UN envoy says 'difficult' process ahead in Yemen

By Acil Tabbara (AFP)

February 21, 2012

SANAA — UN envoy Jamal Benomar cautioned that Tuesday's polls in Yemen are the first step towards a difficult process resulting from a negotiated political settlement that averted civil war in the country.

"This is the beginning of a difficult and thorny road, but there is hope," Benomar told AFP in an interview.

Yemenis voted in referendum-like polls to endorse Vice President Abdrabuh Hadi to lead the country during a two-year interim period, based on the deal Benomar played a leading role in hammering out.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed the Gulf-brokered and UN-backed deal in November, bowing to months of deadly unrest at home and pressure from abroad.

Benomar said "Yemenis have realised that there could be no winners or losers ... as the international community and the UN Security Council helped them reach this political agreement."

He said, however, that Yemen faces "many dangers -- a lack of confidence among political parties over the political plan, a deteriorating security situation, the state's absence in several regions and the dangerous humanitarian situation."

The political impasse caused by Saleh's repeated refusal to step down led to deadly battles in Sanaa last spring between the president's opponents and loyalists.

That raised fears the country might slip into chaos, especially with some army units supporting the uprising.

Under the agreement, a military commission oversaw the withdrawal of fighters from the streets.

But Saleh's relatives continue to command key positions in the security apparatus, such as the notorious Republican Guard, headed by Saleh's son, Ahmed.

Saleh's nephew, Yehya, commands the central security services while Tariq, another nephew, controls the presidential guard.

When asked about this, Benomar said it is "necessary to restructure the army" as per the Gulf deal, but this is "a long-term project that will not take place in a month or two, or even three."

The UN envoy said Tuesday's election must be followed by "a far-reaching national dialogue bringing together all parties especially those who have so far not taken part in the current political process."

Among them are the youth whose ranks saw hundreds of deaths in a crackdown by Saleh's forces on their protests, and the main opposition groups that boycotted the polls -- the separatist Southern Movement and Shiite rebels in the north.

The rebels are more likely to take part in dialogue, while the Southern Movement is more concerned about achieving autonomy or even independence.

"A new constitution will be created, which will be a new social pact among Yemenis," Benomar said. "This will be followed by general elections after two years."

Banomar, who is visiting Yemen for the ninth time since April, said the vote is "unique in the Arab world because it came as a result of a compromise that would prevent Yemen from slipping into civil war."

Autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt were forced to resign last year, bowing down to mass uprisings.

In Libya, rebels backed by NATO forces captured and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi in October after an eight-month struggle, and Syria is on the verge of civil war as President Bashar al-Assad attempts to crush an uprising there.

The 54-year-old diplomat, who was a political prisoner in his home country of Morocco, has worked tirelessly to get Yemenis to sign the deal, prompting Yemen's English-language daily Yemen Times to name him "Person of the Year."

Four dead in south, separatists seize vote booths

21 February 2012

ADEN - Four people including a child were killed in clashes in south Yemen between security forces and separatists, who seized half the polling stations in the city of Aden to prevent voting on Tuesday.

Gunmen from the Southern Movement, meanwhile, opened fire on a polling booth in Aden’s Crater neighbourhood, as British House of Lords member Baroness Emma Nicholson was visiting, a security official said adding that she was not harmed.

The attack came despite a heavy security detail accompanying Nicholson’s every movement in the city, witnesses said.

One Yemeni soldier was wounded in the attack, said the official.

Activists from the Southern Movement, who say the election fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or southern independence, have boycotted the referendum in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi is the sole consensus candidate.

But some hardline factions have vowed to mark Tuesday’s presidential vote as a day of “civil disobedience” to prevent voters from casting their ballots.

In Aden, the main southern city, a 10-year-old child was killed when separatist militants traded gunfire with police near the election commission headquarters in the Dar Saad neighbourhood, residents and medics said.

In Aden’s Mansura neighbourhood, a stronghold of the Southern Movement, gunmen killed a policeman. Several other people were wounded in ongoing clashes between separatist militants and troops throughout the city.

In the southeastern town of Mukala, separatists attacked a polling station killing a soldier, a military official said.

 “Gunmen from the Southern Movement tried to storm a polling station” in the capital of Hadramawt province “killing a soldier,” the official said, adding that two gunmen were wounded in the assault.

In Lahij province, a protester was killed and two others were wounded in clashes between hardline southern militants and security forces, activists from the movement said.

 “Security forces shot dead Fadhel Naser Badie who was among a group of demonstrators gathered outside a polling station in protest against the elections in Huta,” one activist said.

Two other protesters were wounded in the same attack, he added.

By mid-day Tuesday, separatists had seized half of Aden’s polling stations.

 “Half of the polling booths in Aden have been shut down after they were seized by gunmen from the Southern Movement,” a local government official told AFP. He said 10 out of the city’s 20 voting stations were closed due to the violence.

According to witnesses, militants stormed the booths and confiscated ballot boxes as security forces, which were deployed to guard the stations, withdrew from their posts.

Officials said earlier that a total of 103,000 soldiers were deployed to guard polling stations.

Militants also used rocks to block roads and set tyres on fire to disrupt the movement of people in Aden, where at least one polling station was set ablaze, witnesses said. No casualties were reported.

