SANAA – Yemeni police killed one man and wounded several other people on Tuesday when they opened fire on anti-regime demonstrators ahead of a government delegation meeting with Gulf foreign ministers in Abu Dhabi. Police fired “indiscriminately” on protesters demanding the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the Wadi al-Qadi district of Taez, the second most-populated city of Yemen, south of Sanaa, according to witnesses. Several people suffered gunshot wounds, including a passer-by who was seriously injured after being shot while in his car, witnesses said.
The passer-by, Talaat Abdullah Ghaleb, died of his wounds in a Taez hospital about two hours after being shot, a medic said. Organisers of the protest also said that four people, including a newspaper photographer, were arrested by security forces. More than 125 people have been killed in the protests which broke out across the impoverished state in late January. A Yemeni government delegation was to meet the foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi to discuss an exit plan proposed by the oil-rich bloc.
GCC foreign ministers met on Sunday in Riyadh with a Yemeni opposition delegation seeking details on a plan for embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s departure. The opposition has remained adamant that Saleh must go. On April 10 the GCC – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – appealed to Saleh to “announce the transfer of his powers to the vice-president”, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi. It also called for the formation in Yemen of “a government of national unity led by the opposition” which would be responsible for “establishing a constitution and organising elections”.
The UN Security Council will also discuss the crisis in Yemen for the first time on Tuesday. “It is a sign of the growing attention that Yemen is attracting after Egypt, Tunisia and Libya,” said a UN diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity, in reference to other protest-hit Arab states.
Dissident Yemeni MPs form anti-Saleh bloc
Yemeni lawmakers, who split from the ruling General People’s Congress party, have established a new political group calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a statement from the bloc said.
The new group, named “Justice and Building bloc”, comprises former ministers and members of the parliament who had deserted GPC in protest to the heavyhanded response by authorities to anti-Saleh demonstrations. Members of the new group have called for “regime change” and the “immediate departure” of Saleh, according to the statement released late Monday.
The bloc was announced in a ceremony on Monday in Sanaa. It includes former minister of tourism Nabil al-Faqih, minister of human rights, Huda al-Baan, and transport minister Khaled al-Wazir, in addition to former GPC politburo member Mohammed Abu Lahum, among others.AFP
Yemeni police kill one, wound others ahead of talks
