By: Abdul Salam Qaed

The southern issue emerged as a result of the failure of the previous political regime in managing the country, the absence of justice in the distribution of power, wealth and public function, and the predominance of the approach of exclusion, marginalization and acquisition of everything by a limited group of those close to the head of the ruling regime, which are wrong policies that affected both northern and southern Yemen, as well as citizens throughout the Yemeni geography were affected by it, knowing that some of the roots of the southern issue date back to the pre-unification stage, and instead of working to solve that issue a just solution, there are those who distorted it from its justice and turned it into a means of trade and political intrigue.

The Yemeni Islah Party was the first to call for overcoming the effects of the summer of 1994 war a few weeks after the war, specifically in its First General Conference (First Session), held in September 1994, about 13 years before the emergence of the southern issue and the emergence of secession demands in 2007, and before the emergence of demands to reform the path of unity in the late nineties. It also demanded to solve the southern issue in its Fourth General Conference (the Second Session), held in March 2009. However, the ruling regime ignored the calls of the Islah Party to overcome the effects of the summer of 1994 war, rebuild what was destroyed by the war, solve the southern issue a fair solution and also ignored calls to reform the unity path. All of this brought the situation in southern Yemen to a state of popular tension, which reached its climax to the demand for secession.

Although the events and developments that the country has been witnessing for ten years have gone beyond the southern issue after the demise of the previous regime, which was the reason for its emergence, the state of political fluidity and the military coup against the legitimate authority in Sanaa and then a similar coup in Aden, all of this made the southern issue present, not because there are those who trade in it or who want to exploit it to achieve their own ambitions, but in search of solutions and guarantees that fortify national unity on the one hand, and prevent the return of grievances, exclusion and marginalization of the southern Governorates on the other hand, which was evident in the outcomes of the Comprehensive National Dialogue Conference and the visions presented by various parties and the political components of resolving the southern issue, including the vision of the Yemeni Islah Party to solve that issue a just solution under the banner of unity.

The call to eliminate the effects of war:

A few weeks after the end of the summer of 1994 war, the Yemeni Islah Party held its First General Conference (First Session) in September 1994. In the final statement issued by the Conference, the Islah Party called on the government to “address the effects of the war, remove its remnants, reconstruct the affected areas and take care of the Southern Governorates and give them priority in projects and services,” calling on everyone to “contribute to the construction process and look to the future with optimism.”

In the concluding statement of the Conference, the Islah Party stressed the importance of a good selection of cadres who run state facilities in the Southern Governorates and the need to address the remnants of totalitarian rule in them. And it pointed out the importance of "the need to expedite addressing the issue of nationalized properties in a way that guarantees the return of the right to its people in a fair manner, away from political machinations."

- Demanding quick fair solutions:

In the first quarter of 2007, protests erupted in some Southern Governorates, called by associations of civilian and military retirees, against the backdrop of the 1994 summer war, to demand compensation and the return of the retired to their jobs, in addition to the peaceful human rights struggle launched by the Joint Meeting Parties, foremost of which the Islah Party, before the presidential elections in 2006, then the "Our Summer Is A Struggle" festivals after that, they played a major role in breaking the barrier of fear for these associations from the oppression of the ruling regime, and called for demonstrations in rejection of injustice and demanding legitimate rights, but the ruling regime's refusal to respond to their demands caused the emergence of demands for separation, and then those associations disappeared and Iran intervened by supporting some factions of the Southern Movement, and as a result, many climbers appeared on the back of the Southern cause.

And because the Yemeni Islah Party realized at the time the seriousness of the situation, the justice of the southern cause and the legitimacy of the demands of civil and military retired associations against the backdrop of the 1994 summer war, it gave the southern cause special attention in its Fourth General Conference (Second Session) held in March 2009. And in the concluding statement of the Conference, the Islah Party warned of the “disastrous conditions in the south of the country,” which it described as “caused mainly by the policies of exclusivity in power, exclusion of political life partners and the absence of equal citizenship,” accusing the authority of “turning its back on the foundations of political and partisan pluralism and the foundations of national partnership on which Yemeni unity was based and insisted on dealing with the post-1994 war situations and challenges with contempt and arrogance.” The final statement of the Conference recalled the previous call that the Islah Party had released to overcome the effects of the summer of 1994 war, which came in the statement of the First General Conference.

And vis-a-vis the deteriorating situation in the south, the Islah Party called in its statement, "The Yemeni society, with all its forces, political and social components and civil organizations, to assume their national responsibility and study solutions and serious treatments, taking the southern issue as an entrance towards comprehensive political and national reform."

The Islah Party also expressed its solidarity and standing with the peaceful Southern Movement and its rejection of the practices of repression and restriction, stressing in its statement that “dealing with human rights and political demands from a security perspective and suppressing peaceful activities will not solve the root of the problem, but rather will enhance other options and paths that harm national unity and social peace.”

The final statement of the Fourth General Conference clarified that “what happened is that the hand of corruption and tampering was released, especially in the last third of the nineties, selectively laying off tens of thousands of civilians and military personnel from their jobs, and the people of the Southern Governorates’ share of that was great. And when thousands of these began to hold peaceful activities, the authority did not listen again to the visions and proposals of the Joint Meeting Parties in the national treatment of these situations and went to work based on its way to address and contain the crisis at times through methods of distributing gifts, money and buying silence, or through the use of violence, launching live bullets, imprisonment and arbitrary prosecutions to suppress this movement in other times. This only led to more inflammation and complications and closing the doors of national treatments, and in return opening loopholes for small and non-national projects to snap at the body of national unity in an unprecedented way.

The statement said that “vis- a - vis this situation with all its complexities and secretions, the General Conference calls upon the Yemeni society with all its forces and political and social components, its civil organizations, scholars, thinkers, educated people, men, women, youth and old people to leave the state of negativity and watch to assume their national responsibility and call out to each other for discussing and studying solutions and serious treatments, taking the southern issue as an entry point for comprehensive political and national reform.

In the statement issued by its Fourth Conference, the Islah Party affirmed the following:

- The Conference appreciates the positions and the role of members and supporters of the Yemeni Islah Party and the Joint Meeting Parties in their involvement and participation in all the peaceful activities and events that took place in the Southern Governorates.

- The Conference salutes all political and popular activities that fall under the components of the peaceful movement aimed at strengthening the bonds of unity and love, strengthening social peace, and sparing the country the dangers of a culture of hatred, arrogance, exclusion and the dispersal and rupture that may result from it.

- The Conference salutes the honorable positions of the Yemeni Islah Party and the Joint Meeting Parties towards the southern issue as a political, human rights and demanding issue and as the most prominent manifestation of the national crisis that the country is experiencing, and it is a correct and sound entrance to comprehensive political and national reform. And it called on the authorities to recognize this issue as a political issue, not to condone it, to stop repression of its activists and events, non-militarization of civilian life, investigation of all those responsible for the suppression of activities, killing and wounding of innocent citizens, and returning all civilians and military personnel who were forcibly dismissed to their jobs.