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Abd
al-Aziz al-Saqqaf was a courageous warrior whose weapons were paper, ink and computers. As
founder,
editor and publisher of the Yemen Times, he insisted on taking the country's ostensibly
liberal press law at its word - and regularly suffered the consequences.
Dr Saqqaf, a lecturer in economics at Sana'a University,
launched his paper in 1991 during the political spring that followed Yemen's unification
and the first steps towards democracy. At the time it was just one among several dozen new
titles thrust optimistically upon a bemused - and 60 per cent illiterate - Yemeni public.
Many of the new papers disappeared as suddenly as they arrived and, on any sensible
reckoning, the Yemen Times should have been among the first to hit the rocks. Not only was
it inaccessible to the illiterate, but to most of the literate Yemenis, too. It was
published entirely in English, apart from the occasional page in French.
This, as it turned out, was Saqqaf's master stroke. His
paper was able to get away with saying things that others could not, because there was no
danger that it would inflame the masses. But the authorities did become apprehensive when
they realised that it was being read by virtually every foreign diplomat and businessman
in Yemen. It also began to attract advertising from prosperous western companies.
In those early days he ran the paper from a cramped
upstairs office just outside the walls of the old city. The first time I met him, after
listening to his views on the Yemeni economy, delivered at high speed in an American
accent, I asked him for a copy of the paper.
"You'll have to pay for it," he said seriously.
"You see, I'm a capitalist." I handed over the money - slightly less than 10p.
Within a few years, the Yemen Times had become the most
influential paper in the country and, apparently, the most successful commercially. I met
Saqqaf again in his large new offices and he handed me a bundle of back issues.
"Don't you want me to pay for them?" I asked, reminding him of what he had said
before.
"Ah!" he replied. "But in those days I was
a poor capitalist."
The Yemen Times's first brush with the law was a farcical
affair. The Information Minister, who oversaw the press, could not read English, so the
articles had to be translated into Arabic for him. On one occasion the translator made a
mistake which led to the paper being prosecuted - and ultimately acquitted - for something
it had never actually said.
Harassment took many forms. In 1994, shortly after Yemen's
war of secession, Saqqaf was briefly imprisoned without charge and the paper's computers
were seized.
Another time, the paper's landlord became nervous and
decided to throw them out. One day, when Saqqaf was out of town, the landlord invited the
entire staff to lunch at the Sheraton hotel and, while they were eating, changed the locks
on their offices.
In 1995, the Yemen Times won the American NPC's Award for
Freedom of the Press. This marked a growing recognition abroad of the paper's efforts, as
Saqqaf put it, "to make Yemen a good world citizen".
His many friendships in the international community gave
him some protection against the more authoritarian sections of the government, though
clashes continued. Last year the paper was again threatened with prosecution over an
article which listed the foreign aid Yemen had received over the years under the headline:
"Where did it go?" It was innocently put, but readers were left in no doubt of
the suggestion that money had been siphoned off.
Perhaps because of his western education, Saqqaf probably
knew more about the art of opposition in a democracy than many of his Yemeni
contemporaries. He would pick his targets carefully and not oppose simply for the sake of
it.
Occasionally, he imagined that the government feared him
more than they really did. Saqqaf himself told how he was once summoned to the
presidential office. Suspecting an attempt to buy his silence, he began:
"Mr President, if you're going to offer me money or a
job, I won't take it."
The president, slightly aback, replied: "Actually, I
wasn't intending to offer you either."
Co-opting opponents is an old Yemeni tactic, and in 1997
Saqqaf was appointed to Yemen's newly-formed upper house of parliament, the Consultative
Council. Frustrated at its ineffectiveness, he resigned a few months later, telling the
president in a letter that it was "a lethargic organ", despite having tremendous
potential. He claimed that the president used the council "as a dumping ground for
individuals he wants to appease, but who he doesn't care to keep on active duty
elsewhere."
He was, however, persuaded to return and once again threw
his energies into trying to make it more effective.
Journalism in Yemen, as in other emerging democracies, can
be a dangerous profession. There was always something in Saqqaf's boldness and, indeed,
his bravery, that pointed towards a tragic end.
On June 2, 1999, he had lunch at a restaurant with a number of
people, including Mohammed al-Tayyeb, the Minister of Labour, and Dr Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, a
member of Consultative Council. While crossing the Haddah Road on the way back he was
hit by a car and died shortly afterwards in hospital.
The death, in such circumstances, of a prominent critic of
the government is liable to arouse suspicions. A swiftly-issued statement by the official
Saba news agency sought to give reassurance. It offered condolences from the Ministry of
Information and said that Dr Saqqaf had been run over by a Mercedes, registration number
23059, which was driven by Samer Ahmed Ali, a secondary school student aged 18. The
statement added that the youth, a son of Dr Ahmed Al-Seri, a Professor at the Faculty of
Arts, has been arrested.
Dr Saqqaf was 45. His death is a great loss to Yemen, and
to press freedom.
Brian Whitaker
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