Protesters seek removing heads of Yemen institutions, transition government urges calm

By Mohammed al-kibsi

For the second consecutive day the military committee chaired by vice president Abdu Raboo Mansour Hadi continued dismantling military positions in central Sana’a today and yesterday.

Bulldozers crashed through the walls of sandbags fortifying the fighters' positions on a main street in Hasaba, a flashpoint area where fierce fighting took place between Sadeq al-Ahmar's tribesmen and the security forces in the past few months.

The military committee also announced starting to dismantle military positions in the southern ring road where military vehicles affiliated to the central security forces were deployed in the past few months.

However eyewitnesses from al-Hasbab neighborhood said that the entrenches were removed from the main street leading to the airport but not from all other minor streets where they said hundreds of tribesmen affiliated to Sheikh Sadek al-Ahmar still positioning in their entrenches in most streets of al-Hasabah and Sofan neighborhoods.  

Vice President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi chaired on Wednesday a meeting of the military commission in the presence of the ambassadors of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and the Gulf Cooperation Council’s states.

In the meeting, the Vice President pointed to the successes achieved by the commission during the last three weeks in addition to the difficulties associated with the process.

Hadi said also that he was trying to reach an agreement with the Joint Meeting Parties opposition parties lead by Islah Islamist party not to stage further protests or marches, especially from a province to another, briefing the meeting on the foot march came from Taiz to Sana'a which resulted in killing and wounding dozens of protesters last Saturday.

He said that the march had been secured until they reached the suburbs of Sana'a, adding that some people was seeking to change its direction, causing clashes, shootings and the use of smoke bombs and tear gas.

He confirmed the government had formed an investigation committee headed by the Ministers of Defense and Interior. The committee report will be submitted to the government as soon as possible.

The Vice President also said that the military commission began on Wednesday the removal of roadblocks in al-Hasabah area in Sana’a.

Yemen parliament voted on Wednesday to approve the program of the transitional government, which is led by a Mohammed Salem Ba Sindwah a former foreign minister who joined the opposition to Saleh.

The parliament offered confidence to the transition government that half of its bags gone to the ruling party GPC and the other half for the opposition parties JMP.

However the MPs stressed that the government should give priority for restoring peace and security and to fully implement the GCC reconciliation deal.

The MPS also stressed that the government should restore the essential services including electricity, water and oil derivatives for the public in Sana’a and all other main cities across the country. 

President Saleh announced on Saturday he would head to Washington not only for medical treatment but also for political affairs and said he wanted to pave the road for the transition government to conduct an early presidential elections and to implement the GCC deal.

The military committee overseeing the disengagement is headed by vice president Abdu Raboo Mansour Hadi whom Saleh had handed over power to as part of the GCC deal.

The ruling party organized a demonstration in Sana’a last Monday demanding full implementation of the GCC’s deal, urgent remove all military presence from the streets of Sana’a and to restore the electricity and water services.

In return the JMP launched protesting strikes at many governmental institutions where the members of JMP and particularly members of Islah party, who are working for many governmental offices, demanded to oust the heads of these institutions accusing them of being corrupt.

Among these protests were the one staged against the head of the moral guidance of the Yemeni army forces where some soldiers staged a sit in demanding to oust General Ali al-Shater who has been holding this post for more than 40 years.

Also some workers of the Saba news agency protested demanding to oust the chairman of the agency Tariq al-Shami, who is the spokes person of the GPC.

Other workers from the bank of instruction and development staged a sit in demanding to replace the chairman of boards of directors of the bank accusing him of being corrupt.

The government that is chaired by an opposition figure Mohammed Salem Ba Sindwah called on all parties to avoid such protests and to avoid any troubles at the current time so as to give the government a chance to implement the GCC deal and to restore security and services for the citizens.

According to the executive mechanism of the GCC deal no officials should be replaced during the transition period and changes can occur only after elections.   

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2011, Year of Change in Yemen

By Nasser Arrabyee
Yemen witnessed unprecedented and great events during 2011 like some other Arab countries which were swept by  the so-called Arab Spring.

The events changed almost every thing traditional in terms of thinking of the social and political life of people.

Dreams and aspirations and ambitions of almost every one were more than ever before over the recent history of Yemen.

Generally speaking, almost everyone wanted a new Yemen, new State, and new life with freedom,justice and dignity.

Though very little of these general things have been achieved,but the way of realizing dreams and reaching ambitions has become  at least clearer and smoother than ever before in history also.

The determination and desire of people  to keep going in the same way until all goals and objectives are achieved is still standing after one  year of arguments and conflicts at all  levels of life.

On November 23rd, 2011, almost all conflicting parties agreed to end the  long standing political crisis and they immediately started a long and difficult but allegedly  correct  road to build the  new Yemen where all dreams and ambitions of better life can come true.

On February 21st, 2012, the Yemenis will elect a new President instead of the outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The new President will run the country only two years during which a comprehensive national dialogue will be conducted for paving the way for the modern State. A new constitution will be formulated, and referendum on ir will be held.

Then, new presidential elections will be held during 2014, and the elected president will set a date for parliamentary elections.

It's been more than one month now since they started  implementing  a step-by-step two year long  road map for reaching the promised  modern and  civil State that almost every Yemeni   is talking about, though with different views.

The road map, locally called the scheduled  implementation plan, was based on an internationally supported deal initiated by the Saudi-led six gulf nations and the UN resolution 2014 on  solving the Yemeni crisis.

But different people  look differently to what happened during 2011, and what  was achieved so far and what might happen and might  be achieved during 2012 and after that.

The Weekly interviewed on Monday December 26, 2011, many Yemenis in the Yemeni  capital Sanaa on what happened so far and what might happen more from the protests of one year.

Adel A Arrabeai, leading protester and political activist, said that the year 2011 divided the recent history to 'before' and 'after'  this date.

" 2011 was   the year of the birth of our historic change movement," said Mr Arrabeai.

" It was the year during which we faced major challenges and we achieved major achievements including overthrowing the regime," he added.

The 2012 will be  the year of planting and sowing the seeds of the  modern and civil State, the long standing  dream of Yemenis, Arrabeai expected.

The activist Naif Al Buraiki, disagrees,however, with Mr. Arrabeai, saying the political solution will not work and the conflicts will continue.

"The GCC initiative will fail and more conflicts and more violence and blood shed will happen," said Mr Al Buraiki.



The political analyst, Abdul Khalik Alwan , on his part, said two things might happen during the 2012 in the Arab world in general.

If the Arab Spring was made by the Arab themselves not dictated to them, Mr. Alwan expected a stage of genuine democracy and human rights after removing the rest of the Arab rulers during 2012.

"But if the Arab Spring was not made by  the Arab will, and Arab were only actors, then the year 2012 will be the end of hope that Arab can do something," Mr Alwan said.

Mr Baleek Mohammed, political activist,said what happened in Yemen during 2011, was unprecedented uprising against poverty and financial, administrative and political corruption.

Mr Mohammed expected that Islamists in Yemen would dominate because they have  more organized members than the other  parties.

However, the vice  spokesmen of the Yemen ruling party, semi-secular party, Mr Abdul Hafeez Al Nehari excluded any domination of  the Islamists in Yemen saying they  are not like their counterparts in the other Arab countries like Tunisia and Egypt.

" I do not think the Islamists here in Yemen will dominate because  they already  tried but  failed," said Al Nehari.

The main groups of Islamists in Yemen,  especially the brotherhood, have always been participating in all political and democratic processes and never been directly banned like Tunisia or partially banned like Egypt.

"The people tried the Islamists in  two coalition governments in the past," said Al
Nehari.

"During this crisis, the Islamists were not democratic enough  with other forces like liberals and leftists,"

" So Islamist lost a lot."

 Almost every day, Islamists from Islah party, which leads the opposition coalition,  fight with others  over who would speak in the stage and who  would say what  in the public squares of protests especially in Sanaa.

They also fight with others on women activities and their clothes.

On Sunday,  December 25th, 2011,  for instance, about 15 people were injured in big fight with  hands and  sticks and knives in the stage of the Change Square in Sanaa.      

IRIN: Yemen malnutrition data should "shock"

Source:  IRIN

DUBAI, 27 December 2011 (IRIN) - Aid workers hope "shocking" new malnutrition figures from a survey conducted in western Yemen will help highlight the serious humanitarian situation in the country and prompt donors to act immediately.

Until now, aid workers say some donors have been unconvinced of the extent of the problem because of a perceived lack of evidence.

“It’s been a challenge,” one Yemen-based aid worker told IRIN. “Every time we sit down with donors, they say ‘Where are the figures? Where is the data?’”

Geert Cappelaere, head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Yemen, said donors have asked him for more evidence that malnutrition was such a priority.

