Strike in Bagdad, death in Sana’aDemonstration turns violence [Archives:2003/628/Opinion]

By Bassam Jamil
[email protected]
Overwhelming anger erupted when thousands protested and condemned the war against Iraq on Friday. They protested a war that ignored all international standards and agreements and abandoned all human values. All indicators show that the war was launched for the sole purpose of controlling oil sources in the Middle East. Whatever the excuse presented by the US administration, there is no doubt that millions of people worldwide share this opinion with me.
Yemen in turn participated in voicing its anti-war stance through angry demonstrations. Thousands of Yemenis marched in the streets of Sanaa towards the US Embassy last Friday. Even though earlier demonstrations were led and promoted by the government itself and did not reflect the true feelings of the people, this particular demonstration was a truly self-driven and sincere protest.
The demonstrators criticized the US-war against Iraq with rough slogans and demanded the halt of this unjust war. Sadly however, four innocent Yemenis were killed including a policeman and an eleven year old boy, while tens others were injured.
Isn't it truly amazing to see how so many bombs falling on Baghdad during the first two days of the war lead to only one death in a tense war zone while in the peaceful capital of the Arabian Felix (Sanaa), four were killed easily.
The obvious reason behind this bizarre contradiction is, in my opinion, the spread of arms in Yemen, which is a phenomenon that has caused so many deaths to date throughout the country. But on the other hand, one cannot deny that lives seem to be less of value in our country compared to the West.
We get the impression that a soldier or policeman can simply kill any civilian with little or nothing to worry about. In a time massive demonstrations take place in other countries with rare injuries, how on earth would four persons be killed in such a relatively small demonstration in Yemen?
The demonstration law which was passed last month states that no demonstration is allowed to take place without prior authorization. Perhaps this was enough reason for police forces to use live ammunition on demonstrators. There is no excuse or justification whatsoever in my opinion for slaughtering civilians in this manner.
It is even more outrageous is the ironic way the Yemeni Satellite Channel dealt with the incident. Or in another words, the way it did not deal with it. The TV simply ignored the whole thing as nothing happened! Isn't it a shame that we find out about our own country's news from other channels? Where is the so called transparency which was said to exist in our media? Is it simply a theatrical act or simply a lie? Why then was Jarallah Omar's assassination news covered spontaneously and with such density?
The Friday demonstration brought with it many critical indicators on the stability and safety in Yemen and on many other issues. If things become worse in Iraq, God knows how the upcoming demonstrations would be!
Well, let us just leave things to the wise dealing of our shrewd government.
——
[archive-e:628-v:13-y:2003-d:2003-03-24-p:opinion]