CCYRC Thanks UN For Turning On Yemen's Lights

Yemenis have relied on their sense of humor to keep their spirits high in the face of a government-induced humanitarian crisis. One common joke is to thank the UN’s envoys for restoring electricity and services during their sporadic visits to Sana’a, a pattern that reveals the government’s ploy. This letter was sent to us by Nezar, a member of CCYRC:

Letter of appreciation to His Excellency, Secretary General of the United Nations

Your Excellency, Mr. Ban-ki Moon,

In the name of the Yemeni people, I would like to express our appreciation to you in person for closely and regularly following up the situation in Yemen through visits made by the different UN missions. We are particularly grateful to the relatively long visits such as the one currently taking place by your envoy, and the one by the UN human rights mission earlier this month. These visits bring along significant improvement in the quality of the livelihoods of the average people. We suddenly have electricity for 12-15 hours per day ( instead of 2 hours only), the piles of garbage mounting for weeks in the different streets are cleaned up, the long lines of cars waiting for gas are cleared up (though the need left unfulfilled), and the gun fire in each city is silenced!

For that we are urging Your Excellency to give orders to your missions to remain longer if not forever! Of course, we would still be left with problems of gas availability, food prices rocketing to the sky complicating the malnutrition crisis in the country, and the rise of a hunger epidemic. In this regard, you may as well include us in the current Horn of Africa Crisis! Our "draught", however, is not caused by an indirect intervention of man in nature, but rather a very direct and intentional one. The Saleh regime, intends to starve us in an attempt to have us give up our dream of freedom. They refuse to understand that we have chosen to live free or to die with our human dignity; the same dignity that UN charters and declarations have often spoken of. We shall compromise no more Sir, and we invite your envoys to come and witness that.

In peace (salam),

Nezar Al-hebshi

[Note: On Monday, after meeting with Vice President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, and JMP officials, UN envoy Jamal bin Omar reaffirmed the need for a “conciliation dialogue.” The previous day Hadi - citing "ambassadors of the security council's five permanent members" - declared his support for the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) initiative after convening what is left of Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime.]