Analysis: Challenges aplenty for new Yemeni cabinet

SANA'A, 15 December 2011 (IRIN) - Yemen’s new coalition government, which came into being recently after the signing of a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-brokered power transition deal and envisages President Ali Abdullah Saleh stepping down on 21 February, has numerous problems to tackle but few resources.
"The job before us is big and resources are scarce. We need to work together day and night to have the job done," newly appointed Prime Minister Mohammed Salim Basindwa, from the opposition, told the first cabinet meeting on 11 December.
Already weak, the country's economy has lost around US$17 billion since nationwide protests started in February 2011, according to Mohammed Mohammed Salah, deputy chairman of the chamber of trade and industry.
Mutahar al-Saeedi, an economist at Sana'a University, said international aid is urgently needed: "It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for the new cabinet to make progress without the support of the international community," he told IRIN.
Restoring basic services such as water and electricity and resolving the ongoing fuel shortage top the new government’s priorities.
“The Ministry has gone bankrupt as the absolute majority of citizens have been refusing to pay electricity bills since the protests began. It is finding it increasingly difficult to fund operations for fixing the severely damaged national grid,” Ali Salim Alwan, a former adviser to the minister of electricity and energy, told IRIN.
According to Mohammed al-Maitami, another economist at Sana’a University, Yemen currently requires up to US$15 billion to fund the government budget for the coming year. "Without international aid, Yemen will not survive," al-Maitami said.
On 14 December, the UN appealed for US$447 million to help address the very serious and increasing developmental and humanitarian challenges in the country, which include malnutrition levels well in excess of the emergency threshold.
“In Yemen, the number of people suffering from severe food insecurity has climbed to more than 2 million in recent months,” the appeal document warned. “An estimated 466,000 children under 5 are acutely malnourished, and the number of [internally displaced people] has nearly doubled since 2010.”
Young protesters
Although the power transition deal has been signed and a new cabinet formed, young protesters are still camping out in several cities. They oppose any immunity from prosecution for Saleh and his relatives as set out in the power transition deal.
On 12 December, thousands marched in the flashpoint city of Taiz, demanding Saleh be put on trial, and chanting "No immunity to the killers".
"We will stay here until Saleh and his relatives are removed from power and tried before our eyes… They killed several hundred protesters… Women are widowed and children orphaned," Mohammed al-Emad, a protest leader in Sana’a, told IRIN.
According to the GCC-brokered deal, one of the new cabinet's jobs is to negotiate with protesters and persuade them to go home, something the young activists are not yet ready to do.
"Those [opposition] parties sold out… They made a deal with killers…We will not negotiate with them…We will continue protesting until all our demands are met," said Ahmad al-Faqeeh, a protest leader in Dhamar city, 100km south of Sana’a.
Observers say political parties made a mistake excluding young activists from the GGC deal.
Young people were a major driver of the power transition deal, said newspaper columnist Hadra Nasser al-Jahmaa, from the southern city of Aden. "The cabinet will not succeed unless it allows them to play a big role in the transition," he told IRIN.
Armed and security forces
One of the tasks facing the new cabinet is restructuring the divided army and security forces, the top echelons of which are still controlled by Saleh’s relatives.
A 14-member military committee, jointly formed from Saleh's supporters and the opposition, is supposed to undertake this task under cabinet supervision, but analysts believe Saleh will resist the dismissal of his son and three nephews from sensitive posts in the army and security forces.
“Saleh is planning to remain a key political leader in his party. It is unlikely that he will accept the removal of all his relatives from their posts,” Abdulhamid Amer, chairman of local NGO Brotherhood and Social Peace Association in the northern governorate of al-Jawf, told IRIN.
Political analyst Mohammed Ezzan, who is also a law lecturer at Hudeidah University, said the issue is one of the most sensitive: "Over the past three decades, it is the army that has been running the country and not the government… Restructuring the army is more likely to see the sharpest disagreement, if not a clash, between cabinet members from both sides [ruling and opposition parties]."
Work cut out
The new government will also have its work cut out to ease tensions in the south.
Improving living conditions in southern governorates and providing jobs in the near future is key, said Ahmad al-Zuqara, a member of local NGO the Yemen Election Monitoring Network (YEMN). "However, I think this is beyond the capacity of the new cabinet due to lack of funding."
Add to that the 100,000 people who have been displaced from their homes due to fighting between the government and Al-Qaeda affiliated militants.
The conflict in the north, where Houthi-led Shia rebels have been seeking autonomy and hundreds of thousands of civilians are still displaced and/or reliant on aid, will be a further problem for the government.
Houthis are opposed to the GCC-brokered deal since Saleh signed it in Saudi Arabia, and this would be “a hurdle for any potential negotiation between the government and hardliners”, said Abdurrahman al-Marwani, chairman of local NGO Dar al-Salam Organization.

Report: Diplomats submit plan to reunite Yemen army

By REUTERS
12/15/2011
DUBAI - Six world powers and the United Nations have proposed a plan to reunite Yemen's fragmented military in a drive to reduce chaos in the impoverished nation after months of unrest, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Thursday.
A fragile ceasefire between troops loyal to nominal Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and fighters allied with the opposition is taking hold, but a planned military withdrawal from the capital Sanaa will put the truce to the test.
Saleh handed his powers last month to Yemeni Vice-President Abd-Rabou Mansour Hadi after signing a Gulf-brokered deal that led to the formation of a national unity government tasked with preparing for presidential election on Feb. 21.

Yemeni demonstrators demand trial for ex-president Saleh

Dec 15, 2011
Sana'a - Thousands of people in Yemen called on former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and other regime officials to be prosecuted for ordering violence against pro-democracy protests.
Demonstrators in the capital Sana'a and the southern city of Taiz chanted slogans against a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal last month that granted Saleh immunity from legal prosecution in return for stepping down.
The deal was signed by Saleh and opposition leaders in Saudi Arabia, which had pushed for the UN-backed deal to try to prevent its impoverished neighbour from sliding toward a civil war.
'What the political parties have agreed on falls short of our expectations,' said Masoud al-Harazi, a protester in Sana'a. 'We will continue our peaceful struggle to uproot all corrupt officials and criminals from our country.'
The protesters called on the United Nations Security Council to take immediate action to bring to justice those implicated in ordering a deadly crackdown on Saleh's opponents.
'Many women have been killed by Saleh's forces in the past months. This is a shame. We will not stop until the killer is jailed,' said Ilham Mohammed, a female protester from Sana'a.

Former Yemeni diplomat's gets new hearing on refugee claim

By Tom Godfrey ,Toronto Sun
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
TORONTO - A former Yemeni diplomat who was initially refused refugee status after claiming to be an opponent of his country’s president is being granted an appeal. This follows the allegation that he faces death if sent back home for converting to Christianity.
Abdulwahab Zabeba was a former well-paid Third Secretary of the Yemen Embassy in Washington, D.C., for about two years before refusing a posting to Poland since he was “perceived” as an enemy of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, court records show.
Zabeda and his son, Mahir, fled to Canada in 2009. They filed unsuccessful refugee claims citing the claim he faced a charge of treason at home for refusing the transfer.
He sought and won leave to appeal the decision to the Federal Court of Canada that on Dec. 5 ordered a new hearing.
Zabeda in a pre-removal assessment claimed “to fear a risk of mistreatment in Yemen ... because he had converted from Islam to Christianity while in Washington.”
An Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) had previously found Zabeda not to be a credible witness or a foe of President Saleh.
“He made a refugee claim in Canada instead of the U.S. because our health care programs are better,” the court ruling stated. “Mr. Zabeba was an economic migrant.”
The high court said his alleged risk based on apostasy was new information.
“Apostasy is a crime in Yemen, punishable by death,” the court was told. “However, the government does not actively enforce the law.”
Zabeda presented letters from an Ottawa church minister and a Washington friend who claimed the lives of he and his son would be in danger in Yemen.
Evidence presented in court show there are about 3,000 Christians living in Yemen and apostates from Islam can face “the annulment of marriage, termination of citizenship and the loss of social and economic rights.”
The U.S. State Dept. in 2009 reported “several converts from Islam to Christianity continued to be detained by authorities.”
There has been several apostasy busts in Yemen including the 2008 arrest of a Christian convert for promoting Christianity and distributing the Bible.
Court was told there is evidence that apostates are subjected to wrong doing in Yemen and a new hearing was granted.
Zabeda’s lawyer refused to comment, along with officials of the Yemeni embassies in Washington and Ottawa.

