YEMEN: Yemen's prime minister called for calm yesterday after 13 people were killed in clashes between police and rioters protesting a sharp rise in fuel prices.
"I ask the people to calm down, we are improving your conditions. We must differentiate between freedom of expression and freedom of destruction, which is completely rejected," prime minister Abdul-Qader Bagammal said.
"We are not accusing anyone but we call those infiltrating the masses to stop harming society. They are the true saboteurs and we will confront them," he added.
It was the government's first response to riots sparked by a state decision to cut fuel subsidies that nearly doubled prices.
An interior ministry official said an unspecified number of protesters were arrested.
Yemen said the cuts were in line with high global oil prices and were part of reforms launched in 1995 and backed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, to help prevent an economic collapse. The government also said on Tuesday it would cut custom tariffs, raise state salaries and lower a general sales tax it would introduce to 5 per cent from a planned 10 per cent.
Thousands of protesters in the capital, Sanaa, smashed government offices, blocked roads by setting tyres on fire, and knocked out electricity transformers in some areas.
The clashes were the heaviest death toll in Yemen protests since 1998, when 34 people died in two weeks of demonstrations and violent clashes over price hikes.
It was not clear if the casualties were caused by police who opened fire at the protesters or by armed demonstrators in a country where civilians often carry arms.