“That kind of question - each and every time - kills something in me. Why do you want children to die first before you’re going to give any credibility to a disaster looming here in Yemen?”

Results

Yemen’s Ministry of Public Health and Population, with the support of UNICEF, surveyed 3,104 households in Hudeidah Governorate in October and collected data on 4,668 children under five.

The survey found a global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate of 31.7 percent - meaning nearly one third of children surveyed suffered from either moderate or severe acute malnutrition - of which nearly 10 percent were severe cases. These figures are more than double the internationally recognized emergency threshold of 15 percent. The survey also found that nearly 60 percent of children were underweight and 54.5 percent stunted, meaning their height was too low for their age, a sign of longer-term malnutrition.

These results are consistent with recent surveys conducted in other parts of the country.

In the southern Abyan Governorate, a battleground in ongoing fighting between government troops and al-Qaeda affiliated militants, a UNICEF survey in September found a GAM rate of 18.6 percent, of which 3.9 percent were severe cases. In the northern Hajjah Governorate, a government survey in June found a GAM rate of 31.4 percent, of which 9.1 percent were severe cases. Nearly half of the children surveyed in Hajjah were underweight and 43.6 percent were stunted.

“Wherever we go, wherever we survey, wherever we assess, we come to the same conclusions,” Cappelaere told IRIN. “The levels of acute malnutrition in Yemen are incredibly high.”

Yemeni Minister of Health Ahmed Al-ansi says half a million children suffer from acute malnutrition across the country. Hundreds of thousands of farmers are at risk of losing their livelihoods because of floods and drought, he added. According to the NGO Oxfam, many Yemenis live off tea and bread.

The UN says some seven million people (a third of the population) are food insecure, meaning they go to bed hungry or do not know where their next meal is coming from. This number is expected to rise significantly when the World Food Programme carries out a new national Comprehensive Food Security Survey in January. Aid workers expect the humanitarian situation in Yemen to continue getting worse next year.

The mortality formula

While malnutrition rates in parts of Yemen are comparable to those in parts of Somalia, they have not yet resulted in the same mortality rates, only because - until recently - Yemen had a functioning, if imperfect, primary health care system, including vaccination.

But in the past 10 months, during which anti-government demonstrations led to a violent crackdown and a political crisis, some areas have seen up to 40 percent fewer children immunized, UNICEF’s Cappelaere said.

''Why do you want children to die first before you’re going to give any credibility to a disaster looming here in Yemen?''

Combine the high rates of malnutrition, the low levels of vaccination and sporadic outbreaks of diseases like measles, and “a disaster may be around the corner.”

The Hudeidah survey found that three in every four children suffered from diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections or fever in the two weeks preceding the survey; and 2.5 percent of mothers reported symptoms of measles in their children in the past three months. The survey found measles vaccination coverage of 74 percent in Hudeidah, well below the 90 percent coverage rate needed to prevent an outbreak.

“Why is it that the international community gets mobilized primarily when it sees the dramatic outcome of a situation or a crisis that we could have seen coming for many, many years?” Cappelaere asked. “This is not a blaming and shaming [exercise], but this is a collective question we need to ask ourselves.”

The UN has appealed for US$154 million for food and agricultural programmes and $70 million for nutritional programmes, the largest sectoral demands amid an overall appeal of $447 million for Yemen in 2012.

Government capacity

Government officials admit dealing with the dramatic levels of malnutrition will be a challenge for the interim Yemeni cabinet which emerged after a peace deal signed in late November pulled the country back from the brink of civil war.

The cash-strapped government is charged with organizing presidential elections by February         2012, while trying to maintain stability. Pro-democracy protesters, and an armed opposition, had been clashing with government forces on and off since February 2011. The peace deal has brought some calm to the capital Sana’a and the second city Taiz, but rebels, separatists and al-Qaeda affiliated-militants are still opposing the government in different parts of the country.

Majid Al Jonaid, deputy minister of health, said one of the government’s priorities is to address issues affecting the daily life of Yemenis, including malnutrition. The government plans to open clinics and run education campaigns, as part of a multi-sectoral national government strategy on malnutrition approved by the cabinet last year, before the latest crisis.

But “it depends mainly on the availability of resources and the overall situation,” he told IRIN. “We will start our work with the hampered resources that we have.”

Still, Al Jonaid said he was concerned malnutrition may not get the attention it deserves amid competing government priorities and big constraints. For example, the Ministry of Health was virtually shut down for weeks because of insecurity in and around the building.

