Sana’a city government cracks down on street vendors [Archives:2008/1121/Local News]

By: Saddam Al-Ashmori
SANA'A, Jan. 13 ) The Sana'a Capital Secretariat has launched a campaign against street venders to remove their goods and eradicate illegitimate markets. The campaign began four days ago when street venders were exposed to blackmail or bribery by city employees, as well as confiscation of their goods, followed by imprisonment by the city.

Eleven-year-old Hassan Al-Raimi alleges that a group of city police officers seized him and took everything in his pockets, as well as his goods, because he's a street vendor, indicating that he provides for a large family and can do nothing except work in public parks because he fears such authorities.

Sana'a Secretary-General Yahya Al-Shuaibi declared to the media that secretariat authorities launched the campaign to remove all illegitimate markets, which he claims defame Sana'a because their owners neither remain in specified locations nor clean them.

Additionally, Al-Shuaibi pointed out that there are more than 100 illegal qat markets and butcher, stating to Al-Sahwah.net that the local secretariat's government was obliged to conduct this campaign after media – including state media – criticized the city's cleanliness. “I was accused of being careless in this regard due to our sympathy with citizens' living standards,” he explained.

He further called on citizens to cooperate in removing all “bad and unpleasant scenes” in Sana'a. Al-Shuaibi added that this is in addition to solving the problem of street vendors, highlighting that the Yemeni capital suffers numerous problems related to random construction, population congestion and traffic, among others.

“We are dealing with city employees to reduce their negative acts [blackmail, bribery and seizing goods], which we consider wrong,” he further explained.

Legislators and members of Parliament demand halting this prosecution of street venders, deeming it illegal. They further warn against the dire consequences of implementing such a resolution, which may mean social disaster for thousands of families who primarily depend upon such street vendors.

Moreover, they call on all concerned parties within the capital secretariat, including its leadership, the local council, the traffic department and the Chamber of Commerce, to discuss the issue and come up with a well-organized study to determine an appropriate solution for these street vendors so as to reduce such unpleasing scenes affecting the capital city's aesthetics.

Wondering why the roads are unclean, attorney and executive manager of the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedoms, or HOOD, Khalid Al-Ansi, considers such a campaign against street venders sinful.

Al-Ansi further demands “creating courts and prosecutions working around the clock regarding violations. These bodies should consist of three judges and three prosecution members so that city employees won't be able to use such campaigns as a means to blackmail citizens and take their money, nor restrict their freedoms and confiscate their rights.”

He adds, “Street venders are a worldwide phenomenon, but they also are regulated, which doesn't deprive them of dignified sustenance and keeps cities clean.”

The Capital Secretariat authority has prevented journalists from reporting on the campaign. In fact, secretariat police arrested journalist Saleh Al-Suraimi as he was covering a scene where trucks were removing some vendors' stores in Mathbah area. Al-Suraimi was attacked during his arrest and later released.

Sa'eed Thabet, first deputy of the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate, says such action clearly indicates that the campaign's implementers aren't well educated, further condemning the campaign for violating vendors' rights. He also warned those bodies perpetrating such acts against journalists by threatening to publish a list of press enemies.

Thabet further demanded the secretariat's secretary general cease such violations against journalists. His comments came after the municipality of Ma'een district last Wednesday released journalist Mohammed Al-Azazi, who was detained arbitrarily for reporting on the street vendors' sufferings under the campaign.

With his detainers impersonating National Security members, the director of Ma'een district had refused to release him until he paid YR 4,000. Al-Azazi was released only after journalist syndicate members and other interested individuals held a sit-in in front of the Ma'een-based municipality prison to demand his release.

Thabet further stated that the journalists syndicate contacted Al-Shuaibi and Local Administration Minister Abdulqader Hilal to release Al-Azazi, but they didn't deal with the issue of imprisoning journalists in illegal prisons.

Thabet considers journalists' imprisonment in such prisons a critical precedent and holds official parties accountable for harassing and imprisoning journalists.
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