NYC protest gets heated when Yemen leader is seen

NEW YORK (AP) — A protest against embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh outside a luxury hotel in New York got heated Sunday when demonstrators saw him leave the building, with one charging toward him and another throwing a shoe.

"Everybody is living in fear of this guy at home, but here, he's getting good treatment!" said Yemeni immigrant Nasser Almroot, a Brooklyn grocer.

The dozen angry protesters were kept behind police barricades across the street from the Ritz-Carlton hotel, which was teeming with security guards, both inside and on the sidewalk where Saleh passed.

The 69-year-old leader is visiting the United States for medical treatment.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh waves to people protesting his presence in the United States as he exits his hotel in New York, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2012. Saleh arrived in the United States on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, for treatment of burns he suffered during an assassination attempt in June. Human Rights Watch, a New York-based human rights organization says it has documented the deaths of hundreds of anti-government protesters in confrontations with Saleh's security forces, and while they are not opposed to Saleh receiving care in the United States, the organization wants assurances that concerned governments will insist on prosecution for those responsible for last year's attacks. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

He exited the hotel on Central Park South on Sunday afternoon and waved and smiled sardonically toward the yelling protesters — even blowing them a kiss. Suddenly, one of them tried to charge across the street but was restrained by police, who wrestled him to the ground.

"He can't help it, the killer is here," Almroot said.

As the man bolted out, a shoe flew in Saleh's direction. Showing the sole of a shoe is an insult in Arab culture, because it is on the lowest part of the body, the foot. To hit someone with a shoe is seen as even worse.

Saleh got into his car and his motorcade left for an unknown destination.

Since he arrived in New York about a week ago, the Yemeni president has kept a low profile.

His presence, however, has been controversial.

On Sunday, the protesters hoisted placards bearing photos of Yemenis badly bloodied and brutally killed during his government's yearlong crackdown on anti-Saleh demonstrations.

Saleh signed a deal in November to transfer power to his vice president in exchange for immunity from prosecution.

An election is scheduled for Feb. 21 to select his successor in a nation mired in poverty and divided among powerful tribes and political factions.

While Saleh has been an anti-terrorism ally of Washington, the United States has not officially welcomed a leader accused of killing hundreds of people during an uprising against his 33-year rule.

Saleh traveled to the United States with permission for a private visit.

In June, he was badly injured in an attack on his presidential palace — an assassination attempt after which he spent months in Saudi Arabia being treated for massive burns from the explosion that ripped through his palace mosque as he prayed.

A world-renowned burn center is in Manhattan, at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Hospital officials have not confirmed whether Saleh was a patient there.


Source: The Associated Press

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Yemen president says he wants to leave power

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — President Ali Abdullah Saleh made vague comments Saturday that he is willing to leave power in his first major speech since returning Yemen, but he gave no concrete plan for the future of the country. Yemen's opposition cast doubt that the embattled leader was serious.

It was not the first time Saleh has expressed a willingness to step down amid eight months of mass protests demanding his ouster. Still, he has repeatedly refused to resign immediately and rejected a U.S.-backed deal for him to hand over his authority.

In this image made from video, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh speaks on Yemen State Television broadcast Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011. The TV broadcast showed Saleh talking to unidentified members of the Yemen parliament, railing against the opposition and calling the crisis a "conspiracy" against him. (AP Photo/Yemen State TV)

Saleh was gravely wounded in an explosion at his presidential palace in June, after which he left to Saudi Arabia for treatment. During his absence, mediators and opposition groups sought to convince him to stay away and transfer power to his deputy— a way to launch the regional power transfer deal. Saleh declined and returned abruptly to Yemen late last month.

A violent crackdown against Saleh's opponents followed, with outright street battles in the capital Sanaa between troops loyal to Saleh's son Ahmed and dissident military units and pro-opposition tribesmen. In the meantime, the longtime leader has come under a considerable pressure from the international community to step down.

His new declaration Saturday aired on state TV gave little clue to his intentions.

Saleh spoke to a gathering of lawmakers, his hands encased in beige medical gloves for the treatment of burns from the June bombing. He didn't shake hands with any of his guests, who instead, shook the hands of his deputy standing by his side.

