War Takes Mental Toll on Yemenis
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight: out of sight but certainly traumatizing minds, the psychological toll of the war in Yemen. I speak with a blogger in Sanaa.</s>HISHAM AL-OMEISY, YEMENI POLITICAL AND INFORMATION ANALYST (voice-over): There's a few seconds, split seconds, when the jet is rapidly approaching and you hear that whoosh sound, that whistling sound of the missile being launched. And your heart stops for a split second when you think the missile is hitting my home? Near or somewhere else?</s>PLEITGEN (voice-over): Then the President of the United States, well, sort of. (</s>VIDEO CLIP, "VEEP") PLEITGEN (voice-over): Christiane Amanpour speaks with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the HBO CEO about the power of satire.</s>PLEITGEN: Welcome, everybody, and before we begin our regular program, we do have some breaking news that's just into CNN. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted for the 2013 Boston bombings, has just spoken in court in Boston, where he's being sentenced to death.</s>PLEITGEN (voice-over): He said he would like to apologize to the victims and survivors of the bombing that left three people dead and more than 260 injured. He said there is no doubt he's guilty. "I am sorry for the lives that I have taken," he said. And more on that later here on CNN. So do stay tuned. But first of all, Yemen, the conflict is complicated but the tragedy unfolding is devastatingly clear. Eighty percent of the population needs aid, says the UN, as Saudi-led airstrikes continue to rain down. The already impoverished nation is suffering massive water shortages; many people, like this young girl, have no choice but to fill jerry cans at public taps if, indeed, water is available. There's very little food as well. The empty shelves in this store speak volumes. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states are supporting the country's exiled president, Mansour Hadi, by targeting Houthi rebels allegedly backed by Shiite Iran. Peace talks last week didn't even come close to an agreement; meanwhile, chaos is spreading, allowing groups like Al Qaeda and now even ISIS to flourish. Now a rare chance to hear from a voice on the ground in Yemen. Hisham al- Omeisy is an activist who's been witnessing and cataloging the war there. He fired up his generator to get power in order to join me via Skype from Sanaa.</s>PLEITGEN: Hisham al-Omeisy, welcome to the program.</s>AL-OMEISY: Thank you for having me.</s>PLEITGEN: Hisham, right now, of course, we know is the time of Ramadan. It's a time of reflection. It's a time of prayer. It's a time also, of course, for celebrations with family. How is this affecting Ramadan? And how is the fact that this is going on during Ramadan weighing on the mood even more?</s>AL-OMEISY: It is taking its toll on us. People were poor before the war. So after three months of war, poverty rates have skyrocketed 40 percent to 50 percent. So after 90 days of blockade the situation is catastrophic. Now that it is Ramadan, coming in a situation that we're living in, I think that should be</s>PLEITGEN: You know, one of the things that anybody who's ever lived through or had to live through an air campaign will know is that it's not just the fact that these airstrikes are happening that really gets to people, especially if it goes on as long as it's been going on here. It's the fact that you hear the airplanes in the air. You don't know when you could be hit. How much of a psychological toll is this taking on people and especially of course children?</s>AL-OMEISY: You actually said it pretty well. That is our biggest fear. There's a few seconds, split seconds, when the jet is rapidly approaching and you hear that whoosh sound, that whistling sound of the missile being launched. And your heart stops for a split second when you think the missile is hitting my home? Near or somewhere else? And that takes -- that takes its toll on you psychologically, especially if you have children inside the house, when everybody for that split second holds their breath and your heart skips a beat. And they hear the explosion; even though the explosion is earth-shaking, still it's a relief because it did not hit you. It hit somewhere else.</s>PLEITGEN: One of the things that the Saudis, of course, are saying is that they're conducting this air campaign to bring back what they say is the rightful president of the country. Do you think that most Yemenis would say that? What is the standing of President Hadi at this point?</s>AL-OMEISY: Hadi lacks public support on the ground. He lacks public support to begin with. He was not elected. He was appointed president through agreements between the political factions. So with the people, he enjoys zero popularity. Now that he is actually spearheading this campaign against his own people, his popularity not just plummeted; it's actually in the negative now. When the Saudi-led coalition still insists that they can bring him back, they're actually dreaming. So basically he can never come back into Yemen.</s>PLEITGEN: One of the things that the international community is very worried about is the social fabric of Yemen, because we know that as conflicts like this drag on, even though people might not admit at the beginning, at some point it starts hurting the very social fabric and endangering the stability of the country. Where are we in that, in Yemen?</s>AL-OMEISY: We've seen a lot of people becoming more eccentric (ph), more - - for instance, in the south, they're calling for secession of the south. They're thinking in terms of distinct identity of their own tribes, of their own regions. They're no longer speaking in terms of Yemen as a whole. It's Yemen as specific tribal factions, specific geographic area. So it's being torn apart.</s>PLEITGEN: What do you think needs to be done to stop all this? I mean, surely it would have to start with a cease-fire, probably an immediate one, and but then there needs to be a reconciliation process and there needs to be obviously from what you're saying, new political leadership.</s>AL-OMEISY: Very true. That is actually what we need. That is last sentence that you mentioned is exactly what we need. We need a united front, a new leadership, some leadership that people would throw their hands behind that leadership that could bring the people together. Previously Yemen has been -- they had various cultures in Yemen, various tribal faction of confederats. They have distinct identities. They have distinct histories. What brought us together was a united leadership. We lack that right now. What we need right now is a cease-fire to begin with, so that fighting would stop.</s>PLEITGEN: Hisham al-Omeisy, thank you for joining the program.</s>AL-OMEISY: Thank you.</s>PLEITGEN: So certainly a dire situation there. And after a break, we have some lighter conversation for you but still a very strong message. The importance of political satire in a world cracking down on free speech. An interview with Julia-Louis Dreyfus, the commander in chief of poking fun at power -- that's next.