No deal with Saleh regime: Protesters

By SAEED AL-BATATI | ARAB NEWS
Apr 25, 2011

SANAA: Young Yemeni protesters vowed Monday to resort to more aggressive means to remove President Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime and build a democratic country.

Khaled Al-Ansi, a leading member of the organizing committee of the youths who have been protesting on the streets of the capital Sanaa for weeks, told Arab News that they would welcome any initiative from any party either national or international that stipulated the immediate and unconditional end of Saleh's regime.

"We only accept initiatives that ask Saleh to leave at once and without condition. Last Friday was the last chance for him to leave and we have many means to bring him to his knees," Al-Ansi said.

He blamed both the opposition and the government for the current turmoil in a clear sign of a split between the protesters and the opposition following the latter's acceptance of a Gulf Cooperation Council plan under which the president would hand power to his deputy within 30 days of a deal being signed in exchange for immunity from prosecution for Saleh and his sons.

"The problem lies with those two parties (the government and the opposition). They have been engaged in fruitless dialogues for ages that have led the country to this crisis," Al-Ansi said.

He accused the international community of paying lip service to the protesters while the regime killed them with impunity.

Al-Ansi denied news reports that a delegation from the young protesters met with the US ambassador in Sanaa. "We didn't meet the American ambassador. Some ambassadors do like the regime's officials. They meet some rank-and-file members of the revolution and then come to claim that they have negotiated with us."

The hardening of the protesters' stance came as three more demonstrators were killed in the country on Monday. Reuters quoted witnesses as saying security men opened fire to stop protesters marching through the city of Taiz, south of the capital. They were trying to join a pro-democracy rally that would take them past a palace belonging to Saleh. "There were thousands in a march who came from outside Taiz, but the police, army and gunmen in civilian clothes confronted them, opening fire with bullets and tear gas," said Jamil Abdullah, a protest organizer. "They opened fire heavily from every direction."

A woman watching the clash from her balcony was shot dead and medical sources said 25 others were shot and wounded in the town.

Similar clashes broke out in Ibb, where one protester was shot dead and a dozen were wounded by live fire as police tried to break up a march. Security forces also shot dead a protester in the southern province of Al-Baida.

Source: Arab News.
Link: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article372669.ece.