SANAA — President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s inking of a power transfer deal has failed to convince thousands of Yemeni youths who are still staging a sit-in demonstration, proclaiming their revolution far from over. Protesters from the “Youth Revolution” who initiated the uprising accuse traditional opposition parties, backed by prominent tribal forces, of having stolen their revolt by sharing power with Saleh’s regime.
Hammud Hazza, an activist who camps in Change Square — the epicentre of anti-government protests in Sanaa since February — insists that “we have no alternative to the revolution.” “Our main demands are: not to grant Saleh any immunity; to overthrow all members of his government; and to establish a modern state,” said Hazza.
Unimpressed protesters still spend their nights in Change Square, a huge camp of hundreds of tents set up outside Sanaa University which has spread to surrounding streets across the capital’s north. The camp has grown into a small town within Sanaa where a podium stands from which speeches are made each day, surrounded by small shops that sell civilian and military suits.
Meanwhile, one woman, “Taghrid Hammoud, died after being hit by a bullet, and six protesters, including two women, were also wounded by gunfire,” a medical official said. A second woman, Rouia Shibani, 27, who was also taking part in the protest, was shot dead by a sniper near Al Huriya (Liberty) Square, the epicentre of anti-regime protests in the city, the same source said. The medic said that a 65-year-old among the wounded was in a serious condition. — AFP
