SANA'A // Opposition politicians and analysts have dismissed the Yemeni president's call for a national dialogue that would lead to the formation of a unity government, with many saying it was an empty gesture. Yesterday, on the 20th anniversary of Yemen's unification, Yahia Ghalib, a leading member of the Southern Movement, said the Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, did not address problems in the south when he offered to form a unity government on Friday.
"What he said does not matter to us. He was talking about the agreement between his party and the opposition. Our problem is a political and legal problem; the south is under siege and lives in a state of emergency," Mr Ghalib said. "Our peaceful struggle will continue, as the unity they are talking about ended in the 1994 war. What is happening now is an occupation." In a televised speech on Friday, on the eve of the unification anniversary, Mr Saleh invited political groups inside and outside the country to a "responsible national dialogue, within the framework of the constitutional institutions".
Mr Saleh said the dialogue should be based on the February 2009 agreement between his ruling People's General Congress and the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP), an opposition coalition of six parties. The two sides agreed to postpone a parliamentary election, scheduled for April 2009, for two years to carry out political and electoral reforms. The two sides have reached a deadlock in their efforts to sit down and implement the agreement.
Haider Abu Bakr al Attass, the prime minister of the first government after unity between the South and North in 1990, described Mr Saleh's speech as a "lifeless shot". "The speech was meant to create a confusion in the national alignment against corruption rather than present a dialogue; he did not recognise the southern cause and did not acknowledge there is a crisis in the unity and in the country at large," Mr al Attass told BBC Arabic television.
The JMP coalition has not yet officially commented on Mr Saleh's speech. However, a leading JMP politician said it is not the first time Mr Saleh has called for dialogue. "There is nothing worthy in the speech to comment on as it is addressed to the international community rather than the people inside," the politician said, requesting anonymity as JMP leaders will meet tomorrow. In September, the JMP released the National Salvation Vision, a document calling for a national dialogue to bring an end to conflicts in the country. It also established a committee to prepare for a national dialogue conference.
In a statement yesterday, the committee called for a dialogue under regional, Arab and international patronage "to restore the glory of the unity and save the country from the dangers it is facing." Ali Salem al Baidh, the man who signed the unity deal with the North and later led South Yemen's short-lived secession in 1994, asked the United Nations on Friday to send a commission of inquiry into what he said was the people's right to self-determination.
Mr al Baidh said ahead of Mr Saleh's speech that there can be no negotiation with the regime. He said the UN should recognise "the right of the inhabitants [of South Yemen] to independence and to the re-establishment of their sovereign state with Aden as its capital". Mr al Baidh alerted the Arab world, particularly nearby Gulf states, of the potential for what he called "catastrophic consequences" in Yemen, saying their "preventive intervention was an urgent requirement".
The 20th anniversary of unity in Yemen came amid growing calls for separatism, and tension in many parts of the volatile south. Southerners have complained of being marginalised, particularly since they lost the 1994 civil war. Violence is growing in the south. Two-hundred and forty-five violent protests have left 18 dead, including 10 policemen, and more than 120 people injured in the first three months of 2010, according to a government report. Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested in a series of government campaigns since 2007 against activists of the Southern Movement, a separatist umbrella group.
Mr Saleh also on Friday ordered the release of all detained supporters of the Houthis and the Southern Movement. The Houthi rebels responded positively to the amnesty. "We welcome the president's directives to release all detainees and we consider that - if it happens - a message for peace that cannot be ignored," Mohammed Abdulsalam, a rebel spokesman, told the al Sahwa opposition website yesterday.
Also yesterday, Mr Saleh said that journalists who are being tried, or were convicted, of press offences would be pardoned, according to the defence ministry's website. malqadhi@thanational.ae