National Yemen - Issue 22

Independent journalism, objective insight

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The Facts As They Are

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Yemen’s tragic tide of trafficked humanity

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Husband Murder on the Rise in Iran

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40% Unemployment and Poverty Rate Last Year

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Al-Houthis and Al-Qaida in Yemen: A New Chapter

Suicide bomber kills Yemen mourner National Yemen Staff A suicide bomber killed a tribesman on Friday travelling to the funeral of the spiritual head of Shiite rebels observing an uneasy truce with Yemen’s government, a rebel spokesman and tribal sources said.

The bombing in northern Yemen also wounded another eight tribal dignitaries who had travelled up from the east of the country for the funeral of Badreddin al-Huthi, who died on Thursday at the age of 86, the sources said.

The attack came just two days after a suicide car bomber killed 23 Zaidi Shiite rebel fighters or supporters as they took part in a religious procession in Al-Jawf province.

“One person was martyred” and “eight people were wounded, some seriously, when a car

carrying tribesmen from Maarib province on their way from Saada to Dahyan, exploded,” rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam told AFP by telephone.

He said that the attack on the three-car convoy headed to the funeral venue near the Saudi border from the rebel stronghold of Saada was the work of a suicide bomber.

Tribal sources confirmed the mourners had been hit by a suicide bombing on their way to Dahyan.

Following the attack, the rebels searched all cars coming into Saada, witnesses told AFP. “In a terrorist incident,” a bomb-laden car attacked a “convoy from Maarib province Continued on Page ( 3 )

Omani players celebrating after a goal at the Gulf 20 tournament in Aden and Abyan.

Yemen’s First International Medical Education Conference National Yemen Staff A number of participating delegations in the 1st International Conference for Medical Education and Academic Accreditation for Mideast Countries and the executive meeting of the Association of Arab Universities arrived on Friday in Sana’a to take part in the conference and meeting to be kicked off on Saturday in Sana’a.

Some of those who have arrived for this purpose are Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities Prof.

Saleh Hashim, Rector of Atatürk University Prof. Hikmat Kushoku, Vice Rector of

the University of Algiers Dr. Aziz Suleiman and Vice Rector of Bor Saeed University Dr. Inas al-Sheikh.

Secretary General of the Association of Arab Universities Prof. Saleh Hashim said, in a statement to Saba, that the conference will deal with the latest developments in the various fields of medicine.

For his part, Rector of Atatürk University Prof. Hikmat Kushoku described the conference as important for it will discuss improving work and medical education at the level of the Arab world and the globe.

Gulf Cup terror fears no match for football in Yemen

By Justin Marozzi, BBC

South Korea Sides With Yemen Over LNG Prices National Yemen Staff Korea has voiced understanding for Yemen’s call to reevaluate the prices of gas exported from Yemen, a Yemeni official said on Monday. After his arrival from Korea last Monday, undersecretary of Oil and Minerals Ministry AbdulMalik Alamah said that he held talks with Korean officials on gas prices. The Korean officials said that they would submit a report on Yemen’s request to the Korean leadership.

A delegation from the Ministry under the chairmanship of Abdul-Malik Alama, undersecretary of the minister, visited Korea accompanied with a del-

egation from the French company Total for gas to negotiate with the Korean side in order to modify gas prices. This visit carries out the president’s instructions after his meeting with the president of Total during his visit to France.

Alama said that the delegation held talks with the KOGAZ Company on the reconsideration of the sale agreement with Yemeni liquefied natural gas, according to current prices. “It is not fair that KOGAZ purchase Yemeni gas that is transferred from America and Europe at double the price then to buy from Yemen directly,” Ala-

Despite international fears of terror attacks, Yemen is proving itself to be a perfect host for an eight-nation football tournament on the Arabian Peninsula.

When I told a friend I was off to Yemen for the Gulf Cup of Nations football tournament in Aden, he asked me if I was insane. He was not alone.

According to one newspaper, this was “the most dangerous region of the most dangerous country on earth”.

The headline in an American magazine expressed the reaction of many: “Al-Qaeda bombings, drive-by shootings and penalty kicks - what are they thinking?”

Kuwait and Bahrain took some convincing to join the tournament I asked another friend, a distinguished sports writer, if he fancied a few days out in the Gulf. Out of the question, he said. His wife would not let him go.

On the surface it seemed only reasonable to question the wisdom of staging an international football tournament in the heartland of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

And for once this was not a uniquely Western view. Some of Yemen’s neighbours had their doubts, too.

There were wobbles from

ma said, “Review of gas prices is in the interest of all parties, including KOGAZ itself,” he added, “There is no legal requirement to change the price,” but he confirmed that the Yemeni side is in a serious position of negotiations and flexibility.

Responding to a question posed by Yemen Observer over Yemen’s demand to reconsider gas prices the South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Sung hwan said that according to the contract between the Ko-

Kuwait and Bahrain, before they decided to grin and bear it and join the six other Gulf countries in Aden.

A Yemeni friend told me of the Arab tourism minister who had got the jitters and frantically prepared a will before his flight to Yemen.

“Then I got here,” he said later, “and on my first day in Aden I found myself wandering through the streets at two in the morning, speaking to people, eating outside in restaurants thoroughly enjoying myself. I was completely comfortable.”

Iraqi footballers, who have lived through an inferno of violence since 2003, made of all the fuss.

Women at the Yemen vs Saudi Arabia match were the noisiest supporters In the run-up to the tournament the government launched an unprecedented security operation involving more than 30,000 soldiers.

That did not mean people were not worried about the opening ceremony and the match that followed it, Yemen versus Saudi Arabia.

What chance an al-Qaeda

Electric atmosphere

You have to wonder what the

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Continued on Page ( 5 )

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National Yemen

National Yemen

LOCAL

Hush Up A Minute

Fakhri al-Arashi Publisher & Chief Editor

How can we distinguish between image and reality? ... should we?

One of Yemen’s chief troubles is its image – that’s quite well-established. At the moment, however, there are other images at play, which I can’t help but flicking backwards and forwards between.

The first is Gulf 20. I see endless crowds of fans in a stadium situated in a province which a couple of months ago had military operations against Al-Qaeda there. The fans cheer jubilantly whilst the team who just scored runs to the northern corner of the pitch to do their victory dance – prostrating towards Mecca praising Allah for the goal.

Follow that line northwards and you’ll come across Al-Jawf, in which there have been two purported suicide bombings this week against a Shia religious procession (Al-Ghadeer) and against a funeral. Tens were killed and injured in a suicide bombing – you can only imagine the sense of grief and loss in that community, if perhaps you were walking along in the procession too, and a truck exploded cutting a father, a daughter, a husband of yours to ribbons. Tears stream down your mother’s cheeks.

Let’s keep with the tears.

Back down South, after an opening ceremony which most international news groups thought would be bombed, tears roll down the face of one of the beautiful Yemeni female supporters after a 4-0 hammering by the Kingdom.

Afterwards outside the stadium where international delegations float about and almost a hundred thousand supporters pack the streets you might expect a blast amidst such a high profile event. But nothing comes, and nothing comes of

your security apprehensions.

And it’s not as if anyone else there was worried about it. People just end up going to a restaurant, or to smoke sheesha or to chat outside a juice bar.

It’s the people who are already here who keep going on happily, if obliviously, with everyday life. They’re not the ones fretting from images. It’s people who aren’t here who are obsessed with such imagery. Everyone else is just living.

Take the two distinct images of this week – the despondent aftermath of a suicide bombing in the North juxtaposed next to a scene with all the emotions of an international football tournament a few miles South.

The suicide bombing could so easily have happened at the sports event, and the suicide bombing victims could easily have been ok. But that’s not how events unravel – it’s just how the cookie crumbled.

The security narratives built up around the North and the South of the country were based around the images of safety and risk in both locations.

The opening questions to this editorial were not designed to enter a philosophical post-modernist discussion, but rather to lead to this; much of security revolves around image, or is produced and devoured by it. But in the end the image of security means everything and nothing to its reality to what happens.

That’s the problem with our security-centric state of affairs; image dictates reality, and vice versa. And in so doing, nothing really gets solved, but a quasimilitary industry builds uncontrollably, communities are aggressively and chokingly securitized, and funds which could have been for water or housing projects instead go to military training.

I watch Gulf 20 matches and admire the work which our developing country has managed to put together to pull off such a tournament given the circumstances. I’m genuinely touched.

But then I turn to the newspapers, and there’s yet another article about Gulf 20 security, and I’m reminded of all those negative images. I much preferred the image on the television screen of Al-Ghofari putting one past Qatar. I just wish all those security commentators could shut up for a minute and let me watch the match.

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Badreddin al-Huthi, whose Shiite faith makes up the majority community in Yemen’s northern mountains but a minority in the mainly Sunni country as a whole, had long suffered from asthma, the rebel spokesman told AFP. A tribal chief has blamed AlQaeda for Wednesday’s bombing, which he has said was aimed at stoking sectarian tensions.

Yemen is the ancestral homeland of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and has been a growing focus for the operations of his worldwide network, sparking a sharp increase in US military aid.

But its attacks had previous-

Fakhri Hassan Al-Arashi Publisher & Chief Editor

Will Carter Managing Editor

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Public Prosecution Reviews Evidence in Journalist Al-Nimrani Case

By NY Staff Journalist Abdul-Ilah Haidar seemed in a bad health conditions in the fourth hearing of his trial before the competent Penal Court (the State’s Security Court). Haidar appeared coughing all the time due to him being exposed to intense cold in his small cell in the underground political security prison cell, along with five other prisoners.

Haidar requested the judge transfer him to a civil prison where there are at least minimal standards of human treatment.

He also complained of them depriving him of his right to medical treatment, or seeing the sun or watching television and reading newspapers.

In the fourth hearing session, the Penal Prosecution displayed what it called firm evidence, which are recorded messages on the laptop in “text files” and a memory picture for an unknown person wearing the Yemeni costumes in addition to video clips for some of Sana’a streets taken from a camera on a car.

The prosecution said that

these clips contain pictures for homes of security leaders, which it did not submit in addition to pictures of the wall of the central security that is opposite Al-Sabeen Park and Raimas Restaurant.

When asked about his response to what the prosecution had displayed, Haidar continued to abstain from dealing with the court, reminding the judge of his request to bring the “kidnappers” who stole his laptop before they detained him incommunicado for thirty-five days.

