Edition: U.S. / Global

Secessionists in Southern Yemen Name Heads of New Government

Published: May 23, 1994

The breakaway state in southern Yemen appointed its new leadership today, defying northern armies seeking to crush it and bringing a somber warning from its foes that further fighting was now inevitable.

Northern Yemeni authorities said their troops advancing on the southern stronghold of Aden today captured the southeastern Shabwa province, which is being developed as an oil-production region, and its regional capital, Ataq.

"Ataq fell today," said a Yemeni minister in the northern capital, Sana, who asked not to be named. "I think it is a major development because the airfield was used to refuel the planes from Mukalla," a port far to the east along the coast.

It was not possible to confirm the report independently. Control of Main Oilfield

The main southern Yemeni oil field, at Masila, still lies in southern hands, far to the east in the Hadramawt area, a stronghold of Ali Salim al-Bidh, former vice president of unified Yemen and, as of today, president of the newly declared Democratic Republic of Yemen.

The Government-controlled television in Sana said President Ali Abdallah Salih received a message from Russia "reaffirming Moscow's position in support of unity and stability in Yemen."

Mr. Bidh's newly-declared state is seeking international recognition and diplomats said Aden was hoping Russia would provide this.

The Soviet Union was the main ally to the former independent Southern Yemen, a Marxist state that merged with the north four years ago today. The south seceded on Saturday.

Mr. Bidh named an opposition leader, Abdel-Rahman Ali al-Jiffri, as vice-president and Haider Abu Bakr al-Attasas as prime minister.

Planning Minister Abdul-Karim al-Iryani of Yemen said that with the south's secession, "the continuation of the war has become inevitable."

Mr. Salih's forces are trying to draw an arc around Aden, home to 350,000 people, and fired what the southerners said was a missile into a densely populated area this morning.

"The killing of children by the missile will speed up the recognition of our state," Mr. Jiffri said.