SANA’A — Yemen security forces with clashed with Yemeni pro-democracy protesters on Friday and Saturday. The protesters were celebrating resignation of Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak. They are also demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen to step down.
Princeton University Yemen scholar Gregory Johnsen told the VOA that some of the protests within the last 24 hours took place “outside the umbrella of the opposition JMP movement” indicating that public discontent could be spreading.
Eyewitnesses say that rallies took place spontaneously in parts of Sana’a, with demonstrators trying to rally in front of the Egyptian Embassy.
The Yemen Post newspaper editor-in-chief Hakim Almasmari says that government security forces skirmished with the crowds. A number of demonstrators were reportedly injured in the clashes. Almasmari adds that several people were also arrested.
Buses ferried ruling party members, equipped with tents, food and water, to the city’s main square to help prevent attempts by protesters to gather there, Fox News reported.
There were about 5,000 security agents and government supporters in the Sanaa square named Tahrir, or Liberation.
(Reuters) — Some 300 anti-government student demonstrators assembled at Sanaa University in Yemen on Saturday morning. As numbers swelled into the thousands, they began marching towards the Egyptian embassy.
“The people want the fall of the government,” protesters chanted. “A Yemeni revolution after the Egyptian revolution.”
But a group of government supporters armed with knives and sticks confronted the protesters at the central Tahrir Square. Scuffles broke out and the pro-government activists used traditional knives and batons to force the anti-government protesters to flee.
Two people were lightly injured, witnesses said.
The clash came after armed men forced around 300 anti-government protesters to quit an impromptu demonstration in the Yemeni capital on Friday night.
Yemeni authorities detained at least 10 people after anti-government protesters in Sanaa celebrated Mubarak’s downfall on Friday, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said.
The group said the celebrations turned to clashes when hundreds of men armed with assault rifles, knives and sticks attacked the protesters while security forces stood by.
“The Yemeni security forces have a duty to protect peaceful protesters,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “In this case, security forces seem to have organised armed men to attack the protesters.”
Yemen’s ruling party set up tents in Sanaa’s central Tahrir Square last week to occupy the space and prevent people from gathering in large numbers.
Party officials handed out small amounts of money to reward pro-government protesters on Saturday. Some used the cash to buy food or Qat, a mild green stimulant leaf that more than half of Yemen’s 23 million people chew daily and which has been cited as a deterrent to protest.