Roundup: Yemen's dialogue conference advances positively
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E-mail Xinhua, May 1, 2013
Yemen's national dialogue conference is going ahead positively with chairpersons of work groups and members saying solutions become close to some key issues.
Nabila Al-Zubair, chairwoman of the Saada issue work group, said they started Tuesday discussing the understandings of the roots of the Saada issue presented by the political parties. She said the mini-committee on documentation was tasked to study the difference and convergence points of all understandings to have a united vision for solving this issue.
According to some Yemeni parties including the Nasserite General People's Organization and the Yemen Socialist Party, the Saada issue dates back to 2004 when the first war between the army and the Shiite Houthi group erupted in the northern Saada province along the border with Saudi Arabia.
The two parties said the wrong policies of the former regime that led to power vacuum as well as seeking to use the location of Saada for external agenda were key roots for this issue.
Other parties said the roots of the issue stemmed from the Houthi ambitions to expand geographically by force and armed rebellion.
Nonetheless, the Saada issue refers to the wars that killed and displaced many people and destroyed a lot of properties including homes and public facilities.
The people in Saada, mainly those loyal to the Houthi, argue that they are demanding a solution to this issue.
Ezi Wahb Allah Shoraim, a member of the Saada group, said after all political forces presented their understandings of the roots of this issue, a solution is almost very close.
"According to my reading to the understanding, I can say solving the Saada issue has become a matter of time," he said.
Secretary General of the conference, Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak, has reiterated several times that he is very optimistic and that despite challenges the determination of all the Yemeni people can overcome that and make their dream of building a modern, civil state.
"This dialogue is Yemeni in the broad meaning of the word. It will not do everything for us, rather it will lay the bases for a new era in which we can go ahead toward prosperity," he said in a live interview via social media.
The nine work groups of the dialogue have been holding intensive, serious discussions on key issues including the south, Saada, development, army and security state-building.
Political organizations have been presenting their understandings of the roots of the south issue that threatens to split the Arab country.
YasinSaeed Noman, the secretary general of the Yemen Socialist Party, said the progress made toward addressing the south issue is plausible.
"It is very important and positive that the political parties meet for the sake of addressing and finding a solution to the south issue," he said.
According to most of the Yemeni parties, the roots of this issue date back to 1994, the year when the civil war between the north and the south started shortly after they united in 1990.
The south issue refers to what some parties and southern factions describe as illegal acts and wrong policies including exclusion of the southern unity partners from decision-making. It also refers to other rights dilemmas such as harassing southerners, confiscating private and public properties and firing many military and civil employees in the south unfairly.
The power-sharing government formed after the 2011 unrest put the issue on the top of the most important issues at the dialogue conference, and has been working hard along with the international community to find a solution to it.
On Monday, southern political detainees were released under an order from President Abd-Rabbu Manousr Hadi, a move seen as part of the effort to address the issue.
Ahmed Bazara, chairperson of the development issue work group, said they are handling issues on their agenda consistently, especially because development remains high on the dialogue conference's agenda.
Arwa Abdo Othman, chairwoman of the rights and freedoms work group, said their discussions are likely to lay the groundwork for a new era in Yemen.
"We are focusing on how to ensure protection of individuals' rights, and for this, we are giving priority to the issues of equality of opportunity, freedom of expression, religious freedom and cultural and intellectual rights," she said.
Currently, most of the work groups are discussing the issue of paying field visits, which remains a key element of their detailed action plans.
On Tuesday, the development work group started field visits to some public offices and other groups have decided to start field visits next week.
A few weeks after the dialogue started in March, Hadi issued key decrees which were considered by observers as culminating the efforts to restructure the armed forces. Endi
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