Yemen on the Brink of Civil War, Arabic

Yemenat:

اليمن على شفا الحرب
كتبت: جين نوفاك/ ورد برس
ترجمة: عبدالله عبدالوهاب ناجي/ ترجمة خاصة بالمستقلة

أصدرت سفارة الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية يوم الأحد في صنعاء بيانا حول العنف السياسي في جنوب اليمن الذي أدى إلى مقتل ثمانية أشخاص في الأسبوع الماضي. وشددت الولايات المتحدة على أن “وحدة اليمن تعتمد على قدرتها على ضمان المساواة في معاملة جميع المواطنين بموجب القانون…” وما تدعوه الحكومة اليمنية بالوحدة فإن المتظاهرين يدعونه احتلالاً.

 

Yemen on the Brink of War

On May 3, the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a issued a statement on the political violence in South Yemen that claimed eight lives last week. The United States stressed that “Yemen’s unity depends on its ability to guarantee every citizen equal treatment under the law.” What the Yemeni government calls unity, the protesters call occupation.

Since protests erupted in South Yemen in May 2007, dozens were killed, hundreds injured and over a thousand arrested. As police shot into the crowds, Southern claims of institutionalized discrimination turned into calls for independence. After regional protest marches last week, Yemen began shelling the town of Radfan. Some Southerners took up arms for the first time.

 

Yemen Retakes Ja’ar

On March 28, Yemen launched a major security operation to regain control of Ja’ar in the governorate of Abyan. Yemeni authorities announced Monday that 45 of 56 wanted militants have been arrested during the operation.

 

Yemen’s three terror fronts

By Jane Novak March 28, 2009 3:18 PM

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took credit in an internet statement Friday for a pair of suicide attacks that targeted South Koreans in Yemen.

A teen-aged suicide bomber killed four South Korean tourists in Shibam, Hadramout on March 15. A second terror attack three days later in Sana’a targeted a convoy of family members and South Korean investigators. The motorcade had left a military camp and was traveling along a highway when a suicide bomber detonated his device between two of the cars. There were no injuries to the passengers.

 

Yemen strikes multi-faceted deals with al Qaeda

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently struck a deal with Ayman Zawahiri, and Yemen is in the process of emptying its jails of known jihadists. The Yemeni government is recruiting these established jihadists to attack its domestic enemies as it refrains from serious counter-terror measures against the newly formed Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The tripartite relationship between the Yemeni regime and al Qaeda enables all participants to further their goals at the expense of national, regional and global security.

Yemen releases 95 jihadists

 

Arabian Peninsula al Qaeda groups merge

In the face of Saudi Arabia’s success against the al Qaeda organization, many Saudi operatives have fled to the more hospitable climate in Yemen, joining others who recently arrived from Iraq, Somalia, and Pakistan. Al Qaeda in Yemen announced its merger with Saudi Arabia’s al Qaeda organization to form al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. The announcement came in its latest release of the online journal Sada al Malahim, or the Echo of Epics. A propaganda video was also released by the group on Friday.

 

US Sanctions Iran Based al Qaeda, Zawahiri Promises Fighters to Yemen

The US Treasury Department placed financial sanctions on Saad bin Laden, thought to be in Pakistan, and three alleged al Qaeda operatives in Iran including a Yemeni. The terrorist designation Friday froze their assets within US jurisdictions and prohibits Americans from financial dealings with the four.

Saad bin Laden, son of radical figurehead Osama bin Laden, facilitated communications between al Qaeda’s number two, Ayman Zawahiri, and the Iranian Qods Force after an al Qaeda attack on the US embassy in Sana’a last year, the Wall Street Journal reported.

 

Yemeni Weapons Fuel Somali Instability

Yemen the main source of illegal arms to Somalia: UN
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Jane Novak for the Yemen Times

SANA’A, Dec. 27— A UN investigation found Yemen is the primary source of arms and ammunition to Somalia which has been under an arms embargo since 1992. The panel of independent experts monitoring the embargo also reported arms smuggling from Yemen intersects with acts of piracy and human trafficking. The findings were presented in a December 10 report to the UN Security Council.

The report notes commercial weapons imports from Yemen supply Somali retail markets as well as opposition and criminal groups. The Yemeni government’s inability to stem the large scale arms trafficking is “a key obstacle to the restoration of peace and security to Somalia,” the panel found. The UN Security Council extended the monitoring group’s mandate for another year.

