Armies of Liberation

I really should start making bets for money. Al Alimi was summoned to Parliament earlier in the week to discuss the revelation that he joked about lying to Parliament. (At the time of the December airstrike, the JMP opposition parties withdrew but the uber-majority GPC dutifully pretended to believe the lie.) Al Alimi rescheduled for today, Saturday, and was again a no-show. Yemen’s rubber stamp parliament, dominated by President Saleh’s ruling GPC, doesn’t have the capacity to hold al Alimi or any of the ministers to account.

The last time he was summoned I believe was after the second al Qaeda attack on the South Koreans in 2008. A pedestrian suicide bomber bounced off the convoy of SK officials in Yemen to investigate the earlier suicide attack that killed three SK tourists in Hadramout. It was apparent that AQAP had information on the route of the convoy in advance. When he finally showed up, al Alimi admitted that the security services are infiltrated by al Qaeda, but he diagnosed it as low level and a function of corruption. Then he denied saying it. And in case you are interested, the headline coming out of the Human Rights conference was, “Alimi calls for civil society organizations to expose human rights violations and document them.” (Read on …)

It is important to note that under current rules of voter eligibility, the 30,000 northern soldiers transferred to Aden and Abyan for the Gulf Cup would be allowed to vote in those governorates. One of the important electoral reforms that the EU observers recommended following the 2006 presidential election was to require military personnel and businessmen to vote in the district of their residence, and disallow place of employment as a domicile. None of the recommendations have been instituted although both the GPC and JMP agreed at the time. The failure of electoral reform led to the two year postponement of the parliamentary elections in 2009. The voter rolls contained many dead persons, children and more male voters than Yemeni men. Another area of disagreement with the JMP was the composition of the SCER, the oversight body for elections and referendums. Various western governments and organizations are pushing for the elections to be held on time in 2011, which would add a veneer of legitimacy to the Saleh regime and its designated representatives in Parliament.

SABA: ADEN, Nov. 30 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh called on Tuesday for electing a new Supreme Committee for Election and Referendum (SCER) from the judicial authority. (Read on …)

Its the perfect day to make this announcement, now that AQAP sucked all the air out of the room. The elections in 2009 were delayed for two years because no progress had been made on electoral reform since 2006’s presidential election.

Yemen Post: The ruling Party General People’s Congress GPC has made known that parliamentary elections will take place on April 27th next year after the failure of dialogue with the main opposition parties, the Joint Meeting Parties JMP, official media reported on Monday. (Read on …)

This is the same issue that brought the 2009 Parliamentary elections to a stand still. The SCER oversees the elections and election monitors and the electoral list (which in 2006 contained more male voters than men). The JMP asserted the positions on the SCER should be split between the JMP and GPC, but the regime said judges were good candidates for the positions and nominated its list, rubber stamped by parliament. The JMP is getting hemmed in the issue of the proportional list, which it favors, by international pressure just to do something that looks like an election. YObserver:

The Supreme Commission For Elections and Referendum (SCER) endorsed on Monday the schedule for the upcoming parliamentary elections set in April, which the Yemeni opposition considered “contrary” to the agreements of the “national dialogue” that began last Saturday. (Read on …)

Apparently they widened the scope of the discussions beyond electoral reforms to include other national issues.

Yemen Observer: Yemeni political parties started Saturday their first meeting for national dialogue over political and electoral reforms before the coming parliamentary elections scheduled in April 2011. (Read on …)

The head of the bipartisan and inclusive National Dialog Committee withdrew from the National Dialog announced by the ruling GPC and opposition JMP where each submitted a list of 100 representatives. Bassandawa is urging dialog to be held under international auspices and address the full range of Yemen’s national crisis including consideration of a federal system. He seems to think the opposition caved to regime and international pressures which prioritize agreement on the (already postponed) Parliamentary elections in 2011 ahead of comprehensive national reform. Bassandawa is “convinced of the futility” of any discussions where the ruling party seeks only agreement on electoral reforms not the fundamental crises that face the nation. He also urges inclusion of all national forces including the southerners and opposition abroad. The Houthis for their part have said their participation is conditional on approving the terms and scope of the dialog, which they have yet to see.

