Armies of Liberation

Targeted assassination attempts continue:

Yemen Post: Senior Opposition Leader still in Bad Condition; Youth Blaming Government for Incident

Defected military loyal to the opposition warned on Monday that its leaders will be targets of government assassination plots.

One day after the warning, Mohammed al-Mutawakil, the secretary general of the opposition popular front (ed-PFU) party was injured in a traffic accident the opposition call as planned by the government in an effort to kill him.

He was hit by a motorcycle as he was walking down the street. Al-Mutawakil received serious injuries to the head and is now hospitalized.

Hundreds of youth and opposition leaders visited al-Mutawakil and were not happy.

“We are sure this is not an accident. His health is really bad. This is planned and he was one of the respected leaders in the eyes of the pro revolution youth,” said Abdullah Najjar, a youth activist who visited al-Mutawakil

Majority of Yemen opposition leaders have left the country knowing that Yemen is not safe for them anymore. The interior ministry denied that the incident was planned and is investigating with the motorcycle driver.

Saleh has a trail of blood behind him dating back decades. The car accident is among the most repetitive tactics. There are no moral restraints on the regime; its no surprise that the opposition is making this accusation. Its possibly true. The 1999 death of the great Yemeni activist and editor, Abdulazziz al Saqqaf is one event that generates national suspicion. Leaving a lunch with Abdubakr al Qirby (a medical doctor), Professor al Saqqaf was run over and killed by a car in a sequence that made no sense as an accident. Al Qirby later became and remains Yemen’s Foreign Minister. New information came to light in the last months about Saleh’s complicity in the death of at least one former president, prior to attaining the presidency himself. The treachery of Saleh has no bounds.

Update: The motorcycle was driven by children according to buzz. The PFU rejects the Interior Ministry’s announcements issued without conducting an investigation.

Update 2: al Mutawakil transferred to Saudi Arabia for treatement.

Yemeni Political Leader exposed to drive by assassination attempt
by Abdullah A. Qaid, for Armies of Liberation

Sana’a, 14 June- Mr. Hassan Mohammed Zeid, the Secretary-General of Al-Haq, a Yemeni opposition party, said today he escaped an assassination attempt by 4 persons. The drive-by shooing occurred in the al-Jooraf quarter of Sana’a.

Zeid was targeted by a hail of bullets from two cars with official license plates. One was numbered 4760-Army and the other 212-Government, Zeid stated in a press release.

Earlier political violence against Mr. Zeid included an assault on his land in al-Jooraf. Police were forbidden from intervening in an attempt to prevent the abuse, the release added.

Zeid accused the Yemeni authorities of being responsible for the assassination attempt.

The al-Haq Party denounced the assassination attempt on its Secretary-General, confirmed the authorities’ responsibility for protecting Zeid’s life and demanded that perpetrators to be brought to the justice.

News Yemen

The right party condemns the targeting of the Great Mosque in Sana’a, and holds the Minister of Awqaf the responsibility of creating sectarian conflicts (Read on …)

I think President Ali Saleh is insane,a delusional dissembling megalomaniac who believes his own lies. Perhaps he’s a “borderline personality.” That would fit, considering his disconnect with reality, the perpetual claims of victimization and his complete failure to take responsibility for the outcome of any of his actions.

al Sahwa – The supreme council of the Joint Meeting Parties condemned what it called “fierce media attacks” and threats against its spokesman Naif al-Qanis.

JMP demanded that authorities to bring repeated media intimidations against its spokesman and Al-Haq party to an end, bringing the authorities responsible for al-Qanis’s safety.

JMP’s supreme council discussed arrests carried out against political activists including Moamad al-Obdil who was arrested Sunday in Aden and Abdul-Rahman al-Sharafi who was arrests on Tuesday on Sana’a, expressing its solidarity with the activists.

Amazing.

al Sahwa, Hadhramout – The Yemeni authorities arrested on Wednesday a top leader of Al-Haq party and the Joint Meeting Parties in Hadhramout province Yamin BaYamim, and attacked a member of parliament and the head of the Islah party Mohsin Basora.