 

Saleh’s Orders to Release Sa’ada Detainees Dated 12/08

If Saleh ordered the Sa’ada prisoners released on 12/08 and they are still in jail, then its either a ploy or he can’t get his own directives implemented.

The order:

 

Eid al-Ghadir Day, Saada Yemen 12/08

Eid al-Ghaidr Day, Sa'ada Yemen 12/2008

After several years of outlawing this Shia celebration, in 2008 the ban was lifted.

 

Interview with Nasser al-Nuba

Exclusive Interview

Brigadier General Nasser al-Nuba is the head of the Retired Military Consultive Association (MCA) in Aden and the southern governorates. The MCA under General al-Nuba organized demonstrations in South Yemen beginning in July 2007 to demand equal rights for military retirees and southerners in general. As the year long demonstrations began to swell to include hundreds of thousands, demonstrators were met with an increasingly repressive response on the part of security forces. Over twenty protesters were shot dead, hundreds severely beaten and over a thousand arrested.

 

The Yemeni Intelligence Concocts Terror Attacks for Political Gain

The leader of the Yemeni Soldiers Brigades claimed the Yemeni state participates in terror attacks for political gain. by Jane Novak for the Long War Journal

Yemen’s security forces have repeatedly orchestrated terror attacks within Yemen in order to manipulate US and international perceptions, the most wanted fugitive in September’s terror attack on the US Embassy in Sana’a said in an interview Tuesday.

Hamza Ali Saleh al Dhayani (also Aldhaini, al Dhajani) is a prime suspect in the September 17 suicide attack on the US Embassy that killed 16, including an American citizen. Yemen also named al Dhayani as a suspect in March’s mortar attack on the US Embassy.

 

Global crises, natural disaster shake Yemen’s economy

Jane Novak For the  Yemen Times

 SANA’A, Nov. 29 — Yemen’s oil-reliant economy is in trouble. Known oil reserves are depleting. Low global oil prices make economic diversification and budgetary rationalization urgent concerns. The outbreak of piracy in the Gulf of Aden harms potential growth sectors including Aden port, off-shore oil blocks and Yemen’s LNG project. Swelling numbers of Somali refugees, as well as Somali pirates, burden the economy. The struggling non-oil economy was dealt a blow from devastating floods in October. These factors combine to create an economic storm brewing on the horizon of 2009.

 

The roots of protest: Prior elections impact future polls

By: Jane Novak For the Yemen Times 

LAHJ, Nov. 22 — Voter registration committees triggered protests on Thursday that drew crowds estimated at hundreds of thousands. The registration process was launched November 11 in preparation for April’s Parliamentary election.

A teen was killed at a registration center in Radfan, Lahj on November 15 when police opened fire on protesters, an opposition MP said. Registration committees were forcibly ejected by residents in other southern towns. Radfan was the scene of four fatalities in September 2007 when security forces clashed with protesters. The year-long protest movement in the southern governorates culminated in the election of the Southern Liberation Council (SLC) on November 14, 2008. The SLC, purporting to represent hundreds of thousands of southern Yemenis, will boycott the election.

Yemen’s opposition party alliance, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), is boycotting the registration process. The JMP claims the registration committees were illegally formed and favor the ruling General People’s Congress Party (GPC). Security officials said on Thursday that hampering the committees’ activities is a crime. Dozens of JMP activists were arrested during otherwise peaceful protests.

 

Electoral Violence in Yemen Five Months Early

Violence is breaking out all over Yemen, especially in the Southern governorates, in advance of April’s Parliamentary elections. Angry citizens have repeatedly attacked and expelled voter registration committees, and security forces opened fire on several occasions.

Yemen’s opposition party alliance, the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), is boycotting the registration process because the government reneged on implementing needed electoral reforms.  Southern Yemenis just elected their own representative body, the Southern Arabian Liberation Council (SALC), which has called for an electoral boycott claiming the central government, not just the election, is illegitimate in the south.

Yemen’s government deploys the institutions, processes and rhetoric of democracy to legitimize its rule and gain western support. In reality, the consolidation of democracy has made little progress since 1994 when Saleh’s forces re-imposed a unified state on southern Yemen by force. At the center of the national dynamic is greed. Saleh’s regime loots the state treasury at every step of administration. Brutal security forces, secret police, corrupt courts and systematic torture are the systems in place for those who do not succumb to bribery, blackmail and threats. While the forms of democracy have spread, the practice has not.

 

US Embassy Attacked in Yemen

Yemeni security forces repelled a complex attack on the US embassy in the capital of Sana’a. More than sixteen were killed after terrorists detonated multiple bombs then launched a ground attack in an attempt to breach the compound.

