Tribal revenge and development are two keysWhat is the solution in Marib [Archives:2004/720/Opinion]

Hassan Al-Zaidi
President Saleh, upon his arrival in Marib Governorate, realized that the most important problems hindering development in the governorate are tribal revenge cases and a lack of major development projects.
The president understood the scope of these problems and their dangerous impact on citizens and future generations of this region. So he connected achieving and meeting the services and development projects with the importance to hold a reconciliation tribal pact among all citizens of the Governorate for a period of five years.
He said, “We want this time to enable the government to treat and find solutions of this issue from the roots. It is important that we allow the children to inherit education, knowledge and development, instead of burdening them with revenge cases which are useless”.
The serious determination of President Saleh to resolve this dangerous phenomenon is clearly reflected through being himself in the governorate and dedicating a lot of time and efforts to this issue.
We hope that President Saleh will be able to end the blood shed among the citizens of this governorate.
Maybe the president has discovered the mistakes of the state's officials and military commanders in this governorate and the many units and army troops whose number may exceed the number of residents.
The passive reactions and stances of many consecutive officials have had towards this issue. The wrong theories and mentalities in their approaches such as, “divide and conquer” and ” let them kill each other” and ” a rock can be covered only by another,” used as resolves in this oil and mineral rich governorate, when an event erupted between tribes in the governorate.
Wars among the tribes generated avenge cases. The disputes, which began simple and expanded without interference, are behind these revenge cases. A good example was in 2001.
The military forces withdrew from their camps, located between two fighting tribes, they were used by the tribes in their war, in spite of calls on the leadership to prevent the tribes from using these camps.
A war was ignited and it could have been prevented, but we only heard of the above expressions.
This is the fact and the reality of some officials. The hope now lies on the efforts and recent steps of President Saleh, which we bless.
The citizens of Marib will not turn down his demands, but it is expected that some of their demands be met. The hope may be to establish a military force from the citizens of the governorate, which will intervene at times of disputes among tribes and to hold them liable if not able to settle the disputes.
The second problem can be resolved by establishing more development and services projects the governorate absolutely lacks. Security can be achieved only through development. The elements for security may have been provided by the military might currently in the governorate.
In addition, the freeze of the local councils may have opened the opportunity once again for the corrupts in the governorate as there is no monitoring authority or even anyone to comment on the media on the embezzlement of millions of riyals allocated for employing citizens in the governorate.
Today, we say welcome to Marib, the history, civilization and oil and goodbye to revenge, kidnapping and corruption. Thanks to the president and efforts and noble efforts of honest and loyal sheiks and citizens, we will get rid of the issue of revenge.
The promise remains, Mr. President, for the services and development projects.
——
[archive-e:720-v:13-y:2004-d:2004-03-15-p:opinion]