Hadi warns rivals as dialogue begins

SANAA: President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi warned Yemenis yesterday against the use of force to express political views, as he opened a national dialogue to pave the way for the drafting of a new constitution and the staging of elections.
Hadi’s address to the hundreds-strong gathering at the presidential palace in Sanaa came even as activists reported that police had shot dead a protester in south Yemen who was demonstrating against the historic dialogue.
“Those who seek to impose their own approach by the force of arms are doomed to fail,” Hadi said, referring to hard-line southern factions who have rejected the talks.
“The question of the south is the key to resolving all problems” of Yemen, he added, however.
The dialogue, scheduled to run six months, brings together 565 representatives of Yemen’s various political groups — from secessionists in the south to Zaidi Shiite rebels in the north, in addition to civil society representatives.
They aim to draft a new constitution and prepare for general elections in February 2014, after a two-year transition led by Hadi.
The dialogue was being held as per the UN-brokered deal that eased former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh out of office following an 11-month uprising against his 33-year rule.
In his opening speech Hadi called for a “modern state based on good governance” as he urged political forces across Yemen to “make concessions” to ensure success of the talks which according to him were “a turning point” in the country’s history.
UN envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar said there was “strong international solidarity” with Yemen at “this historic moment.”
The dialogue offers “an opportunity to settle problems” in the south “where there are legitimate injustices that need to be resolved” and in the north where “Saada wars have caused deep wounds,” he said referring to the northern rebellion.
The talks, originally scheduled to start in mid-November, were delayed mainly due to the refusal of some factions in the Southern Movement — campaigning for autonomy or secession for the formerly independent south — to join the initiative.
Most factions finally agreed to take part after months of negotiations and under UN pressure.
But the movement’s hard-liners led by South Yemen’s former president Ali Salem Al-Baid have dug in their heels, insisting instead on negotiations between two independent states in the north and south.
As the reconciliation speeches kicked-off yesterday, police shot dead a protester in Tarim, in the southeastern Hadramawt province, during a demonstration rejecting the dialogue, an activist said.
Another activist was wounded while police arrested four others in the town, Southern Movement activist Fuad Rashid told AFP.
In the main southern city of Aden, hundreds had camped during the night at Al-Arood square in Khormaksar district waving flags of former independent South Yemen.
Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakkul Karman, an icon of the uprising against Saleh’s rule, also boycotted the dialogue in protest at what she said was the marginalization of the youth and the participation of Saleh-era officials.