YEMENI GUN BAN HOLDS BUT ATTITUDES REMAIN UNCHANGED

S E C R E T SANAA 000122 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2018 TAGS: PGOV YM SUBJECT: YEMENI GUN BAN HOLDS BUT ATTITUDES REMAIN UNCHANGED REF: A. SANNA 1633 ¶B. SANAA 2324 ¶C. SANAA 91 Classified By: A/DCM Mike Sarhan for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (U) Yemen's historic gun ban is holding five months after it was announced. Though violence continues in Yemen reports suggest there has been some reduction in gun related crimes. Lasting change will only be successful if attitudes about weapons change and people become aware of its dangers. END SUMMARY. THE BAN PERSISTS -------------- ¶2. (U) Five months ago on August 23, 2007, the Yemeni Ministry of Interior instituted a gun ban in major cities throughout Yemen based on a 1992 gun control law as reported in ref A. Security forces continue to report increasing numbers of weapons seized. On September 25, The Yemen Times reported that 16,000 weapons had been confiscated since the ban was announced on August 23. More recently the English language newspaper the Yemen Observer reported on January 5 that security forces enforcing the gun ban had seized 62,088 weapons. (Note: Reports did not detail types or condition of weapons confiscated. End Note.) The ROYG has shown considerable dedication to the gun ban imposing it even on influential Yemeni. On September 29, Almotamar.net reported security forces took ten weapons from Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar. (Note. Sadeq was not yet the paramount sheikh of the Hashid confederation, Yemen's most powerful tribal group. End Note.) Sadeq's late father, Sheikh Abdullah, was in staunch opposition to increased gun laws. ¶3. (C) The gun ban continues to hold throughout Yemen. National Democratic Institute Resident Coordinator Peter Dimitroff attended a conference in Marib city on November 7, which is a notoriously tribal and armed region of Yemen. Dimitroff told PolOff, that while weapons were still widely visible outside the city, they were not seen in the city. EmbOffs reported in November following trips to Hodeidah, Mokha, Taiz and Amran, compliance with the gun ban inside the cities and an absence of weapons on the streets. (Note: Amran is a northern tribal area well known for the martial attitudes and previously would have been bristling with arms. Hodeidah and Mokha are on the western coast. Taiz is in southwest Yemen. With the exception of Amran these cities were relatively weapon free before the ban. End Note.) PolOff on December 13, noted in ref B that people were not armed in Amran during a visit to investigate an alleged kidnapping which had resulted in threats and high tension in the community. An Embassy employee who returned to his home in Taiz in December, reported that though weapons were everywhere in his home village less than an hour from Taiz city, guns were not evident in the city. PolOff visited Mukulla in eastern Yemen on January 16, and saw no civilians carrying weapons in the city. Additionally, only one in five police were seen to be visibly armed. ¶4. (U) The Yemen Observer on January 5, also reported that Ministry of Interior Colonel Mohammad al-Ghadra said that the gun ban is responsible for a decrease in reported crimes from 183 in the four months prior to the gun ban to 160 in the four months following. Revenge killings, of which only 122 were reported in the same period, also dropped. In a Yemen Times interview reported on November 20 Deputy Interior Minister Mohammed al-Qawsi said violent crimes had dropped 43 percent. (Note: As many crimes go unreported in Yemen, crime statistics are skewed to the more violent ones. End Note.) VIOLENCE PERSISTS -------------- ¶5. (U) Not all the news, however, is good. Initially there was opposition to the gun ban. Alsahwa)Yemen.net, the mouthpiece of the Islah Opposition Party, reported security forces detained member of Parliament Abdullah al-Haj for three hours outside Sana'a on August 26, for refusing to give up his weapons. Almotamar.net reported on September 16, that security forces had a shoot out with bodyguards of Sheikh Dirham Yahya, head of the al-Qahira district over his non-compliance. Later Alsahwa-Yemen.net on September 18, reported that despite the gun ban, gunmen massed in Taiz's city center to protest of the killing of a sheikh (Abdul Salam al-Qaisi). ¶6. (U) Weapon markets continue to exist despite the gun ban. Deutsche Presse Agentur reported on December 27, that an explosion in Saada city's infamous al-Talh weapon market killed four people and injured 16. Guns continued to be present in Sana'a as evidenced by the November 13, Almotammar report that Brigadier General Jamal al-Kumeinm was shot dead and four others were wounded by an armed gang of car-thieves in Sana'a The Yemen Times on November 18, reported that Hussein al-Ahmar held a rally in Khamir in Amran governorate of more than 10,000 armed tribesmen. ¶7. (C) Sana'a University Professor Abdullah al-Faqih noted to PolOff that the rally was a show of force and independence of the Hashid tribe in the face of the gun ban. EmbOffs reported regularly hearing Kalishnakovs being fired in Sana'a as of January. PolOff witnessed a man carrying a Kalishnakov in the Haddah neighborhood on Friday January 11. (Note: Haddah is a neighborhood in Sana'a where many from the diplomatic community reside. End Note.) PolOff also witnessed a man stepping into a store front in the old city of Bab-al-Yaman on January 19, armed with a pistol. (COMMENT: In both cases witnessed by PolOff, these individuals may have been authorized to carry weapons as a bodyguard to an MP or Sheikh or as a security official. The apparent nonchalant manner of carring their weapons and absence of reaction from other passers by implies an acceptance of weapons that will take much longer to confront. END COMMENT.) ROYG REASONS & PLANS -------------- ¶8. (C) Ministry of Interior (MOI) Chief of Staff Brigadier General Ahmed al-Sunaidar told PolOff on January 22, that the gun ban was something any government would want to have. He pointed out that the gun ban helped limit the availability of weapons to terrorists. He added that people might require arms in the countryside but not in the cities. (Note: al-Sunaidar said the gun ban plan at present includes the capital, major cities in Yemen and will eventually extend to the countryside. End Note.) Additionally, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Head of the Gulf and Arab Countries Bureau Ambassador Abdulkader Hadi told PolOff on January 20 that reduction of arms in society was one stipulation for Yemeni accession to the GCC. ¶9. (C) Abdul-Rahman al-Marwani, the founder and chairman of Dar al-Salaam, Yemen's only NGO dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of guns and developing conflict management relating to revenge killings, told PolOff that the gun ban was bringing success in reducing arms, but that his goals were to raise awareness and reduce gun violence and suggested the government sought only to impose control of non-government arms. COMMENT: -------------- ¶10. (S) Yemen has much to benefit from if they can continue to uphold the ban. Accession to the GCC, reduced crime, and increased central government control will all be in the regime's favor. Incidents like the January 19 shooting in Hadramout (ref C),however, show the government still has a long way to go. The gun ban is a superficial measure baning only the open display of weapons in cities, but not outlawing their ownership. Attitudes about weapons remain unchanged. Yemenis are all to ready to resort to guns when strife occurs. Programs on gun awareness, such as those funded by the Political Military Office through UNICEF and UNDP, and rule of law and responsible government in Yemen will need to be strengthened to bring about a fundamental and lasting change in Yemeni society in relation to guns. SECHE