Sheik Bin Shaji’ Threatens to Thwart any Demarcation Attempts [Archives:2000/26/Front Page]

In a statement to Yemen Times, Bin Shaji, the Sheik of Wa’ila Yemeni tribe on the northern boundaries of Yemen near Sa’ada, expressed his anger and dismay over some of the geographical specifications of the Yemeni-Saudi border treaty. The Sheik threatened that unless the demarcation of his area goes as he wants, and as agreed upon with other neighboring tribes, he will abort any attempt to carry on the demarcation mentioned in the treaty. “We oppose the treaty in regard to the articles that describe the borders between our tribal area and other parts at the north.” He said. Bin Shaji described the treaty as unjust because it leaves his tribal area on the exact border between the two countries, i.e., his tribe’s land is actually placed in the 40 km restricted border zone, which means that the tribe’s identity becomes neither Yemeni nor Saudi.
Interestingly, there seems to have been a 241-year-old document demarcating the borders between tribes in the area, “The experts and people who worked on the border discussions did not, and do not know about our situation and our own tribal agreements, as we have a 241-year old document demarcating borders between our tribe and Yam tribe.” He claims that the tribes have already formed their borders with each other through documents that have been approved by all parts. “We agreed on these terms even before the formation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Republic of Yemen.” He then concluded his statement by saying that he will not stay idle if the company supposed to start demarcation comes and tries to avoid the tribal agreements. “This should not be a political decision without any reference to us, the people concerned. We should have been involved in this issue before any decisions that may cause our tribe and people any harm. There are violations in the border agreement, as the two leaderships should not let themselves violate our tribal rules and regulations. We are the ones concerned, and we will not accept any border demarcation that does not go with our own documents, which President Saleh knows very well.”

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