Yemeni players Al-Ansi and Sanad secure gold medals in the doubles tournament in the West Asia Tennis Tournament in Syria yesterday. The entire team results mean that Yemen trumps the tournament, ranking first.

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Continued on ( 3 )

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010Volume 01 - ISSue 16

PrIce: yer 30

www.natIonalyemen.comNationalYemenThe Facts As They Are

Yemen Hosts 2011 World Tourism Day

Family-Owned Companies

Fencing TeamEnters BeirutTotal Vacancies03 1006 09

The UK Foreign & Com-monwealth Office (FCO) an-nounced on Wednesday 29th September that Mr. Jonathan Wilks would replace Timothy Torlot, the current UK Ambas-sador to Yemen, this month.

Mr. Wilks, the new ambassa-dor, is a veteran of the Middle East, having spent more around twenty years in postings around the Arab and Islamic World.

In addition, Mr. Wilks is a

trained Arabist, and has com-pleted two post-graduate de-grees; one in Middle East Poli-tics from Durham University (UK), and another in Interna-tional Relations from St. An-thony’s College, in the Univer-sity of Oxford.

His previous posting was as UK Deputy Head of Mission (DHM) in Baghdad, Iraq. Be-fore that he served as the first UK spokesman to the Arab world, a post which he enjoyed for two years.

However, Mr. Wilks also brings considerable and rela-tively recent specialist experi-ence in security and stability related diplomacy, as he was deputy head of the FCO’s polit-ico-military ‘Security Policy Group’.

It is thought that Mr. Wilks’ appointment further consoli-dates the increasing importance places on Britain’s interests, most especially related to UK security concerns, in Yemen.

In mid-September the direc-

tor-general of the UK domestic intelligence agency, the ‘Secu-rity Service’ (known as MI5) spoke to security industry pro-fessionals, in a rare, public statement, warned that Britain’s main security threats were now emanating from Yemen and So-malia, and less intensely from traditionally-thought of places, such as Pakistan.

The outgoing UK Ambassa-dor, Mr. Torlot, faced a much more tangible threat when his convoy was attacked by a sui-cide bomber in April this year.

Whilst no one, except the suicide bomber, was killed in the attack, the event raised fears that were only slowly being buried after the US embassy in Sana’a faced a sustained assault in the summer of 2008.

Security, it seems, remains the priority. Mr. Wilks stated that he “will be working hard for an effective bilateral part-nership that strengthens the se-curity, stability and prosperity of both countries.”

UK Appoints New AmbassadorNY Staff

Saba NetGulf Daily News

World Tribune – Abu Dhabi

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is expected to pay an of-ficial visit to Yemen in October in reply to an invitation from President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the weekly newspaper 26sept-mber reported on Thursday.

Well-informed sources said that the Czech President would hold talks with senior officials in the Yemeni government, dealing with the common inter-ests and cooperation relations in various fields as well as dis-cussing a number of interna-tional and regional issues.

Notably, the first agreement

signed between the two coun-tries over establishing diplo-matic ties was in 1938, fol-lowed by opening an embassy of Czechoslovakia in Sana’a in 1964. A number of Yemenis have studied in Czechoslova-kia or currently in Czech Re-public.

The cooperation bilateral agenda includes projects in wa-ter management and develop-ment of electricity generation.

Czech financing for bilateral development with Yemen reaches up to $1 M per year.

Czech President to Visit President Saleh

Saudis seek combat helicopters for Yemen border

AP

Migrant Boat Capsizes, 13 Die

The U.S. Navy says a boat carrying 85 African migrants capsized in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen, drown-ing at least 13 passengers on Wednesday.

A ship belonging to the U.S.’s Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet discovered the over-crowded boat Sunday, rendered assistance and began towing back to Somalia from where it originated.

The Navy says that while transferring humanitarian sup-

plies to the boat on Monday, it began to take on water and sink as the passengers rushed to one side of the vessel.

All passengers were thrown overboard and eight people re-main missing.

The United Nations says an estimated 74,000 Africans, mainly from Ethiopia and So-malia fled to Yemen as refu-gees in 2009.

Most cross the Gulf of Aden in rickety and overcrowded vessels run by smugglers.

Saudi Arabia has sought ad-vanced attack helicopters to battle Iranian-backed insur-gents along the kingdom’s bor-der with Yemen.

Western diplomatic sources said Saudi King Abdullah has approved the procurement of billions of dollars worth of at-tack and other combat helicop-ters to bolster security along the kingdom’s border with Yemen. The sources said Abdullah agreed to a recommendation by Deputy Prime Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz and

Deputy Defense Minister Khaled Bin Sultan that Riyad quickly acquire U.S. helicop-ters.

“The recommendation was submitted in the spring of 2010 after the poor performance of the Saudi Air Force against Shi’ite rebels from Yemen,” a Western diplomat said.

The sources said the Interior Ministry and Defense Ministry concluded that the Royal Saudi Air Force failed to detect and track an estimated 1,500 Shi’ite fighters who penetrated Saudi

Arabia in November 2009 dur-ing the rebellion in Yemen. They said the Saudi fleet of U.S.-origin F-15 and Tornado fighter-jets were forced to fly at high altitudes to avoid the pros-pect of Shi’ite rebel surface-to-air missiles.

“The [Saudi] military could not find anybody from the air, and so was always on the de-fensive,” another Western source said. “The conclusion was that the Saudis must buy advanced helicopters as soon as possible.”

RISING tension in Yemen threatens to destabilise the entire Gulf, according to a Bahrain-based international think tank.

The country’s political and economic situation should be of immediate concern to neighbouring countries, said International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) con-sulting senior fellow for Mid-dle East and south Asia Mi-chael Crawford.

He was speaking during the inaugural one-day IISS Global Perspective Series fo-rum at the organisation’s of-fice in the Bahrain Financial Harbour yesterday.

“It may be a long way away, but I think Yemen has the capacity to destabilise the whole Arabian Peninsula,” he said.

“It should be of immediate concern, especially to GCC governments and to those fur-ther afield, like the US, the UK and many others.

“Yemen, in some ways, seems very distant to us here in Bahrain.

“If you look out the win-dow, the view of Bahrain bears little resemblance to that across the city of Sanaa or any others in Yemen.”

However, Mr Crawford

Yemen tensions ‘a threat to Gulf’

Mr. Jonathan Wilks

NY Staff

Young Soo Kim, the Presi-dent of Samsung Gulf Electron-ics, has scheduled to meet busi-ness partners and retailers in Yemen today, to further con-solidate Samsung’s interest in the growing Yemeni electronics market. Samsung has recorded year-on-year growth of 10% in Yemen.

“This past year has seen our investment in Yemen increase exponentially, as we consider

this to be one of Samsung’s key developing markets across the region,” continued Kim. “The business and growth opportuni-ties available, place Yemen at the forefront of our industry as a key player in its regional growth,” Mr. Soo Kim said.

“Our strong base of busi-ness partners and retailers in Yemen act as a catalyst for Samsung’s continued market growth, where our leadership is

continuously improving by of-fering consumers the latest in technology, design and quali-ty.”