Cappelaere said it was unrealistic to expect the government to take over much of the international community’s humanitarian work in the next year.

Long-term effects

The economic situation in the country has been set back 5-10 years by the events of this year and Yemen will continue having substantial humanitarian needs for 3-5 years, according to the UN humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, Jens Toyberg-Frandzen. Cappelaere said the country will probably continue needing some form of assistance for two to three decades.

Addressing malnutrition is a complex task, as the problem relates to poverty, lack of education, bad sanitation, and cultural practices, like chewing khat and resisting exclusive breastfeeding. In Hudeidah, only 9 percent of infants under six months were exclusively fed breast milk.

The Ministry of Health report from the nutrition survey recommended establishing out-patient therapeutic programmes in community health facilities and considering “radical strategies” like blanket, rather than targeted, distribution of supplementary food.

Investments in lifesaving humanitarian assistance, as well as longer-term development work, are required immediately, Cappelaere said, to prevent both high mortality rates and longer-term effects of chronic malnutrition, like retardation in cognitive development, which will affect the country’s ability to move forward.

“Yemen is entering a new phase in its history,” said Pete Manfield, deputy head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Yemen, “but it’s critical that humanitarian needs are met in 2012, not only to prevent the loss of life, but also to support the stabilization of the country.”

“We appeal not to let Yemen become another catastrophe,” Toyberg-Frandzen added.

Yemen forces kill 6 al-Qaeda militants

By Mohammed al-Kibsi

Yemen forces exchanged machinegun fire with al-Qaeda militants near Zinjubar town the provincial capital of Abyan southern province on Wednesday left two soldiers and six al-Qaeda militants dead, said security and local officials from Abyan province.

The clashes erupted after al-Qaeda militants launched an offensive against an army barrack of the 119th Armored brigade positioned in the east of Zinjubar town, said a local council source from Abyan.

The source confirmed that most of the killed militants were foreigners including a Saudi and Syrian nationals.

The local source added that three al-Qaeda militants the call themselves as the Partisans of Sharia, group that took over most of Abyan province’s towns including Zinjubar in May, were also killed in the clashes late on Tuesday and at least five were wounded.

The local source said that the army also fired Katyusha rockets at the extremists’ hideouts in several areas across the outskirts of Zinjubar adding that heavy clashes are still going on between the two sides and three of the military's armored vehicles were set ablaze by the al-Qaeda militants.

Elsewhere suspected al-Qaeda militants shot dead an intelligence officer in Aden city last Monday, security sources said.

The source said that some al-Qaeda militants fired a barrage of shots at an intelligence colonel while was driving his car in Shiekh Othamn neighborhood of Aden city before they fled the scene leaving him dead.  However the source concealed the name of the intelligence officer because he was not authorized to disclose his name.     

Yemen parliament approves transition government’s program

By Mohammed al-kibsi  

Yemen parliament voted on Wednesday to approve the program of the transitional government, which is led by a Mohammed Salem Ba Sindwah a former foreign minister who joined the opposition to Saleh.

The parliament offered confidence to the transition government that half of its bags gone to the ruling party GPC and the other half for the opposition parties JMP.

However the MPs stressed that the government should give priority for restoring peace and security and to fully implement the GCC reconciliation deal.

The MPS also stressed that the government should restore the essential services including electricity, water and oil derivatives for the public in Sana’a and all other main cities across the country.  

Meanwhile military positions in central Sana’a were dismantled on Wednesday in a show of faith by both sides that they want to halt implement the GCC deal and its executive mechanism.

Bulldozers crashed through the walls of sandbags fortifying the fighters' positions on a main street in Hasaba, a flashpoint area where fierce fighting took place between Sadeq al-Ahmar's tribesmen and the security forces in the past few months.

The military committee also announced starting to dismantle military positions in the southern ring road where military vehicles affiliated to the central security forces were deployed in the past few months.

President Saleh announced on Saturday he would head to Washington not only for medical treatment but also for political affairs and said he wanted to pave the road for the transition government to conduct an early presidential elections and to implement the GCC deal.

The military committee overseeing the disengagement is headed by vice president Abdu Raboo Mansour Hadi whom Saleh had handed over power to as part of the GCC deal.

The ruling party organized a demonstration in Sana’a last Monday demanding full implementation of the GCC’s deal, urgent remove all military presence from the streets of Sana’a and to restore the electricity and water services.

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