SEPTEMBER 20, 2011
Yemen Deaths Add Pressure for Deal
Envoys From Gulf Council, U.N. Rush to Capital to Seek President's Resignation Amid Deadly Crackdown on Protests
By HAKIM ALMASMARI
SAN'A, Yemen--One of the deadliest spates of violence in months against demonstrators here has left over 50 people dead in two days and drawn in international officials in an effort to secure President Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation and head off a worsening crisis.
Medical personnel said at least 31 people were killed and hundreds injured on Monday, and at least two dozen died the previous day when government forces fired on a demonstration by tens of thousands of protesters who marched on government offices, in what was seen as one of the most direct challenges yet to Mr. Saleh's authority.
Among the dead on Monday were unarmed protesters as well as defected troops who have joined the opposition in clashes with forces loyal to Mr. Saleh.
The opposition had kept a lid on large-scale protests in recent months in the hope that the antigovernment movement that began eight months ago would finally yield a deal for Mr. Saleh to step down after 33 years in power.
But by last week, the most recent of Mr. Saleh's plans to transfer power to his vice president had appeared to stall, and frustrated activists last week chose to escalate their demonstrations without waiting for a political solution or the intervention of the international community.
Mr. Saleh had deputized Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to negotiate a Gulf-mediated, U.S.-backed deal under which the president would step down in return for immunity from prosecution.
Yet Mr. Saleh, who has been in Saudi Arabia since early June after injuries from an assassination attempt forced him to seek medical treatment there, has backed out of the deal three times after agreeing to sign it.
Abdul Latif al-Zayani, secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a grouping of six Arab Persian Gulf states, and United Nations envoy Jamal bin Omar arrived in San'a on Monday morning to attempt to complete a transfer-of-power deal and avert further violence.
"The situation is tense. It can't continue like this. This is a sign of deep crisis," Mr. bin Omar told the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Mr. Saleh and King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch, met in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Monday. Details of their discussions weren't available. Officials from Saudi Arabia, a GCC member, have said they are encouraging Mr. Saleh to accept the deal and step down.
The U.S. ambassador to Yemen met Monday with Brig. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful military commander and former Saleh ally who defected to the opposition in March, according to Gen. Mohsen's office.
The U.S. and other Western countries on Monday condemned the violent crackdown by Yemen's security forces against antigovernment protesters, and called on the country to abide by plans for a power-transfer deal, in a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The months of instability in Yemen have compounded the international security threat from the country's al Qaeda affiliate, which has been blamed for at least two attempted terrorist attacks on the U.S.
The U.S. had seen Mr. Saleh as a vital partner in battling the terrorist affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, but the U.S. increased pressure on him to enact reforms as his supporters began deploying in an effort to stifle antigovernment protests.
A senior official from the Joint Meeting Parties, a formal umbrella group of Yemeni opposition political parties, said he expected the vice president to sign the GCC proposal.
"That is why he is here. Al-Zayani has met with a number of senior officials in the government and is pushing for the peaceful solution before it is too late," the official said.
On Monday, in the main gathering point for many of the protests, Change Square, where government troops had fired on unarmed protesters, blood stained the ground and protesters vowed to continue demonstrating.
"The Saleh regime will have to kill more than 10 million Yemenis if it wants to stay in power," said Sultan al-Hamami, a youth protester.
Ali Abdul Jabbar, director of the San'a-based Dar al-Ashraf Research Center, said Mr. Saleh, seeking new options for staying in power, was showing increasing disregard for unarmed protesters.
"If the international community doesn't intervene quickly this can go bad," Mr. Jabbar said. "Clashes are now in every street of the capital and could spread to every street in the country."
Protests condemning the killing of unarmed protesters took place in 18 of Yemen's 21 provinces.
In southeastern Taiz province, at least three protesters were killed by government troops and 22 others were injured on Monday.
Siyaj, a child-rights organization, said government forces had shot at least 25 children over the past two days.
Six of them were killed, including a 10-month-old infant who was shot in the head while sitting inside a vehicle next to his father, according to the group.