Yemen: Protesters Vulnerable to Violent Attacks  · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

This post is part of our special coverage Yemen Protests 2011.
Protests demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh continue for a successive fourth week in Yemen. Protesters are not showing any sign of backing down and the Yemeni President is still immune to the idea of leaving office before presidential elections in 2013.
Saleh has invited all political forces to talk. The invitation was refused by the opposition. At the same time, attacks carried out by security forces and loyalists to Saleh on peaceful demonstrators continued.
“Yemeni officials and security forces have facilitated attacks by armed gangs on peaceful anti-government protesters in places away from the capital of Sanaa, or stood by while such attacks occurred,” says Human Rights Watch.
On Sunday, Ibb witnessed a massive anti-government demonstration which turned into violent clashes when government thugs, attacked the protesters causing the death of one person and injuring dozens.
Jane Novak writes:
Today’s protest in Ibb is estimated at 200,000 and there’s new violence in Aden. Other estimates of injuries in Ibb go as high as 70.
She adds:
Government supporters wielding knives and handguns attacked protesters in southern Yemen on Sunday, leaving one dead in the latest in weeks of demonstrations demanding the president step down.
Noha Zaki(@Izbella) tweets:
Regime-deployed thugs attack protesters, wounding 52, 6 critically wounded, in the “Gulf of Freedom” Ibb, #yemen.
She adds:
Protesters in Ibb #yemen arrest thugs who confess that they were paid by government officials – very similar to the experience in #Egypt
On March 5, a video was uploaded on YouTube in which a Yemeni businessman named Wahb Eddine Al-Sururi claims that he was attacked by thugs because he resigned from the ruling party and participated in peaceful protests in Al Hodeidah.
On the Facebook page, Yemen Rights Monitors, Ahmed reports:
URGENT | Security forces assault the protesters with electric sticks and confiscate tents at the sit-in #Sanaa #yemen #ArabRev
Aden To Freedom also reports the use of live bullets to disperse young protesters on Monday morning:
This post is part of our special coverage Yemen Protests 2011.