Blacks Also Charge Discrimination at National Dialogue Conference
SANA'A — The Jewish community was denied participation in Yemen's National Dialogue Conference (NDC) which opened last week after lengthy delays, despite promises that they would be represented at the conference, aimed at deciding the country's future.
The opening day of the conference last week was declared a public holiday, allowing Yemenis to better follow the talks, expected to last at least six months, on radio and television.
The Jewish community had little to celebrate, however, after being completely excluded from representation among the conference's 565 delegates. "We were shocked when we found out that we were excluded from participation in the NDC, especially after we had been promised by the government to be represented by five delegates," Jewish community leader Rabbi Yahya Yousef Mosa told The Media Line.
"We were the first group to send its nominees to the Technical Committee for the NDC and our nominees were approved both by President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the committee," he said. "But unexpectedly none of our nominees were on President Hadi's list announced a day before the opening session."
Hadi had the right to pick 62 delegates to the conference. Minorities and independent representatives were supposed to be included in his list, but it was dominated by tribal and political figures. The Ismaili community, which like the Jewish community has about 200 members, was also denied representation. Tens of thousands of Jews once lived in Yemen, but today the tiny remnants of that community can be found in the Sana'a and Amran provinces.
"We have been feeling disappointed since the presidential decree naming the delegates was issued. People from inside and outside Yemen contact us and ask us about the dialogue and we are too embarrassed to tell them the truth after we announced that we would be participating in the NDC," added Mosa.
The exclusion of Yemeni Jews from the dialogue makes them feel as though they are not Yemeni citizens, Mosa said, calling on Hadi and the Technical Committee to quickly include Jews in the NDC.
Fuad Al-Alawi , chairman of the Sawa'a Organization for Anti-Discrimination, told The Media Line, "We consider this an intentional exclusion of minorities…The minorities should be an essential part of the NDC talks because they have issues to bring to the NDC discussions."
These communities suffer from discrimination because of their religion or the color of their skin, Al-Alawi said, adding that "the government is continuing to indirectly encourage violence by rewarding powerful and militant groups and ignoring the peaceful minorities."
Al-Alawi said his organization sent a formal letter to the General Secretariat of the NDC calling on them to include minorities such as Yemeni Jews in the talks.
Calls to the president's office for a comment went unanswered, and NDC Secretary General Ahmed Bin Mubarak could not be reached either. The prime minister's media advisor also refused to comment on the matter.
Despite being excluded, Mosa said the most important thing is what is in the best interest of Yemen, urging NDC members to prioritize the nation's interests over their narrow, personal ones.
Even larger groups decried discrimination in the make-up of the delegates. The Al-Akhdam community, some 1,500,000 blacks also known as “the marginalized people,” were only represented by one delegate. The Al-Akhdam are considered to be on the bottom of the social ladder and do mostly menial jobs.
In his speech, their delegate Noman Al-Hudaifi demanded that NDC delegates renounce racism. He complained that his people have long been discriminated against for no reason but the color of their skin. His speech drew loud applause.
While minorities and marginalized people were being excluded, the conference found room for the participation of three brothers, a husband and wife, and other cases of multiple candidates from the same family.
In the past few days, the NDC general sessions have captured the attention of the Yemeni people, who follow it live on radio and carefully listen to what the NDC delegates have to say. At home, on buses or in cafeterias, people listen to the talks, some arguing that Yemen's future depends on these vital discussions.
Yemenis have different views on the discussions. While some people said they believe the conference will be a success, others were pessimistic and doubted the dialogue will be fruitful.
Driver Mohammed Ahmed, 30, who was listening to the speeches on his minibus radio, told The Media Line that he believes the NDC members will eventually come up with resolutions that will prevent conflicts in Yemen.
"It's a good thing to listen to the representatives of all the political parties and factions discuss the nation's issues in a civilized way that's a dialogue," he said. "Getting political opponents together under one roof is not an easy feat."
"I believe these talks will yield a positive and fruitful outcome," retired army officer Gialan Al-Subihi, 50, told The Media Line. "Yes, a few representatives boycotted the sessions, but I don't think that will negatively impact the talks." He was referring to Nobel Peace laureate Tawakol Karaman and a few others who have boycotted the talks to protest what they called "unfair representation."
Others, however, did not see anything of value emerging from the talks. "I'm afraid that the NDC will be like our national football team," said Khaled Ali, 27, an avid sports fan. "I believe the talks will reach an impasse as every participant is trying to pull the rope to his party's side."
Engineer Abdultawab Al-Salwi, 48, told The Media Line that he doesn't expect much from the talks either.
"I listen to the speeches of the NDC delegates on the radio, but the way I see it the participants have no common goal and will eventually fail to reach conciliatory outcomes," Al-Salwi said as he chewed leaves of Qat, a narcotic plant chewed daily by more than half of Yemen's population.
The dialogue will succeed if the members put aside their narrow interests for the sake of what's important for the nation, he said, adding, "Until now the NDC members have not shown they have this important trait. Also, some groups, including the youths, who led the uprising against [former Yemeni president] Saleh, and the minorities were not represented fairly in the NDC…This is not a good omen for the success of the talks."
"The ball is now in the NDC delegates' court," Hani Al-Ahdal, 25, sitting behind his studio desk, told The Media Line. "If they fail to come up with fruitful results, they will be cursed by this generation and the generations to come."
A central part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-brokered, UN-backed power transfer deal that saw former President Ali Abdullah Saleh leave office after 33years in power, the NDC is aimed at deciding Yemen's future and how to resolve its challenges. It will also pave the way for rewriting Yemen's constitution and holding democratic presidential elections in 2014.
GCC member states – Yemen's neighbors – and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), which are sponsoring the GCC-arranged deal, are pinning big hopes on the conference. They consider it an opportunity for Yemen to ease political turmoil and deal with other challenges.
These include calls for secession in the south, a Shi'ite insurgency in the north, Al-Qa'ida activity in southern and southeastern parts of the country, and other economic and security challenges.
Yemen's stability is an international priority — a fact due largely to its strategic location near busy shipping lanes through which three million barrels of oil pass daily. Additionally, the US and other Western countries fear that if Yemen — home to Al-Qa'ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) — plunges into chaos, it will give the terror network a place to thrive and from which to launch attacks against Western interests. AQAP is considered by Washington to be the most dangerous branch of Al-Qa'ida's terror network; the group has plotted several failed attacks on targets on American soil.