Refugee Board to take a month to decide fate of Yemeni woman

By Carol Sanders, Winnipeg Free Press December 14, 2011
WINNIPEG — After waiting 30 years for a reunion with her daughter, having to sit tight for another 30 days or so isn't what a Winnipeg mom wanted to hear in court Tuesday.
Housnia Ibrahim will have to wait to see if her daughter will ever be allowed to come to Canada. An Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicator heard her appeal in a Winnipeg court Tuesday but reserved her decision.
Ibrahim, who fled fighting in Ethiopia in 1977, left her four-year-old daughter, Mouluka, with her mother in Djibouti, on the east coast of Africa, to work abroad to support them. She hasn't seen her daughter since then.
The refugee came to Canada in 1990 and has raised her youngest daughter, who's now 17 and in Grade 12 in Winnipeg.
Ibrahim, who works for a child welfare agency, has sent tens of thousands of dollars to support and educate Mouluka. She's spent thousands more on legal fees and DNA testing to bring her to Canada, hitting snags and red tape along the way.
When the Canadian High Commission in London gave her the green light to come five years ago, Mouluka's passport was lost by DHL Courier and her application was rejected.
Mouluka, who lives with her maternal grandma in Yemen, was offered $150 by the courier company but that didn't buy her any sympathy from the Canadian government.
Her mom is now trying to sponsor her through the family class. To be eligible, children older than 22 have to be dependants supported by parents and enrolled in full-time studies.
The federal government says Mouluka, now 34, hasn't been in school full time and is ineligible.
Mouluka's studies have been interrupted several times for good reasons, said the family's lawyer, David Matas. After high school, students in Yemen are required to wait one year before attending further studies and males must perform a year of military service, she testified by phone in Arabic from Yemen, through an interpreter.
Mouluka said she studied civil engineering at the University of Hadramout in Yemen and was sexually harassed by an instructor. She said she was one of three women in the class of 45 and he violated her personal boundaries and propositioned her to have sex. When she refused, she failed his design and drawing course that was mandatory for engineering students. She complained to the dean of engineering and nothing happened. She could no longer attend classes. It was the only public, affordable university in the province she could attend.
Her mom in Winnipeg convinced her and her grandmother to move from Hadramout to the capital city Sanaa where there are more educational opportunities. She passed an entrance exam at a private institute and was starting classes when civil unrest in Yemen made it unsafe for her to go to school.
When Matas asked her what she'd do in Canada, she said she would improve her English then resume studying engineering.
Immigration and Citizenship lawyer Brendan Friesen said she hasn't been enrolled as a full-time student and shouldn't be allowed to come to Canada. He questioned Mouluka's testimony about the sexual harassment.
"She said it's a terrible, shameful thing not to be talked about then went in a group setting to complain about the professor . . . that doesn't jibe," Friesan said.
He questioned how her mom, who was married when she first came to Canada, couldn't afford to sponsor her daughter then but can now as a divorced single parent.
"It's incongruent. It doesn't add up."
Ibrahim and her daughter struggled at times with some of the dates and years she started and finished classes over the last decade, he said.
Matas said Mouluka's intent was to be in school full time; that her mom supported her; and that there have been other cases where family class spondees' education is interrupted.
The federal government is fixated on dates and documents in and from a part of the world that is not, Matas said earlier. Denying her appeal to come to Canada to continue her studies goes against the spirit of the legislation and family class sponsorship, he said.
"If you look at the regulations and their purpose, what's the point of all this? They're still part of the family unit."

Yemeni National Consensus Government

Press Statement
Victoria Nuland
Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
December 13, 2011
The United States welcomes the formation of the Yemeni National Consensus Government and the holding of its first cabinet meeting on December 10. We commend Vice President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basindwah for their efforts in forming the National Consensus Government. This marks another significant step forward as the government and the opposition continue to enact a peaceful and orderly transition of power in Yemen, leading to presidential elections set to take place on February 21.
As the parties work to implement the remaining articles of the political agreement, we strongly encourage all sides to refrain from violence and to work together in good faith and with transparency. The United States is committed to strengthening our partnership with the Yemeni government and people as they implement the agreement and address their political, economic, and security challenges.

The Zaydi manuscripts of Northern Yemen

Arie Amaya-Akkermans | 13 December 201
In recent articles on Bikyamasr.com, it was reported at length on the diversity of cultural sites, part of Yemen’s vast cultural heritage, that were threatened with neglect and destruction, partly because of the inability of the Yemeni authorities to preserve them and partly because of the state of unrest caused by the Yemeni uprising – namely the ancient cities of Sana’a, Shibam and Zabid, in which thousands of years of rich history are likely to become yet another casualty in Yemen’s struggle for freedom from the 33-years old dictatorial rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
It is fortunate however that these three ancient cities are considered UNESCO world heritage sites, due to the fact that they have received attention from international organizations – most prominently the government of Germany – and some degree of action has been taken in order to minimize the damage, or at least, that was the case until the beginning of the Yemeni uprising. The extent of the real damage done to the sites in the course of 2011 remains yet to be properly assessed in a post-revolutionary scenario.
More unfortunate is the fate not only of other sites but of something much more intangible but equally valuable: The rich intellectual Islamic heritage of the country embodied in over 50000 manuscripts held in many libraries and private holdings. The astounding numbers and the nature of the manuscripts make Yemen one of the most important archival collections in the world, easily rivaling similar holdings of Islamic manuscripts in the national libraries of Cairo, Istanbul and Teheran.
Since Islam was introduced in Yemen around 630, it has been a fertile region for the greatest diversity of Islamic scholarship as exemplified by the now neglected Zabid, where schools of Shafi, Hanafi, Hanabli and Ismaili Islam are known to have existed in different periods and sometimes next to each other.
The central and southern regions were dominated by Shafi Islam – and to a lesser extent by the distinctively Yemeni Tayibite Ismailism – and because of the relatively easy accessibility, many manuscripts and traditions survived the test of time.
The northern part of Yemen however presents a different story: The Zaydi school of Islam – a Shiite school of thought – settled in the inaccessible northern highlands and there developed lines of thought that were neglected in the rest of the Islamic world.
They are a branch of Islam that has survived only in Yemen because of great isolation and whose roots can be traced to the 2nd century when Zayd bin Ali – great-great-grandson of the Prophet Muhammad – was killed in Kufa(Iraq) and they separated from other Shiite groups.
Later on they moved onto Iran around the Caspian Sea and the grandson of Al-Qasim, the greatest Zaydi scholar, al-Hadiila l-Haqq founded another imamate in the north of Yemen with capital in Sa’ada. This happened as early as the 3rd century. With time the seat of Zaydi Islam moved progressively from Iran to Yemen and a few centuries later it became an entirely Yemeni phenomenon.
The writings of Zaydi Islam committed themselves since then to the principles of Mutazilism, a school of thought based around Baghdad and Basra. It was one of the most important rational schools of thought in the history of Islamic theology, and provided an epistemological and philosophical basis to explain the nature of God and that later on influenced many other schools.
Because of their isolation in the Yemeni highland, they preserved very ancient materials drawn from other traditions, including works in nearly every field of knowledge. This rational tradition is now known to have published treatises on natural philosophy and sciences unparalleled in their outlook and unknown elsewhere in the Islamic world.
Zaydi scholarship in Yemen was characterized by a great degree of plurality and eclecticism that integrated many new and old schools of thought and that makes Zaydi the most rational school of Shiite Islam and brings it very close to Orthodox Sunni Islam. If anything, it could be called a ‘radically’ monotheistic philosophy that condemned anthropomorphism and derived the existence of God and the world from philosophical principles.
These precious manuscripts were little known in the Islamic world and had been unheard of in the Western world until the 17th century when different exploration missions set for Yemen – in such difficult geographic conditions that only very few explorers returned alive from these missions – and brought with them some information about them.
In the 19th century it captured the interests of the European Arabists and many manuscripts found their way to private collections in Europe. Many holdings from Sa’ada were transferred to Sana’a in the early 20th century and can be found even today in the library of the Great Mosque of Sana’a, what was followed by Egyptian missions that prepared inventories and microfilmed the most significant manuscripts – the first in 1951 headed by Taha Husayin, then Minister of Education and the second in 1964, by Muhammad Ahmad Husayin, then Vice-Minister of Culture.
Though the missions were fundamental in exposing the Yemeni treasures to the world, they were limited to Sana’a and Ta’izz and did not include manuscripts from either the north or the south of Yemen. In the 1970’s an interest arose in Yemen itself with many scholars, but in particular Ali Al-Akwa (for many years president of the Yemeni Antiquities Authority and who passed away in 2008) collected many of the manuscripts and wrote many works on the subject. With time many of the private holdings were also cataloged and partially digitalized.
A couple of local organizations and European governments took an active interest in this legacy that runs to tens of thousands of manuscripts, since the 1970’s until today. The German Foreign Office funded a very large project to train Yemenis in the assessment and conservation of manuscripts, in light of an amazing discovery made in 1972, when during the renovation of the Great Mosque of Sana’a, one of the earliest fragments of the Koran was discovered.
In the 2000’s major contributions were made in documenting, exploring and researching the Mutazili manuscripts from all over Yemen, and, in 2009 began an ambitious project called “Yemen’s Cultural Heritage: The Yemen Manuscript Digitalization Project” – that emulates dozens of successful cases carried out in other countries – sponsored by the German Foreign Office and the Free University of Berlin.
Encouraging as these projects are, the sad reality is that the vast majority of the manuscripts – tens of thousands – outside Sana’a are badly under threat, particularly in the restless northern governorate of Sa’ada. It is not limited to poor storage conditions and the constant sale – for very little money – of the manuscripts to collectors from the wealthy Gulf states – that later on end up in international auctions where they are sold for tens of thousands of dollars, such as a famous auction at Sotheby’s in 2008 that included dozens of Jewish and Islamic manuscripts from Yemen, usually torn off from folios still extant in Sana’a.
Religious strife in Yemen also plays a significant role in the on-going destruction: It was reported in 2010 that Salafi extremists opposed to Shiism, have targeted these manuscripts and collections for deliberate destruction. In some case they have even purchased entire collections from library owners facing great economic hardship around Sa’ada governorate, with the only purpose to burn and destroy them.
On the other hand, the Shiite insurgency in the north of the country has also put many of these manuscripts under risk, since the radical interpretation of Shiism – almost univocally imported from Iran – has targeted Zaydi cultural heritage for destruction no less than Sunni Salafists. Constantly the manuscripts are destroyed because of being considered unorthodox for Islam, and the obvious rational resemblance to mainstream Sunni schools of thought.
Lastly, the Yemeni uprising has also placed a strain on the conservation of the manuscripts: The state of unrest that has damaged many houses and public institutions has affected them significantly, and the constant electric black-outs have forced people to tear folios from precious books in order to start fires, for a variety of purposes, not all of them related to the basic functioning of the household.
It is unsurprising overall that radicals in any sect would be so bent on destroying a heritage, little known and little explored, that could offer the opening of radically new and innovative interpretations of Islam that have been dormant in the north of Yemen for hundreds of years – now ironically one of the most conflicted, poverty-stricken and violent parts of the world.
The conservation and study of the mostly unknown Zaydi literature preserved in Yemen, could provide the elements to find a purely rational Islamic epistemology and that would be of great relevance today when even Muslims themselves are so concerned about the use and abuse of their own tradition at the hands of fundamentalists that have little to do with the ancient tolerance of Abrahamic religions. Many Muslims seeking for a renovated vision of Islam, traditional and yet compatible with the modern world, will find themselves at home in the theological rationalism of Mutazilism and could easily find in it, an authoritative source for a long-deserved reform,embodying the words of Yemeni Nobel laureate Tawakkol Karman from her Nobel prize acceptance speech last week: “Mankind’s feeling of responsibility to create a decent life and make it worth living with dignity, has always been stronger than the will to kill life.”
In times of political transition when the question of Islamism takes to the center stage of all discussions about the future of the region and while the radical factions are making quick advances in clamping down the dreams of many revolutions for a tolerant and free Middle East, this great heritage will be key in defining the agenda of reform in Islam in the near future, however since we do not speak of great buildings or cities but of nothing but books, there is no international body or organization or law that can protect them from destruction.
The possibility of living in a decent world, so eloquently expressed by this curious and forgotten heritage, as much as by the Yemeni uprising, could be translated back in time to what Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote the year after the end of Second World War and the concentration camps, to her mentor Karl Jaspers:
“What I learnt from you and what helped me in the ensuing years to find my way around in reality without selling my soul to it the way people in earlier times sold their souls to the devil is that the only thing of importance is not philosophies but the truth, that one has to live and think in the open and not in one’s little shell, no matter how comfortably furnished it is, and that necessity in whatever form is only a will-o’-the-wisp that tries to lure us into playing a role instead of attempting to be a human being”.

