YEMEN: Deal signed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down looks in danger of unravelling, as violence in Yemen continues

Record ID: 213944

  • Title: YEMEN: Deal signed by President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down looks in danger of unravelling, as violence in Yemen continues
  • Date: 3rd December 2011
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS SITTING MAN MAKING SPEECH
  • Embargoed: 18th December 2011 12:00
  • Keywords: Yemdunc
  • Location: Yemen, Yemen
  • Country: Yemen
  • Topics: Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC00ISH6BVHAEN3PVCCHVFLWZ9
  • Story Text: Huge rallies were held on Friday (December 2) in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa with a deal to ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power yet to defuse 10 months of violent unrest.
    A protest condemning the regime was attended by thousands, who declared the day "Independence Friday" and held a prayer ceremony.
    Meanwhile at least five civilians and three soldiers were killed in the protest hotbed city of Taiz, threatening to unravel a week-old political pact which saw Saleh sign a deal to step down.
    "What is happening in Taiz is not extraordinary, every time we make a deal with Ali Abdullah Saleh, the deal is overruled before the ink has even dried. He is a man who has lied for 33 years and the media does not trust the signing, nor the promises he pledges," said protester Abdullah Satar.
    Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbours and their U.S. ally hope the deal can reverse a drift toward chaos on the doorstep of the world's top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, and stop al Qaeda's Yemeni branch gaining a foothold near Red Sea shipping routes.
    The prospective government is supposed to shepherd Yemen towards a presidential election that Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the vice president to whom Saleh has transferred his powers, has set for Feb. 21, 2012.
    "My message to the vice president is now that he must prove his worth - he took all the powers, so he must use them," said Rashad Abdul Ghani.
    Opposition sources also said they had given Hadi a list of their choices for a military council tasked with running the army until a new president is elected.
    The list included former defence and interior ministers plus army commanders who turned on Saleh.
    Under the Gulf initiative signed by Saleh, a body will be set up to restructure the armed forces. Saleh's son Ahmed commands the Republican Guard, one of the best equipped units.
    Protesters in Taiz and elsewhere have denounced the immunity from prosecution that Saleh and his relatives would enjoy under the power transfer deal.
    "It is now the responsibility of the opposition, in front of religious leaders and history, to take what is happening in Taiz and prove they have good faith, to denounce and leave the government, because this initiative is false and will give rise to more bloodshed," said Amat al Malik, another protester.
    Another rally was held in support of Saleh in Sanaa on Friday. Protesters raised placards bearing the image of Saleh and expressed support for the Gulf initiative.
    "For ten months we have been in distress. We say to our brothers of their joint meeting with the (opposition) National Council: you have acted on the agreement and I ask the (ruling) General People's Congress and the opposition parties to get Yemen out of this distress," said Mohamed al Ahdal.
    The man nominated by opposition parties to lead a government divided between them and Saleh's General People's Congress, Mohammed Basindwa, said his side would rethink if the killing in Taiz did not cease.
    Any Saleh successor will face multiple overlapping conflicts that have gained force during the political crisis, including rising separatist sentiment in the south, which fought a civil war with Saleh's north in 1994, and fighting with Islamists who have seized territory in the southern province of Abyan.
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