Foreign Policy: The Ripple Effect In The Middle East
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A Yemeni man holds up an image of the late Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara as he protests with some 2000 others in the capital Sanaa, calling for the resignation of President Ali Abdallah Saleh, who has reigned for 32 years. Mohammad Huwais/AFP/Getty Images hide caption
A Yemeni man holds up an image of the late Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevara as he protests with some 2000 others in the capital Sanaa, calling for the resignation of President Ali Abdallah Saleh, who has reigned for 32 years.
Mohammad Huwais/AFP/Getty ImagesLaura Kasinof is a freelance journalist based in Sanaa, Yemen.
In the impoverished south Arabian country of Yemen, there has been an important shift in the anti-regime movement since Hosni Mubarak relinquished power in Egypt on Feb. 11. The old-guard leaders of Yemen's political opposition who had led anti-regime rallies in the past few weeks have taken a step back. Meanwhile, more energized and angrier younger activists have taken the lead, as protests, which have grown notably more violent, have erupted in major cities across the country.
In Yemen's capital of Sanaa, hundreds of students have been coming out daily since Friday night calling for an end to the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. There has been a notable shift in the intensity of rhetoric used in demonstrations in past weeks. Many of the protesters are unemployed college graduates who say they are tired of how their society's endemic corruption prohibits them from obtaining work. "I can't afford my studies because there is corruption," one visibly upset young Yemeni protester told me. "There is no real justice in Yemeni society. Some people get everything and others are starving."
They shout the same chants heard during Egypt's revolution and carry signs that say simply in Arabic: "Leave." And, as in Cairo, the demonstrators have been routinely attacked by pro-government thugs using sticks and throwing rocks. Sunday marked the first time official security forces used violence against opposition protesters, when riot police used tasers to disperse a crowd of about 100 staging a sit-in at one of Sanaa's main squares.
But it's important to note that the number of protesters on the streets in Yemen remains fairly small. On Sunday, about 1,000 anti-government protesters took part in what were the largest rallies to date. The country has yet to see the sort of mass mobilization that came together to topple the regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.
Furthermore, there are also competing pro-government rallies taking place. Tribesmen, mostly heralding from staunchly pro-Saleh areas outside the capital, have set up tents in the main square of Sanaa since Friday night. "We are here to protect our country," declared Mahyoub Dahan, one pro-Saleh supporter from Beni Hushaish, who on Tuesday was affixing two pins to his suit coat, one with a photo of Saleh and another that read: A united Yemen. "Maybe we'll stay [in the square] one month. Maybe more."
Saleh badly wants to stave off a mass uprising in Yemen — a scenario that Washington also wants to avoid because of the strong al Qaeda presence in Yemen. In a Feb. 2 speech before an emergency session of parliament, Saleh announced that he would not run for president again — nor would his son succeed him. He also proposed a number of economic reforms. On Monday night, he said that he would open the presidential office to civil society organizations in order to discuss "issues concerned by the public." But these concessions have not appeased the political opposition, which says that Saleh has not dealt with any of the issues that truly need to be addressed, such as calls for secession in south Yemen.
This is why Yemen's coalition of formal opposition parties, the Joint Meetings Parties, is pushing for more. Yet even while gaining a lift from the anti-regime energy of Tunisia's and Egypt's revolutions, the opposition in Yemen suffers from disorganization and a fractured leadership. Its leaders have not been clear about what their response will be if the president refuses to meet their demands. They know what they don't want — but what they're in fact advocating for remains even less clear.
Read about erupting protests in more Arab countries at Foreign Policy.