Yemen's al-Qaida Declares Jihad on Shiite Rebels as Sectarian Clash Kills 14

2011-12-13 Xinhua
The Yemen-based al-Qaida wing on Monday declared a holy war against Shiite Houthi rebels besieging a Sunni-held town in the country's northern restive province of Saada, where recent battles left at least 14 people dead.
"We were saddened by the Shiite rebels' months-long siege on our people in Damaj in Saada," Ibrahim al-Rubaish, a leader of al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said in an audio statement posted on Islamic Jihadi forums on Monday.
"Therefore, we declare a Jihad to eliminate such malignant germs from the surface of the region," he said in the statement that distributed by AQAP's official media Al-Malahim Foundation.
Meanwhile, at least eight Houthi rebels and six Sunni tribesmen were killed and dozens were wounded in sectarian battles that flared on Sunday and lasted until Monday morning in the Kutaf area, some 10 km west of Damaj, a provincial security official said.
"The battles erupted after mediation to convince the Houthi rebels to allow an aid convoy by the Sunni tribesmen to reach Damaj failed," the official told Xinhua by telephone on condition of anonymity.
The Houthi Shiite rebels, a powerful group controls almost all parts of Saada province, have been laying a two-month-long siege on the small Sunni-held town of Damaj over religious-related dispute, according to local officials.
Since the protests erupted in Yemen in late January, Houthi rebels are trying to expand their control over the northern provinces of Saada, Amran and Hajja.
On Aug. 26 this year, the Yemeni government and the Shiite group signed an agreement in Doha to cement a fragile cease-fire to end the sporadic battles since 2004, but the rebels' clashes with local tribesmen and Sunni supporters are still rocking the region.

Yemen orders release of detainees held over protests

SANAA, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The Yemeni interior minister ordered the release on Tuesday of all detainees held in connection with nearly 11 months of protests in Sanaa to press President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down after 33 years in office, state news agency Saba said.
Activists said the decision, which follows a peace deal that resulted in the establishment of a unity government headed by an opposition leader, could affect up to 1,400 people held in the capital since protests began in February.
"We are not certain yet that all have been released," said Mane' al-Mutairi, an activist, told Reuters, adding that most of those held in relation to the protests were in Sanaa.

US urges new Yemen government to show restraint

(AFP) 13 December 2011
WASHINGTON — The United States Tuesday welcomed Yemen’s new national unity government and called on all parties in the Arabian peninsula state to refrain from violence as a peace accord is implemented.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the Gulf-sponsored deal to resolve Yemen’s political crisis “marks another significant step forward as the government and the opposition continue to enact a peaceful and orderly transition of power in Yemen, leading to presidential elections set to take place on February 21.”
As the parties work to implement the political agreement, “we strongly encourage all sides to refrain from violence and to work together in good faith and with transparency,” she added.
Yemen’s national unity government, headed by the opposition, was sworn in Saturday to lead a three-month transition period until early polls are held and President Ali Abdullah Saleh formally steps down.
The deal came after 10 months of nationwide protests demanding an end to Saleh’s 33-year rule that culminated last month in his signing of the deal to leave power.
The new 34-member cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa, will carry out its duties until the February elections.
Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi will then take over the presidency for an interim two-year period as stipulated by the deal.

Saudi promises aid to Yemen

(AFP) December 13, 2011
SANAA — Saudi Arabia has promised to provide the newly formed government of unrest-hit Yemen with urgently needed aid, mainly petroleum products, Saba state news agency said on Tuesday.
King Abdullah has given instructions to provide "all the urgent needs of Yemen, especially petroleum products," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was quoted as saying in a phone call with Prime Minister Mohammed Basindawa.
The decision comes after the formation of a unity government on December 7, as stipulated in a Gulf-brokered accord that paves the way for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave office following months of deadly protests.
Saleh has handed over his constitutional powers to his deputy who asked the opposition to form a government.
The veteran leader, who has ruled Yemen with an iron fist for the past 33 years, will continue to serve as an honorary president until polls are held to elect his successor in February.
Nationwide demonstrations raging since January, combined with confrontations between government forces and Al-Qaeda militants, have exacerbated the dire economic conditions in the impoverished nation.
The southern Arabian Peninsula country produces 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil, of which it exports 105,000 bpd. But supplies have repeatedly been interrupted due to sabotage attacks.

Yemeni police arrest 6 al-Qaida militants

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press
December 13, 2011
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Six al-Qaida militants have been arrested while allegedly planning attacks on senior government officials as well as Arab and other foreign diplomatic missions, Yemen's official news agency said Tuesday.
SABA quoted an unnamed security official as saying that the leader of the group in the eastern Yemeni province of al-Jawf, Musaed Mohammed Ahmed al-Barbari, was among the six arrested.
It said police seized explosives meant for the attacks.
A U.S. airstrike in al-Jawf province on September 30 killed two U.S.-born al-Qaida activists — cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, an activist who edited al-Qaida's Internet magazine.
Al-Qaida-linked militants have taken advantage of months of internal political turmoil to solidify their positions in Yemen's south.
Also Tuesday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said that the new minister, Abdul-Qader Qahtan, has ordered the release of all protesters who were arrested in demonstrations that called for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
The exact number of the detainees was not known, but opposition groups have put it in the hundreds.
A national unity government took office in Yemen on Saturday, a step toward restoring order in a nation torn by nine months of protests. After months of delays, last month Saleh signed a deal to hand over power by Dec. 23.
In the southern city of Taiz, a security official said two protesters were wounded by police fire when thousands of demonstrators tried to reach a hotel where ambassadors of the five permanent members of the Security Council and European ambassadors were holding talks on the situation in Taiz.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with security rules.
The protesters wanted the ambassadors to inspect the places they say were bombed by the military, visit hospitals to talk to wounded people and meet with families of the victims.
The ambassadors earlier met with the Taiz governor and military commanders and are planning talks with opposition groups.

UK - MFA - Foreign Secretary welcomes formation of new Government of Yemen

December 12, 2011
Foreign Secretary William Hague has welcomed the formation of the new Government of Yemen under the leadership of Vice-President Hadi.
Speaking today, he said:
“I welcome the formation of the new Government of Yemen under the leadership of Vice-President Hadi. This is another significant step forward in the implementation of the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative.
“All political and military leaders in Yemen must now allow the new Government to tackle the desperate security and economic needs of its people. Today’s announcement offers a crucial opportunity to address these priorities as well as the ongoing threat posed by Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula. It is vital that the new government continues to adhere to the Gulf Cooperation Council plan. Our Embassy in Sana’a will be meeting Yemeni Ministers next week to explore what practical support we can offer”.

EU to increase humanitarian aid to Yemen

BRUSSELS, Dec 12 (KUNA) -- The European Union (EU) announced Monday that it is increasing its humanitarian funding to Yemen with an additional 5 million euro due to the persistent instability, drought and poverty.
The decision brings the total EU humanitarian funding to Yemen to almost 60 million euro. Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, said in press statements that when she visited Yemen 11 months ago, the country was already on the brink of a humanitarian crisis.
"Since then the situation has worsened and hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, have too little to eat and are victims of violence," she said.
"At a critical moment for the country and its people we are boosting our relief aid and we will continue our support to the most vulnerable Yemeni families notably through the provision of food and health care," she added.
The additional European funding will help to provide assistance and protection to people affected by armed clashes and political turmoil as well as victims of the ongoing food crisis and refugees from the Horn of Africa, mostly from Somalia.

Al-Qaeda Militants Escape In Yemen Jail Break

12/12/2011
(RTTNews) - At least 16 inmates, including 12 al-Qaeda militants, broke out of a prison in Yemen's southern city of Aden on Monday, reports quoting officials said.
They believed to have escaped through a six-meter tunnel dug from the yard of the port city's central prison.
Dozens of prisoners had escaped when al-Qaeda fighters stormed the central jail in Mukalla, another southern city, in June last.
The impoverished country in the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula is in turmoil facing insurgency in the north, a separatist movement in the south besides nationwide protests calling for political reforms and free elections. The city of Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, has been witnessing fierce fightings between the Army and al-Qaeda militants.
Yielding to international pressure, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled the country for 32 years, had agreed last month to hand over powers to his deputy and quit office within 90 days.

