Armies of Liberation

Yemen entered the fourth week of anti-regime protests with a late night onslaught of state violence against protesters at Sanaa University who were demanding the resignation of long-ruling president Field Marshall Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The attack began two hours ago when security forces opened fire on the protesters. Early conflicting reports indicate three have head wounds and died or are in very critical condition. Over 30 were wounded by gunfire and another 40 were injured after being beaten with clubs or choking on tear gas.

Several witnesses reported the medical professionals rushing to the scene were stopped by police. At the same time, the protesters appealed for blood donations and medical supplies via twitter stating several people are bleeding out near the gates of the university. Two medics were beaten by state security.

The crowd that gathered today, international Woman’s Day, had a larger number of women and girls than on prior days.

Witnesses said members of the Republican Guard opened fired along with Central Security forces. The Republican Guard is headed by President Saleh’s son Ahmed, and has received US counter-terror training, .The Central Security forces are under the command of President Saleh’s nephew.

The assault began late in the evening, about 11:00 as protesters were mostly hunkered down for the night or trying to set up new tents. Central Security officers were spotted removing their uniforms before entering the university square. The officers had arrived in government vehicles, witnesses report. The situation remains tense as it nears 1:00 am in Sanaa and the wounded have yet to receive treatment.

Widespread protests

The deaths in Sanaa were preceded by fatalities among protesters on Monday in outlying the provinces of Ibb, Aden, Dhamar when state forces opened fire on protesters. In Ibb over 70 were reported injured with bullet wounds at a protest that drew several hundred thousand. Protests have spread as far as Socotra Island. Sanhan, President Saleh’s home village was marked with anti-regime graffiti.

The war torn Saada province saw the resignation of Faris Manna from the ruling GPC party, the latest of over a dozen high profile allies to desert President Saleh. Manna, a long time regime ally, was the state’s mediator to the Houthi rebels. A major weapons dealer, Manaa was sanctioned by the UN in 2010 for smuggling arms to Somalia. Along with Manna, an estimated 300 ruling party officials also resigned leading to what a partisan site called “the emancipation of Saada from the corrupt regime.”

Military deploys in cities

The violence came after a meeting between Saleh and his relative, General Ali Mohsen al Ahmar, perhaps the most powerful man in the military. After the meeting last night, military units were deployed in Sanaa, Taiz and Aden today. Large scale protest were held in 12 provinces.

In Sanna, Al Masdar Online reported the “widespread and unprecedented presence of armored vehicles.” The day’s violence marked the first time soldiers had shot at the protesters in Sanaa. Previously the Saleh regime used paid thugs as deniable proxies as well as members of the security forces including the National Security.

Prison Riot

A riot at Sanaa Central Prison left at least three dead and four injured. Prisoners were chanting anti-government slogans, which led to an assault by guards. Authorities say they shot tear gas and fired over the inmates’ heads and acknowledge one prisoner was killed, but the prisoners report three fatalities and several serious injuries. The prison guards withdrew from the prison and are massed outside the gates along with security forces.

The prisoners have indicated they wished to make a peaceful surrender in a statement that read in part, “Prisoners of the Central Prison in Sana’a appeal to international organizations to intervene and save them from a real massacre which might take place today after guards retake control of the prison.”

Media Manipulation

The Yemeni state-owned ISP blocked al Masdar Online last week, the latest among dozens of independent Yemeni news websites to be blocked within Yemen. Internet access is strictly controlled by the state. Yemen Online was hacked by pro-regime operatives. Dozens of what appear to be government operatives have flooded pro-revolutionary Facebook groups. The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate detailed 53 cases of attacks on journalists including assaults, threats against their children, expulsion and in one case, arson.

“Beating up journalists is a blatant attempt by the authorities to prevent the Yemeni people and the world from witnessing a critical moment in Yemen,” Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa division, said in a statement.

A Reuters report today quoting an individual in Sanaa who “heard” that in Aden southern protesters threatened to burn schools in Mallah and al Mansoura was hotly denied by dozens of residents in those neighborhood when contacted. The residents also pointed out that the state has forced school children to participate in pro-regime rallies for years without parental approval. It is well documented that students who refused were denied sitting for their exams along with other punitive measures.

