We respect the military and security institutions [Archives:2008/1124/Opinion]
Jamal Mohammed Al-Ja'abi
Attending the New Training Year's inaugural ceremony on June 5 at the Central Security, commanded by his nephew the young BG Yahya Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, the President of the Republic presented a subject related with the security and military institutions. According to Mr. President, any criticism of one of the two institutions or both is prohibited and punishable since such institutions represent all the Yemeni people.
Mr. President denied that these institutions are oppressive. At this point, I agree with what Saleh said about both institutions and we can further praise them since their members stay up sleeplessly for the sake of citizens' security and safety. One hardly finds a household without one of the family members being recruited in one of these institutions. We can make our suggestion for clarifying a very critical issue related with military and security servants as a form of backing these institutions and advocating that injustice on them be lifted.
Mr. President may not feel the sufferings of our brothers and sons, who are members in the army or security bodies, and therefore are exposed to oppression and injustice and their rights are abused. The senior security and military commanders, who continue extorting junior officers and soldiers and deprive them of good meals and wears, required by the nature of their duties.
I personally don't imagine that the kinds of rice and beans given to our brothers in the security and army institutions are edible, nor are the blankets they receive useable. Above all, army members and policemen in Yemen don't receive a humanitarian treatment like their counterparts in the neighboring countries.
When we sometimes see that traffic men or soldiers in police stations look for futile sums of money from drivers or citizens coming to their offices, we question, “Are these policemen accountable for behaving this way or are they justified to ask people for money due to their low salaries and poor living conditions?” Consequently, policemen in Yemen seem to behave like those who served the government under the rule of Imamate since they used to live at citizens' expenses.
Undoubtedly, there are outsiders in both institutions who receive high salaries and hold posts which they may not deserve, and other people, senior to and more qualified than them are eligible for their posts. There are some senior officers who deserve high military posts, however, they find themselves confined and restricted by high-ranking officials to do jobs that don't match their capacities and seniority for other reasons that have nothing to do with qualification or seniority.
Ordering the deployment of policemen and army members in streets of many cities and giving them the green light to open fire on peaceful protesters and innocent citizens, like what happened in Sharab'a of Taiz governorate, Aden's Radfan district, Al-Dhale' and Hadramout, harms reputation of the security institution and helps trigger citizens' hatred and animosity toward policemen. In the meantime, the incompetent military and security commanders must be held accountable for the foolish orders they gave to soldiers to fire live ammunition on protestors and enter in clashes with them. Such operations are impossible to be carried out by the Israeli army against the Palestinian people. The tragedy is even worse when commanders order soldiers to sacrifice themselves in fighting with citizens while they stay inside the military facilities.
We back what Mr. President says about the military and security institutions, but we hope that he should know about the pains and sufferings of servants in these institutions, who receive low salaries that are not enough to provide for their families.
Source: Al-Thawri Weekly
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