and is one of Yemen’s main trading partners.

July 14 (Saba) – Yemen and the Chinese Commercial Vessel Building Company reviewed on Tuesday benefits and investment opportunities provided to investors in Aden Free Zone (AFZ).

Vice-chairman of the General Authority for Free Zones, and Head of the AFZ Abdul-Jalil al-Shuaibi re-invited, during his meeting with deputy general director of the company, Chinese investors to invest in Yemen, especially in establishing a factory for Chinese cars in the country.

Finally the Chinese massage parlors in Sana’a targeted by the Virtue and Vice Commission. The Chinese girls trafficked to Yemen as sex slaves were left crying on the street.

Al Arabyia: Yemeni religious police were out in force Tuesday in a major crackdown that saw many massage parlors and Chinese restaurants in the capital Sanaa shut down for allegedly promoting prostitution and vice.

The Yemeni religious police, modeled after Saudi Arabia’s Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, targeted popular tourist areas in Sanaa.

Authorities dragged Chinese women working in several spas and restaurants to the streets and sealed the businesses after posting a sign reading “closed by the authorities,” an eyewitness told Al Arabiya.

The number of Chinese restaurants and spas in the capital has increased significantly in the capital despite the fact that none of them have a legal work permits or Ministry of Health authorization, said an official who supervised the clampdown but spoke on condition of anonymity. (Read on …)

They were found to be outside Yemeni territorial waters when captured by international forces, that seems to be it. The drug smugglers are going to be deported. This was a huge bust and Yemen has promised to destroy the drugs.

Penal court in Yemen cancels death and imprisonment verdicts against Iranians
Wednesday, 24-June-2009
Almotamar.net - Specialised Appeals Court in Yemen on Wednesday cancelled the first instance sentence against 13 Iranian national as it is not specialty of Yemeni judiciary.
The appeals verdict stipulated the destruction of drugs seized with the defendants, confiscation of their boat and deportation of the defendants. (Read on …)

Wow. What are the Iranians going to be delivering? All the Yemeni accusations that Iran was supporting the Shiite rebellion must be resolved. I’m joking, that was posturing.

PressTV Tehran and Sana’a have agreed to confront piracy off the coast of Yemen and the Gulf of Aden, says the Iranian foreign minister.

“Yemen has agreed to permit Iranian warships to dock at Yemen’s port (of Aden) to provide security to Iranian commercial ships in the region,” IRINN quoted Manouchehr Mottaki as saying.

The deal was reached during a meeting between Mottaki and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana’a. The agreement came a month after Iran announced that six Iranian vessels were joining the international efforts against piracy off the coast of Somalia.

“Six warships and support vessels have been dispatched to the Gulf of Aden region and international waters,” said commander of the Iranian Navy Real-Admiral Habibollah Sayyari…Iran’s first deployment came after Somali pirates hijacked the Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship, Delight, operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) in the Gulf of Aden in November, 2008.

The latest incident involving an Iranian ship came in March when pirates attacked an Iranian vessel for what they called “illegal fishing” in the northern semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

Related: Prime Minister flies to Syria to firm up transportation agreements

SANA’A, June 27 (Saba) – Prime Minister Ali Muhammad Mujawar will leave today for Syria on an official visit during which he will head the Yemeni side in the 9th meeting of the Yemeni-Syrian Supreme Committee.

The two-day session, which will start on Sunday, would be held in Syrian capital, Damascus. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Etri will head his country’s side.

The meeting will focus on finding ways to strengthen Yemeni-Syrian economic cooperation and deal with six documents including one on transport cooperation between the two countries.

Yemen Post

Yemeni economists considered raising the prices of oil derivatives a political suicide, emphasizing that there are no realistic justifications for such a critical decision by the government.
Dr. Mohammad Jubran, Professor of Economics at Sana’a University, said that the 2009 general budget included an increase in some materials’ prices among which were petroleum products.
Jubran pointed out that, raising prices of oil derivatives in such circumstances might lead the citizens’ living conditions even worse.
He stressed that, any justifications for increasing oil prices would seem to be pointless as oil prices are within safe limits, for the time being.

Moreover, Jubran warned that taking such a step would create many problems and unrest for the country. Confirming that not more than 50%of oil derivatives are consumed locally while the rest 50% is smuggled abroad, Jubran said that Yemeni government is not obliged to support foreigners while Yemenis are deprived of their country’s wealth.

Subsidies exceed USD 4 billion, Yemen Post:

Head of Foreign Affairs Circle at the ruling General People Congress (GPC) Mohammed Al-Qubati revealed the government has no plans to increase the prices of oil derivatives on what it known among locals to be a new Jur’ah (dose).

