Globalist-fueled Socialist Revolution in Yemen

Yemen's U.N. Envoy Quits Over Violence to Protesters

Two prominent members of Yemen's ruling party resigned on Saturday in protest against the killing of dozens of anti-government protesters, while troops enforced a state of emergency in the capital. Inspired by mass protests that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, demonstrators have been demanding for weeks that veteran president Saleh step down. More than 70 people have been killed.



March 19, 2011

Reuters - Two prominent members of Yemen's ruling party resigned on Saturday in protest against the killing of dozens of anti-government protesters, while troops enforced a state of emergency in the capital.

Defying the crackdown, the opposition vowed to keep up its "peaceful revolution" in the poor Arabian peninsula state, a neighbor of Saudi Arabia and a U.S. ally against al Qaeda.

Soldiers set up checkpoints to enforce a ban on carrying firearms in public, even checking for hidden guns inside the ornamental scabbards of traditional Yemeni jambiya daggers.

Nasr Taha Mustafa, head of the state news agency and a leading ruling party member, said he had resigned from his post and the party in protest over Friday's killings of up to 42 protesters by rooftop snipers in the capital.

The snipers opened fire on crowds that flocked to a sit-in at Sanaa University after Friday prayers. Protesters said they had caught at least seven snipers carrying government identity cards, but President Ali Abdullah Saleh denied this, blaming gunmen among the protesters for the violence.

"I find myself compelled to submit my resignation ... after the heinous massacre in Sanaa yesterday ... Nothing can justify the deaths of scores of youths whose only sin was to exercise the freedom guaranteed by Islam and the constitution to demand change," Mustafa said on his Facebook page.

Another party member, Mohamed Saleh Qara'a, told Reuters he had also quit because of the "completely unacceptable" violence. The tourism minister and the head of the party's foreign affairs committee resigned on Friday.

Inspired by mass protests that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, demonstrators have been demanding for weeks that veteran president Saleh step down. More than 70 people have been killed.

Austrian energy firm OMV halted production at the Uqlah oilfield in Shabwa province and will withdraw its staff due to security concerns, a Yemeni oil source said on Saturday.

OMV said on Tuesday it would not be able to transport oil through a Yemeni export pipeline for a few days, after the pipeline was blown up by disgruntled tribesmen.

Friday's bloodshed prompted Saleh, struggling to preserve his 32-year rule, to declare a state of emergency for 30 days that restricts freedom of movement and the right to gather. It also grants police more leeway to make inspections and arrests.

Tanks were deployed for the first time since the unrest began. Yemen is the second country in the region to announce emergency rule this week, after Bahrain declared martial law on Tuesday.

Two out of every five Yemenis live on less than $2 per day. The U.S.-allied government faces separatists in the south, maintains a shaky truce with rebels in the north and is fighting an aggressive local al Qaeda wing.

Saleh has rejected demands to step down immediately but promised to leave office when his term expires in 2013. He has also offered a new constitution with a stronger parliament.

The opposition said there was no way it could negotiate with Saleh's government after Friday's killings.

"Sending tanks to the streets is a sign that the regime is in a state of panic. But Yemenis are determined to move forward with their peaceful revolution until the fall of the regime," said opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri.

"Tanks don't scare us. They have killed dozens of us and hundreds were wounded. And we are not leaving until Ali Abdullah Saleh leaves," said Abdullah Saif, one of the protesters.

In the southern port city of Aden, police shot and wounded six protesters as they tried to disperse demonstrators holding a sit-in in a main street, residents said.

The United States and France condemned Friday's violence. U.S. President Barack Obama urged Sanaa to protect peaceful protesters and said those responsible must be held accountable.

Yemen in State of Emergency After Protest Massacre

March 18, 2011

Reuters - Gunmen on rooftops shot dead up to 42 protesters at an anti-government rally in Sanaa after Muslim prayers on Friday, enraging the opposition and prompting President Ali Abdullah Saleh to declare a state of emergency.

Medical sources and witnesses told Reuters that Yemeni security forces and plainclothes snipers, who protesters said were government security men, had opened fire on the crowds. The Interior Ministry put the death toll at 25, but doctors said 42 people had died and at least 300 were injured.

Saleh, struggling to maintain his 32-year grip on power in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state, said the deaths had occurred in clashes between demonstrators and other citizens at a protest encampment at Sanaa University.

"I express my extreme sorrow for what happened today after Friday prayers in the university district," Saleh told a news conference in Sanaa, blaming gunmen among the protesters for the violence.

"The police were not present and did not open fire," he said. "It is clear there are armed elements inside these tents and they are the ones who opened fire."

He declared a 30-day state of emergency that gives wider powers to security forces and bars citizens from bearing arms in public. A curfew was being discussed.

Yemen, home to an active al Qaeda wing, is the second country in the region to announce emergency rule this week, after Bahrain's introduction of martial law on Tuesday, which was followed by a major crackdown on protesters.

It was not clear if Saleh had the military power to enforce such an order, with Yemen deeply divided and racked by weeks of civil disturbance in which over 70 people have been killed.

Witnesses said security forces at first fired into the air on Friday to prevent anti-government protesters from marching out of the Sanaa University camp, which has become the focal point of the protest movement.

After the initial gunfire, the shooting continued from other directions and the toll mounted. A news photographer was among the dead, the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists said.

"After the prayers finished, some fires were started in the street leading to the presidential palace. A large group of people headed that way to see what was happening and were fired on from the rooftops," said Bashir Abdullah, a witness.