Nothing new in rebels' truce initiative :Security Committee

SANA'A, Sept.01 (Saba) - What has been announced recently by al-Houthi rebels on what was so-called a ceasefire initiative, there is nothing new in it, an official in the Supreme Security Committee said on Tuesday.

The official pointed out that there were cease-fire conditions announced by the committee and the rebel elements should adhere to those conditions without choice to prove their good intention for peace through ending banditry and destructive acts, stopping assaults against citizens and soldiers and removing the bombs they laid in the roads.

He affirmed the government's keenness on establishing peace in the region and avoiding further bloodshed as well as speeding the efforts of development and reconstruction in some districts of Saada province and Harf Sufyan district in Amran province.

A number of social personages from Saada and other provinces were assigned to convince the rebels to return the right way and accept the peace, but they refused all these efforts that aimed to prevention of bloodshed and achieving the peace, the official added.

The government's truce terms are:
1- Full withdrawal from all Saada districts and eliminating all checkpoints from all roads.
2 - Coming down from mountain peaks and ending banditry and sabotaging.
3 - Giving back all military and public equipment seized during battles with the troops.
4 - Establishing the fate of six foreigners, a German family comprising of parents and three children and a Briton, who all available information suggest were kidnapped by the rebels in June.
5 - Handing over kidnapped Saada locals.
6 - Stopping interference in the local government's responsibilities.

Al- Houthi rebels have been launching sporadic wars against the troops since 2004.

Since the fighting erupted in 2004, thousands of people, soldiers and insurgents have been killed in Saada, which lies close to border with Saudi Arabia, after the rebel group was founded by Shiite rebel leader Hussein al-Houthi.

Hussein, the eldest brother of the current group leader Abdul-Malik, was killed by the army in September 2004.

The Yemeni government accuses the al-Houthi group of trying to reinstall the rule of imams, which was toppled by a republican revolution in northern Yemen in 1962.

BA