SOUTH YEMEN FORMALLY QUITS NORTH (original) (raw)

ADEN, YEMEN, MAY 21 (SATURDAY) -- Yemeni Vice President Ali Salem Beidh declared an independent state of South Yemen early today, formalizing a de facto breakup of the four-year-old unification with North Yemen two weeks after fighting broke out between the two regions.

Beidh appeared on television at 2 a.m. local time to announce the redivision of Yemen, with Aden as the southern capital. As soon as the announcement was made, the sky lit up with celebratory gunfire by southern troops defending their capital.

It came two hours after Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Salih, in Sanaa, declared a three-day cease-fire so a war-weary population could celebrate Adah, the Muslim feast of sacrifice.

On Friday, Salih's northern forces claimed to have overrun a major artillery unit standing between them and Aden. The battle for the Anad base, 35 miles northwest of Aden, was part of Salih's campaign to seize Aden and force the south to obey his rule.

Salih's announcement of the cease-fire seemed to run counter to the urgency, until now, of his drive to bring the socialistic south into submission. The conservative, tribal north covets new-found oil fields in the south.

In an interview with the Associated Press, a northern official said Friday that the drive to conquer Aden was taking longer than expected because the north had underestimated the size of troops and weaponry at Anad.

"It is clear from the reports that are coming from that area that they had a lot of weapons and they were ready to fight," said Abdul Malik Mansour, a member of the north's General People's Congress. He said the base, occupying 55 square miles of mountain terrain, had been built by the Soviet Union as a possible springboard to subvert the Arabian Peninsula's pro-Western monarchies.

Beidh, whose animosity toward Salih degenerated into all-out war on May 4, said a 111-man Council of National Salvation will be appointed by southern members of the current joint parliament, along with religious figures and notables. He said there would be elections within a year.

The South Yemeni Socialist Party of Beidh had been in lengthy deliberations on the move. A small group of Yemeni opposition groups joined the demand for seccession.

Beidh's top generals came out in support of the move.