Yemen’s history of crimes against civilians

The atrocities against protesters that have garnered global attention are a continuation of the pattern of Yemen’s inhumane treatment of its citizens since at least 2005. In 2009, human rights organizations began calling for an investigation into the Sana’a regime’s potential war crimes and crimes against humanity. The military actions during the Sa’ada Wars and with regard to the southern protest movement are well documented but did not draw condemnation from the Obama administration or the EU. Some of these habitual patterns include:

- Punitive denial of medical services to injured civilians

- Arbitrary arrests

- Incommunicado detention

- Shooting unarmed protesters

- Use of deniable proxies including tribesmen to harm citizens

- Shelling residential areas

- Denial of food as policy

- Denial of access by international humanitarian groups to internal refugees

- Targeting journalists and rights activists

- Torture in jail

Jane @ Examiner.com

The Houthis returned the Saudi soldiers they had captured as a condition of the cease fire. The continued incarceration of Yemenis in Saudi Arabia is a sore spot, especially as the PR notes, there’s been videos leaked of beatings. Saudi Arabia refouled, refused entry to, civilians seeking safety from the bombing, a violation of international law. The Saudi bombing of Saada was indiscriminate, and the arbitrary arrests and continued detention of hundreds of Yemenis without charge are also illegal under international law. You’d think the Saudi Arabia would just return the prisoners and be done with the issue but apparently they are busy outlawing protests of their own. YOHR contact information below. I also have the list of names in Arabic.

The Yemen Center for Human Rights requests from King of Saudi Arabia to direct and order to reveal the names of all the Yemeni prisoners and work to release them promptly (Read on …)

Update:

AJE Up to three people are reported dead in a jail riot in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, as police clashed with prisoners backing anti-government protesters demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Prisoners of the Central Prison in Sana’a appealed to international organizations to intervene and save them from a real massacre which might take place today after taking control of the prison.

Prisoners managed to take control of (parts of) the prison following tensions between the prisoners and prison’s officials which have resulted in causalities some of which are in critical conditions. Prisoners who have been injured due to prison’s officials using fire were even denied medical treatment.

This at a time, security forces intend to break in the Central Prison which means a deadly massacre.

From what I understand, the prisoners where chanting anti-Saleh slogans, which led to clashes with the guards who shot them. The prisoners have control of some parts of the prison but are afraid the security forces will storm the prison, shooting, leading to mass fatalities. Some are critically injured from gunshots and denied medical treatment. I’m assuming they want to negotiate a peaceful surrender but they are not answering the phone.

Update: this is what happens when I check my mail before my news alerts. I thought is was dozens not thousands of prisoners.

Update: Official: Inmates revolt in Yemen prison, take guards hostage and calls for president’s ouster, By Ahmed Al-Haj (CP)

SANAA, Yemen — A Yemeni security official says about 2,000 inmates have staged a revolt at a prison in the capital, taken a dozen guards hostage and joined calls by anti-government protesters for the country’s president to step down. (Read on …)

will trigger more protests, lather rinse repeat. Update: the 16 arrested were ranking police officers who participated in the protests.

Yemen police arrest 16 anti-regime protesters AFP
ADEN, Yemen — Yemeni security forces arrested 16 protesters in Aden on Saturday, as thousands continued to demonstrate in the south demanding the fall of the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The anti-government demonstrators were nabbed as police dispersed protesters who were gathering to hold a sit-in outside Al-Nur mosque in Aden, police said. (Read on …)

Baoum’s three prior arrests caused a palpable uptick in frustration and tension in the south, leading to more popular protests, and more arbitrary arrests.

URGENT ACTION, SOUTHERN MOVEMENT LEADER detained

Hassan Ba’oom, a leader of a political opposition group in southern Yemen, has been held incommunicado detention since 20 February. Amnesty International fears for his health and is concerned that he may be held solely for the peaceful expression of his right to freedom of expression and therefore be a prisoner of conscience. (Read on …)

Police torture in Yemen is systemic and brutal. Several prisoners have died in police custody in the last year or two. Click here for MP Ahmed Saif Hashid’s 2007 interviews with prisoners in jails around Yemen where prisoners including 12 years describe brutal torture by authorities.

PROTESTERS DETAINED IN YEMEN, RISK OF TORTURE
Scores of protesters arrested following demonstrations in the city of Aden, in southern Yemen, are being held incommunicado and are at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Amnesty International is concerned that they may be held solely for the peaceful expression of their right to freedom of expression and assembly, and therefore may be prisoners of conscience. (Read on …)

Nice round-up of Sanaa, Aden, Taiz and judges protests, also Feb 24 group.

