Jawa has been tracking the protests in South Yemen since May 22 when they began. The movement is growing, and the regime's response has become more violent. Today's demonstration in Aden resulted in over 300 arrests and numerous injuries according to Jawa's sources.

IHT reports on the demonstrations and mentions the persistent land theft, politicized employment, and institutionalized discrimination prevalent in the former South Yemen.

Hundreds of riot police fired bullets and tear gas Saturday to disburse thousands of retired officers and soldiers in southern Yemen who were demanding to be allowed back into the military, police and protesters said...
The Yemeni government deployed dozens of armored vehicles Saturday and sealed off several roads in the southern port city of Aden where the protest was taking place, said a police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The security measures were intended to prevent additional people from joining the demonstration. During the first protest in early August (ed-no, the first protest was in May and there was another in July), one person was reportedly killed and some 1,000 arrested when thousands of demonstrators marching toward downtown Aden clashed with police....

Over 10,000 citizens protested last week in the city of Taiz. The Yemen Times reported among their concerns were lack of water. (The city of 3.5 million gets water once every 40 days. The other 39 days, people have to buy drinking water.)

The protestors lifted banners that stated, “Water is evaporation and fire bills,” “Stop fatal price hikes,” “Taiz is the city of poverty, unemployment and drought” and “Bread and water are our demands.” One of the protesters threw an empty plastic bag formerly containing wheat at the mayor’s face while he spoke with Al-Jazeerah channel. The organizing committee along with the governor’s heightened security contained the situation before it developed into anything serious.

Meanwhile, Dr. Abdur-Rahman Al-Azraqi, first secretary of the Yemeni Socialist Party, stated, “This sit-in came as a result of price hikes and unprecedented deterioration of citizens’ living standards.”

He went on to say that Taiz governorate suffers from many crises such as electricity and water price hikes, deterioration of health conditions as well as the spread of unemployment among youth and poverty. Taiz has a population of 3.5 million. The governmental institutions suffer from corruption.

Al-Azraqi considered the meeting held by the governor and opposition parties last Monday as a news copout that does not convince even children. He also said that promises pledged by the governor have been raised before while crises are growing steadily.

The war in Northern Sa'ada is not quite over either. And and and, they keep beating up al-Khaiwani:

The journalist and political researcher, Abdul-Kareem Al-Khaiwani, who is a member of the popular forces political party, was abducted and attacked by unknown security personnel last Monday.

Al-Khaiwani stated, “The president should treat me as a Yemeni citizen, admitting my rights and preventing the security bodies from harming me. As president of the republic, he should not publicly declare me as his enemy. He should not writhe with fury and indignation against me, encouraging security bodies to annoy me. I fear they may murder me and my family members if I again write against the regime or against the president,” Al-Khaiwani added.

However the regime says he beat himself up to embarrass the security forces: "The allegations are pure lies and fabrications similar to a play arranged with the objective of offending the reputation of the security agencies and the political regime, pluralism and democracy," the state-run media quoted an unidentified security official as saying.

That part about pluralism and democracy is a killer.

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