Yemen marks 10 year union

Sana'a is accused of dominating the former south

By Middle East correspondent Frank Gardner

Yemen is celebrating the 10th anniversary on Monday of the union between the former North and South Yemen.

The tribal north merged in 1990 with the former communist south.

Since then, Yemen has experienced a bitter civil war and a spate of kidnappings.

But it has also seen economic reforms and the beginnings of democracy.

Clean-up

With leaders and senior officials from over 40 countries due to attend the celebrations, the government has ordered a massive clean-up.

The streets of the Yemeni capital, Sana'a, have never been so tidy.

A traditional dagger dance of celebration

Over a 100,000 tonnes of garbage have reportedly been removed from the city.

Even police officers have been ordered to get their hands dirty and help clear the roadside gutters.

But in a country where the number of guns outnumbers the population by three to one, the security forces have been on high alert.

Firearms alert

Checkpoints have been set up around Sana'a, to prevent anyone from bringing in firearms.

The north and south used to be separate countries

Since last Monday, the mobile phone network has been cut off to stop any attempt at coordinating a disturbance.

In the former north Yemen, where most Yemenis live, there is strong support for the union.

Although the country's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has pushed through some unpopular economic reforms, he is widely respected as the man who holds together this fractious tribal country.

Southern resentment

But in the former south Yemen, there is a lingering resentment of what some people see as domination by their northern neighbours.

After independence from Britain in 1967, the south suffered 23 years of communist misrule.

Yemenis have suffered a bitter civil war

Southerners say they had great expectations of the union, but their hopes have been dashed.

They complain that north Yemenis hold most of the key positions in local government, and that the bulk of the country's oil revenues go to Sana'a in the north.

This is a charge that the government strongly denies.