Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08SANAA86
2008-01-14 14:30:00
SECRET
Embassy Sanaa
Cable title:  

GPC MP CRITICIZES ROYG HANDLING OF SOUTHERN

Tags:  PGOV PREL YM 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHYN #0086 0141430
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 141430Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY SANAA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 8774
S E C R E T SANAA 000086 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/13/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL YM
SUBJECT: GPC MP CRITICIZES ROYG HANDLING OF SOUTHERN
DISCONTENT

Classified By: Ambassador Stephen A. Seche for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

Summary
-------

S E C R E T SANAA 000086

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/13/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL YM
SUBJECT: GPC MP CRITICIZES ROYG HANDLING OF SOUTHERN
DISCONTENT

Classified By: Ambassador Stephen A. Seche for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

Summary
--------------


1. (C) On January 13 a prominent member of Yemen's ruling
party criticized his government's handling of demonstrations
in Aden specifically and southern discontent in general.
Earlier in the day, media reported that two Yemenis had died
and 17 were injured in fighting that broke out during a
demonstration in the southern city. In an unrelated meeting
on January 14, the son of late Parliament speaker Sheikh
Abdullah al-Ahmar told POLOFF that Yemen needs a southern
president in order to ensure national unity. While our GPC
interlocutor is known for his willingness to criticize his
government and his party, his observations are both apt and
insightful. End Summary.


2. (S) In a January 13 meeting with the Ambassador, Mohamed
Abulahoum, head of the Foreign Relations Committee of the
ruling General People's Congress (GPC) expressed doubts about
the ROYG's handling of demonstrations that were ongoing in
Aden specifically and political unrest in the South in
general. "I don't think that we handled it (that day's
demonstration) well," said Abulahoum. "We should just open
Aden and let them go in," he added, criticizing the security
forces' standard tactic of trying to keep people from
traveling into the city of Aden when a demonstration is
planned. Witnesses told emboff that Yemen security forces
were posted at each major intersection in the Seira, Mualla,
Tawahi and Khor Maksr districts on January 13 and that the
Aden International Airport was closed all day as well
(septel).


3. (S) Independent press reports indicate that two were
killed and 16 were wounded (including 7 police officers) in
fighting related to the demonstrations which were organized
to commemorate the civil unrest among factions of the Yemen
Socialist Party (YSP) in the mid-1980,s. Violence
reportedly ensued when security forces attempted to steer an
estimated 3000 demonstrators away from the Sheik Othman
district of Aden into a stadium in the neighboring Mansoura
District. Both official press reports and witnesses on the
ground blame "hooligans" for entering the demonstration and
inciting the violence. The existence of these hooligans or
their sympathies (pro-demonstrator or pro-government) have
not been independently confirmed.


4. (C) The events of January 13, while significant, are not
qualitatively different than the demonstrations that have
gone on in the south for the last few months. Abulahoum also
raised doubts about the ROYG's handling of this larger
discontent. "Our problem," he said, "is that we never check
what happened yesterday. We did not handle the South right
before and we are not handling it well now." He went on to
add that he felt the ROYG should have let the opposition
Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) take a more active role. "We
should let them be the front men," he said. Another embassy
contact recently expressed a novel idea springing from
concern of the ROYG's handling of Southern discontent. Hamid
al-Ahmar, son of the late Speaker of Parliament and Sheikh of
Sheikhs Abdulallah al-Ahmar, told POLOFF on January 14 that
for the sake of national unity, the next president of Yemen
or even the next two presidents should be southerners.


5. (C) The Ambassador asked Abulahoum what he thought the
demonstrators in the South were trying to achieve. "On the
surface," he responded, "they want separation (of the South
from the rest of Yemen),but if they see real reform, they
will come back." Separation is a threat that they use," he
concluded.

Comment
--------------


6. (C) Abulahoum is a direct man and has always been willing
to frankly criticize the ROYG and his own party. His
criticisms are therefore not as surprising as they might
otherwise be. They are, however, both apt and insightful.
Protests have been ongoing for several months and the ROYG
has had not real success in ameliorating the pervasive sense
of southern disenfranchisement. End Comment.
SECHE