Press Review [Archives:2002/08/Press Review]
RAY weekly, organ of Sons of Yemen League party, 12 Feb. 2002
Main Headlines:
– A citizen Killed Opposite Presidency Office
– An Influential Sells Aden Writer’s Union Building
The weekly editorial for this week says the issue of possessing and doing business in arms has gone under bidding in many stages and various circumstances.
It has also been invested in many stands, internally and in foreign relations.
Today this comes to surface again because of what has been said about a decision banning arms in the capital and provincial capitals in Yemen. This has been followed with a large-scale inspection campaign that affected traffic movement and breached freedoms owing to subjecting vehicles to a kind of search not to be approved by any constitution or law.
The newspaper maintains we are not against enacting laws regulating carrying arms on the way to eliminate this phenomenon for good. But previous experiments disclose that there is not any real seriousness and will in solving this problem.
We see the issue of weapons in Yemen as a link in a complete chain closely connected. The disturbed security situation, absence of the institutional state, supremacy of the law of force over the force of the law, deterioration of the judiciary state, are all intermingling and should be considered when dealing with the issue of arms. the issue of arms cannot be treated without a comprehensive reform creating a condition of political, security and institutional stability where there would be no need for carrying arms. The scientific cure is the decisiveness and looking into the issues through their extensions as an only inlet for treating them, the editorial concludes.
Al-Ihya’a al- Arabi weekly, organ of the Arab Baath Socialist party, 12 Feb. 2002
Main Headlines:
– Unidentified men Burn YSP Offices in Jarahi city
– Iraq: We’ll Stand up to any American Attack
– Student Protests in Sana’a University
Columnist Ibrahim Abda Mohammed Sabaa writes in an article saying he who reads carefully the State of the Union speech delivered by the U.S. president Bush at the Congress finds that the criterion was the Hebrew state. The speech has focused on the traditional enemies of the Zionist entity, Iraq, HAMAS, Jihad, Hisbulla and Iran whom he has named as the ” Axis of Evil” and terrorism and threatened them with war and revenge. In examining the speech without knowing its deliverer, one would normally judge that it was Sharon’s not Bush’s.
Bush is playing with fire and he is now like an imbalanced person carrying a gun and running amok killing all passers-by. Therefore it is the duty of the worlds wise people to try to prevent him from doing so and rid the world of his evil before the catastrophe takes place.
Ath-Thawri weekly, organ of YSP, Feb. 2002
Columnist Mohammed Saleh al-Hadhiri says in his article that Yemen in general suffers from backwardness in different constituents in a way makes it difficult to define the volume of the Yemeni middle class according to the material conditions. We can only say there is a middle class or segment having characteristics in common with its other counterparts. In other words backwardness as a phenomenon still includes most of the levels of general life particularly the definition of social formations.
The important thing is that the possibility of emergence of a Yemeni middle class with full criteria could not be attained in exclusion from a real national development as part of national development context in general. What has been crystallized about the Yemeni middle class since the thirties of last century has vanished in the period 1980-2000 under the effect of continued material disturbance. Thus the majority of Yemenis turned to become a poor majority governed by rich and monopolist minority under the absence of any form of social balance. One of the hindrances our society is facing is the non-development of a middle class.
Al-Wahda weekly, 13 Feb. 2002.
Main headlines
– Six Million land mines Under Yemenis Feet
– 136 Arms pieces Seized in the Capital and Thamar
– Promotional Conference for Oil & Gas Next June
– Survey on Yemeni Expatriates this Year
– A Suspect Arrested nearby the American Embassy
Columnist Mohammed al-Zubaidi says in an article it may be strange that the U.S. Chief of Staff and members of his command ignore the abstract facts about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. They also ignore that the situation in this field was rather calm before the 28th of September 2001 and before the provocations carried out by the terrorist Sharon to the feelings of the Palestinians and the Arabs.
The Palestinian Authority has kept demanding for an international protection for the Palestinian people but neither the Israeli occupation authorities nor the White House administration have allowed that. All do realize that the United States has used the veto in late March, 2001 at a time the Amman Arab summit was prepared to listen to the final statement of the summit.
This means that the Palestinian authority was trying hard to stop violence and bloodshed, but the American administration sided with the Israeli government and adopted its stand and began putting the blame on the Palestinian authority.
If the U.S. administration had allowed sending international monitors or an international protection force, it would have spared mush blood and casualties and would have kept the gap narrow and able to be bridged at the peaceful negotiating table. It would also have precluded aggravation and accumulation of rancours.
The European continent comprehends the effect on it in case the situation in the Middle East escalates. The European countries are still distributing their vision between the Arabs and their stands and the American attitude. Some of the European countries criticized the U.S. stands towards the Palestinian-Israeli conflict or with regard to America’s threats to some Arab countries, which means that the European stance is beginning to develop.
Some had said that the American administration had thought that the sympathy expressed towards it after the events of 11 September had granted it the permission to let loose its unleashing accusations and threats. We hope that the European Union’s attitudes would stem from that vision that it occupies one of the two banks of the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East is on the other bank. That means that this location is characterized by the two sides being influencing and influenced by what happens on both banks of the sea. This necessitates that the European Union should have its attitudes taken in the light of its very vision.
Al-Balagh weekly, 12 Feb. 2002.
Main Headlines:
– G7 States Freeze more than US $ 100 Million in Assets of 150 countries
– America Stresses Support for Yemen’s Special Force
– Law Suit against Political parties and organizations
– MP’s Reject a Decision lifting MP Mansour al-Hunq’s Immunity
The newspaper’s editorial says the American policy it pursues in dealing with alleged terrorism is a matter unacceptable and unreasonable. U.S. president Bush wants to utilize the 11 September events for the purpose of bringing states, peoples and persons to their knees, a matter that could not happen unless all the concerned countries become part of the CIA. This also could not be realized. Moreover president Bush wants to install himself a god to be worshipped, issues orders to be complied with and holds in his hands the life and death and imprisonment under the term of terror.
This new American policy is demanded to be applied to the Arab and Islamic world and to the countries of the third world. Upon this any state or political party or organization refuses to abide by this policy it would be subject to military strikes, according to the American policy.
The Arab and Islamic states have to realize the policy of America’s ”Pharaoh” and to draw up joint strategies and stands leading to abort this American conspiracy. It would not be normal that each state acts individually to deal with this dangerous situation. Such an individual dealing would leads only to single out each country and it would lead to these countries fighting each other.
The Arab summit in this regard is demanded to comprehend the significance of such strategy. It is also demanded that the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Arab league to play their role.
As-Sahwa weekly 14 Feb. 2002
Main Headlines:
– Islah party Denounces Sacking of Supreme Committee
– FBI Continues its Warnings: Active Diplomatic Movement between Washington and Sana’a a political parties continue their dialogues
Columnist Ali bin Abdulla al-Wasie says in his article this week that America has its own dictionary explaining things as it likes and therefore it creates a language of its own. It argues with people and forces them to acknowledge its language.
The prisoners of war it has captured it does not consider them as POW’s because it wants to treat them in a way it likes. Terrorism does not mean horrifying people regardless of being individuals or peoples, in America’s dictionary it is terrorism when it affects it alone. When terror is perpetrated at the hands of the Jews it is not like that in their view.
When terror of the Zionists increases and they attack with warplanes the Palestinians, demolish their houses and destroy their farms and kill their women and children, then America would demand those victims to stop violence.
So we find the Americans tamper with everything even the language and minds of people that do not communicate by using these languages.
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