Major Yemen tribe urges Saleh to step down

Leader of Hashed asks president to concede to people's demands as funerals are held for dead protesters. Last Modified: 20 Mar 2011 10:56

Yemen's human rights minister has resigned in protest after 52 demonstrators were killed in Friday's attack [AFP] Yemen's most powerful tribal confederation has called on Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country's longtime president, to step down after his bloody crackdown on protesters. Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, the leader of Hashed, which includes Saleh's tribe, issued a statement on Sunday asking Saleh to respond to the people's demands and leave peacefully. It was co-signed by several religious leaders, who met at al-Ahmar's residence late on Saturday night. Huge crowds were joining Sunday's burial procession of some of the 52 protesters killed on Friday, the bloodiest single day of the monthlong uprising. The killings prompted condemnation from the UN and the US, which backs his government with hundreds of millions in military aid to battle an al-Qaeda offshoot based in Yemen's mountainous region. Police stormed on Saturday a protest camp in the southern port city of Aden and fired tear gas and live rounds, wounding three anti-government demonstrators. Ministerial resignations The escalating violence has rocked the government of Saleh, and resulted in four ministerial resignations, as well as the resignation of Yemen's ambassador to the UN. The diplomat, Abdullah Alsaidi, resigned in protest over violence against demonstrators, a Yemeni foreign ministry official said on Sunday. "Mr Alsaidi has sent his resignation to the president's office and the foreign ministry." Baan became the third Yemeni minister to resign in as many days [AFP] Earlier, Huda al-Baan, Yemen's human-rights minister, said she had resigned in protest from the government and the ruling party over the sniper attack on demonstrators. Baan said in a statement late on Saturday that her resignation was to protest the "massacre" of demonstrators demanding the departure of Saleh, who has been in power since 1978. The undersecretary at the ministry, Ali Taysir, also resigned in protest. Al-Baan became the third Yemeni minister to resign in as many days. Nabil al-Faqih, the minister of tourism, resigned on Friday over the "unjustifiable use of force" against protesters, while the minister of religious endowments Hamoud al-Hattar resigned earlier in the week. The chief of the state news agency has also stepped down, along with Yemen's ambassador to Lebanon. Witnesses said pro-government "thugs" on Friday rained bullets from rooftops near a square at Sanaa University, which for weeks has been the centre of demonstrations calling for the end of Saleh's rule. Medics said at least 52 people were killed and over 120 wounded in the bloodbath.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies