[Yemen Post] Under much scrutiny from the media, all participants to Yemen National Dialogue Conference gathered for the first time in the capital to celebrate the inauguration of the country's historic talks.Over the next six months, Yemen's many political factions, groups, and dignitaries will seek to find a national consensus on pivotal issues ranging from the southern issue, the Houthis' calls for reparation over 2004 Sa'ada war, women rights, corruption, judicial reforms and the drafting of a new constitution.
Under the watchful eye of the United Nations
...where theory meets practice and practice loses...
and the Gulf Cooperation Council; both Jamal Benomar (special UN envoy to Yemen) and Dr Abdel-Latif al-Zayani (Secretary General of the GCC) both flew to Yemen to attend the NDC first ever meeting, offering their support to President Abdo Rabbo Mansour Hadi.
This Monday, March 18, 2013, Yemen enters the second phase of its power transfer as per prescribed and enounced by the GCC-backed power transfer initiative, signed by then-President President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh
... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...
and members of the Opposition in Riyadh, the Saudi capital back in November 2011.
The NDC was originally scheduled to start Mid-November 2012, but hit some political roadblocks with factions refusing to attend the conference. The Houthis (Shia rebel group based in the northern province of Sa'ada) and al-Harak (Southern Secessionist Movement) were both difficult to win over. And while not all of al-Harak inner factions agreed to send their representatives, President Hadi decided to go ahead with NDC satisfied with a majority had been rallied to the idea of national reconciliation.
In a move which draw much criticism from the political class, 2011 Nobel Peace prize winner Tawakkul Karman announced she would boycott the NDC, not satisfied with the transition government progress in addressing some human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
issues and the presence at the conference of many of the former regime men.
"I will not participate in the dialogue, due to the obvious imbalance in the representation of the youths, women and civil society groups and the participation of people who have the blood of the revolution youth on their hands."
Sheikh Hamid al-Ahmar, billionaire businessman turned politician on the wake of Yemen 2011 popular uprising also said he would not attend the NDC, in reaction to a lack of what he estimates to be a lack of fair representation of minorities. His brother however, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, the powerful tribal leader of the Hashid confederation of tribes and high ranking leader of al-Islah, Yemen Islamic faction was in attendance, sitting in the front row alongside some of Yemen's most powerful and influential dignitary such as Sheikh Mohammed Abu Lohoom, Leader and Founder of the Justice and Construction party.