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Unsteady peace in
war-torn north Yemen
By Jane Novak
March 22, 2008 5:01 PM
A three-year war in
Sa'ada, Yemen generated thousands of casualities, wide-scale
destruction, tens of thousands of internal refugees and cost upwards of
a billion dollars. Progress toward implementing a cease-fire agreement
negotiated by Qatar reached an impasse this week as both the Yemeni
military and several thousand Shia rebels refused to abandon their
positions. Reports of a prison massacre are heightening tensions amid
sporadic skirmishes in the province, which borders Saudi Arabia.
Violence flared at the
Fakhra Central Prison in Sa'ada in early March. Sheik Salah Habra, the
rebels' representative, announced seven rebel prisoners were killed and
others shot, beaten, and tortured. The prisoners had been chanting
anti-American slogans when the assault began.
The Sa'ada War began in
2003 when a Shia youth group, led by cleric and Member of Parliament
Hussain al Houthi, staged vocal demonstrations at the onset of the US
invasion of Iraq. Sporadic clashes with security forces grew to armed
conflict in 2004. Hussain al Houthi was slain and his brother Abdelmalik
assumed operational leadership of the rebellion.
The fighting intensified
in 2005. A settlement mediated in 2006 failed in part because the
security forces continued targeting the rebels after amnesty. The Houthi
rebels retreated from their villages to the mountaintops. When the third
round of warfare began in January 2007, the rebels were dug-in and
well-armed with heavy weapons. The regime declared all-out war.
The Yemeni government
charged that the rebels seek to reinstate the Imamate that established
centuries of Hashemite rule over north Yemen until 1962's republican
revolution. The government also alleged the rebels received funding from
both Libya and Iran. Yemen routinely describes the conflict as a battle
against terrorists. The rebellion, however, is a domestic and political
conflict arising from the widespread public disenfranchisement
associated with Yemen's authoritarian system. The rebels do not target
civilians.
As in the earlier
campaigns, in 2007 the Yemeni military blockaded food and medicine to
Sa’ada, a governorate of 700,000 people. The military bombed cities and
villages with mortars, rockets, and Katyusha missiles, damaging
thousands of homes, mosques, and schools. In April, land mines injured
60. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimated a minimum of
50,000 civilians were displaced by the fighting in 2007, many without
shelter. Journalists and humanitarian aid were prohibited because of
security concerns, the regime said, and tens of thousands of civilians
remain beyond reach.
A province-wide survey
sponsored by the UN Children's Fund had found that 92 percent of sampled
children had witnessed armed conflict. Dozens of male children were
subjected to arbitrary arrest and are imprisoned along with their
relatives. Many detainees, including the children, were beaten. Shia
teachers and other government workers were punitively fired.
The military inducted
8,000 Salafi tribesmen, some young teens, who were sent to the front
lines. The Defense Ministry publicized a fatwa in early 2007 declaring
the rebels apostates. Sectarian media incitement against the rebels
began in 2004 and continues into 2008.
The Yemeni government
also called on Sunni Islamic extremist groups, including the Aden Abayan
Islamic Army, to support its military operations. The AAIA trained the
tribal fighters and fought on behalf of the regime, according to local
reports. A least 1,000 Yemeni soldiers were killed and several thousand
were wounded in the last round of war. The rebel and civilian casualty
figures are unclear.
Both sides now charge
the terms of the July 2007 cease-fire agreement have not been fulfilled.
Sheik Haba reported that the 380 rebels the government said it recently
released from jail were in fact unaffiliated civilians released in 2007.
The blockade on food to the region has not been lifted. The agreement
requires the rebels to give up their medium and heavy weapons and
abandon their mountaintop positions. They refuse to disarm and abandon
their camps until military units withdraw from the rebels' farms, homes,
and villages. Rebel leaders have not left Yemen for exile in Qatar as
outlined in the peace deal.
As the process reached
an impasse in March, the judiciary resumed the trials of alleged rebel
"terror cells" although a general amnesty was another condition. Qatari
mediation is ongoing. The mediation team, however, consists of several
dignitaries, and no provisions have been made for a neutral peacekeeping
force to supervise disengagement. The influence of powerful
regime-affiliated weapons merchants continues to have a negative effect
on the peace process. |
