TENSIONS are running high in Yemen’s southern provinces after security forces killed at least four protesters and wounded another 40 in a pro-secession protest in the port city of Aden. Medic Mohammed Saleh said that eight demonstrators died as the result of injuries received, while Dr. Abdu Al-Matari, spokesman for the Southern Movement, said that he believed the death toll rose to 16 after some of the wounded died.

In some southern provinces, including Aden, businesses, schools and shops were closed after the demonstrations, and main Aden roads were blocked by angry protesters. Security forces and their vehicles were attacked by Southern Movement (SM) gunmen, according to security officials. The movement calls for the independence of South Yemen (formerly known as the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen) and was behind the Aden civil disobedience.

The clash with the movement’s supporters occurred when its members decided to stage a counter-rally against the one scheduled for later that day to mark the first anniversary of officially ending the 33-year reign of authoritarian President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

It was the Islah Party, Yemen’s branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Aden’s local council headed by Gov. Waheed Rasheed, which called for organizing a ceremony in the city on Thursday to mark a year since Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi was elected president and to show their support for Yemen’s unity. That move was regarded as provocative by the movement’s leaders, however, who claim all southerners back separation, prompting the call for the counter-protest.

The southern residents allege political and economic discrimination, charging that the regime is draining away their natural wealth, chiefly oil, without their benefiting from the revenues. The majority of Yemen’s oil was found in the south. But despite Saleh’s replacement by Hadi, who hails from the south, the Southern Movement continues to call for secession, rejecting anything but complete independence.

The movement is divided into various wings, the one viewed as most extreme led by exiled South Yemen leader Al-Beidh, who is allegedly receiving funds from Tehran. Two wings of the movement have announced their participation in the upcoming National Dialogue Conference, which is part of the Gulf Cooperation Council deal that saw Saleh resign peacefully. At the conference, different Yemeni factions are set to discuss resolutions for the nation’s thorny issues, like the situation in the south.

In recent months Aden, Yemen’s economic capital, has been enduring hard times and there have been increasing calls for separation and occasional clashes between separatists and security forces.

The movement’s spokesperson Fatah Lazraq said that, “The security forces sided with Islah followers, as they appeared to have strict orders to prevent the movement’s supporters from reaching Al-Arod Square, a parade square, where Islah followers and government supporters were set to hold their ceremony.”

“The security forces opened fire randomly on us,” he said, adding that, “the current government proved today that nothing has changed after Saleh was removed from power and that it’s just as violent and oppressive as the former regime.”

An Aden security official disagreed, arguing that some gunmen combined with Al-Qaeda activists helped fuel the riots and were intent on breaking into Al-Arodh Square to clash with the pro-unity demonstrators and destroy the preparations for their ceremony. He claimed some of the SM gunmen shot demonstrators.

The bloody Aden clashes occurred a month before the launch of the National Dialogue Conference, the mechanism through which the Yemeni people are brought into the process of government-building. Analysts agree that what happened in Aden might affect the talks, especially after the two moderate Southern Movement wings had announced they would participate in them.

Mohammed and Al-Saqqaf agreed that foreign forces could be behind the unrest in southern Yemen. They said they don’t rule out the possibility that the extremist wings of the movement act on these forces’ behalf. Last month, National Security Chief Dr. Ali Al-Ahmadi accused Iran of supporting the separatists in a bid to destabilize the country and thwart the GCC-brokered initiative. The charge was echoed by United States Ambassador to Yemen Gerald Feierstein.