U.N. tries to bolster Yemen peace, Qaeda inmates in jail

December 12, 2011
ADEN (Reuters) - The U.N. envoy behind a Yemen power transfer deal to end months of protest called on Monday for southern separatists and northern Shi'ite rebels to be included as a fragile peace appeared to be holding in the capital Sanaa.
The comments came during a visit to the southern port city of Aden, where at least 16 prisoners, including al Qaeda members, tunneled out on Monday in a setback to efforts to rein in Islamist militants.
A new government set up last week after President Ali Abdullah Saleh handed over power to his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi under the Gulf peace plan faces multiple challenges.
These include a wrecked economy, a resurgent separatist sentiment in the south and a rebellion by Houthi Shi'ite tribesmen in the northern province of Saada.
U.N. envoy Jamal Benomar, in Yemen to oversee implementation of the Gulf accord he orchestrated last month between Saleh and opposition leaders, on Sunday night met with southern leaders demanding secession from the country formed by the merger of South Yemen with the Saleh-ruled north in 1990.
Benomar said more work was needed for the peace accord to succeed. "It's essential that the political process include constituencies who were not directly involved in the negotiations that led to the agreement," he said.
"These include the Houthis, the southern movement and the youth. Serious effort will have to be made to address their grievances," he added.
Hundreds of people were at the airport in Aden when Benomar arrived, carrying signs reading, "Revolt, revolt, oh South!"
"We informed Benomar that the southern movement has nothing to do with the conflict in the north, but we are insistent on the demand to liberate land and people in the south," Abdelhamid Shukri, a leader of the Southern Hirak movement, told Reuters after the talks with Benomar.
PRISON BREAK
Islamist militants exploited months of protests against Saleh's 33-year rule to seize control of swathes of land in southern Yemen. This fanned fears in Saudi Arabia and Washington that the Yemeni branch of al Qaeda may gain a foothold near key oil shipping routes.
On Monday, at least 16 inmates, including members of al Qaeda, escaped from Aden central prison, a facility dating back to British rule which ended in 1967, through a tunnel they had dug underneath the compound.
A local source said eight among them belonged to al Qaeda, including some who had been convicted of bombing and assassination attacks on Yemeni security officials.
It was the second major jailbreak involving al Qaeda members since June, when dozens of al Qaeda militants escaped from a jail in another city, Mukalla.
Saleh's foes have accused him of deliberately letting Islamists in the south grow stronger to reinforce his argument that his rule alone can prevent the country sliding into chaos that would empower al Qaeda, whose Yemeni wing has planned abortive attacks on U.S. and other targets.
UNIVERSITY REOPENS
Despite the jail break, Yemenis have begun to see some fruits of the peace accord. A fragile calm appeared to be returning to the capital, which has been divided into three parts between Saleh loyalists and his opponents.
Witnesses said the University of Sanaa opened its doors on Monday for the first time since February, although students said many professors did not appear after dissident soldiers left the campus. Among the few who did, tensions between supporters and opponents of Saleh were evident.
"Most of the students are back to study, now that the unity government has been established, but we have a shortage of professors because many of them got contracts in Saudi Arabia," said Amjad, a student in the media department.
On Riyadh Street, the main commercial district in western Sanaa, shops opened for the first time since clashes between Saleh's forces and those allied with his arch-enemy, Ali Muhsin, a dissident general, began three months ago.
Armed soldiers remained behind sand barricades they had built to protect themselves but did not attack one another.
Despite their relief at the uncertain peace, shop owners worried about the lack of business in the city.
"We opened our shops despite our fear that clashes will resume... but there are no customers because people do not have money to buy things," local merchant Ahmed al-Umari said on Monday while sitting on a street corner outside his shop.
"If violence starts again I will escape to my country," said Ali, a merchant originally from East Africa. "I saw death during these clashes, there is no real safety here."

Yemen’s heritage under threat: Zabid

Arie Amaya-Akkermans | 11 December 2011
Heir to an ancient culture spanning through several millennia and that goes back to the 3rd millennium BC, time by which it is believed to have been inhabited by a Semitic tribe – the Qahtani, modern Yemen is home to innumerable treasures of history and archaeology, most of which, due to the slow and early modernization of the state, are available to the visitor in plain view, even if not properly taken care of and subject to constant looting, expropriation, demolition and above all, oblivion.
Closed to the Western world for centuries and vastly unexplored, not only because of its difficult topography but also because of a turbulent history, Yemen is today known to be the place where the Arabian Peninsula and Africa met, and the home of the Sabean civilization, a rich and powerful culture distinct from that of mainland Arabia and that rapidly vanished after the arrival of Islam, leaving much to be imagined and some traces in the language and culture of the place that diverse as it is, can still be seen today.
Known to Greek geographer Ptolemy as “Arabia Felix” (Happy Arabia) because of the fertile land, moister climate and great wealth, there seems to be something of irony today in the term: After gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1918, it was ruled by a monarchy and then followed a brief revolution in the aftermath of which we have witnessed continuous armed strife, civil wars, secession, reunification, and in more recent times two equally unfortunate phenomena: The long-claimed status of the country as the home-base of Al-Qaeda and the Shia insurgency in Sa’adah governorate since 2004. From its ancient status as a place of great wealth, Yemen remains today one of the world’s poorest countries.
In 2011 the Yemeni uprising – part of the Arab Spring – the people demanded the resignation of long-time President Ali Abdullah Saleh and after the signature of a power transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council, there seem to be some steps pointing in the direction of a possible democratic future for the country.
Yesterday, long-time activist Tawakkul Karman received the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni and the first Arab woman to receive the prestigious award. As little attention as the Yemeni uprising received from the international community, it is possible that Karman’s status as a Nobel laureate will bring her at the forefront of the international scene and help her promote some positive change in the country.
Among the many things that need to be built or re-built and protected in Yemen is its ancient heritage. Three places in the country have been declared UNESCO world heritage sites: The Old Walled City of Shibam – known as the Manhattan of the desert – in 1982, the Old City of Sana’a in 1986 and more recently the historic town of Zabid in 1993.
Other than that, there are dozens of places of archeological interest spread all over the country and the now famous Socotra Archipelago, added by UNESCO in 2008 to the World Heritage Marine Program. The archipelago lies in the northwest Indian Ocean near the Gulf of Aden and comprises four islands and two rocky islets which appear as a prolongation of the Horn of Africa; famous for its rich biodiversity and unique flora and fauna.
The iconic Shibam is a 16th century city surrounded by a fortified wall and seems to be the oldest example of vertical construction out of the cliff edge of Wadi Hadramaut, from which the governorate where it is located, takes its name. Shibam has been ensured protection through the General Organization for the Preservation of Historic Cities in Yemen (GOPHCY), anchored in the Antiquities Law of 1997 and the Building Law of 2002. A joint-project run since 2000 with the German GTZ has improved the small city’s overall condition.
The Old City of Sana’a – inhabited for over two millennia –on the other hand, even though it has received substantial investment from public and private sector and international organizations is rapidly becoming more and more vulnerable because of social mobility and threatened by modern hotels and telecommunication towers in the surrounding landscape. Other than that it has also been the site of constant gunfire in the course of the Yemeni uprising and has been susceptible to significant damage. The case of Sana’a has received little attention but the UNESCO has requested from the Yemeni government to avoid further deterioration since a great deal of the structures are still intact, however they might be under threat.
The last case and most recent addition to the list – Zabid – remains largely forgotten and of almost impossible resolution: Located on Yemen’s western coastal plain – the Tihama – and named after Wadi Zabid, it was of great importance in the Arab and Muslim worlds for many centuries because of its Islamic university. It was the capital of Yemen during the Rasulid period and its unique and colorful architecture is a mixture of Arabian, East African and Indian styles, nowhere else to be found.
With the establishment of Ottoman rule, Zabid was neglected when the seat of government moved to the capital, Sana’a. In spite of everything, the city enjoyed a reputation among religious scholars of both the Shafi and Hanafi schools of Islam, what came to an abrupt end in 1962 after the republican revolution when many of the religious institutions moved to the regional capital, Hodaida. Similar has been the fate of local commerce, partly due to bad planning in urban and agricultural policies that has significantly impoverished a once more or less wealthy region.
Traditional houses in Zabid evolved around a small courtyard – qabal – and built more and more rooms as were needed, around the “qabal”. They were built with bricks made from local clays and the water used in the indigo tanneries of the city was mixed with the clay, giving it a characteristic bluish color, adorning the facades with different patterns of bricks imitating Cairo arches, Indian floral patterns, African animals and also Arabic calligraphy. The external surface of the facades was covered with layers of lime, adding more and more layers through the years, giving the impression that the houses were part of the local nature.
This unique and particular style changed ironically right after it was declared a world heritage site (1993) and the city suffered a great loss of its historical identity when many emigrants returned during the Gulf War, causing population growth that in turn led to increasing demand of more and more housing. Cheaper materials were sought for and in the total absence of strict protection of the heritage; the distortion of the city began unmolested.
Even though it is the second Yemeni city in number of mosques after Sana’a – some of which are over 14 centuries old – and has about 4000 houses ranging between 200 and 600 years, it was estimated in 2009 by the General Authority of Protecting Historical Cities (GAPHC) that over 40% of the houses had suffered distortions from their original form with the widespread usage of modern materials, and over 60% of the original houses were abandoned or ruined.
Already in 2000 the city was placed in the list of endangered heritage sites and in 2007 a Mission Report of UNESCO’s World Heritage stated that Zabid was then at a critical point of no longer having world heritage value: The degradation of the city was described as on-going and an initial survey revealed than over 50% of the original historic buildings were already completely destroyed. The permanence of Zabid in the list, at least temporarily, was based on the fact that there are still many monuments and areas of national and international value in terms of world heritage. Needless to say, UNESCO consultants became enervated by the inability of the Yemeni authorities to preserve the site.
At the alarming news, a German-sponsored mission – following from the success of Shibam – was established for Zabid in 2009, in order to avoid the removal of the city from the list that would indefinitely harm Yemen’s place in the cultural and touristic map of the world, with devastating effects for an already impoverished economy and that would set the mood for the ultimate destruction of the entire site. According to its director, Omar Hallaj, most of the damage done to the site was reversible and some conservation plans could be put into action.
Two years later, the city is still protected as a world heritage site by UNESCO even though it retains the endangered site status and unless action is taken, it is very probable that it will be removed from the list in the very near future. After several months of unrest in the course of the Yemeni uprising, the plight of the city remains unheard, unemployment and poverty are even more widespread than before and a collapsing state infrastructure has made it impossible to follow up on the different initiatives taken in 2007 and 2009.
There might be still some chance for Zabid not to fall into oblivion if the newly appointed Yemeni authorities and the prominent activists do not forget the great potential that historical sites in Yemen have in bringing revenues from tourism and in establishing the future Yemen as a destination for historical tourism.
There are still dozens of cities and hundreds of scattered sites all over the Yemen, deserving articles of their own, to tell their stories and to call for action in order to prevent further damage. It would be at the same time realistic to think, that Shibam will continue to receive funding from Germany in purview of its apparent success and that any new initiatives would look at the Old City of Sana’a rather than other places.
That goes not without saying that it would be a great loss to the Middle East if such an important – albeit forgotten – place like Zabid would ultimately succumb to terminal destruction and end up having no world heritage value at all, as it has been the case with many sites in Afghanistan and Iraq. The number of issues to be tackled in a post-revolutionary Yemen scenario are too long to be listed in one article or in a dozen, and probably culture and heritage is not even near the top of the list; nevertheless it is important not to forget that heritage is not only a question of tourism, but also one of the most elementary forms of nation-building.