He is also releasing a range of new products to Yemeni au-diences, such as new Galaxy Smartphones, and the radical line of new 3D TVs, including the world’s largest 65” 3D LED TV.

Samsung President Visits Yemen

Independent journalism, objective insight

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com2 National YemenADVERTISEMENTS

National YemenNATIONAL YEMEN VACANCY NOTICE

Role JUNIOR NEWS / NEWS ANALYSIS JOURNALISTS

Number of vacan-cies

Three

Application dead-line

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Start date Immediate

Starting salary $250 USD monthly salary + benefits

Work pattern Full-time (45 hour weeks) / irregular shifts (journalists will be required to travel)

Description The NATIONAL YEMEN (NY) newspaper requires two staff journalists to cover ‘breaking news’ and ‘news analysis’ articles. Journalists must be prepared to travel frequently, and at short no-tice, to provide coverage around Yemen.

Our news journalists will be required to write approximately 1000 words of ‘news’ articles, and 2000 words of ‘news analysis’ articles each week on pre-agreed topics, meeting appropriate deadlines.

Journalists will be required to attend two weekly staff meetings at NY HQ, and also to complete our journalism training packages.

Eligibility We are looking for young, reliable, articulate journalists.

No specific background in journalism is required, as training will be given. This vacancy will be most suitable to recent Yemeni graduates.

Journalists will be expected to be punctual and to meet both our deadlines and our standards. Failure to meet either our deadlines or our high professional standards may result in instant dismissal.

Advanced English language competency is required. Journalists will be expected to be compe-tent computer users.

Incentives In time we will offer an improved salary, commensurate with the journalists’ competency and professional development.

This job is also an excellent opportunity to begin a promising career, and will provide excellent professional training. It also may lead to international coverage of a journalist’s work.

Apply Applicants should send a covering email, their CV, to info@nationalyemen.com including all contact details, and also a sample of their written work. The written sample should be 800 words long, in a ‘news analysis’ style, on a subject of their choice.

Selection Applicants will be contacted within three days, if they have been successful. The applicant will be expected to attend an assessment day and interview within one week, and will be expected to write a further article, of our choice.

Selected applicants will work for one month on a non-paid probation status after being se-lected. If the trainee journalist meets our deadlines and reaches our standards over the pro-bationary period, they will be fully welcomed to a permanent position with us, with full pay.

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com 3National Yemen LOCAL

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Fakhri Hassan Al-ArashiPublisher & Chief Editor

Mohammed Al-AsaadiEditorial Consultant

Mansoor Al-RdaeiNews Editor

Fuad Al-QadhiBusiness Editor

Dr. Ahmed Al-QoyadhiEducation Editor

Najla’a Al-ShaibaniSocial Editor

Ali lah AjlanIT Editor

Wardah Al-shaweshGraphic Designer

Najeeb AbdulwahedTechnical Director

Abdul-Karim MufadhalSports Editor

Khaled Al-SofiSeniorTranslator

Will CarterDeputy Editor

Hind Al-EryaniP.R & Marketing

Jihan AnwarStaff Journalist

The Price of Education

The new academic year of 2010-2010 has started since last week of September with new rules from the ministry of educa-tion and sub-offices in the gover-norate to ensure a steady and pro-gressive study from the offset.

This would really be a remark-able step – if only it were true! Fifteen absences from school will lead to the dismissal of the teacher (the reverse of the em-phasis in Western educational systems).

Students, of course, will face suspension from school and stay one year at home. Applying rules in the educational process is a must, for it is the necessary safe-guard for a better future, because the right education ensures a bet-ter, brighter future.

Study has become more com-mercial in Yemen nowadays, as learning providers are spread across private schools and a very limited number of government schools. The lack of educational methods, proper understanding of pedagogy, under-qualified teachers and lack of learning re-sources is bringing Yemen back into the second bottom in educa-tion, according to a recent World Bank report.

For that, the government has come up with new rules, but they are dated back fifteen years.

The goal is to ensure a proper education like to have a central-

ized and regulated examination system for the 6th, 9th and 12th grade years, as opposed to inter-nal marking and assessment.

From an educational perspec-tive a tougher education is not necessarily the right education. Education must be a priority in developing of the country, and this will never happen unless we have a proper atmosphere in which the student not only learns, but is encouraged to learn, and where they can be attracted to do more and take on other responsi-bilities.

Teachers and payment is an-other challenge, obstacle even, to having a proper education. The expectation here is that a teach-er’s salary is generally between $120 or $200. Evidently such a salary will never attract and moti-vate good teachers.

Teaching was the most re-spectable and sought after career in the eighties. This unfortunate-ly simply isn’t the case anymore. It unfortunately is one of the more contemptible jobs.

Appalling anecdotes have arisen, and perhaps add to this myth that teaching isn’t a noble profession to enter. Several sto-ries have surfaced about teachers who apply for a job, only to send one of his or her unemployed and unqualified relatives to do the job.

Students thus have become the victims, and it is they who will pay the price of a poor edu-cation, whilst our generation pays the increasingly outrageous school fees.

The government is funding an educational system and structure that collapsed years ago. Donors are supplementing these pay-ments. Parents are paying stu-dents’ fees. Everyone is paying unreasonable prices. But the only ones it is costing are our children.

Fakhri al-ArashiPublisher & Chief Editor

Nine months since the Al-Ja’ashen people have been dis-placed from the capital Sana’a, the Islah Social and Charitable Society ordered them to move to another place other than where they set up their tent, which was in front of the mosque of the new campus of Sana’a University.

The displaced people said that the Islah Society asked them to leave so that it could ex-pand the mosque grounds,

whilst a source in the Society said that it had nothing to do with the removal of the camp – an order which, he said, had come from the mosque board. No members of the mosque board were available to com-ment.

Tawakol Karman, Member of the Islah Shura Council and Chairperson of the Journalists without Chains Organization, denounced what happened, con-sidering it a scandal for Mus-

lims universally, as well as for Muslim charities in Yemen.

She, instead, advised the in-ternally displaced people (IDP) to move to the Society’s nearby grounds.

Karman, speaking to the IDPs, said “Thanks to the house of Allah which has given you shelter for eight months. Today, you’ll move to the yard of the Islah Society, which, Insha’ Al-lah, will provide protection for you.”

Lawyer, Khaled Al-Aanesi, Executive Director of the Hood organization, said that “what happened is beyond imagina-tion. The mosques and worship places are a refuge for the weak and oppressed, for people like these.”

“If they cannot find shelter in mosques, how can we talk about the values of solidarity, support-ing the oppressed, protecting the weak as well as other values which we preach that they come

from Islam, our religion, while we behave in such a cruel man-ner in the name of the mosque?”

It is worth mentioning that the Al-Ja’ashen displaced peo-ple, were forced to leave their villages in the beginning of this year 2010 to escape the subju-gation of Sheikh Mohammed Ahmed Mansour, Member of the Shura Council, whom they accuse of claiming their posses-sions and properties and giving them to other people, imposing

large taxes on them, demanding them to deliver Zakah to him in-stead of the government’s duties office and imprisoning them in his private prisons.

