NewsYemen reveals the hidden details of a Houthi massacre targeting 25,000 employees
English - Wednesday 07 July 2021 الساعة 10:52 am
Sana'a, NewsYemen, a special report:
The Houthi militia, the Iranian arm in Yemen, is preparing to commit a new crime against state employees, by seeking to refer them to retirement and replace them, in a new crime in addition to the crime of the militias that have been stealing the salaries of employees in the areas under their control for five years.
Sources in the Ministry of Civil Service, which is under the control of the Houthi militias, told NewsYemen that the directions that the ministry has been seeking to implement since the leader and member of the political bureau of the militia Salim Al-Maghales took over the position of minister regarding the retirement process will represent a crime that will have political, economic and social repercussions similar to those that sparked the protests of retirees. Civilians and military personnel in the southern governorates in 2007.
A conference position that prevented retirement from the days of Basindoh
Civil service sources in Sana'a reveal to NewsYemen that the problem of retirement is not a matter of the moment. It is an old one. The protests of civil and military retirees in the southern governorates that erupted in 2007 led to a human rights problem in its infancy due to the imbalances witnessed in the process of referring those employees to retirement without Ensuring that they obtain their full material rights has led to pressure on successive governments since then, to postpone the implementation of any retirement decisions.
According to the sources, the Government of National Accord that was formed after the handover of power by the former President of the Republic, Ali Abdullah Saleh to his deputy, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi in 2012 AD, which was led by Muhammad Salem Basindwa, was forced to stop a decision to refer 20,000 employees to retirement after the opposition of the GPC ministers in the government at that time. The decision and warning them that it may lead to political, economic and security reactions, demonstrations and protests will negatively affect the transitional phase, which was supposed to end two years after Hadi took office.
After the Houthi militia coup and its control of state institutions on September 21, 2014, the problem of referral to retirement reappeared. Sources in the Ministry of Civil Service in Sana'a say that the Houthi militia worked during the period of the so-called Revolutionary Committee to implement retirement referrals for employees, but they were few because they faced difficulties. Related to the necessity of securing the salaries of those whom it will refer to retirement in the budget of the General Authority for Insurance and Pensions, and the insistence of the latter not to accept the implementation of any decisions accepting retirees unless they are guaranteed to obtain their salaries and their financial retirement rights.
After the formation of the Salvation Government headed by Dr. Abdulaziz bin Habtoor as a result of an agreement between the General People’s Congress and its allies, the Houthis and their partners, and the Houthis taking over the civil service portfolio, efforts to implement decisions related to the retirement of employees began to come back to the fore, which the GPC faced with rejection, and was able to extract a decision from The Political Council to suspend the implementation of any retirement referral process for employees until the end of the war and at the same time a similar decision by the Ben Habtoor government.
The sources confirm that the position of the General People’s Congress at that time was that this issue would harm the rights of thousands of employees, especially from the people of the southern governorates, in light of the inability to guarantee their material and pension rights after the transfer of the Central Bank to Aden caused the suspension of employee salaries.
Separation is an alternative to retirement.. Al-Houthi explodes the dispute with the conference
The Houthi militia had started implementing liquidation and exclusion operations from Sana’a University by taking decisions to dismiss a number of faculty members on the pretext of their absence from work in the year 2016. Especially after the decision to stop the referral for retirement was issued, but the Houthi militia returned again and from Sana’a University to issue decisions to dismiss hundreds of faculty members and employees at the university.
Despite the opposition of the conference within the Bin Habtoor government to these decisions and the formation of a committee to solve the problem of dismissal decisions issued by the leadership of Sana’a University, the Houthi militias implemented the decision by force, which formed one of the manifestations of differences between them and the leadership of the General People’s Congress at the time represented by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, President Conference, and the Secretary-General of the Conference Aref Al-Zoka.
In October 2017, the leadership of Sana’a University, affiliated with the Houthi militia, issued new decisions to dismiss dozens of faculty members, which exacerbated the differences with the leadership of the conference at the time, before those differences ended with the outbreak of the December 2 uprising announced by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against the Houthi militia. Which ended with the latter's assassination and his comrade Aref Al-Zoka, the Secretary-General of the Conference, and a number of the Conference's leaders.
After that, the Houthi militia found the door open to it, as it returned to practice its orientations to dismiss, exclude, marginalize and retire employees from all state institutions, especially in light of the absence and absence of any opposition from the remaining representatives of the conference in Sana’a in the government of Bin Habtoor, which is under the control and management of the Houthi militias.
For example, in early December 2018, the militia arbitrarily dismissed about 117 academics at Sana’a University, as part of procedures and processes of exclusion and dismissal that affected more than 1,500 academics, as the militias replaced them with elements affiliated with them.
Political and trade union opposition to the Houthi massacre
Since the Houthi militia’s appointment of the leader and member of its political bureau, Salim Al-Mughlas, who was the governor of Taiz, the militia’s tendencies to implement the retirement policy have returned to the fore through a circular issued by the Houthi Minister Mughales No. 9 of 2021 regarding the referral of adults with one term for retirement.
According to sources in the Ministry of Civil Service who spoke to NewsYemen, the circular of Houthi Minister Mughales came after a memorandum directed by the presidential office, which is run by Houthi leader Ahmed Hamid, stipulating the necessity of submitting full statements from various state institutions with the names of those who have reached retirement, which confirms that the militias’ trends regarding retirees It came from the highest authority in the militia hierarchy, as the presidential office is directly linked to the leader of the militias, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi.
The sources added: The militias’ orientations to implement this procedure aim to retire more than twenty-five thousand employees from various state institutions in preparation for their replacement with employees of the Houthi militia.
According to the sources, the Houthi militia has ready-made statements of thousands of loyalists and militia fighters that it intends to replace in the place of the employees who will be referred for retirement.
In addition, political sources revealed that the remaining representatives of the conference in the government of Bin Habtoor, which is under the control of the militias, decided at the conclusion of an organizational meeting for them held last Thursday headed by the Secretary-General of the Sana’a Conference, Ghazi Al-Ahwal, to announce their position rejecting this decision within the government through their adherence to the validity of the decision to stop the referral for retirement and not There is a decision to cancel it yet.
The sources added that the Sana’a conferences had previously warned the leaders of the Houthi militia that this decision would trigger a future disaster, especially as it constitutes a violation of the constitution and laws in force, the first of which is the retirement law, which guarantees retirees their full functional and material rights and ensures that their pension salaries are sent in full to the Insurance and Pensions Authority.
In addition, the Federation of Syndicates of State Administrative Staff in Sana’a announced, in a statement published last Thursday, its rejection of these measures, noting that the Houthi Minister of Service’s circular did not even take into account the laws that the Federation of Employees Syndicates took into account to suspend them for seven years and which oblige the authority and the Salvation Government to implement annual bonuses The job adjustments legally due to them when due, in addition to the disbursement of salaries and other financial and job entitlements.
Union sources told NewsYemen that the biggest disaster is that the Houthi militia's decision, if implemented, will not cause the confiscation of the rights of thousands of employees by not giving them their salaries and pension rights according to their job grades granted by the laws in force, and will even lead to the confiscation of their material rights in salaries that have not been paid since Five years, not to mention that this decision will represent a new obstacle in resolving the problem of understanding over the disbursement of employee salaries between the Houthi militia and the legitimate government within any upcoming political settlement, especially since the legitimate government has adopted salary increases for employees by more than 30% to confront the rise in prices and the deterioration of the currency value, which is Which will be lost by the employees who will be referred by the militias for retirement.
