Armies of Liberation

NY

SANA’A, NewsYemen, The independent weekly al-Ghad reported in its edition on Tuesday that security sources said that Yemeni security authorities arrested dozens of military personnel allegedly involved in al-Houthi rebellion in Sa’ada.

The sources were quoted as saying that investigations with those military personnel are ongoing and that they are as they are accused of leaking military and security information to rebels.

On the other hand, Yahya al-Houthi, brother of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi was quoted by Marepress.net as calling upon all Sheikhs who were sent by President Saleh to Sa’ada for a new mediation to stop their mediation efforts.

Al-Houthi said that he will refuse any mediators to be selected by President Saleh alone. He said there is no mediation after the latest Qatari one.

NY

Yemeni security authorities have arrested non-Yemeni nationalities involved in clashes against the government forces in their battles with rebels in Sa’ada, security source said.

The source said most of the arrested are Somalis and that initial investigations revealed that they joined al-Houthis for $100 for each.

Yemen deported 16 thousand terror suspects: Vice President
Al-Motamar
Almotamar.net - The Yemeni Vice-President Abid Rabu Mansour Hadi revealed Sunday the Yemen has in the past three years deported 16000 persons suspected of their affiliation to al-Qaeda organisation as part of the efforts it exerts for combating terror.

During his meeting on Sunday with leadership of Al-Mithaq Institute the Vice President said those suspected terrorists who were deported in the period 2003-2008 were from various nationalities and many of them were those who were known as Arab Mujahidins in Afghanistan and they were deported to their countries….The Vice resident renewed his call for the international community to stand by Yemen and offer more assistance to ensure success of its campaign for combating terror, particularly that Yemen’s strategic situation adds on it many burdens in this regard.

Retraction

The 16 thousand persons deported by Yemen were migrants rather than terrorists
Monday, 16-June-2008
Almotamar.net - President of al-Mithaq Institute Mohammed al-Aydarus denied that what the news published by almotamar.net on Sunday on Yemen deportation of 16 thousand suspected terrorists in the past three years , confirming the news as groundless.

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The deal is falling apart. Neither the rebels or the government is withdrawing.

Yemen Observer

The British government donated US $ 1.4 million to help people displaced by the conflict of Sa’ada, said the World Food program WFP last Thursday.

WFP welcomed a donation from the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) of US$1.45 million (£730,000), to help feed thousands of people displaced by the conflict in Sa’ada Governorate in northwestern Yemen. “We are deeply grateful for such a generous contribution, which will allow us to continue our work in support of the displaced people,” said Mohamed El-Kouhene, WFP Representative in Yemen.

The operation which started in September 2007, provides assistance to 77,000 people displaced by conflict in the region. Displaced families left their homes with few resources and many have little or no income to meet their food and other household needs. Many of them live with host families in Sa’ada city or in camps near the city.

The donation is extremely timely as WFP is facing shortfalls in the operation. It comes as a response to an urgent appeal for funds that WFP made last December. “The UK is pleased to be able to help Yemenis in need and support the vital work of WFP, providing food assistance to the people displaced in Sa’ada. We urge all involved to help bring about a rapid resolution to the situation so that those affected can return home and resume their everyday lives,” said Shahid Malik, UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development.

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IRIN

I didnt realize al-Jasheen freed itself. I thought they were still being tormented. The villages are a state within a state not subject to any laws but the whims of the sheik, showing the abject failure of many institutions of the Yemen government to function as a national entity.

SANAA, 4 March 2008 (IRIN) - Around 120 people from a village in Ibb Province have fled to the capital, Saana, in fear of their lives after their local sheikh (tribal leader and alleged landowner) expelled them from their homes.

The displaced persons, including children, from al-Ansiyaen village have been camping in the yard of local non-government organisation (NGO) Yemeni Female Media Forum, in Sanaa, for over a week. They said their sheikh, Mohammed Mansour, was not allowing them to stay in their houses because they had not paid him `zakat’ (annual alms payment).

The villagers said they went to Ibb town to pay `zakat’ to the government, but the sheikh threatened them, beat them and put them in two private prisons he runs. They escaped and fled to Sanaa, and have said they will not leave their current abode until the government steps in.

