President opens 2nd round of GPC

SANA’A, (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh, founder of General People’s Congress party, opened in Sana’a on Saturday the second two-day round of the GPC. In the opening session of the round, President Saleh delivered a speech in which he said that the round would discuss several national issues on top of which economic issues, in addition to other political, cultural and social issues. “The General People’s Congress is proud that it was established on the basis of dialogue in 1982,” he said, adding that the GPC has been leading development process of the nation in various fields such as education, health, electricity and roads, in addition to establishing the reunification. “The GPC managed to realize steps ahead in democracy as many parliamentary, presidential and local elections have been done,” Saleh said. He admitted that the party is embattled with big challenges on top of which economic situation, calling all political forces for dialogue and present solutions for those issues. President voiced readiness of the party to take into consideration those solutions if they are serious and free of fabricated facts, saying that the current unprecedented increase in food prices is globally. He noted that the party realized that it is the only responsible to achieve expectations of the people of Yemen who granted it confidence. “We represent the people who granted us confidence in the parliament and local authority and, therefore, we should talk on their behalf and tackle their problems,” Saleh commented. He said that the party would get the people’s trust in coming parliamentary elections because it was founded with the aim to serve the whole nation. Regarding Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo, Saleh said that the government is contacting the US authorities over Yemeni detainees in Guantanamo in Cuba, asking them to hand them over with their files. “We gave orders to the government represented by Ministry of Foreign Affairs to follow up this issue with the authorities of United States.” Any one found guilty would spend his term of punishment in Yemen and those found innocent would be set free, he said. President pointed out to initiative presented by Yemen to settle dispute between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas opposite movements, saying that Yemen still continues its efforts to bring about an end for suffering of the Palestinian people . He concluded his speech by expressing thanks to military and security forces in protecting security and stability to secure development process and better climate of investment in the country. On the other hand, secretary general of the GPC Abdul-Qadar Ba-Jammal reviewed a report on the activates of the party during the pervious period, saying that the party achieved big progress in different files, especially its victory in last local and presidential elections. The report shed some lights on measures and decisions taken by the GPC to enhance performance of the party and its structure. Ba-Jammal said that the political and media speech of the party was meant to deal with several events, mainly strife in some districts of Saada. He said that the party has called on all political parties and civil society organizations to stand against the strife and support military and security forces. Ba-Jammal pointed out to decrees issued by President Saleh over tackling impacts of the separation war in 1994 as the decrees stipulate bringing back a huge number of retired military and security personals to service and grant them their financial rights. He also brought up the successful efforts done by the party in fields of politics, economy and judicial reforms, reviewing results of dialogue with other political parties. In his report, Ba-Jammal pointed out to future steps for the program of the party which includes measures to enhance the national unity, maintain efforts of tackling impacts of 1994 war as well as dialogue with parties. AH/AM Saba