Judge Ridhwan Al-Namir said that he is bound by the indictment decision and cannot go beyond it or bring anyone who is not involved in the case, which shocked Abdul-Rahman Barman, the lawyer from the HOOD organization, a leading Yemeni human rights organization.

Barman said that it is legally acknowledged that the judge has the right to reject, by himself, if needs be, any request; including any facts in the case;

or change description or bring in other suspects and this is among the most basic principles of judicial work.

This court has no guarantees for fair trial, according to Barman, who added, “This court has a history of violating the law and confiscating the defendants’ rights in addition that the decision of establishing it was in violation of the constitution.”

This matter made the lawyers boycott the session of this court. After closing the session’s proceedings, the judge stated the request of Journalist Abdul-Ilah Haidar of transferring him from the prison of the political security to another prison. He ruled that the prosecution talk to the political security office to provide the prisoner his rights, and then refused to transfer him to a civic prison.

In his comment on the proceedings of the session today, Lawyer Abdul-Rahman Barman said that it is surprising that the public prosecution presents a laptop that has been sto-

len during a kidnapping operation that no official authority has claimed to have conducted; “we were surprised by the stolen laptop being presented as indictment evidence, which can only be used against those who kidnapped Journalist Haidar and stole his laptop, which was exhibited today.”

“The prosecution claimed that it contains correspondence it did not say from who and to who and when sent and how it can prove that. He added that if we were before an ordinary court and before a normal judge, this stolen laptop would not have been presented and the first thing the lawyer would do is to ask for the seizure report of this stolen laptop and questioning the prosecution how it got this instrument from which it exhibits the indictment evidences,” he added.

Judge Ridhwan Al-Namir decided to adjourn the session until next Sunday to enable the prosecution to exhibit the rest of its case.

IOM Evacuation of Stranded Ethiopian Migrants Resumes

By NY Staff An International Organization for Migration operation to help up to 2,000 Ethiopian migrants stranded in northern Yemen to return home was set to resume in the early hours of yesterday morning, Sat 27th November.

A group of 33 irregular migrants will be voluntarily taken to Ethiopia on a commercial flight. They will be first taken to the Yemeni capital, Sana’a from Haradh on Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia.

Between 29th November and 9th December, an additional 434 stranded Ethiopians will be assisted to return home. This includes 140 vulnerable Ethiopi-

an women and minors currently held in Yemeni detention centres around the country as irregular migrants.

More than 600 stranded Ethiopian migrants were already assisted by IOM in mid-November. They were part of a group of 2,000 irregular Ethiopian migrants referred to IOM by UNHCR. Stranded at the Yemeni border with Saudi Arabia in very poor health and with no food, shelter or the means to either continue their journey or return home, the migrants had been living out in open spaces and surviving on whatever scraps of food they could find.

However, the Organization is

Continued from ( 1 ) Suicide bomber kills Yemen mourner which was coming to participate in the funeral of the scholar Badreddin” al-Huthi, the rebels said on their website.

The car targeted the convoy because Maarib province has become a stronghold for “Wahhabis and the Saudi agents of Al-Qaeda,” they added.

Abdulsalam accused the United States and Israel of being behind “what is called the Al-Qaeda network.”

Spiritual leader Badreddin al-Huthi was the father of rebel commander Abdulmalik alHuthi and of his predecessor Hussein al-Huthi, who has been killed in the on-off Shiite uprising in northern Yemen that erupted in 2004.

Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 Issue 22 www.nationalyemen.com

urgently seeking one million US dollars to help the remaining nearly 1,000 migrants referred to IOM for assistance.

The 2,000 Ethiopian migrants represent a fraction of the growing numbers of migrants in Haradh. Yemen has long been a major transit route for migrants and asylum-seekers from the Horn of Africa to the Middle East and beyond.

However, the conflict between Houthi insurgents and government forces in Yemen’s Saada province, and Saudi Arabia’s reinforcement of its border with Yemen in recent months, has led to a bottleneck of migrants at Haradh, the only open cross-

ing point with Saudi Arabia.

Although most of the migrants in Haradh are young men from Ethiopia, with some coming from Somalia and Sudan, there are also women and children present.

IOM is able to assist a total of 1080 Ethiopian migrants thanks to the Rapid Response Transportation Fund (RRTF), an IOM-maintained emergency fund which can only be activated through a direct request to IOM to help especially vulnerable groups of migrants in need of transport assistance, UNHCR and the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC).

Continued from ( 1 ) South Korea Sides With Yemen Over LNG Prices ly been largely confined to the capital Sanaa and to the mainly Sunni south and east of Yemen, rather than the Zaidi majority north.

The latest round of fighting between the Zaidi rebels and the government culminated in a Qatari-brokered truce in February but it has repeatedly been challenged by clashes between the rebels and pro-government tribes.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 300,000 people have fled the fighting in the north, of whom just 20,000 have so far returned to homes in Saada province.

Mohammed Al-Asaadi Editorial Consultant

rea Gas Corporation and YLNG regarding the introduction of LNG, which was signed in August of 2005, the renegotiation of the price of LNG is possible in 2014, which is 5 years after the date of its initial export.

“In this regard, I learned that a delegation from the Department of Oil of Yemen is planning to have discussions with the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Korea Gas Corporation. I hope that the matter can be resolved through close cooperation” said the Minister.

Talking about the 25th anni-

Fuad Al-Qadhi Business Editor

versary of diplomatic relations between Yemen and South Korea he said looking back upon the history of bilateral relations over the past 25 years, Korea and Yemen have developed a friendly relationship in various areas on a consistent basis since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1985. In particular, there has been enhanced cooperation between our two countries in almost every field, including economic, trade, technical, cultural and international cooperation.

“We’re very optimistic that these bilateral relations will

grow even further through cooperation in the energy and power sectors, assistance in development projects in Yemen, providing scholarships and training programs and supporting human resource development. All this cooperation will serve as a conduit to sustainable growth for Yemen. Also, with more frequent visits and exchanges of government officials, businessmen and members of academia, I believe Korea-Yemen relations will be further strengthened,” said the Minister.

Shukri Hussein Jihan Anwar Amel Al-Ariqi Aden - Abyan Correspondent Staff Journalist Social Editor

The Facts As They Are

Saleh Maqlem Shabwah Correspondent e-mail: info@nationalyemen.com website:www.nationalyemen.com address:al-qiada st.

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Yemen’s tragic tide of trafficked humanity

By Maryrose Fison, Independent

There is a tide of death and misery that washes up almost daily on the shores of Yemen.

This is the Arab world’s poorest nation, a land whose lawlessness has made it a fiefdom of alQa’ida, and the launch pad for the recent attempt to bring down a plane over the US. It is also at the centre of a vast peoplesmuggling industry.

Nearly 80,000 were trafficked by criminal gangs last year. There would have been more, but some of the human cargo die en route. Treated no better than consignments of contraband freight, they perish on the hazardous sea crossing from the Horn of Africa.

In the past year or so, more than a thousand have died, many of them tipped out of boats to drown within sight of the beach. And those who do make it through are helping create one of the Arab world’s biggest humanitarian crises – camps and bands of displaced persons who are, to all but the few agencies that care for them, mere human flotsam and jetsam.

For decades, the Red Sea country has been the middle link in an illegal people-smuggling chain that spans five countries. But a recent tightening of controls on borders with Saudi Arabia has led to an unfolding human crisis with thousands of Africans stranded in one of the most inhospitable regions of the country. Tens of thousands of Africans fleeing civil war and destitution in Somalia and Ethiopia have crossed the Gulf of Aden on rickety boats as part of a trafficking industry thought to be worth at least $20m (£13m) annually.

Over the past three years, the number of asylum-seekers and economic migrants arriving on the southern shores of Yemen has almost tripled, from 29,360 in 2007 to 77,802 last year, fu-

elled by an upswing in violence in Somalia and an increasingly desperate situation in Ethiopia.

Yet the journey undertaken by those trying to escape persecution and poverty is among the most dangerous international migration routes in the world.

Jean-Philippe Chauzy, of the International Organisation for Migration, says the situation has reached the point where it is now a “daily tragedy. Once they get on to the boats, people get rifle-butted and they get beaten up. They are forced to jump off the boats when they approach the Yemeni coastline because the smugglers don’t want to be captured and arrested by Yemeni security forces, so they push people overboard. They don’t [all] know how to swim so they drown. It is an ongoing catalogue of abuse.”

More than a thousand people have died attempting the perilous sea journey since the beginning of 2008, including at least 300 people during the first nine months of 2009. But of the two main maritime routes taken, the one leaving from the Somalian port city of Bossaso, the cheapest, is considered the worst.

Smugglers operating dhows from the bustling port are notorious for their brutality. A report

by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in 2008 revealed the extent of their ruthlessness.

To maximise profits, smugglers were found routinely to overcrowd boats, with double, and sometimes triple, the safety limit. Passengers reported paying between $50 and $80 to board a small boat, and, to get on a faster craft, as much as $150. That is the equivalent of a year’s salary in some parts of the region. This is for a voyage that can take between one and three days.

To prevent boats capsizing, smugglers order passengers not

to move. But, as the hours drag on, severe muscle ache and pain from sitting in the same position mean people have no choice but to disobey the orders and stretch.

A 50-year-old Somali man who undertook the journey in 2007 explained how the extreme conditions aboard almost drove him to suicide. “They beat you badly on the boat, they have guns and knives. The condition on the boat was really

‘‘

Once they get on to the boats, people get riflebutted and they get beaten up. They are forced to jump off the boats when they approach the Yemeni coastline because the smugglers don’t want to be captured and arrested

by Yemeni security forces, so they push people overboard. They don’t [all] know how to swim so they drown.

very bad. I preferred to die, because of the beating. We had no water and nothing to eat. It is overcrowded, people are sitting on you, you cannot move. People are sometimes passing urine and stool on you.”

Because of the cramped conditions, many male passengers have experienced skin loss from the scrotum. Trauma wounds to the head and back are inflicted by blows from rubber whips, sticks, pipes and fists. A number reported pain in their buttocks and genitals from sitting in seawater and urine-soaked clothes.