For its part ,JMP condemned the acts, demanding the authorities to swiftly release Ba-Yamin.

Ba-Yamin and Basora were protesting in solidarity with journalists and eight independent newspapers that are facing a raid by the authorities due to their covering of the South incidents. They are also accused by the government of expressing views favorable to southern secessionists in their coverage of recent protests.

Yemen Post: President Saleh’s call for local ruling system has met the southern mobility leaders’ rejection and criticism. Moreover they doubted its credibility and considered it as sweet promises for external consumption.”We don’t believe in Saleh’s promise for local ruling system as it has no credibility,” said a field leader in what has become known as” southern mobility”, Nasser Al-Fadhli.

The security guard of the clone aspect of the party joined the pretend opposition alliance.

SANA’A, NewsYemen

The Popular Forces Union Party on Wednesday denied official media reports that it declared joining the pro-ruling party National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The PFUP, which is one of five opposition parties that form the Joint Meeting Party, said that the party does not care about joining NDA and that those who declared their joining have been “just guards who do not represent the party at all”. The secretary-general of the PFUP, AbdulSalam Razaz, accused the ruling party, the General People’s Congress, of supporting efforts to break up the PFUP.

What was declared yesterday was a part of a series of GPC’s attempts to split the party, said Razaz.

The GPC’s news website almotamar.net claimed on Monday that the Popular Forces Union Party joined the National Democratic Alliance.

Very funny. This site is blocked in Yemen. Wimps.

YO Yemen is one of 25 countries currently blocking various websites for political or social reasons, says a new study by OpenNet Initiative. Internet filtering in the Republic of Yemen is relatively broad in scope, with pornography a principal target, according to the study. Despite the wide range of content censored, however, the depth of filtering in Yemen is inconsistent; many users of Yemen’s primary Internet service provider are not filtered when the user-licensing quota in the filtering software agreement is exceeded.

The OpenNet Initiative is a collaborative partnership of four leading academic institutions: the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies; the University of Toronto; the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School; the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme, University of Cambridge; and the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University. The study examined Internet censorship in a total of 40 countries. In Yemen, no one denies that pornography websites are blocked. The Minster of Telecommunication Kamal al-Jabri said that sex websites are filtered because of the religious nature of our society.

“This is normally done according to our traditions and religion,” said the al-Jabri. “I cannot say that we blocked all the porn websites 100 percent but I can say that we do it regularly,” he said. “Almost 70 percent of the websites blocked were porn, according the demands from the people and the religious scholars of mosque,” said Hassan Amer, who is responsible for public relations in the Ministry of Telecommunication. “We have banned these websites,” he said. “Commercially speaking, if we open the Internet, we will gain more money because more people will use the Internet, but because this censoring is the demand of the society, we have to do it,” he said.

“But, there are some who can get through and I can not deny this because each day, 30,000 new porn websites are made and we can follow them as soon as we go to them.” Of course, the fact that the government feels a need to ban these websites suggest that it does not trust the Yemeni people to stay away from them on their own. If these sites were not banned, perhaps Yemenis would not be able to resist them, one can logically conclude from their stance. Unethical websites are the only ones to be closed, said Amer Haza’a, the general manager of YemenNet, the public company responsible for providing Internet services.

“These are sensitive topics that hurt anyone’s religion, country, and society. We are closing the websites to protect our kids,” he said. He said that the medical websites are not blocked, as the ministry checks the websites to make sure of that. But there was a split in opinion when it came to political websites. The owners of the websites; alshora.net, the mouthpiece of the Public and Democratic Union Party, Nass Press, and eshtraki.net, the mouthpiece of the Yemeni Socialist Party say that all of those sites are blocked. The Yemen Observer checked their claims, and found that both alshora.net and eshtraki.net were blocked. Nass Press is currently not blocked.

