YEMEN IN FRAGMENTS
6th July 2015
VO Pic Sync Notes
PRE-TITLE
Yemen, one of the oldest and poorest countries in the world, is now facing another challenge.
The Slogan ‘Death to Israel
God Curse the Jews
Victory to Islam’
A Northern based militia called the Houthis have now taken over the capital Sanaa and advanced on to South Yemen.
It triggered Saudi led airstrikes.
boom
The President of Yemen is now in self-imposed exile in the Saudi capital, Riyad
Hadi and King Salman Shaking hands **
BBC ARABIC ASKED veteran Middle East journalist GHAITH ABDULAHAD, to tell his exclusive story.
He spent months in South Yemen before the Saudi airstrikes.
Ghaith
This film tells the story of one week - South Protests
‘A revolution from Aden – a revolution is burning’
when the South of Yemen briefly imagined they could defeat the Houthis,
break away from the North
and rule their own independent Southern state.
At the end of that week, the dream was shattered.
TITLES
The week starts on March 19th, 2015
Expanding from the capital Sanaa, the Houthis are trying to take over Aden airport,
in an attempt to control the South.
THE AIRPORT BATTLE actuality
Armed Southerners and factions of the army are rushing to the airport to fight the Houthi’s.
battle scenes in airport
Ghaith and his team join a group of them at the frontline.
Ghaith on the phone:
We are well they are next to the gate. Three tanks are moving forward and have removed the first part of the fence
This is Abdulrahim Al Awlaqi.
Awlaqi pic
He is a friend of Ghaiths,
Awlaqi:
‘every five stay together’
and a member of a group called the Herak.
It’s a Southern secessionist movement against Northern rule.
Now he is a militia commander.
Abdulrahim rallied dozen’s of his men to join the fight.
Upsot:
‘We’re the Southern army; here to free the South!’
The South have rejected any rule by a Northern alliance of the Houthis and forces loyal to Ex- president Ali Abdullah Salah
Upsot:
The Sons of Aden have kicked you out of here.
Upsot:
‘Listen, every germ will be uprooted from Yemen and from inside Aden. Our capital is Aden. The land of the South, the land of the free.
G:
What was fascinating for me in this battle it was the first time I see in the South and especially in Aden. All the different components fighting together as one front. I saw civilians I saw loyalist army units I saw separatist members of the Herak movement.
After seven hours of fighting, the Herak and loyalist army units were able to take back the airport.
For Abdulrahim and the southern fighters - this was a moment of euphoria – the dream of independence was coming.
Awlaqi:
‘We have cleansed the South of Ali Saleh and the Houthis forever!’
Awlaqi: ‘this is the end of the Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh in the South!’….
‘and victory will come to the south Inshallah’
But this wasn’t the decisive victory the Herak were hoping for…
Civil war is coming.
To fully understand South Yemen and the Herak you must go back in history.
ADEN FLASHBACK- 2012
Abdulrahim and the Herak weren’t always armed. They used to believe in nonviolence resistance. Upsound:
‘My country is the South and Aden is our capital’ 31 – 34 25 sec
Two years ago Ghaith spent several months in the south following the daily protests of the Herak. Protest 2012
This is when he first met Abdulrahim.
When Abudlrahim was only a teenager the South tried to secede from the north, causing a civil war in 1994. Abulrahim fled to Djabouti.
mansoura
When he returned he immediately joined the Herak.
mansoura Awlaqi in protest
At the time he said nonviolent revolution against the Yemeni government was the only path to independence. Getting into car
Awlaqi ON THE ROAD:
We, the Herak, have taken the peaceful path. Because we don’t have the military strength to resist them.
We used to have our own country. We want it back. A country just like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. We don’t want a country ruled by backward tribes or a monarchy with one ruler.’
The Herak tried a whole range of methods from strikes to sit-ins to protests. Awlaqi in the car
G:
The Herak was a protest movement that started long before the Arab spring and continued its struggle as a peaceful movement for 7 or 8 years.
Until 1990 North and South Yemen were two separate countries. South Yemen flags, protests
Upsot:
Lift your head up high you are a free Southerner!
Corruption and misrule after unification led many Southerners to reject Sanaa’s rule.
Upsot:
Revolution revolution for the South!
The Herak chose the flag of the pre-unification state as a symbol of their resistance
G:
Like all movements the separatist needed a symbol, and the symbol was the flag of South Yemen. The old south Yemen that was a communist government, they used that flag with its red star and the blue triangle as a symbol that everyone can gather around.
Technically speaking up until now you would be detained or arrested if you waved the flag of the separatist movement, that’s in theory, in reality the flag has taken over the city.
