What Is The National Reconciliation For The Yemenis And How Important Is It?

Sawt Al-Amal (Voice of Hope) – Rajaa Mukred

The Yemeni citizen has gone through difficult challenges: some of them were related to his security and stability, others to his life and livelihood, and even his social relations which may reveal to many that the people have lost hope in reaching a solution ending the problems between the parties and combining views towards a single path leading to reconciliation and peace.

“Sawt Al-Amal” (Voice of Hope) turned towards the citizens to touch their souls, see what the reconciliation means to them, how important it is to achieving it, to determine the extent of their desire for tolerance and reaching out to reconciliation, and to provide evidence that they are still strong, have not lost hope yet and are still attached to the unity of the social fabric of one Yemen.

Why?
In brief and expressive words, Mustafa Al-Sama’i, from Al-Hudaydah, expresses the reality of the situation, and says, “I am confused when I see darkness prevailing in our beloved country. Thus, we are on the planet of light, so why hunger while food is available? And why thirst while we live in a rich oasis? Why ignorance while it’s the time of knowledge? And why the conflict while we are sons of wisdom and faith?

Al-Sama’i adds, “We must all renounce violence, abandon partisanship and abhorrent regionalism, and concede to each other. Let us live in a homeland for all, and the wise people of Yemen should call for reconciliation, to reject violence, and to give preference to reason and logic over the language of fighting and the loss of lives, so Yemeni wisdom be manifested and peace prevailed”.

As for Muhammed Al-Hasani from Sana’a, he says, “Reconciliation must be among the people themselves socially, before being politically. It is also necessary to establish a relationship between political parties with all groups of society”.

Al-Hasani expresses the meaning of reconciliation by saying that it is a broad and loose term, which comes in more than one meaning, and has many synonyms such as agreement between parties and restoring relations. Reconciliation is also related to a number of concepts, such as tolerance, peace, forgiveness, peaceful coexistence and justice.

In an online survey conducted by the Survey Unit at Yemen Information Center for Research and Media (YIC) in early March 2021 on a group of citizens, it was found that 80% of the population believes that national reconciliation is very important, 14% find it important, and 6% think it is not important.

Healing for Homeland Wounds
Izdihar Saeed, from Taiz, considers that the national reconciliation is the reform among the people and the rejection of division which unfortunately does not exist in Yemen at the present time, explaining that the importance of national reconciliation lies in addressing the political problems in the homeland, and she calls for a rapid end to the conflict, achieving security, safety, and peace in the homeland.

A. Abdo Hussein Ahmad from Amran, an Associate faculty member at Sana’a University, says: “National reconciliation requires Yemeni political and societal will because it is an inevitable result after the end of conflicts and the advent of peace; since the end of any conflict is comprehensive peace which leads to a reconciliation between all colors of the national spectrum, without exception, on the basis of coexistence, tolerance, and acceptance of parties for each other without any conditions or attempts to impose specific agendas or opinions”. He also sees that reconciliation constitutes a healing to the wounds of the homelands that have been afflicted by pain, which calls for transcendence over them.

A Safe Future for my Children and Me
Muhammed Al-Walidi from Sana’a clarifies the meaning of reconciliation from his point of view, saying, “Reconciliation means everything to me as it is the only solution to achieving a safe future for my children and me”.

Al-Walidi believes that national reconciliation is a way to infuse the blood of Yemenis, build the nation, restore what has been destroyed, and thwart the conflict project that targets the Yemeni identity on land and people, as it contributes to converging views and working for Yemen, and rejecting racial and sectarian differences.

The journalist Hamdi Radman, from Taiz, just says, “One homeland can fit every one”, rejecting any addition, because in his opinion, the expression says it all.

In the context of stressing the importance of national reconciliation, Muhammed Al-Zuwar from Sana’a, says that “it will contribute to ending the conflict and restoring peace, security, safety and stability to the homeland, and the people of the same nation from the north to the south and from the east to the west will enjoy basic services that the state must provide to its citizens”.

He adds, “In times of conflicts, the role of the state is lost, security is disturbed, and is lenient in providing services, whether by default or by neglect, but in the event of a national reconciliation, every official will play his role and implement what he ought to do, so the country will enjoy development and prosperity”.

Exiting the Dark Tunnel
Returning to Mustafa Al-Sama’i, who affirms that all the people of Yemen must stop the futile conflict among brothers, unite efforts to bring peace, and engage in the dialogue table to bring the homeland from this dark tunnel back to safety, restore the state, and lay its foundations on the principle of partnership, and recourse to the constitution of the one state.   Adding, “The most beautiful thing in the hearts of the Yemenis is the preservation of values ​​and principles, and no matter how bad the conditions that the citizen is going through, his hope for reconciliation and tolerance has not been extinguished and he still, despite everything, keeps hope for a future of love, coexistence, and peace, refusing humiliation and domination, being content with his capabilities, and the capabilities of his state to guarantee him respect and peace”. And he concludes his statement, “With God’s hope, may the fire of sedition that has befallen the country be extinguished, and may peace be returned to the homeland”.