Thousands Demand Ouster of Yemen's President

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press

Thousands Demand Ouster of Yemen's President
January 22, 2011

BY AHMED AL-HAJ - ASSOCIATED PRESS
ADEN, Yemen -- Drawing inspiration from the revolt in Tunisia, thousands of Yemenis fed up with their president's 32-year rule demanded his ouster Saturday in a noisy demonstration that appeared to be the first large-scale public challenge to the strongman.

Clashes also broke out Saturday in Algeria, as opposition activists there tried to copy the tactics of their Tunisian neighbors, who forced their longtime leader to flee the country more than a week ago.

The protests in Yemen appeared to be the first of their kind. The nation's 23 million citizens have many grievances: they are the poorest people in the Arab world, the government is widely seen as corrupt and is reviled for its alliance with the United States in fighting al-Qaida, there are few political freedoms and the country is rapidly running out of water.

Still, calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down had been a red line that few dissenters dared to test.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/22/937295/thousands-demand-ouster-of-yemens.html

[Igel]

1. Tunisia and Yemen are entirely different kinds of beasts.

Yemen was split for a long time and had a civil war. The peace has been uneasy. The "opposition" is of several kinds--some remaining from when the opposition was a government, some from Islamists that are somewhat coddled in private but not in public, some pushing for a more "modern" kind of government that isn't rooted in the former governments' practices.

Tunisia's revolution is risky but might well work out--give it 5 years and get back to me. They've gotten past a lot of the tribalism that was historically there, I hope enough of it to make a go of a state that isn't to be run for a particular tribe or clan. If the same thing happened in Yemen I'd expect either a true strong man to emerge, one that makes Saleh look like a pussy cat, or for a Somalia-like mess to result in fairly short order, one that Sa'udiyya would hate on its border but which it would refuse to touch with a 10-foot eel.

[Ghost Dog]

2. Briefly-socialist South Yemen, centered on Aden, was very different from the North.

Tribalism and religious/bureaucratic/administrative sectarianism has laways been the bane of the Arab world, it seems to me from my reading of history, which includes some of that of al Ándaluz where, after the heyday created by the Abd al-Rahman clan, with Córdoba one of the finest cities in the world, relentless fragmentation followed, interrupted by occasional periods of draconian consolidation imposed by sectarian administrative (as well as military) currents flowing in from the south (with Marrakech becominig capital of al Ándaluz for a while, for example) and beyond in the various caliphates, emirates and sultanates that have succeeded one another through history in a constant state of flux.

[Joanne98]

3. Yemeni Activist Jailed Amid Calls for President’s Removal

An Yemeni opposition activist leading protests inspired by anti-government rallies in Tunisia was arrested by authorities today as she and her supporters called for Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

Police arrested at least 15 people today as hundreds of protesters gathered at Sana’a University demanding the release of Tawakul Karaman, head of the Yemeni non-profit organization Women Journalists Without Chains. “President, pack your luggage, we have decided to overthrow your throne,” demonstrators chanted.

Karaman was detained earlier today while she was driving home with her husband, according to an e-mailed statement from her organization. The Interior Ministry said in a stement on its website that she was arrested on orders from the prosecution, without saying why. Karaman has been leading protests at the campus of Sana’a University in support of a popular uprising that ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

This month, Yemen’s parliament gave preliminary approval to a constitutional amendment eliminating presidential term limits, a measure that would allow Ali Abdullah Saleh to stay in power past the end of his current mandate in 2013. Saleh, 68, a U.S. ally, became leader of North Yemen in 1978, and has ruled the Republic of Yemen since the north and south merged in 1990. He won elections in 1999 and 2006.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-23/yemeni-activist-jailed-amid-calls-for-president-s-removal.html