Thursday, Nov. 1, 1962
University Daily Kansan
Page 7
Yemen's Salla Vows to Install Democracy
(Editor's Note: UPI correspondent Ray Maloney has entered Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where a revolt brought down the town last week. The first interviews with the new premier is recorded in the following dispatch.)
By Ray Maloney United Press International
Premier Abdullah Sallal has pledged to install democracy in Yemen through parliamentary elections.
In an exclusive interview with UPI, Sallal declared the introduction of Communism into his tiny Red Sea country "completely impossible (because of) the present state of Yemen social life."
THE SOLDIER-premier hotly denied that he is a Communist and asked repeatedly for recognition for his month-old revolutionary regime from Britain and the United States. Soviet Russia and its satellites were among the first countries to recognize his government.
Sallal seized control here on Sept. 26, toppling a 1,100-year old monarchy beheaded by Imam Mohammed Al-Badr.
(Royalist factions based in Saudi Arabia and Jordan have disputed revolutionary claims of control in Yemen. In Amman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia's Mecca Radio was heard saying that monarchist Yemeni forces were still battling at Zeeben, 24 miles outside Sanaa.
(THE RADIO said 180 Egyptian soldiers were killed during four days of fighting at Serwah and Maarib, 80 miles east of Sanaa. It said monarchist forces had blocked the highway to the capital and surrounded an Egyptian garrison at Zeeben.)
Sitting in a fourth-floor reception room of a palace that once belonged to the Imam, Sallal did not
elaborate on his stated plans for a democracy in Yemen. But he made the following points;
- The United Arab Republic (UAR) would supply "all the necessary troops" to repel any attempt by Jordan and Saudi Arabia to help restore the monarchy.
- Yemen wants friendship with all nations.
- There is no prospect of an early union between Yemen and the UAR.
- British-controlled Aden is a problem for "the Adeni people. We don't intend to interfere."
Sallal talked easily, frequently rubbing the stubble of a beard on his chin.
The only sound to drift up to the palace rooms through early morning mists was the steady drone of aircraft taking off, apparently toward the East where Royalist opposition is said to be centered around the town of Marib.
Egyptian soldiers filled the streets and alleys of the city. Sallal said there were "only about 1,000 Egyptians inside Yemen and these are mostly technicians."
WESTERN diplomats said they believed the number was between 5,000 and 10,000.
Sallal said the promise of full Egyptian troop support had been given to him by Field Marshall Abdel Hakim Amer, President Nasser's right-hand man and a member of the Presidency Council in Cairo. Amer left for Cairo after a secret 48-hour visit here.
Sallal said he had only to request help and the Egyptians would send it. He stopped to look at the exquisite Persian carpets covering the cheap yellow limoleum on the floor and said, yes, they would come — but "only if I request them."
ASKED IF he intended to make the request, he said, "I doubt if it will be necessary. Yemeni soldiers are better than Egyptians in any case."
Sallah praised Britain for being a monarchy "with which Republicans can live with — not like Saudi Arabia and Jordan who attack Yemen merely because it has declared itself a republic."
All attempts to reach the airfield after the interview to examine the planes taking off were prevented by a guard — an angry Yemeni armed with a Russian-made sub-machine-gun.
FROM A distance, the fighter planes that took off appeared to be
single-engine Russian Yaks. The bombers appeared to be Russian copies of the American DC3.
Sallah had said the country was "all quiet" and that fighting around Maarib had ceased. But bombs could be seen hanging from beneath the fuselage of the planes as they took off.
Government officials refused all requests to visit Maarib, a town on the edge of the desert 80 miles to the east. "Living conditions there are too bad," was the reason given.
(At Taiz airport on Tuesday morning, a Russian-built twin-engine bomber with Yemeni markings landed with toggles made to hold bombs twisting emptily.)
MexicanChristmas Tour Offered Club Members
International club members may sign up for a Christmas tour of Mexico at the club meeting tonight in the Kansas Union.
Fritz Gysin, Swiss graduate student, said the group will leave Lawrence Dec. 20 for Monterey, Mex, where they will spend three days.
AT MONTEYE they will have an opportunity to watch a bull fight.
The group will then split, one busload traveling to Oaxaca to see the Indian ruins, the other going to the beach at Acapulco to swim in the Pacific or lounge in the sun.
Both groups will meet in the old Spanish town of San Miguel to bathe in the hot springs and tour the lead works.
BUSES WILL LEAVE San Miguel for Lawrence Dec 31.
CAREERS IN ENERGY with HUMBLE
AMERICA'S LEADING ENERGY COMPANY
MONDAY & TUESDAY, NOV. 5th & 6th
REPRESENTATIVE OF HUMBLE PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT WILL BE ON CAMPUS TO INTERVIEW:
Chemical Civil Electrical
Mechanical Petroleum Industrial
INTERESTED IN DISCUSSING PROFESSIONAL CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION AND NATURAL GAS PROCESSING
CONTACT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING PLACEMENT OFFICE FOR APPOINTMENT
"HUMBLE IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER"
Gysin said that if 60 persons sign up Friday, the price of the trip would be $115 instead of $125.
KU students making the trip must have smallpox and typhoid shots, he said.
The club has received no authorization for the foreign students from 46 countries, who were previously denied permission to cross the border. Gysin wrote the Mexican Minister of Immigration last week to request permission.
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