Yemen: In the Old Style

YEMEN In the Old Style

When the old Imam Ahmad (“Ahmad the Devil”) ruled Yemen, justice was swift—and final. Enemies were decapitated and their heads carried around town on long poles. Lesser offenders lost their hands or feet. Last week General Abdullah Sallal, leader of the Egyptian-backed regime that overthrew the Ahmad dynasty in 1962, borrowed a leaf from Ahmad’s book of horrors. In little more time than it took to cock a rifle, he staged a drumhead trial for seven of his former colleagues, including an ex-Cabinet Minister, then sent them swiftly to their deaths before a firing squad.

The seven were part of an anti-Nasser opposition that had flared up in Yemen last month after Sallal replaced Premier Hassan Amri. Shortly after Amri’s ouster, a mysterious bazooka emplacement shelled Sallal’s palace in San’a. Before long, terrorists were potshotting at an Egyptian army camp outside the capital and setting fire to Egyptian installations, killing a reported 70 Egyptian troops. Sallal’s troops then swooped down on some 140 suspects, including Mohamed Ruwainy, Sallal’s ex-Minister for Tribal Affairs, and Colonel Hadi Issa, former deputy chief of staff of Sallal’s armed forces. Sallal’s government accused Ruwainy and Issa of organizing a “subversive network seeking to plunge the country into terrorism and panic” and planning a campaign of assassination—financed by Saudi Arabia, Britain, Israel and the U.S. After a 31-hour trial, Ruwainy, Issa and five others were marched into San’a’s main square and executed. Eight others who were tried with them received prison sentences ranging from five years to life.

The crackdown came at a time when the main contenders were digging in for a possible new showdown between the Saudi-supported royalists and the Nasser-linked regime. Though Nasser has pared his forces from 70,000 men to 40,000, he noisily threatens to attack the Saudi Arabian border towns supplying the royalists. For his part Saudi King Feisal is arming for more trouble. On top of a long-range $500 million arms package signed last December with the U.S. and Britain, Feisal recently signed an additional smaller arms deal with Britain, for 36 Thunderbird antiaircraft missiles and ten rocket-and-missile jet fighters.