Abdul Fattah Ismail Ali Al-Jawfi (; 28 July 1939 – 13 January 1986) was a Yemeni Marxist politician and revolutionary who was the ''de facto'' leader of

South Yemen South Yemen, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, abbreviated to Democratic Yemen, was a country in South Arabia that existed in what is now southeast Yemen from 1967 until Yemeni unification, its unification with the Yemen A ...

from 1978 to 1980 after the overthrow of President

Salim Rubaya Ali Salim Rubaya Ali (; 17 June 1934 – 26 June 1978), commonly known by his nickname Salemin (), was a Yemeni Maoist politician and revolutionary who served as the second head of state of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) from ...

. He served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council (head of state) and founder, chief ideologue and first leader of the

Yemeni Socialist Party The Yemeni Socialist Party (, ''al-Hizb al-Ishtiraki al-Yamani'', YSP), officially the Socialist Party Organization (), is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Yemen, political party in Yemen. A successor of Yemen's ...

from 21 December 1978 to 21 April 1980. He died under mysterious circumstances during the 1986

South Yemen Civil War The South Yemeni crisis, colloquially referred to in Yemen as the events of '86, was a failed coup d'etat and brief civil war which took place on January 13, 1986, in South Yemen. The civil war developed as a result of ideological differences, ...

and his body was never found.

Biography

Abdul Fattah was born on 28 July 1939 in the

Al-Hujariah Al-Hujariah (), also known as Mikhlaf al-Maʿafir () (al-Maʿafir region) and Mapharitis (Μαφαρῖτις), is a mountainous region in southwestern Yemen. It has an estimated population of one million. Most of the region is located inside Taiz ...

district of the

Taiz Governorate Taiz () is a governorates of Yemen, governorate of Yemen. The governorate's capital Taiz, the third-largest city in Yemen, is among the most important commercial centres in the country, owing to its proximity to farmland, the Red Sea port of Mok ...

North Yemen North Yemen () is a term used to describe the Kingdom of Yemen (1918-1962), the Yemen Arab Republic (1962-1990), and the regimes that preceded them and exercised sovereignty over that region of Yemen. Its capital was Sanaa from 1918 to 1948 an ...

. Though his father was a

faqīh A ''faqīh'' (: ''fuqahāʾ'', ; : ‏‎) is an Islamic jurist, an expert in ''fiqh'', or Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic law. Definition Islamic jurisprudence or ''fiqh'' is the human understanding of Sharia, which is believed ...

(Islamic jurist), he had a poor and rural upbringing. He subsequently followed his elder brother to Aden (which was then a

British protectorate British protectorates were protectorates under the jurisdiction of the British government. Many territories which became British protectorates already had local rulers with whom the Crown negotiated through treaty, acknowledging their status wh ...

) where he was educated at the Ahliah School in Tawahi district. When he was approximately seventeen, Abdul Fattah enrolled in a

British Petroleum BP p.l.c. (formerly The British Petroleum Company p.l.c. and BP Amoco p.l.c.; stylised in all lowercase) is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the oil and gas " supermajors" and one of ...

workers’ training center and began working in an oil refinery from 1956 to 1959 as an apprentice. In this setting Abdul Fattah began to develop a political consciousness centered around union organizing and labour advocacy. As a co-founder of the

Arab Nationalist Movement The Arab Nationalist Movement (, ''Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-Arab''), also known as the Movement of Arab Nationalists and the Harakiyyin, was a pan-Arab nationalist organization influential in much of the Arab world, particularly within the Pales ...

in South Yemen, he contributed to the formation of a number of Movement cells before he was arrested by the British colonial authorities in Aden for political incitement of workers. Abdulfatah in moscow

In 1961, he became a school teacher at Al-Haswah School in Aden, and at the same time continued his involvement in political activity. He was a co-founder of the National Front for the Liberation of South Yemen (NLF). After the outbreak of the

Aden Emergency The Aden Emergency, also known as the 14 October Revolution () or as the Radfan Uprising, was an armed rebellion by the National Liberation Front (South Yemen), National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South ...

