Yemeni president: Secessionists will fail (3rd Roundup)

Sana'a, Yemen - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Thursday that that secessionist groups in the south of the country would fail in their attempt to 'turn back the wheel of history.' 'I want to reassure you all that there is nothing to concern about the nation and its safety, and that the unity is solid and stable like the mountains,' Saleh said in a televised speech marking the 19th anniversary of the reunification of south and north Yemen. 'The unity was established to sustain, because it is protected by God and all the honest and dedicated (Yemenis).' Saleh was reacting to recent violent protests in southern provinces organized by secessionist groups. Southern separatist groups, who want the south to secede again from the north, have been organizing protests since April 28 against what they claim as the central government's discriminatory policies against southerners. 'Those who are promoting little projects will fail like they did in the past,' Saleh said. On Thursday, two people were killed and around 20 others injured in clashes between police and anti-government protesters in the southern port city of Aden, medical sources said. The clashes reportedly erupted after riot police tried to disperse rallies called by southern opposition groups in the Sheikh Othman neighbourhood. The confrontations were the latest in a series of violent protests that engulfed cities in three southern provinces in the last few weeks, leaving dozens of wounded protesters and security force members. Saleh said the secessionists 'attempted to undermine the nation and its safety, stir up strife and spread the culture of hatred, animosity, sectarian strife and racism.' The Yemeni leader said the plan to split Yemen is a 'desperate attempt to turn back the wheel of history.' Saleh's speech coincided with a rare appearance by his former deputy, Ali Salim al-Beedh, who vowed in a press conference Thursday in Germany to lead efforts to split the south from the north. Hours after al-Beedh made his remarks, Oman announced that it had stripped him of his Omani nationality, Oman's state news agency reported. Oman granted al-Beedh citizenship after he fled Yemen following the defeat of southern forces in the 1994 civil war. Al-Beedh, who served as president of the former south Yemen, was appointed vice president after north and south Yemen were merged on May 22, 1990. In May 1994, al-Beedh and other breakaway politicians led a secession attempt in southern Yemen. The secession was rejected by the central government in Sana'a and went unrecognized by the international community. The attempt was quashed by Saleh's forces after a 10-week conflict in which more than 10,000 people were killed. Al-Beedh and 15 other top secessionist leaders fled to Arab and European countries. He was among four southern leaders who received death sentences in absentia by a state security court in 1997. Most of the breakaway politicians who led the secession attempt were leaders of the communist Yemeni Socialist Party, which ruled Southern Yemen for nearly 20 years, and shared authority with Saleh's GPC party in the unity government after 1990.