AL welcomes forming Yemeni government

CAIRO , Dec. 11 (Saba) - Arab League (AL) welcomed on Sunday the formation of the new Yemeni government under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Mohammed Salem Basindwa.
In a press release, AL Secretary General Nabil al-Araby called on all Yemeni sides to unify their visions about the requirements of the current stage, stressing the League's readiness to continue its support for the efforts of the Yemen's government to bring back the national reconciliation on the transitional phase's objectives.
Al-Araby said that the new government may be a beginning of a new phase, in which the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanism would be carried out to ensure peaceful transition of power and stop all acts of violence.

3 Women Accept Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo

December 11, 2011
Two women from Liberia, and one from Yemen who fought injustice, dictatorship, and sexual violence against women were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize.
At the ceremony in Norway's capital Oslo Saturday, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberian peace activist Leymah Gbowee and Yemeni women's rights advocate Tawakkul Karman, accepted their prize and called on repressed women worldwide to rise up against male supremacy.
Sirleaf, Africa's first democratically elected female president has been widely applauded with her efforts to help her country emerge from a brutal civil war.
A 39-year-old activist, Gbowee, has been credited with campaigning for women's rights and against rape.
And journalist and activist Karman, is the first Arab woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and is credited for fighting for democracy and peace in her country, which has been wracked by demonstrations and violence this year.
The three women will share an award of nearly 1-and-a-half million US dollars.

In chaos, Qaeda recovers: Partisans of Sharia extend influence in Yemen

December 11, 2011
Group linked to Qaeda extends its influence in restive south, hopes to create Islamic emirate that reaches into north.
By Wissam Keyrouz - SANAA
A group linked to Al-Qaeda has profited from Yemen's political turmoil, extending its influence in the restive south and hopes to create an Islamic emirate that reaches into the north, residents and analysts said.
Militants from the group known as Partisans of Sharia (Islamic law) are already imposing Islamist law in a string of southern towns which they control, residents said.
"The members of Al-Qaeda move freely between the four (adjoining) provinces," said analyst Zeid al-Sallami, referring to Abyan and Shabwa in the south, the oil-rich Marib in the east Al-Jawf in the north.
Strengthened by its recent successes against government forces, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a fusion of the group's Yemeni and Saudi branches "is getting ready to proclaim an Islamic emirate in southern Yemen," he said.
The group may then try to extend its influence north, Sallami added.
Residents said that during 11 months of protests against Yemen's veteran leader President Ali Abdullah Saleh, fighters from the Al-Qaeda affiliated group filled the vacuum left by retreating government troops.
"After the outbreak of the 'Youth Revolution' the state's presence started to weaken and we were surprised by the withdrawal of the security services," said a local official from the city of Azzan in Shabwa province.
"Al-Qaeda, which already had a clandestine presence in our region, has come out into the light and taken control of the city and two other neighbouring localities," the official, who requested anonymity, added.
"Today, the Partisans of Sharia have taken the place of the state: they control the traffic, are repairing the hospital, and are applying the law," he said.
According to residents, the group's emir, or leader, in Azzan operates out of the police station and judges local disputes.
Those found guilty of theft face punishments that include the amputation of a hand, while those whose behaviour is deemed immoral are flogged, witnesses said.
Although the group applies draconian justice, Abdel Wahed, who asked that his family name be withheld, said the Partisans of Sharia are "trying as much as possible to avoid clashes with the residents and the tribes."
"They are even trying to woo them over," he said.
In addition to Azzan, the Islamist militants have also spread their control over the districts of Huta and Rawda in Shabwa province.
In the neighbouring Abyan province, Islamist fighters have also taken advantage of a weakening central authority, seizing control of several towns, including the provincial capital Zinjibar.
Residents reported that government troops withdrew from parts of the region even before the Islamist fighters arrived.
Some of Saleh's opponents accused the president of deliberately letting the Islamists extend their influence, so that he could present himself as a desperately needed bulwark against the growing Al-Qaeda threat.
But Saleh has now signed a deal securing his exit from power, set for February after 33 years in power, and a transitional national unity government was due to be sworn in on Saturday.
As Yemen strives for political stability, government troops continue to clash with Islamist fighters, but have so far been unable to take back full control of southern towns and cities seized by Al-Qaeda-linked groups.

Demonstrations in Yemen demand trial for president

By Ahmed Al-Haj
Associated Press / December 11, 2011
SANAA, Yemen—Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis are demonstrating to demand President Ali Abdullah Saleh face trial for his regime's deadly crackdown on months of protests.
Sunday's rallies are taking place in the capital, Sanaa, and other cities.
After months of pressure, Saleh signed a deal last month to step down as president in exchange for immunity from prosecution. New presidential elections are set for Feb. 21.
The deal has failed to end the protests, which began last February with calls for his ouster. Protesters also rejected a unity government formed over the weekend that includes some ministers from Saleh's administration.
In part of the capital where armed tribesmen have battled Saleh's forces, five explosions were heard early Sunday. A medic said two people were injured.

Protesters flood Yemen’s streets again

Sana'a, Dec 11, 2011
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have flooded the streets of Yemen’s large cities demanding trial for the ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh who stepped down and scheduled new elections for February 21.
However, the protesters want him to face punishment for violent crackdowns on the opposition.
On December 10, Yemen’s new government of national unity led by Muhammd Bassandava was sworn in. Half of the cabinet is represented by the opposition while the rest of the ministers are Assad’s supporters.

Can Sana’a survive the Arab Spring?