But the Nass Press website was stopped temporarily for about 15 days during the run-up to the presidential election last fall. “It was stopped because our website covered the accident of the death of many people in Ibb during the rally of the president Ali Abdullah Saleh,” said Abdul-Basit al-Qaedi, the manger editor of the Nass Press website. Al-Shoura.net has been stopped since the election, said Mansour al-Jaradi, a member in the editing staff. “This website launched in 1991 and it is still not running until now; this is on orders from high authorities.” Eshtraki.net was more recently blocked.

“It was blocked from last Wednesday because it covered the events in Sa’ada,” said Mohammed al-Maqaleh, the deputy of the head of the media bloc of the Yemeni Socialist Party. “I personally accuse the President Ali Abdullah Saleh for ordering others to block their website,” he said. He said that the Minster of Telecommunication has no authority to do this, and so orders to block his site must be coming from higher political authorities. “The people in the Ministry of Telecommunications are liars, because they are responsible for blocking sites,” said Dr.Yassin Sa’eed No’aman, the secretary general of the YSP. “The authority is responsible for this. (Read on …)

Apparently the plan is to leave the GPC and half co-opted Islah and maybe let the Salafis form a new party while dissolving the PFU (after al-Haq, the other Zaidi party, was recently disbanded). The article also threatens the YSP. President Saleh’s GPC operates in a largely technically criminal manner and permits opposition only as long as it is not threatening to the underlying configuration of power:

Almotamar.net – Legal sources and offices close to Political Parties and Organisations Affairs Committee (PPOAC) mentioned Saturday that there is presently serious consideration of dissolving the Union of People’s Forces Party owing to discovering of examples of forgery in lists of names the party had presented to the PPOAC as founders of the party.
(Read on …)

First al-Haq, now the PFU. Also possbily the YSP. This from the same guy who was touting the multiparty system recently. The goal apparently is to leave only the GPC which is Saleh’s operating system, and Islah which is partially co-opted.

Almotamar.net – Legal sources and offices close to Political Parties and Organisations Affairs Committee (PPOAC) mentioned Saturday that there is presently serious consideration of dissolving the Union of People’s Forces Party owing to discovering of examples of forgery in lists of names the party had presented to the PPOAC as founders of the party.

The sources said that if a party depended in its establishment and programme on basis of race, which violates the constitution and law of political parties and organisations in Yemen that incriminate parties founded on racial or sectarian basis, will face dissolution according to the law and those who committed forgery will be subjected to legal accountability.

Those sources told almotamar.net that the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) is facing the same destiny of dissolution due to the damage it inflicted on the national unity whether in the sedition of 1994 summer or because of its current stance supportive of the terrorist elements that ignited sedition in Saada.

According to the legal sources the strict application of the law of political parties and organisations that violate the law would lead to rationalize partisan work in Yemen. It is expected that the result will be the remaining of two major political parties on the national arena, i.e. the General People’s Congress (GPC) and Yemeni Congregation for Reform Party (Islah), as is the case in the United States of America where the republican and the democratic parties contest and the two parties of conservatives and the labour in Britain and the Gaullist and Socialist parties in France.

Insights and Analysis: Carnegie Endowment

Yemen: Interview with Dr. Muhammad Abd al-Malik al-Mutawakkil, assistant secretary-general of the Federation for Popular Forces

What is the situation of political parties in Yemen? How would you describe the Federation for Popular Forces’ (FPF) participation in the Joint Meeting Party (JMP) coalition?

The JMP effort was indispensable to create a balance between civil society institutions on the one hand and the military and tribal institutions on the other, which is critical to democracy. Five political parties formed the JMP: the Islah, Socialist, Nasserite, and al-Haqq parties, and the FPF.

Rulers accept political parties in developing countries on the condition that they do not press for a democracy that affects the rulers’ privileges, limits their authority, or crosses red lines in criticizing them. Nonetheless, in time parties develop and become a double-edged sword. The Yemeni press also has begun to cross red lines, for example criticizing top officials during the presidential election.