Al Masdar The Chairman announced that preparations for national dialogue Mohamed Salem Bassandawa boycott of the dialogue sessions with the Authority and the ruling party, on condition to participate in the dialogue to be sponsored by regional, Arab and international.

وكان حزب المؤتمر الشعبي الحاكم وتكتل اللقاء المشترك وقعا أمس الخميس على محضر تبادل أسماء ممثلي الطرفين في اللجنة المشتركة للإعداد والتهيئة للحوار الوطني، وتضم القائمتان مائة عضو لكل طرف، وبين قائمة المشترك باسندوة. The Popular Congress Party, the ruling bloc, signed a joint meeting on Thursday to record the exchange of names of representatives of the parties in the Joint Commission for the preparation and configuration of the national dialogue, and lists, which contain a hundred members of each party, and the list of common Basendwah.

وفي تصريحات لـ”المصدر أونلاين” من العاصمة الأردنية عمان التي يتواجد فيها حالياً قال باسندوة ان “الانتخابات تحتل المرتبة الأولى في اهتمام الحزب الحاكم وليس إيجاد حل للأزمات التي تعصف بالبلاد”. In statements to “online source” of the Jordanian capital Amman, where there are currently Bassandawa said that “the elections is ranked first in the interest of the ruling party and not find a solution to crises that racked country.” (Read on …)

Ali Nasser Mohammed President of the PDRY “vehemently denied published allegations that he and other opposition leaders in exile were consulted before signing of the Framework agreement between the GPC and the JMP, Naba News reported. Nasser described the claims as “a slander with only one goal, to smear, with no basis in reality, adding that he would love it so much if the ruling party as well as the opposition parties could start solving the big problems rather than get trapped in small ones.” Southern leaders within Yemen are unanimous in their denunciation of the accord, calling it a conspiracy. More on the agreement below the fold.

Daily Star: SANAA: Shiite rebels Monday came out in support of an agreement between the ruling party and the opposition to embark on a national dialogue between Yemen’s numerous rivals. “We express our satisfaction and support for the agreement between the Common Forum and the [ruling] General People’s Congress,” the rebels said in a statement. (Read on …)

The local councils re-elected their leaderships as directed by the GPC; the “independents” are largely GPC members running against other GPC members. In the one election where Islah won, the results have been disputed by the state. Its a total farce. The same thing happened during the governors’ elections. The local councils were told who to elect, and the results were overturned in the one case where the outcome was different. This course is the problem with “federalism” as a solution for Yemen’s over-centralization. Stats below.

Yemen Observer: The local election of al-Sabeen directorate in the capital Sana’a was postponed until Thursday, following objection by the some local members, requesting to remain anonymous.

The election, held on Wednesday all over Yemen, was to elect current members to the secretary general posts and to some specialized committees at the local and municipal level…The members, all of them from the General People’s Congress (GPC) party, said that they rejected the election as high senior officials, including members of GPC, had been putting pressure on them to re-elect the previous members. (Read on …)

Its like a pro-government rally in North Korea or Cuba but the adoring crowds are less synchronized and color coordinated. Yemen Post

Thousands of Yemeni people, students and state employees gathered on Saturday at the Al-Thawra Stadium for the carnival called and organized by the General People’s Congress, the ruling party, the National Coalition Parties and civil society organizations within the celebrities on the 20th anniversary of unification. (Read on …)

That’s big. The Parliamentary elections are scheduled for next year, and the ruling party and the JMP have been at an impasse on the reforms. The terms of the agreement are still unknown, even to their memberships. The opposition had held its first round of demonstrations in Sana’a and other cities recently.

Nationally, the Sa’ada war is over for now, and the Houthis are in discussions with the National Dialog Committee. Saleh was in Egypt talking to the “moderate” southerners and Fadhli had already reached an individual truce with the authorities. The main organized outlier is still the pro-independence southerners.

Ruling Party, Opposition Sign Deal for February Agreement

The General People’s Congress, the ruling party, the Joint Meeting Parties JMP, an opposition coalition in Yemen, have signed an amended minute on the February Agreement 2009 on the upcoming parliamentary elections, the News Yemen citing sources at the JMP reported on Thursday.