The Yemeni government- rejecting their calls for secession-
responded to the Herak with violent force.
Nada’s Funeral shots
Every Friday, Ghaith attended a funeral
Nada Hussian, a 15 year old girl was shot dead by the security forces.
Graveyard burial Upsot:
‘O’ Nada you are a martyr who will be happy in her grave’
The funeral quickly
turns violent.
The mourners climb up the hill towards the soldiers who open fire. CEMETRY SHOOTING- PROTESTS
Many here say the government’s violent reaction alienated the population
Protester:
‘Don’t be afraid. They are shooting from inside the house. They always shoot at us. These soldiers are occupying us. This is an occupation. Film this for the Arab world to see’
A Human shield was created for us to continue filming
G:
I think from Abdulraheem Alawlaqi to everyone else, they agreed on one thing which is their hatred towards the north and the need to reclaim back their state. What is the shape of that state and what are the means they would pursue to achieve that state they kinda have always been in disagreement. That has been the biggest problem of the separatist movement.
They have been so disorganized so fragmented.
ADEN- 2015
With the battle over at Aden airport and their victory complete, the unity of the Southerners begins to disintegrate.
LOOTING SCENE 19 March
They start to loot a nearby military base.
Upsot:
‘Don’t film! Don’t FILM!’
Streams of looters take weapons, ammunitions and even bed mattresses from the base.
G:
That’s exactly what happened in Iraq in 2003 I stood there and saw the people of my city looting the city. And then I saw it again in Allepo and Libya and in different places.
To understand why people loot we have to go back to the oppressive regimes in Iraq and Syria and Libya and in Yemen and how they treated their people, how they stole all the wealth and put all the wealth in the form of ammunition. I mean Aden, one of the poorest Arab cities had so many military camps.
You can’t ask someone who has been unemployed for years to not take a box of ammunition, because that box of ammunition will be worth all the salaries he can get in the next year.
After the battle, Ghaith meets Mohammed Hadi.
He is the secretary and the nephew of Yemen’s President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi. HADI’S NEPHEW
Hadi spent two decades in power as vice president and after the 2011 revolution he became the president.
After the Houthis took control of the Northern capital Sanaa he was besieged in his palace.
Road shot
‘The first war in Sanaa was very hard. But we were only defending his house, the presidential palace.
When it reaches your doorstep and they insult you and your family in your own home, that’s the final straw. We couldn’t continue.’
Mohamed says the Houthis replaced the presidential guards with their own men, searched everyone going in and out of the palace.
When a civilian searches you, or even someone in uniform, and you can tell from his accent that he is Houthi - it’s very insulting.
Two weeks earlier Mohamed and President Hadi escaped from Sanaa to Aden.
Road shots
Hadi –a southerner himself- tried to forge an alliance with the separatist Herak
The posters that suddenly appeared on the streets of Aden welcoming president Hadi, carry the separatist flag above them. posters
‘The people are now at boiling point, we are trying to calm them down and we’re not ready to pull the flag down. It will cause much internal turmoil.
Let them fly their flag, it’s not a problem. Aden is full of these flags. How many will you take down?
G:
In 2010 when I first went to Aden I saw one flag of the former South Yemen state.
In 2012 the flags were sprayed on walls, on buildings it became popular, it became an accepted symbol.
In 2015 the only flag of the unified Yemen state, the official flag of Yemen, was flying over the presidential palace.
The team is given a tour of the presidential family compound,
which Houthi allied forces had attacked the day before.
Hadi nephew in compound Hadi:
I was sitting here and I saw something fall. It fell on my head, it was hard. I was sitting here. These are all bullets. I ran from there to here.
The camp is protected by the so called popular committees – a militia raised by Hadi from his own Southern region.
With the Houthis incursion into Aden the popular committees are at the frontline of its defenses.
For years Hadi used the militia as an auxiliary force to fight al-Qaida.
But now with the Houthis on their doorstep, the popular committees have a new mission: fight the Houthis and defend President Hadi.
Abdullatif Al Sayid is the head of the popular
committees.
He survived seven assassination attempts by al-Qaida and was severely wounded. Music in the car:
‘Abdu rabu nasr assad,
The leader of the unified people.
He lost an eye, part of his jaw and internal organs in the last attempt.
But he says he determined to take on both al-Qaida and the Houthis. Walking up the stairs
Abdullatif:
‘The Houthis as a group are similar to al-Qaida, there is no difference between them, they all use the cover of Islam and Sharia, but Islam has nothing to do with either of them.
