VZCZCXRO8151
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHYN #0503 0831257
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 241257Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY SANAA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1466
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SANAA 000503 
 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ARP:AMACDONALD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PTER YM
SUBJECT: HOME-GROWN NGOS WORK FOR PEACEFUL CONFLICT 
RESOLUTION 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY. Local NGOs are engaged in a three-pronged 
approach to promoting peaceful conflict resolution among 
Yemen's tribes: engaging tribal leaders, empowering youth, 
and training imams as mediators.  These techniques often 
overlap efforts to curb the spread of extremist ideology. 
The programs represent a uniquely Yemeni approach to 
assisting these at-risk populations and may warrant 
additional consideration when dispersing development 
assistance. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  Engaging tribes may be the most important key to 
successful conflict mediation, according to several NGOs 
operating in tribal regions.  "Government attempts to 
interfere in tribal warfare fail for two reasons," Marib 
native Mohamed Alsalhi told Poloff.  "First, the tribes are 
very suspicious of the government.  Second, the government 
only tries to interfere when it is convenient.  Incidents 
occur between government checkpoints, yet they do nothing." 
Alsalhi operates Future Organization, a Marib-based NGO that 
works to protect university students from tribal revenge. 
"We have the support of the sheikhs to create a Conflict 
Resolution Institute in Marib," he explained.  The institute 
plans to bring together tribal leaders, teachers, parents, 
and students to encourage the creation of a "revenge free 
zone" at Yemen's universities. 
 
¶3.  The support of the sheikhs allows NGOs to conduct youth 
empowerment programs, both in the villages and in Sana'a. 
Sons of sheikhs from ten governorates will attend a conflict 
resolution workshop designed by the Democracy School, a 
Sana'a-based NGO, and funded by the Middle East Partnership 
Initiative (MEPI).  In a similar vein, Children's Parliament, 
a Democracy School program that recruits next generation 
leaders to advocate for children's issues, includes a 
"Committee to End Revenge Killings."  According to Program 
Manager Ilham al-Kibsi, the committee was created in response 
to concerns from student participants directly affected by 
tribal violence.  Recently some of these same students also 
designed a "Committee to Combat Extremism."  The Democracy 
School encourages graduates of these programs to train their 
peers in their home cities and villages. 
 
¶4.   NGOs are also training imams to combat the cultural 
acceptance of violent retribution.  "We use peaceful messages 
from the Quran to convince tribes to give up their weapons. 
Now we use those same messages to convince young people that 
Islam is a religion of peace," said a local imam during a 
March 16 round-table discussion with peace activists.  Dar 
al-Salam, a peace organization dedicated to combating acts of 
revenge, expanded its conferences that train imams to act as 
conflict mediators to include this type of religious 
instruction.  These conferences are especially effective, 
according to Dar al-Salam's Chairman Sheikh Abdelrahman 
al-Marwani, because the discussions are led by well-respected 
volunteer imams. Sheikh Abdelrahman's status as a sheikh and 
victim of violence himself (Note: He was severely injured by 
a hand-held grenade as a child.  End note.) helps to recruit 
volunteers for his organization, no easy feat in a country 
with an under-developed sense of volunteerism. 
 
COMMENT 
--------- 
 
¶5.  The NGO managers are eager to expand cooperation with the 
USG, although the Democracy School mentioned having to remove 
the MEPI label from a project during the recent fighting in 
Gaza.  Providing assistance to these types of programs may be 
an additional way to achieve the Mission's goal of engaging 
tribes, especially since their conflict resolution programs 
target the same young, religious, and disenfranchised 
populations who are so susceptible to recruitment by 
extremists.  END COMMENT. 
BRYAN