Many parliament committees have failed to reach the area to investigate into the matter be-cause Sheikh Mansour banned them from entering.

The security agencies apolo-gized for not providing protec-tion for them inside the territory of Sheikh Mansour.

Islah Society Moves IDP CampBy Mosa Al-Nimrani

warned that since assuming power of what was the Yemen Arab Republic in 1978, Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh had showed a propensity for ruthlessness and manipulation.

“He has made sure that there are no alternative leaders in the wings or contenders for power and has drawn leverage from his critics’ acknowledgement that dissension around the lead-ership would benefit only those who favour an even weaker centre of power.

“All the time however, the state itself is coming under in-creasing pressure and is at risk of crumbling.

“Diminish-ing natural re-sources, especially oil and wa-ter, a deteriorating economy and high levels of malnutrition and unemployment would pres-ent daunting challenges for any government, let alone one with

such limited capacity in a state with a weak centre and tough geography.

“But the attention of Saleh and his regime is, as ever, fixed resolutely on tactical fire-fighting, and in particular, against the resurgence of Al Qa-eda.”

Mr Crawford pointed to the amalgamation of Saudi and Ye-meni terrorists to form an Al Qaeda network in the Arabian Peninsula, which became evi-dent early last year.

“In February 2009, the Ye-meni government released 176 Al Qaeda suspects on condition of good behaviour, suggesting continuing regime ambivalence towards the organisation and a readiness to reach tactical ac-commodations with it,” he said.

“It is this Al Qaeda threat that Saleh’s regime is currently using to obtain military and

counter-terrorist assistance and also development aid from the US, Europe and Saudi Arabia.

“The problem from the inter-national community’s point of view, however, is the mistrust between it and the Saleh re-gime, which is seen to prioritise the threat from Al Huthi rebels in the north and the so-called Southern Movement.”

Mr Crawford went on to pre-dict that this mistrust between the Yemeni government and the international community would also affect the country’s dire so-cial and economic outlook.

Using statistics from widely available publications, the for-mer Bahrain resident revealed that the population of Yemen, located around 800 miles from Manama, now stands at 23 mil-lion, but is expected to double in the next 25 years.

Almost half its citizens are

under the age of 15, while seven million of them are living on the breadline.

Estimated unemployment and illiteracy rates of 40-50 per cent go alongside an inflation rate of around 27pc.

Perhaps most worrying fig-ures, however, are that sales of oil, which currently count for 75pc of government revenue, will drop to zero pc by 2017, with Sanaa also expected to be-come the world’s first capital city to run out of water.

“The threat of the state of Ye-men collapsing is a very real one and there is a responsibility on the Gulf states to make sure it doesn’t happen,” said Mr Crawford. “In terms of how best to do this however, there is still no sign of any solutions.”

Continued from ( 1 ) Yemen tensions ‘a threat to Gulf’

Continued from ( 1 ) Yemen tensions ‘a threat to Gulf’

Under a Saudi request to the United States, Riyad would re-ceive more than 170 attack and utility helicopters. The request included about 100 AH-64D Apache Longbow attack heli-copters and a stripped-down variant, Little Bird, as well as the S-70 utility helicopter. Apache and Little Bird have been produced by Boeing, with

the S-70 manufactured by Sikorsky Aircraft.

The sources said Washing-ton would equip the helicopters with advanced air-to-ground munitions, reconnaissance and electronic warfare systems. They said this would allow Saudi helicopter pilots to fly low to the ground in search of Yemeni insurgents.

Saudi Arabia has also sought to purchase unmanned aerial vehicles from the United States, including the advanced Preda-tor combat platform. The sources said Washington agreed to reconnaissance plat-forms but not UAVs that could fire rockets.

By Fuad Al-Qadhi

The participants of the sec-ond conference of the Family-Owned Companies held in Sana’a from 29 to 30 Septem-ber under the title “Family-Owned Companies in Yemen: Towards Institutional Work”, affirmed the importance of fam-ily-owned companies and pre-serving them for their pivotal role in economic development in the country.

They also stressed the impor-tance of promoting these com-panies, making them govern-mental institutional companies, working on rehabilitating and

training coming generations, urging them to make the most of the experiences of the older generation.

The conference also pro-posed a system for transferring power as well as encouraging the family companies to prepare their family constitution to en-sure their continuity and growth over generations, and taking care of their competent and ex-perienced staff from outside the family and earn their loyalty to the family companies.

The participants stressed the importance of paying attention

to scientific research and work on issuing legislations to assist them in the inheritance of pow-er over generations to secure the continuity of the family companies’ performance.

For two days, the partici-pants discussed many essential issues related to development of the family-owned companies, like making governmental insti-tutions supporting their opera-tion, the inter-generational as-pect of founding and developing companies, and the trends of the new generation’s ambitions and challenges.

Ten conference papers were presented in the session by Arab and Yemeni experts.

Dr. Rashad Al-Rassas had opened the activities of the con-ference on behalf of the Prime Minister, and gave a speech on his behalf as well.

He said that the transforma-tion that has occurred to family-owned companies recently is a necessary precursor to Yemen’s anticipated transformation when it joins the World Trade Organization.

Family-Owned Companies in Yemen: Inter-generational Difficulties

Continued on ( 10 )

Yemeni’s national sporting status was further bolstered by its recent achievements in the West Asia Tennis Tournament, which has been held in Syria for the past fortnight.

The team not only snatched gold for the singles tourna-ments, but also won the doubles tournament too. Yemeni tennis star Ghassan Al-Ansi, along with his colleague Sameer Sanad, got a gold medal in the

doubles tournament after a gripping match with the host Syrian team, which consisted of his long-term rival, Kareem Alaf, and his colleague Mo-hammed Azhari. The closing result was a comfortable 6-2/6-4.

In the girls’ doubles Shaima’a Al-Olofi and AyatTa-her earned a respectable silver medal, after their loss to the Jordanian sisters Anna and Qa-

tari Ula, in the tournament fi-nals 5-7/4-6, in a well-played match.

With these results, Yemen came first in the West Asia Ten-nis Tournament.

This tournament represented a qualifying tournament for the Asia Tennis Tournament, which will be held in Malaysia in Jan-uary 2011.

Yemen Comes First in West Asia Tennis Tournament

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com4 National YemenREPORT

The security authorities an-nounced that they had identified the mastermind of the attack on a bus carrying Political Security officers in the capital Sana’a, last Saturday. The authorities announced the names of eight suspects believed to have launched the attack which re-sulted in the killing and injuring of more than ten officers.

Al-Qaeda organization in Ye-men had been able to re-orga-nize itself and carry out many operations against government and foreign interests as well as Yemeni citizens.

The organization managed to regroup after 23 members es-caped from the Political Securi-ty prison compound on Novem-ber 3rd, 2006. They had managed to escape through a 45m long tunnel, which was 5m underground, which they had dug out in less than two months.

This date represented a bright moment in AQ history in Ye-men, where the organization managed to re-group its cells under a new leadership (after the death of Abu Ali Al-Harithi),

Naser Abdul-Kareem Al-Wo-haishi (known as Abu Baseer), to whom many gave their alle-giance whilst they were in pris-on.