Abdullatif’s men showed us the cells where they are keeping prisoners from Al-Qaida.
Walking to prison cell
prison AQ prisoner:
‘Whoever fights the Houthi - we are with them. We joined AQ to fight the Houthis not the committees. But then they started telling us to fight the committees and that they are evil too. We didn’t know who was the enemy until now.
A year ago some Sunni clerics called for Jihad against the Houthis – accusing them of being Shia heretics.
Many like these men headed the call.
This has become a rallying cry in the war against the Houthis.
Prison prayer
The sectarian language was growing in many parts of the country.
A few months ago Ghaith was in the central Baydha province north of Aden, where the al-Qaida prisoners the team had interviewed said they had fought the Houthis.
There I met Ahmed Khamis, a prominent local Jihadi
Ahmed Khamis:
‘The Houthis started this when they attacked Sunni Universities…’
G: ‘What did they start?’
AK: ‘Sectarianism. They planted sectarianism. They behave in a sectarian way. And they target the Sunnis, the Sunni areas and Sunni mosques.
Because of their actions, the Houthis are the ones encouraging people to join AQ. Why is AQ popular now in Yemen? Because they are the main group standing up against the Houthis.
The houthis have always denied any sectarian actions. Khamis goes further and says only a group like IS can stop the Houthis.
I love Baghdadi and the Islamic state and I pray that God supports them.
We want the one who rules us with Islam to free us from occupation. From the Rafidah. Rafidah kills the Sunnis based on ID cards and names.
Soon after this interview the IS announces a Yemeni branch.
Ghaith travelled to the frontline with Sunni fighters who were in daily battle with the Houthis.
Upsot:
G: How old are you?
Jihadi: I’m 11 years old
G: Are you scared?
Jihadi: No
Jihadi:
We didn’t go near the Houthis, they came and took our homes and uprooted our farms.
Jihadi:
I’m against all these Shia rafadi dogs
G:
For me they represent the stem cells of Jihad. They have the anger, the anger is manifesting itself as fighters they are not totally ideologically part of the jihadi movement at the moment but the anger in them is enough for anyone to come and exploit this anger, today it will be exploited by AQ tomorrow by ISIS the day after tomorrow by someone else and that is the sad reality of Yemen, the sectarian civil war is creating a new generation of jihadis.
ADEN- MARCH 24
There was a calm in Aden. Everyone was waiting for the next Houthi attack.
The calm didn’t last long.
Establishing shots of Aden
Beach and city
It is the 24th of March.
Herak militias and Hadi loyalists are preparing to defend the strategic Al-Anad military base on the historic border between north and south. Old Russian tanks
The Houthis and forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s are marching towards the base.
Abdulraheem AlAwlaqi and his men are preparing to join the fight Fighter and awlaqi
Gun men in Jifri’s house
Abdulaziz Aljifri:
Our mission is to attack.
The army base has been occupied. We need brave men who are searching for martyrdom. We need men who will water their land with their blood.
This is it!!
We are going and not coming back.
Death or humiliation!!
The Minister of Defense Mahmoud Al Subaihi is at Al Anad base calling for reinforcements.
‘AlSubaihi is ahead of us. He’s asking for men to attack not defend.
He said to follow him.
Bring the cars! Where are the cars?’
Awlaqi in the car Awlaqi:
Bring me men with their guns. Whoever wants to come has to come with his own gun. We don’t have any guns. When the time comes we will give everyone what they deserve.
Awlaqi:
Adel adel adel adel, how many men do you have for me to pick up?
Awlaqi:
Hi Mubarak? Hello?
At the station. They are all with me now.
Abdulrahim gathers over 50 of his men to head to the frontline. On the road to Anad
Awlaqi: ‘Hello Ahmed, no don’t worry. We brought many men with us and we are moving forward’
Abdulrahim takes many of his family members with him.
Awlaqi:
This is my cousin!
The sun was setting by the time we moved towards the base.
Driving to Al-Anad the men didn’t even have bullets loaded.
Awlaqi:
At the military base, give everyone one bullet. At the military base distribute the bullets to the people.
But the convoy was heading for disaster
Convoy stops Awlaqi: What’s wrong?
Man: is this tank ours or not?
Awlaqi: is this from inside the base?
Man: GO BACK! GO BACK!
Awlaqi: huh?
We had driven straight into a Houthi frontline
Quite by surprise, Ghaith runs into a ditch with some of Abdulrahim’s men.
Shooting
Is he killed or what?
Where is the Iraqi?
I’m here near you
Ahmad!
Where is Basil?
Call Basil
Who is basil?
Call Basil
In the darkness and confusion
Abdulrahim tries to locate him men.
