Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Womens' Rights Campaigner Warns of Yemani Uprisings

A campaigner for women's rights in Yemen has claimed that key figures in the anti-government protest movement are abusing human rights and have been responsible for some of the worst atrocities during the unrest.

"To those who talk of a pro-democracy Arab spring in my country," she told the Observer in London, where she is seeking asylum, "I would say that it was not President Saleh who threatened my life or made me too frightened to carry on with my work or stay in Yemen, it was the opposition."

"Sara" does not want to give her real name out of fear for the consequences for her family and colleagues back in Yemen, but she is anxious to highlight what she believes is a profound misunderstanding in the west of what is really going on in her country, where over 400 people have died since the start of the uprising.

"I welcomed the protests when the young people first starting gathering in Sana'a in what they have renamed Change Square. Yemen needs change and an end to the corruption, but when the shooting and shelling started in March, the people in the square were the innocents caught in the middle of the real battle for power that is still going on."

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