At least 5 killed, 16 injured at Aden rally [Archives:2008/1120/Front Page]
January 14 2008
 |
and Mohammed Bin Sallam
ADEN, Jan. 13 – At least five people have been killed and 16 others injured, two seriously, as security forces used teargas and fired upon citizens at the “Forgiving and Reconciliation Rally” involving thousands from various governorates, eyewitnesses in Aden said Sunday, adding that security authorities arrested nearly 40 people.
According to the witnesses, Air Force troops and Military Police were deployed to the scene of the rally.
The same sources reported that Aden's Sheikh Othman area witnessed chaos and lawlessness after police quarreled with demonstrators allegedly chanting “secessionist slogans” and raising the flag of the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen prior to reunification). However, the area was relatively calm after police dispersed protestors while troops remained deployed throughout Aden. Further, the sources said protestors burned tires in some Aden streets and blocked roads while the city's Khor Maksar area experienced fierce clashes and gunfire between citizens and police.
Other sources said citizens from Al-Dhale' governorate blocked the Sana'a-Aden Highway with rocks and timbers to protest what they termed “arbitrary behavior” by police who arrested citizens for joining the rally.
“Because of today's Forgiving and Reconciliation Rally, some malicious elements lobbed percussion grenades at the scene. Further, such individuals forcibly snatched a soldier's gun and fired randomly into the air in an attempt to intimidate the assembling citizens and police deployed in Hashimi Square, thereby killing two and injuring another nine, in addition to seven police officers,” Yemen's Saba News Agency quoted an official source as saying.
Additionally, the source reported, “Security authorities arrested those who lobbed percussion grenades and fired live ammunition randomly, seized their arms and transported the injured to a nearby hospital. All of this was done after the rally was over and people began to leave the scene.
“The local authority has appointed a committee to investigate the event and its motives,” the source added.
Numerous Joint Meeting Parties members from Aden, Hadramout and other governorates, as well as other citizens supporting the opposition, Parliament and Shoura Council members, and NGO and union representatives participated in the rally.
Reporters from Al-Jazeera and Al-Hurra satellite channels and other media personnel – both Yemenis and foreigners – were prevented from covering the day's events. Al-Hurrah correspondent Marwan Al-Khaled told Marebpress.net that police prevented him from videotaping the events, maintaining that a senior officer pointed his gun at him following the arrest of the channel's cameraman, Akram Al-Hayyani.
The correspondent further confirmed that police threatened to shoot him dead if he attempted to videotape the event. He regretted that he was unable to cover the events amid the heavy deployment of troops and heightened security.
Once the rally ended, its organizing committee released a statement affirming participants' adherence to the values of reconciliation, forgiveness and solidarity among citizens in the southern governorates. It called on those who gathered to open a new page and coexist peacefully, as well as to forget about the bloody events of 1986 and any prior incidents of mass killing.
“The government has pulled the curtain on its hostile policies and its instigative addresses, which motivate killings, confrontations and bloodshed,” the committee's statement read. Further, it strongly denounced government threats to foment conflicts among Yemeni citizens, noting that the Eid Al-Fitr sermon by a former government official in Taiz governorate's Janad Mosque is clear evidence of the government's policy to fuel conflicts and clashes among citizens.
“We condemn the conduct of the Sana'a regime, which is exploiting religion in favor of its policies in such a way that contradicts Islamic values by forcing religious clerics and scholars to declare fatwas that provoke bloodshed within the country and labeling protestors as 'disbelievers,'” the statement went on to say, “We demand the July 7 regime cancel all of the exceptional procedures left behind by the 1994 Civil War.”
The ruling General People's Congress lashed out at the rally's organizers, maintaining that such a rally is only meant to remind victims' relatives of past events that claimed the lives of several innocent women and children.
In a statement released Friday, the ruling party's general secretariat said, “Many opportunistic individuals exploit such events as a means to attain power. These individuals don't care about the nation's unity, security and stability or the bloodshed of innocent people as much as they care about their personal interests.
“Such opportunists are advised to expand the culture of democratic transformation and human rights if they want to gain popularity and have power because they can't attain power through such politicized rallies and riots, which are responsible for destroying public and private property,” the statement continued, “Enemies of national unity also are advised to stop telling lies and misleading public opinion.”
The statement concluded, “The Yemeni people are well aware of these malicious elements. They also know the reality of such mercenaries and enemies who have lost their government posts due to their malicious plots targeting the nation's security and stability.”
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