Reuters Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's request to be let into the United States shows he may now be resigned to surrendering power after months of protests, but gives him no guarantee of the immunity from prosecution that he seeks in exchange for stepping down. Washington, which is weighing granting a visa for medical treatment, neither wants to nor can shield Saleh on its soil for long. There is a growing belief among experts that a future Yemeni government may eventually find the pledge of amnesty divisive enough for it to violate that condition of the pact that his disgruntled US patrons want to use to ease Saleh from power. “I think Saleh realizes it's done for him personally, and he's working on leaving,” said Ibrahim Sharqieh, a conflict resolution expert with the Brookings Doha Center, of Saleh's announcement that he would seek to go the United States. “They don't want to deal with the ramifications of this, having him on their soil, and they do realize the problems of the amnesty,” he said. “Whatever the arrangements now, there will be a view toward demanding the prosecution of Saleh.” Saleh announced his plan for a US visit last week after forces loyal to him killed nine protesters demanding he face trial for killing their counterparts during nearly a year of mass demonstrations aimed at toppling him after three decades in power. The demand of the protesters — hundreds of whom have been killed by units led by Saleh's son and nephews since the uprising against him began last January — runs up against the main element of the pact Yemen's richer neighbors crafted to ease him from office. Under the terms of that deal, echoed by a UN Security Council resolution and backed by Washington, which long funded Saleh as a key client in its “counter-terrorism” campaign in Yemen, Saleh has formally ceded powers to his deputy. He retains the title of “head of state” until an election to choose his successor set for Feb. 21. The latest bloodshed came as units of the Republican Guards and Central Security — commanded by Saleh's son and nephew respectively — opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters who approached his presidential compound at the end of a days-long march from Taiz demanding he be tried. That move on Saleh's fortress coincided with the start of what some Yemenis are calling a “parallel revolution”, in which labour militancy directed at Saleh's relatives and loyalists in key state institutions has further eroded his grasp on power. The interim government, divided between Saleh loyalists and opposition parties, last week formed an emergency administration to run the state airline Yemeniyya, in response to a strike by workers demanding the sacking of its top executive, Abdul Khaleq Al-Qadi, who is Saleh's son-in-law. In subsequent days, Saleh appointees have faced uprisings in the coast guard, naval academy, flight school, traffic police, a military training division, the state news agency and a Sana'a security headquarters whose commander called in plainclothes gunmen to shoot subordinates who demanded his sacking. __
