TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/010989/01098900.033

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 7.7 KB | 154 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 35

SOUTH YEMEN

New Thinking in a Marxist Land


A little perestroika and no more hospitality for terrorists

By Murray J. Gart/ADEN


    Here the Queen of Sheba once ruled. Here the Magi bought
frankincense and myrrh. Here Arabian trade routes crisscrossed,
bringing exotic spices, precious cloths and treasures from the
East. Here too in 1967 devout Marxists won independence for
their moonscape land at the mouth of the Red Sea. After 128
years of British colonial rule, they were determined to use the
precepts of socialist orthodoxy to yank a remote Arab nation
into the 20th century. The People's Democratic Republic of
Yemen, or simply South Yemen, set up a Moscow-style government
and forged close ties with its mentor.

    For most of South Yemen's 2.3 million Muslims, the 21-year
experiment with strict Marxism was not a success. The country's
zealously ideological rulers sketched a brief history of war
and intrigue against three conservative Arabian peninsula
neighbors and dissipated their power in vicious infighting among
tribal and political factions at home. Between 1967 and 1986 the
top party leadership changed five times, each regime more
radical than the last. For its unflinching march down the
socialist road, South Yemen won high ranking among the poorest
nations on earth.

    Today the orthodox P.D.R.Y. is embracing a modest version
of perestroika. By local standards the reforms are radical:
encouraging private farms, welcoming Western investment and
reorganizing state-run industry. In the capital of Aden, the
latest ruling Politburo has called the country's Central
Committee into session to adopt such bold measures as more
funding for private and cooperative farms and better pay to spur
greater productivity among state farm workers.

    The signal for change came in a hail of machine gunfire
inside party headquarters in 1986, when one party chief rubbed
out four of his leading Politburo opponents. For 15 days South
Yemen blazed with a Communist Party civil war, even forcing most
of the country's 5,000 Soviet advisers and their dependents to
flee. When it was all over, 5,000 Yemenis lay dead, $500 million
worth of Soviet military hardware had been destroyed, and some
65,000 men had fled to North Yemen.

    Moscow chose as the new Secretary-General of the Yemen
Socialist Party Ali Salem al Beedh, a Politburo member who was
wounded in the abortive coup.  He is pressing a drive initiated
last year to improve South Yemen's long-troubled relations with
its neighbors. He wants to end ruptures with Oman and Saudi
Arabia, and especially to advance on-again off-again efforts to
merge with North Yemen. Al Beedh is planning an early resumption
of relations with the U.S., broken in 1969.

    Another of South Yemen's leaders, President Haidar Abu Bakr
al Attas, who ranks No. 3 in the leadership hierarchy, candidly
admits his country's "mistakes in the past" of trying to export
socialist revolution and says, "We are not exporters of our
ideas. We are here for one purpose, to develop our country so
that we can improve the lives of our people."

    Not for a generation have such moderate noises emanated
from Aden. For ten years South Yemen has topped the State
Department's list of countries that support terrorism. Aden kept
an open door to leftist revolutionaries, including terrorists
such as Japan's Red Army and West Germany's Baader-Meinhof Gang,
who were supported with camps an-d special training.

    The new regime considers itself a victim of terrorism in
the shoot-out of 1986, so it has written new rules. According
to Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Ad-dali, it now strictly adheres
to United Nations terrorism standards. ``Revolutionaries like
members of the P.L.O. or the African National Congress are
welcome," he said, "but you will not find one terrorist here."

    South Yemen wants to forge a political and economic union
with North Yemen, its bigger, more conservative and
Western-oriented neighbor. Al Attas regards the merger as his
country's "crucial" issue. "We are all Yemenis," he says. "We
find it very important to raise the level of cooperation between
our two countries." To that end, a newfound oil concession near
the North Yemen border has been earmarked for joint development.
The border is now open, plans for a combined power grid have
been drawn, and a fresh draft of a unified constitution is
almost ready for ratification. But past relations have been so
rocky that skeptics doubt that the grandiose dreams of one Yemen
nation can be realized. "I can't see how the north and this
socialist government can ever be put together," says one veteran
Western diplomat in Aden.

    Oil is the grease not just for diplomatic outreach but for
South Yemen's attempts at bootstrap development. In 1987 Soviet
geologists discovered a little of the black gold beneath the
desert sands near Shabwa. When the first wells begin gushing in
1990, the area may produce up to 70,000 barrels a day. That
small but steady output will bring $240 million a year into
South Yemen's treasury.

    The Soviets' major practical contribution has been
prospecting for and developing oil. Eight Russian rigs are
drilling in Shabwa, and the Soviets are searching out more
untapped desert pools. Now the Yemeni government is urging
Moscow to speed up other large projects long promised. The
Kremlin has been slow to finish a $450 million power plant begun
eleven years ago.  But after a row in Aden last June, trained
Soviet labor began arriving, bringing the imported contingent
of skilled workers to more than 2,000.

    The Yemenis are also cautiously looking West for more help.
Canadian and French oil companies have signed contracts for oil
exploration and drilling. And for the first time since British
rule ended, Western businessmen are again traveling to Aden to
invest in the government's ambitious plans.

    Still, South Yemen remains firmly in the Soviet orbit.
Aden's strategic location gives the Soviet navy a deep-water
port with excellent facilities to service its large Indian Ocean
fleet. From there, Soviet ships could control access in or out
of the Red Sea, a choke point of global importance. South Yemen
refuses to accord the U.S.S.R. full base rights for its navy,
and is rumored to restrict port calls by Soviet warships to
twelve a year. But bunkering and repair services are always
available.

    Little has changed as yet in this impoverished land. Around
Aden, a busy port where several thousand ships call each year,
swarm laborers clad in sarongs and tribal headgear.  The nation
comes close to feeding itself but its searing bone-dry desert
climate offers little room for agricultural expansion. Except
for a 1950s Chinese-built textile mill and an old refinery,
there is little manufacturing. Much of the country is pitifully
underemployed.

    One of the most popular pastimes is chewing kat, small
leaves from a mildly narcotic and addictive plant. Strict laws
forbid the sale except on two-day weekends of the so-called
Yemeni vodka, which has a disastrous effect on productivity.
Women are free from most Islamic restrictions, able to choose
the chador or the dress. In fact, the country adheres little to
either Muslim or Marxist strictures. Liquor is sold, and the
Communist Party numbers only 20,000 members.

    Having marched relentlessly down the radical road, which
earned little more than a broken-down economy and an ugly
international reputation, South Yemen seems ready to try another
direction. How far it will go, and how successfully, depends on
untested talents. The old hands in South Yemen always wonder
when the next coup will dash their frail hopes.