Yemen Snapshot: Young Protesters "Lose Control of the Cause They Started" (Boone)

Jeb Boone writes for Global Post:

Yemen’s young people, who began holding anti-government protests outside of Sanaa University five months ago, have lost control of the cause they started.

A consortium of political parties — which, although have for years stood in opposition to President Ali Abdullah Saleh, still represent for most Yemenis a corrupt government system — have effectively hijacked the protest movement.

In the tent city where it all began, now known as Change Square, it is entrenched politicians belonging to the so-called Joint Meetings Parties (JMP), a fragile coalition of opposition groups that includes Islamists, Nasserites, and Cold War-era socialists, who have taken control of the stage and the microphone.

Pushed to the edge of the protest camp, many of the independent youth now feel as though they must fight two fights. One against the JMP, which they say has co-opted their revolution, and the other against Saleh — a fight that began in earnest shortly after Egyptians successfully forced their leader, Hosni Mubarak, out of office in February.

Visibly exhausted, many of them are still recovering from gunshot wounds and other injuries they sustained on their last march on May 11 — almost two months ago — when they were assaulted by sniper fire. Since then they’ve only managed to hold a single march, to the home of Saleh’s deputy and acting president, Abd Rabbu Mansur Hadi.

“The JMP blocks the independent youth from marching 100 percent of the time,” said Dr. Hamza Alshargabi, a member of the Coordinating Council for the Youth Revolution of Change, or CCYRC.

In a worrying development for the independent protesters, soldiers who had defected to protect the demonstrators from any further government attacks, turned on the youth as they staged a sit-in in front of Hadi’s house, forcing them back within the borders of Change Square in early June.

“The worst thing the JMP has done is turned the defected 1st Armored Division against us,” Alshargabi said.

The JMP coalition’s most powerful political party, Islah, is now largely in control of Change Square’s day to day activities, which are being funded by Hamid Al-Ahmar, a billionaire businessman, tribal leader and leading Islah party figure.

“Funding comes from several donors but most of our funding comes from the Islah party,” said Mahfouz Al-Riyashi, who is acting as the financial manager for activities inside Change Square.

The Islah party, for instance, is paying to feed the thousands of protesters still living in Change Square. Restaurants surrounding the square have been converted into industrial-sized kitchens with enormous vats of beans, rice and vegetable stew distributed to protesters on a daily basis, all of it funded by Islah.

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