‘Saleh urged to learn from Gaddafi fate’

Tens of thousands of Yemenis have taken to the streets in the capital to call on Ali Abdullah Saleh to learn from the fate of slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and step down.

Anti-government demonstrators said on Friday that Gaddafi’s death is a warning for Saleh who has resisted nationwide calls to end his 33-year rule and that the longer he resists the nation’s demands for change, the higher the price of failure will be.

“Ali, it’s your turn next. Every dictator meets his end,” Yemeni demonstrators chanted as they marched down Sittine Avenue in Sana’a while under the protection of dissident troops of the First Armored Division.

“Kaddafi’s death has fired up revolutionaries across the world, but especially in yeomen,” said Walid al-Ammari, a spokesman for the youth activists, adding that “Saleh must draw the lessons from the death of Gaddafi who called the Libyans rats and was finally caught like a rat in a tunnel”.

Yemeni demonstrators also called for the prosecution of Saleh over the killing of hundreds of anti-government protesters.

“We want to put him on trial, we do not want him to die like Gaddafi, we want to put him on trial for what he did to our children and our sons, we want to take his blood and flesh like he took our blood and flesh and questioned our honor,” anti-government protester Alia Abdulla said.

Meanwhile, the United Nation’s Security Council is expected to approve a resolution calling on Saleh to immediately hand over power to his deputy and condemning the killings blamed on his government.

Yemenis have been calling for the removal of Saleh since late January. Hundreds of Yemenis have been killed and thousands more have been injured in the violent regime repression of popular protests against the Saudi- and US-backed Saleh regime.