Panorama of 2007

Yemen in 2007 have passed through tough circumstances and events. It was the hardest year in the latest 2 decades not naming the 1994 year. Following the 2006 presidential and local councils elections during which the collation of the Yemeni opposition parties the joining meeting parties JMP had been severely defeated in both the presidential and local elections, they resorted to escalate the situations and organize several demonstrations and sit ins across the country along the year. However some of these activities were illegal and against the interests of the country particularly that some of the activities organized by the JMP turned to call for separating the south of Yemen. Also in the year 2007 a war broke out in Sada between the governmental forces and the followers of the Zaidi sheit leader the  so called al-Hothi.  Nevertheless Yemen jumped great leaps in the reforms process by enacting the law of fighting corruption and establishing the fighting corruption authority as well as by enacting the bids and tenders law and forming the tenders and bids body. By the end of the year 2007 Yemen lost one of its greatest politicians by the pass away of the speaker of the Parliament  Sheikh of Sheikhs of Yemen Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hussein Al-Ahmar on Dec 29, 2007.   Here are a flashback for the most important events during 2007.
  
April 11 : Elections of the members of the new Supreme Commission for Anti-Corruption have been postponed, because Parliament members want time to learn about the background of the proposed members. 

April 10 : In a surprising turnabout, the Yemeni Parliament has voted against the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, retracting a majority vote for it on March 24. The step has sparked heated controversy and shock among supporters and non-supporters in and outside the Parliament.  The 83 members (out of the 133 members who attended the Saturday’s session) who voted against the ICC said it was contradicting the constitution and Islamic Sharia, and the remaining 50 voted for the court, saying it was in complete harmony with the constitution and Sharia.  On March 24, the Statute of ICC was voted for with majority from all parties.  On Sunday, the Secretary General of the ruling General People’s Congress, Abdul Wader Bahamas, criticized the Parliamentary block of his party for voting against ICC agreement denying any interference from President Ali Abdullah Saleh.  After the vote there was a rumor that the overwhelming majority of the ruling party had received instructions from President Ali Abdullah Saleh to cancel their previous vote for the agreement.

April 7 : The Yemeni Jews of Al Salem celebrated  Passover in Sana’a this week at Tourist City.   The nine families, including 55 people, have now been living in Sana’a’s Tourist City since the end of February.  Their Passover celebration started last Monday, and it will last for eight days. Passover is the commemoration of the exodus of Israelites from Egypt, and their freedom from slavery to the Pharaoh. The word Passover comes from the so-called night of the Tenth Plague, when the Angel of Death “passed over” the houses of Israel, and did not kill anyone.  

April 5: A new government was formed chaired by Dr. Ali Mohammed Mujawar as a prime minister. The new government included  A total of 11 new faces came to the new government, while 17 ministers have retained their posts, including the interior, exterior, defence, information and oil ministers.    The new Cabinet has two women ministers: Dr. Huda Ali al-ban, the new Minister of Human Rights, and Dr. Amat al-Razaq Humad, who has retained her post as the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs.   No merger of ministries or creation of new ministries has taken place in this government. The Ministry of Expatriates, however, was separated from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. March 28 : A riot broke out among 1,000 or so workers of the Yemeni LNG Company working in Balhalf at around 2 p.m. on Sunday, following a dispute between a French worker and a Yemeni worker. 

March 28 : The General People’s Congress and the opposition parties have at last agreed to sit down together and draw up an agenda for political dialogue.  March 27 : Over the last several days, Yemen has received more than 1,100 Somalis and Ethiopians, who arrived on smuggling boats from Bosaso, Somalia, after crossing the Gulf of Aden, said Ron Redmond, UNHCR spokesperson, at the press briefing March 23 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. 

March 20 : The war between the government and the al-Houthi rebels in the northern province of Sa’ada must be stopped, said a group of politicians, lawyers, journalists, and members of nongovernmental organizations that gathered to protest the war Sunday. 

March 20 : The al-Haq political party has been abolished by order of the Political Parties Affairs Committee, at the request of party members themselves.  Scholar Ahmed Mohammed al-Shami, the Former Secretary-General of al-Haq Party, said that the decision to abolish the party was with the consent of the remaining founding members of the party, after the withdrawal of most of the parties’ members.

March 17 : U.S. District Judge Robert G. Doumar, a federal judge in Norfolk, Virginia, has found Sudan responsible for triggering the terrorist attack on the American destroyer USS Cole in Yemen’s port of Aden on Oct. 12, 2000. 

March 14 : Khaled Misha’al, the president of the political office of the Hamas movement, praised President Ali Abdullah Saleh for his encouragement of the Mecca agreement between the Hamas and Fatah movements in a meeting with Saleh on Sunday. 

