Security authorities crack down on rally activists [Archives:2008/1121/Front Page]
By: Mohammed Bin Sallam
ADEN, Jan. 16 ) Security authorities arrested 11 citizens, among them five senior military officers, and threw them in various prisons over the rioting that accompanied Sunday's Reconciliation and Forgiveness Rally, media sources said on Wednesday.
More than 16 citizens have been detained by the Aden security authorities since Sunday, bringing the number of detainees from rally-related riots to 27, some of whom were exposed to torture and beatings. Official sources at the Rally Preparatory Committee stressed that six people are imprisoned in Memdara prison, 15 in Sheik Othman Police Station and another 6 in the governorate's Military Intelligence Detention.
The sources clarified that the Military Intelligence Bureau in the Tawahi area captured the officers at their worksites in the Mansoura-based public works camp. The five officers are part of the recently reinstated military servants from Al-Dhale' governorate who were dismissed from their posts after the 1994 civil war.
Ali Monassar Mohammed, head of the rally's preparatory committee, threatened to escalate protests in Aden and other southern governorates if the authorities continue their arrest campaigns against activists.
He demanded that those who opened fire on innocent citizens at the rally be referred to relevant courts for trial, and that the injured be transferred abroad to receive treatment at the state's expense. The Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) leader claimed the government should free all the people detained during the rally and release confiscated cars belonging to citizens who came from neighboring governorates with the intention of joining the rally.
A meeting held by YSP leadership on Sunday labeled the security crackdown on citizens for joining the rally as “a criminal act and a new addition to the government's arbitrary conduct against its citizens.” Regarding official reaction to the rally, the meeting's participants said the government rejects any peaceful activities in all the Yemeni governorates.
Chaired by Yaseen Sa'eed Noman, YSP Secretary General, the meeting called on party leaders and staff to show a spirit of solidarity and cooperation during peaceful activities without hesitation. It also advised them to work harder for the sake of resisting any unjust policies and force the authority to respond to people's demands.
The meeting released a statement saying that the security crackdown on the rally reveals that the administration is bankrupt and has no national project to solve the noticeable problems listed by peaceful protestors. “The authority has a project for dominance, use of force against citizens, legal violations and human rights abuses,” the statement read.
It continued, “The authority's project doesn't defend unity as it alleges and deceives people. It only defends corrupt and influential persons, who obtain wealth illegally by looting public and private property and plundering lands.”
“The government cheated the national democratic project begun when Yemen's Reunification was established in 1990. After the 1994 Civil War, it started to adopt irresponsible policies, destroying all the forms of national partnership in power and wealth. It also destroyed all the agencies of the previous southern government, laying off military and civil employees, exercising property theft, supporting backward policies and fueling conflict and violent acts among citizens,” the statement further commented. “Through its practices and policies, the government works on splitting the nation's social fabric, based on its belief that fragmentation, conflict and revenge killings will help it control people forever.”
Meeting attendees expressed their support for the idea of reconciliation and forgiveness, considering it a noble work and a step toward spreading the culture of forgiveness at the national level and reaching the kind of national reconciliation that helps rescue the country from the consequences of violence and war.
Mohammed Abdullah Al-Yadomi, Acting Chairman of the Islah Party, stressed the necessity of continuing peaceful struggle as an effective means of helping people get rid of injustice and oppression. According to him, peaceful struggle will also help the country get out of the “gloomy tunnel” it is passing through as a result of the ruling party's successive governments and fake platforms.
Delivering a lecture Tuesday evening at Islah Party's Students Sector in Sana'a, Al-Yadomi said the government's poor policies are responsible for soaring prices in Yemeni markets and the destruction of ethics in society. “Bribery has become rampant over the past ten years, unemployment is at a record high and millions of people are forced to live under the poverty level due to the government's weak programs and policies,” he stated.
He indicated that Yemeni society is currently experiencing strange phenomena because of the various wars and political conflicts the country has undergone in recent years. He pointed out that incidents of suicide, child trafficking and robbery were not seen in Yemen even before the north and south merged.
“We will continue the peaceful struggle in all the Yemeni governorates, districts and villages,” Al-Yadomi affirmed, attributing the escalation of protests and sit-ins to GPC polices that never allow any peaceful transfer of power. “The ruling party and its foolish government have taken us to such a dire situation, although the country is rich in natural resources and its people are enthusiastic enough to create solutions to any notable crises,” the Islah party leader expressed.
According to Al-Yadomi, the Reconciliation and Forgiveness Rally, staged Sunday in Aden, would have been a positive step toward reforming the government if it had not been accompanied by unnecessary rioting and bloodshed. He called on all the political forces to support any serous steps toward reconciliation and forget about past conflicts.
Al-Yadomi urged those who advocate secession to reverse their ideas and remain adherent to national unity. “We have to strongly defend our unity and not give secession advocates any chance to damage it,” he reacted.
Concluding his lecture, Al-Yadomi confirmed that only the JMP will be leading any peaceful protests and sit-ins nationwide, with the aim of reforming the country's dire situation.
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