Women, children and the elderly are not spared either, with

rape, sexual harassment and violence reported to MSF. By far the worst experiences came from those put in the “hold”– small windowless spaces traditionally used for storing fish. More than three-quarters of people interviewed by MSF said passengers had been put in the hold.

A 49-year-old car mechanic from Mogadishu described what the experience was like for him. “They have no mercy. I was thrown in the worst part of the boat – the hold. Whenever I raised my head to breathe, the smugglers beat me with the butts of their rifles.”

As harrowing as the sea journey is, for many the most dangerous part of the ordeal comes at the very end. Afraid of being arrested by Yemeni security forces, smugglers routinely force their exhausted and dehydrated passengers to disembark in deep water with poor visibility at night and several hundred metres from the shores. Drowning is commonplace and survivors must live with the memory of losing loved ones within sight of the beach.

One woman recalled the moment she saw her husband’s dead body: “As the boat was coming towards the shore, my husband was getting the children ready. He wanted to give them biscuits, but the smugglers threw the biscuits in the sea.

“Then suddenly the smugglers threw him into the sea by grabbing his legs. He resisted, holding on to the boat, but they hit him with knives. Then the smugglers threw my two daughters into the sea. I held on to my youngest son. The children were crying. But, thank God, there was a young man who could swim very well who helped my children to reach the shore. We slept on the shore. In the morning, I saw the dead body of my

husband.”

For those able to survive the perilous journey, an uncertain future awaits. The Yemeni government has granted Somalis prima facie refugee status since the outbreak of civil war in 1991, meaning they are given access to safe refuge.

For most, this means a life fending for themselves in urban centres. For others, it means a life confined to the Kharaz refugee camp, a makeshift colony of tents set in the scorching semiarid desert 100 miles west of Aden, which is now home to approximately 17,000 refugees.

Ethiopians face a different set of challenges. Despite having signed the 1951 Convention on Refugees, Yemen refuses entry to them, and those found face the possibility of deportation. Those who reach the shore

‘‘

As harrowing as the sea journey is, for many the most dangerous part of the ordeal comes at the very end.

must therefore embark on a land journey of more than 250 miles from Bab al-Mandab to the border crossing with Saudi Arabia, to search for work there or in the other neighbouring, wealthy Gulf states.

A recent crackdown on borders with Saudi Arabia earlier

this month has resulted in a build-up of stranded Ethiopians.

The International Organisation for Migration has appealed for $1m to help repatriate stranded Ethiopians, but conditions for those still stranded remain dire.

“The fact that the border region is less permeable than it used to be means that these migrants who are trying to get into Saudi Arabia are now really stuck in a dead end,” says Mr Chauzy. “They have no money, they have no papers, they can’t go forward or backwards. They are basically marooned in the border region. It’s a very inhospitable region. They are literally left there to rot.”

But for all the trauma endured by passengers fleeing the Horn of Africa, the massive influx of refugees in Yemen represents a burden for a country ranked third in the world for the highest levels of malnutrition.

More than half (58 per cent) of its children aged under five are stunted, and one in 10 children is acutely malnourished. The rate of unemployment stands at around 35 per cent.

With the country’s food and water resources already stretched to the limit and more than 300,000 internally displaced persons struggling to survive following internal conflicts, the lucrative peoplesmuggling industry presents a double-edged sword: traffickers may profit but increasing numbers of refugees and economic migrants present a strain on the local economy of this impoverished nation.

From podcasts and Friday sermons, a new start for Yemen Amr Khaled It was my honour to be in the beautiful city of Aden, Yemen’s famous Bride of the Sea last week. A port that for centuries has been open to the world, where nations have profited through peaceful commercial and cultural exchange, was an appropriate place to launch a bold new campaign against terrorism and extremism. The timing of our new venture is also auspicious, announced as Aden is playing host to her seven neighbours in a joyful celebration of sport: the Gulf Cup 20 football competition.

Yemen is a country of peace and moderation, praised as such in the holy Quran. Yet a small group of extremists has damaged Yemen’s reputation in the eyes of the world so that those who do not know this beautiful country now associate it exclusively with terrorism. We know that this is far from the truth. It is time for us to defeat the extremists and let the world know of our success.

I call this project A New Hope. It will be a battle for hearts and minds and it will be fought and won with the youth of Yemen. It goes without saying that these boys and girls are the country’s future. We must deny the fanatics space in which to operate and allow the peace-

‘‘ Violence does not succeed in confronting violence, and governments alone will not succeed in confronting it. It is the youth who are most able to move strongly against it. loving youth to lead the agenda.

I am delighted to be working in close partnership with the government of Yemen, which has already demonstrated admirable seriousness of purpose in this monumental confrontation.

The Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has been taking concerted action against the extremists and achieving success.

We are highly fortunate to be supported by the ministries of youth and sports, culture and tourism, together with two pioneering Yemeni non-governmental organisations.

Our project has three elements to it, all confronting the hateful and destructive ideology of extremism: First, we will wage a vigorous media and information campaign. Working closely with our partners in the ministry of information, we will roll out a campaign rejecting extremists’ ideology and promoting temperance and moderation using every medium available, from television and print media to the internet and the pulpits of mosques the length and breadth of Yemen. We will be relentless, remorseless and ruthless in the battle against extremism.

Second, we will identify and train a new generation of young leaders, selected from every town and city in Yemen. I will train these young men and women personally and through my Right Start Foundation.

They will be the beacons of A New Hope in Yemen, spearheading a campaign that confronts and exposes the utter

‘‘ They are forced to jump off the boats when they approach the Yemeni coastline because the smugglers don’t want to be captured and arrested

by Yemeni security forces, so they push people overboard.

They don’t [all] know how to swim so they drown.

emptiness of extremism wherever it lurks in the country.

Finally, we have selected 100 of the Muslim world’s most respected and renowned preachers whom we will bring to Yemen. With the support of Yemen’s Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf), they will be trained to broadcast true Islamic teachings. We will use the latest technologies - podcasts and the internet - as well as the most traditional - Friday sermons in the mosque.

This will be a year-long project, involving extensive training and repeated reviews from my team.

Violence does not succeed in confronting violence, and governments alone will not succeed in confronting it. It is the youth who are most able to move strongly against it. Remember the words of the Prophet, peace be upon him, who said the true Muslim is the Muslim who doesn’t harm anyone with his tongue or his hand. The extremists have lost sight of this fundamental truth and they have departed from the eternal teachings of Islam.

The success of A New Hope will be underpinned by four organisations: Life Makers International Union, which has operated all across the Muslim

world, from Morocco and Algeria to Sudan and Iraq, and the Right Start Foundation International will be joined by our valued Yemeni partners, the Al Saleh Foundation and the National Awareness Association.

This last organisation, which was established in January, is already succeeding in its efforts to counter fanaticism and to demonstrate how alien the ideology of extremists is to the ancient nation of Yemen, the birthplace of Arab civilisation.

Wherever we seek to undermine the extremists, we find the youth willing and ready to take up arms. Yemen is no different.

I have already met many young men and women here who are excited to be in the forefront of this epic struggle. When in 2007 I asked for Arab youth to send me their dreams, I received 700,000 replies. A third of these were Yemenis. The message is clear: Yemen is ready.

Our project will pull up the roots of extremism in Yemen and the Arab world more widely. It will show the true beauty of Yemen. God willing, we’ll prove to the world within a year that the terrorists have lost and that Yemen once again is bright and beautiful.

(Article published in The National, 28th Nov 2010)

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Continued from ( 1 ) Gulf Cup terror fears no match for football in Yemen

Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 Issue 22 www.nationalyemen.com

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Improvements Despite Challenges at AlJumhouri Teaching Hospital

By Jihan Anwar & Dan Driscoll

Thousands of Yemenis turned up for the first game of the Gulf Cup spectacular?

I watched the game in the city’s main stadium, packed way beyond its capacity of 30,000.

In scenes that made Western security experts wince, fans crowded up and down gangways, sat and stood and danced on the stadium’s outer rim and filled every space available.

The women, wrapped in black abayas, were easily the noisiest, cheering wildly and waving the national red, black and white flags of Yemen deliriously.

A few rows down from me was a boisterous Saudi fan surrounded by Yemenis.

From time to time he broke into exuberant song, waving his green-and-white Saudi flag.

Each time his team scored, he jumped up and started dancing and yelling in glee.

More than 30,000 people turned up to see Yemen take on Saudi Arabia His celebrations would have struck most British observers as provocative. I could not help cringing.

If he was not careful, I thought, this triumphalist Saudi

would end up being lynched by insulted home fans.

In England, he would not have lasted long. But then in England he would not have been standing with rival fans in the first place.

The Yemenis, however, saluted him and joined in with his songs. The atmosphere was electric, the joy infectious.

Yemen has been confounding foreign visitors like this for centuries.

The birthplace of Arab civilisation has seen a succession of foreigners come and go: the Portuguese, Ottomans, British and Russians have all been bamboozled by a famously complex country.

I certainly was not expecting to see a statue of Queen Victoria in her pomp proudly displayed in one of Aden’s public parks. So much for al-Qaeda’s heartland.

For their part, Yemenis do not always understand the outside world, either.

They are slightly baffled by the reaction to the parcel bomb that was not, al-Qaeda’s failed plot hatched in Yemen to down a US-bound cargo plane. It

strikes them as Western hysteria.

In the end, the only thing spectacular about the opening evening of the tournament was the result, a thumping 4-0 thrashing by the Saudis.

Link to qat?

Yemenis love their football but, like English football fans, have grown used to a team that traditionally disappoints.

Some commentators have attributed the poor performance of Yemeni footballers to the chewing of qat leaves, the mildly hallucinogenic, amphetamine-like stimulant that is legal in Yemen - and in the UK - and reportedly consumed by 72% of men here.

Lunchtime sees most of the country dashing into the nearest market to buy the freshest leaves, returning home with the tell-tale red plastic bags stuffed full of foliage.

Once the football is over, I plan to do the same. A friend in Sanaa has invited me for a quiet afternoon chew. Not something to tell the wife about.

That would be letting the qat out of the bag.

