USD 1.7

Baku 23 °C

Paid news

AZ RU EN FA FR

Dark mode

POLITICS

NEWS

World

Economics

Sport

Culture news

Analysis

Blogs

Company

TOP 10

© 2004 - 2026 All copyright are reserved.

Asia

Home page

Asia

Thousands of south Yemen protesters demand secession

12 February 2011 03:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Around 3,000 people took to the streets across southern Yemen in a "Friday of Rage," demanding secession from the north, but heavily deployed security forces quickly stamped out protests, residents said, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The protests come in the lull after a wave of anti-government rallies spread across Yemen over the past two weeks, inspired by the revolts that ousted Tunisia’s former president and the uprising in Egypt that threatens President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule.
"Revolution, revolution for the South," protesters chanted in the flashpoint cities of Aden, Dalea and Zinjibar.
Yemen experts say the real danger to the three-decade rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key U.S. ally against al Qaeda, is if protesters from his political opposition join with rebel groups such as the separatists in the south and the Shi’ite insurgents he has made a shaky truce with in the north.
Though small compared to protests by Yemen’s political opposition that attracted tens of thousands, the demonstrations in the south were the first by the separatists since the mass protests in Egypt and Tunisia electrified the Arab world.
North and South Yemen united in a bumpy merger in 1990 that later devolved into civil war four years later. Saleh’s forces crushed the secessionist south and reunited the country.
Saleh, eyeing the unrest spreading in the Arab world, indicated last week he would leave office when his term ends in 2013. The president had previously cut taxes and promised salary raises to civil servants and the military.
Such concessions could tempt his political opposition into joining him in a unity government -- they have yet to take an official stand. But southern separatists may not be satisfied.
Many in the south, which holds most of Yemen’s oil installations, complain that northerners usurp their resources while denying them their identity and political rights.
Army tanks rolled into Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan, where suspected al Qaeda militants have been active and over a thousand protesters gathered Friday. Hundreds of men sat outside a former South Yemen leader’s home, wearing white shrouds to symbolize their readiness to fight to the death.
"Ali, Ali, catch up with Ben Ali," they shouted, implying that Saleh should follow former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to exile in Saudi Arabia.
In Aden, police fired shots in the air and arrested four people to break up protests, but around 600 separatist and anti-government protesters regrouped in the Saada neighborhood, which for months has been sealed off by armed men.
Saada, a stronghold for militants in the south, was shelled by security forces last summer after the military clashed with men who the government said were al Qaeda members.
Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest state. Forty percent of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day.

Dark mode

POLITICS

NEWS

World

Economics

Sport

Culture news

Analysis

Blogs

Company

TOP 10

© 2004 - 2026 All copyright are reserved.

Asia

Thousands of south Yemen protesters demand secession

Asia

Israel announces destruction of Hezbollah underground facility in southern Lebanon

Axios: U.S., Iran agree to ceasefire, Doha talks on Strait of Hormuz

Türkiye says Israel using 1915 events decision to cover up crimes against Palestinians

Qatari citizen died from shrapnel wounds on board ship

NEWS FEED

ATTENTION!

ATTENTION!

ATTENTION!