A new statement today from Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights has put the overall death toll in the nationwide unrest of the past year at over 2,000. They also reported that some 22,000 people were wounded.
The figure is dramatically different from Amnesty International’s report earlier this year, which put the figure at 200 protesters. The ministry’s number also included military defectors, however.
Coming up with reliable figures in Yemen is next to impossible, as the unrest spanned a number of regions with a number of different causes. Large death tolls, like those in the nearly year-long battle over the Abyan Province, are likely not included.
The decision by the government to suddenly play up the death toll likely reflects the change in rulers, and efforts by new US-backed Major General Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to distance himself from the old US-backed dictator after the single-candidate election.
No matter what, this will not work. Only those who do not know the society can think in such simplistic terms. How does one define success? Saleh government without Saleh? That means, a puppet at the helm, while Saleh's sons, uncles, and cousins run effectively everything — especially military, security forces, and finances. But the challenges will not go away. The central Government that is in Sana'a has only one chance in remaining "central", and that is, if it respects the regional makeup of the country. If it tries to impose the centralized solution, it will fail. Not only will the perenially unhappy north rebel, but the south will push for outright indpendence — the right they have as they were forcibly annexed to the north. The rest of regions will not take the tightening of controls, as their local economy would suffer due to central government rapacity for funds. The information provided now about the number of dead is STILL VERY, VERY LOW. The information by organizations such as Amnesty International or Human Rights watch are never worth the paper they are written on. They are poltically flavored, be that ever so subtly.