Daily caller: SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Authorities flooded the streets of Yemen’s capital with 2,000 police Wednesday to try to halt six days of Egypt-style demonstrations against the president of 32 years, a key U.S. ally in battling al-Qaida. One person was killed when police and protesters clashed in the southern port of Aden in the first known death during Yemen’s political unrest.

The police, including plainclothes officers, fired in the air and blocked thousands of students at Sanaa University from joining thousands of other protesters in the capital of the Arab world’s most impoverished nation.

A call spread via Facebook and Twitter urging Yemenis to join a series of “One Million People” rallies on a so-called “Friday of Rage” in all Yemeni cities, seeking the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. (Read on …)

This is total crap, everyone including me the same day exposed that it was the US that carried out the December airstrikes.

News Yemen: Described as a model for journalism in principle and that he was the voice of truth in a choppy sea with waves of falsehood and deception
Anwar al-Awlaki calls for media to continue the march of Haider and expose the practices of the Yemeni government and the U.S.
13/02/2011 (Read on …)

One day in November 2010, a man was robbed of his daughters dowrey and beaten unconscious by security forces as he was sleeping in al Dhalie, where he had come to buy items for his daughter’s wedding. Then he was jailed and tortured for three months, and his family appeals for his release.

One day, specifically in the history of the fourteenth of November of last year 2010 was a citizen Ali Naji Almqra living in a region Osmad Juhav Baldhala, a remote area where their people are very much in poverty and destitution. He was sitting in a room of one of his relatives in the city of Dali, where he arrived to find work and buy some needs for the wedding party to humble his daughter. (Read on …)

Wow, Saleh is really scrambling to appease everybody. Shaea was kidnapped in August and arrested in September, tried and sentenced to five years for supporting al Qaeda after releasing several interviews and statements from Anwar al Awlaki. The YJS and international media advocates have been lobbying for his release. Update: Yemen Post reports he’s out.

News Yemen: President Ali Abdullah Saleh has reportedly ordered the release of imprisoned journalist and expert of terrorist groups’ affairs AbdulElah Haidar Shaye. (Read on …)

Its such a thug regime. Update: maybe everyone is freed already but its not double confirmed as all Yemen news needs to be. Also Tawakkol may still face charges and a court case, its unclear. Updating the update: yes everybody was freed this afternoon. What a stupid stunt that was… Update 3: from the Yemen Times:

Ali Al-Dailami, one of the activists who were arrested on Sunday, said that they spent twenty-seven-and-a-half hours in an underground “dirty” jail. Al-Dailami is head of the Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms and he said that he was taken violently from the street and shoved into a police car. He also said that police hit him on his neck. Al-Dailami said that they couldn’t bear the smell and the dirt of the Central Prison so they donated money to its officials and made the prison guards buy cleaning detergents.

“We spent most of our time there cleaning the jail,” he said.

Original post-

Yemeni Organization condemns the arrest of its member

By Yemen Organization for Defending Rights , Democratic & Freedoms

The Yemeni Organization is condemning the arrest of Ali al-Dailami Executive Director of the Yemeni Organization for Defending Rights , Democratic & Freedoms along with more than 20 human rights activists. (Read on …)

The judge said Anwar and his cousin incited the security guard, a member of the security forces, to murder the French engineer.

BBC: A Yemeni court has sentenced a man to death for killing a French contractor near the capital Sanaa last year. The court also sentenced in his absence radical US-born Yemeni Islamist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki to 10 years in jail for aiding the gunman. (Read on …)

Why must they do this to me on the day of the NY JETS game? Tawakkol Karaman was arrested at 1:00 am returning from a meeting with an Islah official, triggering protests today. When Khaled al Ansi and Ali al Dailami went to inquire about her status, they were also arrested. Crisis creation is standard policy in Yemen. (Read on …)

TAJ issued an appeal to the international rights organizations for the release of 144 detainees as follows, however in the interim, the child Moatz was released. Female activist Zahra Saleh had been detained incommunicado since 11/08/10 and z was released 1/11/11.

