TIME: Almanac 1990/1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso/time/010989/01098900.033

Text File | 1990-09-17 | 8KB | 141 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.