Al-Shaabi, Faisal Abd al-Latif

Faisal Abd al-Latif al-Shaabi was born in 1935 in the village of Shaab (شعب) of the Tor al-Baha district (طور الباحة-) of the Sabiha province (الصبيحة) of the Sultanate of Lakhzhd in the family of Sheikh Abd al-Latif al-Shaabi.

Childhood and youth. Captured by politics

His grandfather Abd al-Qawi Nasser was educated in Turkey , and his father was one of the first in the protectorate of Aden who graduated from high school. But Sheikh Abd al-Latif used his education and influence, trying to unite the tribes of Sabiha, which caused repression by Sultan Lahdj and the British colonial authorities. Sheikh was accused of conspiracy against the Sultan and executed in Guta, and his three sons and daughter were orphaned. Faisal was taken up by his uncle, Sheikh Mohammed Abd al-Qawi, who was greatly respected and was more known in Lahj as Muhammad Rashad. He arranged for the son of the executed political criminal to the privileged Iron Mountain primary school, where the children of high-ranking officials of the colonial administration and the Arab sultans study. After graduation, Faisal Abd al-Latif continued his education and was sent to Al-Mahsneyya Al-Abdaliya Secondary School ( Arabic المحسنية العبد ), which was administered by the educational mission of Egypt . This largely determined his life path. Since Faisal showed good skills during his studies, it was decided to send him to Cairo for further studies. There, Faisal Abd al-Latif entered Ayn Shams University in the Faculty of Economics and Commerce.

Ideas of Arab nationalism. From audience to underground

It was in Cairo that the political views of Faisal began to take shape, which was imbued with the spirit of the Egyptian July Revolution and the ideas of Arab unity ^[1] . Already in 1956, a student returning for the holidays founded a political cell in Aden, which also attracted his relative Kahtan al-Shaabi . Kakhtan, married to the sister of Faisal, was 15 years older than him and held a high post in the sultanate, but still fell under the influence of a young man who was only 21 years old ^[2] .

In the autumn of the same year, during the Suez crisis, Faisal Abd al-Latif, returning to Cairo, showed a desire to fight the Anglo-French troops and volunteered to join student brigades. The young student joined the semi-legal Arab Nationalist Movement created in Beirut in the early 1950s by Palestinian students. Recently, it supported the course of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser , but, gradually leaning toward Arab socialism , opposed Marxism , which it considered incompatible with Arab reality. By decision of the leaders of DAN, Faisal traveled to Damascus , where he studied at special courses, and he was given the task of using his annual vacation to create a branch of the movement in South Yemen ^[1] .

The efforts of the 24-year-old student were crowned with success, and in the summer of 1959, cells of the Arab Nationalist Movement were organized in Aden ^[3] . Faisal and his friends Sultan Ahmed Omar, Abd al-Hafiz Qaid, Seif al-Dalia, Taha Ahmed Macbal and Ali Ahmed Nasser al-Salami ^[1] began agitation in two English-language teacher colleges and soon young teachers began to create DAN cells throughout the territory of the protectorate, even in its most remote areas. The network of cells grew rapidly, as the colonial and local authorities did not see anything suspicious in the communication between teachers and students ^[4] . When in February 1959, the United Kingdom united six Aden sultanates into the Federation of Southern Arabia , the South Yemeni branch of DAN strongly opposed such an alternative to independence. Faisal convinced Qatana al-Shaabi that the nationalist Association of the Sons of the South, in which he was, had evaded the old principles and national goals and now instead of a single Arab Yemeni state supports the separatist conglomerate of sultanates. In October 1959, they had together on behalf of the Movement of Arab Nationalists brochure "emirates Union as an imitation of Arab unity" ( Arab. إتحاد الإمارات المزيف مؤامرة على الوحدة Deutsch), which is considered a "first call" to the beginning of the armed struggle for the liberation of the South ^{[2 ]} .

In the early 1960s, Faisal Abd al-Latif was responsible for the activities of the entire South Yemeni branch of the Movement. He continued to focus on the pan-Arab leadership of DAN in Beirut, who considered the beginning of the unilateral armed movement in Aden untimely and offered to come to an alliance with other opposition Arab forces. At this time, Faisal Abd al-Latif completed his studies in Cairo, received a bachelor 's degree and returned to his homeland. He got a job at the Aden Ministry of Commerce, where he worked for five months, but then, when the political situation changed, he moved to an illegal position to organize preparations for the armed struggle for independence ^[1] .