We would like to extend to you the most warm greetings and congratulations on the occasion of the new year 2011 we hope to be a good year and peaceful for all mankind. At the same time, we remind you of what our people in the South Arabia ( south Yemen ) have suffered, during the past years, under the occupation of Yemen for nearly 16 years. During this period, the people suffering led to that, they lost the feeling in the true sense of the life of being free, or dignified. Beside that the Yemeni authorities practiced the looting, and all kinds of oppression and violence, which led to the killing of more than 311 people and more than 900 injured, chased and persecution of political activists and the arrest of thousands during the peaceful struggle since 7-7-2007, and still a lot of them in the camps and some of them suffering from chronic diseases which threatened their lives because of deliberate medical negligence by the authority of Sana’a. (Read on …)

These 428 were actually released, some after years and many broken pledges, thanks to the good offices of Qatar. There was a second release of several dozen and several hundred remain in jail.

Yemeni government releases 428 Houthis and gets back 10 military vehicles
30/12/2010 News Yemen: The government on Thursday released 428 Houthis who in return freed 10 military vehicles. (Read on …)

Amnesty International statement on behalf of Zahra Salih follows. God help her. She certainly is at risk of torture or ill treatment.

FEMALE activist detained incommunicado

Zahra Salih, an activist in the Southern Movement in Yemen, has been held incommunicado since 8 November. She is at risk of being tortured or suffering other ill-treatment. Amnesty International is concerned that she may be held solely for the peaceful expression of her right to freedom of expression and assembly, and therefore may be a prisoner of conscience.

Zahra Salih, aged 39, was arrested by security force members on 8 November in Aden, southern Yemen, while she was in a car on her way to a hotel. She has since been detained without access to a lawyer or her family. She is believed to be held at the Criminal Investigation Unit in Aden. (Read on …)

Amnesty International statement issued today:
JUVENILE OFFENDERS SENTENCED TO DEATH
Amnesty International has received information that the President of Yemen has signed the death sentences of two alleged juvenile offenders. One of them has been scheduled for execution on 19 December. They are both at imminent risk of execution. (Read on …)

Why would people protest the imposition of the death penalty when five people were killed in the bombing? Generally the prevailing sentiment is that it is a politicized, unjust verdict:

1- Previously the Governor of Aden, Adnan al Jifri, held a news conference during which he accused the Director of Aden Security, General Abdullah Abdo Kiran, of being behind the bombing. The two are in competition for the title King of Graft. Then the head of Aden Security retaliated by organizing a protest against the governor.
2- Allegations of torture to gain a confession, as usual
3- Irregular trial proceedings, as usual

Update: News Yemen reports that southern gunmen kidnapped five soldiers and an officer in Dhalie and two others in Lahj. Unfortunately kidnapping is a time honored and ofter effective tactic to press demands on the government. The southern movement: still not ready for prime time. There’s much more modern and effective methods they could have used to counter and discredit the verdict. Update 2: HOOD condemns everything: the bombing, the unfair verdict, the suppression of the protests and the kidnappings. Dittos.

Death sentence against Aden sporting club bomber By Nasser Arrabyee/11/12/2010:
A Yemeni young man was sentenced to death on Saturday after being convicted of bombing a football club in the southern city of Aden where five people were killed and 17 others injured last October. (Read on …)

For more on the al Ghadeer arrests in Amran, click here. Mr. Baoum, leader of one of the southern independence factions was arrested early in November. More at Aden News Agency.

News Yemen: Political sources said Friday that presidential directives issued to release the leading figure in the Southern Movement, Hassan Baom, his son and his colleagues. Sources also said that 22 supporters of Houthis, arrested on the al-Ghadir Day in Amran, have been released.

Al-Haq party welcomed the releases of detainees and called on the government to release all detainees and make real peace in Sa’ada. It also called on political parties and human rights organizations to play a role over the detention of innocent people without any legal justification for more than five years.

25 Zaids arrested on al Ghadeer day for celebrating the holiday including a 60 year old Imam. His son was arrested when he went to the police station to inquire about his father.

Yemen Times: SANA’A, Dec.1 — Human rights activist Mohammad Al-Moayad was detained by police in Amran yesterday when he went to the police station to enquire why Zaidis were arrested last Friday.

Police arrested at least 25 Zaidis on Friday when they commemorated Al-Ghadeer day, a Shiite religious ceremony. Al-Moayad is a member of the Yemeni Democratic Organization for Defending Human Rights that had obtained permission from the Supreme Court to investigate police charges against the Zaidis. (Read on …)