National Yemen NATIONAL YEMEN VACANCY NOTICE Role Number of vacancies

JUNIOR NEWS / NEWS ANALYSIS JOURNALISTS Two

Application deadline

6 December 2010

Start date

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Starting salary

$450 USD monthly salary + benefits

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Full-time (40 hour weeks) / irregular shifts (journalists will be required to travel)

Description

The NATIONAL YEMEN (NY) newspaper requires two staff journalists to cover ‘breaking news’ and ‘news analysis’ articles. Journalists must be prepared to travel frequently, and at short notice, to provide coverage around Yemen.

Our news journalists will be required to write approximately 1000 words of ‘news’ articles, and 2000 words of ‘news analysis’ articles each week on pre-agreed topics, meeting appropriate deadlines.

Journalists will be required to attend two weekly staff meetings at NY HQ, and also to complete our journalism training packages.

Eligibility

We are looking for young, reliable, articulate, reasonably experienced journalists.

Journalists will be expected to be punctual and to meet both our deadlines and our standards. Failure to meet either our deadlines or our high professional standards may result in instant dismissal.

Advanced English language competency is required. Journalists will be expected to be competent computer users.

Incentives

In time we will offer an improved salary, commensurate with the journalists’ competency and professional development.

This job is also an excellent opportunity to begin a promising career, and will provide excellent professional training. It also may lead to international coverage of a journalist’s work.

Apply

Applicants should send a covering email, their CV, including all contact details, and also a sample of their written work. The written sample should be 800 words long, in a ‘news analysis’ style, on a subject of their choice.

Selection

Applicants will be contacted within three days, if they have been successful. The applicant will be expected to attend an assessment day and interview within one week, and will be expected to write a further article, of our choice.

Selected applicants will work for one month on a non-paid probation status after being selected. If the trainee journalist meets our deadlines and reaches our standards over the probationary period, they will be fully welcomed to a permanent position with us, with full pay.

The health care sector in Yemen struggles; lack of funding, shortage of skilled workers, increasing cost and inaccessibility for urban and rural populations are only a few of the problems that prevent the successful development of healthcare provision.

As easy as it may be to depict a picture of a broken system, some staff at Al-Jumhouri Hospital in Sana’a plead to hold the proclamations of failure as there have been some improvements in spite of the increasing challenges that Yemen faces.

Dr. Ahmed Ghalib, a dentist working in the Al-Jumhouri Hospital, noted that he has witnessed a remarkable improvement in the hospitals of Sana’a in the last 10 years. He reflected that, “Until the 1990s we had no equipment for operations … the only thing hospitals had were a couple of chairs. Even the numbers of needles were so limited that they were often kept for multiple uses.”

Dr Yahyan Al-Wa’ali agreed, “In the past it was rare to have medical equipment, and if it was available, it was usually old or malfunctioning.” He recognized that currently not only the health care facility has been appropriately equipped, but also the laboratory test analysis equipment also have been en-

hanced.

These successes have been spurred by recent financing of the Capital Secretariat which has improved the capacity of the Al-Jumhouri hospital, said its Deputy Director, Dr. AlDholae.

The new funds have gone to upgrade the Burns Department at the hospital by providing it with 600 million YR. Further funds have also helped to improve other departments as well as the funding of a new pharmacy within the hospital.

Yet despite the optimism of some of the doctors, they are not jaded in the problems they face. The Burns Department, despite its increased funding, still severely lacks enough resources for all the patients that require its services.

Furthermore, Dr Yahyan AlWa’ali stated that there is a significant danger as appropriate vaccinations continue to remain scarce. This danger, he said, is compounded by the fact that the general public is skeptical or unaware of the importance of vaccinations.

In addition to that, he stated that it wasn’t uncommon that pharmacist behaved as doctors and actually prescribe the wrong medicines to their clients.

“We might prescribe a medi-

cine for the patient, but sometimes he comes back to us complaining that the medicine did not serve them.”

Dr. Ghalib also mentioned that even the idea of prevention has only recently taken hold in Yemen. He met with patients who were knowledgeable about their disease but the majority lacked the basic knowledge on how to prevent it. Problems such as these are only a small number of the actual challenges which stymie the improvement of health care in the Al-Jumhour hospital and across Yemen.

However, Dr. Al-Dholae remains upbeat in addressing the current and future challenges that the hospital will face.

“Our plan is to expand the hospital and offer a quality service to every patient and in order to do that we need to increase the number of capable doctors”, he remarked.

As a result, the hospital is cooperating with various universities, both public and private, to offer a 6 month training period for students in an effort achieve this.

With efforts such as these, and increased research into needed solutions, the staff of Al-Jumhouria say there is hope that Yemen can avoid a truly broken health care system.

Sultan of the Muslim World Why the AKP’s Turkey Will be the East’s Next Leader

By Soner Cagaptay, Foreign Affairs Turkey may be the most Muslim nation in the world. It was forged through blood and war as a state exclusively by and for Muslims -- a claim it shares only with Pakistan. Fleeing persecution in Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus, millions of Turkish and non-Turkish Muslims settled there, and today almost half of Turkey’s 73 million citizens are descendants of these disparate peoples. This little-known story is why modern Turkey was born a Muslim nation: when the Ottoman Empire finally collapsed at the end of World War I, Muslims from all over the empire joined with ethnic Turks to defend the new nation against Christian foes -the Allied forces, Armenians, and Greeks. Since then, the balance between this Islamic aspect of Turkey’s identity and its other -- secular nationalist -side has guided the course of Turkish foreign policy.

Religion remained a salient national identity well into the post-Ottoman period. For example, when Greece and Turkey exchanged minority populations in the 1920s as part of the settlement of the GrecoTurkish conflict, Turkey handed over Turkish-speaking Orthodox Christians from Anatolia in return for Greekspeaking Muslims from Crete.

Still, Turkish identity was not based purely on Islam: starting in the 1920s with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey’s first president, the country’s Kemalist politicians have tried to emphasize the unifying power of nationalism. They promoted the idea of a singular, Western

democratic civilization that was not only unified by religion and had room for all Turks. Turkish nationalism was secular in the sense that citizens were expected to be Westernized but could still be Muslim if they chose.

Consequently, Kemalists turned Turkey’s foreign policy westward. And from the 1920s to the early part of this century, Turkish elites and governing parties adopted pro-Western foreign policies, embraced NATO, and marched closer toward EU membership.

But now Atatürk’s legacy has started to unravel. Since 2002, a party with Islamist roots, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has unearthed Turkey’s Muslim identity. At first, many assumed that the AKP’s emphasis on Islam would not move Turkey away from the West. In fact, many heralded the AKP’s Turkey as a model democratic Muslim nation. But due to the resonance of the notion of a politicallydefined “Muslim world” in the post-9/11 world, a state with a Muslim identity is especially vulnerable to viewing the world in terms of Huntingtonian clashes of civilizations.

Riding the wave of antiWestern sentiment unleashed by the 2003 Iraq war, the AKP has chilled Turkey’s relationship with the West and, instead, has tried to reposition the country as a leader of the re-christened Muslim world. It has encouraged an “us (Muslims) versus them (the West)” worldview at the expense of Turkey’s historic flexibility. In his book, Strategic Depth, the AKP For-

eign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, summarizes this position: “Turkey’s traditionally good ties with the West are a form of alienation.” Undoubtedly, the AKP’s hostility toward the West would not have resonated with Turks before 9/11 and the wars that followed. The AKP was able to cast the war in Iraq as an attack on Muslims -Turks included -- and place Turkey firmly on the side of the Muslim world.

At first, many assumed that the AKP’s emphasis on Islam would not move Turkey away from the West. In fact, many heralded the AKP’s Turkey as a model democratic Muslim nation.

The AKP, after eight years of rule -- an unusually long reign in Turkish politics (and the longest in Turkey’s democratic history if the party wins upcoming general elections in June 2011) -- has amassed enough power to turn its words into actions. Already, it has stocked the high courts with sympathetic judges, after winning a referendum that empowered the party to appoint top judges without a confirmation process. And it has sought to limit the role of the army in the government’s affairs.

Although this move may seem good for democracy, it has actually done harm. The government has used Ergenekon, the code word for an alleged nationalist organization that supposedly was plotting a coup, as an excuse to bully the military and arrest opponents, Continued on Page ( 7 )

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Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 Issue 22 www.nationalyemen.com

National Yemen

INTL REPORT

Husband Murder on the Rise in Iran More and more women convicted of once unheard-of crime of killing husbands.

By Saba Vasefi, Iran - IWPR

Courtside stories about wives accused of murdering their husbands were once almost unheard of in Iran, but these days they are common enough to excite little attention.

In the last decade, the number of women accused of the crime has surged.

One ongoing case involves a woman accused of strangling her husband with a motorcycle chain. Making her eighth court appearance on November 10, the defendant, who has been named in court only as Leila, continues to insist she is innocent and says her husband committed suicide. Her daughter testified against her.

‘‘

This is a significant shift in Iranian society, where murders involving spouses have in the past almost always involved men killing women, often in what is known as an “honour crime”.

“Mariticide as a commonplace crime is a recent phenomenon in Iran,” a local lawyer who wanted to remain anonymous said. “I can scarcely recall any cases of this kind occurring 30 or even 20 years ago.”

Precise statistics are hard to come by but Samira Kalohr, a social studies researcher who reviewed cases reported in the

news in 2007 found that 22 per cent of murders committed within the family involved women killing their husbands, and 27 per cent were men who killed their wives.

Kalohr’s figures did not include murders of men where the wife was implicated as an accomplice – quite a common phenomenon in such cases.

Shahla Moazzami and Mohammad Ashouri, professors at Tehran University who carried out a rare study of the issue, found that when husbands were murdered, only a third of the crimes were committed by the wife herself, and the rest involved a third party acting on her behalf. Often these were men involved in illicit relationships with the wives.

Mostafa Rajabi, deputy head of criminal investigations in the Iranian police, has said the proportion of murders that occurred within the family in 2009 was 33 per cent of the total. Figures from 1989 indicated that this kind of crime accounted for 16 per cent of the total that year.

Ashouri, who is head of the Criminology and Forensics Research Institute at Tehran University, told the Hamshahri daily, “The percentage of crimes committed by women is low in Iran, but unfortunately the figures for mariticide are high.”

This is a significant shift in Iranian society, where murders involving spouses have in the past almost always involved men killing women, often in what is known as an “honour crime”.