The deal was signed at the house of political advisor for President Saleh Abdul Karim Al-Eryani, the sources which gave no details were quoted as saying.

The two sides signed in February 2009 an agreement under which the parliamentary election was delayed until 2010 to have enough time to implement electoral reforms.

But later, disagreements over and commitment to the deal emerged with the two trading accusations of violating it. Wednesday’s minute comes as a good sign amid alarming political stalemate and deteriorating economy and security situations.

Lutfi Shatara comments on the Expatriates Conference which I think would be would be better termed, an agents and informants get together. He makes the point that many of these received asylum under claims of persecution in Yemen, and yet are back there today hosted by the government they claim to fear so much. The normal set up is these Yemeni government operatives spy on and intimidate the expatriate communities overseas as well as expedite requests from influential people back in Sana’a. Whats going on is a GPC strategy session not a development conference. The regime has been talking about a census of expatriates for a time. Of course, acting as an undisclosed agent of a foreign country is illegal in the US and probably everywhere else. Anyone collecting data in their host country at the behest of the Yemeni government is required to identify themselves as an agent of the regime.

Update: It gets better, banks, passports and other amenities:

During the meeting, president Saleh delivered a speech in which he welcomed the participants, affirming concern of the government with Yemeni expatriates, highlighting good reputation of Yemeni expatriates.

He urged the embassies to deal with issues of the expatriates and contact with the ministry of expatriates’ affairs to discuss those issues.

He also pointed out to importance of setting up a bank for expatriates, saying that the bank would receive care of the government.

President Saleh gave orders to interior ministry, authorities of passport and taxes to offer all required facilities to expatriates.

Yemen instituted bio-metric passports but there’s still some holes in the system at the very top.

The financial disclosure law was passed in 2007, and its a great concept, but it lacks enforcement mechanisms. Two of 301 MP’s submitted the required form to date. This is not a Parliament that’s going to take the tough position of standing against “the powers that be” for reform, transparency or equal rights. There’s a lot of mafia types. Parliament is an institutionalizaton of tribal authority structures. The Parliament is a tool of Saleh with little autonomy, but a lot of latitude. Crimes are rarely punished and flourish. The Parliament is somewhat more outspoken lately but is not even remotely a counter-balance to the executive. Yemen’s decision makers are a shadow government (Saleh and his family and cronies), and the public has no mechanism of acountability.

Update: Yemen Times “There are around 36,000 officials who are included in the public sector and are obliged by the financial disclosure law to admit their financial disclosures every two years,” she (Vice-Chairman of the Supreme National Authority for Combating Corruption Dr. Bilkis Abu Osba’) continued. “Since we created the financial disclosure sector, around 10,000 financial disclosures have been received.”

al Tagheer: Mohammed Al-Matari, head of the financial disclosure the Anti-corruption “Parliament” still ranks high on the list of backward and Late to provide financial disclosure statements. . . لافتا في تصريح لـ”الوحدوي ” إلى أن من بين 301 عضو هم عدد أعضاء البرلمان , تقدم فقط عضوان اثنان بإقرارات الذمة المالية . He noted in a statement to “unitary” to that of the 301 members are members of Parliament, the only two members of financial disclosure.

مبديا أسفه واستغرابه من عدم وجود تفاعل وتعاون من قبل البرلمان في هذا الشأن لما يمثله من سلطة دستورية وقانونية عليا في البلد . He expressed his regret and surprise at the lack of interaction and cooperation by the Parliament in this regard because it represents the authority of the constitutional and legal positions in the country. في حين لم تتلق الهيئة سوى 12 إقرارا بالذمة المالية من مجلس الشورى لعدد But it has not received the recognition of only 12 financial disclosure of the Shura Council of the number

أثنا عشر عضوا من أصل 111 عضوا هم عدد أعضاء مجلس الشورى .. Twelve members of the 111 members who are the number of members of the Shura Council ..

