[Vision2020] Yemeni Authorities Beat Down Protest

[Ted Moffett]

Another US supported dictator, using force to stay in power...
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http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/feb/14/yemeni-authorities-beat-down-protest/

Yemeni authorities beat down protest

February 14, 2011 in Nation/World

SANAA, Yemen – Yemeni police armed with sticks and daggers on Sunday
beat back thousands of protesters marching through the capital in a
third straight day of demonstrations calling for political reforms and
the resignation of the country’s U.S.-allied president.

The protests have mushroomed since crowds gathered Friday to celebrate
the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak after a revolt fueled
by similar grievances.

Police used truncheons to stop protesters, many of them university
students, from reaching the capital’s central Hada Square. Witnesses
said plainclothes policemen wielding daggers and sticks also joined
security forces in driving the protesters back.

The Ministry of Interior called on people not to heed “suspicious
calls for chaos” and to avoid rallies which “obstruct the course of
daily life.”

Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, also postponed a trip to
Washington scheduled for next month due to the “circumstances in the
country,” the state news agency reported.

Much is at stake in Yemen – a deeply troubled nation strategically
located at the mouth of the Red Sea and next door to the world’s
largest oil reserves. Saleh’s weak government is already under
pressure from a southern separatist movement and disaffected tribesmen
around the country.

Opposition parties set several conditions for joining talks with the
government, including a definitive timetable for “constitutional,
legal and economic reforms.”

The parties also demanded that Saleh remove his sons and other
relatives from army, security and government posts.

Saleh has tried to defuse the unrest by promising not to run again
when his term ends in 2013 and guaranteeing that he will not seek to
pass power on to his son.
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett