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Since the outbreak of the Yemeni revolution, Taiz has been an
inspiration to other towns that have risen in revolt. But the regime of
Ali Abdallah Saleh is trying to drive the peaceful movement off the
streets and into an armed confrontation.

By James Gundun
 
He may not be aware of it, but President Barack Obama recently received a letter from Yemen's Coordinating Council for the Youth Revolution of Change (CCYRC). One of the leading street coalitions demanding freedom and equality in a country divided by its ruler, the nebulous Ali Abdullah Saleh, CCYRC celebrated America’s Independence Day and wished prosperity on “his excellency” Obama. Yemen’s revolutionaries, CCYRC counseled, seek the same freedom that American revolutionaries fought and died so valiantly for.

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Nadia al-Sakkaf April 27, 2011 

For the last three years, Yemeni activist Tawakul Karman has led protests every Tuesday in the square in front of the cabinet building, which she nicknamed “Freedom Square,” holding banners making demands ranging from government reform to freedom of the press to the release of prisoners of  conscience. But it was not until the beginning of this year that this movement gained momentum, specifically on February 3, the “Day of Rage.” 

This was initiated solely by young activists who connected online through Facebook groups.  These youth were acting with no guidance or involvement from the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), and their level of organization and preparedness was very low. 

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by Nir Rosen

On February 11 after the Friday noon prayers Yemeni students and activists organized a demonstration in the capital city of Sanaa in solidarity with Egyptian demonstrators frustrated with Mubarak’s refusal to resign. At about 1 PM they met in front of the small roundabout by the new campus of Sanaa University and marched through town chanting slogans and carrying pictures of Gamal Abdel Nasser the Egyptian hero of Arab nationalism. Less than 200 people took part and only two were women. Slogans chanted included:

“Awaken! Awaken oh youth!”

“Long live Egypt!”

“Down Hosni Mubarak!”

“Egypt mother of the free! Mother of the revolutionaries”

And they sang an excerpt from a poem by Abu al Qasim al Shabi, a Tunisian poet of the early 20th century: "If the people will to live, providence is destined to favorably respond; and night is destined to fold, and the chains are certain to be broken.” This song had been heard in Tunisia, Egypt and then throughout the Arab world as popular mass revolutions spread.

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Over the past 3 years Southern Yemen has slipped further and further into discontent with some rural areas in full rebellion notably in Dalla, Radfan, Yafee, and Abyan.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh has tried without success to buy out loyalties in the Southern Movement “Al Hirak” and used heavy handed tactics to no avail, according to Rt. Brigadier Ali Alsaddi (from Abyan). Alsaddi is considered to be an active leader in the Southern Movement in which 263 young, unarmed civilians have been killed by the Central Security Forces (CSF) during peaceful demonstrations or in jails under torture. The last two to die in Aden prisons were Firas Alessai who was interrogated by drunken officers who electrocuted his testicles and ended his life with a bullet to his head according to inmates who witnessed the event. The second was Al Darwish who was arrested during a demonstration in Aden and was beaten to death in a Criminal Investigative Department (CID) prison by Colonel Nasser Al-Sanabani (Northern Yemeni officer under the direct command of the Police commissioner).

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Yemen is among the world's most corrupt and least developed nations, factors that explain a long running war in the north and an exploding independence movement in the south. Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih deals with legitimate dissent by jailing journalists, shooting protesters, and bombing civilians on a scale that reaches the level of war crimes. Salih has long been an al-Qa'ida enabler, but the December 25, 2009 Christmas Day terror attack brought new urgency to U.S.-Yemeni relations. However, the United States risks becoming a party to violent repression, as well as enhancing the support system of one of the world's most ambitious al-Qa'ida affiliates.

The government of Yemen is engaged in three counter-insurgency campaigns. Southern secessionists, northern rebels, and al-Qa’ida are each challenging the state. The calls for independence, revolt, or jihad arose as the state came to exist as the equivalent of a privatized mafia, but only al-Qa’ida in Yemen (AQIY) presents a transnational threat. The lethal jihadi attack on Fort Hood in November 2009 and the December 2009 attempted bombing of an airliner over Detroit were linked to al-Qa’ida terrorists in Yemen.
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Yemeni students demonstrate in the streets of Sanaa to mark the ousting of Tunisian President Ben Ali and call for Arabs to rise up against their "scared and deceitful leaders"
About 1,000 students marched through the streets of the Yemeni capital of Sanaa on Sunday urging Arabs to rise up against their leaders in the wake of Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's ousting.

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