Protesters in Yemen continue to demand the ouster of President Saleh, but few are ready to answer the question of what comes then, writes Nasser Arrabyee The tribesmen are still a real power in the current unrest in Yemen. Embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh bets on them, the opposition uses them, the young people who protest in the streets boast of the increasing groups of tribesmen who join them in the sit- in almost every day. Religious leaders seek protection from powerful tribes. The famous cleric Abdel-Majid Al-Zandani left the capital Sanaa this week to his powerful tribe in Arhab, after he told protesters the Islamic Caliphate will be established in 2025 if they keep their revolutionary enthusiasm as high as it is now. The armed tribesmen in the almost lawless provinces of Marib and Al-Jawf decided to occupy the headquarters of their local governments on Monday, 14 March. The governor of Marib, Naji Al-Zaydi escaped to Sanaa on the same day after being stabbed by one of the tribesmen who were demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the Governor Al-Zaydi, who is also from Marib but from a different tribe. The governor of Al-Jawf, Yehia Ghawdal, was dismissed from office on the same day by the tribesmen who occupied local government buildings. Three security men were killed in another area of the province by armed tribesmen who took revenge for three tribesmen who were injured by the bodyguards of Governor Ghawdal before the government headquarters was occupied. On Tuesday, the tribal leader Naji Nasm was killed by tribesmen loyal to the government who came to liberate the occupied headquarters. "We do not want the governor. We want someone from us, not from another province," said the local tribal leader, Abdullah Al-Jamili, who supports anti- government protests but refuses violence. "We refuse this violence, but warned of it. We told the president we want another governor," he said. President Saleh has been mobilising tribesmen from all over the country since the beginning of protests that demand his ouster more than one month ago. On Thursday, 10 March, President Saleh's party paid about $10 million to more than 40,000 tribesmen and religious leaders who came from all over the country to the capital Sanaa to support him. On Saleh's initiative (his third attempt to quell the protests), a new constitution should be put for referendum during 2011 and his powers will be transferred to a government based on a parliamentary system rather than the current presidential system. The opposition refused the initiative, saying it was too late and that he must go. Saleh himself said: "I'm sure the opposition will refuse this initiative as they did with the previous ones, but I'm announcing it to the people to discharge my responsibility." Many people and observers understood it would the last initiative and that Saleh has nothing more to say. For more than a month now, protesters have enthusiastically been demanding the ouster of President Saleh. It is not clear what would follow, however, were he to leave. Protesters are very divided, and most don't tolerate the question, "What's next?" Some demand an Islamic Caliphate. Others are secular and demand political reform. Najeeb Abdel-Rahman, one of the protesters camped day and night in a tent at the gate of Sanaa University, says the question of what's next is not popular. "When I raise such a question I get accused of treason by a lot of excited young people," he said. Abdel-Rehman agrees that there should be a plan on what the opposition would do were the regime to collapse. The leaders of the Islamist-dominated opposition coalition have not yet said what would happen if Saleh would go. The coalition, which includes Islamists, socialists and Nasserists, refused three initiatives offered by President Saleh, despite that those initiatives included almost everything they wanted from Saleh. "We do not trust Saleh, he is lying," many told Al-Ahram Weekly. Publicly they say, "It's too late, the street now is the arbitrator." The US ambassador to Yemen says he wants to see change in Yemen, but not through chaos, violence or civil war. "We want to see Yemen moving forward to a new reality, but it has to be done in a way that maintains some kind of peaceful transition," Ambassador Gerald Feierstein told the Weekly at the US embassy in Sanaa on 12 March. The ambassador says there must be a plan for the next step after Saleh. "We oppose simply saying that Ali Abdullah Saleh should go. Those who want President Saleh to leave have a responsibility to say if President Saleh leaves, this is what we're going to do, and until today, nobody has come forward, at least as far as we know," Feierstein said. "The problem is that people are demanding something without any idea of how they will manage it, and how they will prevent a disaster for the Yemeni people," he added. Opposition leaders say they are with the street and the street does not want any talks or dialogue now. "If the Joint Meeting Parties (the opposition) is not the representative of the people on the street then the people on the street need to say who are their representatives," said Feierstein. "We think if the JMP wants to be the leader of the opposition they need to bring the street into the process," he added. When asked whether the US wants President Saleh to finish his term in 2013 or leave now, the ambassador said, "We do not think that it is up to us. What we want is something acceptable to the Yemeni people, whether he stays till 2013 or leaves in 2011 or he goes in 2012." About allegations that toxic gas was used to disperse protesters, the ambassador said, "We are reasonably confident that the allegations that mustard gas used are not correct. If mustard gas was used there would have been 500 people dead and not one person." When asked what Saleh can do more to convince the opposition to enter dialogue, the US ambassador said, "We think it would be good to remove some ministers who are known to be corrupt. We also think it would be useful to remove some of the senior security officials who were involved in some of these violent or forced confrontations with demonstrators, particularly in Aden." When asked if the US is concerned about the dominance of Islamist currents within the Yemeni opposition, and if an Islamist leader, like Al-Zandani, was elected president, the ambassador said: "Abdel-Majid Al-Zandani, as you know, is on the terrorism list for the US and the United Nations, so we have a problem if he were elected a president."