Article 630 of Iran’s Islambased criminal code makes it legal for a man to kill both his wife and her partner if he finds them in the act, and it is consensual. In reality, this standard of proof is rarely met and “honour killings” are often committed out of jealousy, suspicion or merely as a way of ending a marriage.

In the case of wives who kill their husbands, the available research indicates that two-thirds of cases are motivated by a desire for revenge for the husband being unfaithful.

The survey that Moazzami and Ashouri conducted across 15 provinces of Iran showed that in 58 per cent of cases, the women had been unable to get a divorce because their husbands or families would not agree to it, or had children and would have had no means of supporting themselves if they had separated from their spouses.

‘‘

In the case of wives who kill their husbands, the available research indicates that two-thirds of cases are motivated by a desire for revenge for the husband being unfaithful.

My own research indicates that many women who resort to violence are themselves victims of abuse, and have been unable to find justice through the legal system.

For many years, women’s rights activists in Iran have been calling on the government to establish shelters for women who fall victim to violence. The authorities have so far refused to accede to this, citing Islamic laws that state it is wrong for a woman to leave home without her husband’s permission.

Many of the women who commit mariticide fit the same profile – they commonly live on the impoverished outskirts of major cities; they are housewives and do not have a high school diploma; they were forced into marriage at an early age and may be much younger

than their husbands. This combination of factors means they are less able than most to find other ways out of the situations they are in, and turn to murder as a last act of desperation.

Such murders are often carried out with unusual brutality.

Behjat Karimzadeh, who is currently awaiting sentencing in Karaj’s Rajayi Shahr Prison for killing her husband together with an accomplice.

“I strangled my husband, and then I looked at him and I was scared he might not be dead, so I cut off his head with a knife,” she told me.

Another convict, Fatemeh, speaking after ten years in Shiraz’s Adelabad prison, said, “After giving my husband poison, I cut off his hands. He broke my nose with those hands.”

Fatemeh has won a stay of execution because her husband’s family gave consent for clemency, with no need for monetary compansation.

My interviews with ten women in Tehran’s Evin prison and the Rajayi Shahr jail indicated that all the murders involved premeditation. Nine of the ten did not regret killing their husbands, and eight considered themselves innocent.

‘‘ Such murders are often carried out with unusual brutality.

‘‘ “I strangled my husband, and then I looked at him and I was scared he might not be dead, so I cut off his head with a knife,”

Moazzami’s survey similarly showed that men tended to regret murder more than women in equivalent cases.

“After committing an act resulting in murder, the majority of men take their spouses to hospital and attempt to save them. And more than a quarter of the men in prison for wifekilling turned themselves into the police,” she said. “Women, however, see themselves as innocent afterwards, and will not confess to murder even after years of incarceration.”

The case of Akram Mahdavi the phenomenon of women who seek a male accomplice to carry out the murder – in sharp contrast to men, who are generally the sole perpetrators.

Mahdavi, now in the Rajayi Shahr prison, grew up in a poor family and was forced to marry her cousin when she was just 13. She divorced him after discovering that he had taken a second wife, but her father forced her into another marriage when she was 20, this time to a 75-year-old antique dealer.

She says she tried and failed to secure a divorce after finding out that her husband was sexually abusing her young daughter. Then she started looking for

an accomplice, and found a man willing to carry out the murder.

At present, the death sentence against Mahdavi is suspended pending payment of “blood money”, the compensation that a murder victim’s relatives can be paid if they so choose. A group of rights activists were able to get one of her husband’s close relatives to agree to compensation. If other relatives disagree, they can pay the percentage due to the person who gave consent, and overturn the act of clemency.

The judicial process is marred by gender inequalities.

For example, blood money payable for a woman is half that for a murdered man, meaning that husbands are more likely to be able to come up with the compensation funds than women are.

‘‘

The judicial process is marred by gender inequalities

Another significant difference is that wives convicted of murder are shunned by their own relatives and receive no prison visits. Mahdavi was being taken to the gallows just before a last-minute stay of execution was ordered. She said, “I will never forget that my family didn’t even come to see my sentence carried out.”

National Yemen

INTL REPORT

Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 Issue 22 www.nationalyemen.com

7

Kidnapping on Rise in Afghan North Businessmen increasingly targeted in crime wave that experts warn will harm economic prospects.

By Qayum Babak, Afghanistan - IWPR

‘‘

Like many businessmen in northern Afghanistan, Mohammad Daud wants to keep his success a closely-guarded secret.

“The worst thing anyone can call you is rich,” he said, explaining that this would amount to an open invitation to kidnappers in the current climate.

“I have sent all my children out of the country, but I’m obliged to stay behind because of my business in Mazar-e Sharif,” he said. “If things continue like this, however, then I’ll be going as well.”

Kidnappings and robberies targeting the relatively well-off are increasingly common in parts of the north, including Balkh province of which Mazar-e Sharif is the main town.

Observers warn that such assaults on business leaders are damaging the local economy.

Mohammad Zarif, who owns a pharmacy in Maimana, a town in the northwestern Faryab province, described how he narrowly escaped abduction on October 18.

Driving home from work that evening, he noticed that he was being followed and called the police. When he arrived at his home and got out of the car, masked men attempted to seize him, but police were already

waiting and the attackers fled.

Shopkeeper Mohammad Karim, an eyewitness to the failed kidnapping attempt, described the scene.

“I was shutting up my shop when I heard a shot from a Kalashnikov about 20 metres away, and saw men getting out of a four-wheel drive vehicle, firing guns,” he said. “They ran away, but one of them was unable to get away so he threw his pistol to the police and called out that he was surrendering.”

Zarif said he himself escaped a similar kidnapping attempt six months previously.

“Since then I’ve become very worried, because these people can do anything; they have very powerful gangs,” he said.

Other recent cases involved Balkh businessman Haji Gul Ahmad Zargar, kidnapped in September and freed by police after a search lasting several days, and oil trader Ismail Jamshidi, abducted in Balkh province and freed on payment of a 400,000 US dollar ransom.

One of Jamshidi’s employees, Mohammed Gul Logari, complained that “we found that the police were unable to do anything to secure his safe release, so we had no choice but to pay the kidnappers the ransom. Otherwise Mr Ismail

‘‘ “I was totally frustrated, so I decided I would either get some money to feed my children, or die trying. I didn’t commit this crime because I wanted to,” he said.

Ansari said that despite numerous approaches made to the security agencies, successful businessmen now felt that they had no choice but to hire private guards, even though this was not always enough to protect them.

would have been killed.”

Afghan police accept that there has been an increase in kidnappings for ransom Salehuddin Sultan, head of Balkh province’s crime department, says that in the first seven months of 2010, there were 60 recorded cases of kidnap and robber in his area, up from 42 last year. This year’s figure represented about seven per cent of total recorded crimes.

“Criminals we have apprehended state in their confessions that their crimes were a consequence of increasing poverty and unemployment,” Sultan said.

He predicted that assaults on businessmen would create a vicious circle where “factories and businesses close, [more] people turn to crime to earn a living, and the incidence of crime thus continues to grow, so that next year we see more offences”.

One alleged kidnapper who appeared at a press conference following his arrest in Faryab province said he acted out of desperation.

“I was totally frustrated, so I decided I would either get some money to feed my children, or die trying. I didn’t commit this crime because I wanted to,” he said.

Businessmen are naturally concerned for their security.

“As an Afghan businessman, I say here and now that I do not feel safe, nor is my family safe, nor is the capital that I’ve invested here safe,” said one man in Mazar-e Sharif he walked to his office, surrounded by armed bodyguards.

In a climate where it was close to “suicidal” to remain, he said, bodyguards were a necessity as the security forces would not protect him or his family.

Economists say prosperity in the north depends on security, so the risks to business activity are already being felt.

“Falling levels of business have a direct impact on consumers, who are under pressure as supply declines and demand rises, affecting prices,” economic expert Abdul Satar Naimi said.

Traders like Mohammad Ibrahim, a shopkeeper in Mazar-e Sharif, say they have already been hit by price rises.

Just six months ago, he said, wholesale prices were reasonable and it was easy to get goods on credit. Now, however, “goods are less available on the

only 38 percent did in 2010.

Alarmingly, according to the latest Pew Global Attitudes Project, 56 percent of Turks view the United States as a military threat. As suspicion of the West has grown, desire to cooperate with the Middle East has risen. This year, according to Transatlantic Trends, 20 percent of Turks desired more cooperation with the Middle East, compared to ten percent in 2009.

If the AKP is emphasizing Islamic identity and positioning itself as the leader of the Muslim world at home, is the Muslim world ready to accept its leadership? In fact, Turkey may be well suited for the role: in addition to its status as the seat of the Ottoman Empire, which was the heir to the caliphate, Turkey has the largest economy and most powerful military of any Muslim nation. Nonetheless, the AKP has some work to do to convince Muslim countries that Turkey is their rightful sultan.

Some, including the Syrian regime, which is looking for a

new, strong regional patron, might be willing to accept Turkey’s leadership. But others, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, will be more reluctant. They already consider themselves the center of the Muslim world.

Still, the AKP appears to have enormous popularity on the streets of Cairo and Damascus. Finally, many non-Arab Muslim countries promote their own brands of political Islam and have their own ideas about who should speak on behalf of the Muslim world. To win them over, and increase its standing in the skeptical Middle East, the AKP will cynically use Islamist causes to improve its standing with Muslim publics. For example, it might declare solidarity with Hamas (but not the secular Palestinian Authority) to agitate for Palestinian nationhood. It can also be expected to lambast European policies toward Muslim immigrants and vocally take issue with any U.S. policies involving Muslims, such as the Israel-Palestine con-

wholesale market, and businessmen are selling at higher prices and won’t give goods on credit. When we buy at high prices, we have no choice but to sell at high prices, too,” he said.

According to Mohammed Hassan Ansari, head of industry and exports at the Balkh Chamber of Commerce, “Kidnapping has had an immensely negative impact on trade… trade is falling with every day that passes.”

Ansari said that despite numerous approaches made to the security agencies, successful businessmen now felt that they had no choice but to hire private guards, even though this was not always enough to protect them.

“One prominent businessman was abducted even though he had armed bodyguards,” he said. “A branch of Kabul Bank was looted despite having six armed guards, and the culprits are still at large. Bodyguards are not the right way out of this.”

General Daud Daud, who commands Afghanistan’s Northern Police Zone, appeared to downplay the gravity of kidnapping.

