Tuesday, May 6, 2008, Rabi-ul-Sani 29, 1429    

Zaidi rebels in new peace talks with Yemen govt

Sanaa— New peace talks are under way between the Yemeni authorities and Zaidi rebels to try to contain renewed clashes that have left at least 52 people dead since Friday, the rebels said on Monday.

“We met in Saada on Sunday in the presence of the Qatari mediators,” the rebels’ chief negotiator Saleh Habra told AFP by telephone from the northern province which has been a rebel stronghold. “

A new meeting is planned for this afternoon with a view to calming the situation and resolving the crisis.” A further 19 rebels were killed in clashes with the army in Saada province on Sunday, raising the weekend death toll to 52, a local official said.

The clashes were sparked by an army offensive to recapture Dafaa military camp which has been in rebel hands for the past three months, the official said.

In a French radio interview, rebel leader Abdul Malak al-Huthi blamed the army for the bloodshed.“The renewed tension is because of the repeated aggressions of the army... which is using tanks and other weapons... in unjustified operations,” Huthi told RMC Middle East.

The rebels are fighting to restore a Zaidi imamate, which was overthrown in a 1962 republican coup in Yemen, one of the world’s poorest countries. An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis form a minority in the mainly Sunni country but are the majority community in the far north.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh is himself a Zaidi, but the rebels reject his regime as illegimate.

The two sides signed a peace deal in June last year but there has been repeated wrangling about its implementation. In February, Qatari mediators helped broker a new agreement in Doha.

The accord requires the government to release rebel prisoners, dismantle roadblocks and withdraw troops from urban areas of the province in return for rebel disarmament.

The rebels’ chief negotiator accused the authorities of reneging on its terms.—AFP