Villager Abdullah Ghaleb, aged 27, told IRIN that everyone in the village had to pay 30,000-40,000 riyals (US$150-200) a year to the sheikh as `zakat’. “He claims the land we live and work on belongs to him, which is not true,” he said, adding that the sheikh could imprison and attack anyone who disobeyed his orders. “He can even loot our property (animals, farms, belongings) if we do not obey his orders,” the villager said.

Village cordoned off
According to Ghaleb, the sheikh has cordoned off the village to stop other villagers going to Sanaa. “The sheikh’s soldiers have surrounded the area and do not allow anyone to leave or enter the village,” he said.

Abdul-Rahman Barman, a lawyer at the National Organisation for Defending Freedoms and Rights (a local NGO known as HOOD), told IRIN: “They [the villagers] requested the assistance of the local authorities there to no avail. The sheikh ordered 100 of his soldiers to loot the villagers’ property and kill their animals after they staged sit-ins in Sanaa.”

Barman said women and children were beaten by the soldiers. “The area is not subject to the rule of law and the sheikh is acting with impunity…” He has private prisons, he tramples on their rights and attacks their properties illegally,” the rights activist said.

Najib Saleh, one of the displaced villagers, said the sheikh controlled everything in the area. “He can send people to his prison, and scrutinise their activities. He is lawmaker and ruler at the same time. We were brought up under his tyranny,” he said, adding that the sheikh had all kinds of weapons, including medium-sized missiles.

On 3 March, after a protest organised by the villagers and rights groups in front of the ministry, Minister of Local Administration Abdul-Qader Hilal promised to form a fact-finding committee to visit the area and investigate the allegations, but he did not say when the committee would be set up.

Al-Ansiyaen is one of five villages controlled by Sheikh Mansour. In March 2007 two villages previously under his dominion became free after locals staged sit-ins in Sanaa.

Source: IRIN

SANAA, 17 February 2008 (IRIN) - A technical committee of Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights recently finished drafting a 17-article parliamentary bill which, if ratified by parliament, aims to clarify the country’s asylum law and give the government more control over asylum seekers and refugees in the country.

Officials could not say when the draft law will be presented before the legislature.

Sulaiman Tabrizi, head of the rights ministry’s International Organisations Department, told IRIN that the driving motivation behind the draft law was to clarify the status of the continuous stream of Africans fleeing to Yemen. “Their legal status is not clear. Should all of them be regarded as refugees or migrants? Is the Refugee Convention applicable to them? Does Yemen have the capacity to deal with all of them?” he said.

Yemen is the only country in the Arabian Peninsula that has signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its related 1967 Protocol, which removed a deadline and geographical restrictions from the Convention.

Tabrizi said if passed the new law would spell out the Yemeni government’s responsibilities towards would-be refugees. “There is a need to show how someone who has been persecuted in his country should be treated. In some cases, refugees [in Yemen] are not treated in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol,” he said, adding that the new law would rectify this.

“The 1991 Yemeni Migration Law is the only law that is applied to refugees, but that does not comply with the Refugee Convention,” Tabrizi said.

New law defines refugees

Yemen’s draft law defines a refugee as anyone who has left his country of origin for fear of prosecution as a result of his race, religion, nationality, political views or social class; or as a result of foreign assault on, or occupation of, his country, riots or unrest.

The new law seeks to give the government more control over who is given refugee status, what they are entitled to and where they live.

At present in Yemen, the government gives Somalis, who make up the vast majority of African asylum seekers, automatic refugee status once they apply for it, while non-Somali Africans (mostly Ethiopians and Eritreans) must apply to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for refugee status.

New restrictions

Under the new law, a governmental committee would be formed to consider asylum applications from all nationalities and decide whether or not to grant applicants refugee status. The committee would be chaired by an elected official from the rights ministry and its membership would consist of officials from the interior and foreign affairs ministries among others. The committee would work in coordination with UNHCR.

Yemen’s government currently allows African refugees to move freely in the country and work in non-government jobs. Under the draft law, refugees would only be allowed to live in areas assigned by the rights ministry.

According to Yemeni security authorities, many African migrants enter Yemen illegally and many do not register at any of the country’s seven government/UNHCR-run reception centres. Under the new law, the rights ministry would have the authority to expel any asylum seeker or refugee in Yemen, after consulting with security authorities and UNHCR, if it is deemed necessary to protect national or public security.

Ahmed Hayel, an official at the interior ministry, told IRIN that by the end of 2007 the number of Africans (both legal and illegal migrants) in Yemen had reached about 800,000 out of a total population of 21 million. Most were Somalis.

The UNHCR office in Yemen put the total number of African registered (legal) migrants at over 100,000, mostly from Somalia, although, Abdul-Malik Aboud, a UNHCR official, recently conceded that the number of Africans in Yemen was more than the number registered.

Well thats good, very good, but what about the Yemeni kids also starving?

Yemen Times

SANA’A, Feb. 6 — The UN World Food Program (WFP) announced on Wednesday that it was expanding its operation in Yemen to feed thousands more Somali refugees fleeing the conflict in their country.

“More and more people are arriving on Yemen’s shores after barely surviving the dangerous journey by boat. It is up to us to help them as Yemen’s economy is already overstretched,” said WFP Yemen Country Director Mohammed El-Kouhene.

Since 1992, African refugees, mostly Somalis, have been streaming into Yemen, crossing the Red Sea from the Horn of Africa. Many of them hope to make their way to the oil-rich Gulf states. Now, the Yemeni government says that with its limited resources, it is no longer able to cope with new arrivals and has urged the international community for more assistance.

The agency appealed for $4.4 million in funds for an operation running from February 2008 to January 2010 to provide a total of 5,000 metric tons of food to 43,500 of the most vulnerable refugees. This is up from the 33,000 it was previously helping.

In the past year alone, nearly 30,000 people landed in Yemen after crossing the Gulf of Aden, while more than 1,400 died or are missing and presumed dead. Most of the arrivals were Somalis, of whom many said conditions in Somalia were so bad that they felt they had to risk the sea crossing.

More than 670,000 people fled fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in 2007. The WFP expects to feed 1.8 million people in Somalia in 2008, up from 1.53 million in 2007.

Upon their arrival in Yemen, the refugees receive food from the WFP for the first few days until they are moved to the refugee camp of Kharaz where they receive a monthly ration. In addition, the WFP provides supplementary food to malnourished children and pregnant and lactating mothers, as well as providing a midday meal to children in school.

“We are grateful that WFP is responding to the needs of an increasing number of refugees.

Now is the time when we most need international support,” said Yemen’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Abdulkarim Al-Ar’habi.

El-Kouhene said the recent increase in beneficiaries was based on the anticipated arrival of new refugees at transit centers in Yemen, as well as refugee population growth at the isolated Kharaz camp in Lahj Governorate, where job opportunities are scarce. To that end, the operation will also include food assistance in return for work and/or training to help refugees become more self-sufficient.

The operation will be implemented in cooperation with the government of Yemen and in partnership with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and various NGOs.

The WFP has provided around $400 million of food assistance to Yemen since 1967, when the country was split into North and South Yemen.

Wow, the The Yemen Observer covers the topic of racial bigotry and discrimination. I’ve seen a few articles about the Ahdkam but nothing like this about general social attitudes toward “the colored”.

The extent to which people have empathy for the colored varies from one person to another. From the people interviewed, I received similar answers, “Besides being repugnant in their filthy looks, they are thieves,” said Muhammad Skandar, a police officer. Other people said that they do not like them simply due to the nature of their work. Ramy’s response to such arguments throws light on the irrational reasons for these opinions. “Lots of people tend to cover their discrimination with unreasonable arguments, but they are discriminating, nonetheless,” he says. “For instance, the colored are involved in few cases of thievery compared to others whose behavior can’t or mustn’t be disapproved of.” He also points out that when they must labor to do their job, we unjustly label them as dirty people.

Ramy has come up with a couple of practical solutions in order for the colored to be integrated into society. He believes that everyone in our country must share the responsibility of raising awareness among people and especially in the coming generation. He suggests that “families should no longer belittle them; schools, through curricula, should admire whomever serves his or her country; media could present a weekly citation for the great effort they make; mosque preachers, instead of their unhealthy obsession with collecting money, must give even a little attention to the colored and remind us of Belal, as well as the Prophet, saying that all people are equal; government must mandate that everyone should do what they have to do accordingly.”

