Tawakkol Karman Yemeni Nobel peace laureate Tawakkol Karman has called on the British government to freeze the assets of Ali Abdullah Saleh, during a visit to London. Speaking shortly after meeting with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and Development Minister Alan Duncan, Karman made a passionate plea to a meeting of parliamentarians and NGOs that the assets of the regime, stolen from the Yemeni people, should be frozen.
“The regime has used the fear of Al-Qaeda and instability to steal money from the international community.”
“To the British people, I say, we don’t want your aid, we don’t want your taxes. We want our own money,” she said after the meeting in the Houses of Parliament.
She also called on the United Nations Security Council to refer the killing of protestors to the International Criminal Court. Tawakkol also promised to return to her protest tent when she returned to Yemen's capital Sanaa, despite fears for her safety.
“I give you the voice of women in the street. And of democracy in the street,” she said. “What we started in our country is for all of us.”
Karman, founder of Women Journalists without Chains, was at the forefront of pro-democracy protests in her native Yemen. She is the first Arab woman and youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, in its 110 year history.
She shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee. All three are prominent female human rights activists in their respective countries.
Hague later said in a press statement: “It is particularly fitting that, in a year of change cross the Middle East and North Africa, someone so passionate about the rights and freedoms we take for granted should be given this honour.
"I welcomed Ms Karman’s call for all Yemenis, both men and women, to unite to create a democratic society free from corruption and violence and based on the rule of law.”