Saturday, 12 February 2011

Sana'a Demonstrations

It was announced that every Thursday there would be demonstrations at Tahrir Square, but last Thursday the square was occupied by a folk handicraft festival and the Thursday before that hundreds of tribesmen from tribes loyal to the government were bused in to occupy the square so that anti-government demonstrators were blocked out.

Instead there was a large gathering of tens of thousands of protestors in the streets in front of Sana'a University. The week before that they filled the streets all the way back to the Science and Technology University girls section and pink was the theme colour.

The President announced that he would not stand again for election in two years time and he would not pass the presidency to his son. He also announced tax cuts and pay rises for soldiers and government employees.

Allegedly an assassination attempt was made on the leader of the Islah opposition party, but the full story is unclear. Both parties say, "he started it".

Today, the first day of the new Egypt the streets in Yemen are quiet, but all the talk is about similar things happening here. There are always plenty of police on the streets, so nothing unusual there, but I did see many police wearing photo ID.

It seems inevitable that the demonstrations will continue as the Yemeni people feel emboldened, energised and full of hope.

Keep an eye on us in Yemen, that goes unsaid, I am sure there are many eyes on Yemen!

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