Guerrilla Leader

In January 1962, the former irreconcilable rivals - branches of the Arab Nationalist Movement and the Arab Socialist Renaissance Party - together with the Congress of Workers' Trade Unions of Aden took the initiative to create a unified National Front ^[5] . A year later, in July 1963, DAN took over the creation of the National Liberation Front of the occupied South Yemen, which included 7 opposition organizations ^[6] , and in August of the same year, the leadership of the new organization was formed ^[7] , which included Faisal Abd al-Latif. The front set as its goals the liberation of South Yemen, unification with Egypt into one state and the achievement of Arab unity ^[6] .

The armed struggle in South Yemen began on October 14, 1963 with a spontaneous uprising of the tribes in the Radfan region ^[8] . Faisal, who also continued to be responsible for the work of the Yemeni branch of the Arab Nationalist Movement, spent the next two years in the rebel units of the National Front. Only in the middle of 1965, on the instructions of his leaders, did he leave for Taiz ( Yemen Arab Republic ) to work in the General Directorate of NOOSA ^[1] . In the meantime, the political situation has changed again. The creation in May 1965 of the Organization of Liberation of the occupied South Yemen, controlled by North Yemen, led to the fact that now most of the financial flows from the League of Arab States , Egypt and Sana'a went to this organization. In July 1965, Faisal Abd al-Latif declared that “until now, the Front was completely dependent on financial support from the UAR” and now it is necessary to look for new sources of financing. By the end of the year, this crisis led to a drop in the activity of partisan formations in Aden ^[9] . The situation was complicated by the fact that the British authorities managed to uncover the underground network of the front, coordinating the armed forces, and arrest about 45 personnel leaders. Now Faisal Abd al-Latif was forced to leave Taiz and return to the South to restore the overall command of the rebel forces.

On two fronts

Meanwhile, the split in the liberation movement took on new forms. With the active participation and pressure of Egypt, on January 13, 1966, the National Front and the Liberation Organization were merged into the Liberation Front of the Occupied South Yemen (FLOSI) ^{[10] [1]} . This agreement was not recognized by the main leaders of the National Front and the very next day, on January 14, NF General Secretary Kakhtan al-Shaabi declared that the front does not recognize it ^[11] . Faisal Abd al-Latif also strongly opposed the agreement on January 13 ^[1] , the partisan commanders who supported him openly called for withdrawal from the new organization ^[12] , and after trying to take away their heavy weapons, their attitude towards FLOSI became openly hostile ^[11] .

In February 1966, Faisal, along with Ali Salem, Mohammed Ahmed al-Beisha and Mohammed Said Masobein, arrived in Taiz to meet with the leaders of North Yemen and local trade unions and influence events. Soon, he joined the delegation of Qahtan al-Shaabi, who went to Cairo on January 30 to inform President Nasser of his position. However, the main ally did not behave in a friendly way: the Secretary General of the National Young National Youth League, Kahtan al-Shaabi, and Faisal Abd al-Latif, one of the military leaders of the front, were actually arrested by the Egyptian authorities ^[1] . Faisal spent 9 months under arrest in Cairo ^[2] , but in October, after the mediation of the Arab Nationalist Movement, he managed to leave for treatment and a meeting with his family in Beirut. There he repaid the Allies with the same violation of promises and disappeared. Soon Faisal was in the Ethiopian Asmara , and from there on November 21 he arrived in Taiz, from where his path lay in the obscure North Yemeni village of Hamr. It was there that on November 29, 1966, the III Congress of the National Liberation Front of the occupied South Yemen opened, which Faisal was to chair ^{[1] [13]} .

