Brigadier General Hamoud Mohammed Bider,
"The Yemeni Veterans Organization Ups and Downs."

Yemeni martyrs and patriots have sacrificed their lives for the achievement of the Yemeni September and October revolutions to deliver the people from the dark period of the despotic Imamate regime and the British colonization. By those sacrifices they have paved the way for the two revolutions of 26 September and 14 October to embrace each other culminated by the declaration of the Unity on 22 May 1990. Thus, the unity has realized one of the people’s dearest strategic aims that represented a historic turning-point and great change on the road of democracy and progress. Martyrs are the most honored people and the strugglers are their alive colleagues. Therefore they decided to establish an organization representing them and defending their rights. Besides, through this organization they would be able to exercise their activities in society. This organization was called “The Organization of Yemeni Revolution Patriots and Unity Defenders”, the Veteran Fighters. To get more information on this organization, its objectives Mohammed Ben Sallam of the Yemen Times met with Brigadier General Hamoud Mohammed Bider, the Chairman, and had the following interview:

Q: Will you please give us a brief account on the organization, its objectives and members? Is it governmental or non-governmental and how are its members selected?
A: The organization of the Yemeni Revolution Patriots or to be more specific the Association of Veteran Yemeni Warriors was one of the accomplishments of the Yemeni Unity. As the patriots of the Liberation War in the south and the patriots of the former North War or commanders of Yemeni Armed Forces were marginalized and a large number of them retired, it was decided that they should have an association to sponsor their interests. This idea was put forward in a conference presided over by President Ali Abdullah Saleh and was widely accepted at the time. After that we formed a preparatory committee and set up rules and regulations for it. A general conference was held for this committee attended by more than a thousand Yemeni social dignitaries. This organization was recognized by the conference and conditions for membership were defined. It was optional for those who struggled against colonization and the oppressive rule of the Imam to join this organization.

Q: How can you differentiate between the person who fought for the revolution and the one who fought against it? what’s your view about rumors that monarchists joined the organization?
A: That’s what they think. Our membership conditions are clear and we accept only those who defended the Republican regime, the Yemeni Revolution and the Unity. The people who we don’t know must have recommendation from two notable personalities either patriots, political leaders, sheikhs or any two known personalities. Those who we know are received and welcomed by us.

Q: What does the government offer to this organization ?
A: Our organization is non-governmental but we get a financial support of 3,000,000 rials every year from the government.

Q: Is this support enough ?
A: Basically the leaders of this organization work voluntarily. This amount is spent on helping the senior patriots or the poor ones. In case anyone of them dies, we pay the expenses of the funeral and burial ceremonies.

Q: What are the issues the organization adopts for its members?
A: Defending peoples’ rights comes in the first place because morally we are a small image of the conscience of the state and people. In other words, a lot of Yemenis served Yemen and now they are weak and old. We do offer them help in different ways among which is drawing the attention of the people in charge to them so as to patronize them financially and provide them with treatment and medicine.

Q: Are there any non-governmental or foreign organizations supporting you?
A: We have not asked and we will never ask anybody for help, but we will not turn down any support that comes to us from anywhere. In America, for example, the American Federal Government has allotted 26 billion dollars for “The Veteran Fighters Association” beside other securities so as to encourage the Americans to join the army to fight in Vietnam or in the Middle East. As for Yemen we tried to obtain the government support but we could not. However, the President insisted on providing the organization with financial and health support by sending a large number of the Armed Forces and Police officers abroad for treatment and we expect more from him. Of course, we established this organization with 4 million rials from the government and 3 million rials from the Ministry of Interior. We paid nothing. All we have is The Officers Club. We try to develop our organization into a syndicate like Journalists’, Doctors’, Engineers’ etc, for we have counterparts in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia. We attend some conferences and now we are a member in the International Conference for the Veterans.

Q: What are exactly the objectives of your organization?
A: The organization has its objectives from the principles we have adopted. The objectives are so many and some of them are:
1- Defending the Yemeni Unity, the Revolution, the Republic and its achievements and confirming the constitutional legitimacy and standing up against any attempts to violate them.
2: Standing up firmly against deviation from the objectives of the Yemeni Revolution and its principles and also against violations of the national unity or conspiring against it .
3- Taking part in caring for the martyrs’ families through participating in legislating rules that ensure moral and financial stability for them and offering help to Martyrs’ Families Care Office.
4- Taking care of the Yemeni Revolution patriots and seeking job opportunities for the unemployed and caring for those who reached the age of retirement or those who are unable to work and offering them social and health insurance.
5- Collecting all written documents and records about martyrs, registering, archiving and submitting them to the concerned authorities for studying, analyzing and exchanging them.
6- Participating effectively in making a national honor charter to consolidate the national unity and define the criteria for the country’s interests.