In an interview aired by Al-Saeeda Satellite Channel, Al-Qubati stated that Yemen spends about $4 billion in supporting oil derivatives, stressing this huge sum does overburden the country’s state budget.

The governmental subsidy on oil is a huge structural problem; the subsidies are supposed to be reduced a little at a time and in conjunction with increased social support so the poor is not unduly burdened. Equally important steps include a reduction in military spending and firm anti-corruption measures. Two billion a year of public funds is diverted into the blackmarket with the subsidies, and thats just one vein of corruption in a vast web.

HADRAMOUT, June 19 (Saba) – Yemen says it had seized two fishing boats carrying a huge stash of drugs hidden in 162 bags.

The two boats were apprehended 13 nautical miles off the port of Sher city in the western Hadramout province. Two Africans were seized on one of the boat and five Yemenis were seized on the second boat.

The Africans were a Tanzanian and a Kenyan, ages 35-36, while the five Yemenis were aged 19-52. In May, the Public Prosecution destroyed four tonnes of hashish and six million pills of amphetamines. The drugs quantities were said could sell for over $ 83 million.

About 75 suspects including 47 Yemenis, 12 Pakistanis, 10 Iranians, 2 Syrians, 2 Saudis and a Eritrean and Ethiopian, have faced drugs trafficking and trade charges in the country in recent months.

The trials of some of the suspected drugs traffickers and dealers have been completed with some sentenced to death and others to years in prison. Other trials are still under process.

US State Department

YEMEN (Tier 2 Watch List)

Yemen is a country of origin and, to a much lesser extent, transit and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. (Read on …)

Very interesting, I’ve been waiting for more Sudan/Yemen news after the Yemeni fishing boat exploded in Sudanese waters and the Yemeni small plane crashed after take-off in the Sudan.

Cars waiting to take them to the Saudi border is well coordinated, indicates good communication and, for human trafficking to Yemen, elaborate. Landing is not the norm. Often the poor refugees get dumped from the boat and swim to shore; no one is waiting. Landing on the islands I think is new also. I wonder what the boats are taking back? Drugs, guns, diesel? Article is from the Yemen Observer:

Yemen’s Medi Island of Hajjah province close to the Saudi borders has become a new passing point for African refugees to the Gulf countries. The past few days witnessed the arrival of large groups said that an anonymous groups of African refugees from different nationalities-Nigerians, Sudanese, Chadian.

The Red Sea has become also the new passing through point for African refugees after it was only confined to Somalis and their fatal trips in the Gulf of Aden.

Yemen’s Coastguards have captured more than 500 Africans while attempting to sneak into the lands of Saudi Arabia. The coastguards also have captured 110 African refugees in the Medi Island after thie arrival on a smuggling boat. Sources at the coastguards said that there were several cars that were waiting for them to carry them to Hardh district located at the Saudi borders to smuggle them into Saudi Arabia. (Read on …)

OK lets get the deisel smuggling out of the way- daily shipments from Yemen to Africa of government subsidized diesel. (Related: Daily Star: US Navy rescues 52 stranded Somalis.)

The much bigger issue is the exploding fishing boat. Its unclear that any missile hit it at this point; its could have been laden with explosives or carrying an aged gas canister and blew up accidentally. Its important for the international fleet to remain vigilant about the danger of maritime terror attacks in the Gulf of Aden. There is good reason to assume a defensive position after the USS Cole bombing (and the later Limburg). The sailors on the Cole waved at the approaching boat; the Navy cannot repeat that mistake, especially now when its easy to be desensitized by having dealt with the Somali pirates for a year or more. The rules of engagement should not allow hapless lost Yemeni fishermen to approach military vessels, blame it on al Badawi.

A statement from al Qaeda Central called for naval jihad (May 26 2008), the October one by a Yemeni forecast a major event around Somalia. The links between AQAP in Yemen and al Shabab go back to the ICU and before. Its a predictable scenario that AQAP would attempt to outdo the Cole bombing when the waters are full of such tempting targets. And I don’t necessarily mean al Wahishi.

Why Yemeni fishermen are near the Sudan is another question. The Yemeni flight school for small planes that flies back and forth between Yemen and Sudan is something, what I don’t know. Its could be normal criminal smuggling activity, spotters for pirates or something entirely innocuous.
Yemen Post

Two Yemeni fishermen were killed and one was injured while the fate of a fourth one is still unknown after their boat came under an aggressive assault by one of the international naval ships patrolling the Red Sea near Sudan on Tuesday.