Abu Bakr! Where is Antar?
Shooting
God curse their fathers.
Awlaqi: turn off the light!
Awlaqi:
Cut off the road so our friends won’t go through.
Gathering whoever he can find, Abdulrahim retreats
Awlaqi on the phone:
‘Hello? We are in Anad, there is gunfire and there are clashes, will call you later.
WE ARE IN ANAD NOW!
This is the first time I see Abdulrahim panicked, confused and even scared
Awlaqi in car silent Hello? Hello?
Why didn’t they warn us there were no frontlines!
The Southern forces have now collapsed.
They are in disarray
G:
It turns out there were no troops, there were no frontlines, that night when Awlaqi withdrew, half of his men lost in the desert making frantic phone calls, there were no defensive lines.
Where are you?! Where are you? Hold on, I’ll stop. Where are you?
Waheed did you find the kids?
Where is Antar? Where is Wathiq?
Awlaqi:
**** your mother Subaihi.
Hello?
Within 24 hours the base would be under Houthi control. The minister of defense Subaihi would be their prisoner. Driving back to Aden
G:
Anad the biggest military base for the south where Subaihi was was crumbling from within. So the collapse of Aden of Hadi’s rule wasn’t actually only done by the Houthis approaching and the military might of the Houthis but it happened from within.
Because like a house of cards, it was built on nothing.
Back in Aden, the city is defenseless.
The streets are deserted
The Popular committees have fled
Splinter factions of the Herak take control of their streets.
Checkpoint:
‘Hi, how are you?
Thousands of young men have now picked up arms they joined dozens of small militia units scattered around Aden
G:
The same factionalism that has beleaguered the Syrian revolution was now evident in the streets of Aden between peaceful demonstrators come commanders, everyone didn’t trust the others and everyone wanted to become the ultimate leader, but basically no one controlled more than two streets
Armed Herak Song:
O fire of my land, ignite the war against the Rawafid and burn.
The Herak was now playing sectarian songs calling on the Southerners to kick out the Shia, calling them heratics. Song: ‘this is the South my land,
I will not accept Shi’ism to come here’
The battle is no longer just a geographic one between North and South, it has now become sectarian.
Driving shot of emb Song:
Aden, were heroes are like poison, come on Aden lets eject (them).
Everyone is trying to flee the city that was for a brief moment the capital of Yemen. DATE March 25
We folliow a convoy of gulf state ambassadors.
They had come to open embassies in the new capital, Aden.
Now they are racing to the port to flee by sea as the city descends into anarchy.
Even Abdulrahim,
disillusioned decides to leave.
His dreams of an independent southern state are crushed.
G: You told me two years ago that if people supported the Southern cause we wouldn’t be in the situation we are in now.
A: Yes, if they had supported the South we wouldn’t be in this situation now. If they had given the South its rights it would never have come to this. If they had given the people of North Yemen their rights it wouldn’t have reached this point.
Abdulrahim heads for the port and exile to Djibouti.
says goodbye to Awlaqi.
Aden is in complete chaos.
The situation is so precarious
that from one street to another
you can not tell who is in control In the car driving
Driver:
Are those their cars or our cars? Are they our friends or the Houthis?
Guy in back: ‘No these are our friends’
The Herak, now calling themselves the Popular Resistance are fully armed
They have set up checkpoints to search and arrest anyone they suspect of being a Northerner or a Houthi
Herak searching for northerners at checkpoint
Upsound:
‘get down, get out of the car
G:
A sense of xenophobia grabbed the street. All the northerners became Houthis. Every northern is an enemy, and we saw them detaining people putting them in prison taking them for questioning, to be a northerner in Aden became a crime.
Man: they are dogs and this is their car and this is their car ID - Marran, Sa’ada.
We will slaughter the dogs!
They have captured a car with an ID card identifying the owner as a member of the ministry of interior and a Houthi (Shooting)
‘Get back get back!’
‘Give me the ID’
Upsound:
We also found this. We always find things against religion and humanity.
Daytime in Aden burning the car from the houthis
Tank with flag G:
In the end the city that I knew very well, became yet another Arab city gripped by militias and civil war.
Ghaith decides it is time to leave Yemen.
The Herak’s dreams of an independent state emerged, and then collapse within a week.
The south is in fragments.
Yemen is not gripped by one civil war but by multiple civil wars
Postscript:
Saudi led airstrikes starts on March 27, 2015.
Hitting hundreds of Houthi and ex-president Ali Saleh targets.
Aden is now largely under Houthi control.
Thousands of people killed
Over a million displaced