“Even in the most advanced countries, there are criminal gangs that commit crimes,” he said, adding that measures were being put in place to counter the problem. “Police will shortly be giving the public 24-hour phone numbers, so that people can contact the police about such cases, crimes are prevented, and people feel safe.”

Habibullah Habib, a defence and security affairs expert, said that in the north of Afghanistan, gangs directed by local militia commanders were well armed and felt able to act with impunity.

The solution, he said, was uncompromising action to serve as a deterrent against criminals.

“When a criminal is arrested, he should be shown in the media and subject to tough punishment,” Habib said. “That way, the number of crimes will fall.

“Unfortunately, however, because criminals are in close contact with certain high-ranking officials in government, they are sent to prison through one gate, and leave through another.”

Continued from ( 5 ) Sultan of the Muslim World ... successfully neutering any opposition. The government’s use of illegal wiretaps against critics has created a republic of fear: anyone who challenges the AKP can land in jail under the most spurious of allegations.

Recently, Hanefi Avcı, a police chief famous for rooting out communists in his district in the 1980s, was arrested and charged with being a member of a communist cell. This came just days after he published his memoirs, which were critical of the AKP’s methods of intimidation.

Not long ago, many would have expected the military, which has traditionally been the guardian of Turkey’s secular, nationalist identity, to intervene as politics got out of hand. But the implication of the AKP’s ever-increasing power, especially after it changed the line of succession for the military’s top brass, is that the military will bend to the AKP’s will and play along with its newfound leadership role in the Muslim world.

In October, the military re-

mained quiet when the AKP objected to NATO’s plans to place a missile defense shield in Turkey. This suggests that the AKP no longer perceives Iran and Syria as threats. And there are already signs that the military is stopping its decades-long practice of purging Islamist officers from its ranks, which would open the way for grass-roots Islamization of NATO’s secondlargest army.

As the AKP goes, so will the Turkish population. Since the modernizing days of the Ottoman sultans, the political culture of the population has been imposed by the elite. And the AKP, with its coterie of Islamist billionaires, media personalities, think tanks, and universities, is Turkey’s new elite. Turkey’s population has already seemingly bought into the AKP mindset. According to a recent poll by TESEV, an Istanbulbased nongovernmental organization, the number of people identifying themselves as Muslim increased by ten percent be-

tween 2002 and 2007. Almost half of them described themselves as Islamist, which means they believe that this illiberal ideology, rather than secular democracy, should guide Turkey’s political system. This is a stark departure from Ataturk’s vision, which suggested that Turks could be Western, politically secular, and Muslim all at once.

Many Turks formerly believed that they shared values and interests with the West, making collaboration with NATO, the United States, and the European Union, beneficial.

But after the rise of the AKP -and after the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq war defined the Muslim world in opposition to the West -- that is no longer the case: according to the 2010 Transatlantic Trends report, 55 percent of Turks now feel that Turkey has such different values from the West that it is a non-Western country. And although in 2004, 73 percent of Turks believed that membership in the European Union would be a good thing,

flict, the conflict in Sudan, and Iran.

So far, many of the AKP’s efforts to defend global Islamist causes, such as its frustrated attempt last summer to broker a nuclear deal between Iran and the West, have faltered. Still, even if Turkey cannot convince the rest of the Muslim world of its power, Turks have already bought into the AKP’s brand of us-versus-them Islam at the expense of its nationalist identity.

In other words, the AKP will have its cake and eat it too unless Turks stop believing in a Huntingtonian clash between the Muslim world and the West -- or unless Kemalism reemerges to assert the nationalist, secular aspects of Turkey’s identity.

And the next chance for that to happen will be the June 2011 elections, which may be the most important battle for Turkey’s soul in over two centuries, since the Ottoman sultans first turned Turkey to the West.

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Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 Issue 22 www.nationalyemen.com

BUSINESS

National Yemen

40% Unemployment and Poverty Rate Last Year

By NY Staff The unemployment rate was greatly increasing last year, reaching 40%, a government report has revealed. Resultantly, members of Parliament demanded the government adopt a clear vision and programs to counter the drivers of unemployment.

The report has attributed the reason for the rise in unemployment to the deterioration of the economic situation as well as the decline in volume of investments in various areas, especially oil investments. The report

also said that the rate of unemployment and poverty level have been on the rise during the last year, finally reaching 40%.

In a report on unemployment, the parliament has affirmed that unemployment is the most serious challenge facing the Yemeni society, especially in light of the high population growth and the increasing number of people entering the labor market, namely young people of graduate age.

The report pointed out that the labor force increases annually by 4.3%, which is a rate

much higher than the annual rate of available work opportunities of 3.7%. the report demanded the government to adopt a clear vision and programs to counter such a problem through exerting efforts to improve and update the education and vocational training system and make it more suitable for the requirements of labor market, as well as improving the investment environment, to contribute to creating work opportunities to meet the growing work force and to work more on

opening labor markets in neighboring countries to facilitate the Yemeni labor work access.

A recent study titled “The Problem of Unemployment in the Republic of Yemen: Development, Policy Assessment and Treatments ” prepared by the economy expert Dr. Mohammed Ali Jobran, Professor of Economy, Sana’a University, Republic of Yemen, tackled the reasons of unemployment in the Republic of Yemen.

Dr. Jobran said that there is no specific program to deal with

unemployment.

He added that the privatization system and selling of public sector units have played a significant role in the layoff of a great deal of the workforce, referring them to the Civil Service fund.

Moreover, the decline in public, private and foreign investments, the spread of corruption, money laundering, decline in the rate of necessary research and development to improve products as well as the weakness of the education and train-

ing system and its deficiency in keeping up with the change in labor market.

Jobran said that according to the official reports of the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) the unemployment rate is decreasing every year, where according to the Annual Statistics Book it was 16.2% in 2004 (39.6% among the males versus 13.0% among the females) and it went down to 15% in 2008.

Over 562 Billion YR in Gulf Investment Projects in Yemen last period

By NY Staff The King Fahd 26th Summit in Abu Dhabi December 2005 made the strategic decision to rehabilitate Yemen economy and determine the supply requirements that cover the period 2006-2015.

That summit was five years ago. Today Yemen is hosting matches of the Arab Gulf Cup Tournament 20 during the period from 22nd Nov to 5th Dec for the first time since Yemen’s membership in most Arab Gulf institutions nine years ago.

The Yemen-Gulf economic relations have undergone distinct phases, most important of which is the 22nd Summit which brought leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States to Muscat in December 2001. It accepted Yemen’s membership in four of the council’s institutions.

Another important summit was the King Fahd 26th Summit in Abu Dhabi December 2005, which made the strategic decision to rehabilitate Yemen’s economy and determine the supply requirements covering the period 2006-2015. Back then, the joint meeting of foreign ministers of the GCC States and the foreign minister and expatriates was held in Sana’a, in order to reach a joint proposal to rehabilitate Yemen economically, in addition to the London Donors Conference’s adoption of the general assembly of the GCC States and the Investment Opportunities Conference in Yemen.

The year 2006 represents an important historical turning point in enhancing joint coordination and cooperation between Yemen and the GCC States.

In December 2005, the decisions taken in the King Fahd Bin Abdul-Aziz Summit, in Abu Dhabi, emphasized the agreement of the leaders of the GCC States on the strategic importance to rehabilitate Yemen economy in light of HE Ali Abdullah Saleh’s initiative to fellow leaders of the Council in

the last quarter of 2005.

This was bolstered in the joint meeting with the Ministerial Council of the GCC States in March 2006. The joint meeting statement stressed the need to study the Yemen economy rehabilitation mechanisms according to a specific and scheduled plan, provided that the plan is presented in the international conference adopted by the GCC States to provide the necessary supply requirements to achieve a comprehensive developmental rehabilitation including all economic, social and educational aspects.

The meeting also endorsed that the technical committees of the finance ministries in the GCC States and the Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation in the Republic of Yemen and the General Assembly of the GCC take help of the international monetary bodies in the preparation of necessary studies to determine the development requirements in Yemen and turning them into a working plan and programs with specific dimensions and a time range according to a program until the year 2015 and to determine the financial requirements of this plan.

The decisions and positive outcomes of the Gulf summits and the conferences of the Ministerial Council have contributed to the crystallization of strategic visions and orientations for the creation of a number of joint working mechanisms between authorities in the GCC States, Yemen and the Council’s General Assembly (GA).

A number of working channels have also been determined, which include comprehensive development rehabilitation in light of the Yemeni report on the evaluation of sector requirements to improve human development in Yemen to match the level common in the GCC States by 2015.

A second axis includes the rehabilitation of Yemen econo-

my in order to create an encouraging environment for local, Gulf and international investment by the private sector and the resultant economic growth and provision of work opportunities.

This dimension was culminated with the holding of the Investment Opportunities Exploration Conference in Sana’a during the period April 22 – 23, 2007.

The third axis includes the development funds in the GCC States and the competent authorities to finance Yemen’s infrastructure, and the GA coordinates with the competent authorities in Yemen to lay arrangements for that and to agree on financing specific projects in Yemen.

The fourth axis is represented in a joint work group of Yemen and the GCC States for laying a joint mechanism between both sides in light of the 2002 agreement, and proposing appropriate steps for Yemen’s accession to the Gulf institutions and the specialized organizations.

Accordingly, the Gulf institutions have urged the private sector to invest in the country, where the Gulf investment projects registered at the General Investment Authority (GIA) and its branches for the period 1992 – 2010 have amounted to around 219 investment projects. According to the GIA report, the Gulf investment projects cost has reached almost 562.33 Bn Yemeni Riyals, and has generated almost 17,000 job opportunities.

The report pointed out that these projects were distributed among the economic, service and production sectors. The Saudi investments ranked first with 124 investment projects, at an investment cost of 348.7 billion YR making 62% of the total Gulf investment capital in our country, and estimated over 10,000 work opportunities.

The Qatar investments ranked second in terms of in-

vested capital and fourth in terms of the number of projects; 4 investment projects at 106.24 billion Yemeni riyals, that is 19% of invested capital, creating over 1,000 work opportunities. The most important Qatar investment project during that period is a tourist recreational residential complex at the cost of 105.5 billion Yemeni riyals, with fixed assets of around 6.39 billion Yemeni riyals, creating 500 work opportunities.

