Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh speaking in the capital Sanaa on January 22, 2012. - Photo by AFP

SANAA : Outgoing president Ali Abdullah Saleh apologised for “any shortcoming” in his 33-year rule before leaving Yemen for the United States on Sunday, paving the way for a transfer of power after a year of unrest.

“God willing, I will leave for (medical) treatment in the United States and I will return to Sanaa as head of the General People’s Congress party,” Saleh told senior party and government officials in a televised speech.

He tried to sound a conciliatory note in a farewell speech that came a day after he was granted immunity from prosecution under a law passed by parliament.

“I ask for pardon from all Yemeni men and women for any shortcoming that occurred during my 33-year rule and I ask forgiveness and offer my apologies to all Yemeni men and women,” he said. “Now we must concentrate on our martyrs and injured.”

An aide to Saleh said he would spend two or three days in neighbouring Oman but an Omani official said the veteran ruler would be in transit for only a few hours.

Thousands of Yemenis protested on against Saleh’s immunity and demanded he be put on trial for the killing of hundreds of demonstrators during a year of unrest that brought the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country to the verge of civil war.

Saleh was granted the immunity as part of a plan hammered out by neighbouring Gulf states to ease him from power.

Gulf Arab and Western allies fear instability has given Al Qaeda militants room to further entrench themselves in remote areas outside central government control.

He leaves behind a divided country.

An opposition-led government formed as part of the deal to get him out of office is preparing for a presidential election on Feb 21 expected to replace Saleh with his ally and vice-president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in a power-sharing arrangement.

Saleh remains nominal head of state until then, though he has transferred his powers to Hadi.

Saleh said on Sunday he had promoted Hadi to the post of army general in an apparent effort to ensure that the army remains the most important institution in a fragmented land of
23 million.

Many fear that though Saleh may be gone, his supporters will remain in power and continue to dominate the country.

At the capital’s airport, dozens of members of Yemen’s air force held a sit-in on the runway to demand the resignation of their commander, Saleh’s half-brother, accusing him of
corruption. Air traffic was halted and riot police with water cannon surrounded the protesters, witnesses said.

Reports from a pro-revolution website run by Saleh’s arch-enemy, General Ali Mohsen, said about 600 members of the air force were participating in the sit-in.

Saleh cited what he considered the successes of his rule.

“The president has been given immunity by the people after he gave his life in the service of the nation,” he said, listing development, infrastructure, energy and mineral sector growth and maintaining the unity of north and south Yemen. —Reuters