Armies of Liberation

al Tagheer:

Brigadier General Saadi

* Al-Qaeda controlled whole cities in Abyan, and may come to get to Eden, what you read in the folds of the ongoing activity for the «base» in the south and those who stand behind him?

- I think that the «base» does not exist in the south, and existing today in the South is a business organizer led from one office, and this play, which is hosted by the system in the show is directed by the security services of the system.

These are good portrayals of the logic behind southern rejection of the national council and what steps are necessary to form a cohesive alliance:

Dear, Jane Novak – the people of the south lost 1300 martyrs and thousands injured and thousands of southerners languished in prisons of the Yemeni occupation since the beginning of Southern peaceful movement in 2007 .. Southerners are sacrificing in order to restore their state, their home, their dignity, their freedom and their jobs. The unity between south and north died in 1994 when Saleh’s forces invaded the south.. The Southern are living on their land but they are strangers in, they do not participate in decision-making on their land .. The solution of the problem (Southern case) it is not an affiliation a group of people from the south to the Yemeni Council to legitimizes occupation of their land, but, the other party (Yemeni side) should recognize the right of southerners to self-determination ..

The country (Yemen) will return to the same scenario, a group of thieves in the service of the robbers, all belonging to the military tribe, unless a real solution for the Southern Case first of all , and the US Govt. quit financial support to Saleh’s regime who is using US aid money to strike peaceful southern movement in the South. from Mohamed Seif Gubran

Dear Jane, The key issue here that regime ignored unity treaties between the two countries since 1994. The bigger issue that the current revolution doesn’t accept or acknowledge that once upon a time there were a whole nation and country engaged peacefully in a unification that failed miserably at least in the eyes of the majority of Southerners. The new council just another facet of the same attitude and viewpoint towards the south’s main issues. To make matters worse, the unborn new regime or so called national council deepens the difference and creates further an atmosphere of mistrust in southerners eyes even those pro-unity, furthermore, makes us determined that all solutions from our brothers in the north are still coming from that same narrow angle of Saleh’s regime and ignorance.

The council and alliances should look at the root causes and engage in a civilized dialogue with their counterparts in the south (south movement) as opposed to propose superficial solutions and repeat Saleh’s old strategy that worsened the situation even more and helped to raise the demands to full peaceful secession which most of us feel is the right solution and many others join the call on a daily basis. The revolutionaries want to build the new Yemen, but forgetting completely what the current Yemen was made of prior to 1990 and there has been a revolution for years in the south against the regime which has hundreds of martyrs, thousands of wounded protesters and detainees.

The following article by a southern activist is a good snapshot of the southern viewpoint and distrust of the revolution and Hamid al Ahmar in particular. It makes the point, which seems accurate in my view, that southerners have been sitting out the rev, and few have changed their goal of independence. Many view it as a mechanism to retain the proceeds from natural resources which are found mostly in the south.

From the inception of the revolution, there have been no formal overtures to the southerners and it was assumed they would come around or that there really wasn’t strong support for the two state solution. Part of the huge disconnect between north and south is a function of the regime’s censorship and poor infrastructure.

Many northerners were quite shocked when southern protests broke out in 2007, and apparently shocked again that the 23 southern leaders resigned the national council last week. Southerners were shocked the north did not rise up with them years ago, and that the atrocities committed by the Saleh regime were largely met with silence in Sanaa and elsewhere. Some leaders in the national council were active against the south in the 1994 civil war.

The Yemen’s Southern Movement and the Saleh-Hamid Game
By Nedhal Moqbel

Amidst the growing political crisis in Yemen , the Southern cause remains South Yemenis’ top priority. The injured president, who is being treated in Saudi Arabia , left behind unresolved political conflicts, and multiple parties and individuals are now competing for power. President Saleh’s return is becoming more possible as the state seems to be falling apart. Moreover, violence is escalating, and the Islamic extremists are gaining more strength. While the country’s future is unknown, the well known fact now is that most Southerners are maintaining their goal of secession.

As the backstage facts of the anti-Saleh protests are gradually revealed, the Southern struggle is standing out with its spontaneous outset and clear goal. According to an article by Jumana Farahat of the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper (dated April 9, 2011), the current protests against Saleh were basically a plot by the powerful political and tribal figure Hamid Al-Ahmar, a scenario he began to prepare for in 2009. Citing several Wikileaks cables, Farahat assures that Hamid has been in contact with the American embassy in Sana’a since 2009, providing officials there with some details of his plot to overthrow the president, which they did not take seriously. His plan centered on weakening Saleh by opening up multiple communication avenues with the latter’s enemies in Sa’ada and the South, urging them to escalate their pressures. Regardless of the responses he received from them, Hamid did not give the green light for the anti-Saleh protests until he was sure the time was right.

Additionally, a Reuters article published on June 1st this year reveals one reason why yesterday’s friends (Saleh and Hamid) are now today’s enemies. The article refers to a “confidential State Department cable” that confirms a “long-standing monopoly” by Hamid Al-Ahmar and Arcadia Petroleum, an oil trading firm owned by Norway’s billionaire John Fredriksen, of Yemen’s oil exports. Because he was the firm’s undeclared agent in Yemen , Hamid used his powerful connections to let Arcadia win most oil export tenders at below market prices, earning in return a big fortune from the firm. However, Saleh managed in 2009 to break this monopoly, handing the case to an oil council under the control of his own son.

This verifies that hidden internal disputes upon Yemen ’s rich resources – most of which exist in the South – were behind the recent protests. Hamid first pushed for “organized chaos,” using Farahat’s words, through increasing the pressures upon Saleh by his North and South opponents. After that, he set the stage for the protest movement that demanded the president’s departure. However, loyalists of Saleh responded with massive demonstrations in support of their president, which caused riots on North Yemen ’s streets to be significantly divided.

On the other hand, one sees a different picture when it comes to the Southern Movement. This struggle did not spring from “organized chaos,” but from shared discrimination at the hands of the Northern government. The long-standing persecution of Southerners that particularly began in 1994 was translated in 2007 into an organized entity called the Southern Peaceful Movement that represents all South Yemenis. Its goal is the restoration of the occupied South, with its immense natural resources over which Hamid and Saleh have been fighting.

Unlike the divided protest movements in Sana’a and Taiz (pro-Saleh and anti-Saleh demonstrations), the Southern protests have always chanted the same slogans, raised the same flag (that of the pre-unification South Yemen ), and demanded one thing: the liberation of their land from the Northern troops that invaded the South in 1994. This peaceful struggle is continuous despite the government’s violent and suppressive response to it.

Saleh fought the Southern cause brutally, Hamid Al-Ahmar made use of it in his battle with Saleh, and those standing today on the Yemeni political stage are in disagreement about it. While Hamid now is more powerful than before, Yemen is still run by Saleh’s sons, relatives, and allies who still control the security authorities and a significant chunk of the military. The scene is foggy, and the game is not over. However, whoever wins this power game will have to eventually confront the persistent Southern struggle for secession.

Xinhua SANAA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — Some 23 opposition leaders from Yemen’s southern regions, who were among the opposition’s newly- established 143-member National Council against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, announced their withdrawal from the council in a statement issued late Friday.

The 143-member National Council was formed on Wednesday, a day after Saleh, who is in the Saudi capital of Riyadh for rehabilitation after he was injured in a bomb attack on his palace in June, vowed in a speech to return soon to Sanaa to resume his duties until 2013.

“We were surprised that our names were included in the list of National Council without acknowledging us,” said the joint statement by the 23 opposition southern leaders, including former president Ali Nasser Mohamed, former prime minister Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas and head of Islamic Islah (reform) party in the southeastern province of Hadramout.

The 23 leaders also said they refused to join the council because it lacked of balance between members from the south and north.

“Any national council with responsibility of leading the people’s peaceful revolution to overthrow the remains of Saleh’s regime should be composed of fifty-fifty membership between the southern and the northern provinces,” they said in the statement, which was signed by the leaders and published by the opposition’s key media outlet almasdar.us.to.

They also accused the leaders of the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) of ignoring what they called “the Southern Peaceful Movement,” which included southern activists who have been seeking to secede southern Yemen from the north since 2007.

