Saleh to GCC: We just need $44 billion

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah (right) receives Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, at Khoraim Gardens on Feb. 23. (Photo: Saudi Press Agency)

The Riyadh conference on Yemen wrapped up this morning with lots of promises and well-meaning speeches -- but very few firm commitments. And the conference was quickly overshadowed, inside Yemen and around the region, by the deteriorating situation in southern Yemen, where the government has declared a state of emergency.

The Yemeni government presented several papers in Riyadh (عربي) outlining how it will use the roughly $44 billion in foreign aid it hopes to receive over the next five years. One of them outlines how Yemen's government will distribute aid; another talks about Yemen's grim long-term socioeconomic picture (rapidly growing population, dwindling oil reserves, a depleted water table).

Yemen's ministry of planning says it would spend most of the $44 billion on public education and health programs. The breakdown, courtesy of the ministry:

$16.1 billion for public education;
$13.9 billion for public health;
$3.8 billion for job training programs;
$3.1 billion for water and sanitation;
$1 billion for transportation;
$1.8 billion for electricity production;
$1.8 billion for higher education;
$1.7 billion for agriculture;
$716 million for fisheries;

All of this sounds good, but of course there's reason to be skeptical of Yemen's "mind-bogglingly corrupt" government. Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, tends to divert most of his treasury to the security services and a massive nationwide patronage network. Both of these help Saleh maintain his grip on power, and do little to improve the lives of millions of Yemeni people.

Most of that $44 billion request remains unfulfilled. Gulf countries pledged about $3.2 billion (عربي) in development aid -- but those same countries promised Yemen $3.7 billion at a conference in 2006, and less than 10 percent of that sum has been delivered. (Today's pledge, in other words, is a promise to make good on a four-year-old pledge.) And the U.S. has pledged a meager $121 million over the next three years.

Saudi officials also approved several grants to the Yemeni government -- SAR187 million (US$50 million) for electricity projects, for example, and SAR150 million (US$40 million) for water and sanitation projects in major cities. Those grants total about US$642 million.

A state of emergency in the south

Yemen's nearly-$5 billion infusion isn't the top story in local newspapers, though: The big news today is rallies in three governorates -- Abyan, Daleh and Lahij -- where protesters are demanding independence for southern Yemen. One of the rallies included a large group of women (عربي).

The government declared a state of emergency in Daleh, and police have reportedly used both tear gas and live ammunition (عربي) against the demonstrators. Landline phones in Daleh have been cut off; mobile phones are being blocked. No word yet on injuries, but at least 20 people were arrested.

"(The move) is aimed at securing the lives of citizens and maintaining provincial security and stability after reports of the entry of armed elements to the municipality to carry out conspiratorial plots, disturb the peace and harm the public interest," an unnamed Yemeni security official told Reuters.

Ali Salem al-Baid, a southern politician, called the riots "two days of southern anger" aimed at "sending a message to our Arab brothers" in Riyadh.

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