"I never wanted power. I will reject power in the coming days. I will give it up," he said. "But there are men will take power. There are men who are true to their pledges, whether military or civilians, who will take power. They can never destroy the country."

He did not elaborate on whom he was referring to or give any firm commitment to resign. Saleh said he would meet with parliament in the coming days to "transparently discuss" the situation in Yemen.

Saleh railed against the opposition forces, which he accused of being behind the chaos on the country. He also said they failed to cooperate with his deputy, who took over some of his duties while he was away. He said the opposition groups are holders of a "dark and destructive project."

He ridiculed the opposition claims that he plans to transfer power to a member of his family. "How many are the president's sons? How big is the president's family? How many brothers or grandchildren? How many of those are in power?" Saleh said. Saleh's son Ahmed and several of the president's nephews control powerful military units, and Ahmed has long been seen as the heir apparent for the presidency.

Saleh said he returned from Saudi Arabia with "an olive branch and a dove of peace" but said his opponents failed to seize or understand his it or understand it. He also said that a major country had asked him to not to return to Yemen, a request he said he declined.

"I am not a 'transit' president," he said.

Opposition members were skeptical of Saleh's comments. Mohammed al-Sabri, an opposition spokesman, said Saleh's words were intended to generate headlines ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday that is to discuss the failed efforts to convince Saleh to sign the power transfer deal.

"If the president was serious and is convinced that the public no longer wants him, he should do it today and not tomorrow," al-Sabri said.

Al-Sabri also claimed Saleh's speech was addressed to the West because it was aired at a time when there was no electricity in Yemen, and no one would be watching. Electricity in Sanaa has been sporadic — sometimes off for as long as two days at a time — since fighting flared last month.

"The Yemeni people are used to his lies. He has often promised things and never lived up to them," he said. "This is turning into a rerun for a soap opera."

Source:

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Yemeni leader says he'll step down by year's end

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's embattled U.S.-backed president pledged to step down more than a year early but refused to immediately resign on Tuesday, infuriating tens of thousands of demonstrators demanding his ouster.

The opposition said it would not accept President Ali Abdullah Saleh's offer to resign by year's end in response to nationwide anti-government protests, which have swelled dramatically since security forces opened fatally shot more than 40 demonstrators on Friday.

"The president's statements are just another political maneuver," said chief opposition spokesman Mohammed al-Sabri. "What was acceptable yesterday is not acceptable for us today."

Anti-government protestors shout slogans and raise banners during a demonstration demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in Sanaa, Yemen, Tuesday, March 22, 2011. Yemen's embattled U.S.-backed president said Tuesday that a military coup would lead to civil war and pledged to step down by year's end but not hand power to army commanders who have joined the opposition. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

The standoff pushed Yemen closer to open confrontation between the two sides, fueling Western fears that Saleh's 32-year-old regime could be replaced by chaos, or a leadership less likely to cooperate with U.S. military operations against the local branch of al-Qaida.

Anger at Friday's shootings splintered Saleh's remaining support among the country's most powerful institutions, and influential clerics, tribal leaders and military commanders all began calling for his departure. Some of the country's most senior army officials declared their loyalty to the opposition on Monday.

Saleh responded with a concession, pledging in a meeting with senior officials, military commanders and tribal leaders on Monday evening that he would to step down by the end of the year. He tried to placate demonstrators by promising this month not to run again, or let his son replace him, when his term ends in September 2013.

A presidential spokesman, Ahmed al-Sufi, said Salah also pledged not to hand power to the military.

The president hardened his position on Tuesday, saying the defection of commanders including his chief military adviser, Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, was a "mutiny and a coup against constitutional legitimacy."

"Any dissent within the military institution will negatively affect the whole nation," Saleh said in a nationally televised warning to a meeting of Yemen's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. "The nation is far greater than the ambition of individuals who want to seize power."

Protesters massed by the tens of thousands Tuesday afternoon in the downtown Sanaa plaza they have dubbed "Taghyeer," or "Change" square. Crowds ululated, chanted and painted each other's faces in the red, white and black colors of the national flag. Conservative tribesmen bought their wives to the protest, and the women bought their children, all basking in a carnival atmosphere.

