Izvještaj WHO-a (World Health Organization):
http://www.emro.who.int/eha/pdf/yem_sitrep6_14_9_09.pdfInvolvement of northern tribesmen
"The government thought it would be best to fight tribal power [the rebels] with the help of a tribal coalition," Mohammed Aysh, managing editor of al-Sharei local newspaper and also an expert on the Saada conflict, told IRIN.
Over the past four years the government has recruited thousands of northern tribesmen - mainly Zaydis and Salafis who are Sunni - to fight the rebels. Analysts say this has extended the conflict, which recently spread to Harf Sufian in Amran Governorate and Bani Hushaish, a district 20km northwest of Sanaa city.
Aysh said the tribal coalition was effective and fought on the front line, with support from government troops.
There are dozens of tribes, clans and sub-clans in northern Yemen but just two powerful tribal coalitions, the Hashid and Bakil (both Zaydi). The government persuaded tribes from the former to fight against the rebels (Bakil). Hashid tribes have long been known as supporters of the state.
Izvor:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79410The war began as a quasi-police operation to arrest a former parliament member, Husein al-Huthi. Over five rounds, it has grown several-fold and become increasingly complex and multilayered. As mutual grievances accumulated and casualties mounted, the conflict metastasised, bringing in ever-growing numbers of actors, including local tribes and other members of the Saada population, covering a widening area and involving foreign actors under the backdrop of a regional cold war. It has violated two fundamental pillars of Yemen’s stability: a political formula premised on power-sharing and the gradual convergence of the two principal sectarian identities,
Zaydism – a form of Shiism that in rites and practices is closer to Sunnism than to the Twelver Shiism predominant in Iran and Iraq – and Shafei Sunnism.
Izvor:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=6113Sa’ada siege ‘continues unabated’ despite intl calls
08 December 2009 07:00The Houthi fighters maintain the siege imposed by Sana’a government on the rugged northern Sa’ada province continues unabated, leaving the residents of the war-torn province bordering Saudi Arabia utterly devastated.
The Houthi fighters say the government has imposed a siege on the northern city of Sa’ada, preventing people from leaving the city over the past three months.
They went on to add that the true extent of the calamity in both Sa’ada City and its governorate is an underestimate, due to logistical constraints placed on relief agencies by the fighting. This has accordingly left thousands of civilians on the brink of death due to acute malnutrition, disease, and impoverishment.
The development comes as Sana’a has refused to heed UN concerns over the humanitarian situation in the war-ravaged region.
Izvor:
http://www.islamidavet.com/english/2009/12/08/saada-siege-continues-unabated-despite-intl-calls/What lies beneath Yemen conflict Published by press TV
Saturday, 05 December 2009 Tarâné Kaveh
The nearly one-million population of Sa'ada, situated in the most northwestern parts of Yemen, have been under domestic and foreign fire since mid-August, when Saudi Arabia joined the Yemeni government in its crackdown on the Shias, who have been discriminated against for years.
In order to fully understand the situation there, one should study the ethnical and religious makeup of the region. Sa'ada, which borders Saudi Arabia to the north and the Red Sea to the west, is home to some of the poorest parts of Yemen, which is in itself one of the poorest nations in the world.
The province is a stronghold for Zaidi Shias, who constitute one-third of Yemen's 20-million population. The Houthis charge that the governments of Yemen and Saudi Arabia have been taking measures to spread Wahhabism and Salafi beliefs in Zaidi populated areas.
"There are Salafi [salafizam je sinonim za sunitski vahabizam, budući da se vahabiti radije nazivaju salafitima] centers backed by the government and foreigners in the Sa'ada Province, which everyone knows is a 100-percent Zaidi populated and has been the capital and the center of Zaidi Shia. These centers issue Fatwas (religious decrees) against the Zaidi Shia and Zaidi leaders on a regular basis," read a statement on the Houthi website.
The Saudi side of the border:
"The Shia are not allowed to teach religion or history in Schools," the Human Rights Watch said in its report titled Denied Dignity: Systematic Discrimination and Hostility toward Saudi Shia Citizens, which was published in September 2009. "[The] Shia face discrimination in the judiciary, too, ranging from denial of access to justice to arbitrary arrests and discriminatory verdicts," the report added.
Given the abovementioned points, a conflict breaks out just a cross them border of the mainly Shia region of Saudi Arabia, in which the Shias are fighting against state discrimination.
As a result, the not-so-tolerant Saudi government decides to take precautionary measure and crack down on the Yemeni Shia to prevent a similar movement inside Saudi Arabia. In order to find a pretext for joining forces with the Yemeni government, the Kingdom announced that one of its border check posts has come under Houthi fire, vowing retaliation. This is while Houthi fighters are constantly coming under Yemeni fire and say that they could not be possibly interested in opening another front while fighting the Yemeni military.
Izvor:
http://www.indymedia-letzebuerg.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37222&Itemid=28
