DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen, under international pressure to quiet domestic unrest and focus its sights on al Qaeda, has offered to hold talks with southern separatists and hear their grievances, state media said on Tuesday.
The move by President Ali Abdullah Saleh follows an escalation in violence on both sides in south Yemen that has left a trail of dead and wounded in recent weeks even as insurgent violence elsewhere in the country fades.
North and South Yemen united in 1990, but many in the south -- home to most of Yemen"s oil facilities -- complain northerners have seized resources and discriminate against them.
"We say to them: Come talk with your brothers in the authority, and we will talk with you. We extend the hand of dialogue without (you) having to resort to violence or blocking roads or raising the flag of separation," Saleh said in an address at a military academy.
"I am certain the flags of separation will burn in the days and weeks ahead. We have one flag we voted on with our free will. We welcome any political demands. Come to dialogue," he said, according to the Defense Ministry"s online newspaper.
Pressure mounted on Yemen to concentrate its efforts on containing al Qaeda after the Yemen-based regional arm of the militant group claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound passenger plane in December.
Western allies and neighboring Saudi Arabia fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability in Yemen, where 42 percent of the people live in poverty, and using the country as a base from which to prepare attacks in the region and beyond.
The offer for talks with separatists was not Saleh"s first.
Diplomats say previous offers have not been followed by concrete action to address southern complaints that Sanaa neglects the southern region and treats southerners unfairly, including in property disputes, jobs and pension rights.
Some southerners say Saleh"s ties to Saudi Arabia, Yemen"s biggest donor, have led the president to tolerate inroads by the kingdom"s puritanical Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam.
SHOW OF STRENGTH
Yemen agreed last month to a truce with northern Shi"ite rebels to end a separate conflict there that had drawn in top oil exporter Saudi Arabia. Since that truce began, violence in the north has faded while clashes in the south have escalated.
Security forces have come down hard on separatist protests in recent weeks, and at least two demonstrators have been shot dead. Ensuing unrest sparked security sweeps that have netted 150-200 arrests and sparked sometimes deadly clashes.
In the latest sweeps, 22 people were arrested in two southern provinces for offences ranging from armed attacks to chanting separatist slogans, the Defense Ministry website said.
Separately, a security court in the southern city of Aden issued suspended jail sentences of one year each on Tuesday against two leaders of the Southern Movement, which has led the protest movement, on charges of threatening Yemen"s unity, independent news website Marebpress reported.
"They have to escalate before they start to negotiate," Yemeni analyst Ali Seif Hassan said of the government. "This is their style of doing things. Show them you are strong. You can do things. Then you start to negotiate."
But he added the sides were unlikely to achieve more than a brief "cooling down" from the conflict in the medium term.
"I think it will continue for a long time," he said.
Saleh said Yemen would form committees to talk with the separatists. Analysts say the fractured nature of the movement, without a unified leadership, makes serious talks difficult.
Analysts said they believed the government was close to reaching a truce with one southern tribal leader, but said that did not mean tensions would subside throughout the south.
Recent attacks blamed on separatists, in which at least five people have died, have raised concerns that the mainly peaceful movement could become an armed campaign.
In the latest violence, five gunmen in a car fired at a state building, killing a soldier, state media said on Tuesday, blaming separatists for the attack late on Sunday.
Separately, Human Rights Watch urged Sanaa to use caution when targeting militants to avoid civilian casualties, citing a December air strike against al Qaeda in south Yemen that the government later acknowledged had also killed more than 42 civilians.
Yemen"s operations against al Qaeda have been focused in parts of the south where separatist sentiment is also prevalent.
"Civilian deaths in counterterrorism operations can have a strikingly counterproductive impact," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch.
"The U.S. has learned the hard way that such deaths can anger and alienate people who normally would not support groups such as al Qaeda," she said.
(Additional reporting by Mohamed Sudam in Sanaa and Mohammed Mukhashaf in Aden; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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