‘No amnesty for Yemen’s Saleh’

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated yesterday across the country rejecting an amnesty given to President Ali Abdullah Saleh against prosecution in a deal that eases him out of office.

“A trial is a must and amnesty is rejected,” chanted demonstrators in Sanaa’s Sitin Street, close to Change Square – the focal point of protests that broke out in January demanding Mr Saleh’s departure after 33 years in power.

Similar demonstrations were staged in 18 cities and towns across Yemen in response to a call by the central organising committee of protests, as protesters insisted Mr Saleh and his top lieutenants should face justice for the killing of demonstrators.

“There should be punishment for shedding the blood of the youth,” said cleric Waheeb al-Sharabi in his Friday sermon in Taez, the second largest city of Yemen and a major flashpoint in the conflict with forces loyal to Mr Saleh.

Last month, Mr Saleh signed a Gulf-brokered deal aimed to end the political crisis in the impoverished country. Under the deal, he handed authority to Vice-President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, and the opposition formed a national unity government.

Mr Saleh now serves as an honorary president until polls are held in February to elect his successor.

A bloody crackdown on anti-Saleh demonstrations since January has claimed hundreds of lives.

Analysts say the Arab uprisings mark a historic milestone in a region long ruled by dictators and have reshaped the political map, heralding the rise of a Sunni Islamist bloc against a waning Shiite axis led by Iran.

From Tunisia to Egypt, Syria and Yemen, a new order is emerging in the Arab world with the traditional balance of power fading as a new – mainly Sunni – political front emerges.

“The Arab world will never be the same,” said recently Amr Mussa, an Egyptian presidential hopeful and former head of the 22-member Arab League.

At the helm of new bodies of governance in the region are Sunni Muslims, who form the vast majority of the estimated 367 million people in the Arab world.

“Egypt, Turkey, Libya, Tunisia, maybe even Morocco, all have an Islamist orientation now, and Syria could potentially join those ranks,” said Shadi Hamid, senior researcher at the Brookings Doha Centre.

“They all share an interest in having a more independent assertive foreign policy that is neither tied to the Americans nor tied to the resistance axis of Iran-Syria,” said Mr Hamid.

For the first time, experts say, a region once ruled by seemingly unshakable autocracies is witnessing the birth of governments with some semblance of popular support.

“That is the new dynamic here,” said Hamid. “Governments that have popular legitimacy, empowered to play a more active and more independent role abroad.”