Yemen faces mass blackout ahead of national dialogue

Source:Xinhua Published: 2013-3-12 9:16:45

A power outage has hit large parts of Yemen for four consecutive days, blocking millions of people from access to electricity and sparking disorders ahead of a long- awaited national dialogue set to start next week.

Yemen's official Saba news agency said the country's main power transfer lines were attacked Monday by tribal saboteurs, the third such attack against the power supplies in less than a week.

"The attack came 24 hours after the government repaired previous damages on the electricity transmission lines, which halted the Marib power station," Saba said, citing a statement by the Ministry of Electricity and Energy.

The repeated attacks caused mass blackouts in the capital Sanaa and other major cities, disturbing millions of people for several days.

"We get used to that. Electricity supplies were always damaged or cut off when any big political event take place," said Adel Ahmed, a Yemeni lawyer and a human rights activist based in Sanaa.

"Daily long-lasting blackouts happened ahead of and during any event concerning all Yemenis," he said.

Like many others, Adel said he has never heard that the authorities have arrested or prosecuted any of those alleged saboteurs.

The country's electricity supplies have been damaged for several times over the past two years by alleged attacks of anti- government armed tribesmen.

Yemen's security and public facilities in remote regions have been undermined by lawless armed tribes since the eruption of the one-year nationwide protests against the 33-year ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011.

Saleh stepped down in February 2012 in return of a full immunity from prosecution, in line with a power transfer deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council and backed by the United Nations.

Saleh's then deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was elected on Feb. 21, 2012, as the new Yemeni president for a two-year term in accordance to the deal.

Like his predecessor, Hadi faces political, security and economy challenges as rebel attacks on power stations and oil pipelines hurt the process of the cash-stripped transitional government.

To solve the political impasse in the country, Hadi tried to persuade all factions to participate in the national dialogue scheduled for March 18 to create a new constitution and pave the way for holding parliamentary and presidential elections in February 2014.

The planned dialogue, set to last for six months, also aims to end separatist movements in the south in order to preserve unity.

Separatist sentiments in the south have escalated after northern troops won a four-month civil war in 1994. The southerners, lead by the Southern Movement, complain of being economically and politically marginalized and discriminated against.

Hadi has called for separatist groups in Aden and other major southern cities to take part in the planned reconciliation national dialogue, and has promised compensation and settlement to the southerners.

However, leaders of the separatists have insist for a full independence. "The people of the south accepted the unity in 1990, but now want to break up the unity," Haidar Abu Bakr al-Attas, a prominent leader of the Southern Movement, said in a TV interview in Dubai on Sunday.

Attas said they would take part in the planned dialogue "only if the Sanaa government publicly accept to recognize the right of the southern people to determine their future, and withdraw its troops from the south."

Posted in: Mid-East

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