NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9714

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From: Hank Roth <[e-mail]>
Subject: Somalia & Yemen
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<<< via P_news/p.news >>>
{From PEOPLE'S WEEKLY WORLD, December 26, 1992}
SOMALIAN ADVENTURE: Squeeze play on Yemen?
by Tom Foley

Part of the explanation for the "humanitarian" military
intervention in Somalia may lie right across the Gulf of Aden to
the north, in Yemen. Saudi Arabia in particular as well as the
other oil-rich states in the Persian Gulf are concerned about
Yemen for a number of very concrete reasons.

Yemen, along with Cuba, took a strongly progressive line when it
was a member of the United Nations Security Council. Two years
ago it opposed all attempts at military intervention against
Iraq. This infuriated the Saudis who expelled over one million
Yemeni guest workers from Saudi Arabia, thereby increasing
Yemen's unemployment rate to a catastrophic 40 percent.

The fact is that Yemen, in the mountainous extreme southwest of
the Arabian Pennisula, has more people - at least 14 million -
than Saudi Arabia and the Arab states of the Gulf put together.
It is the one place on the Arabian Peninsula where rainfall
agriculture is possible.

North and South Yemen united in May 1991 and democratic elections
were scheduled for November. But Yemeni President Ali Abdullah
Saleh - perhaps under Saudi pressure - has now postponed them
until April. The Yemen Socialist Party, the former ruling party
in South Yemen, has weidespread support throughout the country.

The YSP, led by its general secretary, Vice President Ali Salem
al-Beedh, spearheaded the armed national liberation struggle
against the British in South Yemen. It was the only such movement
in the entire Arab world with its base of support in organized
labor. After 1967 independence, the YSP developed a pro-Marxist-
Leninist, pro-Soviet postiion. Among other things the YSP insists
on women's equality.

Last but not least, South Yemen is full of "elephants" - the oil
industry term for gigantic untapped oilfields. British, Canadian,
French, German and U.S. firms were pouring into South Yemen, but
Saudi threats apparently have scared off the British and French.
The Germans are hanging tough, much to the annoyance of the
Saudis and Americans.

"In 10 years, Yemen will equal the sheikhdoms on the Persian
Gulf" in terms of oil output, said Christoph Bettermann, the
German chair of Crescdnt Petroleum in Aden. Wes Densmore of
Canadian Occidental added that Canoxy had found an "elephant"
field near Masila in the Hadhramaut (the eastern part of South
Yemen) of 550 million barrels (14 million tons) "and it is
`sweet' oil, sulphur-free."  There are an estimated 12-20
"elephant" fields like Masila in the Hadhramaut, some of them
close to the Saudi border. As a result in recent months there has
been sharp escalation in Saudi attacks and ambushes against
Yemeni border patrols, with the Saudis insisting the "true-
border" lies somewhere to the south.

In addition there have been a number of mysterious assassinations
and kidnappings, and a stream of death threats to foreign (but
not U.S.) oilmen. In Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, government
spokesman Hassan Makki said all trails led to the Saudis and
"there could be a foreign conspiracy among states that don't like
democracy." Abdel Aziz el-Sakkaf, editor of the English-language
Yemen Times, said: "They don't like the idea of 14 million
democrats next door. We want no regime that thinks it is actiing
like God's viceroy on earth." On the Saudis, he said: "They want
to hold us down and strangle us with poverty."

Somalia is just a bit over 100 miles south of Yemen across the
Gulf of Aden. The U.S. and Saudis could be putting Yemen in a
vise, and not for "humanitarian" reasons.
---------------------------------------------
Cross-posted from: P_news, a conference for progressive news,
articles and views on Fidonets. If you have access to a Fidonet
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and news from your favorite *LEFT* wing publications or
theoretical journals, or have comments about this article or
others, send comments to me: <Hank Roth> [e-mail] (On
Fidonets at 151/101). My address on Peacenet is
[e-mail]. [This article has also been posted to W_news
(The World At Risk,  another fidonet conference, moderated by
Hank Roth (info available upon request via e-mail)]
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