Yemen

D

Unified Republic

Relations between North Yemen and South Yemen grew increasingly conciliatory after 1980. Border wars between the two countries in 1972 and 1979 both had ended surprisingly with agreements for Yemeni unification, although in each case the agreement was quickly shelved. During the 1980s the two countries cooperated increasingly in economic and administrative matters. In December 1989 their respective leaders met and prepared a final unification agreement. On May 22, 1990, North and South Yemen officially merged to become the Republic of Yemen. Ali Abdullah Saleh, then leader of North Yemen, became president of unified Yemen, while Ali Salem al-Beidh and Haydar Bakr al-Attas of South Yemen became vice president and prime minister, respectively. Sana‘a was declared the political capital of the Republic of Yemen, and Aden the economic capital. By the summer of 1990 more than 30 new political parties had formed in Yemen. Rising oil revenues and financial assistance from many foreign countries, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, brought hope that Yemen could begin to strengthen and expand its economy.

Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the subsequent Persian Gulf War took a serious toll on Yemen’s economy and newfound political stability. Yemen’s critical response to the presence of foreign military forces massed in Saudi Arabia led the Saudi government to expel 850,000 Yemeni workers. The return of the workers and the loss of remittance payments produced widespread unemployment and economic upheaval, which led in turn to domestic political unrest. Bomb attacks, political killings, and violent demonstrations occurred throughout 1991 and 1992, and in December 1992 a rise in consumer prices precipitated riots in several of Yemen’s major cities. Concern arose that declining economic and social conditions would give rise to Islamic fundamentalist activities in Yemen. Political turmoil forced the government to postpone general elections, which were finally held on April 27, 1993, completing the Yemeni unification process begun three years earlier. The General People’s Congress (GPC), the former ruling party in North Yemen, won 121 seats in parliament; the Yemen Socialist Party (YSP), the former ruling party of South Yemen, won 56 seats; a new Islamic coalition party, al-Islah, won 62 seats; and the remaining 62 seats were won by minor parties and independents. The president and prime minister remained in office after the election, and the three major parties formed a legislative coalition.

D

1

Civil War

The successful elections quickly gave way to political turmoil. In August 1993 Vice President al-Beidh withdrew from Sana‘a to Aden and ceased to participate in the political process. This followed his visit to the United States, where he had held talks with Vice President Al Gore, apparently without the consent of President Saleh. From his base at Aden, al-Beidh issued a list of conditions for his return to Sana‘a; the conditions centered on the security of the YSP, which, according to the vice president, had been subject to northern-instigated political violence since unification. Al-Beidh also protested what he considered the increasing economic marginalization of the south.

Clashes between northern and southern forces broke out in early 1994 and Yemen exploded into full-scale civil war in early May. Both sides carried out missile attacks in and around Sana‘a and Aden. On May 21 al-Beidh announced the secession of the South from the Republic of Yemen and the formation of a new southern state, the Democratic Republic of Yemen (DRY). The DRY assembled a political structure similar to that of unified Yemen, and al-Beidh was elected president by a five-member Presidential Council. Meanwhile, Saleh dismissed a number of YSP party members from Yemen’s government in an attempt to remove the influence of al-Beidh.

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Fighting continued throughout June 1994, much of it centered around the port cities of Aden and Al Mukallā. Both sides launched attacks on oil installations, and a great deal of infrastructure—particularly in and around Aden—was damaged or destroyed. Following the failure of a Russian cease-fire agreement, Saleh’s northern forces launched a final drive on Aden and Al Mukallā in early July, ultimately defeating the DRY army. By mid-July all of the former South Yemen was under Saleh’s control.

After the collapse of the DRY, Saleh’s government was faced with the task of rebuilding Yemen’s economy and government. In September 1994 the Yemeni legislature approved a number of major reforms to the country’s 1991 unification constitution. Saleh was formally reelected president by the legislature in October, and he appointed Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi as his new vice president. In an attempt to revive the country’s economy, Yemeni leaders made efforts to devise and implement an economic austerity program called for by several international economic agencies; this was achieved with a great deal of difficulty in the spring of 1995.

D

2

Territorial Disputes

In February 1995 the governments of Yemen and Saudi Arabia agreed to negotiate a settlement to their long-standing dispute over their shared border. The agreement to negotiate defused a potentially explosive situation, as Yemen and Saudi Arabia had skirmished in the region only a few months before. Five years later, in June 2000, the two countries announced an agreement settling the disputed boundary.

In December 1995 Eritrea, which lies across the Red Sea from Yemen, seized Ḩānīsh al Kabīr (Greater Ḩānīsh Island), strategically located at the mouth of the Red Sea, from Yemeni troops stationed there. At least 12 people were killed in the fighting. Both Yemen and Eritrea claimed the Ḩānīsh Islands; Yemeni plans for a resort on Ḩānīsh al Kabīr reportedly sparked the attack. By May 1996 the two countries had reached a truce and agreed to submit the question of sovereignty over the islands to arbitration. In October 1998 the arbitration tribunal ruled that the Ḩānīsh Islands belonged to Yemen, and Eritrea withdrew its forces. Both countries accepted the ruling and moved to normalize relations.

D

3

Recent Developments

In April 1997 President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) was returned to power in the first parliamentary elections since the 1994 civil war. Many members of the opposition boycotted the elections, alleging unfair tactics by the GPC. International election monitors, however, reported that the elections were mostly fair. In September 1999 Saleh was elected president in the country’s first direct presidential elections. Opposition parties took part in 2003 parliamentary elections but the GPC retained its dominant majority.

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