The year 1994 was a bad one for South Yemen. Still struggling to release itself from the cloying influence of Soviet communism, the country's tattered economy was beginning to show signs of digging itself out of the mire. Some of the old money thaf had fled the country when the Russians arrived was trickling back. One or two of the stunning multi-story Baroque palaces in the Wadi Douan sported new paint, and primitive scaffolding announced that repairs were being effected to these historic structures, some of them over 600 years old. A fragile breeze of optimism pervaded the scorching canyons of the Hadhramaut [Hadramawt], and suddenly the old brick-makers were back in business as demand for their sun-dried products increased. Then rumblings of war began to issue from the north. The population of North Yemen was around 15 million, and there was a serious land hunger in the ancient villages that clung precariously to the rugged crags which made up so much of North Yemen's geography. The population of South Yemen, however, was only 2.5 million, although the land area was many times greater than that of the North.
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