The UAE investments ranked second in terms of the number of projects – 57 projects, and third in terms of invested capital of 55.44 billion, at approx 10% of the Gulf invested capital in our country during the period 1992 – 2010, creating around 4,000 work opportunities.

The Kuwaiti investments ranked fourth in terms of invested capital of 26.16 billion riyals - 5% of invested capital; while the Kuwaiti and Omani investments ranked joint third in terms of the number of projects – 16 projects of each, creating around 610 work opportunities.

The report pointed out that the two important Kuwaiti projects in our country are: Al-Eisi City expansion project at an investment cost of 16.52 billion riyals, and the second is an electricity power and distribution station at a cost of about 3.15 billion riyals.

In relation to the Omani investments, the report said that they came fifth in terms of invested capital at around 25.62 billion riyals, 4.57% of the Gulf invested capital in our country with 16 projects, creating 918 work opportunities.

The key Omani project in our country during that period is a cement factory with an investment capital of 20.34 billion riyals, and fixed assets of 15.16 billion riyals, creating around 270 work opportunities.

The Bahrain investments in our country came last in order in terms of the number of projects and invested capital of 93.34

million riyals, only 0.02% of the Gulf invested capital in our country during that period, with 67 work opportunities.

The report pointed out that the first project is fishing and exporting aquarium fishes at 18.86 million riyals and the second is a workshop for furniture and décor at an investment capital 74.48 million riyals.

According to the General Investment Authority report, our country had given permits during the 3rd quarter (July – September) of the current year 2010 to projects at 93.48 billion riyals, with a 74 billion riyal increase over the 2nd quarter.

The report pointed out that the investment projects registered at the GIA and its branches for the 3rd quarter of the current year have been distributed on 12 governorates in economic service and production sectors, providing around 2,000 work opportunities, where Hodeida ranked first in terms of invested capital of 60.92 billion riyals 65% of invested capital, key projects being a power station, a residential city and a factory for mixing lubricants, creating about 500 work opportunities.

Aden comes next in order with an invested capital of 22.88 billion riyals, 24% of the invested capital, Key projects include electric power and land transportation, creating 314 work opportunities.

The capital secretariat ranked third with an invested capital of around 3.33 billion riyals, 3% and the key projects established in the capital secretariat is tourist suites, a center for geological surveys, a maintenance center for hydraulic and heavy equipment as well as a sponge factory, creating 644 work opportunities, while all of Sana’a, Hadramout, Lahj, Taiz, Ibb, Mahweet, Dhale’, Shabwah and Hajjah provinces followed respectively in terms of invested capital.

The report mentioned that the industry sector ranked fist in

terms of invested capital, estimated at around 61.46 billion riyals of the total invested capital, 65.74%, with 1,021 work opportunities, while the service sector ranked second with 26.29 billion riyals, 28% of the total investment capital and 489 work opportunities.

Following is the tourist sector with an invested capital of 5.29 billion, 5.7%, creating 337 work opportunities, while the agriculture sector came last in order with 446.2 million riyals, 0.5% of the total invested capital with 97 work opportunities.

In relation to foreign investments in our country during the 3rd quarter of the current year, the report said that the investment cost of foreign projects reached 39.27 billion riyals, by 42% of the total investment capital for the 3rd quarter, which amounts to 93 billion.

The Egyptian projects ranked first with an invested capital of 21.9 billion riyals and a key Egyptian project is for generating electric power, while the Kuwait investments ranked second with a capital of 16.52 billion riyals and among the key Kuwaiti projects is a residential city.

The Saudi investments ranked third with 560 million riyals for the project of a center for geological and environmental studies and soil research, while the French, Tanzanian, Syrian, UAE, Malaysian, Jordanian and US investments come next in order in terms of foreign investment in our country for the 3rd quarter of the current year.

It is worth mentioning that the 3rd quarter of the current year has witnessed a qualitative rise in investments in comparison with the last period, which is attributed to the GIA’s efforts in promoting for investment in our country during exhibitions, conferences and seminars in order to make known of the economic sectors abroad and the advantages Yemen enjoys.

National Yemen

SPORT

Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 Issue 22 www.nationalyemen.com

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Gulf 20 Tournament

By NY Staff The Gulf Cup of Nations, which kicked off in Aden and Abyan last week, provides the ideal opportunity for teams to finalise their preparations for the AFC Asian Cup 2011. Once again this year we can expect the usual quota of drama and surprises, with reigning champions Oman and hosts Yemen out to upset some of the bigger names in the competition.

Yemen played Saudi Arabia straight after the opening ceremonies, suffering a demoralizing 4-0 defeat. Things looked up by half time on their next match against Qatar last Thursday, however their title hopes were sadly dashed by the final whistle with another defeat, 2-1.

President Saleh himself stated before the matches that Yemen can win even if it’s team does not, referring to the vast investment and development in Aden and to a lesser extent, Zinjibar, Abyan, sees and will see by hosting the Gulf 20 tournament.

Yemen’s losses have caused much depression, and even a little anger, with some supporters calling for the resignation of the Minister of Sports & Youth for spending so much on the team’s preparation for the Gulf Cup 20 tournament. However,

these are in the minority.

Much media reportage has covered the omnipresent security forces posted around Aden and Zinjibar, Abyan where the 22nd May and Al-Wehda (Unity) international stadiums are hosting matches. However, a much-speculated attack against the event seems to have been averted. Many Gulfi delegations have since rescinded their requests for armoured convoys, viewing the request as unnecessary and excessive, upon their arrival to Aden.

A military helicopter distracted fans by hovering above the KSA-Kuwait game. The head of security, , later affirmed that it was not placed for security, but rather for aerial photography and filming purposes.

Also sweeping the headlines around the Arab world has been the phenomenon of Arab women both chanting in the stadiums, and working for part of the Gulf 20 efforts – in press rooms, in security, and in administration.

Some sound sports analysis courtesy of FIFA follows to give our readers an overview.

Defending champions Oman’s goal will be to defend the title they won on their

home turf last time out. Indeed, the team have a proud record in this tournament in recent times, having finished runners-up in the two previous editions, 2004 and 2007, when they lost out to hosts Qatar and UAE respectively.

The Omanis, coached by Frenchman Claude Le Roy, who led them to victory in 2009, can focus fully on the event after failing to qualify for next year’s Asian Cup. Their group rivals, by contrast, will be hoping to build on their performance here as part of their preparations.

Le Roy is quietly confident of his side’s ability to retain the title, saying, “We’re ready to defend our crown in Yemen even though we know the competition will be extremely tough and we must be at our best. I don’t know how things will go in our group as it contains Iraq, UAE and Bahrain – all very good teams. That said, we certainly have a very good chance of making it to the semi-finals.”

stan and Gabon, draws with Uganda and Ghana, and just a solitary defeat at the hands of Bulgaria while at a special training camp in Turkey.

For their part, UAE will be gunning for a second title in three attempts after tasting success at the 18th edition in 2007.

Slovenian coach Srecko Katanec can call on a number of veterans from that title-winning side, including star striker Ismail Matar.

UAE have also been busy fine-tuning their formation in pre-tournament friendlies, going down to Chile and Angola before trouncing India 5-0. The Whites, as the team are known, have plenty to prove in Yemen, after the disappointment of a first-round exit last time.

Katanec, for one, was in confident mood in recent days, saying, “Our primary aim is to qualify from the group, and after that to go as far as we can.

The players have a burning desire to succeed at the Gulf Cup.”

The main contenders

The dark horses

Saudi Arabia are again among the leading candidates despite the decision of Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro to drop 11 members of his squad for “technical reasons”. The Saudis will now be relying heavily on outstanding midfielder Mohammed Al Shalhoub if they are progress in the tournament.

Speaking ahead of the tournament, Al Shalhoub himself had this to say: “The Gulf Cup is the region’s favourite tournament, and the Gulf people view the games as being just as important as any international matches. Winning the trophy is the aspiration of everyone playing in it.”

The Saudis have won the cup on three occasions, first in 1994 then again in 2002 and 2003.

They also reached the final at Oman 2009 when, after a goalless 120 minutes against the hosts, they lost 6-5 on penalties.

Saudi Arabia travel to Yemen, having prepared extensively for this tournament. Their build-up included five friendlies over the past two months, producing wins over both Uzbeki-

Iraq go in search of their fourth victory at the prestigious tournament after winning on home soil in 1979, in Oman in 1984 and in Saudi Arabia four years later – all under the tutelage of legendary coach Emmanuel ‘Ammo’ Baba. However, since returning to the competition in 2004 the team have found success harder to come by, going out in the first round on all three occasions with only one win from nine games.

Under German coach Wolfgang Sidka all that might be about to change though. His side have posted some encouraging results in their recent friendlies – wins against Qatar (2-1) and India (2-0) as well as a creditable draw with Kuwait (11) – and take that impetus with them to Yemen.

The hosts, meanwhile, will be hoping it is fifth time lucky, having failed to survive the group stages on each of their previous four appearances. The man charged with ending that ignominious run is Croatian Srecko Juricic, who has previously coached both UAE and

Bahrain.

No one could accuse Yemen of not taking the build-up seriously, however, with the squad following a preparatory programme going back 15 months.

Along the way they have enjoyed friendly wins over Liberia

for Yemen 2010, they have been busy with friendlies, including two while based at their training camp in Abu Dhabi – a 9-1 rout of India followed by a creditable 1-1 draw with Iraq.

Bahrain, meanwhile, go in

(2-0), Senegal (4-1) and a draw with Uganda (2-2) only last week.

search of a maiden Gulf title under coach Salman Sharida. Having competed in the Gulf Cup on numerous occasions as a player, Sharida is aiming to help Bahrain go all the way after finishing runners-up no fewer than four times.

Finally, Qatar will be hoping to add a third title to those won in 1992 and 2004, although their results in recent friendlies have been less than encouraging. Under French coach Bruno Metsu they will be anxious for some morale-boosting results ahead of their hosting of the 2011 Asian Cup next January.

The other teams Kuwait, who have the benefit of a settled backroom staff under Serbian coach Goran Tufegdzic, are another team with grounds for optimism, especially after victory last month at the West Asian Championship.

