MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MliDFOltD, OREGON
Hassan El Amry Runs War-Torn Yemen, Directs All Business
Rv RAVin Dion . ... ....
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER M, 1963
By BAVID B1SIIAI
United Press International
oANAA, Yemen (UPI) The
man who runs war-torn Yemen
today is its small (5 (eet, two
inches), fierce and paradoxical
SMALL BUT FIERCE - Brig
Hassan El Amry, who is the
pocket-sized but fierce vice pres
ident of Yemen, is shown here
in a 1963 photo (UPI)
vice president, 48-year-old Brig
adier Hassan El Amry.
El Amry is hard to miss in
pocket-sized Sanaa where his
motorcades are as common as
the sand storms.
First comes an armored per
sonnel carrier loaded with tribal
warriors and ammunition for
the carrier's 75-mm machine
gun. Then comes another with
a handful of Egyptian troops
toting sub-machine guns. Be
hind them comes El Amry, sit
ting hawkeyed and oblivious in
a dust-laden (Dodge) converti
ble sedan.
El Amry's motorcade kicks up
more dust, and its sirens are
noisier, than motorcades trans
porting President Abdullah Al
Sallal himself. But the wiiy
strongman of Republican Ye-
men sits back seemingly un
aware of the missing crowds
and applause.
He runs Yemen today almost
the same way the overthrown
Imamate rule ran it for hun
dreds of years. He tells anyone
around, "If you know of a bet
ter way, show me." He knows
that no one can take up the
challenge.
Long Dedicated
When he was a frail, under
nourished youth studying wire
less communications in Bagh
dad, El Amry spent his time
talking about pulling Yemen
out of the dark ages to anyone
who cared to listen, including
classmate Abdullah Al Sallal.
When they returned to Yemen
and got their commissions in
the Imam's army, El Amry and
Sallal continued their discus
sions about making Yemen a
better place. This landed Sallal
in a dungeon.
El Amry, more diplomatic by
nature, was merely exiled from
Sanaa to a mountain outpost.
He was nowhere around when
in September, 1962, Sallal and
two comrades in arms ran their
tanks through the walls of Sanaa
to drive Imam El Badr from his
throne. But he was shrewd
enough to rally his command
behind the Republicans, and ac
tively support Egyptian troops
who came to help keep the
Republicans in power. In a few
months he became Yemen's vice
president and deputy supreme
commander of the armed forces.
Sallal Has Ulcers
President Sallal is too handi
capped by duodenal ulcer and
other health troubles to person
ally look after everything in Ye
men. He spent three months of
his first year in power under
treatment in Cairo, leaving El
Amry as acting president.
In the few months he has
been active vice president, El
Amry has taken direction of al
most every business in Yemen
into his own hands. On the dip
lomatic side he avoids clashes
with the Egyptians and with
Sallal, whose popularity he
knows he cannot match.
But otherwise he dashes about
Sanaa, and all of Republican
held Yemen, running everything
and ordering everybody around.
He deals ruthlessly with ene
mies of the republic and regards
the most loyal of sheikhs with
unconcealed suspicion.
At "Qasr El Saada" (Palace
of Felicity) in the heart of
Sanaa, he keeps the eldest sons
of loyal tribal sheikhs as host
ages to secure their fathers'
continued loyalty. That is ex
actly what the Imams did, ex
cept they kept their hostages
in dungeons while now they
live in a palace with good food
and entertainment.
Behead Royalists
Last June, Egyptian intelli
gence informed El Amry that
a band of royalists had infil
trated into Sanaa and planned
a sabotage campaign to harass
the Republicans. El Amry
promptly set out to round them
up, along with others suspected
of harboring infiltrators. A few
days later, nine heads were dis
played at the Sanaa gate just
the way they were following
beheadings ordered by the
Imams.
When a loyal tribe reneged
against the Republican regime
last April and cut off the Hode-
ida-Sanaa Road, El Amry per
sonally led a punitive campaign
of Republican troops and crush
ed their revolt so severely
that even today they fly two
Republican flags high over their
camp in hopes they will keep
El Amry away.
He participated in several bat
tles against former Imam El
Badr's forces during the early
days of the revolution, although
El Badr is a distant uncle of
his. He even rode Egyptian
bombers to guide them to their
targets.
But this all-out aggressive na
ture turns into elusiveness when
it comes to politics. Playing
politics in Yemen is a hazard
ous game and El Amry stub
bornly avoids it.
For the time being he seems
satisfied with being Sallal's top
executive. He even personally
inspects accommodations for
visiting dignitaries. He does it
with fanfare and pomp.
Those close to events in Ye
men, though, are wary of El
Amry's outward disinterest in
politics. "This little man knows
exactly where he is going and
how to get there," one Western
diplomat told UPI. "He is al
ways so close behind Sallal that
if the president should go, El
Amry will be in 'his shoes be
fore you can say Allah.
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