A source at the Coast Guard said Abdu Marwani and Muhammad Naj’e were killed immediately after their boat was totally destroyed by a missile which some suspect was an air strike. Sources at Yemen’s navy said it probably came from sea.

While the third fisherman made it to Sudanese coast and is now in critical condition. The fishermen came from the Midy area, Hajjah before their boat was hit near Sudan’s waters.

A coordinated investigation by Yemen and Sudan is underway to explore reasons for the attack.

Meanwhile, director of the Midy district Abdul Majeed Al-Himyari dismissed reports a Yemeni boat was attacked in Yemen’s territorial waters, saying the incident took place while the boat was in Sudan’s territorial waters. He told the media the survivor is being investigated by Sudan.

Tuesday’s attack comes in a series of attacks against Yemeni fishing boats by international forces patrolling the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

Early this year, two Yemeni sailors were killed as their boats came under separate attacks by international troops in the Indian Ocean. Few others were hurt, with troops saying they suspected the boats were for pirates and then hit them.

And this month, the Interior Ministry said a Yemeni boat was provoked, with NATO’s mission in the region intimidating its crew.

The area where the boat was hit on Tuesday is witnessing large fuel smuggling, with eyewitnesses affirming boats smuggle diesel to African Horn States daily.

A compilation post, a bit more detail on this in an article I wrote for the Yemen Times in December. The VOA article is very good:

VOA: UN Warns of Ties Between Lawless Groups in Somalia and Yemen

For years, criminals have used ports in the Arab world’s poorest country, Yemen, as staging areas for trafficking humans, drugs, and weapons. There are growing fears that criminal groups in Yemen and pirate gangs in Somalia are moving closer together, further complicating international efforts to stabilize the region. (Read on …)

A good idea. Gen. Turki says AQAP are the greatest threat to Saudi Arabia. We knew that was their focus way back when the nine shoulder fired missles were smuggled from Yemen to SA. Also Saudis are planning an electronic fence to go with the berms and metal fencing. If its an effective fence, then it will cut into Yemen’s substantial black market economy- smuggling drugs, people and weapons into SA and the Gulf. That would prompt an economic crisis of different proportions.

al-Watan

خاص ( الوطن ) – Special (home) –
بحث نائب رئيس الوزراء لشئون الدفاع والأمن وزير الإدارة المحلية اللواء رشاد العليمي مع الجانب السعودي آليات عمل جديدة لمواجهة البلدين لحضر تنظيم القاعدة في الدولتين. Deputy Prime Minister for Defense, Security, Local Administration Minister Rashad Al-Alimi Brigade with the Saudi side of new mechanisms of action to address the two countries attended the al-Qaeda in the two countries. (Read on …)

The first time I heard this years ago, I didn’t beleive it. Its horrific.

CAIRO, April 21 (Saba) – The Egyptian authorities have deported nine Yemeni children to their homeland after the police in association with the Yemeni community broke up an international human trafficking ring accused of trading in human organs.

Almotamar.net quoted a Yemeni diplomat in Egypt as saying the Egyptian authorities had found ten Yemeni children early last month in Cairo. The children were trafficked by the ring and expected to undergo surgeries to remove their organs to trade in them. (Read on …)

Part Two, Yemen Times, Courtesy of the investigative reports department SABA News Agency Translated by Yemen Times Staff

About 1,000 people – according to the official institutions in Yemen- were involved in drug crime in the past 8 years. During the past 4 years, more than 800 people involved in drug smuggling have been arrested, 150 of them foreigners, mainly from Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. (Read on …)

A collection of articles on the topic of the illegal drug trade in Yemen. Primary sources are Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, some Syrian. First up, a bust of two tons of Iranian drugs. al Motamar

Almotamar.net – Yemen’s Specialised Criminal court o Monday condemned a Yemeni person and another Jordanian on charge of smuggling 2 tons of drugs from Iran. (Read on …)

Russia is Yemen’s biggest creditor by far.

Yemen Post

President Saleh’s recent visit to Russia raised a great deal of media fuss and this fuss was associated with the nature of the visit. The official media mentioned that Saleh’s visit was meant for canceling Yemen’s debts as well as the economic cooperation, while the international media revealed that Yemen signed weapons deals at billions of US Dollars. This was later affirmed by the official media as they revealed that the country signed a four-billion dollar weapons deal, the biggest deal ever. (Read on …)

Again? Did this happen last month or is it a new confrontation between the Coast Guard and the Border Guard? Its a current article, so maybe its a second occurence.

