Just Foreign Policy News
February 11, 2011
President Obama’s statement on Mubarak’s resignation
President Obama calls on the Egyptian military to lift the emergency law and lay out a clear path to elections that are fair and free.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/11/remarks-president-egypt
Egypt Protests: Watch Four Demands
Four key demands have been constantly lifted up by protesters and opposition parties, which are essential for a credible transition to democracy: ending the arbitrary detention and harassment of journalists, human rights activists and peaceful demonstrators and freeing those who have been detained; ending the state of emergency; allowing free electoral competition in elections; and restoring full judicial supervision of elections…. Without these reforms, any ‘orderly transition’ in Egypt is likely to be a transition not to democracy, but a transition to dictatorship under a different face.
http://www.truth-out.org/egypt-protesters-verge-victory-watch-demands67647
Al Jazeera Video: Mark Weisbrot on Aristide’s Return
Weisbrot talks to Riz Khan, responding to comments by OAS Secretary-General Insulza.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/rizkhan/2011/02/20112972730729805.html
Rasmussen: Half of Likely Voters Think US Should Remove Troops from Japan, Europe
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% of Likely U.S. voters think we should remove troops from Western Europe. Forty-eight percent (48%) feel the same way about Japan. Thirty-four percent (34%) think the United States should leave troops in Western Europe, and 36% think troops should stay in Japan.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/january_2011/half_want_troops_out_of_europe_japan_but_south_korea_s_another_story
Abe Sauer: U.S. Federal Funds Still Underwriting Christian Proselytizing in Haiti
Christian proselytizing documented at USAID-funded Samaritan’s Purse cholera clinics in Haiti; Samaritan’s Purse is funded by USAID in Pakistan, a disaster waiting to happen.
http://www.theawl.com/2011/02/u-s-federal-funds-still-underwriting-proselytizing-in-haiti
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Egypt erupted in a joyous celebration on Friday as President Mubarak resigned his post and ceded control to the military, the New York Times reports. Shortly before the announcement of Mubarak’s departure, the military issued a communiqué pledging to carry out constitutional reforms. In its communiqué, the military largely stuck to the main constitutional and electoral reforms Mubarak and Suleiman had already promised to make. Abdel-Rahman Samir, a protest organizer, said the movement would open negotiations with the military, but said demonstrations should also continue to ensure changes are carried out. "We still don’t have any guarantees yet – if we end the whole situation now it’s like we haven’t done anything," Samir told AP. "So we need to keep sitting in Tahrir until we get all our demands."
Switzerland said it had frozen possible assets of "the former Egyptian president" and his associates.
2) The eagerness in Haiti for former President Aristide’s return shows that the former slum priest remains a powerful symbol of hope for millions, AP reports. U.S. officials expressed concern that Aristide’s return before a March 20 presidential runoff could "distract" Haitians. Aristide’s U.S. lawyer, Ira Kurzban, said he is confident Aristide will be back before the runoff vote. Patrick Elie, a defense official under both Aristide and Preval, said the obstacle to Aristide’s return was the opposition of "global powers": the US, France, and Canada.
3) The State Department’s refusal to answer a question about whether the US had pressured the Haitian or South African governments not to allow Aristide’s return suggests that the answer to the question was yes, writes Mark Weisbrot in the Guardian. Now that Aristide is returning, we can expect to see a massive smear campaign again against him in the mainstream media, with allegations of human rights abuses and "moral equivalence" comparisons with the Duvalier dictatorships, Weisbrot writes. Although the US was successful in overthrowing Aristide’s elected governments in 1991 and 2004, the region has changed, and Washington will have to adapt to a new reality, as it is now doing in Egypt.
4) Analysts say Mubarak’s resignation will embolden demands for political reform in the region, the Washington Post reports. "People will be more blunt in their demands," said Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi. "Egypt is the compass, the heart of the Arab world, the place where things start and end," he added. "So Arab regimes are very unhappy and feel that their moment is approaching."
