SANAA: One person was killed in a southern Yemeni city yesterday when clashes broke out with police after authorities stormed the offices of the country’s leading daily newspaper, opened fire and wounded three workers.
The turmoil in the port city of Aden comes as the government has escalated its crackdown on the media, which it accuses of stoking unrest in the volatile south.
The editor in chief of Al-Ayyam said police surrounded the newspaper’s two-story building before storming it and opening fire on workers and bystanders who gathered outside the offices. Hesham Bashrahel said police also formed a cordon around his nearby home.
Later yesterday, a bystander was killed in Aden after clashes between police and protesters broke out in response to the violence at the newspaper building, said local government officials.
Al-Ayyam is among eight Yemeni publications whose printing was suspended last week as part of a concerted government crackdown on the press.
Yemeni officials accuse the papers fueling sometimes violent protests in south by demonstrators demanding separation from the north.
The southerners have accused the government of neglect and discrimination.
The move comes a day after the government reached a cease-fire agreement with southern leaders, an apparently conciliatory gesture amid pressure on President Ali Abdullah Saleh by neighboring Arab governments. A mediating committee led by former Yemeni government minister Abdel Qader Helal met with leaders of southerners’ movement, and agreed on the withdrawal of army troops stationed in southern cities.
However, Nasser Al-Khobji, a leading southern movement figure, said that it is not the end of their uprising.
“Our movement is peaceful. We will continue our peaceful protests until our political demands are met,” Al-Khobji said, referring to a call for a power-sharing agreement between the north and south, and equal distribution of wealth.
A security official confirmed authorities were sent to arrest Bashrahel, but declined to comment on the reported use of force. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press.
