أقتات من شعري المنى

Fuad Mused

For the Yemen Times

Published:24-05-2010

ADEN, May 23 - Last Friday, security forces in Aden put an end to protests of Southern Movement supporters calling for secession from the north of the country.

Dozens of the Southern Movement supporters protested after the Friday sermon in the districts of Al-Tuwahi, Sheik Othman, Al-Buriqa and Al-Mansoora, according to local sources.

The protests coincided with celebrations in Taiz for the 20th anniversary of Yemen's unification in 1990, during which President Saleh announced an amnesty for all Southern Movement detainees.

Southern Movement supporters were responding to an invitation by Ali Salem Al-Beidh, former president of the south Yemen, to revive the secessionism declaration of May 21, 1994.

On May 21, during the secession war in 1994, Al-Beidh called for the political separation of the two parts of Yemen: the former People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in the south and Arab Republic of Yemen in the north.

He called on people in the southern governorates to demonstrate to end the unification of the Republic of Yemen.

During last Friday's protests, the security force dispersed and arrested some of the protesters who held up flags calling for secession.

According to locals, security forces were deployed to the city's entrances to close roads off to the demonstrators gathering in the courtyard of the Hashimi mosque in the Sheik Othman district.

In Al-Dhale' governorate, clashes have been ongoing between an unknown armed group and security forces since last Thursday, especially at night.

Locals said that armed people targeted army sites near the governorate with rocket-propelled grenades. The soldiers at the military sites responded to the attack and caused three causalities. Two of them are from the army and the third one is a woman.

The road between Sana'a and Aden is still closed from Al-Dhale' governorate to Al-Anad in Lahj, after armed groups blocked the road responding to escalating military presence in the area for 10 days now.

Recently, the Ministry of Interior on its website said that it would not tolerate anyone sparking unrest and violence in the south. It also called on the police to do its duty seriously.

The southern movement is a movement that emerged in 2007. At the beginning, they demanded equal citizenship for southerners and rights of army retirees.

Recently, the movement's demands have developed into calling for secession from the central state in Sana'a.

Since the unrest begun the south in 2007, over 150 people have been killed and over 500 injured during demonstrations organized by the movement and clashes between security and its members.