Yemen looks to emergency powers
Yemen’s parliament met at the request of the country’s embattled president today to impose emergency law for 30 days to deal with the uprising demanding his removal.
The law gives security forces far-reaching powers of arresting and detaining suspects, suspends the constitution, allows censorship of the media and bars street protests.
It comes as Mr Saleh has already dramatically increased his crackdown on anti-government demonstrators, with his security forces shooting dead more than 40 protesters on Friday in the capital Sanaa.
Support for the president has also been crumbling, with senior military commanders, tribal leaders, diplomats, politicians, provincial governors and newspaper editors joining the opposition.
Mr Saleh, who has ruled Yemen for 32 years, warned of civil war as the opposition rejected his offer to step down by the end of the year. He also called for a dialogue with the leaders of the youth movements leading the protests at a central Sanaa square that has become the movement’s centre.
His warning of a civil war underscored his determination to cling to power and raised fears that Yemen could be pushed into even greater instability. In a potentially explosive split, rival factions of the military have deployed tanks in Sanaa – with units commanded by Mr Saleh’s son protecting the president’s palace, and units loyal to a top dissident commander protecting the protesters.