“As well as your (JMP’s) ignorance to the Southern Cause and its Southern Peaceful Movement, many of whose activists were killed by government forces during previous clashes in the southern provinces, was another main factor behind our refusal to join the National Council,” they added.

The south and north Yemen unified peacefully in 1990, but the relationship deteriorated by 1994, when a southern insurgency was quelled in a civil war. Calls for separation were renewed in early 2007.

The National Committee should pledge to the 1994 Document of Pledge and Accord.
Full Text here. Its an amazing assessment and action plan that was never implemented as it challenged the hegemony of the northern Saleh regime following unity.

The international community will like Section 1, paragraph 2 and the emphasis on counter-terror, but the whole document is as relevant now as it was in 1994, as regards Saleh’s tactics and excesses, and in providing assurances to southerners of equality and self determination going forward. The north/ south divide is as bifurcated today as it was before the revolution started. Maybe by agreeing to abide by the Document’s principles, the southerners might consent to join the rev or at least begin a conversation.

2. The Dialogue Committee reaffirms the statement of the government regarding the steps specially taken to confront terrorism, and to abide the policy of Yemen internally and externally in confronting terrorism. and to extradite all non-Yemenis against whom there is evidence of involvement in terroristic activities, support thereof or even encouragement or publicizing them.

Appropriate trials open and fair must be initiated and proper punishment dispensed accordingly to the law and through the appropriate channels. To forbid the entry into Yemen, employment of, or giving shelter or refuge to persons accused of terrorism.

This is a statement typical of the southern personalities who are bowing out after being appointed to the National Council without prior knowledge. This one is from the editor of al Ayyam, the well respected Hisham Bashraheel. From the beginning, most southerners wished the revolutionaries well but did not participate. In their view, it was occurring in another country. This is also the logic of the widespread boycott of the 2006 election, the boycott may not have been readily apparent because of ballot stuffing. Many of the revolutionaries are a) unaware of the depth of emotional and alienation in the south b) believe southerners had no right to challenge the legitimacy of the unified state (quite a double standard) and c) believed they would come around. Most of the protests in Aden are by Islahis, and the rest of the south has been quiet when in years past hundreds of thousands would march from city to city. The only vision shared in the north and south at this point is extreme disappointment in the Obama administration’s policies toward Yemen.

Also below a statement from the Arab Sisters Forum endorsing the effort but expressing disappointment that there is a lack of transparency. The Houthis issued a statement in support of the southern position, and have also withdrawn. Maybe it will force a more inclusive transparent council and counter balance the Islahis/ Hashid influence. But it could take months.

I thank the brothers in the National Assembly of the Forces of the Revolution who took in me as a member of the National Assembly.

And as I am proud of this trust, I announce apologies for not accepting to participate because of the lack consultion in advance to include my name and not tell me the version of the principles and policies set for the National Society for the forces of revolution, as and to ignore the issue of South and peaceful movement and its martyrs and their injured and material damage tops resolutions apology and God bless. (Read on …)

It doesn’t appear to be the transitional council, but rather a unified front to lead the rev to the point of the transitional council. Its a good step if they make an action plan, drawing on input from their constituencies, as opposed to devolving into a top heavy, bickering entity that issues statements. They better have an English spokesperson unlike the JMP, CCYRC, Civil Coalition, the Southern Movement and the Houthis who all left the regime’s propaganda statements unchallenged in English for a decade. Photos.

Sahwa Net – Yemen opposition parties, the ruling party’s defected politicians met on Wednesday and formed a 143-member national council which aims at uniting various groups against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The council included representatives of civil society, members of the secessionist Southern Movement, and the northern Shiite Huthi rebels, as well as independent activists

According to Yemen’s opposition parties, the national council will lead the forces of the revolution until Ali Abdullah Saleh’s departure.

The opposition meeting was held at a hall in Sanaa University amid tight security enforced by the army’s First Armoured Division led by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected to the opposition in March.

More on the anticipated function from the WaPo:

Salem Mohammed Bassindwa, a top opposition figure, says youth groups and political parties named 143 council members to represent the people, a rare show of unity.

“This is a revolutionary council aimed at toppling the rule of the (Saleh) family and the remnants of this regime,” Bassindwa said. He clarified that it is “not an alternative to the government.”

