Yemen: Calm restored after violent street protests

[struggle4progress]

24 Jul 2005 15:26:10 GMT
Source: IRIN

SANA, 24 July (IRIN) - Yemeni cities remained calm on Sunday after two days of unrest and violent protests that had claimed the lives of 22 people and left 375 injured, according to the Ministry of Interior.

However, eyewitnesses and local media reported that demonstrations against a sharp rise in the price of oil products had left at least 50 dead and hundreds injured, in addition to bringing many arrests. <snip>

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/6c3cabcbefdecbec0bbc0150722a8983.htm

[burrowowl]

1. And when will Americans

start rioting about feul costs, implementing renewables, etc.
Japan and Iceland are now ahead of us in H-feul cells, Germany of all Nations beats us in intalled solar power, etc. (Hillary is on C-Span, 17:00 MDT), etc.

From article:
However, eyewitnesses and local media reported that demonstrations against a sharp rise in the price of oil products had left at least 50 dead and hundreds injured, in addition to bringing many arrests.

And the working poor and plumenting middle-class: higher food costs due to higher transportation costs; pizza delivery; getting to work in sprawl with no mass transit; etc.

[daleo]

2. I wonder if it was really just about the price of oil.

It seems to me that there must be more to it than that. Yemen is quite a strategic location. For example, the U.S.S. Stark was bombed there.

On edit - I meant the U.S.S., Cole of course.

[bemildred]

3. A good question.

Although this sort of thing is consistent with the effects of IMF/WB "reforms" in the past. But the Yemeni government sits as uneasy in the saddle as a number of others in the Middle East, from what little I can glean in the News, and there might well be other things the rioters are annoyed about.

[Gloria]

4. Our big allies in the War on Terror--I urge you to see the

new World Media Watch just posted for more detail on the corruption, imprisonment of children, and the rising anger at the government as well as a companion piece on the IMF's role in all this...


5//Worldpress.org, US--PROTESTS IN YEMEN: THE CONTEXT (Yemen has been called a monarchy, a dictatorship, a kleptocracy, and a totalitarian state similar to Iraq under Saddam. Faced with mounting pressures from its formidable reform movement and a populace ravaged by governmental malfeasance, the Yemeni government has responded with a campaign of brutality and repression targeting children, journalists and political parties. Yet across all the governorates, the Yemeni people took to the streets facing tanks, guns, soldiers, police, and the Republican Guard. More than fifty people were killed. Hundreds were arrested, including children, and Amnesty International reports they may be at risk of torture.)



RELATED:



//The Daily Star, Lebanon-- ANALYSIS—YEMEN: ANOTHER MISTAKE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND? (… . The reason why nobody talks about curbing defense spending neither in Yemen nor in the IMF, to release more money for development, remains a mystery.)


Full links/excerpts at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical