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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 May 2000 Issue No. 483 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 May 2000 Issue No. 483
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters 
Reconcilliation subject to reform
By Nasser Arabyee"We invite all Yemenis abroad to return home as good citizens who enjoy full rights and duties under the constitution and laws," said Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on 21 May. Speaking in a televised speech on the eve of celebrations marking 10 years of unification between north and south Yemen, the president highlighted the theme of reconciliation -- a theme that permeated the activities marking the anniversary.
Following the collapse of the former Soviet Union, leaders of the former Socialist Yemeni Republic lost their main ally and agreed to start unity talks with their counterparts in the largely conservative north. They succeeded in reaching an agreement only a few months later, leaving many issues unresolved and planting what observers believe was the seed for a renewed war between the two sides four years later.
Northern troops loyal to President Saleh defeated the declining southern army in a few weeks and restored unity. The 1994 war was not the first between the two sides, but it left feelings of bitterness among the majority of southern Yemenis who often refer to unity as domination by the north.
In his speech on Sunday, President Saleh affirmed that the "homeland has room for every one and it is open for all citizens to contribute to the building of the country and the enhancement of democracy." Leaders of the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) fled to several Arab countries after losing the 1994 war. Most of this group were tried in absentia and convicted of treason, but a few YSP leaders made a deal with President Saleh and returned to Yemen.
Celebrations in Sana'a on 22 May brought together some 1,200 dignitaries from more than 50 countries. The participation of a high-level delegation from Saudi Arabia led by Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdel-Aziz was of particular significance. This was the first visit by the Saudi crown prince to Yemen since unity was proclaimed and it coincided with reports that the two countries were nearing an agreement on their long-standing border dispute.
Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika, Sudan's Omar Al-Bashir, and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat were among the dignitaries at the celebrations who attended with President Saleh a two-hour-long military parade in which the Yemeni army displayed its latest weapons. Yemeni warplanes also staged an air show.
Ali Nasser Mohamed, former president of South Yemen, asserted in a television interview from Damascus where he is in exile, that "there were some mistakes made during the march towards unity..." He added that the impact of these is still felt, "Thus, some people [in the south] feel that what they are undergoing is occupation by the north. I demand that these mistakes be addressed along with the practices that harm unity, harm the present leadership and make this feeling [of occupation] grow among the average citizens."
Demonstrations take place periodically, most frequently in the south. They call for correcting the "path of unity" and fighting corruption. Southerners complain that government-funded development projects are few in their part of the country. But Sana'a says that during the past 10 years it has spent more on development in the south than it did in the north. Yemeni Prime Minister Abdel-Karim Al-Iriyani said in an interview that the state spends 2.5 times as much on development in the south. He added that decades of communist rule in south Yemen left the region in a devastated condition, requiring massive investment.
On the political level, YSP decided to boycott the 1997 parliamentary elections, saying that the government set too many restrictions on candidates' freedom. The party complained that the government went as far as terminating candidates' employment.
The YSP has demanded, without success, the restoration of dozens of its offices seized by the ruling Peoples' General Congress Party (PGC), headed by President Saleh, following the defeat of the south in 1994. And when the YSP wanted to compete against Saleh in last year's presidential vote, it was told that it did not have any seats in parliament to nominate candidates, and Saleh won with a 96 per cent majority.
Abdel-Rahman Al-Jifri, chairman of Mawj, a group of former socialist leaders who fled the country in 1994, called upon the heads of state taking part in the celebrations to try to persuade the Yemeni leadership to start taking effective measures towards "comprehensive political reform on the road to comprehensive national reconciliation."
"What we mean by reconciliation is that there must be reform in all areas of life: in politics, economics, administration, the judiciary and the constitution. Then, it will be easy for us to compromise and return to our homeland with all the other political groups who were compelled by the conflicts of the past to stay away," Al-Jifri told Al-Ahram Weekly in a telephone interview from his London home.
In addition to political and economic problems and the feelings of mistrust between the north and south, President Saleh's government also faces a serious security challenge due to the widespread use of illegal weapons in Yemen. The kidnapping of tourists by tribes seeking to pressure the government to initiate development projects in their areas, and the continuing confrontation with militant Islamist groups are two of the key security challenges faced by the Yemeni government. Failure to address these problems jeoporadises not only Yemeni unity, but also the economic well-being of the majority of already impoverished Yemenis.
