Two Protesters Killed at Yemen Rally
SAN’A, Yemen—Two protesters were killed late Tuesday night, the first fatalities in a week of peaceful demonstrations outside San’a University in Yemen’s capital, according to paramedics at the protest.
Ten other men were wounded when shots were fired from amid pro-government demonstrators into the crowd in a significant escalation of tensions in the country, people who witnessed the shooting said.
Protesters said the gunmen were pro-government supporters. The Yemeni government denies any connection to the armed men.
Last night’s violence started when around 2,000 pro- and antigovernment demonstrators started throwing stones at each other, according to witnesses at the scene. Police, who were there to separate the two crowds, started firing in the air to disperse protesters, but then fled as pro-government demonstrators started to shoot live ammunition into the crowd. Using automatic weapons and pistols, pro-government men pushed the crowds back, firing indiscriminately, according to witnesses.
“Fifty baltegeya started running towards us with AK-47s in their hands,” said Fouad Sharabi, a 25-year-old protester, his eyes red and his voice shaking. Baltegeya, or thug, is what the antigovernment protestors call the president’s supporters. Mr. Sharabi said the baltegeya are a mixture of plain-clothed police and paid tribesmen.
After the initial panic to get the injured out, irate antigovernment protesters rallied in front of San’a University, where they have made a makeshift camp over the past few days. “The president is a terrorist,” said one protester, who drove 80 miles to San’a with other members of his tribe from Marib, in Yemen’s eastern desert. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for three decades, said Monday that he wouldn’t step down.
Full of multicolored tents, the camp is at the head of a T-intersection, between three streets, in the center of the capital. Antigovernment protesters have made a human barrier on each street to face off against the president’s supporters, with men carrying bundles of concrete chunks. Late into the early hours of the morning, panic returned as rumors of more fighting spread through the crowds.
Men quickly grabbed large sticks and made mad dashes towards the front lines, before slowly filtering back as the rumor subsided. Men made small piles of rocks by their feet, ready to be thrown.
Although there have been clashes before, and deaths at protests are common in other cities in Yemen, the violence is unusual in the capital and there are fears it could escalate.
Khaled al Anesi, a protest leader and human-rights lawyer, said the peaceful demonstrators would only grow in numbers as the president’s supporters use violence. “With every bullet, every drop of blood, we become stronger,” he said.