where the NLF sought for the liberation of South Yemen from British colonial rule, Abdul Fattah became a full-time socialist revolutionary, whereby he undertook the leadership of the NLF underground military wing (fedayeen) in Aden, as well as political activity. He was elected to the NLF executive in the first, second and third NLF congresses, 1965–67. After South Yemen gained independence in 1967 he was appointed Minister of Culture and Yemeni Unity. In the fourth NLF congress, he was instrumental Abdulfatah-1979

in determining the progressive line of the revolution. But in March 1968, he was arrested by the right-wing faction of the NLF and went into exile, where he drafted the program for Accomplishing National Democratic Liberation, a leftist manifesto. He undertook a leading role in the consolidation of left wing of NLF which subsequently regained power in the 22 June 1969 "

Corrective Move The Corrective Move (), also referred to as the 22 June Corrective Move or as the Glorious Corrective Move, was an internal bloodless coup that took place on 22 June 1969, which led to the takeover of the ruling National Front (NF) party of So ...

." Subsequent to the "Correction Step" Abdul Fattah was elected Secretary General of the NLF Central Committee, thus making him the country's de facto leader. He was also elected a member of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council. In 1970 he was elected Chairman of Presidium. He undertook a leading role in the dialogue between NLF and other left parties in south Yemen leading to the formation of the

(YSP). He was elected Secretary General of the YSP at the first party congress in October 1978. Ideologically, he is considered to have favored the Soviet model of socialist development (as opposed to Maoist alternatives). In October 1979, Abdul Fattah secured the 1979 Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with the USSR. Similar treaties with East Germany and Ethiopia followed in 1981, following Abdul Fattah's resignation from office. Lackner, Helen. P.D.R. Yemen: Outpost of Socialist Development in Arabia, 1985 p. 84 In 1980, he resigned from all his posts for allegedly health reasons and was succeeded by

Ali Nasir Muhammad Ali Nasir Muhammad Al-Husani (; born 31 December 1939) is a Yemeni former politician and leader of South Yemen who served as Secretary-General of the Yemeni Socialist Party between 1980 and 1986. He was president of South Yemen twice and once the ...

. However, Abdul Fattah was appointed president of the party before he went to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

for medical treatment, until 1985, when he returned in the face of a mounting crisis between Muhammad and his opponents in the YSP. In October 1985, he was elected to the YSP Politburo and as a Secretary of the Central Committee, but the crisis had erupted on 13 January 1986, into a violent struggle in Aden between Ali Nasir's supporters and Abdul Fattah's supporters (See

South Yemen civil war The South Yemeni crisis, colloquially referred to in Yemen as the events of '86, was a failed coup d'etat and brief civil war which took place on January 13, 1986, in South Yemen. The civil war developed as a result of ideological differences, ...

). Fighting lasted for more than a month and resulted in thousands of casualties and Ali Nasir's ouster.Brehony, Noel, ''Yemen Divided: The Story of a Failed State in South Arabia'', London: I.B. Tauris, 2011, p. 151

Disappearance and presumed death

During the crisis, Abdul Fattah disappeared. He was last seen being evacuated from the YSP office along with his deputy

Ali Salem al Beidh Ali Salem al-Beidh (; born 10 February 1939) is a Yemeni Maoist politician who served as the General Secretary of the Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) in South Yemen and as Vice President of Yemen following the unification in 1990. He left the uni ...

in a military armored vehicle. Unsubstantiated reports claim he was killed when naval forces loyal to Ali Nasir shelled his home in Aden, but his ultimate fate is unknown. His body was never found.

References

External links

* Russian political detective series (2006) after A.Konstantinov's novel "The Journalist" (1996) with its fictionalized version of the events
Anaween Thaqafiya magazineSalah Abdul Fattah interview on 26 September, April 27, 2006
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ismail Presidents of South Yemen Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Council 1939 births 1986 deaths Arab communists Communism in Yemen Yemeni Arab nationalists Yemeni Marxists Yemeni Socialist Party politicians Yemeni socialists People granted political asylum in the Soviet Union South Yemen independence activists Muslim socialists Yemeni revolutionaries