Three conference segments presented their understandings of the ‘roots’ of Southern problems to the Southern Issue Working Group on Sunday.

NDC members and representatives from the National Council for Peaceful Revolutionary Forces and the independent youth and civil society organizations segments said that while the roots of the southern issue could be traced back to 1967, the causes of southern problems have become clearer since 1990.

The Youth have demanded to have a bold determination to recognize all southern issues that have been accumulated since 1967 without exceptions.

The National Council for Peaceful Revolution Forces summarized the roots of the Issue in the political heritages of the two political systems which signed the unity agreement in 1990.

According to the understandings which were shared, the two political systems of the north and the south had negative political heritages which relied on authoritarianism, exclusion and a denial of democratic principles, human rights and divergent opinions. For these reasons, the representatives stated, the northern and southern political systems failed to successfully rule over a reunited Yemen.

Another set of difficulties were cited as stemming from both the cycles of violence in the south after 1967 and the failure and policies of the former southern regime, which, according to the representatives who spoke on Sunday, which led to all southerners being exploited.

A final point of convergence in the understandings of the representatives who made presentations was concerned with the failures and bad policies – namely unilateralism and a dictatorship – which followed the 1994 civil war.

According to the civil society organization representatives, the southern issue is not a matter of south and north; rather, they said, the complicated issue has its roots in rights violations, social inequality, widespread corruption, power vacuums, and the misuse of national resources both before and after national unity was achieved.