Yemen's tragedy drags on with Saleh's and the Americans' tiresome tricks,
reports Nasser Arrabyee in Sanaa
6 - 12 October 2011
_____
Two things have significantly affected the nine-month long political crisis
in Yemen this week.
The CIA's most wanted American terrorist Anwar Al-Awlaki was killed in Yemen
by American Hellfire missiles in full and declared cooperation from the
Yemeni government. The second thing is that the UN Security Council might
put more pressure on Yemen's conflicting parties to end the crisis.
After more than two weeks in Yemen, UN envoy Jamal Bin Omar left Sanaa
Monday for New York to brief UN officials on the stalemate in Yemen.
Having met and listened to all parties, Bin Omar said that it was up to them
to take responsibility for rescuing their country, and the solution would
only come from among them not from outside.
The UN envoy could not convince the conflicting parties in Yemen to
implement a plan he earlier suggested for "constitutional, orderly and
peaceful" transfer of power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh according to a
US-backed and Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) deal.
The parties still do not agree on details of the implementation mechanism to
elect a new president for Yemen by the end of this year.
So, immediately after Bin Omar left Yemen, diplomats and observers started
to say that a resolution from the Security Council should be taken on the
basis of the GCC deal and its UN implementation mechanism.
The opposition talks about the possibility of having a resolution from the
UNSC to obligate all parties, while the government keeps welcoming all
regional and international efforts for a "constitutional and orderly"
transfer of power.
There is war in both the capital and in tribal areas, between government
forces and loyal tribesmen on the one hand, and opposition forces which
include rebel troops and Saleh's rivals in Al-Ahmar's family and other armed
tribesmen, on the other.
Observers say if there is any resolution from the UNSC, it should be
balanced and pressing all parties to end the crisis, not in favour of a
certain party.
Yemen is considered a special case in the Arab Spring since the regime is
divided into two groups who are now fighting with each other over power.
And what makes this special and unique case even more complicated is that
one group of this regime wants to win what it called "revolutionary
legitimacy" after it hijacked the youth revolution, while the latter wants
Yemen to be free from both the rival two groups.
Saleh and his supporters claim they are adhering to constitutional
legitimacy, though there has never been a fair election in Yemen's history
and constitutional legitimacy is at best a moot point.
Ex-general Ali Mohsen, the tribal leaders and Al-Ahmar's sons, who were an
essential part of Saleh's regime over the last 33 years, form the group that
is using the youth revolution to reproduce the same tyrannical and backward
regime as the current one, not the civil state that the ambitious youth are
demanding.
American officials keep saying that President Saleh should transfer power,
though they do little about it, as he makes a big show of cooperating with
the US in its war on terror. Thus the killing of Anwar Al-Awlaki earlier
this week became another straw, or rather laurel, for Saleh to clutch at.
Al-Awlaki was accused of three terrorist attacks on US property from his
haven in Yemen over the last three years, despite being on the run from the
US and operating virtually on his own. The Yemeni government has made a show
of providing all kinds of cooperation in hunting down the culprit since
Osama Bin Laden was killed in May.
Al-Qaeda expert Said Obaid said that Al-Awlaki was the main recruiter from
US and the West in general. "If it's proved that Anwar Al-Awlaki is dead,
then 2011 will be the year of victory over Al-Qaeda for the US," Obaid said.
"It seems that the Yemeni political security forces played an essential role
in the murder of Al-Awlaki."
On Friday, US Hellfire missiles killed Al-Awlaki, Samir Khan and two other
Yemenis in Al-Khasef area between Mareb and Al-Jawaf. The four men were in
Al-Awlaki's car according to locals who saw Al-Awlaki and his comrades days
before the attack.
The locals told Al-Ahram Weekly that Al-Awlaki came to Al-Jawf 10 days ago
and he was staying in three places. The house of Salem Saleh Afrag, the
local driver who was killed with him, was the first place. Al-Awlaki was
killed immediately after he left this house. Khamis Afrag, brother of Salem,
is a leading member in the Islamist opposition party, Islah.
The second place was the farm of local tribal leader Amin Al-Okaimi in
Al-Jar. Al-Okaimi is a member of parliament and chairman of Islah. Many
Al-Qaeda operatives including Egyptians, Algerians and Libyans are
supposedly still hiding in the farm of Al-Okaimi until now, according to
local sources.
Al-Okaimi and his tribesmen have been controlling the eastern province of
Al-Jawf since March when ex-general Mohsen encouraged them to dismiss the
president's loyalists and replace them with rebel troops.
The third place frequented by Al-Awlaki was the farm of the Islamist leader
Abdel-Majid Al-Zandani, wanted by the UN and US as a global terrorist, in
the area of Nebta in the same province of Al-Jawf.
Al-Awlaki survived a number of assassination attempts since May. The last
was 20 September, when he and a Saudi national survived a drone attack in
Al-Mahfad in Abyan province.
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Received on Fri Oct 07 2011 - 17:18:25 EDT