Telegraph:

Britain has launched a drive for an international accord granting the Royal Navy and Western warships rights to enter Somali territorial waters in pursuit of pirate gangs linked to al-Qa’eda.

Pirate activity has soared off the Horn of Africa this year with the emergence of highly sophisticated gangs that use fast patrol boats, launched from “mother ships” to board cargo vessels in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean.

The lucrative multi-million-dollar kidnap and ransom trade, which is dominated by al-Qa’eda, according to terrorism experts, threatens to disrupt international shipping lanes used to carry cargo from the Far East to Europe. A meeting in London of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), the United Nations’ watchdog of the seas, is to consider a resolution today instructing Somalia’s interim government to drop its legal right to block foreign navies from entering its waters.

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This is abominable.

VOA

More than 60 African migrants have drowned while crossing the Gulf of Aden on their way to Yemen.

Witnesses say at least 15 others swam to safety after their vessel sank close to the Yemeni coast. The boat originated from Somalia and most of those on board are believed to have been Somalians.

It is not clear how the boat capsized.

Migrants frequently attempt the crossing to escape violence in Somalia and often rely on smugglers to help them cross.

They often face abuse at the hands of smugglers, with many forced to disembark offshore to avoid Yemeni coast guard patrols.

Earlier this month, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimated 20,000 people have made the crossing this year and said at least 439 people have died and another 489 are missing.

Update: More

Thirty African migrants drown off Yemen

2 hours ago

SANAA (AFP) — Thirty African migrants, including seven women, drowned after their boat overturned while trying to cross the Gulf of Aden from Somalia to Yemen, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

Their bodies were found washed ashore early Friday in the southern region of Hadramut, while 41 others, including five women, were rescued, said the website of the ministry newspaper September 26.

The Yemeni coastguard was still searching for 69 others missing, who were on the same boat which set out from the Somali port of Bosasso, it added.

Although the ministry said the dead were Somalis, it was not clear how their nationalities were determined.

Sixty-four African migrants drowned on November 22 while trying to cross, while 40 others drowned early in November after being thrown overboard by people traffickers.

The UNHCR estimates that more than 20,000 people have made the perilous crossing this year, with more than 439 deaths and another 489 people missing.

Many of the migrants who attempt the journey are desperate to flee conflict and persecution in their home regions in Africa.

The crossing takes two days at best and is made especially dangerous due to shark-infested waters, strong currents and inhumane conditions on poorly maintained vessels that are open to the elements.

YT

A recent report by the World Bank has indicated that during the last three decades, Yemen has experienced a profound and dramatic change, where the economy has seen a shift from an agriculture-dependent economy to a more diversified and market economy, hereby changing the underlying fundamentals of the Yemeni business environment. The report stated that the shift towards a market economy from the subsistence agriculture of the north and the command economy of the south has transformed livelihood systems.

This change is understandable considering the global economic transformations and the geo-political changes in Yemen. The report indicated that the emergence of a new governance system as a result of unification, hereby the formal and informal “rules of the game” has changed; in Yemeni culture, the land and the livestock were the source of wealth and employment

During the last three decades, this understanding has changed to the realization that the source of wealth and employment is the government. The report states: “the increasing concentration of economic and political power suggests that it carries with it the risk of elite capture of development benefits and the further widening of the gap between the rich and the poor.”

The World bank report, entitled ‘Country Social Analysis’ has the objective of analyzing the social context and trends in Yemen in order to identify the constrains and opportunities for development. Inline with that objective, the report concludes that the effectiveness of development support to Yemen can be enhanced by addressing the following inequalities:

• Access to water and land needs to be more equitably distributed;

• Youth, Women, and Rural people are becoming increasingly marginalized from the economy as traditional livelihood systems decline;

• With rapid urbanization, shanty dwellers are becoming increasingly socially and economically marginalized;

• State expenditures tend to favor the non-poor.

The report also highlights a number of strategic areas of intervention, including improving equity in the distribution of natural resources such as water resources, concentration of land ownership, and enforcement of expropriation laws which help the poor and marginalized social groups.

Another strategic intervention is in improving equity in distribution of public resources and services, in terms of inequality in public expenditures, inequality in access to healthcare, and the mismatch between education provided and labor market demands especially in rural inhabitants.

