Sheikh Nasser Shareef skærer ansigt, mens han forklarer hvordan vilkårene for ham og befolkningen i stammeområdet Marib Governorate er:”Den er meget dårlig”.
Sana’a, 12. oktober, 2012 (IRIN):”We don’t even have a police station. And hospitals and schools are empty. There’s no one and nothing inside them, no services,” he told IRIN.
For three decades former president Ali Abduallah Saleh used development projects in tribal areas as a way of securing loyalty, but with a new government in place, alliances are shifting, and many hope corrupt practices may be replaced by sound development planning.
“Now there are not a lot of [public service] projects. The new government is taking responsibility,” tribal leader Hasan Ali Bin Abkr, a sheikh in the northern al-Jawf Governorate, told IRIN.
The situation there is even worse than in Marib. A 2009 report by the state-run Yemen News Agency (SABA), known for its conservative estimates of the country’s poverty and development, said only about 4 percent of its more than 500,000 residents have access to electricity, while 49 percent of school-aged children do not go to school and the remainder face shortages of books, teachers and classrooms.
Ali Al Munifi, a sheikh from Marib and head of Dar Al Salam, a tribal conflict resolution organization, told IRIN the Arab Spring-inspired revolts last year may have brought in a new president, but the rampant corruption of the Saleh era remains.
He explained how a typical Sana’a development project used to work: “The government awards a contract to a particular tribal sheikh. Contractors receive the money to carry out the project, but because the contractors have a relationship with the tribal leaders, the money disappears.”
Despite such examples, “it is possible for the government to come into Marib and implement projects, if the government is serious. But as long as engineers, for example, continue to take bribes to say a project is fine, there’s no chance for development,” said Munifi.
Saudi role
Læs videre på: http://irinnews.org/Report/96524/YEMEN-Sheikhs-and-shekels-the-real-cost-of-patronage