When the ruling party—or rather the ruler’s party, as that is all it really is—competes against another party in elections, there is no way that such elections can be fair, free, and equal. The ruling party exploits state resources such as the media, armed forces, and bureaucrats, and so the opposition is competing not against a party, but a state. (Read on …)

al-Shoura.net:

The joined meeting parties in Ibb as well as branches of Yemen Sons Party and Arab Ba’ath party branches in Ibb their solidarity with the Union of Popular Forces and the head of the Union in Ibb, Mr. Abdulhakim AL Nuzaili, who has been subjected to pressures and threats by the officials in the ruling party and local authorities, the last of which was threatening his life by assassination, that he received via a telephone call from an unknown person….

Mr. Al Nuzaili has received threats from unknown persons after pressures were subjected to him by the ruling party and the local authorities that started right after the occupation of the Union’s office in Sana’a to force him support the security forces which have been supported through a propaganda launched by the government that assumed it was the legitimate leadership of the Union through local media.

(full explanation in this post.)

al-shoura.net: Statement by the Civil Society Organizations and civil activists on the occupation of the Shura Newspaper office (issued 7/11/05)

The Yemeni political, and party spheres were saddened by the attack on the Shura newspaper office this morning.

The newspaper is issued by the Union of Popular Forces opposition party and member of the joined meeting parties after the Union’s main office was attacked on 14/5/05 following a series of threats against the opposition by leaders in power. This urged the security forces to act upon the opposition and all those possessing opinions not conforming to ruling leaders and party. In an atmosphere of terror and violence dominating this political period against the opposition and opinions, the death penalty against Yahya Hussein Al Dailami and imprisonment of his colleague Mohammed Miftah through an illegal court and arresting thousands of citizens and children in prisons without any legal warranty as well as using charges of treason and others against those of opinion are all horrifying details of this.

We condemn the occupation of the Shura newspaper that is issued by the Union of Popular Forces and confirm that continuing these current ruling policies will draw a horrible end to the country. We call all free citizens headed by the Civil Society organizations and society activists to condemn these irresponsible policies and call for political reform that will save the country from the current general chaos.

Signed:

Democratic Social Forum

Sisters Forum

Information and Rehabilitation Center

Yemeni center for Monitoring Human Rights

Political Development Forum

Aswan center for Studies

Jarallah Omar Intellectual Forum

National Agency for protecting Rights and Freedoms (Hud)

“Leave the Power” movement

Female Journalists Forum (Legal Hotline)

Lawyers Syndicate (Sana’a Branch/ freedoms and rights)

Yemeni Organizations for defending Rights and Freedoms

Center for Freedoms and Cultural Studies

(full explanation in this post.)

Yemen: al-Khaiwani remains a target of the Yemeni government.

Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, Yemen’s main democracy advocate and reformer, recently released from jail, targeted by the government again along with the Popular Forces Union, his political party.

Summary of events: A security guard employed by the Yemeni government took over the PFU (pluralistic opposition political party) building at gunpoint. Then he took over the building of its newspaper, al-Shoura. The Yemen govt then recognized him, their own gunman, as the new leader of the party.

Nifty way to silence the oppositon, huh?

Partial History of prior Yemeni Govt Targeting of al-Khaiwani:

May 2004 al-Khaiwani recieves death threats and threats to KIDNAP HIS KIDS .
September 2004, al-Khaiwani imprisoned for insulting the president in an oped in al-Shoura.
al-Khaiwani refuses to buy his freedom with an apology.
He spends six months in prison for his opinions.
March 2005, he is finally released.

Now, four months later, the Yemeni government is targeting al-Khaiwani again: taking the paper, the building, the party, leveling false charges, trashing him in the official media, and there’s more death threats.

Chronolgy 2005:

1- May 14, govt security guards take over the democratically oriented, politcal party, the Popular Forces Union building at gunpoint. District prosecutor orders the gunmen brought in. The Interior Minister over rules the order. Twice. (May 20 and 23) The police go to the building and the gunmen fire at them. The police leave and dont return. (June 1)

2-The gunmen steal the computers of the PFU paper, al-Shoura, edited by our friend al-Khaiwani.