"The revolution has crossed its most difficult period," said activist Bashir al-Sid, smiling. "All that remains is the easy part."

Demonstrators began demanding Saleh's ouster more than a month ago, inspired by the wave of people power sweeping through the Middle East. His troops and loyalists have killed more than 80 demonstrators throughout Yemeni cities, according to an Associated Press tally of eyewitness, opposition and official accounts.

Al-Ahmar's defection was followed by a flurry of resignations by army commanders, ambassadors, lawmakers and provincial governors.

Al-Ahmar, commander of the army's powerful 1st Armored Division, deployed tanks and armored vehicles at the Defense Ministry, the TV building, the Central Bank and Taghyeer square, the demonstrator's epicenter.

In response, the Republican Guards, an elite force led by one of Saleh's sons, deployed troops backed by armor outside the presidential palace on the capital's southern outskirts.

Calling Al-Ahmar's defection "a turning point," Edmund J. Hull, U.S. ambassador to Yemen from 2001 to 2004, said it showed "the military overall ... no longer ties its fate to that of the president."

"I'd say he's going sooner rather than later," Hull said.

The Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network said its Yemen offices were broken into late Monday by 20 armed men who used a mechanical drill to open the door before seizing its main satellite uplink equipment, computers, TV cameras and closed-circuit surveillance cameras.

Jazeera said it had asked the Yemeni interior ministry three days ago to protect the bureau and its staff the network's journalists were threatened. The ministry did not respond, the network said.

In a sign of the Obama administration's growing alarm over the regime's crackdown on demonstrators, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called for "a cessation of all violence against demonstrators," saying Saleh should "take the necessary steps to promote a meaningful dialogue that addresses the concerns of his people."

The 65-year-old president and his government have faced down many serious challenges in the past, often forging fragile alliances with restive tribes to extend power beyond the capital. Most recently, he has battled a seven-year armed rebellion in the north, a secessionist movement in the south and an al-Qaida offshoot that is of great concern to the U.S.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, formed in 2009, has moved beyond regional aims and attacked the West, including sending a suicide bomber who tried to down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day with a bomb sewn into his underwear. The device failed to detonate properly.

Yemen is also home to U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is believed to have offered inspiration to those attacking the U.S., including Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, who is accused of killing 13 people and wounding dozens in a 2009 shootout at Fort Hood, Texas.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Yemeni president's own tribe demands he step down

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Tens of thousands of people joined a funeral procession Sunday for protesters killed by government gunmen and the Yemeni president's own tribe called on him to step down, robbing the embattled U.S.-backed leader of vital support.

Yemen's ambassador to the United Nations and its human rights minister resigned to protest the crackdown, further undermining President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Experts said the president's dwindling influence was likely to either accelerate his departure or force him to resort to greater violence to retain power.

Saleh appeared to shy away from more force for the moment, disbanding police and special forces around Sanaa University, which has been the center of the deadly crackdown, and replacing them with a largely unarmed force.

Anti-government protestors pray around the bodies of the demonstrators who were killed on Friday's clashes with Yemeni security forces, during their funeral procession in Sanaa,Yemen, Sunday, March 20, 2011. The Yemeni president's own tribe has called on him to step down after a deadly crackdown on protesters, robbing the embattled U.S.-backed leader of vital support in a society dominated by blood ties. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

"From now on, we will be controlling the entrances and exits of the square by orders from the supreme military command," said Lt. Col. Mohammed Hussein.

Friday was the bloodiest day of the monthlong uprising against Saleh, and government snipers killed more than 40 protesters. The violence drew condemnation from the U.N. and the United States, which backs his government with hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to battle a potent al-Qaida offshoot based in Yemen's mountainous hinterlands.

Some of the country's most important religious leaders joined in the call for Saleh's resignation.

"This is definitely in my view now entering into some form of an end game," said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center.

Yemen's most powerful tribe, its opposition parties and masses of young protesters have now united in calls for Saleh's departure, Shaikh said, calling that a dire sign for the president's ability to retain power.

"The disparate elements of what can be called the oppsiton have now coalesced around the demand for him to step down," Shaikh said. "This is now a very powerful, irrestible coalition."

