Tensions mount in pro-secession South Yemen
Separatist protesters are killed during rally in formerly independent oil-rich region
SANAA – Tensions are running high in Yemen’s southern provinces after security forces killed at least four protesters and wounded another 40 in a pro-secession protest in the port city of Aden last Thursday.
Medic Muhammad Saleh told The Media Line that eight demonstrators died as the result of injuries received, while Dr. Abdu al-Matari, spokesman for the Southern Movement, told The Media Line that he believed the death toll rose to 16 after some of the wounded died.
In some southern provinces, including Aden, businesses, schools and shops were closed after the demonstrations, and angry protesters blocked main Aden roads. Southern Movement (SM) gunmen attacked security forces and their vehicles, according to security officials.
The Southern Movement calls for the independence of South Yemen (formerly known as the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen) and was behind the Aden civil disobedience.
The clash with SM supporters occurred when its members decided to stage a counter-rally against the one scheduled for later that day to mark the first anniversary of officially ending the 33-year reign of authoritarian president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
It was the Islah Party, Yemen’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Aden’s local council headed by Gov. Waheed Rasheed, which called for organizing a ceremony in the city on Thursday to mark a year since Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi was elected president and to show their support for Yemen’s unity. SM leaders regarded that move as provocative; they claim all southerners back separation, prompting the SM’s call for the counterprotest.
The Yemen Arab Republic (known as North Yemen) and South Yemen were independent states and merged to form the Republic of Yemen in 1990. Four years later, however, former southern leader Ali Salim al-Beidh announced the south was seceding, sparking a fourmonth civil war that the northern forces eventually won.
In 2007, 13-years after the northern forces suppressed the secession attempt, calls to secede were revived in the southern provinces and the SM was established. It began by calling for autonomy by peaceful means – protests and rallies – despite a government crackdown on its members, but of late they have begun taking up arms.
The southern residents allege political and economic discrimination, charging that the regime is draining away their natural wealth, chiefly oil, without their benefitting from the revenues. The majority of Yemen’s oil was found in the south. But despite Saleh’s replacement by Hadi, who hails from the south, the SM continues to call for secession, rejecting anything but complete independence.
The Southern Movement is divided into various wings, the one viewed as most extreme led by exiled South Yemen leader Beidh, who is allegedly receiving funds from Tehran. Two wings of the movement have announced their participation in the upcoming National Dialogue Conference, which is part of the Gulf Cooperation Council deal that saw Saleh resign peacefully. At the conference, Yemeni factions are set to discuss resolutions for the nation’s thorny issues, such as the situation in the south.
In recent months Aden, Yemen’s economic capital, has been enduring hard times and there have been increasing calls for separation and occasional clashes between separatists and security forces.
SM spokesman Fatah Lazraq told The Media Line, “The security forces sided with Islah followers, as they appeared to have strict orders to prevent the SM supporters from reaching Al-Arod Square, a parade square, where Islah followers and government supporters were set to hold their ceremony.
“The security forces opened fire randomly on us,” he said, adding, “The current government proved today that nothing has changed after Saleh was removed from power and that it’s just as violent and oppressive as the former regime.”
An Aden security official disagreed, arguing that Southern Movement gunmen combined with al-Qaida activists helped fuel the riots and were intent on breaking into Al-Arodh Square to clash with the pro-unity demonstrators and destroy the preparations for their ceremony. He claimed some of the SM gunmen shot demonstrators.
“The SM is to blame for what happened in Aden because they don’t accept the others,” Abdusalam Muhammad, chairman of the Abaad Studies and Research Center, told The Media Line. “Every party and faction must be able to express itself freely. Just as the separatists take to the streets to demand secession freely, those supporting Yemen’s unity have every right to rally and voice their support for unity and for President Hadi without being threatened with being attacked.”
Future Studies Center Chairman Faris al-Saqqaf agreed, adding: “The SM’s extreme wing, which has threatened to stop others’ ceremony by force, was responsible for what happened.
“Many people say that Islah and the local council made a mistake by organizing the ceremony, but I think it was not their fault. As southerners, the Islah supporters can show their support for unity,” he said.
Political analyst Abdul-Bari Taher disagreed with both of them, however, blaming all sides, but chiefly Islah.
“Islah, SM and the government share the blame for what happened in Aden. The Islah should not have chosen Aden of all provinces to hold its ceremony, as its leaders realized such a ceremony would definitely provoke the SM and lead to clashes. At the same time,” he added, “the SM supporters should not have held a counterprotest to stop others from expressing themselves, and the government’s troops should have remained impartial.”
Taher argued that “Islah followers could have voiced support for unity in another way without causing any trouble.”
“Islah’s recent activities in Aden aim to force the SM to accept the GCC-brokered deal, which stands against the southerners because it refuses to recognize us as an independent state and [would] make us participate in the National Dialogue,” SM spokesman Matari said. “But they lost their bid when they committed this massacre.”
The bloody Aden clashes occurred a month before the launch of the National Dialogue Conference, the mechanism through which the Yemeni people are to be brought into the process of government-building. Analysts agree that what happened in Aden might affect the talks, especially after the two moderate SM wings had announced they would participate in them.
Muhammad and Saqqaf agreed that foreign forces could be behind the unrest in southern Yemen. They said they did not rule out the possibility that the SM extremist wings act on these forces’ behalf.
Last month, National Security Chief Dr. Ali al-Ahmadi accused Iran of supporting the separatists in a bid to destabilize the country and thwart the GCC-brokered initiative. The charge was echoed by United States Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein.