[] [BTBBT Daily - 12/26]Yemen's acting leader calls for truce

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YEMEN'S acting leader yesterday urged foes and loyalists of President Ali Abdullah to call a truce, after Saleh's forces killed nine people demanding he be tried for the deaths of demonstrators over nearly a year of protests against him.

Troops from what witnesses identified as key loyalist units opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters approaching Saleh's compound in the capital on Saturday after a days-long march from the city of Taiz, chanting "No to immunity."

They referred to a pledge to spare Saleh prosecution in exchange for giving his powers to his deputy, Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, and letting a government including opposition parties lead Yemen to a February election to replace Saleh after 33 years.

That government is to separate Saleh's forces from rebel army units and tribal militias they have fought in Sanaa, a key to the power transfer deal Yemen's wealthier neighbors brokered to avert a civil war they fear will affect them.

The state news agency yesterday quoted Hadi as saying during a meeting with the US ambassador to Sanaa, Gerald Feierstein, that all sides "must commit ... to a truce and respect its rules forbidding escalation" that would threaten the transition deal.

Hadi was echoing a note struck by the US side just before the killings, when Feierstein was quoted by a Yemeni news outlet as telling a group of Yemeni journalists that the protest - which set out days earlier from Taiz 200 kilometers to the south - was a provocative act.

Feierstein and other embassy officials did not respond to calls over the weekend seeking comment on the remarks.

Washington long backed Saleh as vital to its "counter-terrorism" policy in Yemen, which includes the use of drones to kill alleged al Qaeda members. A CIA drone strike killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen linked to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, earlier this year.

Hours after the killings, Saleh said he would leave for the US and give way to the new government and the vote to pick his successor. But he gave no timetable for leaving and vowed to return, this time in opposition to the government.

"An unstable Yemen means an unstable region. So, protect the security, unity and stability of Yemen, neighbor states," he said. "Its security is yours."

A defense ministry website, September 26, yesterday cited an unidentified official denying the military - key units of which are led by Saleh's son and nephew - played any role in the killing of the protesters in Sanaa.

It pinned the blame on the interior ministry - now led by an opposition figure - calling witness and news accounts of pro-Saleh troops shooting protesters "baseless, mendacious claims that are part of a vicious media campaign ... against the defense establishment."

The interim government, led by a former foreign minister who joined the opposition against Saleh, late on Saturday called for an investigation of the killings.

The youth-led protesters who have taken to the streets against Saleh bitterly condemn the opposition parties for agreeing to grant him immunity.