In addition to that, another strategic intervention is in promoting inclusion in economic opportunities; with focus on the high rates of youth unemployment and underemployment, and the employment of women in rural areas.

Moreover, improving social accountability was yet another area for strategic intervention, through the strengthening civil society to hold elected officials and service providers accountable, evaluate the quality of public service provision, provide access to justice especially for women and the poor, and involve women in decision making.

The ruling party has a different view of the report:

Almotamar.net - A World Bank (WB) report issued last week praised reforms the Yemeni government is implementing in different areas particularly in administration, judiciary, legislative fields related to fighting corruption as well as legislations on providing infrastructure luring investment.

The report which almotamar.net received a copy of it praised efforts of civil service in ridding of a large number of illusionary jobs and cases of double jobs.

The report on assessing development policy I Yemen, the WB to inaugurate next Saturday, mentioned that independence of the central apparatus for audition and accountability has improved, passing of a new law on financial obligations of government officials, in addition to that there is a new law on fighting corruption under legislation and it is identical to international criteria.
The report also praised reforms concerning enhancement of judiciary independence, pointing to the efforts implemented for improving the judicial apparatus infrastructure and the president of the republic’s departure from the post of chairman of the Higher Judiciary Council.

a follow on to the locust swarms, US general, wheat rust and German tourists

M&C:

Sana’a - Scores of Ethiopian army troops have arrived off the coast of Yemen onboard two boats belonging to smugglers after they fled fighting with Islamic insurgents in Somalia, a press report said on Tuesday.

Some 89 Ethiopian soldiers arrived in the Arqa area in southern Yemen after crossing the Gulf of Aden from Bosaso city in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland in northeast Somalia, the al-Ayyam daily newspaper said in a report on its website.

The paper said 49 Somali refugees were aboard the boats that carried the soldiers, who were wearing civilian clothes.

An Ethiopian army officer was quoted as saying that he and his comrades had fled the ranks of Ethiopian troops in Somalia after a dramatic escalation in fierce fighting with Somali Islamic insurgents.

One of the better trained military units

YO: The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has accused the Yemeni government of firing on boats carrying African refugees on Tuesday. The refugees were trying to reach Yemen by traveling across the sea to escape the violence in their countries. The incident led to the drowning of 34 Somalis and Ethiopians after the smugglers forced the refugees to jump into the water near Shabwah Governorate coasts in southeastern Yemen.

UNHCR has said in a statement that Yemeni navy patrols fired toward two of the three boats last Friday, near the Bir Ali Area in Shabwah. Brigadier Ahmed al-Synaidar, the Director of the Office of the Minister of the Interior, refused to make any comments on the accusations of UNHCR. He only said that the Yemeni security authorities have arrested two Somalis who have smuggled a number of Somalis and Ethiopian to the Yemeni territory illegally. Yemeni security authorities sources responded to the accusation of the UNHCR that the Yemeni army has orders not to fire on any boat unless they are fired on first by the smugglers.

They may also fire on a boat if they already have information about boats smuggling weapons, drugs, or any contrabands. The three boats were carrying 365 persons, including 234 Ethiopians and 131 Somalis. UNHCR said that the smugglers take advantage of people who are desperate to escape the violence and chaos in Somalia. According to UNHCR statistics, more than 56,000 persons have been received at the Yemeni coasts this year. At least 200 people have died, while many more people are still missing.

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SANA’A, March 20 — The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said that needed increased resources to cope with refugees living in squalid conditions outside refugee camps, even though it has the second largest budget in Yemen. The annual UNHCR budget allocated for Yemen currently stands at $4.7million. Since January of this year more than 2,500 people have landed on the Yemeni coast, with at least 136 people dead and many still missing have perished on the perilous journey from the Horn of Africa.

The announcement was made during a press conference held on Monday by the UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, Ms. Erika Feller. “I found it very distressing that refugees are not living in refugee camps but in squalid conditions such as those in the Al-Basateen suburb of Aden,” Feller said. She added that it was important to help these people become self sufficient and provide a decent and humane environment. However, financing such initiatives remains a problem. “The resources for refugees in Yemen are insufficient. The UNHCR needs to enter into further discussions with our donor countries as we are very dependent on donors,” she noted.

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