Attacks on street vendors rise [Archives:2006/959/Local News]
Adel Al-Khawlani
SANA'A, June 27 ) Human rights activists and organizations expressed concern over persistent attacks, imprisonments, and killings of street vendors following reports that several had been beaten or killed by my municipality officers in cities throughout Yemen.
Human rights organizations called for adequate protection of unlicensed vendors, who are often forbidden from hawking their wares in the streets. Often, such vendors are subjected to illegal attacks by municipal workers, according to human rights activists.
“Attacks against street vendors have become a daily scene. Municipality prisons are full of street vendors,” said Khaled Al-Anesi, the executive director of the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms (HOOD) based in Sana'a.
Al-Anesi, a lawyer, indicated that over the past year, six cases)including beatings and killings)had been registered with HOOD. He noted that “there are other cases which haven't been disclosed.”
Many vendors have been taken to jails in Sana'a where they are extorted by municipal officers under the pretext of paying a fine for deformation of the appearance of streets, said Al-Anesi. Other officers say they receive complaints from shop owners that unlicensed vendors hinder customers from reaching their shops thereby affecting their sales.
“Most of the cases remain undisclosed as [street] vendors bribe officers to restore any confiscated articles he issue goes on unchecked because vendors do not contact civil society organizations,” Al-Anesi noted.
Street vendors describe their ordeals
Abdullah Qashafan, a 28-year old street vendor, said attacks have become commonplace. “Municipality officers regularly chase us, forcibly drag us to their vehicles, and confiscate or tear apart our wares. They throw us in prisons where we stay for hours without food or drink,” he insisted.
Another vendor who requested not to be identified said that he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering and could not find a job. To sustain his seven-member family, he purchased a pushcart to hawk shampoos and perfumes at the entrance of Shumaila Market, south of the capital.
“I could not escape municipal officers' attacks, although I told them this cart is my only source of income and I'm a sustainer of a seven-member family after the death of my father,” he complained.
Yemen is an impoverished country, with nearly 44 percent of the population currently living under the poverty line, according to international reports. The preponderance of poverty makes the street vendor phenomenon a common in markets and on roadsides.
According to a recently passed law, street vendors are only allowed to sell in limited parts of the city. They are banned from working on major streets so as not to get in the way of pedestrians or cause traffic jams.
Ahmed Arman, a human rights activist and a lawyer for HOOD, pointed out that street vendors were often shot by municipal officers. He went on to say that HOOD has received reports on the deaths of three street vendors this year. The latest case was on June 13, when Ali Al-Bahri, a mechanic, was allegedly killed over a disagreement with municipal officers in the capital.
“This reflects the violence of authorities,” Arman emphasized.
Dr. Yahya Al-Shu'aibi, Secretary-General of the capital, said that such fatal attacks were isolated cases and did not represent a trend.
“If it happens, then it's the result of resistance,” Al-Shu'aibi suggested.
The municipality is tasked only to remove those who violate the rules, not to take aggressive measures against them,” he said.
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