Yemen stops evacuations by sea

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 26

Yemen stops evacuations by sea

NZPA-Reuter Djibouti Authorities in South Yemen have forbidden more evacuations of foreigners by sea, telling the 1000 who remain and wish to leave that they must do so by air, British officials said yesterday. A group of 1050, mostly Indian construction workers employed by the Government, is still caught in Little Aden, west of the capital, after 12 days of bloody fighting between rival Marxist factions.

The officials said a planned evacuation of the group by the British cargo ship Diamond Princess had to be abandoned when Yemeni authorities notified HMS Newcastle, a British destroyer standing offshore, that additional evacuations must be by air.

More than 6000 foreigners of about 50 nationalities have arrived in Djibouti in the last eight days. Aden airport was closed after fighting began on January 13 and officials at Djibouti airport said yesterday that they had not been notified of its reopening. A scheduled Air Djibouti flight to Aden yesterday was cancelled. The British officials

said South Yemen had asked them to tel! India to send charter planes for its nationals. South Yemen’s leaders have pledged to maintain friendship with the Soviet Union and to continue to improve ties with other Arab countries after talks with diplomats in Aden.

Aden Radio said that the Prime Minister, Haider Abubaker al-Attas, appointed three days ago as an interim replacement for the ousted President, Ali Nasser Muhammed, met the Soviet Ambassador, Vladislav Zhukov. Diplomatic analysts expected South Yemen’s neighbours to welcome its intention to pursue the development of political and economic ties. The whereabouts of Nasser Muhammad were not known although there had been reports that he was in the Abayan region, his home territory, 160 km east of Aden.

In North Yemen, diplomatic sources said he was believed to be massing tribesmen at Abayan to try to recapture the capital. A radio station apparently broadcasting from Abayan said he had given his opponents until Wednesday to surrender.