3- al-Khaiwani writes in al-Wasat about the death threats he is receiving.

4- The gunmen take over al-Shoura’s building at gunpoint and say al-Khaiwani is no longer the editor. (July 4)

5- The gunmen issue a bogus issue of al-Shoura full of lies with a new editor. (July5) The bogus issue says there is a party dispute.

6- The independent printing press is shut down (July6), so the opposition papers can’t publish. (The bogus al-Shoura was printed on the government’s printing press.)

7- The official government newspaper says weapons were found by the new editor who called the police (attempt to frame al-Khaiwani).

8-The new editor and the police say no such thing ever happened.

9- And the person listed as the new editor says he never set foot in the building, isnt a journalist, and never saw weapons. (July 9) The people listed as rebeling against the party say they are not.

10- The Yemeni government recognizes THE GUNMEN as the legal representative of the PFU. (July 13) (Do they really expect anyone to believe this garbage? Its preposterous.)

11- Members of the PFU party report they are receiving death threats and other intimidation to force them to ally with the gunmen, not the legitimate leadership.

Yemen Times: “The guards” who occupied the headquarters of the Joint Meeting Parties last month, have issued a new Al-shura Journal holding the same name. They also made a decision of discharging Abdulkreem Al-khiwani, from the post of chief editor of the paper. They directed a memorandum to the Ministry of Information with these changes. The Ministry has indorsed these changes…

The (ed: state controlled) Yemeni TV has devoted ten minutes for the news of the discharges and the changes that the Guards have made.

The JMP joint meeting last Monday has denounced the practices that the consultation council was subjected to. They described it as it a provocative act that cancelled a legal party. It cloned this party and tailored it to the desire of a group of the party opponents. Those opponents purport that they represent the consultant council of the party. They have nothing to do with the party.

Several Political observers considered the closure of Al-shora paper and the change of its chief editor Al-khiwani as an effort to satisfy the authorities’ desire. Al-shora paper is the first local paper to open the heated discussions on the presidential affairs (inheritance of governance). Read the rest at the Yemen Times.

For more background see

Statement of Popular Forces Union (issued about the occupation of the building, before the gunman was declared the head of the party.)

and my articles (many of which were translated into Arabic and published by al-Khaiwani in al-Shoura, also by the independent paper, the Yemen Times, in English):

Ayatollah Sistani and the War in Yemen
Yemen: al-Qaeda in Broad Daylight
Yemen’s Reformers vs. the Pact of Evil
Yemeni Elections 2006: A Fraud in the Making

Update fromYemen:

hi jane

some party leaders and members are being threatened to leave the party and join the imposter party

PFU leader in the gov of IBB issued a statment condemning the attak on PFU branches in the governerat of ibb by GPC leader ship through puting pressure on them and threatining them . the last one on last friday PFU leader in IBB Abdulhakim Alnuzily recieved a phone call from unknown accused him that he is disloyal and an agent for foriegn country the statment added that the unknown caller threatened Alnozaily that he would be killed if he doesnot join those occupaying the party head quarter. the caller asked him not to talk about people sufferings

the same statment mentioned that AHMed al shouabi PFU member in Ibb and member of the party concel in ibb was also threatened by one of GPC members that he would be transfared from IBB to another place . alshouibi is a teacher
(Translation of this News Yemen report.)

Update 2: THANKS TO EVERYBODY FOR LINKING.
It makes a difference.
The light pains the roaches.

Since the issuance of this article by the Yemen Times, al-Wazeer has been released. The kidnappers have not been sought, much less apprehended, by Yemeni authorities.

YT: The Popular Forces Unionist Party (PFUP), held the security authorities accountable for the release of Nabil al-Wazeer, one of the relatives of Ibrahim al-Wazeer, president of the party who has just returned from abroad. (Read on …)