The Yemeni sense of honour or maybe just plain old stubbornness and love of power have pushed the country to the verge of bedlam, observes Nasser Arrabyee The stage of anarchic violence has begun in Yemen's crisis after President Ali Abdullah Saleh ignored what the opposition called the "last, last chance" for him to step down and hand over power peacefully. Earlier this week, the Islamist-led opposition coalition offered a five-point plan for Saleh to immediately step down and hand over all his power to his deputy Abdu Rabu Manour Hadi. Their spokesman Mohamed Qahtan said, even before the plan was published by media, they would march to the presidential palace if Saleh refused this "last, last chance". On 5 April, just one day after the plan was announced, at least 15 protesters were killed and tens of others injured in Taiz in the central south, where three marches converged from three different places in the city to storm the important buildings of the local government including the presidential palace. "The troops started to kill the protesters when they started to occupy the buildings of the local government," said Bushra Al-Maktari, one of the leading organizers of the anti-Saleh protests in Taiz. "We were a million-man march converging from three different places to the government's buildings and governor's office, with the aim of occupying them, but peacefully and without weapons." The same happened in Hodeida city in the west and Aden in the south where protesters try to implement civil disobedience. In Sanaa, the capital, the protesters have been unsuccessfully trying every day, from Sunday on, to march in the streets around the important government buildings including the presidential palace. In Sanaa they can't march freely. The army troops who have defected to the rebels, including top officers such as General Ali Muhsen, stop them or in the best case tell them where to go and when, under their protection. Many protesters are fed up with their sit-in and refuse this advice, saying they want an end to the stand-off. "A lot of young people think that marching will topple the regime and finish everything," 32- year old Najeeb Abdel-Rahman Al-Sadi said in his sit-in tent. "But it seems that we are also blockaded by Ali Muhsen's troops now, as we were blockaded by Yehia Saleh's central security forces, from blockade to blockade. No difference," Al-Sadi complained. But Sanaa is not always safe. At least two soldiers from Ali Muhsen's troops and one tribesman were killed and several other injured on Tuesday when troops clashed with hundreds of tribesmen at the gate of Ali Muhsen's 1st Armoured Division, a few metres from the anti- Saleh sit-in camps nearby the University of Sanaa. The tribesmen, who came from Sanhan tribe, the same tribe of President Saleh and his cousin Ali Muhsen, wanted to mediate and reconcile between the two "big brothers" of the tribe, Saleh and Muhsen. Earlier in the day, those tribal mediators including the brother of Ali Muhsen, were in the presidential palace with President Saleh who told them he wanted to save blood between brothers. Muhsen's troops control almost half of the capital; the republican guards, under the leadership of Saleh's son, Ahmed, control the other half. Saleh's government and Ali Muhsen welcomed a call from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for representatives from the opposition and the government to come to the Saudi capital Riyadh to negotiate an end to their crisis. The spokesman of the opposition coalition, which includes Islamists, Socialists and Nasserites, Mohamed Qahtan, said he was ready to talk with anyone but Saleh, who did not know "how to run a school let alone a nation". The United States and France supported the GCC States' call for dialogue between the all conflicting parties in Yemen. The US has not yet said explicitly "Saleh should go", but it looks like it's doing its best to secure the transfer of power from Saleh to someone who would continue the fight against Al-Qaeda, the biggest American concern. Protesters here are disappointed by the American position. They are waiting for the moment when the US says Saleh must go, as it did in the case of Mubarak. US ambassador in Sanaa Gerald Fieriestien is busy looking for a peaceful solution acceptable by all for transferring power from Saleh. White House spokesman Jay Carney urged all the parties conduct a political dialogue for the peaceful transfer of power. Earlier in the week, Saleh called on the opposition to end the demonstrations and sit-ins and offered to step down in accordance with the constitution. "We call on the opposition to end the demonstrations and sit-ins and road blocks," said in a meeting with tribal supporters from Taiz province. "We are ready to talk about the peaceful transfer of the power in the framework of the constitution," Saleh added " but not by twisting arms." Saleh has disappointed the opposition who were expecting him to accept what they called the "last, last chance" initiative, a new-five point plan for Saleh to immediately step down and hand over all his powers to his deputy. Yasser Al-Awadhi, a senior official in Saleh's ruling party, commented on the opposition plan: "If this plan is for discussion, that is fine, but if it is an ultimatum, that is not acceptable." The young people in "sit-in square" did not care very much about the plan. "The plan belongs to the opposition; we do not care about it," said Adel Abdu Arrabyee, a member of the media committee of the young protesters in what they called the Change Square, at the gate of Sanaa University. "The only thing we care about in this plan is the immediate stepping down of Saleh." There are still many people in the opposition who are exerting efforts to find an honourable exit for Saleh. "President Saleh served Yemen during the past period with his good and bad, and now the time has come for him to go, but we want him to have a safe and honourable exit and we want him to be a former president," said Mohammed Abdul Malik Al-Mutawakil, the former chairman of the opposition coalition. Earlier in the week, the opposition agreed on a five point plan for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down and hand over the power to his deputy: the president should transfer all his powers to his deputy, Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi; Hadi should immediately re-structure the security agencies, the national security, the central security, and the republican guards, to make them function according to the constitution and end nepotism (these three agencies are run now by two nephews and a son of Saleh); a committee of experts should propose constitutional reforms to be voted on in a referendum; a national unity government chaired by the opposition should be formed; the right to peaceful demonstrations and free expression should be assured and investigations into attacks on demonstrators conducted. Saleh said on Friday at a demonstration he would "sacrifice" himself for Yemen, widely interpreted to mean he would step down. State-run media estimated the people in the rally at Al-Sabeen Square at four million and those who participated in all provinces at 10 million. Saleh's supporters, who called their Friday the "Friday of brotherhood and tolerance", were chanting "Yes for security and stability, yes for constitutional legitimacy". The opposition media estimated their own supporters at a similar rally in Sanaa at one and a half million and their supporters who participated in the "Friday of Liberation" in about 15 provinces at five million people. However, the young protesters and opposition parties wanted Saleh to sacrifice his post not his life. "We, the youth of the revolution, want a new Yemen, with freedom, democracy and a civil state."
