Our Revolution Is Uniting Yemen

    Yemen's struggle to overthrow the president has
    brought stability and peace to a country riven by
    conflict. This is truly historic

by Tawakkol Karman
Guardian (UK)
April 8, 2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/apr/08/revolution-saleh-yemen-peace-historic

The revolution in Yemen began immediately after the
fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia on 14 January. As I always
do when arranging a demonstration I posted a message on
Facebook, calling on people to celebrate the Tunisian
uprising on 16 January.

The following day a group of students from Sana'a
University asked me to attend a vigil in front of the
Tunisian embassy. The crowd was shouting: "Heroes! We
are with you in the line of fire against the evil
rulers!" We were treated roughly by the security
forces, and we chanted: "If, one day, a people desires
to live, then destiny will answer their call," and "The
night must come to an end" - the mantra of the
revolutionaries in Tunisia.

The demonstration was astonishing; thousands turned up,
and Sana'a witnessed its first peaceful demonstration
for the overthrow of the regime. "Go before you are
driven out!" we cried.

That night student and youth leaders visited me, along
with the human rights activist Ahmed Saif Hashid and
the writer Abdul Bari Tahir. We agreed that we could
not let this historic moment pass us by, and that we
too could spark a peaceful revolution to demand an end
to a despotic regime. We decided there was to be no
backing down, despite the repression we knew would
come. The rallies grew daily, even though the
government deployed thugs against us.

After a week of protests I was detained by the security
forces in the middle of the night. This was to become a
defining moment in the Yemeni revolution: media outlets
reported my detention and demonstrations erupted in
most provinces of the country; they were organised by
students, civil society activists and politicians. The
pressure on the government was intense, and I was
released after 36 hours in a women's prison, where I
was kept in chains.

After my release I continued to demonstrate .
Invitations were sent to all parties - including the
people of the south, the Houthis in the north, the
tribes, trade unions, civil society organisations and
the army - to join the peaceful student revolution and
demand an end to the regime. We encouraged them to
overlook their differences and assured them that Yemen
would be better off without Ali Abdullah Saleh; that
the Yemeni people could resolve their own problems,
including the war in Sa'ada, the issue of south Yemen
and the question of terrorism. We believe we can
establish a civil state with the rule of law. This was
the message in the first weeks of the revolution.

Around the country, in places like Ta'az, Aden and Al-
Hadidah, tents sprang up for vigils, copying Cairo's
Tahrir Square. Hundreds of thousands poured into these
"squares of liberation and change". With the inclusion
of all sections of society, the revolution had outgrown
the student movement.

So what happens when the regime falls, as it must? We
are in the first stage of change in our country, and
the feeling among the revolutionaries is that the
people of Yemen will find solutions for our problems
once the regime has gone, because the regime itself is
the cause of most of them. A new Yemen awaits us, with
a better future for all. We are not blind to reality,
but the fact is that the revolution has created social
tranquillity across the country as the people put their
differences to one side and tackle the main issue
together - no mean feat, given that there are an
estimated 70m weapons in Yemen.

In five years my country has witnessed six wars, but
now the people's guns are silent; they have chosen
peaceful change. Despite the fact that hundreds of
protesters have been killed by the regime, not one
police officer or security agent has been killed by the
masses. Even Ma'arab, the most unruly and turbulent
province, has witnessed its first peaceful
demonstrations.

Violent tribesmen who have fought each other for
decades have come together in "liberation squares";
blood feuds have been forgotten. When snipers killed
more than 50 protesters and wounded 1,000 on the Friday
of Dignity, it was the young who arrested the culprits;
not one was attacked or injured, despite the anger and
the blood that had flowed in the streets. This was the
peaceful nature of the revolution in practice.

For the first time people in the south stopped calling
for separation, raised the national flag and demanded
an end to the regime. It's been truly historic. The
country is united in its aim to rid itself of the
regime through public vigils and rallies, civil
disobedience and slogans instead of tear gas and
bullets.

We are confident that our revolution has already
succeeded and that the regime of Saleh has in effect,
already collapsed. This is a regime that carried out 33
years of rule through blood and corruption. We have
brought it to its knees through our determination to
remain in the squares for months if necessary, and
through the steadfastness of our young people who have
confronted the bullets of the regime with bared chests.
With politicians and members of the army standing
beside us, our success will go even further.

We cannot let the bogeyman of al-Qaida and extremism be
used to stall historic change in our country; Saleh
invokes this threat in an attempt to cling to power, as
if he is the only one capable of bringing stability and
tackling terrorism. It would be foolish to believe his
lies. .

Let us be clear: the Yemeni revolution has already
brought internal stability to a state riddled with war
and conflict. I call on the global community to support
the peaceful revolution as it did in Tunisia and Egypt.
I call on the United States and the European Union to
tell Saleh that he must leave now, in response to the
demands of his people. They should end all support for
his regime, especially that which is used to crush
peaceful opposition - tear gas canisters have "Made in
America" on them. They should freeze the Saleh family's
assets and those of Saleh's henchmen and return them to
the people.

If the US and Europe genuinely support the people, as
they say, they must not betray our peaceful revolution.
It is the expression of the democratic will of the
overwhelming majority of the people of Yemen.

[Tawakkol Karman chairs Women Journalists Without
Chains. She is a human rights activist and leader of
the popular revolution movement in Yemen.]

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