الرئيسية
Anti-regime demonstrators rally to protest a
Gulf-brokered power transfer deal that promises President Ali Abdullah
Saleh immunity from prosecution in Sanaa, November 24. Fierce clashes
broke out between rival security forces in the Yemeni capital Friday,
two days after President Ali Abdullah Saleh inked a power transfer deal
which sponsors had hoped would end the violence.(AFP/Mohammed Huwais)
By Hammoud Mounassar, AFP
SANAA (AFP) - Opponents and supporters of Ali Abdullah Saleh
held rival rallies in the Yemeni capital Friday after pre-dawn fighting
between rival security forces dashed hopes an exit deal for the
president would end the violence.
Youth activists, who have
spearheaded 10 months of protests against Saleh's 33 year rule in which
hundreds have died, are furious that the agreement signed with the
parliamentary opposition on Wednesday promises Saleh and his family
immunity from prosecution.
"The blood of the martyrs which has
thrown you out of power, Saleh, will throw you in prison," preacher Fuad
al-Hanjari told tens of thousands of activists after funerals for four
out of five protesters killed by plainclothes gunmen in the capital on
Thursday.
"The squares will remain our homes until we accomplish
our goals -- the exit of all the regime's remnants and building a new
Yemen," he said.
The activists said similar protests were held in
17 of the 22 Arabian Peninsula country's provinces, including two of
the most populous -- Taez and Ibb.
They say that Saleh's
agreement to hand all "necessary constitutional powers" to Vice
President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi with immediate effect and hold office on
an honorary basis only for the coming 90 days is not enough and are
demanding the departure of the whole regime.
"We did not start a
revolution to keep half of the killers," spokesman Walid al-Ammari said
on the eve of Friday's rally, adding that Hadi, the low-profile vice
president for the past 17 years, is "just another arm of Saleh."
Saleh,
who was still in Saudi Arabia after Wednesday's signing of the exit
plan drafted by his impoverished country's wealthy Gulf neighbours,
condemned Thursday's violence by his loyalists and ordered an
investigation.
The 69-year-old, who sustained serious blast
wounds in a June bombing of his residence and has already received
extensive treatment in Saudi Arabia, is to stay in Riyadh for medical
tests, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi told the kingdom's
Al-Watan daily.
"No specific date date has been set for his
departure, as this depends on the results which will determine if he
will be treated in the kingdom or in the United States," Kurbi told the
newspaper.
"If the results are reassuring, he will return to Yemen."
UN
chief Ban Ki-moon, whose Yemen envoy Jamal Benomar was instrumental in
persuading Saleh to sign the Gulf transition plan after months of
prevarication, had said he expected the president to travel to New York
for treatment.
Tens of thousands of Saleh's supporters held a
massive counter-demonstration on the capital's Sabiin Avenue Friday
demanding change "only through the ballot box" -- a constant refrain of
the president during his long months of refusal to sign up to the exit
plan.
But analysts said that the numbers taking part on both
sides were down on previous Fridays -- the traditional day of prayer and
protest in Muslim Yemen -- as the silent majority watched to see how
the transition deal plays out.
Fierce clashes erupted in the
capital before dawn between dissident troops of the First Armoured
Brigade led by General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and members of the central
security services commanded by Saleh's nephew Yehya, residents said.
The
mortar and machinegun exchanges broke out outside the residence of Vice
President Hadi, who assumed Saleh's executive powers under the
transition deal.
The fighting, which spread to the heart of the capital, lasted more than two hours. There was no word on any casualties.
Saleh's
long equivocation over signing the transition deal, which the
opposition first signed back in April, saw the protests slide into
deadly clashes between loyalist and dissident troops and tribesmen that
have riven the capital and left the armed forces deeply divided.
Besides
Yehya, the president's son Ahmed commands the Republican Guards and
Tariq, another nephew, controls the presidential guard.
But two
major army divisions -- one in Sanaa and one in Taez -- rallied to the
opposition and have fought repeated battles against Saleh's loyalists,
leaving scores dead.
Under the Riyadh deal, Hadi is charged with
forming a committee to oversee the reunification of the security forces
within 90 days, one of the biggest challenges facing the transition.