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On June 26, 1978, the life of President Salim Rubai Ali, commonly known as Salimin, ended. The reasons and the motives behind the execution of President Salimin were many and complex, and not confined to the events that happened on June 26, but the assassination of-
-N.Yemen's President al-Ghashmi on June 24 played part in it. At 3:30 P.M, that was the time Sana'a's Broadcast announced the death of al-Ghashmi in N.Yemen, blaming S.Yemen, and S.Yemen began preparing for war in all units of the armed forces.
Until the following day, the NLF's-
Until the following day, the NLF's-
-Central Committee called for a special meeting at 10 in the morning for the purpose of blaming President Salimin for assassinating al-Ghashmi in the North, the party's Political Leadership needed a legitimate justification to oust Salimin from power, and now they had one.
The Central Committee decided to oust Salimin through trial, and assigned the Politburo to implement the decision, the decision was not objected by anyone at the Politburo except for Hassan Ba’oom, while Abdullah Saleh al-Bar abstained, and all the others agreed.
President Salimin was later summoned to the Politburo special meeting by the Secretary General Abdel Fattah Ismail, and when Salimin went to the meeting's headquarters, oddly enough, he found no one there, he later found out that they postponed the meeting to 9 in the evening-
- and that the Politburo didn't feel the need to notify the President about the change in the meeting's date, for unknown reasons, and so Salimin returned to his residence, at al-Ma'asheeq, the Presidential Palace of South Yemen in the capital Aden.
At 10 o'clock in the evening, the Politburo sent three of South Yemen's ministers to the President at al-Ma'asheeq Palace, they were the Minister of Defense Ali Antar, the Minister of Interior Affairs Saleh Muslih, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammed Saleh Mutie,-
-they arrived at al-Ma'asheeq, and a dialogue with the president took place from 10 to 1:30 in the morning of June 26. Salimin's Presidential Guard attempted to warn Salimin that this dialogue was a plot to overthrow him by the Opposition-wing, that it was a plot to-
-buy time until preparations were completed to oust him, and that they should take the three ministers hostage, but Salimin refused, and told his guards: "I know they want power, and I already gave them my resignation letter, I required from them to allow me to travel-
to China in exchange. There is no need to blow up the situation.", after the agreement between Salimin and the three ministers, the ministers left al-Ma'asheeq and got into their cars and left the area immediately, and little did Salimin know, his Presidential Guards were right.
The attack on President Salimin has begun.
An hour after the ministers left, Ali Antar, the Defense Minister, came back with the South Yemeni army, and fired six shots in the air from the field near al-Ma'asheeq Palace, that was the signal to start the assault on the Palace.
An hour after the ministers left, Ali Antar, the Defense Minister, came back with the South Yemeni army, and fired six shots in the air from the field near al-Ma'asheeq Palace, that was the signal to start the assault on the Palace.
They cut off the electricity and water to the whole area of the Palace, and it was only minutes until the army started shooting at the Palace from multiple directions using DShK and B-10 Soviet-made heavy weapons. The battle continued until 5 o'clock in the morning of June 26-
-without any progress on both sides, and at 6 o'clock, Salimin's forces withdrew from the Palace, and when progress finally began by the Opposition forces led by commander Ali Shayi', where he reportedly used a loudspeaker and called his forces to enter the Palace and yelled:-
-"Get ahead of them! Don’t fear them, these invaders are cowards!", Salimin's forces were shocked at being labeled invaders, and after being able to capture soldiers from Ali Shayi's forces, they interrogated them and found that they didn't actually know that they were fighting-
-President Salimin, and were told that they were fighting a "foreign airdrop that was sent to occupy the People's Republic's Presidential Palace at night", they found out they were deceived; which caused them to switch sides upon realizing that they've been lied to.
Salimin decided that there is no benefit in a losing battle after losing several of his men and running out of ammunition, he decided to order his forces to surrender, and one of his guards went out and yelled loudly. "We surrender. We ran out of ammunition. Ceasefire!"
The Opposition forces then ceased fire, and one of their commanders yelled at Salimin's guard: “Surrender yourselves, you are in the face of the Revolution!” and Salimin's guard yelled back at him: “May God curse you and the Revolution whose leadership you're killing! You've-
-been shelling us for hours! Is that your "Revolution"?!”
Salimin's guard then yelled again: “We will send you a messenger with a letter from Salimin to Ali Antar, and we hope that you will not kill the messenger, and that you will give the letter to Ali Antar!”
Salimin's guard then yelled again: “We will send you a messenger with a letter from Salimin to Ali Antar, and we hope that you will not kill the messenger, and that you will give the letter to Ali Antar!”
Salimin did not find a paper to write the letter, so he wrote it on cigarette papers, and the message was as follows: “Brother Colonel Ali Ahmed Antar, - Given the bloody battles that are happening in Yemen, we will surrender to you, and we ask for a dialogue.“. They then-
-took Salimin and his forces to the field outside the Palace, without giving them a trial, or letting Salimin have a dialogue with Ali Antar, as requested per the letter, it's reported that the commander and Politburo member Ali Shayi' was the man who personally executed Salimin.
When Ali Shayi’, who had an old dispute with Salimin for years, pointed his rifle at Salimin’s chest, he told him before he pressed the trigger: “Ten years, Rubai, you’ve had it cold, and today you’ll have it hot.”, and Salimin replied to him: “Today, it’ll be in our chests,-
and tomorrow, it’ll be in yours. You’ve opened a door that will be difficult to close.”.
After Salimin's execution, Abdel Fattah reported that "The Political Leadership has documents that confirm Salim Rubai's association with the reactionary circles in the region, and that-
After Salimin's execution, Abdel Fattah reported that "The Political Leadership has documents that confirm Salim Rubai's association with the reactionary circles in the region, and that-
these circles asked him to dispatch the leaders of the United Political Org. and the Revolution, in exchange for economic aid, these reactionary circles expressed their willingness to put military forces at his disposal if the counter-revolution succeeded."
Salimin did seek to-
Salimin did seek to-
-improve relations with Saudi Arabia, North Yemen, and also the United States during his presidency's later years, using an American prisoner in Aden as leverage to improve relations with the US, he also disapproved of sending aid to Ethiopia's Derg in the Ogaden War in '77.
Ali Nassir, Abdel Fattah Ismail, and Ali Antar agreed to a power-sharing deal in '78, which barely lasted until '86, when a civil war broke out between the Ali Nassir rightwing, and the Abdel Fattah/Ali Antar leftwing, which led to the former's exile and the latter two's demise.
The coup details were translated from an interview with the last surviving member of Salimin’s Presidential Guard, who passed away in 2012, some of the info can be read in Shaker Al-Johari's "al-Sira’a Fi Aden" book. https://adengd.net/news/111123
