SANA'A: Now that Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh has left Yemen for Oman and is expected to continue on his journey to the United States where he is set to undergo medical treatment, one would think that Yemenis are breathing a sigh of relief. Quite the contrary, with the departure of the three decades-long autocrat, it is Yemen's money that is also taking flight. Military sources revealed that on the very day President Saleh boarded his plane, another military plane was loading dozens of cases full of foreign currency, ingots of gold and other luxury items. “Tens of Millions of dollars were loaded aboard that plane, General Mohamed Saleh al-Ahmar [President Saleh's half-brother and commander of Yemen's air force] himself supervised the operations,” said an officer under cover of anonymity. Other sources close to the presidential family are now claiming that Yehia Mohamed Saleh, one of Saleh's nephews, Head of the country's Central Security Forces and billionaire businessman sold a military cargo plane to Dubai, dealing with Yemen's assets as if they were his own. Ministries have been emptied; the entire government's car fleets disappeared on the day President Saleh signed in Riyadh the power-transfer proposal, forcing the new government to use their own personal vehicles. Officers have told the local press that expensive military equipment was being sold to tribes for cash, dangerously depleting the armed forces fire power capacity. Interestingly the new coalition government is doing nothing. Despite Vice-President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi's many claims and promises that he would put back the country on the right tracks, Yemenis are losing confidence when they see how Saleh's family members are continuing to pillage their homeland in all impunity. The Planning and International Minister Mohammad Alsaadi announced on Thursday that Yemen needed no less than $15 billion to recover and become stable again. And as many Yemenis are quick to point out: “I wonder what the combined fortune of Saleh's family members is? $20 Billion, $50 Billion? If the government was doing its job we would not have to beg our neighbors for money?” said an independent youth. Yemen will in a couple of months hold a “donor conference” trying to gather international help to rebuild the country's infrastructures and economy. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/EPH8J Tags: Economy, finance, Money, Saleh Section: Op-ed, Yemen
