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SANA’A, YEMEN- Several people were killed and a countless number of others, hundreds maybe a thousand, injured, many seriously, in some Yemeni cities including the capital Sana’a where the security forces attacked early Saturday morning the tens of thousands of the sit-inners outside Sana’a University.
The Central Security Forces raided at dawn the protesters while praying using live ammunition, water cannons and nerve gas as the uprising demanding the ouster of the regime has started to gain further momentum across the republic. Hundreds, maybe a thousand or more sit-inners, were wounded in the attack carried out with support from pro-government bullies and thugs who later dispersed an anti-government rally two km from the university with guns and batons.
Most of the wounded are now suffering from cramp and brain hemorrhage because of the nerve gas fired at them, medical sources at the university said. “ Late Friday night more Central Security Forces were deployed to Sana’a University ….tall and well-prepared personnel….that we understood they had a plan to attack us,” a protester said. While praying at down we were surprised by water cannons, nerve gas, which the government says was teargas, and later live bullets fired at us in a merciless way, Ghamdan Ghalib said, adding that:” the wounded were spread in large numbers and blood everywhere”.
“We also saw bullies or police out of uniform attacking us with rocks and bullets from behind the Central Security Forces,” said Ghalib.
President Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 33 years, has been making concessions and offering initiatives to address the situation after the anti-regime protests had started to escalate in the aftermath of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.
But the hundreds of thousands of the protesters in various governorates and the opposition have rejected Saleh’s offers that included pledges he will not run for president again and not to bring his son to power when his term expires in 2013.
More recently, Saleh revealed a new initiative when he met with thousands of his supporters who flooded into the capital from other cities which he said aimed to lift Yemen out of its crisis. The initiative terms included forming a new parliament to which Saleh said he was ready to transfer executive powers and drawing up a new constitution by this year and early next year.
The opposition dismissed the new offer saying it was not suitable because the people should decide now, pointing to the hundreds of thousands of the protesters who are very determined to oust Saleh. Today walls were built by pro-Saleh bullies in the ring road leading to Sana’a University, a gathering point for the anti-government protesters, closing the streets and preventing the youths from pitching up more tents for their sit-in.
Plus, pro-Saleh bullies blanketed the streets near the university blocking the people from joining the sit-in and attacking some of them severely, eyewitnesses said.
Yemen has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and is the Arab World’s poorest country with a high population growth rate and an alarming scarcity of resources. The protesters insist President Saleh must step down, saying they are determined not to accept other offers but quitting.
Today also high school students joined the youths and other people who have been conducting a sit-in outside Sana’a University for a fourth week, at a time when the protesters called after this morning bloodshed for civil disobedience. The speakers urged the sit-inners to urge their relatives in the army, civil authorities and schools to suspend their attendance and to join the revolution.
In the western city of Taiz where the uprising momentum is the strongest, the hundreds of thousands who have been staging a sit-in for more than a month started Saturday massive demonstrations and there were reports they have already started occupying some governmental compounds. At least four protesters were killed in the city and others wounded in the clashes with the security forces. The protesters there vowed to continue their strife until they get freedom or die for the sake of this cause.
In the meantime, rumors arose among the Sana’a protesters that the family of President Saleh had left the country to an Arab state.
The overall situation here is that Yemen is boiling and the people in all cities have one goal: the ouster of President Saleh.
