9/23/11 HRF: Cables released by Wikileaks reveal that Slobodan Tesic, a Serbian arms dealer, contracted in 2009 to sell $95 million worth of sniper rifles, antiaircraft guns, and other arms and ammunition to the Yemen Ministry of Defense. As scores of unarmed protestors continue to be killed by the Yemeni government in renewed violence this week, possibly by these same weapons, Human Rights First renews its call for the United States to actively pressure the networks that enable brutal violence against civilians and grave human rights abuses.

Tesic has previously been connected with weapon sales in Liberia, Libya, Iraq, and elsewhere. He is subject to a U.N. travel ban for violating an arms embargo in Liberia. In 2002, he shipped “enough bullets to kill the entire population of Liberia,” enabling the former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s alleged war crimes. The arms dealer is also connected with weapon sales to Iraq and to terrorist regimes. Despite Tesic’s clear embargo violation and connection with atrocities, he was able to work with the Albanian Ministry of Defense to bring weapons into Libya in 2010, and contract with the Yemeni government in 2009. The influx and proliferation of weapons in the region has helped fuel significant violence against civilians and other human rights abuses.

From Chatham House, the full ( PDF report is here):
The recent political crisis in Yemen has created a cycle of hyperinflation, currency depreciation and disruption to the supply of basic goods. This is already having a serious impact on the 10.3 million Yemenis living in poverty, with the prospect of worse conditions to come.

Yemen’s economy is in thrall to a complex, intertwined network of elites that control the oil industry, imports, processing, and packaging and distribution of goods. Many members of these elite groups are key actors in the current crisis.

The country’s economy is dominated by the production and export of crude oil, which generates 70–80 per cent of government revenues and most of the country’s foreign exchange reserves. As a result, Yemeni consumers are highly vulnerable to shifts in international commodity prices, domestic oil output, the country’s overall fiscal position and domestic security.

There is a need to reinforce existing social protection mechanisms and bolster humanitarian aid to ensure the availability of, and access to, basic commodities for the country’s most vulnerable people. Western donors are demanding a swift political transition as a precondition for resuming the bulk of aid spending, but the transition process has already been lengthy and contested, and any resolution is likely to be protracted and complex.

The current ‘wait-and-see’ approach to the situation being taken by some members of the international community will hamper a swift and effective response to the economic crisis, and is likely to exacerbate the human cost of the crisis.

Raxanreeb: U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said millions of people in Yemen face “a daily struggle for survival” due to conflict, poverty, drought, soaring food prices and collapsing state services.

They include 100,000 displaced by recent fighting in the south, 300,000 uprooted by a previous insurgency by Shi’ite rebels in the north, and thousands of refugees from the Horn of Africa, she said….Rising insecurity has forced U.N. agencies and other humanitarian organisations to leave or cut back their staff levels in the Arab country, the U.N.’s Amos said. Accurate information on what is happening is becoming increasingly hard to gather, she added.

“Yemen is the poorest country in the region, and has suffered chronic deprivation for years. If we don’t act now, the situation could become a catastrophe,” Amos said in a statement.

“In neighbouring Somalia, we have seen what happens if warnings go unheeded, and too little is done in time to stop a crisis. Let us not repeat the same mistake in Yemen,” she added….Meanwhile, across the Gulf of Aden in Yemen, a third of the population is suffering from hunger, and health facilities are overcrowded or simply not working, according to the United Nations.

Children have been hit hard by the fallout from the growing political chaos. In some parts of the country, one in three are malnourished – among the highest levels in the world, the U.N. says. And tens of thousands are missing out on their education due to the closure of schools, some of which are sheltering displaced families.

At least 94 children have been killed and 240 wounded by gunshots or shelling since civil unrest began in Yemen earlier this year, the executive director of the U.N. children’s fund (UNICEF), Anthony Lake, said last week.

“The children of Yemen should be busy going back to school at this time of year. Instead, they face armed men rather than teachers, bullets instead of books,” he said in a statement. “The country is sinking deeper into a humanitarian crisis.”

A joint international appeal for $290 million to respond to humanitarian needs in Yemen this year is so far 60 percent funded, according to the U.N’.s Financial Tracking Service.

CH: Anti-government protests in Yemen are complicating Nexen’s efforts to renew its licence for the country’s Masila oilfield.

Nexen may lose its licence for Yemen’s Masila oilfield to a local operator, officials in Yemen said, as the Canadian company’s efforts to renew the deal are hindered by political turmoil and the government’s urgent need for cash.

The loss would be a blow to Nexen, which produces around 35,000 barrels per day or more than a tenth of its global output from the field and whose licence for it expires in December. The Calgary-based company has also seen production problems at its North Sea assets this year.

Nexen has been working to renew the licence for another five years. This has proven difficult, especially during months of anti-government protest in Yemen against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s refusal to accept a mediated plan to quit power.

“It (a licence extension) is not going to be easy . . . It is a difficult process under a political crisis,” a senior government official told Reuters.

“In case of no agreement, they (Nexen) will have to hand over to a local company. . . . There is not going to be any stoppage of oil production,” the source added.

Industry sources have suggested some government members believe the deal with Nexen brings in less revenues than the project should generate for the state.

Nexen said it was still talkng to the government.

“Discussions continue with the government of Yemen on the extension on Block 14. We will not be making any comments until those talks are completed,” a spokesman said in an e-mail.

“Production and shipping activities continue unaffected,” he added. “And we remain focused on the safe and efficient operation of our facilities as we have for the past two decades.”

Nexen produces from its two blocks in Yemen – Masila (Block 14) and East Al Hajr (Block 51) – and exports almost all of it from the Ash Shahir terminal on the southern coast of the country, mainly to Asia.

Block 14 had the country’s biggest proven oil reserves at the end of 2010, according to data from Yemen’s Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority (PEPA).

The government source did not name the company that would take control of Masila should Nexen be unable to renew.

Another industry source based in Yemen and familiar with the matter said the government would like to pass operations at Block 14 to Yemen-based SAFER E&P Operations Company (SEPOC), which is the operator of Maarib Block 18.

“It looks like there is a mood within the government for SEPOC to take over Block 14 in Masila,” the industry source said.

An official at SEPOC confirmed the possibility but said the final decision would be made by the Oil Ministry.

Nexen began production in Masila oilfield in 1993 and operations have been largely unaffected during the eightmonth political crisis, except for a brief halt to production in May because of a worker strike.

Government forces have violently suppressed protests over Saleh’s refusal to accept a mediated handover plan and Nexen said it has temporarily closed its office in Sanaa, which has witnessed much of the violence.

The company has over 900 employees in Yemen, more than 90 per cent of whom are Yemeni nationals.

World powers fear that chaos in Yemen, home to alQaeda’s most powerful regional branch and adjoining the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, could threaten oil shipping lanes and raise the risk of militant strikes on Western targets.

The upheaval has hit the poorest Arab country’s modest oil industry hard. An attack by tribesmen forced the country’s main oil pipeline to shut for more than three months earlier this year.

The pipeline was repaired in July and the flow of Maarib crude resumed, enabling the Aden refinery to produce fuel again, although Gulf-based traders say the country still imports some 2-3 cargoes of fuel per month.

WB Suspends $542 Million to Instable Yemen Yemen Post:

The World Bank suspended hundreds of millions of USD in aid to Yemen as from July 28 due to the political and security situation as the dueling protests and associated severe crises continue across the republic.

Independent sources cited a WB statement as saying that the decision came in harmony with the Bank’s rules that call for such a procedure in complicated circumstances to avoid negative impacts on its programme course in any country.

The Bank is sponsoring 21 projects in Yemen with $882 million, $542 million out of which has not been released yet, the source reported, citing the statement as saying that the Bank will be ready to resume its activities normally in the country when the situation returns normal.

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.

CAPE TOWN — South African- manufactured Ratel armoured infantry carriers have been photographed in strife-torn Yemen, leading the Democratic Alliance (DA) to call for an investigation by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC).

The Ratels were apparently being operated in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, by soldiers who had defected to protesters demanding the end of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule.

The presence of the vehicles either means SA authorised their export or that another country sold Ratels to Yemen, which would constitution a violation of the end- user certificate.

DA defence spokesman David Maynier said in a statement yesterday that NCACC chairman Jeff Radebe should launch an investigation into how the converted Ratels, previously operated by the South African National Defence Force, had found their way to Yemen.