Arie Amaya-Akkermans | 10 December 201
In 1971, during a brief stay in Yemen to film scenes from his already classic “Arabian Nights”, the controversial filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini filmed a short and little known documentary about the astonishing beauty of Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, under the title of “The Walls of Sana’a”. Even though it has been rarely screened, this documentary was Pasolini’s appeal to the UNESCO to help save the incredible architecture of the almost 3000-year-old city.
The curious film ended with a passionate speech of Pasolini himself saying:
“For Italy, it is all over. But Yemen can still be saved entirely.
We appeal to UNESCO – Help Yemen save itself from destruction, begun with the destruction of the Walls of Sana’a.
We appeal to UNESCO – Help Yemen to become aware of its identity and of what a precious country it is.
We appeal to UNESCO – Help stop this pitiful destruction of national patrimony in a country where no one denounces it.
We appeal to UNESCO – Find the possibility of giving this nation the awareness of being a common good for mankind, one which must protect itself to remain so.
We appeal to UNESCO – Intervene, while there is time, to convince an ingenuous ruling class that Yemen’s only wealth is its beauty, and that preserving that beauty means possessing an economic resource that costs nothing. Yemen still has time to avoid the errors of other countries.
We appeal to UNESCO – In the name of the true, unexpressed wish of the Yemeni people, in the name of simple men whom poverty has kept pure, in the name of the grace of obscure centuries, in the name of the scandalous, revolutionary force of the past.”
Pasolini’s appeal resonated through and through in Europe and in 1986 the city of Sana’a was declared by UNESCO a world heritage site. It seems however that his appeal, followed by the decision of the international body, did little to rescue the ancient buildings from their disastrous condition.
In 2006, photojournalist Eric Hansen published in Saudi Aramco World an impressive travel photo-log of his journeys to Sana’a between 1978 and 2006, concluding that even though many significant changes had been made, roughly 40 percent of the ancient city was gone or in a very bad state.
In his reportage Hansen further added that Sana’a “has survived flash floods, earthquakes, massacres, repeated looting by tribesmen, civil wars and even, in 1991, Scud missile attacks. The city’s architecture has been demolished, damaged and rebuilt innumerable times, but in every instance, Sana’a has risen from the debris and survived”. It is unclear whether Sana’a this time will be able to survive Arab Spring on its own.
As a part of the collective movement sweeping through the entire Middle East, protests erupted everywhere in Yemen around mid-January, demanding the resignation of long-time President Ali Abdullah Saleh, desiring to bring to an end his 33-years-old dictatorial rule. As it has become commonplace, the protests were met with increasing violence and especially with a very polite silence on the part of the international community. Even though protests continued for months, no other country engulfed by the Arab Spring has received less attention than Yemen.
Cultural destruction is already the norm rather than the exception in the Middle East and can be seen live everywhere from Morocco to Bahrain: Luxury hotels, skyscrapers and office buildings take the place of ancient shrines, cemeteries and centuries-old living quarters.
Many examples come to mind: The area surrounding the old city of Jerusalem known as Mamilla, where in intolerant fashion many ancient Muslim and Jewish graveyards are being desecrated and turned into a modern tolerance museum; in Beirut the legendary neighborhood Wadi Abu Jameel – the old Jewish quarters – is being transformed into sleek condominium complexes with staggered rooftops and hanging gardens, and lastly – the most prominent example – the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is famous not only for the annual hajj pilgrimages but also for having destroyed nearly everything Islamic and otherwise to make space for comfortable hotels and other luxury residences.
The American occupation of Iraq unleashed an unprecedented destruction of many ancient sites and actively promoted looting of hundreds of Babylonian and Islamic treasures that were stolen from their rightful heirs and found their way to museums and private collections all over the world.
The destruction of Sana’a however has been seldom reported anywhere. According to eye-witnesses writing for an American newspaper in November, nowadays the tanks, mortar and firefights rumbling and cracking through the ancient city of Sana’a are endangering not only the future of the country but also its magnificent architecture.
The Old City of Sana´a has been inhabited for at least 2500 years and contains dozens of mosques, baths, gardens, orchards and markets, some of which date back to pre-Islamic times, among thousands of houses estimated to be between 6000 and 12000.
The particular style of architecture seen in Sana’a is thought to have existed already in the 10th century when Persian geographer Ibn Rustah – who travelled extensively in Arabia – wrote that “It is the city of Yemen – there not being found in the highland of the Tihama or the Hijaz a city greater, more populous or more prosperous, of more noble origin or more delicious food than it. Sana’a is a populous city with fine dwellings, some above others, but most of them are decorated with plaster, burned bricks, and dressed stones.”
Despite the urban sprawl, the city has managed to remain more or less intact and the architectural style that Ibn Rustah described has been preserved well into the 21st century. After the end of the civil war in 1969 traditional life in Yemen began to change radically as many expatriate workers returned and began to fuel an uncontrolled modernization of the city. In line with this development – a pattern in many cities – many wealthy families fled the historical downtown looking for homes with better public services; this of course contributed to further deterioration when working-class families moved into the buildings at the same time that the tax base shrank – bearing in mind Yemen is one of the world’s poorest countries.
After Sana’a was declared world heritage site many conservation plans were put in action in a combination of public and private initiatives, international organization and foreign investors – all of which has been put to a halt since around 2007.
Even though efforts were underway to preserve the old city itself, right outside, both Bir al-Azab – the historic Turkish residential and garden quarter – and al-Qaa’ – the Jewish, Christian and Persian neighborhood – lie neglected because in the words of a government official “there is no money to preserve them – and little interest”.
The UNESCO has urged the government of Saleh to protect the architectural character of the old city, and they have expressed their “deep concern” about the state of preservation; the same polite “deep concern” expressed by the UN security council on October 21 when they passed a resolution urging Saleh to sign a power transfer deal proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council. That the signature of this deal will be translated into any real transfer of power or that the government will lend an ear to the concerns of the UNESCO remains easier said than done.
Residents and shopkeepers in the old city are increasingly anxious about the unrest since the inflation and sense of insecurity have driven out all tourism and radically ruined the local economy. In the meantime Yemen remains a question mark in the cultural geography of the world:
The Western imagination cannot make up its mind whether it is the unlimited trope of Oriental charms that bewitched Pasolini and the earthly home of the Arabian Nights or if it is the home base of the United States number one ghost enemy – Al Qaeda and a thick forest of tribal, political and religious alliances for which the most prominent analysts always fall and remain proudly trapped in the cage of Madison avenue political discourse, concluding almost universally that Yemen is impossible, unfit for democracy and a lost case.
The vision of Pasolini might seem to us today a little charged with Romanticism; however the appeals that he made to the UNESCO remain today as valid as they were in 1971 and should include not only Sana’a but so many other secrets of “Arabia Felix”: Marib, Serwah, Quernow, Barakish, Djiblah and Shabwa, to mention only a few and whose history dates back as far as 11th century BC. To save buildings alone however, without the diversity of cultures and peoples that live in them, is nothing but a futile and merely aesthetic enterprise.
Many cities in the world have “preserved” their historical heritage by driving away their own working-class population from historical centers and then turning them into lavish palaces for the wealthy, depriving these centers from all the sounds and smells of traditional cultures and turning them into museums that are only open for distant observation through postcards and travel books showing immaculate clean streets next to chain stores and souvenir shops that rather than offering a window into the past, offer nothing but a sad remembrance of its complete extermination.
Yemeni cities and antiquities – abundant as they are, have been threatened and despoiled for centuries, ruined, demolished, burnt. Early in 2011 Ahmed Ali Moharram, founder of the National Musem (Yemen) expressed his concern on how nearly every form of heritage in Yemen is threatened not only by history but by poverty and poor education, and he tried to raise awareness about the necessity to preserve them.
In the same way that Pasolini appealed to the UNESCO, I would like to appeal not to international bodies but to the people of Yemen and to recent Nobel laureate Tawakol Karman to not let their country be ransacked and destroyed by the imperatives of the present, to use their recently gained influence on the international stage to save the old city of Sana’a and other places in Yemen from ultimate destruction.
The preservation of Yemen’s antiquity is not only a matter of aesthetic comfort but rather represents an ideal of political life: The ability to be able to educate the coming generations in the light of a history far greater than the illusions of tyranny to enslave a people on the blind assumptions of a dark present. Of course this ideal – revolutionary as it is – requires not only good intentions but tolerance, not of the liberal kind practiced and preached by the same West that turned a blind eye on Yemen. The tolerance that is needed to rescue the Middle East from the abyss of history is not a political reform or a signature on a piece of paper; it is nothing but a change of heart.
Let us hear the warning of Pasolini in 1974 after he had been in Yemen and reflected about the direction the modern world had taken: “To reach the standards of living of the West, the peoples of the Middle East will abdicate their ancient tolerance and will become horribly intolerant”.
His words, poetic as they are, wouldn’t resound so strong today if they hadn’t become the living reality of the Middle East for several decades now. It is this predicament that a cultural revolution should envision as its struggle and not merely the practical pursuit of politics in which most of us, play no part.

Yemen unity government sworn in, soldier killed

Sat Dec 10, 2011
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemen's new unity government, formed to try and avert civil war, met for the first time on Saturday, hours after a soldier was killed in continuing violence between supporters and opponents of outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
State news agency Saba said Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, to whom Saleh transferred his powers under a deal brokered by Yemen's Gulf neighbors, chaired the meeting of the newly sworn-in cabinet, which includes members of the opposition.
The government faces a host of challenges including sporadic fighting with anti-Saleh tribesmen, a southern separatist movement, a Shi'ite Muslim rebellion in the north and a regional wing of al Qaeda that has exploited the upheaval to strengthen its foothold in the poor Arabian peninsula country.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia shares U.S. fears that more instability in Yemen could embolden the country's al Qaeda wing - against which Washington has waged a campaign of drone strikes - in a country sitting next to oil shipping routes.
Late on Friday, a soldier was killed in fighting between government forces and opponents of Saleh on the streets of the capital Sanaa, the Defense Ministry said.
The violence near government buildings and the compound of Sadeq al-Ahmar, a foe of Saleh who commands significant forces, was the latest challenge to the transition plan after 10 months of bloody anti-Saleh protests.
The Defence Ministry on its website accused the Ahmar tribesmen of launching attacks in the northern neighborhood of Hasaba with the aim of "derailing efforts towards establishing security and stability in the capital and other areas."
The opposition, in turn, accused troops from the Republican Guard, which is headed by a son of Saleh, of breaking a truce and firing artillery salvos at northern districts of the capital on Saturday, wounding at least one person.
WITHDRAWAL FROM TAIZ
On Friday, an official said that forces loyal to Saleh and opposition gunmen were withdrawing from the streets of the city of Taiz, calming a situation that threatened to wreck the deal which Saleh signed last month to give up power after 33 years.
A committee set up to restore normality to Taiz was clearing roadblocks set up by Saleh opponents and loyalists during street battles and overseeing their withdrawal from occupied buildings, the official said. Dozens were killed in recent weeks.
More than three weeks after Saleh formally handed power to Hadi, protesters have continued to take to the streets in anger at opposition parties' endorsement of the deal, which grants immunity from prosecution to Saleh over the killing of demonstrators by security forces.
Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party said on Friday it would stop holding rallies after weekly Friday prayers to show its commitment to a political solution, and urged opposition parties to do the same.
A member of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties said it was not for the JMP to call off street protests as these were mounted by youths who did not belong to the opposition parties.
Under the transfer plan negotiated by Yemen's wealthy neighbors, the GPC and opposition parties divided up cabinet posts between them and formed the national unity government to steer the country towards a presidential election in February.
Yemen has also faced a fuel shortage partly due to repeated attacks on a pipeline feeding its refinery. Traders said on Friday that the country was seeking to buy four cargoes of gasoline in January via a tender amounting to 120,000 tonnes to help deal with the shortages.

Yemen Gets Unity Government

December 10th, 2011
Yemen's new unity government is in place, tasked with guiding the volatile country toward a critical presidential election in February.
The state-run Saba news agency said the unity government was officially sworn-in Saturday in the capital, Sanaa. The Reuters news agency reports the new government then met for the first time, chaired by Yemeni Vice President Abd al-Rabuh Mansur Hadi.
The new 35-member Cabinet itself is being headed by veteran politician Mohammed Basindwa. The ministerial posts are equally divided between President Ali Abdullah Saleh's party and the opposition. Mr. Basindwa is from the opposition.
Saleh loyalists will run the ministries of defense, foreign affairs and oil, while the opposition will head the ministries of interior, finance and information.
Saturday's swearing-in brings Yeminis one step closer to ridding themselves of President Saleh, who ruled for 33 years. Even though Mr. Saleh is no longer running the government, the deal sponsored by Gulf nations allows him to remain president in an honorary capacity until the election.
Despite the deal removing Mr. Saleh from power, thousands of Yemenis have been taking to the streets in the capital to express their displeasure with the deal. Many say it was wrong for Mr. Saleh to be granted immunity.
Hundreds of people have died since Yemenis first started pushing for a change earlier this year. Many protesters say they want Mr. Saleh to stand trial in Yemen for possible crimes.

Yemen militants attack barracks, 13 killed

Dec 10, 2011
(AP) SANAA, Yemen — A Yemeni military official says al-Qaida-linked militants have attacked a military barracks in an embattled southern town, leaving two soldiers and 11 militants dead.
The official said Saturday that another 36 soldiers were injured in the base in Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province.
He says that the fighting began Friday night and continued into the morning. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Militants and the army have fought for control of Zinjibar since May. A 10-month-old uprising against authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh has caused a breakdown of authority throughout the country.