The congress by 40 votes to 14 voted to exit the National Front from FLOSIA ^[14] and on December 12, 1966 this decision was implemented. Faisal became one of the main organizers of the seizure on June 20, 1967 of the Aden district Crater ^[1] , which the insurgent units of the army of the Federation of Southern Arabia held for 15 days ^[15] . But this success was achieved against the background of an open military confrontation between the two liberation fronts ^[13] . On August 26, 1967, Faisal Abd al-Latif, together with Mansur Matanna Baggash, led the operations to overthrow the Sultan of Haushabi and raised the banner of the National Front over the capital of the Sultanate Musaymir ^[14] . But in September, members of the Liberation Front of the occupied South Yemen (FLOSI) killed one of the guerrilla leaders of the NF Abdel Nabi Mardam and in response to this, the National Front forces detained four members of FLOSIA. This action also did not go unanswered and during the return to the Faisal Abd al-Latif al-Shaabi and Ahmed al-Beishi base were captured by the FLOSI detachment Mohammed Haidar al-Marabi and transferred to Taiz. From there they were deported by Egyptian intelligence to Cairo ^[14] . Between the forces of the fronts began fighting in the Aden suburb of Sheikh-Osman, and in November the military confrontation again resulted in hostilities ^[16] .

Faisal Abd al-Latif was released after negotiations between the fronts in Cairo reached an agreement on a cease-fire and the exchange of arrested and hostages ^[17] . He joined the South Yemeni delegation ^[1] which, on November 22, 1967, began negotiations in Geneva on the conditions for granting independence to the country ^[18] . On November 29, after reaching an agreement with the United Kingdom, members of the delegation on a specially chartered plane flew to Aden via Beirut and Asmara ^[19] and in the evening of the next day an independent People's Republic of South Yemen was proclaimed in Aden ^[20] .

Short career Prime Minister for two months

In the first national government of South Yemen, Faisal Abd al-Latif al-Shaabi, who for the last seven years has been mainly engaged in military affairs, occupied the quite peaceful post of Minister of Economy, Trade and Planning. He staked on the development of national capital, on attracting foreign investment and funds of the Yemen diaspora abroad. Abd al-Latif offered to rely on the development of the main sectors of the economy - agriculture and fisheries, using the proceeds from the sale of oil and minerals. At the same time, he insisted on planning and coordinating economic activities, creating a single regulatory framework. This position led to a conflict with the Marxists from the left wing of the Front, whose ideas Faisal called childish, destructive and having nothing to do with reality. This conflict and the split in the National Front led to Faisal Abd al-Latif resigning from his post as minister. The resignation was not accepted, and the problem was solved only when the post of Minister of Economy, Trade and Planning was occupied by Abdel Malik Ismail, and Faisal was asked to focus on the work in the General Management of the Front. In early 1969, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs. During this period, Faisal Abd al-Latif issued a number of brochures on the history of the struggle for liberation ^[1] .

Concessions to the left wing, which strengthened its influence, continued. The President of NYUY, Kakhtan al-Shaabi, visited the Soviet Union in January-February 1969, and in April there was a separation of the posts of president and head of government ^[21] . On April 6, 1969, Faisal Abd al-Latif al-Shaabi was appointed to the newly established post of prime minister ^[22] . In political matters, he remained a supporter of the “controlled revolution”, national unity, involvement of all strata of the population, regardless of class affiliation and political views, including women, in governing the country and public activities. Faisal believed that political differences should be resolved in the course of dialogues, and not become the cause of anti-government conspiracies. He put forward five principles of building an independent Yemen: unity, a strategy of nationalism and Arab unity, the creation of a single political organization, the creation of an effective national army, a clear definition of goals and objectives for the future and political reforms ^[1] . But the Front’s left wing was not satisfied with the concessions of Qahtan Al-Shaabi and the appointment of a relative of the President to the post of prime minister. Violent disputes continued: the left called the right “backward” ^[23] , the right openly accused the left in trying to “plant communist ideas” ^[24] .

New Revolution

In May 1969, during Kahtan’s visit to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, he took the post of vice president, acting president, which strengthened his position ^[25] . This irritated the left wing, which still demanded the execution of the decisions of the 4th Congress of the National Front in Zangibar (March 1968), which ordered to use the "experience of world socialist regimes" ^[26] .

The balance between Marxists and nationalists is disturbed by the fact that the Minister of the Interior, Mohammed Ali Heitam, is on the side of the left ^[21] . President Kahtan Al-Shaabi is returning from a trip to Syria ^[27] and without consultation dismisses Heytam from his post. The general leadership of the front is going to an emergency session, condemns the decision of the president and goes under the control of the left. Ba'athists, the traditional enemies of Faisal, the People’s Democratic Union and other organizations oppose the Rights ^[21] . The conflict ends in a catastrophe for President Kahtan al-Shaabi and for Prime Minister Faisal al-Shaabi: on June 22, 1969 they are removed from their posts ^[28] and sent under house arrest ^[1] .

