Growing Risks for Tourists in Yemen

Middle East

Yemen: Americans were warned to defer travel to Yemen, and officials there reported a substantial drop in tourism because of the killings of four Western tourists on Dec. 29. The three Britons and an Australian died during a shootout as Yemeni troops tried to rescue 16 hostages from Islamic extremists in Abyan province, about 175 miles southeast of Sana, the capital.

The travelers’ alert came in the form of a State Department “public announcement,” considered less urgent than an official travel warning. Although kidnapping for ransom has become increasingly common among Yemen’s mountain tribes, this was the first time that hostages have been killed. In other recent incidents:

* Assailants shot and wounded an American working in the southern province of Shabwa while trying to hijack his four-wheel-drive vehicle. Four-wheel-drives are highly prized in Yemen, one of the poorest Arab nations.

* A Dutch family and two Britons last week became the latest foreigners kidnapped.

* Gunmen robbed two American tourists in the Hadramout region in December in what appeared to be a bungled kidnap attempt.

Israel: The advent of the year 2000 is expected to attract more than 4 million Christian pilgrims and others, and Israeli security forces are taking steps to keep things peaceful. Israel this month deported to the United States members of a doomsday cult suspected of planning provocative acts, and scores of other “millennial Christians” have already begun settling in and around Jerusalem, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times’ Jerusalem bureau. The Israeli government will put additional police on the streets and around religious sites in the months leading up to 2000.

In another development, police increased security around the Western Wall earlier this month after receiving reports that Islamic militants planned to set off explosives there. The area is considered the most sensitive in the city.

Egypt: In a message to the American community in Egypt, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo said it has received “reliable information that extremist elements may be planning imminent unspecified attacks against U.S. interests in Egypt.” The embassy urged the 16,000 Americans living in Egypt to maintain a low profile, vary travel routes and be wary of mail from unfamiliar sources. The embassy also said it plans to conduct security training for the American communities in Cairo and Alexandria. Security at most U.S. embassies, including Cairo, has been tightened since the Aug. 7, 1998, terrorist bombings of embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.

Iran: U.S.-Iranian relations were further dampened by the attack on a busload of Americans in Tehran in late November. The bus, carrying 13 businessmen, was attacked by a group armed with rocks and metal bars as the visitors were returning to their hotel. There were some minor injuries.

The incident followed reports in hard-line Iranian newspapers accusing the Americans of being members of the CIA posing as tourists. A senior conservative cleric warned that U.S. tourist trips could pave the way for spies.

After a long chill beginning with the hostage crisis in 1979, American tourists began trickling back to Iran last year. Although traveling there is not forbidden, the State Department has long considered Iran risky for Americans.

Russia

The Western press is scaring tourists away from Russia with sensationalist accounts of bad conditions and scarce food, senior Russian tourism officials charged recently. Although conceding that the country’s tourism potential has been undermined by poor service and an underdeveloped infrastructure, the officials told Reuters news service that tourists have nothing to fear from Russia’s economic crisis.

In its standing consular information sheet, the State Department says Russia is a nation where many goods and services taken for granted in other countries are not yet available and where “medical care is usually far below Western standards.”

Briefly . . .

Mexico: A Mexico City correspondent for a San Antonio newspaper was found beaten to death in a deep ravine near the boundary between Jalisco and Nayarit states in western Mexico. Philip True, a California native and UC Irvine graduate, had hiked into the mountainous area to report on the Huichol Indians. . . . Kenya: A pair of hooded men armed with a rifle and a sword robbed two groups of tourists, most of them British, on their way to the popular Masai Mara game reserve in southwestern Kenya. . . . St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Because of U.S. support for an ongoing drug eradication program, rumors of possible retaliation by marijuana producers against U.S. citizens have circulated through the islands. The State Department advises Americans to be careful around crowds and avoid the drug eradication areas. . . . Cambodia: With the mending of political problems, including the surrender of the last holdouts of Khmer Rouge guerrillas, Cambodia’s ailing tourist industry should perk up, a senior tourism official told Reuters news service. In apparent agreement, the State Department this month rescinded its long-standing travel warning on Cambodia. . . . Comoros: Civil unrest on Anjouan Island, part of the Comoros chain, has led to heavy fighting between armed groups in recent weeks. The State Department advises Americans to defer travel to Anjouan and notes that there is no U.S. diplomatic presence in the Comoros. . . . Tanzania: The crime rate has become “extremely high,” according to the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam. Driving at night or in remote areas is considered dangerous.

Hot spots: The State Department has dropped Israel, Syria, Cambodia, Kuwait and Lesotho from its list of places considered dangerous for Americans. Remaining on the travel-warning list are Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burundi, Central African Republic, Colombia, Congo (formerly Zaire), Eritrea, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Montserrat, Nigeria, Pakistan, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Rwanda, Serbia and Montenegro, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Tajikistan.

The U.S. State Department offers recorded travel warnings and advisories at (202) 647-5225; the fax line is (202) 647-3000. Internet address is https://travel.state.gov.