YEMEN: The Imam’s Peace

When the fierce old Imam of Yemen clumped off to Rome five months ago to treat his arthritis, rheumatism, heart trouble (and reportedly drug addiction), all the malcontents produced by his eleven years of absolute rule thought they saw their chance. No sooner was the Imam gone than his troops mutinied, his courtiers began to intrigue, and tribal chieftains began to fight out their ancient grudges against each other. Swayed by Egyptian advice, the Imam’s bumbling caretaker son. Crown Prince Badr, unsuccessfully tried to buy off the dissidents by promising “reforms”—the appointment of a representative council, more army pay and promotions.

To some pundits it appeared that Yemen’s loose, 18-month-old “federation” with Nasser’s United Arab States had at last begun to undermine the foundations of the Imam’s medieval theocracy. But they were reckoning without the Imam. Bustling back to his Red Sea domain with a shipload of wives and concubines, the Sword of Islam flashed commandingly. “I swear by Allah.” he proclaimed from his palace balcony in the sun-charred seaport of Hodeida. “that I shall behead every black and every white whenever a complaint is lodged. There have been misdeeds—by hooligans and vainglorious fools and .. . . agents of the Christians. Gold has been found in the possession of some of these culprits [jeers]. Allah be praised, they are now in my grasp [cheers]. Some of them will have their heads cut off, others their legs and hands.”

Responding to these familiar tones, tribal chieftains and courtiers came flocking to Hodeida to make their obeisance. The inept Prince Badr was let off with nothing worse than a rebuke for his lack of toughness, but the Yemeni radio stopped broadcasting army officers’ speeches, and not a word more was heard about any reforms. And last week came reports that, true to his promise, the Imam had ordered the decapitation of one of his subjects and the amputation of the left hand and right foot of 15 others, in punishment for the murder of a high official last June. Clearly, the Imam’s particular brand of peace was about to return to Arabia Felix.