Saleh Says Leaving for U.S., Asks People for Forgiveness‎

Yemen's longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh said he will head to the United States for medical treatment as he asked his people for forgiveness, in a farewell speech released as he left Sanaa on Sunday.

"I will go to the United States for treatment and will then return as head of the General People's Congress (GPC) party," the official Saba news agency quoted Saleh as saying.

"I ask for forgiveness from all my country's people, men and women, for any shortcomings during my 33-year-long rule," he added.

An official close to the presidency told Agence France Presse that "the Yemeni president left Sanaa one hour ago," without specifying Saleh's destination.

His departure came a day after parliament adopted a law giving Saleh "complete" immunity from prosecution in return for stepping down under a Gulf-brokered transition deal.

The law has drawn wide condemnation from young protesters, hundreds of whom have been killed by Saleh's security forces and loyalists since an uprising against his rule broke out in January 2011, as well as from rights groups.

But Saleh's farewell speech defended the law, saying that those who have benefited from it are "all those who have worked with the president during a 33-year-long rule."

"If there had been mistakes, then they were unintentional as the president has immunity from his own people to whom he had dedicated his life to serve for this nation," Saleh said as he called for "reconciliation" in the country.

"The poor youths (who have continued) sit-ins for 11 months, go back to your homes and families and open up a new page with the new leadership. I feel sorry for you," Saleh said.

Parliament also adopted a law approving Saleh's longtime deputy, Vice President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, as the consensus candidate in the election for Saleh's successor, due to be held on February 21.

After that date, Hadi is to be "handed over the presidential palace while Ali Abdullah Saleh will take his bag, bid farewell, and leave to his own home," Saba quoted the veteran president as saying.

"I announce from here, out of respect and appreciation for Hadi's stances and efforts, his promotion to the rank of marshal," Saleh said.

A senior official of Saleh's GPC party, Sultan al-Barakani, said last week that the 69-year-old president, who remains in office on an honorary basis, would travel abroad.

"In the coming days, he will visit the sultanate of Oman and then Ethiopia before traveling to New York for treatment" for wounds he sustained in a bombing at the presidential palace last June, the official told AFP.

"Once he has completed his treatment in New York, he will return to Yemen to continue leading the party."

Diplomats in Sanaa said on Sunday that Saleh's eldest son Ahmed -- who commands the feared Republican Guard -- was "already in Oman" to prepare for his father's visit.

Earlier on Sunday, tens of thousands of Yemenis demanded Saleh's execution in protests against a law giving him full immunity from prosecution over a deadly crackdown on dissent.

"It is our duty ... to execute the butcher," chanted angry protesters gathered in Sanaa's Change Square, the epicenter of the democracy movement that has been calling for Saleh's ouster since January last year.

The law also offers partial protection from legal action for Saleh's aides, saying his lieutenants cannot be charged for "actions that were politically motivated and carried out in the exercise of their duties."

The protesters carried banners calling on lawmakers to reverse their decision.

"To the lawmakers, we say there will be no immunity at the expense of the blood of our martyrs," said one banner, referring to the hundreds of people killed in the government crackdown.

The demonstrators tried to march to the U.S. embassy in Sanaa but were stopped by Yemeni security forces.

The final text of the immunity law specified the amnesty "does not apply to acts of terrorism," though no further details were revealed as to what actions may fall within that category.

The transitional government of national unity, which is led by the parliamentary opposition, had submitted 11th-hour amendments on Friday reducing the scope of the amnesty offered to the president's aides following a public outcry.

"We had 10,000 victims in northern Yemen over the past six wars. We cannot give up seeking justice," Abdul Karim Jadban, an MP from Saada, the Zaidi Shiites' stronghold in the country's north, told AFP.

An on-off revolt in northern Yemen since 2004 between Shiites and the Sanaa government has cost several thousand lives and displaced more than 250,000 people. A ceasefire was declared in February 2010.

The U.N. envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar, has criticized the immunity law arguing it neglects the rights of "victims".

Speaking to reporters before departing Yemen late Saturday, Benomar said that though "the law was amended ... it does not live up to our expectations. The U.N. in principle stands against this type of blanket immunity."

Benomar called on parliament to enact a "transitional justice and reconciliation" law that would allow victims to be heard and make claims for compensation.