Yemen prison riot leaves 2 inmates dead

By AHMED AL-HAJ, Associated Press
Friday, December 9, 2011
SANAA, Yemen (AP) --A Yemeni security official says a prison riot in Sanaa has left two inmates dead and three guards injured.
The official says a Friday demonstration by inmates of a prison in the Yemeni capital against poor treatment turned violent, after police tried to disperse the crowd using water cannons and tear gas.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people took to the streets across the country demanding that outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh be put on trial.
Saleh was guaranteed immunity from prosecution as part of a U.S.-backed deal signed last month, which allows him to step down after 33 years in power.

Rival Yemeni forces quit streets of Taiz, official

Mohammed Ghobari, Reuters December 9, 2011
SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni forces loyal to outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh and opposition gunmen are withdrawing from the streets of Taiz city, an official said on Friday.
Dozens have been killed in Taiz, Yemen's commercial capital, since Saleh signed a deal last month to give up power. Months of anti-government protests have pushed the impoverished country to the brink of civil war.
The official said a committee set up to restore normality to Taiz was clearing away road blocks set up by Saleh opponents and loyalists during street battles, and overseeing their withdrawal from occupied buildings.
Protesters continue to take to the streets in anger at the opposition parties' endorsement of the power transfer deal, which grants immunity from prosecution to Saleh over the killing of demonstrators by security forces.
Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party said it would stop holding pro-government rallies after Friday prayers to show its commitment to a political solution.
"The decision by the party's leadership is a new sign of the GPC's eager desire to act in the higher interest of the nation and to begin ending the political crisis," said a statement from the party that urged opposition parties to do the same.
A member of the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) said it was not for them to call off street protests.
"We in the JMP do not have the authority to cancel protests and sit-ins. It's the youth movement that controls the protesters," the assistant secretary-general of the socialist party told Reuters.
Under the transfer plan negotiated by Yemen's wealthy Gulf neighbours, the GPC and opposition parties divide up cabinet posts between them and form a national unity government to steer the country ahead of a presidential election in February.
The cabinet, which is due to be sworn in on Saturday, faces a host of challenges including a southern separatist movement, a rebellion in the north and a regional wing of al Qaeda that has exploited the upheaval to strengthen its foothold in Yemen.
Neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the United States, both targets of foiled attacks by al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, fear the global militant network could use a security vacuum to plot and perhaps carry out attacks on the region and beyond.
The interior ministry said it was making arrangements for the United Nations envoy who helped broker the power transfer deal to visit the north and south of the country, where central government control has been severely weakened.
Opposition leader Mohammed Basindwa, who is now prime minister, said his first foreign visit would be to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to ask for urgent support for Yemen's fuel and electricity needs.

Seven die as clashes erupt in northern Yemen

Dec 9, 2011
Sana'a - At least seven people were killed when clashes escalated in northern Yemen between Houthi rebels and Islamists, media reported Friday.
Houthis, a Shiite Muslim minority in Yemen, opened fire on a convoy late Thursday which was said to be carrying food and medicines for besieged Salafists in the area of Dammaj.
The Shiite group reportedly believed the convoy was carrying weapons for their rivals.
At least three Houthis and four Salafists were killed in the clashes, the Yemen Post wrote on its website.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, the leader of the Shiite group, said the convoy was intended to provoke confrontations between the two groups.
Authorities in the province have been trying to broker an end to the dispute that has raged intermittently for more than two months. However, repeated clashes have broken short-lived truces in Sa'ada province.
Houthis accuse the Salafists of planning to build military encampments to extend their influence.
The dispute, which began some months ago, has been overshadowed by political tensions gripping the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country since February, over the disputed rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Osama bin Laden's wives told they are free to leave Pakistan

Bin Laden's Saudi-born wives to return home seven months after raid that killed their husband, while his Yemeni spouse may be offered new home in Qatar
Jason Burke in Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 December 2011
Two wives of Osama bin Laden, held in Pakistan after the raid in May that killed their husband, are set to return to their homeland of Saudi Arabia, Pakistani officials have said.
A third wife will not travel back to her native land, Yemen, after authorities refused to accept her but may instead be offered a new home in Qatar, the Gulf emirate, a source in the Pakistani interior ministry told the Guardian.
All three women were detained by Pakistani military personnel after the American special forces raid on a house in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad during which Bin Laden was killed. Around a dozen children were also taken into Pakistani custody. According to the officials and Saudi press reports, the two Saudi-born wives, Khairiah Sabar and Siham Sabar, recently had their Saudi citizenship restored, a move which would allow their return, possibly as early as next week.
Khairiah married Bin Laden in 1985 and Siham, in 1987. When the extremist leader was stripped of his citizenship in 1994, the two women, both college graduates, also lost theirs.
With an official Pakistani inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the raid now complete, the women were free to go, the Pakistani officials said.
"We have been working with the Saudi officials since the [Pakistani] Judicial Commission on [the Abbottabad raid] interviewed the Bin Laden widows.
"The Saudi government has agreed to accept his children and two wives, and we are working on logistical arrangements now," one senior source said, requesting anonymity.
Eight children of the late al-Qaida leader would travel with the women, the official added.
Middle Eastern diplomats in Islamabad confirmed that a "resolution" had been reached in discussions over the repatriation of the wives but did not disclose any timetable.
However, there been no official confirmation from Riyadh, and the Saudi ambassador in Pakistan has told local reporters he has no knowledge of any forthcoming transfer.
Western officials in the region urged caution.
"Let's wait and see. It's likely they will go back [to Saudi Arabia] at some stage but it may well not be imminent," said one.
Recent Saudi press reports have claimed that authorities had restored the citizenship of the two women, both born in the southern port city of Jeddah, after members of their families and that of their late husband lobbied senior Saudi royals.
Jeddah is also the home town of the Bin Laden family and is where Osama, who was 54 when he died, was raised.
Officials in Riyadh told the Guardian earlier this year that, at least theoretically, there was no objection to the women's return to Saudi Arabia.
Hamza, the 22-year-old son of Bin Laden, was killed in the May raid.
The bodies of both men were buried at sea. The women and children were handcuffed by the US special forces who then left the scene.
During their detention by Pakistani authorities the women, one of whom was wounded in the Abbottabad raid, were interviewed by American intelligence agencies.
The three wives had spent up to five years living in relatively austere conditions in the house in the northern Pakistani town.
Pictures of their home showed modest furnishings, cheap foam mattresses, no air conditioning and old televisions though there was a large, seemingly well-tended, vegetable garden.
Bin Laden married at least five times. His first wife, a Syrian, left him in Afghanistan weeks before the 9/11 attacks and returned to her homeland. A second wife was divorced in the early 1990s. His fifth wife, Yemeni Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, married him in 2000.
This leaves the third and fourth wives, the two Saudis.
According to local or Arab traditions, it should be the close relatives of a dead father, usually the brothers, who look after the bereaved spouses and children.
It appears that despite the rift between Bin Laden and his family, one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest business dynasties, some efforts have been made to take care of the widows.
At least two of Bin Laden's sons – Hamza and Saad – apparently followed him into radicalism. Both were groomed as extremist leaders from an early age. Bin Laden had told interviewers that he hoped his daughter Safiya, now believed to be 12, would also take up arms.
She is still in Pakistani custody and has said that she witnessed her father being shot dead, senior Pakistani officials told the Guardian days after the raid.

Yemen: Al-Qaeda-Linked Militants Attack Army, 10 Killed

Dec 8, 2011
SANAA, Yemen -- Militants linked to al-Qaida attacked an army post in an embattled southern province of Yemen but were driven back, leaving nine of their dead behind, officials said Thursday.
The security official said that one soldier was also killed in the Wednesday night firefight east of the town of Zinjibar in Abyan province.
Militants overran Zinjibar in May, shortly after a 10-month-old uprising against authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh caused a breakdown of authority throughout the country.
The military patched up a temporary alliance with mutinous anti-Saleh units and fought their way back into the town in June, but have yet to establish full control and regularly clash with the Islamists.
Saleh late last month signed a U.S.-backed agreement in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, under which he is expected to step down by the end of this year.
Despite its potential to end the violence, many Yemenis reject the power transfer deal because it leaves much of the regime in place and offers the outgoing president immunity from prosecution.
Tens of thousands of Yemenis rallied in the capital Sanaa and several other cities calling for President Saleh to face trial for alleged corruption and killing of protesters.
Incoming Prime Minister Mohammed Basindwa announced on Wednesday that he had formed a national unity government composed both of Saleh allies and opponents to take over control of ministries.
But military units throughout the country remain divided in their loyalties. Some back Saleh or his family or other regime figures, and others are allied with his rivals in the powerful al-Ahmar clan or with other opposition forces.
The splits in Yemen's government and military provide a window of opportunity for al-Qaida, which has long had bases in the country, to continue to contest control of Abyan province and other territories.
A medic at a military hospital in the nearby city of Aden confirmed Wednesday's attack, and said that four wounded soldiers were under treatment. Both he and the security official spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief the media.
Meanwhile, two independent Yemeni websites said that the government had released the leader of a prominent south Yemeni secessionist movement who had been detained since February.
NewsYemen and Change said that Hassan Baoum, 71, of the Supreme Council for the Peaceful Southern Movement, walked free along with his son shortly after Basindwa's government was formed.
South Yemen was once a separate country plagued by deadly conflicts among groups vying for power. It merged with North Yemen under Saleh in 1990 but most of the people feel that they were unfairly treated by the northerners

Analysis: New Yemeni government hostage to military standoff

Thu Dec 8, 2011
By Joseph Logan
DUBAI (Reuters) - A new Yemeni government tasked with charting a political path away from civil war looks doomed from the start by dependence on the warlords it is supposed to tame, and is tainted in the eyes of protesters at the heart of the uprising.
The government, formed on Wednesday under a deal overseen by neighboring oil giant Saudi Arabia, is to lead Yemen to a February presidential election to replace Ali Abdullah Saleh, after 10 months of protests against his three-decade rule.
Its goal is to stop Yemen sliding toward chaos by finding a negotiated end to the fighting that has raged on alongside protests -- between military units loyal to Saleh, units that have turned on him, and tribal militias committed to his demise.
That may create a government in which Saleh's opponents would have to share formal authority with his loyalists -- but without the military clout of the men they would effectively be trying to disarm.
"You have two tracks: a political one that progresses and sets a date for elections and forms a government, and a parallel, military track," said Ibrahim Sharqieh, a conflict resolution expert at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar.
"Those two are going to collide, and I think the moment is if the issue of restructuring military units actually becomes real, when it comes to Ahmed and his cousin staying in power or not," he said. "That's when they will have to face reality."
He was referring to Saleh's son Ahmed Ali Saleh, and nephew Yehia Mohamed Abdullah Saleh, who lead the Republican Guards and Central Security Forces, respectively.
COMPROMISE AND APPEASEMENT
The political process began last month, when Saleh formally renounced his powers in line with the pact sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc of Yemen's neighbors richer, resource-blessed neighbors.
The agreement -- which Saleh had previously wriggled out of three times at the last moment -- stipulates an early presidential election that the deputy to whom Saleh transferred his powers, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, will enter with the backing of Saleh's General People's Congress (GPC) party.
By the time of the vote, a military committee -- with half its members, like the interim government, loyal to Saleh -- is supposed to have defused conflicts that have raged in the last week in the capital Sanaa and Taiz between pro-Saleh forces and those of tribal leader Sadeq al-Ahmar and General Ali Mohsen, both former allies of Saleh who have turned against him.
The role that body and the government grant pro-Saleh forces all but ensure the irrelevance of a political process, argued historian and commentator on Yemeni affairs Fawwaz Traboulsi.
"How is it possible to make the armed forces neutral, keep them from interfering in the transitional period, and unify them to ensure that process is peaceful, while the 'outgoing' president controls the greater part of the armed forces?" he wrote in the Assafir daily after Saleh agreed to the GCC deal.
Deprived of effective authority, the best-case scenario may be that an interim government muddles through to a vote without a major eruption of violence.
"Many of the characters who were appointed are far less competent than the ones who preceded them," said Yemeni political analyst Abdulghani al-Iryani.
"What we've seen is a hodgepodge of compromise and appeasement that produced an ineffective cabinet."
"The most you could hope for from this cabinet is that they create the conditions for peaceful presidential elections in two and half a months. I do not think they are capable of doing anything more substantive."
YOUTH PROTESTERS
One faction of Yemenis was unrepresented in the deal-making that concluded in the Saudi capital, but it is acknowledged as a new force that emerged in the uprising against Saleh.
The movement has dismissed a national unity government long before it was born.
Youth protesters who have spent nearly a year in the streets have broadened their demands for political change beyond Saleh, calling for the removal of Yemen's entire political elite.
They regard the military struggle in Yemen as a feud among partners to what they see as the crimes of Saleh's rule, deeming the formal opposition complicit for taking part in a deal that grants him immunity from prosecution over the killing of protesters by security forces.
"You cannot say it (the government) will work independently of Saleh, without completely cleansing the leadership of the military of all of his relatives," said Mani' al-Matari, a 28-year-old protest organizer in the capital. "The military is running things in this country, not a government."
That sentiment, said Sharqieh, illustrates the greatest failing of a government yet to be sworn in.
"They (the political opposition) have never acknowledged and involved the youth who were not involved in the agreement and have in fact denounced it all along," he said. "There is a question of legitimacy, and on this they don't have it."

Yemen's new unity government

SANAA, Dec 08, 2011 (AFP) - Yemen's prime minister designate has unveiled a new unity government as stipulated in the Gulf Cooperation Council deal to transfer power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh to his deputy Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.
The 34-member cabinet is divided equally among Saleh loyalists from the ruling General People's Congress (GPC) and the formal opposition Common Forum.
Saleh's ministers for foreign affairs and defence have retained their posts.
The interior ministry, the human rights portfolio, finance and information ministries have been entrusted to the opposition.
The new government will carry out its duties for three months, after which elections will be held and Vice President Hadi will formally take over the presidency.
Following is a list of the new Yemen cabinet:
-Prime Minister: Mohammed Basindawa (Opposition leader)
-Foreign Minister: Abu Bakr al-Qourbi (GPC)
-Defence Minister: Mohammed Nasser Ahmed (GPC)
-Interior Minister: Abdelqader Qahtan (Opposition)
-Justice Minister: Morshed Ali al-Arshani (Opposition)
-Finance Minister: Sakhr Ahmed Abbas (Opposition)
-Information Minister: Ali Ahmed al-Amrani (Opposition)
-Health Minister: Ahmed Qasem al-Ansi (GPC)
-Minister for Human Rights: Houriya Mashhour Ahmed (Opposition)
-Agriculture and Irrigation Minister: Farid Ahmed al-Moujawar (GPC)
-Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research: Yahya Mohammed al-Shoueibi (GPC)
-Religious Affairs Minister: Hammoud Mohammed al-Abad (GPC)
-Labour and Social Affairs Minister: Amat al-Razzaq Hamad (GPC)
-Public Works Minister: Omar Abdullah al-Korshami (GPC)
-Electricity Minister: Saleh Hasan Sami (Opposition)
-Petroleum and Minerals Minister: Hisham Sharaf Abdullah (GPC- former minister of trade and industry)
-Minister of Planning and International Cooperation: Mohammed Said al-Saadi (Opposition- Islamic Islah party)
-Telecommunications Minister: Ahmed Obeif bin Dagher (GPC)
-Education Minister: Abdelrazzaq Yahya al-Ashwal (Opposition)
-Legal Affairs Minister: Mohammed Ahmed al-Makhlafi (Opposition)
-Tourism Minister: Qasim Salam (Saleh loyalist)
-Water and Environment Minister: Abdo Razaz Saleh Khaled (Opposition)
-Culture Minister: Abdullah Manthouq (Opposition)
-Minister of Transport: Waed Abdullah Batheeb (Opposition)
-Minister of Trade and Industry: Saad Eddine Ali Salem bin Taleb (Opposition)
-Minister for Expatriate Affairs: al-Qahali (GPC)
-Minister of Vocational Training: Abdel Hafeth Thabet Noman (Opposition)
-Minister of Local Government Affairs: Ali Mohammed al-Yazidi (Opposition)
-Youth and Sports Minister: Moammar al-Iryani (GPC)
-Civil Services Minsiter: Nabil Abdo Shamsan (GPC)
-Minister for Fishing Resources: Awad Mohammed Saqtari (GPC- former electricity minister)
-Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs: Rashad Ahmed Rasas (GPC)
-Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs: Jawhara Hammoud Thabet (Opposition)
-Minister of State (without portfolio) Shaef Aziz Sagheer (GPC)
-Minister of State (without portfolio) Hasan Ahmed Sharaf Eddine (Opposition)

UN envoy Bin Omar in Yemen

SANAA, Dec. 08 (Saba)- The United Nations envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar arrived in Sana’a on Thursday to hold talks with all sides in Yemen over political progress.
Upon his arrival, the UN envoy expressed relief over political progress in Yemen and putting the Gulf-brokered initiative into action by forming the new national unity government, which was announced on Wednesday evening.
Bin Omar also said that his visit to Sana’a will focus on meeting all Yemeni blocs and evaluating the political scene in the country. He added that the evaluation report will be submitted to the UN Council's meeting on December 14.
"I wish success to the newly formed national unity government," the UN envoy noted.
He emphasized that the new government should encompass security, stability and economy rehabilitation in the upcoming phase.
"It is important that the new government plays a role in restoring security and stability and rebuilding the economy of Yemen", he said.

Rights group urges Yemen to ban child marriage

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press
Dec 8, 2011
CAIRO (AP) — A leading international rights group on Thursday urged authorities in Yemen to set 18 as the minimum age for marriage to improve girls' opportunities for education and protect their human rights.
Human Rights Watch said widespread child marriage in the Arab world's poorest country jeopardizes Yemeni girls' health and keeps them second-class citizens.
A report by the New York-based group said Yemeni government and U.N. data showed that in some rural areas of Yemen, girls as young as eight were married off. Some have told HRW they were subjected to marital rape and domestic abuse.
HRW researcher Nadya Khalife said a ban on child marriage should be a priority for reform despite Yemen's ongoing turmoil that has relegated such issues to "the bottom of the political priority list."
The 54-page report was based on field research conducted in Yemen's capital, Sanaa, between August and September 2010, and interviews with more than 30 girls and women who were married off as children, as well as on interviews with members of non-governmental organizations and officials at the ministries of health and education.
According to the report, approximately 14 percent of girls in Yemen are married before the age 15, and 52 percent are married before they are 18 years old.
Yemen has been wrecked by months of political turmoil, a deadly regime crackdown on opposition protests and an upsurge in attacks by al-Qaida militants. The country's popular uprising, inspired by other Arab Spring revolts, has seen almost daily protests against longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yemeni authorities on Wednesday announced the formation of a national unity government as part of a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal to ease embattled Saleh out of office and end the country's crisis. The new government is to be sworn in on Saturday.
HRW urged Yemen's next government to take legal steps to set the minimum age for marriage at 18 and promote public awareness of the harm of child marriages.
"Now is the time to move on this issue ... to ensure that girls and women who played a major role in Yemen's protest movement will also contribute to shaping Yemen's future," said Khalife, the HRW researcher.
The issue of Yemen's child brides received widespread attention four years ago, when an 8-year-old girl boldly went by herself to a courtroom and demanded a judge dissolve her marriage to a man in his 30s. She eventually won a divorce.
A February 2009 law set Yemen's minimum age for marriage at 17, but it was repealed after some lawmakers called it un-Islamic and sent back to parliament's constitutional committee for a review. The review has since been stalled by a group of lawmakers contending that enforcing a minimum age would be contrary to Islamic law.
Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize for her work in advancing women's rights, has also highlighted the issue.
In a 2010 opinion piece, Karman wrote that there "is a vast space in our Islamic Law heritage for reaching consensus on adopting the age of 18 as a minimum age for marriage."