5) Israel watched President Mubarak’s resignation with trepidation Friday, AP reports. But in Gaza, thousands rushed into the streets in jubilation. Expectations were rising in Gaza that regime change in Egypt will help end a crushing blockade of the territory.
6) The Pentagon next week will unveil the largest budget in its history, McClatchy reports. Defense Secretary Gates wants 3 percent more money next year, not counting spending on the wars. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has called for keeping defense spending at 2010 levels for the next decade. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., has proposed freezing the defense budget at 2008 levels, a savings of $182 billion over five years. "We spend more than any other country. The next closest is China. We spend seven times what they do. How about just cutting back to maybe only spending five or six times as much as China does?" Stark asked when he introduced his bill.
7) A plan to provide benefits to caregivers of wounded troops may now exclude some of the families who appeared alongside President Obama when the measure was signed into law last spring, Stars and Stripes reports.
Ted Wade, who lost his right arm and suffered traumatic brain injury in a roadside bombing in Iraq seven years ago, and his wife, Sarah, who left her job to take care of him full time, were among the leading voices on Capitol Hill advocating for the caregivers benefits. Obama thanked them personally at the bill signing ceremony last May. But under the new guidelines released Wednesday, his condition may not be severe enough to qualify them for monthly living stipends and other caregiver training. Sarah Wade called that devastating. "I stood next to the president when he signed this bill," she said. "He gave me a kiss afterwards. For us not to qualify for the benefits now, it’s a really scary irony."
Yemen
8) 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, Reuters reports. The demonstrations in the south were the first by the separatists since the mass protests in Egypt and Tunisia electrified the Arab world. 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. Forty percent of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Mubarak Steps Down, Ceding Power to Military
David D. Kirkpatrick and Anthony Shadid, New York Times, February 11, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/world/middleeast/12egypt.html
Cairo – Egypt erupted in a joyous celebration of the power of a long repressed people on Friday as President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt resigned his post and ceded control to the military, ending his nearly 30 years of autocratic rule.
Shouts of "God is Great" competed with fireworks and car horns around Cairo after Mr. Mubarak’s vice president and longtime intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, announced during evening prayers that Mr. Mubarak had passed all authority to a council of military leaders, bowing to a historic popular uprising that has transformed politics in Egypt and around the Arab world.
Protesters hugged and cheered and shouted, "Egypt is free!" and "You’re an Egyptian, lift your head."
[…] The shift leaves the military in charge of this nation of 80 million, facing insistent calls for fundamental democratic change and open elections. The military has repeatedly promised to respond to the demands of protesters. But it has little recent experience in directly governing the country, and will have to defuse demonstrations and labor strikes that have paralyzed the economy and left many of the country’s institutions, including state news media and the security forces, in shambles.
Shortly before the announcement of Mr. Mubarak’s departure, the military issued a communiqué pledging to carry out a variety of constitutional reforms in a statement remarkable for its commanding tone. The military’s statement mentioned Mr. Mubarak’s earlier delegation of power to Mr. Suleiman, but also suggested that it would oversee implementation of the reforms.
Among Egypt’s scattered but triumphant opposition, the initial reaction to Mr. Mubarak’s departure and the military’s assertion of authority was ecstatic. "Egypt is going to be a fully democratic state," said Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who helped organize the youth-led protests and became one of the movement’s most prominent spokesmen. "You will be impressed."
[…] There were voices of caution as well. Abdel-Rahman Samir, a protest organizer, said the movement would open negotiations with the military, but said demonstrations should also continue to ensure changes are carried out. "We still don’t have any guarantees yet – if we end the whole situation now it’s like we haven’t done anything," Mr. Samir told the Associated Press. "So we need to keep sitting in Tahrir until we get all our demands."
[…] In Switzerland, the foreign ministry said in a statement that it had frozen possible assets of "the former Egyptian president" and his associates.
[…] In its communiqué on Friday, the military reiterated that it intends to supervise political change, but also largely stuck to the main constitutional and electoral reforms that Mr. Mubarak and Mr. Suleiman had already promised to make. Whether those changes are sufficient – and whether they can be carried out quickly enough – to satisfy protesters remains to be seen.
[…]
2) Haiti waits for Aristide with hope, dread
David McFadden, Associated Press, Thursday, February 10, 2011; 2:44 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/10/AR2011021004454.html
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – The rumor spread through Lucien Tham’s crowded encampment: Ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide had returned! So he joined scores of other Haitians rushing to the airport with his family, spending precious savings on a collective taxi to ride across town after sundown.
It was a false alarm, one of many that have rippled across the Haitian capital in recent days as Aristide requested and received a new passport after his nearly seven-year exile in South Africa.
Yet the eagerness for Aristide’s return shows that the former slum priest remains a powerful symbol of hope for millions, even if others dread the return of instability that Haiti suffered under his rule. "President Aristide didn’t hurt anybody; he only helped out the poor," said Tham, a 45-year-old unemployed laborer in the seaside slum of Cite Soleil. "His presence is necessary here."
Many believe he could arrive any day, heightening anxiety as well as anticipation as Haiti emerges from a political crisis a year after a devastating earthquake.
The slightly built Aristide emerged as a leading voice for Haiti’s poor and became the troubled country’s first democratically elected president, despite opposition from the army, Haiti’s elite and the United States following the 29-year Duvalier family dictatorship.
[…] U.S. officials are among those worried that Aristide’s return could further destabilize a country preparing for a March 20 presidential runoff that was delayed by a political crisis and street disturbances over allegations of vote fraud. "We would be concerned if former President Aristide returns to Haiti before the election," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. "It would prove to be an unfortunate distraction to the people of Haiti."
[…] Aristide’s U.S. lawyer, Ira Kurzban, traveled to Port-au-Prince this week and picked up a diplomatic passport for Aristide that was suddenly issued by the government of outgoing President Rene Preval. Kurzban said he is confident that his client will be back before the runoff vote. "I think it will be done as quickly as possible. He has a passport so he’s free to return," Kurzban said during a phone interview from Miami.
[…] Patrick Elie, a defense official under both Aristide and Preval, said the passport issue was a sideshow manufactured by Aristide supporters to mask the real reason he did not come back: pressure from the country’s powerful foreign benefactors.
"The idea that it was a passport that has kept Mr. Aristide from Haiti is a fairy tale, for heaven’s sake. It has never been a matter of a passport. It has always been an issue of whether the key political players want him back. "And these political players are the global powers of the U.S., France, Canada," Elie said in Port-au-Prince.
Elie said he believes Aristide will only return "when all the obstacles are removed" by Washington and other foreign powers that have spent billions to help the country recover from last year’s devastating earthquake, and have pledged billions more for reconstruction.
Some Aristide backers believe there is a sealed U.S. indictment against Aristide for allegedly letting drug traffickers use Haiti and that the U.S. has warned he will be arrested if he returns, said Henry Carey, a Haiti expert and professor at Georgia State University. But American authorities have never confirmed the existence of any charges.
[…] "For his most devoted followers, the scars left by his departure are still fresh. For his enemies, there remains a fear and loathing of him and, for the most part, of the poor urban masses who he counted as his most dedicated followers," said Robert Maguire, a Haiti expert and professor at Trinity College in Washington.
[…]
3) Washington Can’t Block Aristide’s Return or Deny Haiti’s Sovereignty
The US has overthrown Jean-Bertrand Aristide twice. But now it will encounter a new reality in the Americas
Mark Weisbrot, Guardian, Thursday 10 February 2011 21.30 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/feb/10/washington-denial-us-haiti
[links in original – JFP.]
In 1915, the US Marines invaded Haiti, occupying the country until 1934. US officials rewrote the Haitian constitution, and when the Haitian national assembly refused to ratify it, they dissolved the assembly. They then held a "referendum" in which about 5% of the electorate voted and approved the new constitution – which conveniently changed Haitian law to allow foreigners to own land – with 99.9% voting for approval.