Q: What are your future plans?
A: Our ambitions are too many and endless. We are looking forward to establishing an economic corporation for all the old fighters and their sons to work in and for further development of the country. The government has promised us some amounts of money. The President has also promised us and we trust him a lot.

Q: In your point of view, is the pension salary given to officers sufficient?
A: All pension salaries given to government employees are insufficient even for basic needs like food, clothing and home. On our part, we will try to support the retired officers morally and financially.

Newly Appointed Canadian Ambassador to the YT:
“Canada doubled its fund to Yemen during President Saleh’s visit”

The friendly state of Canada is one of the most important donors and contributors to development of Yemen. The Canadian role in this regard is not played only by the generous financial aid allocated to Yemen annually but through the significant services some of the leading Canadian companions operating in Yemen offer as well. During the latest visit of President Saleh to Canada, the government of Canada doubled the volume of financial aid to Yemen.
On the occasion of the arrival of the newly appointed Canadian Ambassador Melvyn. L. MacDonald, Resident in Riyadh and responsible for Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain and Oman, to Yemen in a short visit,Yemen Times Managing Editor,Mohammed Hatem Al-Qadhi met with him and filed the following short interview:

Q: How do you asses the relationship between Canada and Yemen?
A: This is my first opportunity to work in the middle east and in Arab countries. So far I have been very positive and looking forward to working closely with all the governments and industries in countries for which I have responsibility.
The relationships that Canada has with various countries in the Gulf region is very important to Canada. As we continue to look at what is happening here and the development, particularly in countries like Yemen with democratic development and the move towards more open market, we are very interested in continuing our relationships with the Gulf.
President Saleh visited Canada and he knows the interests of our prime minister and government in working with the government of Yemen. We have a number of companies that are actively engaged in the business sectors in Yemen. I hope that during the course of my assignment we will be able to look at strengthening the economic relationship between companies of trade and investment. It is important that we increase that and make good opportunities in many different areas in Yemen.
There have been already some Canadian companies working here very successfully, like Canadian Oxy in the oil and gas sector but there are areas that we want to look at and see whether there might be opportunities to develop further.
As the economy of Yemen restructures there are many other sectors and services that are important like telecommunication and the whole informatics. Canada has got many companies and different organizations which are preparing and willing to work with Yemeni partners to further expand the possibilities here. So, I think that the future is very positive with lots to do and I am looking forward to working with the government, industry people and officials to further expand our relationships.

Q: What will be your priorities?
A: My personal priorities are going to be to continue to look at the sectors in the areas that the President was looking at when he visited Canada in terms of trade development and also in terms of where Canada can be helpful as far as the areas of human rights and women’s rights and democratic development are concerned. These areas are very important and Yemen has already proven to the world that it is very progressive in this regard. I hope that we can continue to work with Yemen in terms of developing these sectors. I also want to spend time trying to work with companies in Yemen as well as companies in Canada to see where there are sectors and business opportunities for further development, not only from a bilateral trading point of view but also looking into a third market where perhaps Canadian and Yemeni companies may be able to work together.

Q: Do you mean that you will have chance to further straighten the relationships between private sectors in both countries?
A: Yes I hope that would precisely be the case in sectors that I have already mentioned like oil and gas. As Yemen develops its agricultural base there may be opportunities for Canadian companies to work with Yemeni Companies in this field. Fishery is another area of interest that might be worth pursuing. Of course, high technologies, information technologies, communication technologies are also important sectors for Canada.

Q: What about your previous work?
A: I have served in Canadian foreign service for almost 30 years. I have had a number of postings. I have had 3 assignments in Japan. I have served in Italy, Norway and in Malaysia. I have experience in a number of different countries and most recently in the past four years just before coming to this part of the world I was the Minister economic commercial at the Canadian embassy in Tokyo responsible for the trade development between Canada and Japan. So my background is primarily commercial economic and I hope to be able to draw upon that experience to improve the commercial and economic relationship between Canada in the countries for which I am responsible now in the gulf.

Q: As an ambassador, do you have an idea about the aid’s size given by Canada to Yemen?
A: Yes I do. In fact, during the visit of President Saleh to Canada we doubled the size of the Canada fund to $ 300,000 and also the Aid Agency undertook to commit $ 1,000000 annually to Yemen. So we will certainly pursue all of the bilateral and multi-lateral programs to ensure that amount of funding is devoted towards Yemen.
Q: Any last word you would like to add?
A: I just would like to say how grateful I am to all of those people that I have met during this visit. I have had a good opportunity to meet with President, Prime minister and with the speaker of the parliament and a number of ministers and businessmen. Every body has been very welcoming and I look forward to increasing our relations.