Yemeni entente proves short-lived

SANA'A // A Yemeni soldier was killed and three others wounded yesterday when two military vehicles were attacked in the southern province of Lahj, in the first reported clash since the release of 98 southern separatists from jail on Friday. According to local sources, armed militants, believed to be members of the Southern Movement separatist group, ambushed two armoured vehicles in the village of al Milah, where the government has faced rising secessionist protests in recent months.

A female villager was wounded in the ensuing clash. The suspected militants were ostensibly angered by the government's refusal to remove a security presence from the nearby city of Radfan, where a presidential convoy was attacked on the 15th of this month leaving one soldier dead and four injured. Thousands of people protested yesterday throughout Lahj province demanding that the UN lift the government's "siege" on Radfan.

The government said on Wednesday that a presidential committee assigned to restore calm to Radfan following the attack agreed with local authorities and sheikhs that it was necessary to remove militants from the city and dismantle checkpoints they had set up on local roads. But Naser al Khubaji, a leading member in the Southern Movement, yesterday accused the presidential committee of being an instrument of government intelligence in a speech to the protesters.

"It is just reporting to national security [intelligence] about the [local] situation so as to make a plan to confront [the separatists] either by force or rumours to shake up the confidence among the southern people," Mr al Khubaji said. He also accused the government of preparing an attack on towns and cities in Lahj, adding that a new package of weapons had recently arrived in the port of Aden and will be used in a future crackdown.

Meanwhile, hundreds of other southerners protested in the provinces of Dhal'e and Abyan marking "Southern Prisoner Day", demanding release of all prisoners, witnesses said. One week ago, in an effort to quell mounting separatist agitation, the Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the release of all detained members of the Southern Movement, which is seeking to re-establish an independent state in the south - which was united with the north in 1990. Mr Saleh also ordered the release of all jailed northern Houthi rebels.

Out of the 800 southern separatist prisoners believed to be held, 98 were released. Mr Saleh also called for a national dialogue that would lead to the formation of a unity government. Southern leaders in Yemen and in exile rebuffed the call. @Email:[e-mail]