When a Wedding Ceremony Turns Into a Military Confrontation [Archives:1999/36/Reportage]

Just 50 meters away from the Yemen Times premises in Sanaa, near the Palestinian Embassy on Hadda Street, what was supposed to be a traditional wedding turned out to be a military storm. 
It was around 12:30 am last Friday when one of the men in the wedding, perhaps forgetting about the last extremely harsh measures against the carrying and using of weapons, shot some gunfire to the air as usual in any wedding. However, this led to unexpected results, as immediately after hearing the gunfire, the police and the men started exchanging gunfire and shooting at each other until the police forces realized that they had to get assistance, so they asked for troops along with two tanks to get things done. After arriving to the location, one of the tanks, directly drove through the wall of the garden where the wedding was taking place, and immediately surrounded the house where the men stayed. The man who shot the gunfire then found no other way other than to get out of his hideout. The gunfire continued to be heard from many locations as far as Al-Safiya area more than 2 km away from the place of the incident. 
As Yemen Times guard explains, “We could not sleep that night because of the exchanged gunfire and shouting that gave us the impression as some kind of battle is going on outside. Although I couldn’t dare to go the roof to find out what is going on, I yet saw the battle from the 2nd floor window. The number of troops was so high that I thought that some kind of murder or so could have taken place. Later on, I discovered that there were no victims. The owner of the house which was stormed along with the neighboring buildings called me to see the damage that was caused by the gunfire and tank storming. It was an unforgettable night. This is the second time in a week that I could not sleep at night after the City Center explosion near by.”It is worth mentioning that a number of such incidents took place in the capital city to a number of either rich businessmen or officials whose guards have weapons but do not wear military uniforms. 
Another incident took place last Saturday noon when the police shot dead the son of the Head Chief of the Security Police because he refused to give up his weapon to the policemen who were only carrying out the clear instructions of the Ministry of Interior to prohibit the carrying of arms even if licensed. 
After the many incidents that resulted from the strict measures by the police, the Ministry seemed to have ordered the stopping of the campaign for the time being as if they wanted things to cool down. 
It is worth mentioning that this attempt to disarm the Yemeni public is the last of a serious of attempts which have failed all to reach their goal of abolishing the use of arms in Yemen’s main cities. The reason, analysts say, are mainly three: 
1- Many Yemenis, specifically tribesmen, cannot afford giving away their weapons due to it being a shame in traditional reasons and giving it away means relinquishing their honor. 
2- Some see weapons as an essential security measure (when traveling long distances, for self defense from kidnappers, robbers, etc.) especially that the state does not provide adequate security to its citizens. 
3- The sources of these weapons are still open. The weapon markets at Jihana, and other rural areas are not controlled or even monitored by the state. Hence the flow of weapons continues even though the available weapons are being taken away from their carriers. 
Hence, unless these three causes are dealt with, the carrying of weapons will continue, and will continue to be impossible to control. 

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