யேமனில் சுன்னி அமைதி மார்க்கத்தினருக்கும் ஷியா அமைதிமார்க்கத்தினருக்கும் சண்டையில் நூற்றுக்கணக்கானவர்கள் பலி

யேமனில் சுன்னி அமைதி மார்க்கத்தினருக்கும் ஷியா அமைதிமார்க்கத்தினருக்கும் சண்டையில் நூற்றுக்கணக்கான அமைதி மார்க்கத்தினர் கொல்லப்பட்டுள்ளனர்.

55000 அமைதிமார்க்கத்தினர் அகதிகளாக அலைகிறார்கள்.




Yemen army, rebels 'bogged down in war without end'
By Acil Tabbara (AFP) – Oct 11, 2009

DUBAI — The war between Yemen's army and Muslim Shiite rebels, which entered its third month on Sunday, is driven by tribal, religious and political motives and is intensifying with no end in sight, analysts said.

Fierce fighting erupted on August 11 between government forces and Zaidi rebels in Yemen's mountainous north, so far costing hundreds of lives and causing an estimated 55,000 people to flee their homes.

The war began as a mere "quasi-police operation" to arrest former MP Hussein Badr Eddin al-Huthi, but it has become "increasingly complex and multi-layered," the think-tank International Crisis Group said in a statement.

"As mutual grievances accumulated and casualties mounted," the conflict brought in "ever-growing numbers of actors... covering a widening area and involving foreign actors under the backdrop of a regional cold war."

The conflict has taken on the characteristics of a communal, tribal or political conflict against a backdrop of historical claims and a regional confrontation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, said the recent ICG report.

Analysts said the latest outbreak was sparked by a deliberate government strategy of pitching Sunni Salafist Muslims against the Shiite Zaidis in a heavily-armed country with a tribal structure.

The Zaidis, otherwise known as Huthis, are a minority in Yemen as a whole but form a majority in the rugged northwest, where the fighting is focussed on Saada province and neighbouring Amran.

"The more repression by the government forces intensifies, the more the Zaidi rebellion" gains popularity and spreads, according to a Western expert on Yemen who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Another analyst, Lebanese academic Sami Dorlian, a Yemen specialist, said he believed "the economic marginalisation of the Saada region and the (Huthis') wish to preserve the Zaidi identity" helped cause the war.

The latest battles follow "errors committed by the government, whose official policy is to seek a balance" between Salafists and Zaidis, Yemeni academic Mohammed Dhahiri said.

The inhospitable region where they are being fought was the cradle and stronghold of a thousand-year-old clerical regime that survived until recent decades.

"It's an isolated, disadvantaged region that has missed out in development policies," said another Western analyst who also declined to be named.

The rebels deny the government's accusations they want to restore the imamate, founded in 889 in Saada province but overthrown by the 1962 revolution.

Sanaa also accuses the rebels, whose rhetoric reflects Iran's and does not hide its admiration for Lebanon's Hezbollah, of being supported by parties in Iran.

The rebels, who also reject that charge, put the blame for the war on the government, which they say is sidelining Zaidis to the benefit of Salafists.

In Dorlian's view, the rebels are friendly with Iran but have no formal links.

"It's mainly a local conflict in which repression has encouraged a stalemate in the conflict," said the Western analyst, adding "the main fuel of the conflict is violence."

"The savage repression and intensity of the rebellion is spreading and all the tribes around Saada rallied around Huthi," said the other Western academic who fears the conflict could expand beyond the region.

The clashes that began between the army and an isolated rebel group "has been transformed into a veritable civil war fuelled by a tribal system based on feudalism," says another analyst who warns "the solution cannot be military."

The government's task is being made even more difficult by other troubles elsewhere in its territory.

In the south, it faces mounting demands for restoration of the region's independence, abandoned when Yemen was unified in 1990.

The impoverished country, dependent on declining oil revenues, is also becoming a haven for Al-Qaeda activists. A suicide attack in August on Saudi Arabia's anti-terror chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was carried out by a bomber who crossed from Yemen.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »