It is time for Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh to announce how he will resign from his position. He should not stay in office any longer. The outrages committed by his security forces make it impossible to see him as a figure who could reunite that sadly divided country.
Amateur video pictures show government snipers who shot to kill when they opened fire on an anti-government demonstration this weekend that left over 50 people dead. Hundreds of photographs show that the dead were shot in the head and neck by gunmen on rooftops.
After more than 32 years in power, Saleh is now losing important allies. Two cabinet ministers, including human rights minister Huda Al Baan, have resigned, as has Nasr Mustafa, the high-profile head of the state news agency.
In addition, three senior army commanders have defected to the opposition, including Major General Ali Mohsen Al Ahmar, a long-time confidant of Saleh who went so far as to call on Saleh to step down in a message delivered to the protest leaders in the Sana'a square.
Al Ahmar's call was all the more significant as he has been very close to Saleh for most of his 32 years in power, and was instrumental in the success of Saleh's forces in the 1994 civil war in which the northerners crushed the southern opposition's attempt to secede four years after the two parts of Yemen had united. More recently, Al Ahmar has also been leading government forces fighting Al Houthi rebels in the north.
Yemen needs a new leader who can reunite the country with a new government that includes leaders from both the north and south. The country is dangerously near tipping into total chaos as powerful political and social forces threaten to pull the country apart. If it is to stand a chance of success, Yemen needs a new start under fresh leadership.
