Taiz is Bleeding

The 'Taiz is bleeding' poster

Yemen's third largest city Taiz has been the throbbing heart of the Yemeni revolution and for the past few months has also become its bleeding heart, especially since President Ali Abdullah Saleh's forces intensified their violent attacks on the city since May 26, 2011. That day is known as the Taiz Massacre, when Freedom Square was attacked and protesters' tents in the sit-in area were set on fire resulting in numerous deaths and injuries. Taiz has since become known as the city of resilience.

NajlaMo acknowledges that in her tweet:

Thank you #Taiz for starting and (will finish) what we should have started many years ago, you are the brave city and so is ur ppl. #Yemen

The revolution in Yemen continues despite the inking of the unpopular Gulf Cooperation Council-brokered deal. Marches still continue as forceful as ever, rejecting the deal, demanding the fall of the regime and Saleh's prosecution.

Nothing changed for the city of Taiz after the signing of the GCC initiative, on November 23, as the attacks on the city intensified and the indiscriminate shelling on the residential areas by Saleh's forces has continued.

According to the deal, all military forces would be withdrawn from the streets of the cities and retire to their barracks once a military committee is formed within five days of signing the initiative. This has not been the case. On the contrary, more military reinforcement are reported to have reached the city, an explicit breech to the deal.

The deal also calls upon Saleh to step down and transfer power to Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

This video posted by FreeDomTaiz shows the intensity of the violent attacks that Taiz is enduring every night for the past months:

The resilient people of Taiz shelled overnight, go out the very next morning in marches to condemn the violence they face daily, which destroys their homes, kills their loved ones and terrorizes their children. They take to the streets to express their steadfastness and commitment to the revolution. They chant “Taiz is free and will not kneel, even if a thousand cannons were fired.” (video posted by taizcitynet)

The following two videos show the attacks on the city even in broad daylight (both posted bymediacentersanaa):

Meanwhile, Yemeni activist Atiaf Alwazir raises a valid point highlighting the continued violence despite the signing of the deal and asks what are the ramifications of such a breech:

@womanfromYemen:

due to violence in #Taiz, will the #UN seek sanctions against violators of #GCC mechanism or seek a ban on military supplies to #Yemen ?

The GCC deal is perceived by many as a “License to Kill” for Saleh and his forces.@SupportBahrainRights expressed this in his tweets:

@WomanfromYemen GCC deal has legitimized crimes against humanity in #Yemen. @noonarabia @summernasser @Afrahnasser #Taiz #UN #No2GCCdeal

and @FahdAqlan adds:

In #Taiz .. nobody has immunity to be killed .. except the killers !! #Yemen #No2GCCDeal

@alruwaishan also criticizes the GCC deal and the West's silence towards the violence in Taiz. He tweets:

The West doesn't want to help, the GCC and it's deal are worthless, and the media is oblivious. #Taiz is burning.

@Ulfat points out:

How are #GCC responding to failure of initiative? If they're not condemning violence in #Taiz, they never intended it to succeed. #Yemen

She raises a question to two official UN Twitter accounts:

@UN_Spokesperson @UN_HRC All twitter reports out of #Taiz today indicate the violence is ongoing. What's your position on this? #Yemen

@bajaberyemen tweets the latest figures as reported by Yemeni local paper Yemen Post on December 3rd:

Death Toll Rises to 28 in Three Days in #Taiz #Yemen yemenpost.net/Detail12345678…

AinYemenEng tweets the total deaths since the GCC deal was signed:

#Yemen Ain News: Since the signing in Riyadh: 33 martyrs and more than 152 wounded since the signing of the gulf… fb.me/U0Ap9ksS

Currently, the formation of the unity government is pending the formation of the military committee, yet Saleh once again objects to the members chosen by the JMP (Joint Meeting Parties) to be part of the military committee.

@alguneid a Yemeni veteran activist, based in Taiz tweets the reason for the delay:

#Yemen won't have a cabinet till Opposition & Saleh side agree on Military Committee. Saleh, objects to #JMPs nominees akhbaralyom.net/news_details.p…

He @alguneid adds:

Hadi: Won't form Military committee, till opposition forms cabinet. Opposition: Won't form cabinet till Hadi forms committee.You're in #Yemen

While the politicians disagree and the military continue their attack on the city, civil society attempts to play a vital role to save the civilians being targeted. Activists in Yemen are organizing a Support Taiz Caravan loaded with medical supplies, which will include MPs that represent the city, as well as youth and foreign journalists. Donations within Yemen and abroad are being collected to support the besieged city of Taiz.

