Unrest in Yemen-Southern grumps
Which is worse for the north: southern secession or al-Qaeda?
Apr 13th 2013 | ADEN | <
http://www.economist.com/printedition/2013-04-13>
From the print edition
WALKING through the streets of Aden, you could be forgiven for thinking that
the local people who want South Yemen once again to become a separate
country are on the verge of success. The flag of the former People's
Democratic Republic of Yemen, as the south was styled when it was
independent, festoons the walls of the decaying port city, once its capital.
Since four southerners demonstrating for secession were killed by security
forces on February 21st, long-standing grievances have come close to boiling
point. Strikes and large-scale street protests have periodically shut down
the city for days at a time.
The merger in 1990 of the south and the Yemen Arab Republic, as its northern
Yemeni counterpart was known, was fraught from the start. Forces aligned
with the government in Sana'a, the northern capital, decisively beat
southern separatists in a civil war that broke out in 1994. But they failed
to assuage the southerners' discontent. Yemen's central government in Sana'a
was widely accused of discriminating against southerners and looting their
natural resources. Since 2007, these complaints have been articulated by the
Southern Movement (al-Herak in Arabic), a fractious group that wants
autonomy, at the least, for the south.
The Herakis are divided. In recent months their more extreme factions appear
to have gained the upper hand, turning their face against the offer of
dialogue with the north. Public opinion in the south increasingly favours
outright secession rather than federation. Government institutions in the
south are now often derided as "arms of the northern occupation".
But southern secession is not the only threat to the government in Sana'a.
Herak's leaders, many of whom hark back fondly to the rigid socialism
espoused in the south before the merger of 1990, vehemently distance
themselves from more extreme jihadist groups aligned with al-Qaeda, which
are also active in the south.
The jihadists benefit from secessionist turmoil. Though evicted from their
strongholds in the southern reaches of Abyan province last June, clashes
between them and local militias known as "popular committees" have grown
fiercer in areas once controlled by the extremists. Two weeks ago local
militiamen retook the town of Batis after three days of fighting that left
six jihadists and three of their own people dead. Across the country, a
string of assassinations has been blamed on al-Qaeda.
Yemen's president, Abdo Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who came to power a year ago in
the wake of a year-long uprising against his predecessor, Ali Abdullah
Saleh, is a southerner himself. But many southerners have rebuffed his
tentative attempts to accommodate them. Tens of thousands of them took to
the streets of Aden in protests timed for the launch last month of a vaunted
and long-waited "Conference of National Dialogue" in Sana'a.
Moreover, many Herakis accuse Mr Hadi's government of slandering their
movement by accusing it of ties to Iran. While such accusations were at
first widely discounted by Western diplomats, some Herakis acknowledge that
some factions get support from Iran but say it is exaggerated by their
opponents to distract attention from local grievances.
Even those from the south who have travelled to Sana'a for the dialogue
conference stress that their co-operation with the central government
remains conditional. "We may differ in strategy, but the movement's unity is
stronger than any divisions," says another Southern Movement man, a delegate
chatting with comrades at the grand hotel where the talks are taking place.
"If this doesn't work out, it will be easy to go back to Aden and join our
people in the street."
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Received on Thu Apr 11 2013 - 15:00:22 EDT
