Public security agents and many military are several months in arrears in getting salaries. In mid-November school teachers began industrial action, then it was the turn of postal agents in Djibouti, also claiming arrears of part of their salaries, followed by demobilized military who demonstrated over the alleged failure of the government's programme of reinsertion for veterans, to the point of molesting the head of the programme, Abdi Ilmi Achkir. Finally, general Yacin Yabeh's impulse reaction did not go further than one of his customary outbursts. Some International Monetary Fund officials remember seeing him burst into the office of Djibouti's director of finance and national economy in 1996 to order him not to implement IMF structural adjustment measures which would have meant a 60 percent cut in allowances for police officers and NCOs. Copyright 2000 Indigo Publications .
Tension is also still high in the city.
Eighty four people who included police officers and civilians who supported the activities of Gen Yabeh were arrested last night. But the government did not name the embassy or say how many people had been arrested. Armed policemen surrounded the presidency on Thursday morning after President Ismael Omar Guelleh sacked Mr Yabeh as the chief of staff of the National Police Force. No reason was given for the dismissal. The government said the situation had returned to normal after the disturbances which left two people dead and six others wounded.