[سفيان]

27/03/2010 18:47 SANAA, March 27 (AFP) Yemeni police fire on mourners, wound 28: south separatists
Yemeni police opened fire on the funeral procession of a member of the separatist Southern Movement on Saturday, wounding 28 mourners, an official from the movement said.
"During the funeral procession for Sayf al-Jahafi ... in the main street of downtown Daleh, police opened fire from several directions, including from the rooftops of some houses, wounding 28 people," the official told AFP by phone.
"Even the ambulance carrying Sayf al-Jahafi's body was struck by three bullets," he said.
Jahafi was killed by police on March 18 during a demonstration in Daleh, a city about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital Sanaa, the official said.
Southern Movement activists said at the time that the man killed on March 18 was a vendor, and was not participating in the protest.
Jahafi was to have been buried last Wednesday but authorities prevented his body from being released from hospital, the official said. Authorities wanted the burial to take place at night rather than daylight to avoid protests.
Pro-independence demonstrations have multiplied in the south amid a worsening economic situation and complaints of discrimination in favour of northerners by the Sanaa government.
In a message to Arab leaders holding a weekend summit in Libya, former southern president Ali Salam al-Baid called on Saturday for their intervention "to stop the massacre of our people."
"We implore you to add the issue of out people's protection to the agenda of your summit and we ask for the formation of a commission of inquiry into the situation in occupied southern Yemen," he said in a statement received by AFP.
South Yemen was independent from 1967 until 1990 when it united with the north. The south seceded in 1994, sparking a short-lived conflict that ended when the south was overrun by northern troops.


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