The career of Faisal Abd al-Latif in independent South Yemen, for the liberation of which he fought for about ten years, ends quickly and tragically. As prime minister, he is replaced by Muhammad Ali Haight, while the foreign minister is replaced by future leader Ali Salem al-Beid ^[29] .

Payback for a victory

At the end of November 1969, the session of the General leadership of the National Front excluded from the organization the former leaders of the right wing — displaced President Qahtan al-Shaabi, who had been removed from the post of Prime Minister Faisal Abd al-Latif al-Shaabi and another 19 people ^[30] . They remained under house arrest, and the fate of the overthrown leaders of the country was uncertain. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had kept Faisal in captivity for almost a year, now offered the new authorities his release and promised political asylum in Cairo. Concerned about the fate of the former partisan commander, the chairman of the Revolutionary Council of Algeria, Colonel Houari Boumedien and the emir of Kuwait Sabah al-Salem al-Mubarak al-Sabah also tried to secure his release. Neither Nasser nor the other Arab leaders in Aden wanted to hear ^[1] . On March 28, 1970, Faisal Abd al-Latif was transferred from house arrest to the Al-Fatah al-Rahib prison in Aden (الفتح الرهيب), and his property was confiscated ^[25] . Kahtan Al-Shaabi was placed in the adjacent cell No. 4. For six days, Faisal was severely tortured until the leadership of South Yemen decided his fate.

Faisal Abd al-Latif al-Shaabi was shot on the night of April 2, 1970 in Aden, in cell number 5 of the Al-Fatah al-Rahib prison. Eyewitnesses claimed that the soldiers had released four assault rifles into his body. The place of his burial is still unknown ^[1] . The daughter of Faisal, the well-known Yemeni human rights activist Aliya Faisal Latif al-Shaabi demanded that the authorities find the grave of her father. In May 2013, Major General Galeb Kamish, Yemen’s political police chief, invited her to his office and, in the presence of his deputy, Ali Mansur Rashid, gave an overview of his father’s case, but Aliya did not find in him any information about the execution and burial of Faisal.

Even after the unification of the two countries in 1990, the leader of the national liberation struggle and the first prime minister of South Yemen was not remembered. Only in 1998, President Ali Abdullah Saleh stated in his speech in Aden that Kahtan Al-Shaabi and Faisal Abd al-Latif Al-Shaabi deserve a reconsideration of their attitudes and recognition of their outstanding achievements in the liberation of the South. In 2011, during the revolution that led to the resignation of Saleh himself, students of Sana'a University proclaimed Faisal one of the leaders of the October Revolution of 1963 ^[25] . In modern Yemen, he is revered as a martyr ( shahid ), a national hero and a fighter for the independence of the country ^[1] .

Faisal’s sister was married to Qahtan Al-Shaabi and died in Sana'a in 1998. His brother Abdul Qawi al-Shaabi spent 10 years in prison and, after being released, married Faisal's widow. In 1982, Ali Nasser Mohammed refused to allow the family, but the Minister of Defense, Ali Ahmed Antar, continued to patronize the family of the executed man, in which his daughter Faisal and his three sons were left orphans. Daughter Aliya Faisal Latif al-Shaabi (born on May 28, 1969) received a scholarship in Germany in 1988, but her mother did not release her to Europe. Aliya graduated from the University of Sana'a, receiving a degree in psychology, became a bachelor, and then a master, became known as a human rights activist. The two older sons of Faisal work in the free zone of Aden, the youngest son there, at the refinery ^[25] .

• Gerasimov O. G. Yemeni Revolution of 1962-1975 Problems and judgments. - M .: Science , 1979. - 226 p. - 1900 copies
• Fatis V. People's Republic of Southern Yemen // Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1970. - p . 319-320 .
• Faisal al-Shaabi (People and Events) // New time . - 1969. - № 19 . - p . 15 .

• علياء فيصل عبداللطيف العبي: الدكتور ياسين وء في أخر النفق المظلم ..؟ (ar.) (inaccessible link) . yemenat.net (January 16, 2013). The date of circulation is February 27, 2014. Archived August 1, 2013.