PRIME MINISTER: SOUTHERNERS ARE PRO-UNITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANAA 001017

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP:MBLONG
BAGHDAD FOR LGURIAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/31/2019
TAGS: PGOV YM
SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER: SOUTHERNERS ARE PRO-UNITY

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

Summary
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1. (C) The Prime Minister told the Ambassador on May 30 that
southern discontent consisted of a limited number of people
complaining about personal issues, spurred on by exiled
leaders and misled by an overly free press. Real southerners
are pro-unity, Mujawar said, employing the same rhetoric that
President Saleh used recently. End Summary.

Secessionists, What Secessionists?
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2. (C) An optimistic Prime Minister Ali Mujawar assured the
Ambassador on May 30 that unrest in Yemen,s southern
governorates has been much less severe than has been
reported. Saying that no secessionist demonstration has had
more than 200 participants, Mujawar characterized the
Southern Movement as a small number of malcontents driven by
their own personal issues. &If one doesn,t have a job, he
calls for secession. If another doesn,t have land, he calls
for secession."


3. (C) Mujawar complained that "secessionist voices" from
outside Yemen had raised the profile of secessionists.
Referring to a recent speech by Ali Salem al-Beidh, the
self-proclaimed leader of the Southern Movement, Mujawar
said, "Beidh didn't say anything new. He made the same
speech that he made (while leaving Yemen) in 1994. Only this
time he made it in Munich, not Mukalla." The Prime Minister
also warned that secessionists might be in for more than they
bargained for. "Yemen would never break into two countries,"
he told the Ambassador. "It would break into more, smaller
units. It would be much worse than Somalia."

Freedom is Part of the Problem
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4. (C) Mujawar continued, asserting that "I have a feeling
that liberty has caused the problem." Saying that the ROYG
had been too lax in enforcing existing laws, the Prime
Minister complained that southern daily al-Ayyam had
"injected hatred into the situation," and "become a
mouthpiece for secession." Mujawar told the Ambassador that
recent actions taken against newspapers reflected the
implementation of existing laws, and noted that Yemen's
Supreme Judicial Council had announced a new court to deal
with press issues. Complaining that the country had
"suffered greatly" form the actions of people like the
Bashraheels (an Adeni family that publishes al-Ayyam),
Mujawar said that now the ROYG can take such people to court.

Southerners are Pro-Unity
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5. (C) Mujawar told the Ambassador repeatedly that on his
recent trip to the south he found the residents supportive of
unity. "We went to celebrate unity and were pleased by the
large crowds that turned out," he told the Ambassador.
"People are ready to defend unity. Things are not like they
were in 1994, they are better." When the Ambassador asked if
recent development projects inaugurated in the south were
likely to see fruition in the near future, Mujawar asserted
they were. "Some of them were projects that had already
been completed," he said. Others were ones for which we laid
the cornerstone, and I cannot lay the cornerstone unless a
project is fully approved and funded." Mujawar added that
the ROYG has begun to implement reforms that will make
southerners even more content. "We are going back to the
right path," he said.

Comment
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6. (C) Mujawar's message matched that which President Saleh
gave to the visiting Deputy Director of the CIA on May 28,
and didn't stray at all from the official ROYG line. While
Saleh and those close to him try to play down southern
unrest, demonstrations continue, leading to more reports of
violence and death. If they grow in size and spread across
the south, the ROYG will be hard-pressed to maintain the
position that the problems are caused by only a few
malcontents. End Comment.
SECHE