Bin Mubarak clarifies remarkson political isolation

DC Secretary General Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak has said that his comments at the Good Governance Working Group’s discussion on political isolation topic did not reflect a personal viewpoint, but rather were intended to convey the viewpoint of the political group which objected to the isolation decision. When members of the Good Governance Group discussed and approved the political isolation decision, Bin Mubarak had informed the group they should not discuss the topic, because the topic was on the agenda of the National Issues and Transitional Justice Working Group. “I just conveyed what the General People’s Congress (GPC) wanted to say about the issue,” affirmed bin Mubarak. “I sometimes appear at discussions of working groups to help steer their activities. I don’t have the right to present viewpoints (just like others perceived me to doon the isolation topic) because the NDC’s Secretariat General is only responsible for technical issues,” he said. “The Secretariat General does not interfere in the activities of working groups”. Under the isolation decision, immunity granted through the Gulf Initiative to Yemeni officials from the former regime, including ex-president Ali Abdulla Saleh,will be lifted and these officials will be put into isolation. Saleh relinquished power in 2011 under the West-backed Gulf Initiative, under which he agreed to a power transfer in return for full immunity from prosecution for him and partial immunity to his aides. The immunity has incited street protests and other public expressions of dissent. People are still calling for annulling this provision of the Gulf Initiative and putting all officials responsible for the 2011 deaths of revolutionaries on trial.