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Photograph YemenTimes |
Thousands of people from South Yemen, came out on the streets carrying flags of the former Southern Yemen state and holding photographs of the former Southern President Ali Salem Al-Beidh on Sunday, to mark the 19th anniversary of the declaration of war in 1994. The North declared war against the South, after Al-Beidh announced the South's secession from the North.
Addressing the gathered crowds, Colonel Nasser Al-Nawba, the founder of the Southern Movement, or Hirak, said:
“We did our best to maintain peaceful protests in spite of the large number of participants who gathered in Aden to commemorate this painful anniversary,”
“The 1994 war was unjust, killed thousands of innocent people and imposed the unity on us."
Referring to efforts to bring the two sides closer together via the National Dialogue Conference, Al-Nawba said:
“We respect the opinions presented in the NDC to solve the Southern Issue, including federalism, but we demand self-determination and separation to regain our state. Then we can start the dialogue. Otherwise, it’s impossible to agree to any other solutions.”
Southern representatives took the NDC by surprise, launching a sit-in protest to mark the 19th anniversary of the declaration of war. They called on the Yemeni government to issue a formal apology for the war crimes committed against the South during the war in order for meaningful dialogue. See video of protest here.
