Who spoiled the new invention in Yemen?

The new invention, the new invention, I love the new invention. Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani, head of the Shoura Council of the Islamist Islah party in Yemen, kept repeating these words during his speech to anti-government protesters in front of Sana’a University before he traveled to his tribe in Arhab district.

  A while ago, before Bin Ali of Tunisia fled to Saudi Arabia after his people toppled his regime, Sheikh al-Zindani said, “I met with a number of sheikhs and religious scholars and we kept thinking on how to topple the oppressive Arab regimes.” “We kept thinking and thinking and thinking but we could not come up with a brilliant idea.” 

He said it was only when the Tunisian people kept demonstrating peacefully until they toppled Bin Ali’s regime that they discovered this “new invention”. He said that this new invention proved success in Egypt too.  “You the youth have come out with this new invention to topple regimes and we approve your brilliant invention,” said Sheikh al-Zindani. Current events in the Middle East prove that the Islamic brothers finally found a new method to topple regimes and come to power from the back door.

By accident I came across a Facebook page entitled ‘11,11, 2011’. This page was established by some Islamic brothers and they made a special page for each Arab state.

One of these was specifically for the Yemen revolution and it urges the youth to rise up. It also gives them rules and advice on how to deal with the different problems they face during demonstrations and confrontations with the police.  The main aim of the page, according to its founders, is to topple all Arab regimes without exception and to unify all Arab states by November 11 2011. 

The Islamic brothers until now proved that they are smart in using ordinary youth to achieve their goals. They also claim that they have nothing to do with the uprisings in different Arab states.

In Egypt, for instance, they alleged that they do not intend to nominate any of their figures for the presidency. However, they played a key role in amending the constitution in a way that they excluded Mohammed Elbradie and all other strong candidates that played a key role in making the Egyptian revolution a success. At the same time they paved the road for their elements to go for the leadership seat as independent candidates.

    When we look at the rebels in Libya we find that they are led by Islamic brothers. The same can be said about the rebels in Jordan, Syria and Morocco. The case of Yemen is even more developed as the uprising has been led and incited by the opposition Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) that includes Islah party, which are the Islamic Brothers of Yemen. This uprising also includes the Yemeni Socialist Party (the Communist Party of Yemen that used to rule the southern parts of the country); the Nasserite party; al-Haq party (that represents part of the Sheit in Yemen including Houthi rebels) and the Ba’ath Party. The Islamic brothers have been dominating everything.

 At the site of the sit-in protesters, it is clearly visible that Islah activists are the ones in charge of security issues and of the main stage. None of the ordinary youth that are taking part in the protests can express their opinions or real demands through the main stage. Anyone that violates the rules set up by the JMP field leaders is accused of being an intruder that was sent by the authorities as a spy.

 One more suspicious issue is the financing of the protests. It is well known that the thousands of protesters that have been sitting in front of Sana’a University for the past two months are receiving free food and even Qat. The question is who has been funding this for thousands of people? Only a well-organized body like the Islamic brothers can fund such issues.

 Some media outlets have alleged that Hamid al-Ahmar is the one that provides funds for the protesters and he has said that he would pay the required funds for ensuring the success of the revolution.  Also, it is well known that the Islamic brothers in Yemen are controlling the Al-Aqsa fund that receives donations from many Yemenis across the country.

 Documents proved that the fund that is supposed to provide aid to Palestinians has never provided any aid. No one knows where these huge donations pour into. A principal of a girl’s schools in Sana’a said that the girls at her school donated more than YR150,000 in 2010. The Islamic brothers also control several charity organizations that receive aid from local, Arab and even international donations.

The crisis in Yemen reached a peak when some commanders of the army who are members of Islah party  announced their defection and that they supported the youth revolution.

This was followed by the resignation of ministers, ambassadors, officials and members of the Parliament who for years kept claiming that they were members of the General People Congress ruling party.

However, at the right time, they announced their true affiliation and returned to their real bases.  These members of parliament over the past two years kept siding with the opposition and voted with the JMP in the parliament. They blocked many laws to be approved by the parliament and among these laws was the law of girl’s marriage.