The situation today is remarkably similar. The country is occupied, and although the occupying troops wear blue helmets, everyone knows that Washington calls the shots. On 28 November an election was held in which the country’s most popular political party was excluded; but still the results of the first round of the election were not quite right. The OAS – under direction from Washington – then changed the results to eliminate the government’s candidate from the second round. To force the government to accept the OAS rewrite of the results, Haiti was threatened with a cutoff of aid flows – and, according to multiple sources, President Préval was threatened with being forcibly flown out of the country – as happened to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004.
Now, Aristide has been issued a diplomatic passport by the government, and is preparing to return. But Washington does not agree, as US state department spokesman PJ Crowley made clear this week. He was also asked if the US government had pressured either the Haitian or South African governments to prevent Aristide’s return. He refused to answer; I take that as a "yes".
The United States has been the prime cause of instability in Haiti, not only over the last two centuries, but the last two decades. Although Haiti is a small and poor country, Washington still cares very much about who is running it – and as leaked WikiLeaks cables recently demonstrated, they want a government that is in line with their overall foreign policy for the region. In 1991, Aristide Haiti’s first democratically elected president was overthrown after just seven months in office. The officers who carried out the coup and established the military government, killing thousands of innocent Haitians, were subsequently found by the New York Times to be in the pay of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
When Aristide was elected to a second term, in 2000, the United States and its allies destroyed the economy through an economic aid cutoff. Together with aid to the Haitian opposition and an armed insurrection, Washington’s effort succeeded in overthrowing the government four years later.
Now that Aristide is returning, we can expect to see a massive smear campaign again against him in the mainstream media, with allegations of human rights abuses and "moral equivalence" comparisons with the Duvalier dictatorships. In his book, Damming the Flood, Professor Peter Hallward looks at the best available data for the number of political murders in Haiti: Duvalier dictatorships (1957-1986): 50,000; after the US-sponsored coup of 1991 (with US-funded death squads): 4,000; after the US-organised coup of 2004: 3,000; Aristide’s tenure in office (2001-2004): between 10 and 30.
Aristide eliminated more than 98% of the political violence in Haiti by abolishing the army and the murderous "section chief" system, which were the main sources of political violence. For that, Washington will not forgive him. And for that, Orwellian media outlets portray him as a dictator.
Can the US and its allies continue to deny Haiti’s national sovereignty, which it won 207 years ago in the world’s first successful slave revolt? This is, after all, why they overthrew Aristide twice and seek to prevent his return. He is still a symbol of Haiti’s sovereignty, and respect for the poor, for millions of Haitians. For Washington, that is inherently dangerous.
But the Americas have changed since the last time Aristide was overthrown. Washington met strong resistance from South America when it supported the coup government in Honduras in 2009; Honduras has still not been allowed back into the OAS. Governments that Washington did not want – for example, in Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela – have been elected and survived despite coup attempts and other destabilisation efforts that were sometimes supported by the United States. This would not have happened 15 years ago. The left governments that now preside over the majority of Latin America have dramatically and permanently changed hemispheric relations.
Last week, Washington failed to get support for its change of Haiti’s election results in both the OAS and the 23-nation Rio Group. Unfortunately, Brazil has supported Washington in heading up the UN occupying force in Haiti; but this will not go on indefinitely, especially if they are called upon to shoot people who are demanding their basic democratic rights.
These rights can no longer be denied to Haitians, simply because they are poor and black. Nor can Aristide be denied the right to return to his country. Washington will have to adapt to a new reality, as it is discovering in Egypt.
4) Egypt’s historic moment spurs new hope in Arab world
Liz Sly, Washington Post, Friday, February 11, 2011; 1:32 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021103510.html
Baghdad – From the halls of power across the Arab world came a stunned silence. In the living rooms of ordinary people watching history unfold live on television, there was wonder, amazement and a renewed sense of hope and possibility. If anyone had doubted the transformational potential of the revolt in tiny Tunisia that overthrew a ruler of marginal significance on Jan. 14, here was proof.
