Yemen opposition agrees to Saleh exit plan
SANAA—Yemen’s opposition said Monday it had agreed to a plan under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh would step down after 30 days, as two protesters were shot dead amid continued demonstrations demanding his ouster.
“We have given our final accord to the (Gulf Cooperation Council) initiative after having received assurances from our Gulf brothers and American and European friends on our objections to certain clauses in the plan,” opposition spokesman Mohammed Qahtan told AFP.
He added that the Common Forum, a Yemeni parliamentary opposition coalition, had notified GCC secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani of the decision.
The opposition said its acceptance of the plan would not mean an end to protests, as witnesses said hundreds of thousands of people rallied again on Monday.
“The plan does not foresee a suspension of the protest sit-ins, which are a constitutional right of Yemenis,” another Common Forum official, Hamid al-Ahmar, told AFP.
On Saturday the opposition announced its acceptance of the plan to end the crisis in Yemen, but opposed clauses on the formation of a government of national reconciliation and the ending of protests.
Protests against Saleh, who has been at the helm of impoverished Yemen since 1978, broke out in January, and more than 130 people have been killed since then.
Protests continued on Monday, with security forces and Saleh loyalists shooting dead two protesters and injuring scores of others, medics and witnesses said.
“Security forces shot dead a protester and wounded 30 others, eight of them by live rounds,” a medical source in Ibb, south of Sanaa, told AFP.
At least 30 others needed treatment for tear gas inhalation, witnesses said.
In the southeastern province of Al-Baida, gunmen “belonging to the ruling party” opened fire at a sit-in, killing one protester, a witness said.
In Taez south of the capital, police and “gunmen in civilian clothes” fired live bullets and tear gas, wounding 50 protesters, witnesses said.
They said hundreds of thousands of people had gathered in the flashpoint city to pressure Saleh to step down immediately despite the transition plan.
The witnesses said security forces erected concrete barriers to block roads leading to the Taez governor’s office and also deployed armoured vehicles.
In Sanaa, where demonstrators calling for Saleh’s ouster have staged a sit-in at a square since February, thousands of teachers marched on the education ministry.
“No studying, no teaching until the downfall of the president,” they chanted.
Witnesses said thousands of people also protested in Mukalla in the southeast and in the Red Sea city of Al-Hudaydah. No clashes were reported in Sanaa or the other two cities.
Al-Hudaydah residents said troops from the Republican Guard, which is headed by Saleh’s son Ahmed, surrounded the local air base of a dissident unit led by General Ahmed al-Sanhani.
The latest violence came after the United States urged a peaceful transition and Saleh’s ruling General People’s Congress said on Saturday it had accepted the transition plan drawn up by Yemen’s oil-rich Gulf neighbours.
But Saleh himself told the BBC on Sunday that any regime change can only be through “ballot boxes and referendums,” and said he could not give in to a “coup.”
Demonstrators on Monday insisted on Saleh’s unconditional departure, carrying banners reading “No negotiations, no dialogue.”
Britain on Monday also warned that Yemen’s “grave economic, social and security challenges” would escalate unless the transition from Saleh’s rule was achieved quickly.
British Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt urged all sides to “seize this opportunity and finalise an agreement”, adding: “The GCC initiative represents our best hope for a constructive and peaceful way forward.”
On Monday, protesters also waved Bahraini flags in solidarity with pro-democracy demonstrators who were targeted in a bloody crackdown by security forces, backed by Gulf troops, in mid-March.
