Sudarsan Raghavan/The Washington Post - Taiz's head of security, Brig. Gen. Abdullah Abdu Kayran, rules the south-central city in Yemen with a iron grip. His men allegedly have killed hundreds of protesters to protect the regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Taiz, Yemen — Everyone in this restive city knows Brig. Gen. Abdullah Abdu Kayran.
Local politicians and businessmen seek his blessings. Higher-ranking military officials speak to him with deference. And at protests, children sing songs denouncing his alleged crimes.
Kayran is neither the governor nor the leader of a powerful tribe in Taiz. Instead, he represents something more important to the regime: As Taiz’s security chief, he preserves the authority of embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
“The real power in Taiz is Kayran,” said Bushra al-Maktari, an activist leader. “He’s the government’s stick in Taiz. He’s a nail in Saleh’s tools of war.”
In November, Saleh signed an agreement to formally hand over power to his vice president. Yet across this impoverished Middle Eastern nation, where an al-Qaeda branch is seeking to create a haven, thousands of his loyalists remain entrenched in key government, military and security positions. Even if Saleh keeps his promise to leave office, his opponents fear that he could retain his grip on Yemen through local strongmen such as Kayran, creating a shadow regime.
“There is no doubt that they are acting in Saleh’s interests,” said Col. Abdusalam al-Jaberi, a member of a military committee assigned by the new transitional government to bring calm to Taiz.
The transitional government comprises members of both the ruling party and the opposition, and jockeying for power and positions is taking place inside national ministries, provincial governments and local councils.
In some areas, a struggle is underway to oust military and security officials loyal to Saleh, who has ruled for 33 years. Removing Kayran from this south-central city, an epicenter of Yemen’s populist uprising, has become a focal point of that effort.
On Jan. 8, local leaders in Taiz tried to fire Kayran from his position, blaming him in part for the deaths of several hundred protesters killed by his forces. But a senior Interior Ministry official dismissed the action and said Kayran was still the city’s security chief, underscoring the tensions between Saleh’s allies and his opponents. Taiz’s local council, the official said, had no authority to oust Kayran.
If Saleh allies such as Kayran remain in place at the provincial and local levels, any new government would amount to an extension of Saleh’s 33-year rule. That could lead to more tensions and crackdowns on activists who are calling for the prosecution of Saleh and his sons and nephews for crimes against humanity. It would also complicate the ability of Yemen’s next president — if elections take place next month, as scheduled — to steer the country through a transitional process that many hope would herald the start of significant change in Yemen.
Already, lawlessness is growing. On Sunday, al-Qaeda-linked militants reportedly seized the town of Radda, 105 miles southeast of the capital, Sanaa, expanding their control of areas into a third province. And on the same day, armed tribesmen kidnapped a Norwegian U.N. worker in Sanaa.
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