Just four weeks later, Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, the region’s elder statesman and the embodiment of Arab authoritarianism for a generation, had been forced to step down under pressure from his own people, an event as momentous for the Arab world as it is for Egyptians.
"The will of the people prevailed. They managed to topple two dictators in less than a month," said Fares Braizat of the Arab Center for Research and Policy studies in Qatar. "The lesson is that when people take matters into their own hands, they can do it. We have discovered people’s power, and now it is changing the game in the region."
The circumstances of Mubarak’s departure and the assumption of power by the army raised as many questions as they answered, with many in Egypt and beyond expressing concern that the transition of power amounted to little more than a military coup that will not satisfy the protesters’ demands for genuine democratic reforms.
But for most Arabs glued to their TV screens, as they have been throughout the past 18 days of demonstrations in Egypt, the details didn’t matter. Egypt had rapidly followed Tunisia down the path of dissent and revolt, and the only question on everyone’s minds was: Which of the Middle East’s autocrats would be next in line?
"A lot of other dictators were waiting to see if Mubarak goes or stays, and if he stayed it would have given them added strength to resist the demands of their people," said Jordanian political analyst Labib Kamhawi. "Now we will see accelerated demands for political reform and people will be more blunt in their demands."
"Egypt is the compass, the heart of the Arab world, the place where things start and end," he added. "So Arab regimes are very unhappy and feel that their moment is approaching."
Many regimes have already rushed to offer concessions to their citizens intended to appease unrest or deflect the threat of revolt. Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised to lift his country’s 19-year-old state of emergency, which gave the military broad powers to battle Islamist insurgents but also to suppress dissent.
[…]
5) Israel watches Mubarak ouster with trepidation
Ian Deitch, Associated Press, Friday, February 11, 2011; 3:29 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/11/AR2011021103906.html
Jerusalem – Israel watched Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation with trepidation Friday, concerned the ouster of its staunchest Arab ally might endanger a peace treaty between the two countries and help boost Islamists already on the rise in the region.
[…] In Gaza, thousands rushed into the streets in jubilation. Expectations were rising in Gaza that regime change in Egypt will help end a crushing border blockade of the territory, imposed by Egypt and Israel after a violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. "Egypt wrote today a new chapter in the history of the Arab nations and I can see the blockade on Gaza shaking right now," said Gaza’s Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
[…]
6) Pentagon Budget Multiplies As Security Threat List Grows
Nancy A. Youssef, McClatchy Newspapers, February 11, 2011 01:31:14 PM
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/10/108449/pentagon-budget-multiplies-as.html
Washington – Despite calls on Capitol Hill for major defense budget cuts, the Pentagon next week will unveil the largest budget in its history – driven by an expanding list of what defines national security.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said his proposed $553 billion budget "represents, in my view, the minimum level of defense spending that is necessary, given the complex and unpredictable array of security challenges the United States faces around the globe."
Those challenges now include pandemic diseases, piracy, human trafficking, rising oceans, national debt, education, cyber warfare, the wars on terrorism and traditional state-to-state threats.
But defense analysts, budget experts and some members of Congress take a more jaundiced view, saying the insistence that the U.S. fund a military poised to address every type of possible threat not only thwarts efforts to control the deficit, but also makes it difficult to set priorities on what threats the nation really faces.
During the Cold War, the military had to be prepared to fight two simultaneous wars. Now, it must be good at everything.
"The strategy doesn’t drive the budget. It’s the other way around," said Christopher Preble, the director for foreign policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. "What you have is an existing force structure and then Washington trying to figure out how to use it."
Pentagon planning documents show the extent of the problem – experts said the list of threats the military cites has never been so expansive.
[…] Doing all that will require 3 percent more money next year, Gates has said, not including spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Such a boost would mark the 14th year in a row that Pentagon spending has increased, despite the disappearing presence in Iraq. In dollar terms, Pentagon spending has more than doubled in 10 years. Even adjusted for inflation, the Defense Department budget has risen 65 percent over the past decade.
Gates has proposed some modest trims that total about $78 billion over five years and shrinking by 47,000 the size of the Army and the Marines Corps in 2015.
But the bottom line figure would still go up during that time, with projected spending totaling $643 billion in 2015 and $735 billion on 2020. Even with the reduction in staffing forecast for 2015, the Army and Marines Corps would be larger than they were when the Iraq and Afghanistan wars began.
That approach has angered some and frustrated others. "It’s hard to say (Washington) made tough choices," said Lawrence Korb, a budget expert at the Center for American Progress.
Former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, a Wyoming Republican who co-chaired the bipartisan Deficit Reduction Commission that proposed cutting the defense budget by $282 billion over five years, called Gates’ trims "crappy little cuts."
[…] Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., has called for keeping defense spending at 2010 levels for the next decade just to determine how the money is being spent. This week, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called for the Defense Department to defend its programs as part of a plan to trim the federal budget by $500 billion.
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., has proposed freezing the defense budget at 2008 levels, a savings of $182 billion over five years. "We spend more than any other country. The next closest is China. We spend seven times what they do. How about just cutting back to maybe only spending five or six times as much as China does?" Stark asked on the floor of the House last month when he introduced the bill.
[…] Mullen, without irony, added a new national security threat in an August interview with CNN. "The most significant threat to our national security is our debt," he said – because it could threaten future military spending.
7) Caregiver Benefits Proposal Irks Families Of Wounded Troops
Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes, February 10, 2011
http://www.stripes.com/news/caregiver-benefits-proposal-irks-families-of-wounded-troops-1.134435
Washington – A plan to provide benefits to caregivers of wounded troops may now exclude some of the same families who appeared alongside President Barack Obama when the measure was signed into law last spring.
Lawmakers and veterans advocates are blasting a proposal outlined by Veterans Affairs officials this week as months behind schedule and unnecessarily restrictive for military families.
Ted Wade, who lost his right arm and suffered traumatic brain injury in a roadside bombing in Iraq seven years ago, and his wife, Sarah, who left her job to take care of him full time, were among the leading voices on Capitol Hill advocating for the caregivers benefits. Obama thanked them personally at the bill signing ceremony last May.
But under the new guidelines released Wednesday, his condition may not be severe enough to qualify them for monthly living stipends and other caregiver training. In an interview Thursday, Sarah Wade called that devastating.
"I stood next to the president when he signed this bill," she said. "He gave me a kiss afterwards. For us not to qualify for the benefits now, it’s a really scary irony.
"The VA can’t offer me any more support now than they could in November 2004, when my husband left the hospital. For once, I had it in my head that this year would be different. Now it might be another year before we see anything. And my initial thought was, ‘I don’t know if I can make it another year.’"
Under the bill passed by Congress, the VA was directed to outline those benefits plans by last November, and start paying caregivers last month. Instead, department officials said it could be months before the benefits plan is finalized, and even longer before any families receive checks.
Steve Nardizzi, executive director of Wounded Warrior Project, called that timeline unacceptable. “This is horrendous for the families who’ve had to give up their jobs and the warriors who may end up back in nursing homes because their families can’t afford to take care of them,” he said. “Financially, they’re strained to the breaking point.”
[…] Congressional officials said they originally expected the new program to cover about 3,500 families of wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, but VA officials said they anticipate the rules as written now will cover only about 850 families. VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts said the rules as written are not final, and the department will spend coming weeks working with the public to see if changes need to be made.
[…]
Yemen
8) Yemen Protests Revived in ‘Friday of Rage’
Thousands of south Yemen protesters demand secession
Mohammed Mukhashaf and Khaled Abdallah, Reuters, Fri Feb 11, 2011 3:33pm GMT
http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE71A0TW20110211
Aden, Yemen Feb 11 – 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.
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.
[…] 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 on Friday. Hundreds of men sat outside a former South Yemen leader’s home, wearing white shrouds to symbolise 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
[…] Yemen is the Arab world’s poorest state. Forty percent of Yemenis live on less than $2 a day.
[…]
–
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