Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06SANAA223
2006-02-01 12:53:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Sanaa
Cable title:  

SANAA'S HIP NEW CAFE BULLDOZED

Tags:  EINV ECON PGOV SOCI YM COM 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SANAA 000223 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EINV ECON PGOV SOCI YM ECON COM
SUBJECT: SANAA'S HIP NEW CAFE BULLDOZED

UNCLAS SANAA 000223

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: EINV ECON PGOV SOCI YM ECON COM
SUBJECT: SANAA'S HIP NEW CAFE BULLDOZED


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On January 30, bulldozers ripped through
the patio of Zorba's Cafe, an establishment that had rapidly
become a popular hang-out for both locals and foreigners.
Zorba's expatriate owners had high hopes that opening the
first sidewalk cafe in Sanaa would allow them to recoup their
investment and quickly turn a profit -- hopes that were
dashed, they believe, by jealous competitors who paid off the
municipality to destroy the cafe. Such underhanded
practices, although usually more discrete than bulldozers,
are often used by Yemeni businessmen to quash their
competition -- another reason why Yemen has much progress to
make in improving its investment climate. END SUMMARY


2. (SBU) Zorba's Cafe opened on January 18 under the
proprietorship of two businessmen from Cyprus and Lebanon,
serving coffee and light fare in a setting reminscent of a
typical European sidewalk cafe. The establishment quickly
became popular among expatriates and some Sanaanis,
particularly because Zorba's was the first of its kind in
Sanaa, a city where locals tend to eat and drink quickly in
restaurants, and reserve socializing for afternoon sessions
of qat chewing at peoples' homes.


3. (SBU) During the night of January 18 - 19, municipality
representatives reportedly approached the home of a sheikh
who owns the land the cafe was built on, looking for a bribe,
but were sent away by the sheikh's armed guards. Municipal
bulldozers then arrived at the cafe during the early morning
of January 30 and, encountering no armed resistance,
destroyed the cafe's patio, effectively putting the
establishment out of business.


4. (SBU) Asked why their business had been shut down, the
owners told poloff that they had queried municipality
officials "all day" on the 30th, but had received nothing
more in the way of an explanation than, "We are so sorry that
this happened." They said they were taking the matter up
with the police, but did not expect a satisfactory
investigation. The cafe owners speculated that "jealous
competitors" who were "not happy with a place where you could
get good, clean food in Sanaa" paid off municipality
officials to bulldoze the cafe. They said that social
conservatives -- some of whom had come to the cafe days
earlier armed with kalashnikovs demanding that an Ethiopian
waitress cover her hair -- probably did not have enough clout
to pressure the city administration into destroying the cafe.



5. (SBU) COMMENT: Businessmen conspiring with government
officials to squeeze out their competition is not a new story
in Sanaa, but the use of bulldozers is normally reserved for
the last stages of land disputes. More often, unexplained
tax bills and previously unknown licenses are the tools of
preference for putting pressure on a restaurant or store
owner. Whatever the methods, the distaste of Sanaani
businessmen for competition and the willingness of corrupt
officials to conspire with them demonstrate that Yemen still
has much progress to make in order to improve an uninviting
investment climate.
Khoury