Yemen holds separatists in south

YEMEN: Government forces have arrested 16 people on suspicion of separatist activity in southern Yemen, security sources said on Saturday.

Yemen, the poorest Arab country, is battling secessionists in the south, a Shi'ite insurgency in the north and a resurgent al Qaeda, whose local arm claimed responsibility for a failed Dec. 25 bomb attempt on a US plane approaching Detroit. Those arrested were accused of taking part in unauthorised protests and jeopardising security and unity in the Arabian Peninsula country, the sources said.

Some group members were carrying anti-government leaflets and banners, and others had attacked security forces with stones, they said. Further details were not immediately available about the arrests, which took place in three provinces late on Friday.

People in the south, home to most of Yemen's oil facilities, have long complained that northerners have abused a 1990 agreement which united the long-divided country to seize their resources and discriminate against them.

Separately, the United Nations Development Programme called for urgent aid for the 250,000 people displaced by the conflict in the north, which has flared on and off since 2004.

The northern rebels and the government agreed last week to a truce to end the war, but previous ceasefires have not held. UNDP administrator Helen Clark expressed hope in a statement that "the international community would react positively to the ceasefire by providing urgently needed resources in response to the humanitarian needs caused by the conflict and to allow early recovery from the conflict to begin".

SANAA, Sunday, Reuters