Topics: State Sponsored Assassination, State Sponsored Preemptive Aggression, and Korea Issue.
This year's central theme in the Political and Security Committee is the prevention of hostile attacks in nations. The main focus is how we can avert any attacks before they take action, as well as the assassinations of any leader by a group or organizations. We will also discuss the Korea Issue, as each day passes, not one resolution or negotiation has taken place for how to handle this. Yemen feels that these topics are the top issues on the agenda. .
Yemen strongly condemns any sort of terrorism, whether it is the assassination of a political figure from any of its fellow nations or any hostile. We especially do not sustain any sort of state-sponsored terrorism. We only wish to hold a peaceful nation, free of terror acts. We, as a nation, have been a victim of many attacks ranging from car bombs to suicide bombers. We have initiated several consequences for any attempt of attacks or hostage plans. One example is the Yemeni Government issuing a decree in August 1998 implementing severe punishment--including execution--for kidnappers and stepped up enforcement of the law on unlicensed weapons in major cities. This was a result of Yemeni tribesmen kidnapping and releasing more than 60 foreign nationals in l998, more than three times the number abducted in 1997. The Islamic Army of Aden--a little known Islamic group that has issued anti-US threats--claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in late December of 16 Western tourists, including two US citizens. Four of the tourists died, and two others--including one US citizen--were wounded during a Yemeni Government rescue attempt that liberated the remaining hostages. Following the incident, the group issued a statement calling for the lifting of sanctions against Iraq. In addition, gunmen in December shot and wounded a US citizen working on a Dutch agricultural development project while they were attempting to hijack his car.
