Sana’a: Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called Yemen’s separatist movement “fascist” and vowed that they would not succeed in breaking off from Yemen, Tuesday while addressing a group of university students.
Referring to the failed secession attempt in 1994 of the South, by then-vice president Ali Salem Al Baidh, Saleh said, “they lost their interests, they were at the top of the state and wanted to go back to the time before 1990.”
Al Baidh is currently living in exile in Germany. The North and South of Yemen United on May 22, 1990.
“Those who call for green flags, should have used the green flags before the bloody massacre on January 13, 1986,” Saleh said referring to the civil war between the two factions of the Socialist party which ruled the south before Yemen united.
Ali Saleh Al Baidh’s faction won the war against the faction of Ali Nasser Mohammed, who is living now in Damascus.
Just last week, Al Baidh, made a fresh call from Germany for the South to take to the streets with green flags and demand independence.
Twenty-eight protestors have been arrested in the last two days in the provinces of Hudhrmout and Al Dhale’e, where anti-unity rallies were held.
An organization called Radfan, which defends the unity of Yemen, said that the separatists forced school children to join the protests and it also called for Al Baidh to be tried for “treason”.