March 13 : The US State Department’s annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Yemen for 2006, issued on March 6, found fewer human rights abuses than in previous years. It also reported much progress in the creation of democratic processes and fighting corruption.  March 11 : The army has been launching fierce artillery and missile attacks on areas where remnants of the al-Houthi followers still take refuge, to bring the rebellion crisis to an end as soon as possible. 

March 10 : Women took unprecedented steps toward equality with men last Tuesday, when the Cabinet Ministers approved the amendment of 24 laws that concern women, so as to cancel all of the laws that discriminated against them.  The most important of these amendments was one to the law that regulates the legal age of marriage for girls. 

March 6 : The Yemeni Jews of al-Salem celebrated Purim far from their homes last Sunday, in Sana’a’s Tourist City.  The group of 45 Jews was forced to flee their homes in the northern province of Sada’a in January, after they received a letter threatening their lives.

March 6 : As battles get tougher in the northern province of Sa’ada, the Yemen government says it has information confirming that the rebels have been receiving external support to divide Yemen into sectarian entities. “We have information from those who were detained that there was external support for the rebellion, which aims at pulling Yemen into sectarian conflict by dividing it into sectarian entities,” said Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, Yemen’s foreign minister.  Rumors point fingers at Libya and Iran, suggesting those two countries support the al-Houthi rebels, but both countries deny the accusations as untrue and baseless. Yemeni-Libyan relations have grown tense, in the wake of Yemeni accusations that Libya has been supporting   the armed rebellion in Sa’ada in northern Yemen.   

March 6 : A Yemeni state security court began on Sunday the trial of 36 men charged with planning bomb attacks against oil facilities and hotels frequented by foreigners, according to DPA, the German news agency.  Thirty defendants were present at the courtroom, and six others were being tried in absentia.  The men were charged with “taking part in forming an armed band to carry out sabotage and criminal acts and to attack foreigners living in Yemen.”  Prosecutors told the court the men had prepared explosives, firearms, vehicles, and masks, to use them in the attacks.  Only two of the attacks, allegedly planned by the group, took place, when four suicide attackers drove four cars loaded with explosives into two oil facilities in eastern Yemen last September.  

March 3 : In its 4th congress held earlier this week, Yemen’s main opposition Islamist party, Islah, has disappointed those who saw it as a strong leader for an effective opposition coalition, by keeping the Shiekh Abdullah al-Ahmar as a president for the fourth time since it was established in 1990. In spite of the fact that al-Ahmar did not attend the congress for unknown  reasons, he was chosen by recommendations as a president of Islah’s supreme council for a fourth term contravening the internal bylaw of the party, which bans re-electing leaders after three terms. The party’s veterans said there was a compelling need to violate the bylaw in order to re-elect al-Ahmar as a president, arguing that this move was in the best interest of the party and the opposition coalition Joint Meeting Parties alike.

March 3 : The forty-five Yemeni Jews who fled their homes ahead of the uprising in Sa’ada are now in living at the “Tourist City” in Sana’a. they left their homes in Sa’ada on the 20th of January after receiving death threats by the insurgents affiliated to Abdul-Malik al-Houthi. The 45-person strong Jewish minority moved into a hotel in Sa’ada City, under the patronage and protection of a local sheikh. The Jews moved to Sana’a’s Tourist City Sana’a last Sunday, due to the violent conflict between the Houthi rebels and the government.  The Jews received a handwritten letter from the so-called Yahya Khuthair, in which he demanded that they leave their homes in Ghareer village in Sa’ada or they would be killed, said 70-year old Suleiman Mosa Salem Marhabi. Khuthair, who is one of the al-Houthi insurgents and a member of the “Believers Youth,” sent this message to all the houses of the Jewish community in the village, he said. 

Feb 28 :  The Chamber of Commerce and Industry, represented by the Private Sector Committee for Investment Facility is striking today, Tuesday Jan. 27, calling for comprehensive strikes around the country.  The traders and merchants are striking and closing their stores to protest against the application of the government’s new sales tax law, even though at present it is still pending approval from the Constitutional Unit as well as an appointment to meet President Ali Abdullah Saleh.  

Feb 27 : President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called upon the international community to hold an international conference aimed at helping to rebuild Somalia.  Feb 27 : The Islah party elected Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein al-Ahmar for the fourth time to be chairman of the party at its fourth general conference, held in Sana’a on February 24. The members of the conference re-elected sheikh al-Ahmar in violation of the party’s bylaw that prohibits any member from holding an executive position for more than three terms.

Feb 27 : Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Abdullah Bin Haji Ahmad Badawi, commenced an official visit to Yemen today. His visit aims at improving and consolidating bilateral cooperation in trade, tourism and education. 

Feb 24 : Traffic in Sana’a was slower than usual this week as security forces swept the city.   A large number of the rebels in northern Yemen have surrendered to the government, said a local official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity. Some of the rebels have surrendered directly to the military forces and some others through sheikhs and dignitaries of Sa’ada, he said.  Moreover, some security sources from Sa’ada said that 35 saboteurs have been arrested in the past few days, and that they have confessed that some foreign countries are involved in the conflict, either by presenting support to the rebels or by triggering the ordeal.

Feb 22 : Hundreds of teachers sacked as part of reform agenda The educational bureau of the capital secretariat sacked 412 teachers this week, said Mohammed Abdullah al-Fadhli, the bureau’s general director. The teachers were discharged after it was proved that they had not been working for almost six months, which is the period required for legally sacking an employee for absenteeism. 

Feb 20: President Ali Abdullah Saleh has ordered the security and military forces to end the rebellion in Sa’ada as soon as possible. “They should take their responsibilities by taking the necessary actions to put an end to the crisis led by the terrorists under the leadership of Abdul-Malik al-Houthi,” said president Saleh . 

Feb 19 : Ethiopian President Girma Wolde Giorgis recently departed Sana’a after final discussions Saturday with Yemeni Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi about the upcoming meeting of the Sana’a Assembly in Addis Ababa, as well as other topics. 

Feb 19: The Millennium Challenge Corporation Board of Directors today reinstated the eligibility of the Republic of Yemen for participation in MCC’s Threshold Program. The Threshold Program is designed to assist countries that are on the “threshold,” meaning they have not yet qualified for larger Compact grants, but have demonstrated a significant commitment to improve their performance on the eligibility criteria. 

Feb 13 : The Yemeni army has launched a massive attack against the rebels in the northern governorate of Sa’ada, according to the London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. 

Feb 8 : Nearly 1,000 Iraqis and Yemenis gathered together on Wednesday, the 40th day after Saddam Hussein was executed, to mourn him. Hussein’s daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein, spoke in praise of the relationship between her father and President Ali Abdullah Saleh, expressing thanks and gratitude to Yemen, Libya and Qatar for their positions towards Iraq.

Feb 6: Tribal sheikhs, religious scholars and social figures led an anti-war demonstration Monday in Sa’ada, where at least 42 Yemenis have been killed and 81 injured in recent clashes between Abdul Malik al-Houthi’s armed militia and government troops. 

Feb 6 : The trial of two men accused of smuggling weapons to Somalia began on Monday. The court, chaired by Judge Najeeb al-Qadiri, heard the prosecution’s claims against Abdullah Awadh al-Masri, 37, of Yemen and Abdi Uthman Soli, 27, a Danish man of Somali origin. 

Feb 3 : A total of eight Yemenis were killed and 11 injured in new clashes that erupted Wednesday between government troops and armed groups accused of rebellion in Sa’ada province, in the north of the country. 

January 30 : President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called on the armed supporters of Shiite rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi to surrender their weapons immediately. 

January 27: The government last Tuesday instructed all merchants to reduce the prices of all of their goods to the prices they were prior to Dec. 15, 2006. To reinforce this order, the government has also issued a number of other decisions in order to improve the monitoring of prices and keep them low. 

Jan 23 : The Swiss Federal Criminal Court has begun the trial of seven Yemeni nationals accused of supporting terrorist activities associated with Al-Qaeda. The seven men are accused of carrying out a bomb attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 12, 2003. 

Jan 23: The Swiss Federal Criminal Court has begun the trial of seven Yemeni nationals accused of supporting terrorist activities associated with Al-Qaeda. The seven men are accused of carrying out a bomb attack in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 12, 2003. 

Jan 22:  A group of Yemeni Jews who were threatened earlier this week by extremists, said Monday they were still being threatened, and appealed to the government for protection. 

Jan 16 : The Yemen Ministry of Information turned down 60 license applications for new newspapers and magazines during 2006, in a bid to limit freedom of press, said a local independent report. 

Jan 13 : After Eid al-Adha, the Yemeni market witnessed sudden and unjustified rise in prices of foodstuffs—prices increased as much as 100 percent for some goods, such as eggs, dairy products and fruits. Eggs, for example, were YR150 for 10 eggs a few weeks ago, but now those same 10 eggs cost YR300. Frequent recent rises in prices have made people very angry.  

Jan 10 : Local official, partisan, and independent media are whipping themselves into a frenzy trying to predict the new government, expected to be disclosed tonight. Officials in the ruling party are contributing to the heat by revealing various possible names of the new prime minister and his cabinet members. 

Jan 9: Yemen refrained to react to the Iraqi and Kuwait repetitive official and media attacks over the country’s attitude to the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

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