 To give momentum to the youth-led revolution they did not resign or announce their support for the protesters all in one day. They rather kept announcing their resignation gradually so as to create a kind of shock among the ruling party and among the individuals who thought that the state was collapsing.

By joining the supposedly peaceful movement for change, General Ali Mohsen and his First Armored Brigade have spoiled the theory of the new invention as the youth movement was hijacked. It changed its track from peaceful protests to violence.

 A few days after General Ali Mohsen announced his support for the protesters, his forces killed five and wounded over 67 mediators who came from his own Sanhan tribe as well as from Bilad al-Roos and Bani Behlool tribes. Sheikhs and dignitaries from the three tribes met with President Ali Abdullah Saleh who asked them to broker a peace deal with General Mohsen but when they arrived at the western gate of the First Armored Brigade to the north of Sana’a University asking to meet General Mohsen they were surprised by crowds of protesters, who came from their site in front of Sana’a University, and started stoning them.

According to the victims and witnesses, some gunmen among the protesters fired at them and after that the guards of the First Armored Brigade fired at them extensively from all their barracks, killing five of them and wounding 67.

 To justify this massacre, General Mohsen appeared on Al Jazeera to accuse the mediators of being sent by President Saleh to assassinate him. However, General Mohsen’s eldest  brother Sheikh Mohammed Mohsen was one of the mediators who denied this accusation and affirmed that none of the mediators had any arms with them. He said that the protester’s guards and those of the First Armored Brigade had searched all of them before they allowed them to reach to the western gate of the division. 

Two days later General Mohsen’s soldiers and the guards of Iman University killed two supporters of President Saleh in front of this university’s gate while they were on their way home after participating in a pro-Saleh rally held at Al-Sabeen Square in Sana’a. 

The JMP led by Islah party had set up their own goals to topple President Saleh and his regime using all possible means so that they also set up plans to achieve their goals. Therefore they kept rejecting all reform initiatives and all calls for dialogue to achieve the required reforms. They rejected President Saleh’s offer to form a national unity government chaired by the JMP that observes the demanded constitutional amendments, parliamentary and presidential elections and forming a parliamentary system government that President Saleh would hand over authority to. 

They also rejected an eight-point proposal presented by Yemen’s religious scholars. They came out with a five-point proposal which when President Saleh accepted they rejected it claiming that it was too late.

 After General Mohsen and his forces joined the protesters they escalated the situation from staging sit-in demonstrations to violent demonstrations and attempts to capture some key institutions. This was evident in Taiz and Hodeidah where protesters tried to capture the governorate’s headquarters and republican palaces there.

 Protesters in Sana’a backed by General Mohsen’s soldiers also started organizing demonstrations in streets and zones away from their site in the west of the capital, aiming to capture more space in the capital. They also tried to set up new sit-in demonstration sites in the east of the capital but faced strong resistance from residents of these zones who flocked to the streets to prevent them from doing so.

These situations have escalated also when mediation efforts by Gulf states were announced. This was to block any deal for dialogue on the one hand and to blame the government for using force against the protesters on the other. An eyewitness alleged that he saw at least 15 unidentified gunmen firing at the demonstrators and at the anti-riot forces from side streets near Zubairy Street and that the police tried to capture them but they were blocked by the First Armored Division’s soldiers on Saturday, April 9, a day before the Gulf Cooperation Council’s foreign ministers met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss an initiative for solving the Yemeni crisis.  The protesters alleged that one was killed and over 100 wounded while the authorities alleged that over 48 policemen were wounded. 

 The Washington Post newspaper has meanwhile published a Wikileaks document which stated that Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar in 2009 promised to topple President Saleh this year through violence and public disturbance. The same document also revealed that General Moshen would be used to topple President Saleh. He described General Mohsen as a murderer and as corrupt.

 It seems that the new invention that was applied perfectly in Egypt and Tunisia cannot be applied in Yemen and that the Islamic brothers will resort to their classical radical violence to achieve their goals.

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