Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 5 - 11 October 2000 Issue No. 502
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Yemeni party under fire

By Nasser Arrabyee

In his political communiqué on the occasion of the 38th anniversary of the September revolution, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh accused the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) of "resisting the tide of democratic change."

"It is regrettable that some people in the nation have understood the concept of democracy as advocated by those who are still fixed on their past ideals. They see democracy as merely a means to achieve their selfish and partisan ends, having become so used to totalitarianism and dictatorship," the president said.

Yemeni Vice President Abd-Rabu Mansour, a former YSP member, said in a statement to a weekly that the YSP does not in a practical sense even exist as a political organisation.

"After failing in its rebellion against the constitution during the summer of 1994, and most of its leaders fled abroad, the party became non-existent as a national force," Mansour said.

Mansour indicated the possibility of suing the YSP when he clarified that if it "or any other party does not abide the national laws, it will be dealt with according the parties' law and the constitution, and the judiciary will have the final say."

Earlier in the week, official sources told the press that an ad hoc committee had been formed to conduct a comprehensive, political, legal and social study of the recently held fourth YSP general conference. The committee is to examine possible irregularities that could lead to the freezing of the YSP's activities, and perhaps even its dissolution.

The YSP's fourth general conference passed several resolutions, the most controversial of which was to re-elect 41 of its former members, exiled since 1994, to its central committee. Most of them have been tried in absentia for declaring secession from the north four years after it and the south were unified in 1990.

In response to the official campaign against it, the YSP issued a communiqué in which it called on the general public in Yemen, Arab states and the international community to stand by democracy and reject any moves towards dissolving their party," which would be against, the communiqué continues, "the concepts of democracy and pluralism."

Sultan Albrakani, an MP and chairman of the parliamentary bloc of the ruling People's General Congress, confirmed in a television interview last week that the findings of the ad hoc committee, made up of politicians and legal experts, could lead to the dissolution of the YSP.

In an exclusive interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, YSP Secretary-General Ali Saleh Obad played down the threats against his party. "Any move to dissolve us would be an act of aggression even greater than the proclamation of war in 1994," Obad declared.

"It would be tantamount to a return to the era of totalitarianism. The people would never let that happen."

The YSP ruled South Yemen before it was united with the north in 1990. After unity, its leaders joined the government, but disagreements with President Ali Abdullah Saleh led to civil war for four years in which more than 10,000 people were killed or wounded. The hostilities cost the country more than $11 billion. The YSP was defeated, its leaders exiled and subsequently sentenced to death in absentia for treason.

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