ADEN — Hundreds of the Southern Movement affiliates held a mass carnival Saturday in Al-Hashimi Square commemorating the 41st anniversary of the establishment of the Southern Army, which coincides with Sept. 1 each year. Leading figures of the movement, including Hassn Baom and former ambassador Ahmed Al-Hassani, were in attendance.

“We are celebrating this day missing our independent state,” Mohammed Al-Maslmi, head of the preparatory committee, said. “However, our firm faith to restore the state of the south makes us steadfast about the demeaning of our rights.”

Al-Maslmi said all social sectors and factions attended the celebration, though the security circumstances were hard; they felt they were living in their own state.

“We call on the United Nations and the international community to realize our issue and our rights of self-determination.”

Brigadier General Hussein Ali Mohsen, the information committee head of the Security and Military Retirees Association, said the celebration was the fruit of a series of extensive efforts by the association.  

“In this celebration, we have reviewed the heroic glories of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen,” Mohsen said. “We are bridging the gap for the future of the south in order to agree on the core horizons of our issue. We still have one choice: persisting peacefully.”

Following the celebration, the participants went on a mass peaceful protest, roaming many streets in Sheik Othman and in Al-Mansoura.

Muneer Al-Sakkaf, a member of the Socialist Youth Union, said the celebration was to remind the political leadership of what happened following 1994—namely, the firing of military and security commanders from the south.

“We call on the political leadership to rethink the situation of army affiliates in the southern governorates,” Al-Sakkaf said.

Al-Sakkaf said the Yemeni government should give the southerners laid off their full rights and job promotions.