UNREST:SANAA – Yemeni police opened fire on protesters in the capital Sanaa yesterday, wounding at least 50 people demonstrating for an end to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's 32-year rule, witnesses said. Three of the wounded were in a serious condition, they said.
Policemen and security agents in civilian clothes opened fire as they tried to prevent people from joining thousands of protesters who have camped out for weeks in front of Sanaa University, the witnesses said. There was no immediate government comment.
Police brought out water cannon and placed concrete blocks around Sanaa University, the rallying point for anti-Saleh protest. It had been quiet in recent days, after weeks of fierce clashes across the country between government loyalists and protesters that killed at least 27 people.
About 10,000 protesters marched in Dhamar, residents said. The city is known for ties to Mr Saleh and is the hometown of Yemen’s prime minister, interior minister and head judge. “Leave! leave!” the protesters shouted, just two days after Saleh loyalists there held a similar-sized rally.
Burgeoning protests fuelled by anger at poverty and corruption – and defections from Mr Saleh’s political and tribal allies – have added to pressure on him to quit this year. He has pledged to stay on until his term ends in 2013. “Across the board, what you’re seeing is that more and more people are really starting to crystallise around this single call for the president to step down,” Princeton University Yemen scholar Gregory Johnsen said.
Yemen had been on the brink of failed statehood even before recent protests. Mr Saleh has struggled to cement a truce with Shia Muslim rebels in the north and curb secessionist rebellion in the south, all while fighting al-Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing.
Analysts say protests may be reaching a point where it will be difficult for Mr Saleh to cling to power. In what could add to popular anger, two Yemeni rights groups said two prisoners had died after security forces used live ammunition and tear gas to halt a prison riot in Sanaa on Monday.
Foreign minister Abubakr al-Qirbi blamed the protests on poor economic conditions. Some 40 per cent of Yemen’s 23 million people live on $2 a day or less. The minister said he wanted foreign donors to inject up to $6 billion (€4.3 billion) to fill a five-year budget gap. Protesters say they are frustrated by corruption and unemployment of at least 35 per cent. – (Reuters)