Yemeni Prime Minister, Salem Mohammed Bassindwa The newly-appointed Yemeni Prime Minister, Salem Mohammed Bassindwa, attacked the regime of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, accusing him of killing Yemeni people in the first anniversary of “Friday of Dignity”, when Saleh’s regime committed massacres against Yemenis whom took to the street calling for democratic changes.
For nearly a year, armed men in plain clothes loyal to Saleh attacked anti-government protesters, while security forces did little to stop them.
Yemenis protested across the country on Sunday to mark the killing of more than 50 protesters last year by snipers loyal to the former regime.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets in at least 18 provinces to demand that Saleh be tried for the deaths of those  protesters killed a year ago on  what they called “Friday of Dignity,” when snipers fired from rooftops at protesters in Sanaa’s Change Square.
Bassindwa visited Change Square on Sunday and prayed at a cemetery where the protesters were buried. He told youth demonstrators that he would fulfill the goals of their movement.
He denounced the “blatant attacks on hundreds of thousands of revolutionaries and people exercising their right to demonstrate peacefully.” Bassindwa heads a coalition government comprised of ministers from both Saleh’s regime and the opposition.
Saleh was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for handing over powers to his vice president, as part of an internationally backed deal.
Saleh’s successor, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, decreed on Sunday that families who lost relatives in the uprising would be given a monthly stipend.
Within the same context, the Yemeni government disclosed Sunday that more than 2.000 people have been killed in a year of political turmoil that led to the resignation of Yemen’s longtime president.
The figure is much higher than human rights groups estimated.
Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights said the figure of at least 2.000 includes both unarmed protesters and military defectors, as well as more than 120 children. It said 22.000 people were wounded over the past year.
The London-based human rights group Amnesty International estimated earlier this year that 200 protesters had been killed in the uprising.