The council members will elect a president and an executive body. It will also form “popular committees” in Yemeni cities, to be in charge of “protecting citizens’ properties and state institutions” at time of crisis and street clashes, he said.

Ok a listing of the names from News of the Yemen Rev in English

1. Ahmad Al-Qatabi
2. Ahmad Bahaj
3. Ahmad Bazarah
4. Ahmad Salem Obeid
5. Ahmad Said Hashed
6. Amat Al-Salam Raja’a
7. Amal Al-Basha
8. Ameen Al-Akemi
9. Ensaf Mayo
10. Bushra Al-Maqtari (Read on …)

Southern Movement leader Hassan Baoum has been in jail since February along with his son Fawaz. Another son, Fadi in an interview said the transitional council was the right step but its late and too large. This is significant because the SM position for some months was that the revolution was taking place in another country, reiterating the demand for an independent south. After the Cairo meeting, there has been some shift toward the acceptance of a federalist solution, but its not universal on the popular level.

Update: Reuters reports the tribes have returned to the fight.

Xinhua: Tuesday’s offensive by the 119th Military Brigade in Khamila area in western Zinjibar killed three Islamist militants and wounded seven others, who all were hospitalized in Razi hospital in Abyan’s city of Jaar, a doctor at the hospital told Xinhua. Zinjibar, about 480 km south of the capital Sanaa, has been besieged by the 119th Military Brigade from the west and by the 25th Mechanized Brigade from the east

Original: This is an excellent article from AP and should be read in full. Lets again review the sequence of events. Saleh warns of an al Qaeda take over in Abyan, if he is deposed, then government troops withdraw leaving behind large stocks of weapons. Al Qaeda moves in, takes possession of the weapons and takes over several towns including the capital, Zinjibar, forcing about 90,000 residents to flee from Abyan to Aden. The Defense Ministry leaves the 35th Mechanized Brigade stranded for two months, ordering the brigade to surrender twice. (The US trained CT forces are no where in sight.) Southern tribesmen launch a counter-offensive along with the 35th MB and drive al Qaeda out of Zinjibar. As the fighting moves to the outskirts of town, the Yemeni military bombs the tribesmen three times, although they had notified the military of their position. The Yemeni government calls it a friendly fire incident. Yemenis call it another instance of state collusion with al Qaeda in order to play the western powers, especially the US.

Al Qaeda will be much, much weaker without Saleh and his relatives (including Ahmed) and could be easily conquered, on all levels, by the multitude of indigenous forces that are naturally opposed to them. Its a much more cost effective option as well.

Botched Yemen airstrikes harms anti-militant fight

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press – 20 hours ago

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni government airstrikes that accidentally killed 40 people last week, including four army officers and a tribal sheik, brought an abrupt halt to the largest military effort yet to dislodge al-Qaida-linked militants from a key southern town, officials and tribal fighters said Tuesday.

The airstrikes, which took place late Friday just east of the town of Zinjibar near Yemen’s south coast, outraged pro-government fighters, prompting them to withdraw from the military offensive against Islamist militants. (Read on …)

Southerners began protests in 2007 for equal rights, and later for independence after the state routinely murdered unarmed protesters. The Southern Movement never moved beyond protests to create representative institutions or a unified structure as the protests grew to encompass the southern governorates, largely in response to the state’s brutality. (The stagnation is similar to the pro-democracy protests today.) The Cairo meeting in May by exiled former PDRY politicians to unify the movement and to create a consensus for a federal state, and continued unity, had little impact on the mindset within the south.

(U.S.) Aden NA: – failed attempts by intense by leaders and activists of the Cairo meeting of the South Unionists to persuade the activists to reverse the demand for “independence of the South” referred to a statement from the meeting, as reported by sources in the southern opposition abroad.

