Yemen: Rights groups express concern over street vendor deaths [Archives:2006/960/Local News]

SANAA, 25 June (IRIN) ) Human rights activists are calling for greater protection of street vendors following reports that several had been killed by local officials in cities throughout Yemen.

In some cases, unlicensed vendors – who are forbidden from hawking their wares in the streets – have been shot at or beaten by municipal officials, say human rights workers.

Khalid al-Anesi, executive director of the National Organisation for Defending Rights and Freedoms in Sana'a, known as HOOD, said that such attacks have become commonplace.

“Attacks against street vendors have become a daily scene,” he said. “Municipality prisons are full of street vendors.” Al-Anesi pointed out that, over the past year, six cases – including beatings and killings – had been registered with HOOD, but that “there are other cases which haven't been disclosed”.

Yemen is a poor country, with some 42 percent of the population currently living under the poverty line. Street vendors, therefore, are a common site in almost every neighbourhood.

According to a recent law issued, however, street vendors are only allowed to sell in specified parts of the city. They are banned from working on major streets so as not to get in the way of pedestrians or cause traffic jams.

Street vendor Ahmed al-Raimi, 35, said that municipality workers regularly chased him and other vendors off the streets, and accused them of forcing him to work in “an environment of fear”.

Human rights activist and lawyer for HOOD Ahmed Arman also pointed out that street vendors were often shot at by municipality workers. He went on to say that HOOD had received reports of the deaths of three street vendors this year. The latest case was on 13 June, when Ali al-Bahri, a mechanic, was allegedly killed over a disagreement with municipality workers in a neighbourhood of the capital. “This reflects the violence of authorities,” opined Arman.

Yahya al-Shu'aibi, the Governor os Sana'a, however, said that such fatal attacks were isolated cases and did not represent a trend. “If it happens, then it's the result of resistance,” al-Shu'aibi said. “The municipality is tasked only to remove those who violate the rules, not to take aggressive measures against them.”
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