SANAA, 17 April 2005 — Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday vowed to pursue Badruddin Al-Houthi, whose armed supporters fought government troops for two weeks in country’s north.
“By the grace of God, the strife was subdued, and all elements involved in fomenting that strife or those who provided them with support should be hunted down and brought to justice,” Saleh said, addressing top military and police commanders.
In a strongly-worded speech, carried by the Yemen’s official news agency, the Yemeni leader dubbed Al-Houthi and his followers “defiant elements holding false ideas and acting against the law, order and constitution”.
Saleh announced last week that government forces ended an offensive against rebels in the northern province of Saada, but the fate of the rebel leader Badruddin Al-Houthi was still unknown.
More than 150 troops and rebels have been killed in fierce fighting that broke out on March 28 in mountainous areas of Saada, some 250 km from here.
Badruddin Al-Houthi, 81, is the father of Hussein Al-Houthi, who was killed in a similar revolt last September.
330,000 Students in Illegal Schools: PM
At least 330,000 students are attending illegal underground religious schools, Prime Minister Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal said yesterday, vowing to bring the schools under government control.
“There are at least 330,000 students enrolled in unofficial schools. They cram them in murky corridors,” Ba-Jammal said.
“We could never ignore such a crime committed against our children and the future generation,” he said, adding that if his government tolerates this kind of education, it would be like “mobilizing an inimical army”.
Ba-Jammal further said that more than 500 teachers of foreign nationalities working for the religious schools are raising children “with a dreadful culture”.
He said the first priority for the Education Ministry would be to “bring all the education institutions under the state’s control”.
Government officials say authorities plan to close down private religious schools as part of the Arab country’s drive to curb extremism.
On March 20, a government commission in charge of overhauling religious education said it had listed more than 4,000 illegal religious centers earmarked for closure for promoting fundamentalism.
In 2003, Yemen merged thousands of government-subsidized religious schools into the public education system in a move aimed at scaling down religious education.
Yemen allied itself with the United States in the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on US cities. It has since cracked down on militants and rounded up hundreds of suspected Al-Qaeda members.
