Terrorists a growing threat to Yemen

By Kesava Menon

MANAMA (BAHRAIN), JAN. 26. It is certainly not a situation as bad as Afghanistan where fundamentalists with strong links to international terrorism are the Government of the country. The situation is not even near as bad as it is in Algeria where fundamentalist militants came close to overthrowing the Government and still display amazing tenacity. But as recent events have shown, the authorities in Yemen are up against a slew of religious and pan-Arab militant groups.

The recent attempted hijack of a Yemen Airways flight to Djibouti and the perpetrators' aim of taking the passengers, including the U.S. ambassador to the country, to Iraq ended up as a bit of a farce. The flight crew was able to convince the hijacker that they had to make a fuel stop in Djibouti and once the plane was on the ground, he was tackled by the female pilot and other members of the crew.

If this episode was a farce, the terrorist attack on a U.S. naval vessel which left 17 dead and dozens injured was a tragedy. Specialists from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have joined Yemeni security personnel in the enquiry into that attack, which took place in the port of Aden, and several suspects have been taken into custody. While the investigators seem quite certain that Mr. Osama bin Laden (whose family originated from Yemen) planned and ordered the attack, it seems to have been established that at least one of the attackers was a Yemeni citizen.

From the fact that the organisational linkages of the hijacker is unknown, it is apparent that pinpointing whether a particular incident is terrorist-linked or not is problematic. Since there is much sympathy for the plight of Iraqis who are suffering under the embargo, it is possible that the hijacker was playing out his own emotional or psychological impulses.

Kidnapping for ransom is almost a cottage industry in Yemen with various tribes making it a habit of nabbing the an executive, diplomat or tourist (usually Western) for ransom. Incidents or violence are also not unusual in a country where there are believed to be 65 million guns in the hands of its 18 million people.

Apart from the possible bin Laden linkage to the attack on USS Cole in Aden, there are other factors that point to Yemen as a place where terrorism finds a fertile breeding ground.

Many Yemenis, including some who were involved in the Cole attack, fought in Afghanistan and are still among the Arab Afghans active in other areas of fundamentalist activity (including Kashmir).

The Dar Abdul Hadith seminary run by Sheikh Muqbel Hadi Abdul Wadi, with five centres in Yemen, is believed to be the home base of the ideological stream that has influenced the likes of bin Laden.

Those who subscribe to this ideology, called Salafists, believe that the way to salvation lies in a return to the ways of life prevalent in the early days of Islam.

The regime of the President, Mr. Abdallah Saleh, can by no means be called a soft one.

But there are problems of national integration still persisting after the unification of the early 90's (almost disrupted by the serious threat of renewed civil strife in the mid-90's) with the formerly separate nations of North and South Yemen still not a seamless entity.

Besides the tribal strife, northerners and southerners, secularists and the theocratic, socialists and non-socialists are all far from reconciled with one another.

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Section  : International
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