“Over 100 pictures of demonstrations in Yemen were recently published by Reuters and the Associated Press. The series includes a number of pictures of a converted Ratel infantry vehicle in Yemen,” Mr Maynier said.

“The NCACC’s latest annual report records that R373,8m worth of conventional arms were sold to Yemen in 2010. Conventional arms exports to Yemen last year included R239,4m worth of Category A conventional weapons, which are described as major conventional implements of war that could cause heavy personnel casualties.”

Mr Maynier was ejected from the National Assembly in March when he questioned whether SA had supplied sniper rifles to Libya and asked Mr Radebe how it felt to have “blood on his hands”.

Mr Maynier yesterday there was no evidence suggesting Ratels were exported directly to Yemen, but some were reportedly sold to Jordan.

He said: “The Paramount Group, in co-operation with the King Abdullah Design and Development Bureau (KADDB), produced a converted version of the Ratel infantry vehicle in Jordan; and the infantry vehicle depicted in the photos appears to be the converted version of the Ratel infantry vehicle produced by the Paramount Group and KADDB in Jordan.

The NCACC annual report in April showed significant military hardware sales to North Africa and the Middle East. Last year R68,9m worth of conventional arms were exported to Libya, R7,7m to Syria and R373,8m to Yemen. This included Category A weapons such as explosives, large-calibre arms and automatic weapons, guns, missiles, bombs, grenades and tanks.

SABA

aretaker Govt transmits bill of National Petroleum Co. to Parliament
[29 / March 2011]

SANA’A, March 29 (Saba) – The cabinet of the caretaker government referred on Tuesday a bill of the National Petroleum Company to Parliament for discussion and completion of constitutional procedures for the issuance of the law.

The bill, reviewed by a ministerial committee, consists of 32 articles divided into six chapters, including naming, definitions, the establishment of the National Petroleum Company and determining its functions, powers, capital, resources and board of directors, the advantages and exemptions and the final provisions.

The bill stipulated the creation of a national petroleum company to replace the current SAFER E & P Operations Company. The new company has a legal personality with financial and administrative independence and is subjected to the supervision and control of Minister of Oil and Minerals.

Yemen Post

Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qirbi has urged donors to pump $ 6 billion in aid to Yemen over the next five years to help it meet the demands of the anti-government protesters and sit-inners.
Al-Qirbi told foreign media outlets after his meeting with Gulf counterparts on Monday in Abu Dhabi that what Yemen really needs is development and economic growth because the current political crisis was a direct result of the economic situation in the country.
Yemen will present later this month a fifth-year development plan to Friends of Yemen Group that includes European and Gulf donors and the U.S., he said, adding that the budget deficit in the plan is $ 6 billion.
“We hope the GCC countries along with other donors to contribute to drawing up a plan to support the state budget deficit,” said the minister.
His remarks came amid escalating protests and sit-ins across the country demanding the departure of President Saleh and his regime, and as the opposition has vowed to intensify the anti-Saleh rule protest. The vow came after the president had rejected a proposed plan by the opposition for a peaceful and smooth transfer of power.
Furthermore, Al-Qirbi stated that the GCC countries are supporting the efforts of Saleh to hold dialogue with the opposition and to address all political, economic and social challenges behind the youths’ revolt.
Hundreds of thousands of youths and other people have been conducting sit-ins and staging protests in several Yemeni cities for more than a month demanding the removal of the regime.
They are determined not to abandon this until this demand was met.

New Age: Yemen’s ambassador to Egypt was robbed by gunmen, who stole about 594,000 dollars in cash, security sources told the German Press Agency dpa on Wednesday.

Ambassador Abdel-Walay al-Shemiri was on his way to the southern city of Assiut in Egypt when three gunmen robbed him, said Egyptian security sources, who did not give further details.

Al-Shemiri told authorities he had the lofty sum of 3.5 million Egyptian pounds (594,000 dollars), in cash to distribute to the University of Assiut, where a number of Yemeni students were studying on scholarship. -Sapa-dpa

Students had no idea he was coming: Marib Press, students studying at the University of Assiut, were not aware in advance of the visit referred to or the program scheduled, and that some of the students happily came to see the Ambassador at his request after his arrival in the city.