Yemen-Trouble again in the north
An old insurgency regains momentum
Nov 24th 2012 | SAADA | from the print edition
SINCE Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi took over as president in February, ending Ali
Abdullah Saleh's 33 years of dictatorship, his fragile government has done
better than many expected. In Sana'a, the capital, he has taken cautious
steps towards re-establishing central authority and restoring a semblance of
normal politics. Fighters linked to al-Qaeda no longer hold territory in the
south, though they are far from beaten. A campaign to stymie him by groups
in the south linked to al-Qaeda has been contained, though not defeated. It
is trouble in the north, where the recalcitrant Houthi clan is once more
resurgent, that has been making Yemenis most twitchy of late.
Since fighting broke out in 2004 between government forces and the northern
rebels, the ruggedly mountainous province of Saada has been a zone of almost
perpetual strife, causing thousands of deaths and displacing several hundred
thousand tribesfolk. Though the Houthis were never defeated outright,
government forces stopped them from gaining the upper hand. But during the
uprising against Mr Saleh that got going in earnest in 2011, they managed to
win control over most of Saada. In the streets of the provincial capital the
Houthis' dominance is plain. Despite signs of destruction due to years of
conflict, markets now bustle and buildings are going up or are being
renovated.
Government troops are allowed to man their positions in a kind of unofficial
stand-off, provided they do not attack the rebels, while armed Houthi
fighters control checkpoints and let government soldiers receive their
salaries. Across Yemen's northern provinces, where the Houthis espouse a
Shia-derived version of Islam known as Zaydism, their supporters have
emerged from the shadows, spreading their writ into the neighbouring
provinces of Amran, Hajjah and Jawf. Their influence extends even to Sana'a,
where their slogan-"God is Great! Death to America! Death to Israel! Curse
the Jews! Victory to Islam!"-is a common graffito on walls.
Though the Houthis have never directly targeted Americans in Yemen, they say
the American government is their ultimate foe and blame it for sowing chaos
across the region, stirring sectarian tension among Muslims, and robbing
Arabs of their dignity. This resonates with many Yemenis in other parts of
the country, where air raids by American drones and Western efforts to shape
politics are often condemned as infringements of sovereignty. Houthi leaders
say they have become more popular because of their calls for cleaner Islamic
governance and for foreigners to keep out.
But many Yemenis accuse the Houthis of serving as agents of unwelcome
foreign powers, in particular Iran. It is hard to prove such claims,
asserted by Yemen's backers in Saudi Arabia, where the government says that
the Iranians give the Houthis arms and cash. Some Western diplomats echo the
accusations. The nearest to hard evidence is a pro-Houthi television
channel, al-Maseera, that operates out of a southern Shia-populated suburb
of Beirut, Lebanon's capital. The Houthis deny that they have separatist
ambitions, but their Yemeni opponents say they want to create a sectarian
"state within a state", much as Hizbullah, the Shias' party-cum-militia, has
in southern Lebanon.
The Houthis have also clashed recently with northern followers of Salafism,
a puritanical brand of Sunni Islam, and with supporters of Yemen's powerful
Islamist Islah Party. This has threatened to disrupt the delicate
equilibrium established since Mr Hadi took over. Fighting has come within 50
kilometres (31 miles) of Sana'a.
The failure of previous attempts to subjugate the Houthis has led to a
growing consensus in Sana'a that Mr Hadi must cut a political deal with
them. But so far neither side seems willing to make the necessary
compromises.
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Received on Sat Nov 24 2012 - 07:20:39 EST