The new organization ex-panded from the local to region-al level and the most important step was to re-organize at the level of the Arabian Peninsula after the inflow of the organiza-tion’s youth from Saudi Arabia and their success in joining the Yemen branch, which later turned into the headquarters for the new regional leadership.

The Al-Qaeda organization in Yemen announced that a new regional leadership had been formed for the countries of the Arabian Peninsula under the leadership of Al-Woshaishi / Aba Baseer, as commander of the organization.

Al-Woshaishi was shadowed by his deputy, Sa’eed Al-Shari (Ab Sufyan) as a deputy for him, who went back to Saudi Arabia after his being moved from Guantanamo Bay, and then he managed to get out of Saudi Arabia to join his brothers

in AQAP. AQAP also, at this time, an-

nounced the appointment of Qa-sem Al-Raimi, one of those who escaped from the Political Secu-rity in November 2006, as the leader of the organization’s mil-itary wing.

Since then Al-Qaeda launched many operations in Yemen including the targeting of the US Embassy in 2008, and attacks against groups of tour-ists like that which happened in Marib and Hadramout in 2007, and then ambush of the British Ambassador’s convoy earlier this year.

In June this year Al-Qaeda targeted Political Security’s HQ, an attack which resulted in the killing of seven security per-sonnel, including three female employees in the political secu-rity, in addition to 12 soldiers.

The assault against the Politi-cal Security headquarters sug-gests that the attack was pre-meditated and planned, and that the perpetrators had accurate in-formation about the positions of the security patrols. Analysis

shows that they had even known that the guards did not have suf-ficient ammunition to sustain a prolonged confrontation.

They also had a map on the entrance and exits of the head-quarters. The perpetrators con-tinued to storm the intelligence offices for more than one hour without being touched or fired at by security personnel.

They were able to free ten Al-Qaeda elements and make good their escape, shouting “Al-lahu Akbar” and making signs of victory.

The month after, on 14th July this year, Al-Qaeda launched an attack on the Political Security office in Abyan. Whilst the number of victims from the po-litical security was not revealed, the authorities announced that two Al-Qaeda members were killed and 7 people were arrest-ed on suspicion of participation in the attack.

The government has also been launching a solid counter-offensive.

On the 17th December 2009, the military forces launched air raids on suspected AQAP posi-tions in Arhab, north of Sana’a, and in the Al-Mahjanah Al-Mahfad region in Abyan, south of Sana’a. These attacks unfor-tunately resulted in severe col-lateral damage, with the killing of around fifty women, children and elderly persons. Al-Qaeda admitted that a number of its el-ements were killed as a result of the raids, but it is not known whether they were from Shab-wah or Arhab.

A month later, on 15th Janu-ary this year, the Yemeni gov-ernment again launched an aeri-al assaults on AQAP positions in the governorate of Al-Jawf, and in a region called Al-Yat-mah, in the east.

According to official news, the attack resulted in the killing

of Qasem Al-Raimi, the leader of the military wing of AQAP, in addition to other three mem-bers: Aayedh Al-Shabwani, Saleh Al-Tis and Ammar Al-Wa’ili. Al-Qaeda, however, have denied any losses on its part.

In May this year, a pilotless aircraft targeting Aayedh Al-Shabwani, instead hit Jaber Al-Shabwani, the Chairman of the Local Council in Marib Prov-ince in addition to four of his escorts. He was at the time go-ing to negotiate with Al-Qaeda elements to give themselves in. One of the Al-Qaeda members (known as Bin Jamil), who was talking with him at the time, survived the attack.

In August, however, the Ye-meni security authorities an-nounced a spate of AQAP mem-bers turning themselves in. An AQAP leader, Ali Hussein Al-Tis, from Sa’ada, gave himself up to the security authorities.

The authorities also an-nounced that Hizam Mujalli, an Al-Qaeda leader in Arhab, and one of the escapees from the Po-litical Security prison gave him-self up to the security authori-ties.

Jum’aan Safyan, a leader from the Al-Qaeda cell in Al-Jawf, gave himself in, as did Ghaleb Al-Zaidi, a cell leader in Marib, gave himself up to the local authorities.

At the beginning of Septem-ber, the security authorities an-nounced that two of Al-Qaeda elements in Lawdar, Abyan, were held; one of them is called Salah Al-Domani.

Anwar Naser Al-Awlaqi from Al-Awaleq, Shabwah has not been announced until now that he was one of Al-Qaeda el-ements, although has recently been in the spotlight for his pos-sible coordination with the infa-mous ‘Christmas Day Bomber’.

Al-Awlaqi was born in New Mexico (US) in 1971, and re-turned to Yemen at the age of seven, studying in the Azal School in Sana’a. Notably he was one of the first top second-ary school students in 1989, and after that he travelled to the US for university and postgraduate education.

During his study in the US, he was a mosque preacher. Three of those who carried out the 11 September attacks are said to have frequented that mosque.

In 2003 he returned to Ye-men, and subsequently travelled to South-East Asia, but was jailed in Japan between 2006 and 2009. He then returned to Yemen, where he purportedly met with the Nigerian Arabic student, Omar Farooq Al-Mu-tallab, who tried to blow up the US plane on Christmas day, 2009.

AQAP appears now to be concentrating its presence in the eastern regions of the country, making use of the vast desert and mountainous areas, under tribal influences which limit the power of state security forces.

However, whilst Hadramout, Shabwah, Marib, Al-Jawf and Sa’ada constitute large areas for Al-Qaeda to move freely and undergo activites undisturbed, its elements are reported to come from different provinces of Yemen.

A recent study which anal-ysed AQAP estimated that roughly 56% of the organiza-tion’s make up were Yemenis, whilst Saudis constitute 37%, and foreigners around 7%. The study also mentioned that the Yemeni Al-Qaeda members from northern governorates are equal in number to those who come from the south.

Al-Qaeda’s War

Sheikh Al-Mihdhar’s Rise And Fall

Mohammed Al-Qiri

Saleh Maqlam

The War on Al-Qaeda in Shabwah: Facts of The Exis-tence and the Mysterious Death of Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mihdhar

The real war on the city of Al-Hoatah in Myafa’ah direc-torate, 100 km southeast of Ataq – capital of Shabwah province, started on the 21st September. The town witnessed intensive air strikes by military aircraft, and lasted until Wednesday dawn. Most of those raids tar-geted the region of Shao’b Ba Marsa’ah, one of the Al-Hoatah districts.

Local sources pointed out that this region is considered an important stronghold of Al-Qa-eda elements.

In the same air raid, the mili-tary aircrafts also struck the pe-ripheries of Al-Hoatah city, leading to the destruction of the house of a local citizen Moham-med Al-Qarboo’ in the neigh-borhood of Al-Kharamah in Al-Hoatah.

The twenty-five AQ mem-bers were held in the house, be-fore the airstrike. The house owner, according to the sources, belongs to the family of the so-called Abdullah Al-Mihdhar who was killed by security forc-es mid-January this year after being accused of having links with Al-Qaeda in Yemen.

