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South Yemen Separatists Call For Secession

Separatists in Aden, South Yemen, have engaged in deadly clashes with security forces and pro-unification protesters from the Islamist Islah Party and have renewed calls for secession, complicating Yemen’s fragile transition, reports Vivian Salama from Aden.
A supporter of the separatist Southern Movement is carried to an ambulance after he was injured during clashes with security forces in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden February 21, 2013, ahead of planned rallies to mark the first anniversary of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster. Yemen has struggled to restore normality since President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was elected in February 2012 following a year of protests that forced his predecessor Saleh to step down after 33 years in power. REUTERS/Kh

ADEN, Yemen — With two weeks to go until Yemen’s crucial national dialogue, aimed to set in motion transitional imperatives like writing a new constitution and scheduling parliamentary elections, tensions are rising between North and South Yemen as Southern separatists renew their calls for secession. 

Separatists in Aden, the capital of South Yemen, engaged in deadly clashes with security forces and pro-unification protesters, mainly from the Islamist Islah party, claiming that the state has — and will continue to — ignore their pleas for basic rights. Tents returned this past year to Martyrs Square in the Mansoura section of Aden, and the Southern flag has grown increasingly visible on the streets and in graffiti art. Slogans spray-painted on the walls of government buildings read “Freedom for the South.” 

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