Yemen

(PD) Image: CIA World Factbook
Location of Yemen

Yemen is a country in the Middle East, formed, in 1990, from North Yemen (a part of the Ottoman Empire until 1918), and South Yemen (a British protectorate until 1967). North Yemen had existed as the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen until 1962 and as the Yemen Arab Republic thereafter, with a capital in Sanaa, and South Yemen as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, having Aden as its capital. Ali Abdallah Salih, former president of North Yemen, is the current Head of State.

The country has a shoreline along the Red Sea and the island of Soqotra, and shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Oman.

See also: Republic of Yemen

People

Yemenis, as opposed to other peoples of the Arabian Peninsula, do not have a nomadic tradition, but have long been settled in villages and towns.

Ethnicity and tribalism

They are primarily Arab, although there are African elements on the coast. Arabic is the official language, although English is increasingly understood in major cities. In the Mahra area (the extreme east), several non-Arabic languages are spoken. Tribes, therefore, have territories, producing a very different political dynamic than, for example, when the House of Saud became a leader of the nomadic Bedouin. Yemen has a unique balance of formal and tribal governance.

(PD) Image: http://ourworldflags.com
National Flag of Yemen

Religion

When the former states of north and south Yemen were established, most resident minority groups departed. Most are Muslim, divided into:

• The majority Shafa'i school of Sunni Muslims, found in the south and southeast
• Shi'a Zaidi sect, found in the north and northwest. The Houthi resistance group says it is fighting to stop marginalization of the Zaidi.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen Edmund Hull writes that most sources overestimate Sunni-Shiite tension. "both the Houthis and President Saleh are followers of the Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam. Generally, there is no clear divide between Sunnis and Shiites in Yemen, although the Shiites tend to live in the north and northwest while the Sunnis, mostly members of the moderate Shafii school, predominate in the south and southeast. In any case, one’s sect matters far less in Yemen than in countries like Lebanon or Iraq, and it’s not unknown for Yemenis to convert from Sunni to Shiite as a matter of convenience."

National history

Unification took place for a number of reasons. In President Salih's 1990 speech, three factors went into a broad desire for national identity:

• "the return to a lost “golden age”
• the removal of the effects of monarchy and imperialism
• the desire for pan-Arab unity, with Yemeni unity as a preliminary step."

Economics

Among the poorest countries of the Arab world, it has had average annual growth in the range of 3-4% from 2000 through 2007. Its economic fortunes depend mostly on declining oil resources, but the country is trying to diversify its earnings. Preliminary estimates for 2008 a GDP growth rate of 4.4 percent as compared to 4.2 percent in the previous year. "Higher oil revenues and some progress in tax collections also helped to reduce the fiscal deficit to 4.3 percent of GDP and the current account deficit to around 2 percent of GDP. Given that oil prices were very high during the first nine months of the year, the overall economic performance in 2008 is disappointing and underscores the difficult challenges faced by Yemen."

In 2006 Yemen began an economic reform program designed to bolster non-oil sectors of the economy and foreign investment. As a result of the program, international donors pledged about $5 billion for development projects. In November 2006, a World Bank-sponsored international donors conference held in London raised $4.7 billion for Yemen's development; the funds are to be disbursed between 2007 and 2010.

Officials from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries held a donors' conference in Saudi Arabia in June 2009. Approximately USD $3.5 billion was pledged to projects in 2007 through 2010. of which about nearly 90 percent has been made available to 50 development projects.

Agriculture

Diverting resources from food crops, and indeed necessitating the import of food, is the widespread propagation of the stimulant qat.

Government

While Yemen has formal governance mechanisms, the power of tribal leadership cannot be understated. Al-Qaeda was reported to be focusing on building tribal alliances in the country.

The formal government of Yemen is the Republic of Yemen, formed, in 1990, from North Yemen (a part of the Ottoman Empire until 1918), and South Yemen (a British protectorate until 1967). North Yemen had existed as the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen until 1962 and as the Yemen Arab Republic thereafter, with a capital in Sanaa, and South Yemen as the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, having Aden as its capital. Ali Abdallah Salih, former president of North Yemen, is the current Head of State.

