Some of the most violent clashes yet in the growing Yemeni protests were reported today, when “loyalists” to President Ali Abdullah Saleh arrived at the Sanaa University campus with broken bottles and daggers and attacked thousands of demonstrators.
The protesters attempted to flee, but police were said to have blocked off the exits to the campus, ostensibly to “keep the two sides apart.” Instead it seems to have kept the protesters conveniently in range of the attackers.
Clashes were also reported in the city of Taiz, just south of Sanaa, where police attacked protesters during an overnight rally. Though police in Sanaa have sought to avoid direct clashes, in the rest of Yemen, where foreign media don’t have any presence, they have been far more aggressive.
Saleh has announced that he is postponing a planned trip to the US, which was supposed to take place later this month, due to “regional conditions.” Though the Obama Administration has eagerly backed Saleh, the ouster of Egypt’s long-time US-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak has led many of the region’s dictators to wonder if US support is enough to ensure the survival of their regimes anymore.
Keeping this Humpty Dumpty together is a mission impossible. Yemen will implode, and it is only the question when, not if. Why is it that only such tyrannical figures as Yemeni president for life inspire such confidence in "stability". Yemen has been, curtesy of the influence of Nasser's revolution in Egypt transformed into "republic". The transformation never worked, and only dictatorship and brutality has kept the "central" govenment in place. Ever since the "revolution", the oppression of northern tribes continues unabbated, and ever since Yemen was giftet the control over Hadramawth, the "South Yemen", the entire country is an unmannagable mess. The solution is to let the south go free, as it was always an independent entity not ruled from Sana'a. And the "central" government in Sana'a would be much better off going back to the more decentralized rule allowing regional governors and northern tribes more say in their local affairs. What is in place now is artificial and unsustainable. Thecurrent president will do everything and say anything to emphsize the non-existent war on terror, and get money for his military.
It is actually sickening that just a few of these thugs can cause such havoc, so much violence and so much damage. I hope that the people of Yemen don't let their dictator go and hold his feet to the fire for this plus the fact that he has permitted the US to send in the drones and kill hundreds of innocent civilians in exchange for money as the WikiLeaked cables showed. This should be tried for crimes against humanity for sure.