In the seminar organized by the Yemeni Journalists Syndicate (YJS) held on the occasion of the anniversary of the Freedom of the Press day, 3rd of May, some extremely unsavory incidents took everyone present by storm. In his speech, Mr Abdullah Ahmad Ghanem, Minister of Legal Affairs accused some journalists of acting as belly dancers. He remarked, "Some journalists act just like belly dancers. They sleep in the morning, and stay awake all night long."

The statement raised a lot of controversy and evoked dismay among the journalists, who registered strong protests against the remarks of the Minister by leaving the seminar. However, apart from the controversial speech, the seminar indicated common promotion of freedom of press, and came out with a resolution to withdraw the press law so as to make it more flexible, to secure more freedom for the press, and to give journalists stronger legal protection against lawsuits usually filed by the state. More on law & Diplomacy.

A Yemeni official source denied Friday reports published in the last issue of Yemen Times quoting, the Jordanian newspaper Al-Majd about a deal involving security and military cooperation between Yemen and Israel. The source described those reports as fabricated lies and groundless propaganda aimed at distorting Yemen's principled stands.
The source has made it clear that Yemen is opposed to any form of individual or bilateral normalization with the 'Zionist' entity, asserting that discussion of this issue would only be within the framework of a collective Arab decision through the Arab League following the establishment of just and lasting peace in the region.
On the other hand sources at the U.S. embassy in Sana'a denied the very same report of the Jordanian newspaper and in a statement to Yemen Times, they also denied press reports about a U.S. military delegation to participate in Yemen's celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the unification.
A Yemeni newspaper Al-Umma had earlier published a news that a U.S. military delegation headed by general Zini would be attending the Yemeni unification celebrations. The American embassy sources described Al-Umma news as groundless.

The governor of Dhalie Mr. Al-Gunaid said that during the campaigns of confiscating weapons in preparation for marking the 10th anniversary of Yemen's Unification Day some clashes took place last Saturday at a check-point erected at the entrance of Dhalie city when some persons refused to turn in their weapons to the security force manning the check-point. The incident began when a person hurled stones at a security man who in turn opened fire on him and was taken to hospital for treating his injury. The governor denied the killing of any citizen in the clashes. He added that he had formed an investigating team to determine who was the first responsible for it.
On the other hand Dhalie security chief gave statements quite contrary to those of the governor saying one soldier and one citizen were killed in the incident. He has further said that deputy chairman of Dhalie branch of the General People's Conference car came under fire and that four persons were injured including a passerby in addition to the injury of three soldiers who were rushed to hospital.
In another development opposition parties coordination council issued a statement denouncing the security forces actions of killing and storming citizens houses.
The statement issued Saturday evening said that the series of violence was still going on and referred to the incidents that resulted in the killing of the student Ghassan Qassim Maniee and opening fire on the student Yahya Omar Mazaki after the security men had attacked a citizen and beat him after they dragged him from his car.
The statement accused soldiers of the central security of carrying out those attacks, shelling the two villages of Jaleela and Maashaq in addition to randomly firing at the citizens on the highway.
The statement has held the authority responsible the subsequent developments, calling on it to contain the situation to prevent bloodshed and, sending soldiers to their barracks and calling to account the party that caused the crime, according to the statement.

INTERNET MONOPOLY OVER!
Prime Minister, Dr. Abdulkarim Al-Iryani has confirmed to Yemen Times that the Internet monopoly exerted by Teleyemen over Internet services is now over. By allowing the private sector to invest in the field of telecommunications and Internet, the government has opened the way for companies wishing to invest in the field of Inter Service Providing. "Whoever wishes now to apply for a private ISP company, he is now welcome to do so. Internet monopoly is now over" Dr. Iryani emphasized.
It is worth mentioning that Yemen Times, among other media organs and organizations pleaded to end the monopoly over the Internet. Competition between private ISPs is expected to intensify during the next few years, as the internet is slowly getting more and more access among the public.

Recently, a few Internet cafes were established, and the number of Internet subscribers has more than tripled in the last few years. Many businessmen and private companies are thinking seriously of investing in the field of Internet, with the hope that they would get thousands of subscribers with better services at lower costs.

Most probably, Teleyemen would eventually lower its costs and enhance the quality of its services to be able to compete with the other private companies that are eager to capture the market. This new development will make the Internet more popular in Yemen, and will increase the desire of middle class Yemenis to subscribe into the new millennium's communication network.

GSM Tender Finalized
The permission to provide GSM telecommunication services in Yemen has been given to the two companies, Libancell of Shahir Abdulhaq, and SabaPhone of Al-Ahar Group. These companies have won the tender, and are ready to begin building the infrastructure to provide the service to the Yemeni public.
The two companies which are cosponsored by Egyptian and Lebanese financing respectively are not 100% guaranteed to carry on the project, and in case of any delays or inability to continue with it, other companies are standing in line. A nominee for replacement in case of any shortcomings of any of the assigned companies is the Omani company Spacetel (Al-Zubeir). The GSM network is expected to operate in July.
"We are glad that we won the tender, and we will definitely work on providing the optimum service for the Yemeni public." said Hamid Al-Ahmar, the Chairman of Al-Ahmar Group, owning SabaPhone.
It is worth mentioning that Teleyemen is likely to be adversely affected by opening of these services because of the technically higher quality of the GSM system over the regular mobile system used by Teleyemen today.

ALO Phone Cards System to Start Operation tomorrow
ALO Payphone Cards service will start operation tomorrow, Tuesday, May 9, 2000. The service provider, Yemen Payphone Co. Ltd. is considered as one of the leading companies in the field of communication.
It is equipped with advanced technology. This service will start in three governorates, and then will cover all governorates. It participates positively solving a lot of problems faced by phone users. The company always seeks to establish strong relations with contributors, donors, and public and private companies. The service will be cheaper, more convenient, and easy to use service that requires no human interaction. It is believed that this new service will probably signal a landmark in the telecommunication sector in Yemen.

Amnesty International released its 1999 report on Yemen and had it published on the Internet in Arabic and English a few days ago. The report included information of the human rights violations, trials, and death sentences carried out last year. In its report, Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of prisoners of conscience and for prompt and fair trials for all political prisoners. The organization also called for an end to the arbitrary arrest and detention of political suspects and urged that all allegations of torture, deaths in custody, "disappearances" and use of excessive lethal force be investigated.
Amnesty International expressed concern at the widening of the scope of the death penalty and urged that all sentences of death, amputation and flogging be commuted.
Yemen Times will publish the text of the report on next week's issue.