While the Republic has an obvious Presidential system with legislative and judicial branches, Yemen has a unique combination of central and tribal government. While Yemen has formal governance mechanisms, the power of tribal leadership cannot be understated. Al-Qaeda has been reported to be focusing on building tribal alliances.

Government corruption is a severe problem. Human Rights Watch reported, in December 2009, that the government was dominated by northerners, who suppressed southern interests, , although the political dynamics of Yemen are far more complex than the binary distinction between North and South.

Southern secession movement

A secessionist movement in South Yemen, headquartered in Aden, asks the question, according to the Christian Science Monitor, posed by a member of the minority Yemeni Socialist Party, "Eighty percent of Yemen’s oil comes from the south but where does the money go? It goes to Sanaa. The people of the south have not benefited from any of this wealth and now it is running out." Also unnamed, a Northern government member says “The south has all the resources and only one third of the population. We cannot allow them to secede,” said a member of the opposition party Islah in the capital, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for the party. “Northerners will fight to keep Yemen together. They know it is a matter of survival.”

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has attacked targets in the country as well as operating transnationally; a suicide bombing against Korean tourists in March 2009 was one indication of domestic security problems. The group is a merger between Saudi and Yemenite groups. Its actions had been largely contained to the Arabian Peninsula, but it appears responsible for the attempted suicide bombing of a U.S. aircraft on 25 December 2009.

This is a newer Al-Qaeda "affiliate" than the others, and seems to have learned from their missteps. As opposed, in particular, to operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, the group is largely "home-grown" and cooperates much more effectively with existing tribal structures. "They've worked hard to put deep, and what they hope are lasting, roots that will make it very difficult for them to be rooted out of Yemen," says Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University. "They've done a good job of looking at the mistakes that other versions of Al-Qaeda have made elsewhere."

"As long as Qaeda respects the tribes, some tribes will welcome them," says Sheikh Abdulqawi Sherif, the head of the pro-government Bani Dhabian tribe, whose territory borders the al-Qaeda strongholds of Mareb Province and Shebwa Province. Gen. Yahya Saleh, nephew of Yemen's president and the head of one of the country's counterterrorism forces agreed there were alliances, but "the tribes in Yemen are practical. They know there will be a heavy price to pay for harboring Al-Qaeda, and more and more, [the tribes] will not be willing to pay that price."

Role vs. Republic of Yemen

Its leader appears to be Nasser al-Wahishi‎, who, among others, has been mentioned as a successor to Osama bin Laden in the overall al-Qaeda movement.

Yemen's President has offered dialogue with AQAP members, if they "...lay down their arms, renounce terrorism and return to wisdom, we are prepared to deal with them...They are a threat not only to Yemen but also to international peace and security.”

According to Ali Hasan al-Ahmadi, the governor of the southern Shabwa Province, said: “There are dozens of Saudi and Egyptian al-Qaeda militants who came. This is in addition to Yemenis who came from Mareb and Abyan Province and a number of militants from Shabwa itself.” The Times said that intelligence agencies may have been overly focused on Abdul Majid al-Zindani, who is now seen as an older and less influential figure, and had only recently woken up to the danger of the energetic younger Anwar al-Awlaki.

Christopher Bouckek, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that AQAP is relatively uninvolved in the popular revolt in Yemen. Barbara Bodine said that AQAP will have more freedom to operate, but both Bodine and Bouckek agreed that Yemen's economy is the major issue driving unrest.

International relations

There will be a 27 January 2010 meeting in London, United Kingdom, called by Gordon Brown, about radicalization and the al-Qaeda threat in Yemen. Prime Minister of Yemen Ali Mujawar will represent Yemen in the gathering that will bring together representatives from governments of 21 countries including the G8 nations, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, as well as the European Union, United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund, designed to support Yemen, while pushing for economic development and reform. Yemen has stated limits on its sovereignty, but is open to assistance that is compatible with its domestic politics.