Middle East News

Yemeni president vows to impose order restive province (Roundup)

May 21, 2008, 18:20 GMT

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh vowed on Wednesday to impose law and order in the north-western province of Saada where the army has been fighting with Shiite rebels since 2004. 'The state will bear its national, constitutional and legal responsibility to enforce law and order and protect the homeland and citizens,' Saleh said in a televised speech marking the 18th anniversary of his country's reunification. Fighting between Shiite rebels loyal to the outlawed Believing Youth group, known as Houthis, and government forces has been raging on and off in Saada since mid-2004. Saada is a remote mountainous province located the border with Saudi Arabia, some 230 kilometres north of the capital Sana'a. 'Those lawbreaking elements would bear complete responsibility for not responding to wisdom,' Saleh said. Authorities accuse the rebels of trying to reinstall the imamate rule that was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962. Houthis, who belong mostly to the moderate Zaidi sect of Islam, say they were only defending their areas from army offensives. 'The state has been keen from the first moment to contain the sedition and preserve Yemeni blood from being spilled,' the Yemeni president said. He said authorities 'positively reacted' to a mediation offered by Qatar and formed several mediation committees in an attempt to put an end to the fighting. 'But the elements of the rebellion and sedition did not respond to the national efforts and brotherly good offices,' Saleh said. 'They remained deviated and continued carrying out acts of terrorism against citizens, tribal chieftains, social dignitaries, personnel of the armed and security forces.' He further accused the rebels of 'destructing public and private properties, committing acts of banditry and shaking stability and public tranquillity.' The conflict began in mid-2004 after Shiite cleric Hussein al- Houthi, the elder brother of the current rebel leader Abdul-Malik al- Houthi, established the Believing Youth movement and organized a series of protests in Sana'a and other major cities to voice their slogan 'Death to America ... Death to Israel.' Hussein was killed by the army in September the same year after months of bloody fighting with government forces. Waves of violent clashes have since left hundreds of government troops and rebels dead, and displaced thousands of civilians. Yemeni and Qatari mediators began early this month a new round of talks with the rebels in Saada to revive a fragile Qatari-brokered ceasefire inked in Doha last June.

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