The Yemen Observer is usually more nuanced than the other stooge papers in spreading the regime’s propaganda, but this is the last line of the following article: All know that there is no political prisoner in Yemen and that those behind bars are those who committed acts and practices violating the law.

Anyway the YO article says the JMP formally announced the suspension of dialog with the GPC. (The JMP spokesperson Naif al-Qanis was later threatened with death in a car “accident” if he didn’t resign his post.)

Yemen may have seen its last election under the Saleh regime.

YEMEN – The Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) decided to officially suspend their dialogue with the General People’s Congress (GPC) until their demands are met, the war in Sa’adah is stopped, and all confrontations and conflicts in southern and eastern governorates are settled, said the JMP spokesperson. (Read on …)

Saleh suffered a bruise and was hospitalized (Thursday) for a few days, but he’s been released and apparently fit for his duties. There’s no constitutional plan for transfer of power in the event of a presidential disablility or death. One of the Arabic papers postulated the three most likely to follow Saleh are Prince Ahmed, Yahya or Hamid. But without an agreed legal mechanism, there certainly would be instability if not violence.

Sana’a, Yemen – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh was on Saturday discharged from a military hospital after being treated for injuries he suffered while doing physical exercises, government officials
said.

The officials, who asked not to be named, told the German Press Agency dpa that Saleh also resumed his daily office activities at the Presidential Palace in Sana’a.

Sahel, 68, was admitted to the military hospital at the Defence Complex in Sana’a on Tuesday after he ’suffered bruises during a regular exercise,’ the official Saba news agency reported.

The veteran leader was first elected in July 1978 by the Constitutional Assembly (parliament) in north Yemen following the assassination of former president Ahmad al-Ghashmi. M&C

The JMP has quite reasonable preconditions to dialog- release the prisoners, un-ban the newspapers and withdraw the new military checkpoints. The checkpoints give southerners the feeling of being occupied; the new outposts were an affront. There’s no dialog without a free press, and the Southern and Sa’ada prisoners are illegally detained. Its all very reasonable and logical, unfortunately the Yemeni dictatorship is not.

Yemen Times translates Al Sahwa:

• JMP accuses ruling party of disrupting agreement

Spokesman of Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) Mohammad Al-Qanis accused the ruling General People Congress of seeking to renege on an a agreement with the opposition parties, the website reported.

He further charged GPC with stalling, disrupting dialogue and dragging the country into unknown fate.

“JMP purposed three points to settle the crisis; remove new military checkpoints in the southern provinces, release all detainees of the Southern Movement and Saada War, and lift ban on all suspended newspapers allowing their printing and publication,” he went on to say.
(Read on …)

The Yemeni government announced several times that reconstruction aid would go first to “loyal” villages. Doesn’t sound very conciliatory to me. But it seems that even the pro-government personalities aren’t getting their due. The Houthis have said repeatedly that nothing is happening on the ground and all the announcements are propaganda. Ya think?

Yemen Observer

YEMEN – Four of Sa’adah governorate’s prominent ruling General People’s Congress party (GPC) members submitted their resignation to the President, the General Secretary, and the party’s block leader.

The three MPs, Othman Mujali, Abdulsalam Saleh Hashool Zabiah, Faiz Abdullah Saleh al-Ojiri, and Faisal Iraij, resigned from the GPC as a “first step”, according to the message which the three members signed and submitted to the president.

In a message to the President, the resigning members attributed their dissatisfaction to repeated failures to implement promises and the governorate’s development matrix in Sa’adah, “the negligence and lack of interest by the government in all of the events and the sufferings of the people of the area”, as well their belief in a government agency conspiracy against all of the governorate’s crucial issues. (Read on …)

The Yemeni government has shut down seven independant Arabic language newspapers and established a new press court for trials of journalists. Now the government is taking aim at the English language Yemen Post, warning the paper not to cooperate with international media- or else.

