Monday, February 14, 2011

Three thousand people to the streets of Sanaa clashes between protesters for and against government

SANAA (Yemen) - Nearly three thousand people, mostly students and lawyers took to the streets today in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdallah Saleh. "After Mubarak Ali," the protesters shouted, referring to the Yemeni president, who like Hosni Mubarak, in power for 32 years.

The protest was organized by students and representatives of civil society and the opposition was not associated. The protesters gathered in front of the University of Sanaa and have then tried to reach Tahrir Square, in front of the seat of government. The police is sandwiched between them and a group of supporters of the president who had reached the place of protest.

Students demand the release of activists arrested during demonstrations over the past four days, including 220 persons detained in the industrial city of Taiz. Events have taken place even today in Taiz, where security forces fired live bullets into the air to disperse the crowd. The international organization Human Rights Watch has denounced the methods defined Yemeni police brutally unjustified, given the use of Taser electric stun against demonstrators.

"Without provocation, the government security forces have brutally beaten and used Tasers against peaceful demonstrators in the streets of Sanaa," it said in a statement released today by the organization. Until now, the police had kept broadly neutral in the clashes between the protesters and against the government.

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