ABSTRACT

The Federation’s disintegration signified the elimination of the South–Yemeni elite as a political power. The FLOSY accused the SAL and Federal Ministers of organising against the Nationalists and of blowing up Makkawī’s house 1 but since M.S. Bāsindūh also accused the NLF of the same deed, 2 these allegations seem to be baseless and there was no other indication of elite elements indulging in such an activity. The political arena was left open to an overt struggle between the FLOSY and the NLF. The Federation’s decline and the growing likelihood that the Fronts would in fact form South Yemen’s future government, brought the struggle to a head. It developed in various directions. Publicly both Fronts competed for the position of the legitimate “people’s representative”. The FLOSY, which enjoyed greater [Egyptian inspired] publicity, invested tremendous efforts to obtain this position. 3 In April, in connection with the arrival of the UN mission, Makkawī announced that the FLOSY would establish “a government in exile”. On 18 April it was announced in TaCizz that a “National Government” (Ḥukūmah Wataniyyah) would be established, with MakkawT as President, al-Asnaj as Prime Minister and other FLOSY leaders as ministers. 4 The NLF on its part announced that, if it formed a government “we would not let Egypt in, because Egypt imposed Makkawī and al-Asnaj on the population.” 5 It also became known that following FLOSY’s declaration of the establishment of a government in exile, the NLF threatened several of the FLOSY’s leaders in Aden who subsequently left the country. 6