Gulf | Yemen
85 shops in Yemen to be closed for selling weapons
The Interior Ministry has ordered the closure of 85 shops in Yemen for selling weapons, in an attempt to "enhance security and stability", official sources said on Tuesday.
- By Nasser Arrabyee, Correspondent
- Published: 14:49 June 17, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- Members of the Kahwlan tribe sit with their guns during a meeting.
Sana'a: Yemen's interior ministry has ordered the closure of 85 shops selling weapons throughout the country in a move that aims to "enhance security and stability", official sources said yesterday.
About 90 weapon traders have also been arrested, as per a decree issued by Minister of Interior Mutahar Rashad Al Mesri.
The campaign against weapons began nearly an year ago, and the ministry of interior has so far seized more than 100,000 guns from citizens during this period.
Traders, however, have been selling and buying weapons in the black market because of the huge demand, a weapons trader in the central part of the country told Gulf News.
"Even during the anti-weapons campaign, we were doing brisk business in the black market to earn our living," he said.
"And yes, the shops were closing and opening because we did not believe the government would continue with its crack down on this issue."
A draft law to organise possessing and carrying guns was not passed although the government submitted it in 1995. Tribal forces in the ruling party and in the largest opposition party, Islah, are believed to be opposed to a law against weapons.
"If there is a law that can be applied to all, we'll agree to it, we'll go and find new business to make our living," said the weapons trader who asked not to be named because, "I still hope to have a permission from the government to return to the market".
The Cabinet took a decision to shut down shops selling weapons throughout the country on April 24 last year.
Officials claim that shootout incidents decreased by 39 per cent in the first four months of the anti-weapons campaign. Weapons display in the streets, markets and wedding places also dramatically reduced by 85 per cent, according to official estimates.
Unofficial estimates put the number of firearms at around 60 million pieces in a country of 22 million.
But a UN-sponsored small arms survey, released in August 2007, concluded that Yemenis own between 6 million and 17 million weapons.
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