Yemen: Rebel occupation of schools threatens northern ceasefire

SANAA, 10 May 2010 (IRIN) - A rebel occupation of a number of schools in the northern Yemeni governorate of Saada is preventing thousands of children from attending classes and threatening to undermine a recently signed ceasefire between the government and Houthi-led rebels, according to local officials.

"Rebels have occupied dozens of schools in [Saada's] al-Safraa, Majaz, Kitaf, Baqim, Razih and Sihar districts, where teachers have not been able to resume classes, although it has been two months since the 2009-10 school year began in Saada," Mohammed al-Shamiri, head of the governorate's education office, told IRIN.

"They are preventing teachers from entering these schools which they have decked out with 'Death to America and Israel' and 'Victory to Islam' slogans," he said. "At least 30,000 children are unable to go to their primary and secondary schools".

Ali Abu Holaiqa, head of a peace committee in charge of implementing the six ceasefire conditions in Saada Governorate, said the committee had suspended its work as "Houthis are refusing to stop occupying schools."

Mohammed Abdussalam, a spokesman for the Houthis, said many of their followers had occupied the schools after the government refused to release their relatives from jail.

"More than 1,000 Houthi men are still in jail although the government promised to release them. Their release is one of the conditions of the ceasefire," he said. "Many of them have been sentenced to six years imprisonment."

He blamed the government for raising tension and "putting the ceasefire at risk", and warned that violence may reach schools and public facilities in other areas unless the government releases the detained rebels.

Targeting teenagers

According to Razih District local council, Houthi followers in April broke into schools and replaced national flags with slogans. "They plan to attract youngsters to their side and engage them in any potential fight with government troops," it said.

"They [Houthis] use machine guns and armoured vehicles, which they looted during the clashes, to intimidate young people refusing to accept their views," Abdullah Dhahman, a local councillor from the governorate's Matra District, told IRIN.

Houthis are targeting teenagers in grades 8-12 because they think this age group is easier to influence - and they believe teenagers could be worthier fighters in the long term than older men," Mohammed Ezan, an analyst from Saada, told IRIN.

"They are trying to attract youngsters to their Believing Youth Organization and inciting them against the current government with the aim of restoring the rule of the Imamate [in north Yemen before the 1962 revolution] to the northern governorate," he said. "They resort to violence only when they are resisted by students, schoolmasters or teachers."

According to Mariam al-Shwafi, the manager of Shawthab Organization, a local child rights NGO, Houthis are handing out leaflets to schoolchildren telling them that joining the Believing Youth Organization helps them get closer to Allah.

"They use kids to recruit their peers at school," she said.

Ahmad al-Qurashi, head of the local NGO Siyaj Organization for Childhood Protection, also told IRIN he believed the Houthis were trying to indoctrinate teenagers. "Kids are more responsive to religious influence than any other group. Houthis see them as human ammunition for the future," he said.

The weakness of the education authorities in Saada Governorate was also "allowing Houthis to replace displaced teachers in areas outside Saada with clerics from Believing Youth," he said.

Disruption

Education has been disrupted in the governorate for some time. Hundreds of schools were only able to reopen on 27 February 2010 - five months later than normal - due to clashes between the army and Houthi fighters from August 2009 to February 2010.

The first semester runs from 27 February to 18 May, and the second semester from 23 May to 15 August, though normally the school year begins in October and ends in June.

"Some 80,000-85,000 of the 121,000 children once enrolled in the governorate's 725 schools are now attending classes. The rest couldn't go to their schools, which are either controlled by Houthi fighters or severely damaged as a result of the clashes," Saada Governorate's education office head al-Shamiri said.

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