Five years after his death:Dr. Al-Saqqaf remembered [Archives:2004/744/Last Page]

Five years have now passed since the death of the founder of Yemen Times, Prof. Dr. Abdulaziz Al-Saqqaf, who died on the 2nd of June 1999. Readers from all over Yemen sent articles of support and encouragement for the staff of the newspaper, headed by Al-Saqqaf's son, the current Editor-in-Chief, Walid.
Five years have past so quickly amid global, regional, and local changes that no one could have anticipated, yet something that has never changed is the fact that Dr. Al-Saqqaf is still remembered by vast numbers of Yemenis and foreigners in Yemen and abroad.
Many of the friends of Dr. Al-Saqqaf recall his vision for a modern Yemen with human rights and liberties respected, and development on full scale. He passed away before his dream of such a Yemen was fulfilled. His death is still mourned five years later, as many find there is no alternative that was able to take his place or even contend for it.
Today, we remember the courageous warrior whose weapons were paper, ink and computers. As editor and publisher of the Yemen Times, he insisted on taking the country's ostensibly liberal press law at its word – and regularly suffered the consequences, which never deterred him from going on and on.
On the other hand, there is no doubt that Dr. Al-Saqqaf will continue to live through his many good deeds, the knowledge he taught students at Sanaa University and elsewhere, and through the strong establishment he founded, Yemen Times, which today rises in the whole region not only as a newspaper, but as a civil society organization that has contributed greatly since his death in promoting the same values he has been calling for throughout his life.
Today, we mourn him again five years later, with great hopes that his dreams of a modern and strong Yemen, with high literacy rates, a strong economy, and true democracy, will indeed be achieved.
We pray for his soul to always be in peace in the heavens.
Amen
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