DUBAI, 8 July 2004 — A new Yemeni opposition group demanding the secession of southern Yemen was announced in London yesterday, 10 years after Sanaa crushed a southern secession bid that sparked a two-month civil war.
The Southern Democratic Assembly was established a year ago but remained underground, the group said in a statement faxed to AFP here.
“The declaration ... has come as a necessity to respond to the deteriorating political, economic, health, educational, and social situation of south Yemenis,” it said.
The group said it rejected “the politics of forced unity and the systematic deletion of the southern identity.”
It vowed to “struggle alongside other democratic people for achieving self-determination and building an independent state” in southern Yemen, according to the statement.
The London-based spokesperson of the new group, Abdo Naqib, said the assembly was not linked to any other Yemeni opposition faction.
He said its executive council is headed by Abdullah Ahmad, an ex-adviser to the last minister of defense in the former South Yemen.
He insisted the group would pursue its objectives peacefully, calling for a referendum among the people of southern Yemen.
“The atmosphere is conducive now to exert pressure on dictatorships through international forums,” he said.
The government of President Ali Abdullah Saleh had crushed a southern secession bid which sparked a 1994 civil war, four years after the merger of the former North and South Yemen. The socialists who ruled the south led the secession attempt.
