Yemen arrests 21 in south

ADEN (Reuters) - Separatists demonstrated in southern Yemen on Sunday after security forces arrested 21 people accused of rioting, residents and officials said.

People traveling to Aden said demonstrations continued for a second day in the main southern city and in the provinces of Abyan and Dalea, also in the south of the poorest Arab country.

Demonstrators, some carrying the flag of the former South Yemen which united with the north in 1990, blocked the main road linking Aden with Dalea, they said.

Security forces arrested 21 people in the provincial capital of Dalea on Saturday as hundreds protested against earlier arrests, a Defense Ministry website said.

The protests were timed to coincide with a two-day meeting of Yemen donors in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Marchers and speakers at rallies called on the meeting to address the unresolved conflict in the south.

"The chief of security in Dalea said security forces were able to prevent and disperse a number of elements attempting to cause chaos, riot, and who were chanting slogans aimed at spreading hatred and causing division," the website said.

On Saturday, authorities imposed tougher security measures in Dalea, where separatist tensions have been rising. These included a ban on carrying weapons in public, two days after a policeman was shot dead in an ambush in a nearby province.

The policeman's death brought to four the number of people killed in attacks on security personnel in the south in a week as authorities mounted arrest sweeps targeting separatists.

People in the south, home to most Yemeni oil facilities, complain that northerners have abused the 1990 agreement uniting the country to grab resources and discriminate against them.

On February 11, Yemen struck a truce with Shi'ite rebels in the north of the country who have been fighting over religious, economic and social grievances, a conflict that had drawn in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

Western nations and Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is using the chaos in Yemen to recruit and train militants for attacks in the region and beyond.

The Yemeni arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bring down a U.S. airliner in December.

(Additional reporting by Jason Benham in Dubai; Editing by Janet Lawrence)