Yemen leader proposes drawing up new constitution

[March 10, 2011]  SANAA, Yemen (AP) -- Yemen's embattled president proposed Thursday that the government draw up a new constitution guaranteeing the independence of the parliament and judiciary, but thousands of unsatisfied protesters poured into the streets after his speech to demand the ouster of the Yemeni ruler of 32 years.

The demonstrators have set up protest camps in the capital and the cities of Aden and Taiz, saying they won't leave until U.S.-backed President Ali Abdullah Saleh does. The opposition promptly rejected Saleh's latest offer.

Saleh, an ally in the Obama's administrations fight against al-Qaida, has been making a series of concessions to head off a movement seen as one of the most serious threats to an Arab government inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

He told thousands of supporters gathered at a stadium in Sanaa that a new constitution would be drafted by the end of year establishing the separation of legislative and executive powers. The president currently controls all other branches of government.

Saleh said he ordered the government to "fulfill the demands of the youth camping in Sanaa, Aden and Taiz and in other cities but without sit-ins or chaos."

Shortly after Saleh finished his speech, some 4,000 people, mostly students, took to the streets and headed toward the main square in Sanaa, calling for his downfall.

Also in the capital, some 5,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists and medics from all over the country, marched toward the central square in the downtown, wearing their white robes and decrying this week's shooting by army troops of anti-government protesters gathered at Sanaa University. There were many women among the marchers Thursday.

"What a shame! What a shame! Peaceful demonstrations fired on," they shouted.

Opposition leader Yassin Said Numan said Saleh's initiative came too late.

"The president's initiative has been overtaken by events and facts on the ground today, but if it came six months ago, the matter would be totally different," Numan told The Associated Press. Nevertheless, he said the opposition parties would study the proposal before sending an official rejection back to Saleh.

Saleh told the gathering that he was aware the opposition would reject his offer but he had to let the people know about it.

Saleh pledged in his Thursday address that Yemen would hold general elections and form a new government by early 2012.

The government and the opposition agreed in 2009 to extend the current parliament's term for two years, until February 2011.

The Saleh-dominated assembly had wanted to hold parliamentary elections next month, but the opposition has rejected holding the ballot without reforming the election law first. The controversy over the issue has shelved any immediate plans for the election.

The tensions in Yemen escalated dramatically this week with the shooting Tuesday evening at the Sanaa University, when government troops fired live ammunition, killing one person and wounding scores of others.

Students have been sleeping on campus in an anti-government protests since mid-February, shortly after the start of the nationwide protests calling on Saleh to step down. Yemen's Interior Minister, Gen. Mouthar al-Masri, told reporters Wednesday night that gunfire from the rooftop of a building near the university led to the clashes.

Human rights groups and the U.S. criticized Yemen's crackdown on protests. In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Wednesday called on both sides to show restraint. "We urge the government of Yemen to investigate and hold accountable those who appear to have utilized excessive force," he said.

Saleh's pledge not to run for re-election in 2013 has failed to defuse the protests, as have his calls for a unity government with opposition figures.

Even before Yemen was hit by the weeks of, the country was growing increasingly chaotic with a resurgent al-Qaida, a separatist movement in the south and an off-on Shiite rebellion in the north vexing the government, which has little control outside major urban areas and in the lower lawless hinterland.

[Associated Press; By AHMED AL-HAJ]

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