Sahwa Net – Confrontations have erupted between border guards and coast guards in Lohia district ,Hodaida, as coast guards conducted check campaign on boats suspected that they were carried with smuggled commodities.

Local sources said clashes broke out when border guards prevented coast guards from checking fishing boats in Lohia .

The source explained that border guards harbored smugglers , pointing out that trafficking is carried out regularly as border guards protect smugglers.

Yemen Post has more: (Read on …)

The US and counter-piracy coalition noticed the substantial support for Somalia piracy coming from Yemen. And it is substantial, including weapons, diesel, use of territorial waters, phone service, ship coordinates etc. Earlier the UN monitoring group noted the nexus of piracy, human smuggling from Somalia to Yemen and the weapons smuggling from Yemen to Somalia on the return trip. The US Admiral is careful to make the point that the support is coming from private individuals, when actually all substantial criminal networks in Yemen are tied to the highest levels of the Yemeni regime. The US hopes for Yemeni governmental support in diminishing logistical aid to the pirates.

The Economist notes the enmeshing of criminal gangs and Mukallah’s importance in particular: It is said that pirates from Somalia and Yemen have now teamed up with smuggling gangs elsewhere in Africa to conduct illicit trade through Yemeni ports such as Mukalla and Belhaf with coalition force having only occasional success, piracy is plainly spreading more widely across the Indian Ocean.

Good. We noted that Mukallah port was an important entry point for drugs and exit point for weapons in 2005: One regionally destabilizing regime activity is drug smuggling. A variety of illegal drugs are smuggled via the Indian Ocean into the southern Yemeni governate of Hadramawt. The drugs are then transported inland to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States under the supervision of a close relative of the president who is also responsible for the governmental security apparatus, a well informed former regime official reported.

The 10 tons of hashish was coming in through Mukallah. I noted in the Yemen Times that Makallah is not under the authority of the Coast Guard yet:

Increased activity by the Yemeni Coast Guard between Aden and al Mukalla impacted arms shipments from ports in the patrolled areas. However, the monitoring group found that the lack of regular patrols in al Mukalla “means that arms traffic continues unabated.” The group recommended capacity building programs for the Coast Guard and direct naval interdiction.

Yemen’s coast line extends 1906 km. The Coast Guard, created in 2003, is working towards taking control of Mocha and al Mukalla from the military. The Republican Guard and Central Security forces have authority at ports where the Coast Guard has limited presence.

The Republican Guard is under the direction of Prince Ahmed and the Central Security is under Yahya Saleh, the “close presidential relative” referenced in the 2005 article above. The US says the logistical support for the pirates is undertaken by private individuals. ,

Reuters The international community should work with Yemen to stop its people supplying Somali pirates who are disrupting lucrative international shipping routes, a senior U.S. admiral said on Monday. Somali pirates, who have disrupted lucrative international shipping trade, are getting fuel and engine parts from individuals in Yemen, Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, a Nato commander and the top U.S naval officer for Africa, told Reuters….”The fuel for instance, is coming from Yemen, a lot of the logistic supplies, things like motor boat engines (too)… And so we just need work with the government there to start tightening up controls,” Fitzgerald said.

“Its (support) not from the Yemen government, its from people in Yemen,” Fitzgerald said on the sidelines of an African naval conference in Cape Town, without giving further details.

Says a lot, Yemen Online

Yemeni Sheikh closed “Ilb” Yemen-Saudi border crossing in Sa’ada governorate, calling for the implementation of the agreement terms between his grandfather and Saudi Arabia.
YemenOnline. March 01 – Armed elements believed to be followers to Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed Moqait, Baqim district, Sa’ada governorate closed on Saturday morning “Ilb” Yemen-Saudi border crossing, denying entry and exit of people and vehicles to and from Saudi Arabia, learned tribal sources reported to Al-Ishteraki Net. According to the sources, hundreds of cars and trucks piling up on both sides of the border of Yemen Saudi Arabia since the early hours of Saturday morning To reopen the border crossing, Sheikh Moqait , a senior Baqim sheikh, demanded that both Saudi Arabia and Yemen authorities implement his terms, in particular allowing the people of his tribe to enter to Saudi Arabia and work there without having to obtain what is known as the Saudi “sponsor”.
According to Sheikh Moqait , Saudi Arabia is obligated to implement the agreement terms between “AL Saud” and his grandfather in particular allowing Yemeni-Saudi border tribes, including Baqim and Monabbih tribes, to work in Saudi Arabia without having to obtain work permits or a Saudi sponsor.

Notably, Ilb border crossing is one of the most important crossings between Yemen and Saudi Arabia.