Armies of Liberation

Yemen Post: Republican guards killed a 14-year old boy in Yemen’s Taiz province on Wednesday, where a massive demonstration was held coinciding with protests in other cities to urge the youth-led protesters to finish their revolution and to refuse external mandate or interventions.

Locals at Street 60th at the city’s entrance said republican guards fired at passengers inside a bus killing the teen and injuring others. The incident took place amid insecurity in Taiz, which saw deadly clashes between the army and armed tribesmen in the past weeks.

In other Taiz related news, Haykel Saed Corp is negotiating between the families of the protesters killed by forces under the supervision of lunatic security chief (transferred from Aden after several bloodbaths) Abdullah Qiran. There’s no resolution yet as the families are demanding a trial. Qiran was also charged with the murder of Ahmed Darwish tortured to death in Aden jail. One major outstanding protesters’ demand is the purge and reformation of the security forces.

Its like watching a slow motion car crash and everyone is shouting, turn the wheel.

Yemen’s Economy to Collapse within Two Years – Gulf Official Warns
Yemen Post Staff

Yemen’s economy is expected to collapse within two years in case the inflation and job rates continue to increase amid a sharp decline in oil production whose revenues bring in about two thirds of the country’s income, a Gulf official has warned.

Abdul Aziz al Owaishiq, Director of the Economic Integration Department at the Gulf Cooperation Council, was quoted by Al-Hayat Newspaper as saying in a lecture in Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday that the GCC and donor annual aid to Yemen, about $ 1.2 billion, is now frozen because of the ‘administrative inefficiency and weaknesses’. (Read on …)

General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar: the Avis of Yemen

YP: BY DIONNE SEARCEY- Wall Street Journal (For the Yemen Post)
New documents have emerged relating to possible bribery in Yemen by global oil-services giant Schlumberger.
Internal company documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that Schlumberger employees raised concerns in 2008 about payments for cars the company rented from Yemeni government officials at above-market rates—including $6,000 a month for a Toyota Camry and two Toyota Corollas. Employees also cited a contract with customs broker Dhakwan Management Petroleum Co., whose chairman had ties to Yemen’s president. (Read on …)

GAN
Yemen (Aden) – Aden Free Zone (AFZ) and the International Center for Auction Co., Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a trade and storage complex and a global complex to organize and manage all kinds of auctions, Global Arab Network reports according to Saba. (Read on …)

Lets see who gets the contracts and if anything ever gets built.

TML: Yemen plans to build six beach resorts over the next five years to change the image of the war-torn country and draw tourists. (Read on …)

Yemen Times

Dr. Mohamed Jubran, professor of economics, to the Yemen Times:
Money laundering is responsible for the devaluation of the Yemeni riyal

He is often quoted by local newspapers and television channels on economic issues, and is well-known among economic reporters and business editors. He used to be a member of the Islah party, but now only focuses on the economy.

In his sitting room at the week-end, he finishes writing up a research paper on his laptop and scans a study about the economy of Yemen. This is Dr. Mohamed Jubran, professor of economics at Sana’a University and he is the person who always finds the courage to speak his mind on any activity related to the economy, business or banking. (Read on …)

An in depth profile of Yemen’s ambassador to the US at Time today fails to note that Abdulwahab Abdulla Al-Hajjri is President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s brother-in-law.

Time: The reason his bosses have kept him there so long, he says, is that “they think it’s an investment, because they think you develop experience and an understanding of how the system works.” Yemen’s ambassador to the UN is also a relative of the president.

In Yemen, the concentration of power in the hands of Saleh’s family goes beyond their control of the instruments of force (military and security forces) and extends to the national economy. The NYT noticed recently that many of President Saleh’s relatives are top security commanders.

(Presidential son) Ahmed Saleh is head of the Yemen Republican Guard and the country’s special forces. The president’s nephews — sons of his late brother — include Amar, the deputy director for national security; Yahye, head of the central security forces and the counterterrorism unit; and Tarek, head of the Presidential Guard. The president’s half brother is head of the air force.

As the following listing I compiled in 2006 demonstrates, Saleh’s relatives also control a large segment of the Yemeni economy in addition to their duties as military leaders. They also “own” much of the land. One trigger for instability in Southern Yemen is widespread land theft by the ruling family. The corporations listed below are huge monopolies in various business sectors.

President Saleh’s Relatives’ Economic Interests

Ahmed Ali Abdullah Saleh, Special Forces and Republican Guards Commander, Eldest Son, Al-Haj Company For Heavy Equipments and Cars

Ali Abdullah Saleh, President, Partner of Tawfick Abul-Raheem, Sole Distributor of Gas and Petroleum Products

Ali Mohsen Al-Hamar Military Commander Northern and Western regions, Hawan For Petroleum Services and Alraida Group for Engineering.

Khalid Alarhabi Deputy Chief of The Presidential Palaces, Son in-law ,Yemen Space Company

Mohamed Saleh Al-Hamar, Air Force Commander, Half Brother, Alhashidi Petroleum Company

Yahya Mohamed Abdullah Saleh Commander Of Security Central Forces, Nephew, Al Mas Company For Petroleum Services and Ha Wi Cable Chinese Company
(Read on …)

The inability of small businesses to get a credit line is actually a huge issue, dull perhaps but consequential. It impedes the diversification and growth of the economy by region, product and ownership. As the recent tightening of credit globally stunted the world economy, in Yemen negative result of the failure of banks to grant credit to small and medium businesses is magnified by other economic factors including corruption and the lack of infrastructure including electricity and roads. At the same time the banks make a wide range of inappropriate loans to “influential persons”, a practice that lead to the seizure of the Watani bank a few years ago.

Micro-credit has been one of the most effective methods globally of raising poverty stricken groups to self sufficiency. When people have an opportunity to better their future, they usually do, and work very hard doing it. The heart of a healthy economy is small businees, and in Yemen there are so many monopolies and unfair practices. Factionalism and identity politics are the norm, with marginalized groups also excluded from credit and therefore economic opportunity. Its another detrimental offshoot of the unipolar configuration of the political landscape and the increasing consolidation of economic structures (including land ownership) in the hands of the elite (Saleh and his gang). The Yemen Post reports on a study by the IFC:

The Yemeni banks are unwilling to grant credits for small and medium enterprises or they may give conditional credits for high profits due to high risks, a study has said.

The study conducted by the International Finance Corporation also noted that most of the small and medium enterprises in Yemen are not much qualified for loans because they don’t have enough guarantees. The ratio of credits to deposits is very low, about 33 percent, it finds, adding that only 4 percent Yemeni people have bank accounts. (Read on …)