History is also on the Kuwaitis’ side, the team having lifted the Gulf Cup a record nine times. By way of preparation

Cheerleaders blamed for Yemen beach volleyball defeat

Bikini-clad cheerleaders have been blamed by the Yemen beach volleyball team for their defeat during the Asian Games.

Organisers of the games in China have hired four cheerleader squads, each made up of eight girls, to entertain fans during breaks in the volleyball action, according to the Tianfu Morning News.

But Yemen beach volleyballer Adeeb Mahfoudh has now accused the squads of being distracting, and partly to blame for their defeat to Indonesia.

“They had an effect on how we played,” he said. “I think they had something to do with our losing the match.

Besides cheering, the girls also perform routines that include traditional Chinese elements including martial arts and fan dancing.

“These girls are very beautiful. With them here, more people will pay attention to beach volleyball,” Mr Mahfoudh added.

“If I can, I hope to watch them perform at the next match.”

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National Yemen

REPORT

Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 Issue 22 www.nationalyemen.com

Al-Houthis and Al-Qaida in Yemen: A New Chapter

By Dr. Murad Alazzany, Researcher in Islamic Groups The suicide car bomber which targeted Al-Houthis crowd in Al Jawf province left seventeen Houthis killed and five wounded. The incident received global coverage in printed media and on television channels which worsened more the already misrepresented image of Yemen.

The Yemeni street received the news with mixed attitudes.

Starkly they were divided between condemnation and praise.

I have read many comments on the attack and they were mostly contradictory.

Some journalists and media analysts view the incident as a heinous crime, pointing a finger to Al-Qaida as the chief perpetrators, some consider it as the seeds of a rift in Yemen, blaming the government for the event, and others express their jubilation of the incident echoing Al-Houthis’ disdain at the loss of life.

The denunciation by the government was expected and diffident. It was meant mainly to give the impression that they are there on the screen, rather than to show any sympathy to the victims or seriousness in arrest-

ing the main agents behind the attack, and indeed the masterminds.

As for me, I believe Al-Qaida is behind this attack since the tactics and the motives are similar to those witnessed of Al-Qaida in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, the incident is considered as a real critical development in the Yemeni political and security context. It is an demoralizing signal of the commencement of a potentially bloody battle between the two traditional and ideological enemies, AlQaida and Shi’ites.

The two groups however, in spite of their ideological differences, still have in common the government of Yemen as an enemy. Both have been in simmering confrontation with the government since the beginning of the millennium.

Thus, the two groups share the goal of toppling government, but they do so for agendas that cannot meet.

The Al-Houthi groups aims at restoring the Immamat kingdom they lost five decades ago, while Al-Qaida aims at threatening western interests and if possible to establish an Islamic

state in Yemen.

In spite of these ideological differences, they could never declare an open battle against each other. Thus, if Al-Qaida is confirmed behind the attack, then the question that poses itself is: why now?

Simply, the ideological differences between the two groups are much more that what they share in common. Their agendas can not co-exist side by side or to be contained, for where agendas differ, conflicts occur.

The Houthi celebration of the “Al-Ghadeer day is a show of power; by concentrating many followers in one place at one time, they simultaneously highlight their identity and challenge the government, in a bid to gain more supporters and to oppose those who are not in favour of their ideology, particularly the tribal shaikhs in the area.

Thus, the attack by Al-Qaida was just a message to the Houthis that you cannot turn the country into a Shi’ite state while they are there. It is seemingly meant to prevent Houthi supporters from celebrating Al Ghadeer festival in the province of Al Jawf.

Al-Ghadeer is celebrated annually by Shiites to commemorate the day in which they claim Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) announced Ali bin Abi Taleb as his successor for after his death.

This theological fact is totally against that of Sunnis and particularly viewed by Al-Qaida as not in keeping with Islam.

Al Qaida has repeatedly issued warnings against Al Ghadeer, celebrations declaring it as ‘Bedah’, not truly Islamic occasion to celebrate. Thus, similar attacks previously happened in Iraq and Pakistan for the same intention; throwing the Al Ghadeer celebrations into disarray in those countries and if possible to prevent the Shia’ates from celebrating them for ever.

Interestingly, however, the Houthis have not accused AlQaida of perpetrating the attack.

Rather, perhaps tactfully, they have highlighted the alleged enemies, America and Israel, and their foreign intelligence apparatus.

Accusing the US and Israeli intelligence as being responsible for the attack is a smart strategy by the Houthis to mark

those behind the attack as agents for the enemy of the nation .

Thus, if Al-Qaida happens to declare its responsibility of the incident, as it usually does, it will save the Houthis the effort to declare Al-Qaida as agents that serve the agenda of Israel and United states in the area, which is in fact a common perception of Al-Qaida of many Shi’ites in the North of Yemen, in general.

From another perspective, the Houthis cannot declare AlQaida behind the attack; at the end of the day they cannot afford charging into battle with an unseen enemy which has been in a severe confrontation with the most powerful country in the globe for almost a decade.

The Houthis are aware that a battle with Al-Qaida will not be run in the same way as the skirmishes they have had with the government. They know that Al-Qaida will attack them only in such Festivals.

However, it will be a disaster if Houthis try to seek their revenge from Sunni muslims in Dammaj madrassah located in Sada’a, administered by a Sunni group that finds solidarity with

Al-Qaida on some intellectual levels, but never approves its method. If that happens, an ever lasting civil war may erupt.

If Al-Qaida is confirmed behind the attack, then the battle between the two traditional enemies will be in the interest of the government. That is, if it is not going to last and its scene is not widened to involve the major cities of the country.

If the battle goes on, it will cause a collateral damage across the whole country and be an insufferable pain to all the people in the area. It will effect the country’s already deteriorating economy, social security and in the long run its already misrepresented image and reputation in the global media. It will sell Yemen as a chaos and turbulent country.

It is a high time for wise people in the country to stand up against such a a threat before more blood shed and more victims fall. If we keep watching passively all of us will pay the high price handing a whole country on a silver platter over to a group of violent Islamists divided between the Houthis and Al-Qaida.

Yemen seeks Egyptian preacher’s help

By Mohammed al Qadhi, National The Yemeni government has sought the help of the popular Egyptian television preacher Amr Khaled to launch a battle against radical and extremist ideology in the country.

Mr Khaled, an influential and moderate Muslim preacher known for wooing young crowds in a high-pitched voice, said his one-year campaign was meant to influence Yemen’s youngsters and engage them in the fight against extremism.

He said about 50,000 people yesterday attended his sermon on the importance of moderate Islam at Al Saleh mosque in the capital Sana’a.

“The objective of this project is to uproot and spread moderation and the true Islam that was brought by the Prophet Mohammed. Yemen is a country with a deep-rooted civilisation that has been hit by terrorism. We want to present a good picture of Yemen and win the hearts and minds of its youth in this battle,” Mr Khaled said in an interview on Thursday in Sana’a.

Mr Khaled, whose modern style trades clerical robes for

sharp suits and laces sermons with references to the internet and sport clubs and who appeals to youths across the Arab world, is confident in his approach.

“It is big challenge but I think we will succeed because we are depending on the youths to confront extremism. Violence does not succeed in confronting violence, and governments alone will not succeed in confronting it,” he said.

The campaign will involve training about 100 young people who will create about 50 projects to educate and raise public awareness about “the real Islam”, Mr Khaled said.

These projects include establishing a website to confront extremist ideology. The youth trainees, to be selected from different regions in Yemen, will, in turn, train others who show an interest in the projects.

“We think that a lot of youth, many of whom are away from the public affairs in Yemen, are positive, ready to do something for their country and confront extremism. We are going to train them to do this. And we are

confident that in one year we can make the difference,” he said.

About 100 preachers and clerics will also receive training in preaching proficiency and eloquence to help them confront extremist ideology in their sermons.

In addition to juggling an insurgency in the north and a separatist movement in the south, the Yemeni government is struggling to combat a resurgent wing of al Qa’eda. The group is considered to be a serious threat by the US after the botched attack on a US-bound plane in December and the US-bound parcel bombs in October.

Under pressure from the US, Yemeni government forces have launched attacks against al Qa’eda militants in recent months, without much success.

Mr Khaled, who has received a warm welcome by the Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his top officials, said that he and 15 other clerics involved in the awareness project would lecture university students and military personnel during their

The preacher Amr Khaled is known for wooing young crowds in a high-pitched voice. Above, the cleric addresses a ceremony in Aden, in the south of Yemen. Khaled Abdullah / Reuters

10-day visit to Yemen.

According to Mr Khaled, the project is funded by the government as well as donations by Yemeni businessmen. He said the youths would generate funding from the private sector.

Hassan al Lawzi, Yemen’s information minister, said the project would help distribute the message.

“It is a call to the youths to understand the right concept of Islam, which is the religion of peace,” Mr al Lawzi told reporters during the launch of the project in the port city of Aden on Wednesday.

However, Mohammed Ayesh, a well-known writer, said fighting extremism required a review of government policies, which employ religion in political battles.

“The government needs to make a serious effort in reviewing its policies which used religious groups against each other, or against its political opponents,” he said, describing the result as a flourishing of radical groups.

Mr Ayesh said government needed to review its education curricula, and media and mosque rhetoric which encour-

age radicalism, as well as its coalition with extremist groups.

“It is only this way that a crackdown on extremism and terrorism can be fruitful,” he said.

Mr Ayesh also said the move was a response to the western pressure on the government to address the roots of terrorism.

“The government would like to give an impression that it is not only cracking down terrorism, but also on extremism, as the West has recently begun to focus on the need that Yemen addresses the roots of extremism,” he said.

New beetles discovered by Dutch biologists in Yemen Two new species of insects have been have discovered by Dutch biologists on the island of Socotra in Yemen.

Entomologists Robert Ketelaar and Jaap Bouwman told public broadcaster NOS that they identified a “tubby, greyish” cricket living in caves, a winged orange-coloured locust, and some minor ground beetles hitherto unknown to scientists.

Socotra Island is known for its unique flora and fauna, with at least a third of the 800 local

species being found nowhere else in the world. The four-man team of Dutch biologists led by Ketelaar and Bouwman spotted 91 species, according to the report published Thursday from their March 2009 trip.

One of the already known indigenous species seen by the team, the Glomeremus pileatus night cricket, is shown in the photograph below.

National Yemen

CONGRATULATIONS

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