A Sit-in at the Gate of the Parliament [Archives:1999/30/Front Page]

The Yemeni petroleum engineers brought a note before the president of the Parliament , Shaikh Abdullah Ben Hussain Al-Ahmar , concerning the presidential orders to employ them in the petroleum companies in Yemen which have not been carried out until now . In their note , the Yemeni engineers asked for the following: 
1: Carrying out the President’s orders to employ them according to their specialization. 
2: Carrying out the parliament orders which the Minister committed himself to. Before this the Yemeni petroleum engineers carried a sit-in at the gate of the Ministry of Petrol where they were shot at. The Yemen Times harried to the scene of the problem and had a number of interviews with one of the engineers. 
Q: Will you please give us a general idea about the problem ? 
A: Well, the problem is known to everybody and the government knows it, too. We have two orders from the President concerning employing. In the beginning the number was 251 and now it has been increased . We have been trying for tow years to employ the required number; 360 from which 226 have already been employed. These 226 employees have finished their period of commissioning as teachers. One month ago we brought a note before the Minister informing him of the elapsing of the commissioning period in order to send us to our jobs. When we got no response we sent another note to the Minister on Saturday, July 17. We went to the Minister’s office but he neither met with us nor he responded to our note. Being disappointed, the engineers decided to carry out a sit-in at the gate. When they could not separate us, a car came and tried to do the same. A heated argument then took place between the engineers and the driver which was soon followed by firing. We were very frightened and we were separated. When the firing stopped some policemen arrived at the scene. They asked as to choose representatives to talk with the Minister. When our representatives went up to the Minister’s office they were told that he had gone. We wondered how he managed to leave without seeing him!. In addition to this problem we do not receive a fair payment. 
Q: What are your demands? 
A: We ask for our rights to be put in jobs that suit our specialization. Thus, we want to be sent to petroleum organizations. We are holding the slogan never ignore the Yemeni qualified specialists. 
Q: Do you think this can be done? 
A : We have to be hopeful. We are in a democratic country. We send notes to people in charge requesting them to look at our problem with consideration .The Minister, at 8th/6/1998, committed himself to employing 30 to 40 engineers in every petroleum company. We would like this to be accomplished. 

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