Abdullah Ahmed Al-Mihd-har (born in Al-Hoatah, 1969) and grew up in Al-Hoatah and then in Saudi Arabia. He re-turned to Yemen fighting for the Unity, during the 1994 war. Af-ter which, he was unanimously chosen by the sheikhs and dig-nitaries of Al Al-Faqih Ali to become a Sheikh.

Informed sources said that the recent assault on Al-Hoatah came as a night air strike, with aircraft coming from the Indian ocean – from the direction of the Balhaf coast, which is lo-cated 200 km to the south of the capital of the province.

Local sources also said that the residents of the Al-Hoatah had witnessed the group under-going physical activities and training, which included pos-session of light weapons and explosives.

Nevertheless, they pretended to turn a blind eye and not to raise the alarm out of fear of the violent repercussions a confron-tation with the group would en-tail.

Al-Hoatah is regarded as a center for education and trade, and its people are generally known to be peaceful and civi-lized.

One of the people from Al-Hoatah, who requested ano-

nymity, was a member of the Al-Faqih Ali family, to which Abdullah Al-Mihdhar belongs.

He said that the fighters in the Al-Hoatah city belong to Al-Qaeda in Yemen, but strongly denied that any of his family members were embroiled with the Al-Qaeda group.

He added that Sheikh Husse-in Ba Hanhan, who replaced the late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mihd-har, had previously spoke against the Al-Qaeda group and warned them from staying in Al-Hoatah, but the group didn’t heed his remarks.

Sheikh Hussein Ali Ba Han-han was born in Al-Hoatah in

1955, and studied there in Al-Hoatah Qu’ranic school. He was educated by Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Omer Bin Hisyah and later immigrated to Ha’el City, Saudi Arabia in 1970. Ever since, he has straddled between the two locations.

The Al-Faqih Ali family source added that the Al-Qaeda group had appointed another sheikh instead of Ba Hanhan, known as “Al-Mo’allem” [“The Teacher”], who is wanted by the authorities as one of the Al-Qa-eda elements in Al-Hoatah. They appointed “The Teacher” because Sheikh Ba Hanhan re-fused their ideology and doc-

trine, and opposed their pres-ence in Al-Hoatah.

A local in Al-Hoatah, Abdul-Wahed Bin Mansour, was shot by Al-Qaeda after citizens were warned not to leave their houses after military operations had be-gun. He affirmed that Al-Mihd-har was not killed by Al-Qaeda forces, but by the army, by mis-take. He later died from his in-juries a few days ago in a hospi-tal in Sana’a.

Mansour spoke about how Al-Hoatah and its people were surprised by the arrival of 26 military convoy trucks which stormed Al-Hoatah without a warning.

Provincial officials stated that the purpose of the convoy was to apprehend eight people for arson to Al-Farooq School.

The leader of the security convoy asked Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mihdhar to hand over the eight charged, but the situation was soon exacerbated to reach the point of exchanging fire be-tween the security men and the armed men of Sheikh Al-Mihd-har.

Al-Mihdhar was later was notified that he was wanted by the security forces and asked to give himself up. However things accelerated when the se-curity forces surrounded the

house of Al-Mihdhar where he took cover.

During the firefight, late in the afternoon, after forces or-dered women and children to vacate the house, one of Al-Mi-hdhar’s wives left the house and informed the security after and left him alone after announcing that her husband was seriously hurt with a foot injury. The ex-change of fire resumed shortly afterwards

Then, six hours after Al-Maghreb [dusk] security forces decided to storm the house, but found nothing but a dead body, with its limbs and entrails spread all over the room where he was killed.

The remains were so badly mangled that soldiers had to have his body identified by rela-tives to confirm that it was his.

The scene was horrific, some eye-witnesses: one of his hands was hanging over the window and one of his legs was found by the door.

That day, two of his brothers (Omer and Abdul-Bari) had strongly denounced any the idea that their brother Al-Mihdhar had AQ ties, and countered that it was a false and unfounded ac-cusation, deployed to justify the unnecessary consequence of es-calated events.

AQ cell captured and charged in Yemen, who later escaped prison in November 2006.

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com 5National Yemen TRAVEL

Regular flights operate the hour-long trip to Riyan-Mukalla airport, which lies surprisingly far (20 minutes) from Mukalla itself. I bee-lined straight to the interview and finished up some-time around noon, and so head-ed straight to the hotel.

The hotel I stayed in, the Hadramaut Hotel, fell on the near side of Mukalla from the airport, and was far enough away from the city centre for me to get a decent night’s sleep. A rusting sign, showing two dolphins, marked the hotel en-trance.

It was a slightly ageing struc-ture from the outside, but seemed quite agreeable from within. Most importantly, how-ever, it had a superb ocean view.

The staff were pleasant and mercifully non-bothersome. The check-in was painless. Where my Arabic failed they spoke English well.

I showered off in my room, and went downstairs to the out-door section of the hotel’s ‘Shibam Restaurant’, which looked across the sea to Mukal-la.

The menu wasn’t fussy, and was well-priced. I thought I’d save a big fish supper for dinner, and so instead opted for a sim-ple classic, Spaghetti Bolog-nese, which was surprisingly good.

It was early afternoon, and the sun was burning, or bronz-ing – dependent on your skin complexion. The waitress squinted as she brought out my lunch, “I don’t know how you can stand this heat.” I grinned and took my lunch.

I should confess that it was a very lazy afternoon that fol-lowed, and consisted of me basking in the sun, rhythmically turning the pages of my book. The rhythm was only broken by me occasionally stretching, or getting distracted by a passing fishing boat, curiously peering at its catch.

I called a local acquaintance as the sun went a fiery orange colour, and I was picked up by motorbike. We caught up over a quick fruit cocktail in a juice bar on the seafront, and on a walk through the older part of Mu-kalla.

A panicked hotel receptionist phoned me a little later that night whilst I was still in the city, and said that the tourism police insisted on me having protection. Figuring that in such events it’s just easier to ‘roll with it’, I acquiesced, if only out of bemusement.

A tourist policeman in a bright blue shirt greeted my friend and I (my acquaintance didn’t seem perturbed by such things). He beckoned over a po-lice wagon in which three other tourism police officers, and an armed chap from Yemen’s CSF (Central Security Forces) sat glumly in the back. They ac-companied us for the rest of the evening.

We subsequently spent an hour or so in the sheesha cafes on the cornice front, and had dinner in one of the bigger res-taurants, Al-Safina [The Ship].

When we emerged from The Ship the glum CSF soldier in the back had multiplied into a small detachment, complete with a vehicle-mounted ma-chine gun.

“I didn’t know it was so dan-gerous in Mukalla” I prompted.

“It isn’t” the gruff leader re-plied.

“So why do I need five armed escorts and a machine gun?”

“For your protection”“Oh”I guess I’d made my point,

but it was time to make my goodbyes to my local friend, and took a taxi back to the hotel. The reception staff seemed em-barrassed, and were overly apologetic about my armed es-cort. I told them not to worry about it.