And activists struggling for the Cairo meeting, which took place in May under the auspices of the Socialist leaders Haidar Abu Bakr Al-Attas and Ali Nasser Mohammed to end the popular demands in the South calls for an independent state. (Read on …)

Guest post: Will the U.S Support the Southern Movement to Combat Terrorism? written by Ayad al-Shaibi

Talks about “terrorism and Al Qaeda” in Yemen or what has become known as “Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” is still closely linked with the regime of the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, from the perspective of many observers, analysts and Arab and Western intelligence departments. This link is not reinforced by the “loose” concept promoted by the media of the exhausted Yemeni regime’s forces under the banner of “fighting terrorism.” (Read on …)

What did I say from day 1: the most effective force in the south against al Qaeda is going to be the retired southern (PDRY) military/ tribes because a) they have military training b) they know the lay of the land c) they are against al Qaeda firmly d) they are not connected to Saleh’s regime e) they respect human rights and are concerned for the welfare of the locals. But no, no one from the international community can talk to the southerners, the real southerners, because they want an independent state.

Anyway the retired southern military and tribesmen that drove out al Qaeda from areas of Abyan are now withdrawing because the regime is trying to use them politically, for propaganda, and its just not happening. The media stories that the Yemeni military forced the withdrawal of al Qaeda in some areas are incorrect; according to everything I’m seeing it was the southerners.

The following is google translated from Yafi Press but we have essentially the same story here from al Teef: Withdrew this afternoon, hundreds of tribesmen who had taken over the past few weeks the areas controlled by al Qaeda to the east of Zanzibar to protest the military leaders loyal to the regime of President Abdullah Saleh of Yemen to pay dozens of elements affiliated to these areas.

Yafi Press: He said the activist, a former military commander of the Army (South) Republic of Yemen People’s Democratic Republic, which united with North Yemen in 1990, said “We have confirmed through our presence among the tribes show that we are the leaders of military-trained and have experience in the topography of our land, we do not want the supervision of a not of the power system not from the opposition and brought us out of our homes to fight these battles but jealousy on our province handed over by soldiers into the hands of the Yemeni regime of these groups simply to leave the capital of our province a battleground between the poles of this dying regime (Read on …)

The Southern Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monthly report on various HR violations in southern Yemen (including Zinjibar) for June 2011 is now available for download:

English: http://www.archive.org/download/report_909/3.pdf

Arabic: http://www.archive.org/download/report_673/17.pdf

Southern secessionist leader Hassan Baoum remains in very poor health and in incommunicado detention since February despite multiple efforts to visit him by activists and others this week. But with friends like Obama, the Saleh regime can do what it wants to the political opposition without fear of consequences:

Sanaa authorities are still prevent the visit in the hospital of Ba’oom (Read on …)

- Republican Guard shells a public mini-bus in Taiz, driver killed, 13 wounded including three children, attack occurred in front of a hospital, several other parts of the neighborhoods shelled by tanks and artillery: al Masdar Also Taiz, clashes after security tries to impede a mass rally demanding an immediate formation of a transitional council: al Masdar (Read on …)

Its just ridiculous. The international community should start with the protesters plan and move outward from there. We are not talking about a transition of power between the ruling party and the opposition (although that’s what the international community is pushing for) but a revolution, an overthrow of the entire regime. If the political party system worked, there wouldn’t be a revolution in the first place. The JMP was unable to institute a dialog on electoral reforms with the GPC for three years, leading to the two year delay in parliament elections in 2009. Immediate elections are unworkable; the protesters plan has been the only viable solution from day one.

6/30 CNN Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) — The Yemeni government has lost control over five provinces, and security in the country is deteriorating, the nation’s acting president told CNN in an exclusive interview Wednesday.

In his first interview with a Western TV network, Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansoor Hadi detailed how U.S. drones are using voice recognition to target al Qaeda leaders and help the government win back control. (Read on …)

Popular committees are being formed in Aden because the regime’s forces are contributing to the lawlessness and assassinations. Having the military unit physically walk over the mutinous soldiers at Anad military base is a common practice.

Yaf3:
And our sources said: that the situation in Aden heading towards the escalation of lawlessness due to intentional youth revolution has begun the start of the revolution through the will of the people’s committees to maintain security in the city of Aden, (Read on …)

Yemen Post: Republican guards killed a 14-year old boy in Yemen’s Taiz province on Wednesday, where a massive demonstration was held coinciding with protests in other cities to urge the youth-led protesters to finish their revolution and to refuse external mandate or interventions.

Locals at Street 60th at the city’s entrance said republican guards fired at passengers inside a bus killing the teen and injuring others. The incident took place amid insecurity in Taiz, which saw deadly clashes between the army and armed tribesmen in the past weeks.

