Images of Yemen’s Unfinished Transition

August 13, 2012

Eight months after the popular uprisings in Yemen and five months after President Abdo Rabo Mansour Hadi took the presidency, Yemenis are eager to embark on the justice and security reforms that they demanded during their 11-month long revolution. While there has been significant change in Yemen – including the formation of a new government and the swearing in of a new President – endemic rule of law challenges in Yemen still exist. That includes weak independence of the judicial branch, a security sector composed of armed factions loyal to different leaders and control of key industries by powerful patronage networks.

The sense of urgency for reform in Yemen is compounded by the country’s serious food shortage, which this summer reached alarming rates in what one economic analyst from Sana’a called Yemen’s “silent” hunger problem. In mid-July 2012, Yemen named a 25-member preparatory committee for the country’s national dialogue process, which seeks to give Yemenis the opportunity to contribute to the vision of the country’s future, including justice and governance reforms.

To support Yemenis in their transition process, USIP has begun to conduct research on local-level justice issues in Yemen and provide information on comparative experiences of other transitional countries on both “top down” and “bottom up” rule of law and legal empowerment initiatives. 

Yemeni activists remain in Change Square in Sana’a, the main square that served as a hub for activists, to push for further reform. They are particularly interested in the removal of loyalists to the former president from high-ranking positions in the security sector and other critical public sector posts. The first photo shows activists from al-Baida governorate who had traveled to Change Square in Sana’a to unite with Yemenis from other regions to demand the fall of the regime.  The group includes a defected member of the military. Above them is a banner with photos of their friends who died in the revolution.

According to activists, in March 2011, snipers used the buildings surrounding Change Square as a place from which to fire on activists who were finishing Friday prayer. The incident resulted in 50 deaths.  Immediately afterward, General Ali Mohsen, formerly Saleh’s second in command, defected in order to purportedly protect the protestors. Since then, Change Square has expanded to other nearby streets.

Sign in the center of Change Square reads “The people, the army, the security, one body, one cause. The people want the downfall of the regime.” Although former President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative committing Yemen to transition in November 2011, and former Vice President Abdo Robo Mansour Hadi was elected to office this past February, activists suspect that supporters of the former regime are still in control of key government institutions. President Hadi has recently, however, issued pivotal decrees to signal that there is new leadership in town. He transferred  command of brigades of the Republican Guard, commanded by Saleh’s son, and the First Armored Division, controlled by General Ali Mohsen, to now fall under his direct authority. He has as also issued other decrees restructuring Yemeni banks and appointing a new head for the Tobacco and Match Company, which had been headed by one of Saleh’s nephews for the last two decades.

Rule of law reform efforts in Yemen are further complicated by the tense security situation, which can put the country on lockdown on any given day. On May 21, more than 90 soldiers were killed in a suicide attack at a military parade rehearsal in al-Sabin Square, Sana’a.  Behind the site of the horrific attack is the Saleh mosque, built three years ago.

Karima Tawfik is a program specialist in USIP’s Rule of Law Center, where she supports USIP’s justice and security project in Yemen. She was in Sana’a in June meeting with civil society and government officials to conduct a needs assessment on rule of law programming there.

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