The guards also asked me of my plans tomorrow. I told them, truthfully, I hadn’t decided – but I didn’t imagine I would be go-ing anywhere before ten.

I turned on the aircon, and the TV, and collapsed on my bed. I arose leisurely late morn-ing, and went down to get my breakfast on the terrace again.

The hotel manager found me breakfasting, and apologised again. He mentioned that the CSF truck was already waiting outside the hotel. I said that I was in no rush.

Before he left I enquired about the hotel dive centre (one of very few dive centres in Ye-men), but was reminded that I wouldn’t be able to fly if I dived this morning. I thought for a moment, and asked him about hiring a boat for the morning. The manager made a quick call.

I asked if the soldiers would follow me to sea too. The man-ager laughed, and suggested I go diving.

A couple of minutes later I watched a boat speeding from the harbour to the hotel jetty pier, which was down a flight of stairs from where I was sipping tea.

A few words with the helms-man, and I tumbled into the boat as it cruised off. I waved good-bye from the boat to the gaggle of uniforms. Only one of them returned my wave.

I plugged my iPod in, and thought about opening my book, but was content staring to sea and watching the landscape fly past, as the vessel cut down the coastline.

Past the nearby Mercure ho-tel I spotted a long row of uni-form, circular beach villas lined up against the shore. Coming from one end of the line the first villa only had a couple of walls and its concrete foundation. A

few villas later and it had more walls, and then part of the roof, then the whole roof, then win-dows, then paint, then furni-ture. It was as if the villa devel-opment project was slowly constructing itself.

The last villa ended with a satellite dish being placed on the very top of the green coni-cal roof, a bit like someone placing the cherry on top of a cupcake, as its final touch.

We skimmed further out to shore. I was momentarily lost in my thoughts and my music whilst gazing at the water. Something was moving in the water, but it didn’t immediately register.

I was looking at, but wasn’t seeing, the pod of dolphins sur-face in front of me. The first time I’d seen dolphins in the wild. They were a stunning, if cliché, sight.

Later, we eventually turned back. Back to the coast, back along the shore, back past the row of villas – this time they were dissembling themselves, back past the Mercure, back to the jetty where I breakfasted.

I showered and changed and packed and checked out. The CSF detachment was patiently waiting for me in the lobby.

I hadn’t arranged a taxi to the airport, and so was relying on hailing one down outside to catch my flight, but I wasn’t very lucky.

I asked if I could hitch a lift with my CSF protection team to the airport in lieu of me not finding a taxi, considering they’d be going that way any-way. Their precise response wasn’t worth remembering.

Eventually they stopped a car – it didn’t matter that it wasn’t a taxi – and told the driver to take me to the airport.

We left the hotel, passing out of the gates with the rusting dol-phins, and zoomed off in what felt like a police car chase – I was in the getaway car and the armed ‘protection’ detachment were in hot pursuit, all the way back to the airport. Looking back towards the rusting dol-phins I vowed, to revisit the scene of the crime.

Dolphins in Hadramaut

By Will Carter

Every so often, for those of us bound in Sana’a, we should occasionally ‘come up for air’. Going down to the sea, to Mukalla, is about a good a place as any. Last week I had an interview to do down there, but decided to take an extra day out of my schedule to unwind and recharge.

... I spotted a long row of uniform, circular beach villas lined up against the shore ... the first villa only had a couple of walls and its concrete foundation. A few villas later and it had more walls, and then part of the roof, then the whole roof, then windows, then paint, then furniture. It was as if the villa development project was slowly constructing itself.

The manager made a quick call... a couple of minutes later I watched a boat speeding from the harbour to the hotel jetty pier, which was down a flight of stairs from where I was sipping tea.

I was looking at, but wasn’t seeing, the pod of dolphins surface in front of me. The first time I’d seen dolphins in the wild. They were a stunning, if cliché, sight.

‘‘

‘‘

‘‘

• Hadramout Hotel offers a double for $65, and a triple for $75.• Rooms have A/C, en suite bathrooms (with baths) and satellite• Has a swimming pool, (modest) fitness centre, restaurant and dive centre.• 05-302060 / www.hadramothtl.com.ye

• Dive centre loans equipment and can refresh qualified divers, but not instruct (it can arrange for an instructor if notified in advance).

• There are 12 dive sites (excluding the house reef) in the vicinity, including a wreck dive.• Equipment hire is $25, and dives cost about $35• 777 953 153 / baashn@hotmail.com

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com6 National YemenADVERTISEMENTS

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com 7National Yemen ADVERTISEMENTS

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com8 National YemenADVERTISEMENTS

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com 9National Yemen SPORT

Yesterday morning the Ye-meni junior fencing team left for the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in order to participate in the competitions of the 17th Arab Tournament. The team is en-tered into the two categories, children and juniors

The tournament will be host-ed by Beirut from tomorrow, across the period of 4th to 11th October.

Five players represent our national team across both cate-gories, and they were selected according to their ceding in lo-cal tournaments, after they un-dertook intensive training in Sana’a, since the second day of the Eid, under the leadership of the Algerian expert and coach Mr. Zubair Abdul-Salam.

The team’s delegation is

composed of the following: Bassam Bishr, Secretary Gen-eral of the Federation and head of the delegation (who arrives in Beirut today), Sameer Badi, the ‘armourer’ (technical super-visor of the fencing blades and electronic equipment), Idari Zubair Abdul-Salam, the team coach, and Mohammed Al-Bah-ri the coordinator and media of-ficer.

The players include Zaid Shabjah, Muhannad Ahmed Oudhah, Abdul-Wahab Dahesh, Mohammed Dahesh, and Mo-hammed Al-Salemi.

In a statement, Sheikh Hus-sein Al-Shareef the Yemeni Fencing Federation chairman, said that he entered his post with the express intention of improving it to international

standards. He continued, saying that the

coming participation will, “in sha Allah, be a true beginning for our international achieve-ments and significant accredita-tion of our progress and the ef-forts exerted by all the members of the federation for both our progression and achievements.”

Al-Shareef also said that the federation had formerly suf-fered from the lack of a full-time coach to coach the players.

“We have therefore contract-ed the Algerian expert and Coach Zubair Abdul-Salam who arrived a while ago and started supervising, preparing, and qualifying the players to participate in Arab tournaments and acquire experience in order to take this game, which has

long since suffered, to a higher level.”

Al-Shareef concluded saying that the team has received strong preparatory training, es-pecially after a strong focus on

the technical skills required of the sport, and also as their spir-its are raised, as this is their first competition.

He wished that the players will reproduce the sportsman-

ship and quality shown in their preparatory training, and dem-onstrate strong performances in the competition to secure tour-nament medals and trophies.

Fencing Team Enters Arab TournamentNY Staff

NY Staff

NY Staff

As soon as the Algerian Team Coach Rabeh Sa’adan presented his resignation from training the team of his country following a negative draw ver-sus the Tanzanian team, Sudan rushed to officially negotiate with Sa’adan. Yemen began ne-gotiation with him as well, but in secret.

The leaderships of Yemen Football Association (YFA) de-

nied what the Yemeni and Alge-rian media say about the return of Coach Sa’adan to train the Yemeni team for the second time.

