Oil pipeline in Marib pierced [Archives:2003/668/Front Page]

Unidentified tribesmen pierced the oil pipeline Friday morning in Serwah 120km to the south of the capital Sana’a, causing fire and leakage of oil in large quantity, a local source told Yemen Times.
The source pointed out that unknown tribesmen blew up the oil pipeline stretching from Safir area in Marib to the Red sea port in west Yemen. Authorities could put out the fire and would repair the pipeline to continue carrying oil for exporting at the port.
A security official in Sana’a said that security men were hunting down for the perpetrators at Jahm tribe as the authorities believed they belong to the tribe whose prominent Sheikhs are in still custody for some weeks in Sana’a. The authorities hold them in prison over the killing of a military man from al-Zaidi clan, Jahm tribe by security men. The tribesmen differed with the authorities over this issue and insisted that the killers should be brought to justice while the authorities wanted to settle down the problem in a tribal manner of sorting out disputes and problems. The Sheikhs of this tribe disagreed with the President of the Republic over that issue at the presidential palace and accordingly orders to put them in prison were given. Some outstanding tribal figures from Khawlan tribe interfered to end the problem but to no avail.
A tribal figure in Marib dismissed the idea that the explosion of the pipeline might be related to Jahm’s problem with the authorities.
The pipeline was pierced several times during the last decade by tribesmen from the same tribe to express their resentment with the government or they used to kidnap foreigners to blackmail the authorities, demanding development projects for their areas.
It is to be mentioned here that more than 20 explosions took place in this area particularly in 1993 and then explosions stopped in 1999.
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