Residents in Yemen’s formerly independent south complain of discrimination by the Sanaa government, citing an inequitable distribution of resources since the union between north and south in 1990.

The south broke away again in 1994, sparking a brief civil war that ended with the region being overrun by northern troops.

Hadi, himself a southerner, will lead Yemen during a two-year interim period as stipulated in a Gulf-brokered deal signed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh in November after months of protests against his 33-year iron-fisted rule.

Half of Aden polling booths seized: Yemen official

By AFP

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Separatists who had vowed to mark Tuesday's presidential vote as a day of "civil disobedience" have seized half of the polling booths in Yemen's main southern city Aden, a government official said.

"Half of the polling booths in Aden have been shut down after they were seized by gunmen from the Southern Movement," a local government official told AFP. He said the gunmen had closed 10 out of the city's 20 voting stations.

Just a few hours earlier, officials and medics said four people including a child were killed in clashes in south Yemen between security forces and separatists.

Witnesses confirmed that the voting stations in Aden were stormed and ballot boxes confiscated, and that the security forces deployed to guard the booths, located mainly in the neighbourhoods of Mansura, Sheikh Othman, and Mualla, have withdrawn.

Authorities had deployed 103,000 soldiers to guard polling stations, Mohammed Yahya, chairman of the Electoral Commission had told AFP.

But Khaled Haidan, a leading activist from the pro-election youth revolt movement, said "security forces have apparently handed the booths over to Southern Movement militants."

Activists from the Southern Movement, who say the election fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or southern independence, are boycotting the referendum-like elections in which Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi is the sole consensus candidate.

Some factions of the movement have vowed to prevent the polls from taking place at all.

Residents in the formerly independent southern region complain of discrimination by the Sanaa government in the distribution of resources since the union between north and south in 1990.

The south broke away again in 1994, sparking a brief civil war that ended with the region being overrun by northern troops.

Hadi, himself a southerner, will become president for a two-year interim period as stipulated in a Gulf-brokered deal signed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh in November after months of protests against his 33-year rule.

Yemenis rubber-stamp VP as new president

February 21, 2012

Yemenis have voted to install their US-backed vice president as the new head of state, tasked with steering the country out of a crisis created by an anti-government uprising that has raged for a year.

The vote can hardly be called an election as vice president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is the only candidate. It is, however, a turning point for the impoverished Arab state, ending president Ali Abdullah Saleh's 33-year authoritarian rule.

Many Yemenis hope the breakthrough will bring stability to their country, even if it does not bring a radically different government.

In an indication of Yemen's lawlessness, at least five people were reported killed in attacks on polling stations in the country's volatile south. Yemeni officials say that a visiting former British parliamentarian, Baroness Emma Harriet Nicholson, was in one of the stations when it was attacked, but was not hurt.

Saleh is the fourth ruler to lose power in the Arab Spring uprisings. But to the chagrin of many protesters, he will likely remain in Yemen, where nothing bars him from political activity.

As part of a US-backed deal brokered by Yemen's Gulf neighbours, Saleh is stepping down in exchange for a blanket immunity from prosecution. But the outgoing president, who over the years has built a strong web of tribal and family relations, could still hold considerable sway after Hadi is installed.

Saleh is now in the US for medical treatment after an attack on his palace in June left him badly burned, and hastened his descent from power. He is expected to return to Yemen after the vote. Still, he addressed Yemenis through a message read out on state TV late Monday, urging them to vote and praising what he said was a new breed of politicians who were born out of the crisis. He also held out the possibility of an ongoing public role for himself, possibly through his longtime ruling party.

"I bid farewell to authority," Saleh said. "I will remain with you as a citizen loyal to his country, people and nation ... and will continue to serve the country and its just issues," he added.

His successor Hadi cast his vote at a polling station near his house in Sanaa. The station was changed at the last minute because of reports of a bomb threat. Security around Hadi was tight.

"This is a qualitative leap for modern Yemen," Hadi said after voting. "There will be big political, economic and social change, which is the way out of the crisis that has ravaged the country."

Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world, with a weak central government, a secessionist movement in the south, a rebellious Shi'ite community along the northern border with Saudi Arabia and one of the world's most active al-Qaeda branches.

The US had tried to cultivate Saleh as a partner in fighting al-Qaeda, providing him with funds, drones, boats and training for Yemeni special forces while keeping a limited presence of US military experts in the country for coordination and training. It has also thrown its support behind Hadi in hopes he will help fight al-Qaeda.

Yemenis first took to the streets to call for Saleh's ouster in January, 2011, inspired by the uprisings that toppled presidents in Tunisia and Egypt.

Since then, protesters have rallied in huge numbers despite crackdowns by Saleh's security forces that have killed more than 200 protesters. Hundreds more have died in armed clashes between armed groups and security forces.

Saleh will not be the only figure from the past to try to retain his power throughout this process. General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a longtime Saleh ally who defected to the protesters early last year, said on Monday that he expects to continue to "serve." This is likely to upset both Saleh's supporters and younger protesters who want to see all the former regime holdovers out of the picture.

"In the current position or another position, I will continue to serve the nation," al-Ahmar told Al-Jazeera TV. "Whatever role the state chooses for me I will serve."