@YemenPeaceNews explains:

Donations for #SupportTaizCaravan starting to roll in. You too can help us save lives!bit.ly/nTCPem #SupportYemen #Yemen #Taiz #yf

Journalist Jeb Boone sums up the GCC deal in his blog. He articulates his point by highlighting what needs to be done:

For true change to take place in Yemen, both the old guard of day to day politics and the military must be removed, especially members of Saleh’s family. His party, the General People’s Congress, still holds the majority of parliament and may continue to do so after elections with the presence of Saleh loyalist able to make small tweaks to election results. Yemen must start fresh. Like Egypt and the NDP, Yemen’s GPC should be dissolved to allow for a new parliamentarian structure to be built from the ground up. Most importantly, the sons of a deposed dictator must no longer hold sway over the nation’s military. Unless policymakers in the US, EU, GCC, and UN are willing to help Yemenis dislodge Saleh’s presence from the country entirely, his power will be only nominally diminished.

Saleh's family still control the military, which is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians. The GCC deal did not change anything on the ground. The revolution continues through the peaceful marches across Yemen and so does the violence on civilians by Saleh's forces in many Yemeni cities. Yet Taiz seems to be paying the heaviest price. Tweeps have used the hashtags #Savetaiz and#TaizIsBleeding to draw attention to the city's tribulation.

@A_Al3ansy: sends an appeal through a picture saying ‘Taiz is under fire, stop the violence on it.”

#SaveTaiz #Taiz #Yemen #SupportYemen pic.twitter.com/qbF5CHNV

Image by @A_Al3nsy

* This post was first published in Global Voices on Dec 4th, 2011

Mixed Reactions as Saleh Finally Signs GCC Deal

After backing out three consecutive times, Yemen's President Saleh finally signed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) brokered deal for him to step down and transfer power to Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, in a ceremony in Riyadh on November 23, 2011, attended by Saudi King Abdullah.

There have been mixed reactions amongst Yemenis and others towards the signing of the deal; some are disappointed and skeptical, while others are joyful and relieved.

Mixed reactions

Revolutionary youth Ibarhim Alsaydi expresses the country's young people's rejection clearly in a interview on Al Jazeera English (video posted to YouTube by revaluationvoice):

Twitter user @samwaddah tweets an article by Reuters, which highlights the concerns of many analysts regarding the deal:

Analysis: #Saleh, quitting or dancing on the heads of snakesreuters.com/article/2011/1… #Yemen

The official copy of the GCC deal was not published and many do not know what it consists of. So far only the mechanism of the deal has been revealed.

@samwaddah tweets:

Until this moment, Yemenis are still kept in the dark on the actual #GCCdeal. Only the mechanism was published, not the actual deal #Yemen

Omar Mashjari points out his objection to the deal in his blog post:

@OmarMash: New BLOGPOST! - What does the GCC Initiative mean for the Yemeni people? by @OmarMash #Yemen #Saleh #GCC bit.ly/uRrE3j

@C0C0SASA tweeted a photo of a Arabic newspaper AlRai showing Saleh's image on the front page alongside the headline “Former President”:

Arabic newspaper AlRai's front page depicting Saleh and the headline "Former President". Image by Twitter user @C0C0SASA.

الرئيس السابق…. #yemen #Salehpic.twitter.com/0D5LoNxH

Columnist Nick Kristof sarcastically expresses his cautious relief:

@NickKristof: After 33 years of misruling Yemen, Pres. Saleh is stepping down. Let's hope that the pieces can be put together again.

@Nadaa2124 tweets Brian Whitaker's article in the Guardian, pointing that there has been no concrete change:

Yemen's Ali Abdullah #Saleh resigns – but it changes little | Brian Whitakergu.com/p/33tjz/tw #Yemen #yf #GCC

@Nefermaat admits that not much has been achieved but encourages people instead to focus on what lies ahead:

#Yemen now that #Saleh signed (even if no change) maybe we'll be able to focus on more important things for the future of our country

@AbdulazizSakkaf - supporting the deal - points out:

Like the #GCCdeal or not, it saved your house, job and existence.

@Dory_Eryani who also supports the deal, claims:

There is media war by Janadi&others to make ppl refuse the #GCC deal ..Don't believe them..Saleh lost a lot when he signed it! #Yemen

However @RealistChannel points out what some Yemenis are simply overlooking:

#Saleh signed the #GCC's initiative because he knew his rule isn't over. Not that complicated. #SupportYemen

Anti-deal protests

Many of Yemen's young people rejected the deal and planned to go on marches across Yemen to protest it. @yemen_updates tweeted:

A strong movement at #Sanaa Change Sq. against the JMP & Islah for signing the #GCCdeal that grants #Saleh immunity from prosecution. #yemen

The day after the GCC initiative signing, violence continued in the capital Sanaa, as pro-Saleh supporters shot at peaceful protesters who were marching to reject the deal. In this video the cameraman himself is shot at towards the end of the clip. (video posted to YouTube bymediacentersanaa):

@YusraAlA aslo tweeted:

A day after #Saleh signed #Gulf Initiative, his thugs attacked march in #Sanaa resultin in death of 5 n injury of more than 30 #Yemen #yf

@samwaddah said:

5 martyrs so far, many injured in today's march in #Sanaa! This is the first fruit of the #GCCdeal #Yemen

The Saudi orchestrated GCC initiative clearly does not address the demands of the country's young people, who are the backbone of the revolution; what will it really accomplish for Yemen; does it really end Saleh's rule or does it hide more unpleasant surprises?

*This post was first published in Global Voices, November 25th, 2011

Will Saleh Sign the GCC Deal that the Youth Oppose?

Yemenis have patiently waited ten months too many for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. What started as a demand for a regime change, turned into an outcry for the regime's fall following the first drop of blood.

Yemenis have suffered greatly from Saleh's stalling in signing the GCC deal and have been paying the price with their lives. They have endured hardships, suffered from shortages in basic needs such as cooking gas, electricity, fuel and water, and have been subjected to the growing violence of the regime and the deteriorating economic and refugee crisis in the country as a result.

The world had been idly watching and waiting for Saleh to sign the deal while the Yemeni people have been dying and suffering for months. Yemeni activists started an online campaign to express to the world that like the millions who have been marching on the streets of Yemen for months, they too reject the GCC deal.

"No to GCC Deal"

The campaign is run under the hashtag #No2GCCdeal, where they express reasons for their rejection of the deal. They also started a “No to GCC deal” page on Facebook.

@Yemen4Change tweeted the news that the GCC deal will FINALLY be signed, which has been recurring and is no longer breaking news:

#Saleh has agreed to sign a plan to transfer power to his deputy, a senior opposition figure said #Yemen #JMP #GCC t.co/b29V0eHj
Yesterday, Monday Nov. 21, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed to sign a plan to transfer power to his deputy.

There were massive demonstrations across Yemen over the past few days demanding President Saleh's prosecution. This video shows a massive march yesterday [November 21] in the city of Ibb (video posted by yasser456029):

@ShathaAlHarazi, a Yemeni journalist blogs some of the Yemeni youth's reactions in her post:

reactions on GCC deal, #No2GCCdeal #Yemen t.co/Z9flj1Fx

In her post, Al Harazi explains:

it is worth mentioning that the deal is not clear to the public all what people talk about is that the deal guarantee impunity to Saleh although more than 2195 has died between February and August 2011

Many were wary of it, as @samwaddah tweeted asking:

What agreement are we talking about if #Saleh's forces are shelling #Taiz & Arhab at this very moment? Born dead already! #No2GCCdeal #Yemen

@Abajamal expressed his dismay [ar]:

ما يثير إشمئزازي بمبادرة الخليج أنها اتت بطلب من صالح في خضم عاصفه ثوريه كانت على وشك الإطاحه بنظامه …يا للسخافه! #Yemen #No2GCCdeal

What repulses me from the Gulf initiative is that it came as a request by Saleh in the midst of a revolutionary tempest about to topple him…how ridiculous

@YemenFreeVoice affirms his rejection:

#No2GCCdeal because it's only an exist for Saleh and not a solution for #Yemen

@ibrahimAddali added [ar]:

مازلت أتساءل : كيف اقتنعت المعارضة اليمنية بالشرط الذي يخول لصالح أن يبقى رئيسا فخريا؟

“I am still wondering: how was it possible to get the Yemeni opposition convinced with the condition that allows Saleh to be an honorary president?”

Yemeni youth are demanding a swift and firm United Nations resolution that will stop the bloodshed in Yemen by freezing Saleh's assets and referring him to the International Criminal Court. Juan Cole, (@jricole) a Middle East specialist, quoted Yemeni Noble Prize laureate Tawakkul Karman in his tweet saying:

The democratic revolution of #Yemen needs the West to freeze #Saleh's accounts & indict him at ICC - Tawakkul #Karman

A mass women's rally in Taiz condemning crimes committed by forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh against civilians.

@YouthYemen shares this photograph from Facebook and explains:

The southern city of Taiz witnessed Tuesday a mass rally condemning crimes committed by forces loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh against civilians.

Many Yemenis strongly believe that President Saleh deserves no immunity after all the bloodshed he had caused over the past months.

This is another video showing a women's march in Sanaa yesterday also demanding Saleh's trial and vowing loyalty to the martyrs' blood and the building of a new Yemen (video posted byppryemen)

@shabadel tweeted:

#No2GCCdeal because it's a treason to the blood of the martyrs by giving #Saleh immunity from fair #trial. #ICC

President Saleh had already backed off from signing the GCC deal three times before, so the big question remains, will he sign the GCC deal or not this time?

Like many Yemenis, editor @blakehounshell wonders:

Will Saleh sign today? - Every Yemeni on my timeline

And many wonder if he ever does sign it, will he honor it?@RASEDYEMEN says:

#Yemen Will Saleh honor the deal now?! on.fb.me/trcz8Z #YF

* This post was first published in Global Voices, November 22, 2011