A suicide bombing that killed more than 90 Yemeni soldiers has exposed the split in a country teetering on the brink of collapse
The death of more than 90 Yemeni soldiers in an apparent al-Qaida suicide bombing casts fresh attention on a nation teetering on the edge of collapse. It emphasises the weakness of the central government, and will only add to the average Yemeni's catalogue of fears.
The attack, during a rehearsal for today's Unity Day celebrations – marking the unification of north and south Yemen in 1990 – highlights the southern secessionist movement, al-Herak, and its argument that the territory that made up the former South Yemen would be better off leaving the 22-year union. However, this view betrays an ignorance of the reality of the historically Marxist South Yemeni state, and overlooks the economic and political impracticality of any future reconstituted South Yemen.
Al-Herak began protesting for equal rights for southerners in 2007, and their initially peaceful movement was met with deadly force by former president Ali Abdullah Saleh's regime. Hundreds of southerners have been killed, contributing to an escalation in separatist sentiment, and the feeling that egalitarian unity had turned into northern occupation of the south.
Nevertheless, it must be made clear, the crimes committed against the people of the south were committed by the Saleh regime, and not by "the north". The injustices perpetrated mainly against protesters in northern cities such as Sana'a and Ta'iz last year is clear evidence that Saleh did not discriminate in his repression of dissent.
Saleh was a dictator, and al-Herak had every right to oppose him. Yet, at a time when Arabs are laying down their lives to end authoritarianism, it seems absurd that al-Herak is effectively led by men who ruled South Yemen in the 1980s with an iron fist. Ali Salem al-Beidh, Haidar Abubakr al-Attas and Ali Nasser are all figures who ruled with politburos, and not democratically elected bodies. Now, they position themselves as the "democratic" leaders of an independent South Yemen. Arab dictators are being consigned to history, but al-Herak seems to want to bring them back into fashion.
Al-Beidh, former general-secretary of the Yemen Socialist party (YSP), which ruled the south and the first vice-president of the united Republic of Yemen, recently stated: "The northern mentality cannot live within a state, whereas the mentality of the south cannot live without one." Ignoring the arrogance of this statement, it also seems to betray a general amnesia when it comes to the South Yemeni state that he once led. South Yemen veered more towards Stalinist purges than liberal democracy.
Al-Beidh himself was involved in several deadly rivalries with other YSP leaders, culminating in the terrible events of January 1986. In the space of 12 days, several YSP leaders were killed in factional fighting that spilled out on to the streets, resulting in around 6,000 dead. The South Yemeni "state" was in the unprecedented position of having 50 of the 75 members of its ruling party's central committee dead, wounded, missing, jailed or in exile.
These self-inflicted wounds were among the main reasons for the southern leadership's push for unity in 1990. Along with this was the unenviable economic situation South Yemen found itself in. The South was effectively bankrupt, with its main benefactor, the Soviet Union, on the verge of collapse. Unity made sense economically, especially in terms of the oil reserves that were found in the north-south border areas.
It is also undeniable that Yemenis share a common bond as one people. Initially, unification was incredibly popular, and to this day most secessionists will only say that it was betrayed. Those who reject a Yemeni identity, and claim a "South Arabian" one, seem to ignore that the term, in its political sense, only came about with the British occupation of the region.
Yemenis from every part of the country have intermarried, and live in all parts of the country. Any secession would split families and friends, and ruin the already depleted economy. Once the current anger at the apparent northern hegemony subsides, only regret would remain, akin to the lament the two Koreas express.
Southerners must remember that the north is no paradise, poverty is endemic in all parts of the country, and the Saleh's former corrupt regime has stolen from all. Replacing that corrupt elite with the same figures who dominated South Yemen in its bloody years is not the answer.
Southerners must look past their justified anger, and work, together, with the millions of other Yemenis who have shown that they will not accept dictatorship, inequality and elite corruption again. Northerners must ensure that the injustices perpetrated against southerners are corrected. That is Yemen's only hope.
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