Al-Jaashin go home at last [Archives:2008/1149/Local News]

By: Saddam Al_AShmori
For the Yemen Times
SANA'A, April 23 ) Al-Jaashin residents returned home last Tuesday after a long wait lasting about two months, during which they staged 12 sit-ins before the Cabinet and Parliament.

The people of Al-Ansi district, known as Al-Jaashin, were evacuated at the end of 2006 from their district in Ibb governorate to Sana'a, where they voiced their protests in front of the Cabinet, Parliament, the Ministry of Human Rights and the Ministry of Local Administration. During the sit-ins, the protestors demanded removing the siege and oppression carried out by Sheikh Ahmed Mansour, who habitually forced them to pay large sums of money under the pretext of zakah (alms).

He also made many people leave their farms and homes, subsequently confiscating their property.

Twenty-five people from Al-Jaashin tribe received compensation from an unknown source amounting to YR 4,600,000 (US$ 23,000) collectively. MP Mohammed Abdullah Al-Qadhi distributed the funds and promised to return them to their homes safely, affirming that what Mansour did won't happen again. The people were then transported to their homes, accompanied by Al-Qadhi's secretary, though notably without the parliamentary committee that was formed to resolve the issue.

Many press conferences were organized for the evacuated people, in which they revealed the violations they were exposed to by Mansour's soldiers, who they said confiscated their property and deprived them of their livelihoods.

Members of Al-Jaashin praised the role of human rights organization HOOD and the Media Agents Forum in solving their issue, but they considered the compensation they received as only a small part of what Mansour had plundered from them.
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