National Yemen newspaper published a statement for sourc-es close to the Algerian coach, two months ago, who talked of Sa’adan’s desire to return to Ye-men.

Once again, the sources af-

firmed that YFA has formally communicated with Sa’adan who is thinking seriously about accepting the Yemeni request to the Sudanese, despite the privi-leges Sudan has offered to him and the high level of the Suda-nese players.

The news were confirmed by the statements of the second vice-chairman of the YFA, Captain Jamal Hamdi who said

that the YFA has communicated with its Algerian counterpart in regards to bringing over Sa’adan to Yemen to coach the Yemeni team, instead of the Croatian Coach Uri Stretchco.

The General Secretary of the YFA, Dr. Hamid Al-Shaibani, is reported to have recently made complaints over the in-ability of the Croatian coach to train the Yemeni national team.

Yemen, Sudan Compete For Algerian Football Coach

Next Tuesday, our national youth football team initiates its participation in the Asia Youth Finals, which will be held dur-ing the 3rd and 7th October, and will be hosted in Zhibu city, China.

The team will play against a strong Australian counterpart, which is nominated for the championship, in its first match of the fourth group including the two teams of Iran and South Korea. This group is deemed to be one of the strongest, and has been dubbed “the Iron Group”.

The delegation of our na-tional team has held a prepara-tory camp in the industrial city of Chengdu, in south central China, which was programmed to have intense training as well as to provide an opportunity for the team to acclimatize.

During the camp, which lasted for ten days, our team

played two friendly matches, of which the first match ended in a nil-nil draw with the Chi-nese team Kieda Tianjin, the runner-up of the Chinese friendly tournament.

Despite our team’s domina-tion of the match, its attacks did not constitute any threat to the Tiangjin Kieda team due to the fact the team was down to only one striker, Salem Al-Mawza’ee, who found it diffi-cult to score between three Chinese defenders, and so the match ended with a draw with-out goals.

In its second friendly match, our national team for youth lost to the Saudi national team in a match held on the same field. The 2 – 0 result tempered peo-ples’ moods, before heading to the Chinese city of Zibo for participation in the Asia Finals.

The fixtures of our national youth football team in the Asia Youth Finals are:Yemen vs. Australia – Tuesday October 4Yemen vs. South Korea – October 6Yemen vs. Iran – October 8.

Youth Football Match: Yemen vs. Australia

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com10 National YemenBUSINESS

The Yemeni government briefed donors last Wednesday on the progress of working on the preparation for the 4th Five-Year Plan for Development and Alleviation of Poverty 2011 – 2015, in a work session presid-ed by the Vice Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Min-ister of Planning and Interna-tional Cooperation, Mr. Abdul-Kareem Ismael Al-Arhabi.

The Ministry of Planning gave presentations including the components and framework of the plan, the sector and local plans, the reform trends within the plan, and the efficiency of support.

Dr. Mutahar Al-Abbasi, Min-istry Undersecretary for the De-velopment Plans Sector, gave a detailed presentation on the general trends for the upcoming projects, which are focus on catalyzing overall economic growth, expanding social secu-rity and making tangible prog-ress in achieving the millenni-um goals.

Al-Abbasi added that the general themes of the plan will focus on diversifying productiv-ity for the national economy, enhancing security and political stability, deepening financial sustainability, and boosting op-portunities for merging with the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as expanding cooperation with partners.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Hawiri, Undersecretary for Economic Projections, gave a detailed ex-planation on the systematic method which realized the goals outlined in the preparatory plan, which had been adopted from the World Bank

Al-Hawiri said that prepara-tion of the plan happened through a joint committee of the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Oil and the Central Statistical Organiza-tion (CSO). It also included consultation workshops with the private sector and civil soci-

ety organizations at national and local levels.

He pointed out that the over-all framework of the plan in-cludes four components repre-sented in the overall evaluation of the performance of the third development plan 2006 – 2010: the development challenges; overall economic trends; pivots, and; objectives and policies.

Al-Hawiri said that the up-coming plan is facing ten chal-lenges, of which six are related to structuring, which are: high population growth, which amounts to 3%, the population dispersal, amounting to more than 130 thousand villages and population congregation; the lack of infrastructure; basic lim-ited services; weak develop-ment of human resources; the worsening of the financial and environmental crisis; prevalent weak institutional and adminis-trative structure; the limited fi-nancing resources, as well as the weakness of the current banking system.

Al-Hawiri also said that the emergency development chal-

lenges include: shortage of food security, the foreign economic and financial impacts, the cli-mate changes and the security imbalances.

He said that the plan under-pinned three general trends in-cluding catalyzing the overall economic growth via develop-ing manufacturing sectors, de-creasing dependence on oil and gas, expanding the social secu-rity and making palpable prog-ress in realizing the millennium goals.

He stressed that these trends will focus on diversifying the basis of productivity for the na-tional economy, enhancing po-litical security and stability, deepening the overall reforms, boosting the merge with the Gulf Cooperation Council, ex-panding the network of social security, expanding cooperation with the partners of develop-ment, boosting the local bal-anced development, achieving financial sustainability as well as developing human resources.

Al-Hawiri said that the gov-ernment has modeled many sce-

narios, with low, moderate and high likelihoods, in order to de-velop the plan. The plan will adopt the moderate scenario as it is the most acceptable and it combines reality and ambition.

This scenario is based on am-bition but realistic assumptions and reflects the government se-riousness in making overall re-forms.

He said the main indices of the moderate scenario targets achieving the real GDP 5.2 as well as achieving a growth rate of income per capita 2.2 reach-ing an inflation rate of 8.5%.

The plan anticipated that the quantity of oil will decline from 100 million barrels in 2010 to 72 million barrels by the end of 2015.

Al-Hawiri pointed out that the plan will generally focus on the policies of the government returns, the implementation process of the law of sales tax, the continuation of simplifying the customs procedures, de-creasing the levels of govern-ment support for energy via covering the budget deficit from

sectors which are non-inflation and other procedures related to the financial, monetary and banking policies.

Mr. Nabil Shaiban, Chairman of the Foreign Aids Unit in the ministry, gave a detailed expla-nation on the strategic goals of the plan which aims to enhance the capacity of state institutions, raising competency and effi-ciency of the administrative system, enhancing the principle of transparency and account-ability, reinforcing the sover-eignty of the law, broadening of the opportunities of the politi-cal, economic and social part-nership, expanding the fields of development cooperation with the partners of development, providing a suitable environ-ment for realizing the overall stability in addition to providing a suitable climate for invest-ment.

He said that this strategy will be implemented via reform of the civil service, reinforcing ac-countability, continuation of the economic and financial reforms, developing the investment envi-

ronment, reinforcing the inde-pendence of the Judiciary and sovereignty of the law, rights and freedoms as well as expand-ing the political partnership.

The government gave an evaluative presentation on the extent of implementation of the third (previous) Five-Year Plan in the human and production de-velopment sectors including ag-riculture, fishery and electricity where the government said it had achieved progress but not up to the required level.