The attack begun after several bombs were detonated just outside the embassy. The terrorists then ambushed the first responders by using pre-positioned snipers. The terrorists were wearing uniforms of Yemeni security forces and driving what appeared to be police cars, which enabled them to get close to the heavily fortified compound.

 

Bloody Protests Continue in Yemen

Since May, Yemen has witnessed widespread civil unrest in the southern governorates including Aden and Marib. Three protesters were killed during demonstrations in Mukallah, and two more were killed in Dhalie. On October 13, five people were shot dead at a sit-in in Radfan, Lahj when security forces opened fire on the crowd. Witnesses reported a dozen wounded. Over fifty thousand people gathered the next day in Radfan for a previously scheduled demonstration despite these brutal security practices.

 

Political Tribalism in al-Ja’ashen, Yemen

The winds of change may be sweeping across Yemen. President Ali Abdullah Saleh recently appointed Dr. Ali Mohammed Mujawar as Prime Minister. Formerly the Minister of Electricity, Mujawar comes to the post with a strong reputation as an academic and a technocrat. This change in leadership was followed by a cabinet shuffle in April that brought eleven new ministers on board. The enthusiasm of the new government is palpable. However, the Cabinet’s ability to act decisively is limited by countervailing authority seated outside governmental institutions.

The elite among President Saleh’s northern tribesmen have supplanted the jurisdiction of the state. Since Yemen’s 1994 civil war, power has become consolidated in a network of influential individuals who largely operate above the law. Weak central government is counterbalanced by strong tribal authority, resulting in a nearly feudal substructure. The glue that stabilizes this political system is entrenched governmental corruption and patronage.

 

From Nepotism to Jihad

The upper levels of the Yemeni military, judiciary and intelligence services are inculcated with hard core Salafists, and many aspects of Yemeni state institutions support jihaddist campaigns all over the world, including Iraq. It is in this context that the Yemeni Ministry of Defense recently published a fatwa on its website authorizing and obligating the use of deadly force against the Believing Youth, a small band of Shiite Zaidi rebels that has been battling the government on and off since 2004. Essentially Yemen’s military leadership declared a jihad on the group.

 

Exciting New Possibilities for Yemenis

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has decided to step down from office after 27 years, and the election to choose a successor has been scheduled for next year. This holds hope for a peaceful transition of power. Saleh has stressed the need for “young blood” to lead the country into a new era, and a new political configuration may begin to disentangle ensconced vested interests and revive a moribund bureaucracy.

 

Bin Laden, Catalyst for Democracy

The latest Arab dictator, Usama bin Laden, has been issuing his edicts fast and furious. Bomb the oil pipelines. Bomb the Shiites and the Americans. Zarqawi is now the “Amir of Iraq,” and Iraqi Muslims should “listen to him.”

While the US may not have gone far in promoting the ideal of democracy in the Middle East, bin Laden has done a remarkable job of stimulating forward thinking among Arabs and Muslims.

With each new diatribe and beheading video, with each car bomb and civilian massacre, al-Qaeda presents a challenge to the Arab world, an absolute vision of society and governance, and an estimate of its ultimate cost in blood. The Arab world has responded with a countervailing view and a renaissance of the Arab liberalism so hearty in the 19th and 20th centuries until the rise of Nassarism and Bathism.

 

Victims of Silence in the Sudan

In this age of the opinionated populace, where’s the nattering, the pontification, and the outbursts demanding international protections for Sudanese civilians? Where are the righteous protest marchers, the invective, and the sermons when real people urgently need real help? The intellectual/academic contingent has little bluster and fewer solutions regarding the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. The media that broadcasts Abu Ghraib photos with such gusto seems to have little interest in actual atrocities without good footage. A half a million Sudanese civilians may die within short months and there is a notable lack of urgency among regional alliances. The world that averted its eyes from the machetes in Rwanda turns its back again as thousands of families are slaughtered in the Sudan. Is self-interest this shallow in the 21st century?

 

Let Iraqi Kids Grow in a Free Society

WASHINGTON, 5 December 2003 — The international community and ordinary Americans essentially want the same thing for Iraq: They want the Iraqis to be free of both Saddam Hussein and the US occupation.

Where they differ is in their ideas about the best way to achieve that, and achieve it durably. Is the best way for a lasting liberation from the US to support a constitutional process? Or will it come through support for the bombing of police stations? How may the world at large best help Iraqi families — through investment or impartiality?