Mohammad al-Sabri, an opposition spokesman, told The Associated Press that the opposition will under no circumstances agree to a dialogue with Saleh after the crimes his regime has committed.

"The president must understand that the only way to avoid more bloodshed and strife in this country is for him to leave. Nobody will have any regrets about him," he said.

People living in apartment buildings around the square tossed down flowers at Sunday's funeral procession. Electricity was cut off for about three hours in Yemen's major cities, and activists accused the government of trying to block people from seeing television coverage of the march. Cell service was also interrupted.

Massive crowds flooded into the Sanaa University square and solidarity demonstrations were held across the country in regions including Aden, Hadramawt, Ibb, Al-Hudaydah, Dhamar and Taiz.

"We hail with all respect and observance, the position of the people at the (Sanaa University) square," Sheik Sadiq al-Ahmar, head of Saleh's Hashed tribe, said in a joint statement with the religious leaders issued after a meeting at his home late Saturday.

Opposition parties taking part in the procession said they had have changed their position from demands for political reforms to calls for Saleh's removal.

"Our only choice now is the removal of the regime soon. We stand by the people's demand," opposition leader Yassin Said Numan told The Associated Press.

Human Rights Minister Huda al-Ban said she was stepping down to protest the government's "horrible, coward and perfidious crime." And a Foreign Ministry official told The Associated Press that UN Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi had sent in his letter of resignation.

Health Minister Abdul-Karim Rafi told reporters the killing of protesters was "a crime unacceptable by logic or could be justified."

He said 44 protesters were killed and 192 wounded, 21 critically.

Prosecutor-General Abdullah al-Ulty said that 693 protesters were hurt and some bodies have not yet been identified.

Mohammed Naji Allaw, a lawyer and activist, said the government offering money to victims' families to not cooperate with the investigation, and was pressuring them not to participate in the funeral procession.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh 'to quit in 2013'

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he will not seek to extend his presidency when his current term expires in 2013, according to reports.

Veteran leader Ali Abdullah Saleh, 64,
has been the focus of recent protests

Mr Saleh, who has been in power for three decades, also pledged that he would not pass on power to his son.

He spoke to parliament ahead of a rally in the capital on Thursday which, echoing protests in Tunisia and Egypt, has been dubbed a "day of rage".

Mr Saleh came to power as president of North Yemen in 1978.

When the country was united with South Yemen in 1990 he became president of the new republic.

Concessions

Speaking during an emergency session of the country's parliament and the consultative council, he laid out his plans to move aside.

"No extension, no inheritance, no resetting the clock," Mr Saleh said.

"I present these concessions in the interests of the country. The interests of the country come before our personal interests," he said.

He also called on the opposition to "freeze all planned protests, rallies and sit-ins". He spoke ahead of the planned protests, organised by civil society groups and opposition leaders in a country which suffers from high population growth, 40% unemployment, rising food prices and acute levels of malnutrition.

Some 40% of the population lives on less than $2 (£1.25) a day and parts of the country have become a haven for al-Qaeda militants.

Thousands have spilled on to the streets of the
capital in protest in recent days

Tens of thousands of people gathered in January during days of protests urging Mr Saleh to step down.

Aspirations

After the revolt in Tunisia, which forced the country's president to flee into exile, Mr Saleh made a series of concessions - halving income tax and ordering his government to control prices. He has also pledged to raise the salaries of civil servants and military personnel by around $47 (£29) a month.

Mr Saleh's statement was welcomed by the country's largest opposition party but it said the planned rally would not be called off.

"We consider this initiative positive and we await the next concrete steps. As for our plan for a rally tomorrow, the plan stands and it will be organised and orderly," Mohammed al-Saadi, under-secretary of the Islamist Islah party said, according to Reuters.

"This is a peaceful struggle through which the people can make their voices heard and express their aspirations," he added.

In January, Mr Saleh had proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow him to stand for re-election in the next presidential ballot in two years' time but, analysts say, he appears to have changed his mind after seeing the impact of public demonstrations across the region.

He made a similar promise to stand down before the 2006 presidential election, but eventually reversed this position.

Source: BBC

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