In other Taiz related news, Haykel Saed Corp is negotiating between the families of the protesters killed by forces under the supervision of lunatic security chief (transferred from Aden after several bloodbaths) Abdullah Qiran. There’s no resolution yet as the families are demanding a trial. Qiran was also charged with the murder of Ahmed Darwish tortured to death in Aden jail. One major outstanding protesters’ demand is the purge and reformation of the security forces.

The consensus is a federal system of two parts, north and south. Its unclear the extent to which southern Yemeni residents are signed on to the proposal or remain committed to either independence (or unity). The meeting was held in Cairo last month.

The Southern Case

Southern View for a Comprehensive Solution to the Current Crisis in Yemen

After a series of Southern meetings, a meeting resulted during 09-11 May 2011 affirming that the Southern Case is the basis for solutions to the complex Yemeni crisis in the context of the following rules:
1. Emphasis on the fact that unity will remain a political option in the context of an equivalent partnership contracted between two states which derive their legitimacy and sovereignty from the people and the land and that the Yemeni crisis is a complex one. Its core is that the peaceful unification signed on 22 May 1990 failed and ended in war. The acknowledgement of the Southern case by all political forces is considered a clear confession that the continuing absence or ignoring one of the unity partners will not solve the Southern case. As a result, the Yemeni crisis will remain, even after the toppling of the regime and the departure of its head without a true and fundamental solution. (Read on …)

The humanitarian crisis is deepening and SEYAJ urges relief convoys to the starving people displaced to Aden and Lahj

An appeal call No(2) to save the people in Abyan

Issued by the Emergency Cell in Seyaj
Yemen- Sana’a- June 22nd -2011

The Emergency Cell in Seyaj organization for childhood protection calls to declare Abyan governorate as a disastrous area by all the standards.

Seyaj directs its second humanitarian appeal to all the Yemeni people to send urgent humanitarian relief convoys to the victims in Abyan of the dirty security political game that displaced , killed and violated the lives, humanity and dignity of at least more than forty thousand families.

Moreover, Seyaj calls the Arabic, Islamic and international associations and humanitarian relief organizations to send urgent humanitarian relief convoys to Abyan victims in Aden and Lahj governorates.

Seyaj also calls the acting president to take concrete actions to save the lives of his people and clan in Abyan.
Seyaj confirms that the areas of war against Al-Qaeda as called are free of country’s institutions that are capable of performing its duty to displaced people in Abyan, Aden and Lahj ,as the first responsibility lies on the Yemeni people in all its political& social activities, humanitarian organizations, religious men , youth , politicians and others of the society components. (Read on …)

From the Yemen Post:

A US drone attack took place in Jaar, Abyan, on Saturday injuring six civilians. Eyewitnesses said the attack was expected to be targeting senior Jihadists in the area. No al-Qaeda members were hurt in the attack.Most of the attacks in Abyan have resulted in injuring wrong targets this month. At least 18 US drone attacks have taken place in June, in the highest foreign attack toll on Yemen lands in recent history.

The US is bombing and missing although there is supposed to be a better intelligence stream. In 2009, General Patraeus said the Bedouin locals killed in Abyan by a US missile strike were providing material support to al Qaeda by selling them food, implying the 42 civilians killed weren’t really civilians, and overlooking they had complained about the AQ infiltration to local authorities. What is one supposed to do when al Qaeda moves in? In this case, the residents are actively protesting.

Dawn ADEN, Yemen: Hundreds of residents of a southern Yemeni town in which al Qaeda has embedded itself called on Friday for the departure of the Islamic militants from their neighbourhood, an official said.

“Hundreds of residents of Jaar gathered in front of the town’s mosque to show their opposition to armed groups with links to al Qaeda,” Mohsen Salem Said, a member of the municipal council, told AFP.

He said residents “demanded that these armed men leave Jaar, so it does not befallen the same fate as Zinjibar,” a neighbouring town in Abyan province.

Hundreds of men presumed to be connected to al Qaeda on May 29 took control of Zinjibar after battles with the Yemeni army in which 140 people died, including about 80 soldiers. (Read on …)