Friday, February 25, 2011

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered his security forces to protect demonstrators trying to end his 32-year rule, said a statement relayed by Yemen’s press attache in Washington Thursday.
It said Saleh had “demanded security services to offer full protection for the demonstrators.”

“Saleh instructed all security services to thwart all clashes and prevent direct confrontation between pro- and anti-government protesters,” it said.

The statement said the government “will continue to protect the rights of its citizens to assemble peacefully and their right to freedom of expression.”

It added “the government calls on protesters to remain vigilant and take all precautionary steps to prevent the infiltrations of individuals seeking to carry out violent actions.”
Hours after the statement was issued, a bomb exploded at a protest march by southern secessionists in the town of Lawdar, killing one person and wounding two, a local official said. Lawdar is a hotbed of secessionist sentiment, in the southern province of Abyan.

Also in the south, an unemployed 27-year-old man who set himself on fire this week died of his injuries Thursday in the port city of Aden, his relatives and medics said.
Abdullah Mohammad Qassem died after dunking himself in five liters of petrol and setting himself ablaze due to “difficult” living conditions, his family said.

The man’s relatives said he had acted in protest against the killings of protesters in the southern port city.

Qassem’s brother-in-law, Khaled al-Naqib, said he “followed the uprising in Tunisia and may have been influenced” by 26-year-old Mohammad Bouazizi, who set himself alight in December after security forces shut down his market stall.
Thursday’s deaths brought to 17 the number of fatalities in a wave of nationwide protests in the past week against Saleh’s rule.

Nine members of Parliament have quit Saleh’s ruling party in protest at what they described as government violence against demonstrators, parliamentarians said Wednesday.
About 80 percent of lawmakers still back the president. “The people must have the right to demonstrate peacefully,” said Abdel-Aziz Jubari, one of the MPs who resigned Wednesday.

But opposition parties are suspicious of his calls for dialogue because of the violence used against protesters.
Violent clashes between anti-regime protesters and Saleh loyalists have taken place almost daily since the protests began, leaving scores of people hurt.

Hundreds of black-clad Yemeni women joined Thursday thousands of protesters who have been camping out since Sunday in an impromptu tent city outside Sanaa University.
Members of the university’s professors’ union also turned out Thursday to support the demonstrators, who have one demand: that Saleh step down. – Agencies