A kind of peace has returned to Yemen, but the underlying problems have yet to be addressed, says Nasser Arrabyee Yemenis have just started to rebuild their country after almost a year of war and unrest. However, they are still facing a lot of challenges. To build is much more difficult than to destroy. The most important two decisions to rebuild the new Yemen were taken immediately after the conflicting parties signed a road map last week showing step by step how both the opposition and the ruling party would run the country until February 2014 when a civil and democratic state is fully established. The first decision was to call on Yemenis to elect a new president on 21 February to run the country during the two years required for establishing the long-awaited modern state that would meet the ambitions and aspirations of all Yemenis. The second decision was to entrust an opposition leader to form a national consensus government shared equally by both the opposition and the ruling party to normalise life after the wars and help the new elected president to establish the new state. The two important decisions were taken by Vice President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi, who now has constitutional powers to implement the Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) brokered deal for transferring power from President Ali Abdullah Saleh. According to the GCC deal and its implementation mechanism, which were signed by all conflicting parties on 23 November in the Saudi capital Riyadh, President Saleh will remain as president until a new president is elected in February. The candidate of both the opposition and the ruling party in the February presidential elections must be the current Vice President Hadi according to the road map, which is called the implementation mechanism, which was drawn up by the UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Bin Omar and approved and signed by all conflicting parties in Yemen. Hadi would be the new elected president for the two years of the transitional period. Hadi will have his legitimacy directly from the people, not as is the case now when his powers come only from the constitutional authorisation of President Saleh. During next week, the unity government will be declared and its members will take the constitutional oath before Hadi. To avoid conflict over the important ministries like defence and oil, the opposition will make two lists with each side having 50 per cent of the portfolios. And the ruling party will choose one of the lists to be occupied by its members. The UN Security Council and international community supported the agreement which came as implementation of its resolution 2014. The SC urged the two sides to stick to all steps of the road map and implement them on time. The two sides should stop violence, and whoever violates the peace would be held accountable. President Saleh issued a general amnesty for all Yemenis who made mistakes against the government during the 11 months of the crisis. But the amnesty does not include those who tried to assassinate Saleh on 3 June. Although the solution of the Yemeni crisis was and is supported by the whole international community, a lot of difficulties are facing the implementation of the road map. The most dangerous challenge is the security and military situation. The militants of the Islamist party Islah are still in sporadic confrontation with the army and security in many places like Taiz and Arhab. The separatist movement in the south and Al-Houthi Shia rebels in the north and some independent youth still refuse the GCC deal. UN envoy Jamal bin Omar said Monday that the separatist movement in the south, Al-Houthi in the north and the independent youth should be represented in the new interim government. The separatists in the south insist on separation and having their own independent state. Al-Houthi want to establish their own Shia state in the north on the border with Sunni Saudi Arabia. More than 30 Salafis were killed last week in battles between Al-Houthi Shia fighters and Salafi fighters in the area of Dammaj, in Saada, in the north of the country. Al-Houthi say the Salafi centre in Dammaj was established in the early 1980s by the Yemeni and Saudi governments with the aim of attacking the Shia. The Dammaj Salafi school has about 12,000 students from Yemen and outside Yemen. About 11 foreign students were killed in battles last week in Dammaj according to the spokesman of the Salafi school Abu Ismail.