Therefore, the fourth plan will restructure certain sectors like electricity, consolidate the service infrastructure in the fish sector, and encourage the local fish investment.

In the agriculture sector it will work on narrowing the ag-riculture gap, and in the educa-tion sector, it will focus during the coming period on encourag-ing basic education and provid-ing equal opportunities for both the rural and urban areas, and enhance the provision and de-livery of vocational training, in a manner that fits the current la-bor market.

Mr. Abdul-Kareem Al-Arha-bi, Vice Prime Minister for the Economic Affairs and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, gave a speech demonstrating the difficulties that faced the process of prepa-ration of the plan.

He said that until now, five provinces have not submitted their development plans to the ministry. Also, one of the minis-tries has not submitted its plan until now.

Al-Arhabi said that the per-haps the most pressing chal-lenge was the severe demand for better infrastructure. He said, “We are determined to co-ordinate between the plans and the policies in a manner that en-ables us to efficiently realize our goals.”

Government Briefs New Five Year PlanBy Fuad Al-Qadhi

He praised the positive role made by the family-owned companies in the Yemeni econ-omy in various fields, and point-ed out the need for the confer-ence to come up with the best formulas to make institutional transformations in such compa-nies and overcome difficulties, like the absence of separation between the possession and management, the lack to an ef-ficient mechanism to hand down experience to inheriting genera-tions, as well as the increasing cases of multi-party inheritance-related disputes.

Mr. Ahmed Ba Zara’ah, Chairman of the Yemen Busi-nessmen’s Club, discussed the closure of a number of family companies and trade entities due to the absence of the found-er in disputes, or due to disputes that led to the end of those com-panies or their dismantling into smaller entities.

He called on family-owned companies to make haste in ar-ranging their conditions and structuring of their institutions, and to separate possessions from management in order to avoid such debilitating disputes.

He referred to the efforts of the Yemen Businessmen Club efforts in reinforcing the princi-ples of making governmental

guidelines for companies which adopted new methods in man-agement and structure for its boards to get out of the financial crisis with the least losses.

Mr. Mohammed Abdu Sa’eed, Chairman of the Gener-al Union of the Trade Chambers for Industry, spoke about the challenges facing family-owned companies like the weakness of

the organizational structuring, absence of institutional capaci-ty, the lack of experience in dealing with the international markets, a lack of clear vision in preparing of the future leaders for family-owned companies and the usual rough transition between generations.

He called on going beyond the culture of management of

the family-owned company with the prospects of down-siz-ing companies and developing their portfolios into major com-panies, whether by strategic al-liances or cooperative work.

He also stressed the need to lay a strategic, organizational framework to move on to distin-guishing between the family, business, and possessions, and

moving on to the successful leadership of coming genera-tions.

He announced establishment of a permanent work unit to an-alyze and track the activities of the family-owned companies in Yemen in the General Union of the Trade and Industrial Cham-bers.

He also recommended estab-

lishing a partnership fund among the family-owned com-panies to finance local and inter-national research and consul-tancy that would help develop those companies and establish of a local center for the prepara-tion of future leaders of family-owned companies.

Continued from ( 3 ) Family-Owned Companies in Yemen: Inter-generational Difficulties

Sunday, Oct 03, 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com 11National Yemen TOURISM

By Jihan Anwar

The United Nation World Tourism Organization (UNW-TO) has, ever since 1980, cho-sen the 27th September as the World Tourism Day, and next year it has selected Yemen to host the global event.

The occasion has a differ-ent theme every year. Thirty World Tourism Days have been celebrated in different conti-nents and countries so far, from among them: Qatar in 2005; Ghana in 2009 while this year, 2010, is being hosted in Guang-zhou, China.

“The next WTD [2011] will be hosted in Yemen and the theme will be ‘Linking Cul-tures’”, said Shirin El Tayan Tayan to the National Yemen, a board member of the UNWTO Secretariat.

At the official ceremony held at the Sheraton Hotel, Yemeni Minister of Tourism, Nabil Al Fakeh, stressed the importance of improving and investing in this sector, which, if properly managed, could help alleviate poverty in Yemen, particularly in rural areas.

The theme for this year’s celebration in China is ‘Tour-ism and Biodiversity’. Taleb Al Rifaee, UNWTO General Secretary, said at the ceremony in Guangzhou that the modern technologies which the country progresses have been endanger-ing the fragile balance of the environment. He further high-lighted the mutually dependent relation between the two, restat-ing our shared safeguarding re-sponsibilities.

The bio-diversity protection has intrinsic importance with economy boosting, especially in a country like Yemen, rich and diversified in its cultural and natural world but that hasn’t yet realised its tremendous tourism prospects.

In Yemen UNESCO has nominated three World Heritage sites -Sana’a old city, Shibam (in Hadramout) and the entire Socotran archipelago.

Abdultalib Salah, from the Tourism Ministry spoke about the role of the tourism industry in Yemen and its job creation and employment.

Ifrah Abu Ghanim, from the Environment Protection Au-thority, expressed her concern about the under evaluation of the environment potential in Yemen and the necessity to up-grade third sector facilities to support the international as well as the regional tourism.

A policy of the UNWTO is to promote several areas that directly and indirectly relate to tourism. During the celebra-tions, winning competitors in the photography, story-writing and visual arts among others were also selected.

Foreign companies work-ing in Yemen were rewarded, among them: Maurizio Paz-zelli - Yemen Island, Tina Zor-man Internal Yemen; Beatrice De Filippis- Al Ma’moon and Fethullah Karakoc- Al Safaa.

Captain Maurizio Pazzelli, owner of the Boreas of Khatari-na ship which organizes cruises in the Mediterranean and Red

Sea, explains that the tourism was very rich before a couple of years, but because of the alarm-ing and unfounded negative information transmitted by the media, there has been a declin-ing in the activity.

“The image foreign media portrays makes look visiting Ye-men as being more dangerous than Kabul, in Afghanistan”, the Captain commented.

In fact a UNWTO survey es-tablished that in 2009 the tour-ism sector declined by 3-4% but

the expectations were that in 2010 there would be an increase of the same amount.

It has been estimated that in the year 2009 around 1.2 mil-lion people visited Yemen, but over 500,000 of those were Ye-menis living abroad.

Most of the international tourists, however were from gulf countries, while Europeans (making 10%) formed the sec-ond major international com-munity of visitors.

It might be true that negative

international publicity affects the tourism business, but there are other reasons if the tourism sector is sparsely populated, even before the terrorism para-noia.

The hotels and tourist ac-commodations standards vary greatly throughout the country. Tourists comment that local people are very friendly and welcoming but often complain that there is a lack of good man-agement and quality service.

Hospitality and other voca-

tional training is almost inexis-tent and not considered in rural areas, and local labourers are rarely employed.

There is still a general igno-rance about the concept of tour-ism. Generally people who are not in the sector, both in rural and urban areas, don’t even re-alize how the arrival of tourists in their regions could improve their livelihoods.

Yemen Will Host 2011 World Tourism Day

National YemenSunday, Oct 03 , 2010 Issue 16 www.nationalyemen.com CONGRATULATIONS