Wednesday, March 02, 2011

By Jamal al-Jaberi
Agence France Presse

SANAA: Huge crowds poured onto the streets of the Yemeni capital Sanaa Tuesday in what the opposition hailed as the biggest protest yet against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s three-decade rule.

The veteran leader, whose supporters staged a large counter-demonstration, dismissed the opposition rally as a copycat action mimicking protests in other Arab countries that he charged had been fanned by Israel and the United States.
He then sacked the governors of five provinces where anti-regime protests have been raging, mostly in the regions that made former South Yemen.

An official announcement said Saleh has removed the governors of Aden, Lahij and Abyan in the south, as well as Hadramut in the southeast and Hudayda in the west.
Saleh’s opponents massed from early morning in streets leading to a square near Sanaa University, where students and pro-democracy demonstrators have been camped for more than a week.

“The people want Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave,” the protesters chanted. “The people want to overthrow the regime.”
Many of the protesters marched in white shrouds reading: “Either we live happily or we die as martyrs.”

The opposition said that half a million people turned out, although an AFP correspondent said that number was an overestimate.
“Since the sit-in began near Sanaa university, we have not witnessed such a turnout,” one of the organizers, Hashem al-Sufy, said.

Opposition figures addressed the anti-government rally, including leading cleric Abdul Majeed al-Zendani.
Zendani said that the protest movement sweeping the Arab world was “a new, effective, fast, and non-destructive means of changing regimes.”

Saleh hit back, in an address at Sanaa University. “The events from Tunisia to Oman are a storm orchestrated from Tel Aviv and and under Washington’s supervision,” he said.
“What is taking place on Yemen’s streets is just a copycat attempt,” Saleh said. The protesters are “led from outside” and are in the pay of “Zionists,” he charged.

Saleh lashed out at U.S. President Barack Obama for his repeated calls for restraint by Arab regimes.
“Every day we hear a statement by Obama … [saying] Egypt don’t do this, Tunisia don’t do that … What does Obama have to do with Oman, what does he have to do with Egypt?” he asked.
The Yemeni leader, in power since 1978, has repeatedly rejected calls for his resignation, insisting he will defend his regime “with every drop of blood.”
His one concession has been to pledge not to seek re-election in 2013, something the opposition has dismissed as inadequate.

Thousands of protesters also turned out Tuesday in the southern province of Lahij. In the town of Seiyun, in Hadramut province further east, security forces shot and injured two protesters, witnesses and medics said.
In the main southern city of Aden, thousands took to the streets of Al-Mansura neighborhood carrying black flags in mourning of protesters killed during violent clashes with the police, witnesses said.
Demonstrations were also reported in Maalla and Crater districts.

The U.N. human rights chief warned Yemeni authorities against violent repression of peaceful protests, saying that people “have the legitimate right to express their grievances and demands to their government.”