Friday, April 01, 2011

SANAA: President Ali Abdullah Saleh and his opponents have set the scene for another tense Friday in a two-month-long showdown, with calls for rival demonstrations in the Yemeni capital.
Meanwhile, Yemenis Thursday commemorated dozens of people killed in weeks of street protests demanding Saleh resigns, as efforts continued to negotiate his exit from power within the next year.
State news agency Saba said tribal chiefs, preachers, civil society figures, youths and supporters from the countryside were streaming into Sanaa Thursday in response to the president’s call for a show of solidarity.

His challengers, mainly youths camped out at renamed “Change Square” near Sanaa University, have also urged people to take to the streets but put off a planned march on the presidential palace for fear of violence.
“We don’t want a confrontation with the president’s supporters. Many of his people tomorrow will be out-of-uniform soldiers and armed tribesmen,” Adel al-Walibi, a leader of the protests, told AFP.

He said the protesters would hold marches around the square and sit-ins outside key installations in the capital.
Around 20 new army officers also joined the protesters Thursday, carrying banners calling for the “peaceful ouster” of the regime, an AFP correspondent said.
They called for a six-month transition period, during which Parliament would be dissolved, the Constitution amended, and an interim committee tasked with running the country’s affairs would be established.

Weeks of protests in Sanaa and elsewhere have brought Saleh’s 32-year-old rule to the brink of collapse but the United States and Saudi Arabia, an important financial backer, are worried over who might succeed their ally.
A senior Western diplomat said Saleh, whose comments have at times sounded like he was preparing to leave office soon and at others as if he intends to see out his term, was torn between the options.
“My guess is that he is very torn about all of these things and that what you hear from him is functions of inner turmoil,” he told Reuters.

Saleh held talks Thursday with Mohammad al-Yadoumi, head of the Islamist Islah party, once a partner in his government.

Saleh was looking for avenues to stay on as president while new parliamentary and presidential elections are organized by the end of the year, an opposition source said.
The talks have stalled and it was not clear how they could restart. Saudi Arabia has resisted Yemeni government efforts to involve them in mediation.

Tens of thousands of anti-Saleh protesters demonstrated in Sanaa Thursday to remember about 82 protesters killed so far, including 52 shot by snipers on March 18.
“The people want the butcher to face trial,” they chanted.

Some wore white tunics with the words “future martyr” written on them to stress their resolve to wait Saleh out.
“The best scenario would be that there is an agreement and that the two parties go into the Parliament and begin the implementation of their agreement,” the diplomat said.
South of Sanaa Thursday, hundreds of thousands of people in Taez took to the streets to call for Saleh’s ouster, organizers said, while tens of thousands of others rallied in another town, Ibb.

In the southern province of Daleh, hundreds of people took part in a demonstration Thursday to press for the independence of what was formerly known as South Yemen. “Yes to independence and to freedom,” they chanted. “Revolt, revolt, south.”
In a separate development, tribe members opposed to Saleh attacked electricity pylons in the central  province of Maarib Thursday, triggering power outages in parts of the capital, officials said.

The blackouts, lasting up to two hours, also hit the southern port of Aden and the Red Sea city of Hudeida.
A government official said tribes in the central province of Maarib had opened fire on electricity towers.
One official accused tribe members “of the opposition party” of being behind the attacks.
It was the second such incident in two weeks. – AFP, Reuters