From the Yemen Post

Over the last two weeks, the Yemen Post received numerous threats from different sides due to its coverage of the foreigners that were kidnapped and killed. The Yemen Post was the main independent source for 90% of the international media. Its comments were even given priority over the government and what it announced.
Last week, meetings took place between the Yemen Post and leading figures of the government. In the meetings, The Yemen Post was firmly asked not to work with international media outlets and to limit its self to local media. Direct threats were given. The option on the table was to agree to cooperate with the government whether it was right or wrong in what they announce. In the end, the Yemen Post refused.
It is sad that these people don’t understand that the job of media is not covering what it is asked of it to cover, but to cover the truth.
Yemen has not yet understood the difference between independent and governmental media, and the Yemen Post has vowed to show everyone the difference.
What I clearly want to say is that the Yemen Post is doing what it was established to do, and that is lead Yemeni media, raise its standards, and through its sources throughout the country, be able to serve not only Yemen, but the international community with concrete information about what is really happening.
Even with the threats we are given, the Post will not soften its stance and will work to be the most trusted local and international news source in Yemen.

A non-violent purge of his family is also required . Really they should all be in jail. A technocrat govt is a good idea. The biggest threat to unity is Saleh and his cohorts.

Sahwa Net – The former Secretary-General of the ruling General People Congress party Abdul-Salam al-Ansi has called President Saleh for stepping down from GPC and take away corrupt people.

In an interview with al-Nass weekly newspaper, al-Ansi said that plundering lands, squandering public money and privatizing public sector are among reasons behind strains spread in the South.

“If we do not recognize the existence of the South issue, then we try to bury our head in the sand” added al-Ansi “The president and the opposition should prioritize the south issue”.

He suggested forming a technocrat cabinet and getting rid of all corrupt people even if they are close family members.

He also labeled the campaign recently raided by the government against some independent newspapers as naïve recklessness which serves none.

Yemen Post

Human rights activists, journalists, academics and politicians, who staged a sit-in Tuesday at the Al-Hurriya Square coinciding with the cabinet’s weekly meeting, urged the government to step down.

The government must submit its resignation and at once, the sit-inners said.

During the protest, mainly in solidarity with those who were arrested in the south and kidnapped teens, head of the Supreme Opposition Council Sultan Al-Etwani accused the regime of pushing the people for secessionism as he urged further sit-ins until legal demands are met.

The current regime is behind the deteriorating situation in the country and its acts are driving the people to the wall, he said, pointing to those calling for the separation of the south.

Amid the latest developments the people no longer think of unity and prosperity, he added.

Al-Etwani called on the ministers to come back to their homes as they have proved unable to bear sense of responsibility towards the nation.

For his part, secretary general of the Yemeni Medical Doctors’ Syndicate Abdul Qawi Al-Shamiry depicted the ministers as the regime’s slaves.

The HOOD urged General Attorney to investigate the recent events in the south and pursue criminals.

Head of the organization Mohammed Naji Alaw, who led a demonstration to the Cabinet Presidency and the Attorney General’s office, said attacks against rallies at the Al-Hashmi Square, Aden, were deemed as attacks against the constitution and stifling the people’s freedom.

He urged to investigate the attacks.

Other participants called for fair treatment of the people who demand better life and more rights.

As unrest intensified in the south with the people fighting the troops and calling for the separation of the south, many demonstrations have been cracked down, with hundreds arrested.

What total crap. I’m only posting it because I need it for a report:

GPC Secretary General reveals a group of large future reforms
Wednesday, 06-May-2009
Almotamar.net – The First Deputy Chairman of the General People’s Congress GPC, the Secretary General Abid Rabu mansour Hadi revealed future tendencies the GPC intends to implement in the next period including a group of political, economic, security and social reforms. (Read on …)

Yemen Online is “associated with” al Iryani as we know, so here he is as McBeth, really:

The True Picture of GPC and JMP negotiations and the role Dr. Al-Iryani played. YemenOnline exclusive. – Negotiations between the General People’s Congress GPC and the Joint meeting Parties JMP has been conducted for quite sometime while the political street awaited a solution.

YemenOnline exclusively reports what was going on behind the scenes regarding Yemen democratic experience.

The picture:

1) During the meeting of the General Committee of the General People’s Congress, Dr. Al-Iryani shows his objection, saying” Democracy is not Solo, and the International Community will not acknowledge elections carried out without the participation of the opposition parties.” (Read on …)