aTribal negotiations and mediations to release the son of Sana’a mayor are still going on. Mohammed Hussein Al-Maswari, 32, and son of the mayor of Sana’a was snatched last Tuesday from Sana’a by a group of armed tribesmen from Bani Dhabyan tribe of Khawlan who took him at the gun point to Bani Dhabyan, a mountainous village 100 Km away from Sana’a. The kidnappers headed by Mohammed Siraj Al-Humaidy demanded the release of six of their fellow men charged with various security offenses, mainly kidnapping, like that of a Dutch fellow in 1997, and four German tourists in November 1999.
Police forces have been sent to surround the area where the hostage stays. Meanwhile, Sheikhs of Khawlan are pulling all the stops with the kidnappers to set the hostage free.
On the other hand, official media barrage has recently targeted Bani Dhabyan tribesmen for all this security mess. In its Saturday issue, Al-Thawrah official Daily held Bani Dhabyan responsible for the repeated security breakdown which has invited the resentment of all Yemeni people. “It is noticeable that some members of the tribe practice all these unlawful acts while others present themselves as brokers so as to achieve some personal interests.”, the newspaper added. The paper questioned if Khawlan Sheikhs and dignitaries will be wary of these bad acts which tarnish the image of Khawlan and its people in general. Or they accept these things and are read to shoulder the consequences whatsoever.
In a press statement sheikh Abdullah Bin Hussein Al-Ahmar, Parliament Speaker, criticized the government for the security breakdown represented in the tribal revenge and kidnapping incidents. He said that if the government is serious about it, people will cooperate, confirming that sheikhs and tribesmen are not happy with such criminal incidents taking place. He blamed the lapses in security apparatuses for not exercising stiff measures against criminals and outlaws who most of the time escape from the grip of the law making the people take the law into their hands. Sheikh Al-Ahmar also confessed that there was an inefficiency on the judiciary system.
Interior Minister, Hussein Mohammed Arab was summoned by the House of Representatives last Saturday and was questioned Wednesday by MPs about the security lapses and mess in the country. They asked him about the blunder and kidnapping cases that happened to people during their travel between Sana’a and Aden in which travelers were robbed of their properties under gun threat.
The minister said security men were tracing criminals, highwaymen and robbers and that they already arrested some.
With regards to the spread of check points preventing livestock from crossing governorates under the pretext of RVF despite the government’s claim to have minimized the disease, the Minister said that the security men did this on the basis of a government decree and that such measures were decreased according to the health reports on the disease. MPs also asked the minister to double efforts to arrest outlaws and criminal people and bring them to justice. However, security breakdown is noticeable in the country as terrorist acts have considerably increased. Since the beginning of this year, more than five explosions took place in Aden, a remarkable sign that security situation is deteriorating dramatically which the government has to consider seriously and deal with terrorists and criminals more vigorously.
Bani Dhabyan tribe issued a statement indicating multiple requests to be met so as to release the hostage. They asked for considering their region as an independent district, employing one thousand tribesmen, and registering other 3 thousand in the Social Care Fund. They also asked for different other development projects to be executed in their areas.

In a step, which is the first of its kind, the Opposition Supreme Coordination Council has reached an agreement to take a unified stand in regard to the upcoming local council elections scheduled for February 20, 2001.
The council expressed the need to unite in order to compete with the two strongest parties, PGC and Islah, and to ensure some seats for the opposition in the local council to be elected. It also openly stated that it would reject the constitutional amendments and call upon the public to say “NO” in the referendum to be conducted simultaneously with the local elections.
It is worth mentioning that the Opposition Coordination Council took a unified stand in 1999 pertaining to the presidential elections. However, the Parliament did not endorse the candidate nominated by the council, Ali Saleh Obad (Moqbil), causing the council to boycott the elections.
Observers view this move as outstanding and promising since the parliamentary elections of 1993. If it stands the test of time, it will be a turning point in the political arena, observers say.
In a meeting held last Wednesday, the Islah Party announced that it would participate in the local elections. This decision was confirmed after President Ali Abdullah Saleh attended the Islah annual congress in which he stated that both parties had started a strategic partnership that must continue. The final decision of participating alone in the elections was taken in the extraordinary meeting held on January 3, 2001. The Islah Party, however, did not state clearly its stand in regard to the constitutional amendments.

“An appeal for clemency of the British prisoners in Aden was submitted through the British Embassy to the Yemeni government last November,” said the British Ambassador to Yemen, Mr. Victor Henderson, to Yemen Times in an interview on the occasion of the end of his tenure in office -interview on page 3.
The appeal letter was submitted by the lawyer of the prisoners, Mr. Bader Ba-Sunaid. However, Mr. Henderson stressed that there was no response yet to the appeal which was also discussed between the UK Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook and President Ali Abdullah Saleh when he stopped in London on his way to the Millennium Summit held in New York.
This appeal, which represents the focal point of differences between Sana'a and London was spotlighted by Mr. Keith Vaz, Foreign Office Minister for State during his visit to Sana'a last October. Yet, Mr. Henderson is hopeful that President Saleh will consider the appeal of the prisoners, charged with various security offenses, sympathetically. He also said that, in spite of the bombing of the USS Cole and the British Embassy last October, which unavoidably put Yemen in the spotlight again, it would be possible to rebuild the relations between the two countries as there were a lot of things in which they can help each other. “We both share the interest of terrorism”, he stressed.
Interview with Mr. Henderson in Interview Page.

One of the suspects in the USS Cole incident confessed that he was assigned with other people to watch out movements of US ships at Aden and Hodeidah ports to carry out military operations against them, a reliable source in Aden revealed. The suspect added that they spent 20 days watching until their leaders decided to hit USS Cole at Aden Port.
On the other hand, American investigators still carry out field visits to places suspected to have connection with the incident and meet with the 50 eye witnesses. American investigators have also met with a number of Yemeni officials in Aden, the source added. There are still 18 eyewitnesses awaiting interrogation before transferring the case to court.

Three persons were seriously injured in an explosion of two anti-individual land mines in Al-Dhale’ last Friday morning.
Eyewitnesses said that the first land mine exploded in a road leading to Al-Garbaa Military Camp at 8:00 a.m. injuring Khaled Abdullah who lost his right foot fingers and Abdulrahman Mohammed Qassim who was slightly injured. The latter was arrested for interrogation after being treated. The second mine exploded an hour later injuring soldier Ahmad Al-Faqeeh who was rushed to Al-Jumhoriah Hospital in Aden.