| At
the time when the British left Aden in 1967 when the first stirrings of
the Dhofar War were occurring ,Oman was ruled by Sultan Said bin Taimur,
the present sultan's father. Although Muscat, the capital of Oman, was in
the north, the Sultan preferred Dhofar and lived in his palace,
al-Hisn, by
the seafront in Salalah. |
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|
In all intents and purposes he was an absolute ruler and the
state was run as a feudal monarchy. He ruled by Royal
Decree. His management of the state finances were unadventurous. He was
determined to ease the burden of the national debt. He was
particularly strict in his views on the observance of the Muslim
faith and was intent that the whole of Oman should follow his
lead. He abhorred the changes that were occurring in the
surrounding Arab nations and was determined that these changes
would not occur in Oman. Irrational restrictions were placed on all manner
of things ranging from Coca-Cola to sunglasses. He forbade both
transistor radios and cameras. Many restrictions were laid
upon the way in which people led their lives and the Sultan was
excessively heavy handed when they attempted make changes.
Unrest was clearly evident in the country in the early sixties. |
|
The British had involved themselves in the affairs of
Oman since the East India Company negotiated a treaty in 1646.
The British, more recently, had been giving Oman financial help and
assistance especially with their armed forces since 1958. They had
helped see off an insurgency in the north of the country
where the imam had attempted to seize power aided by
other local Arab states and by Egypt. In 1967 Oman began
to have significant revenues from oil that had been
found in the country. However the Sultan did not cascade
the wealth down and improve the lot of his subjects.
Interestingly after his overthrow it was apparent that
he had already made plans to do so but was determined
not to so do until oil revenues had provided the wherewithal
rather than doing so on the expectation of oil revenues.
He remained the determined conservative and cautious man
who had taken over the throne in 1932. The resentment
that was already present in the population increased. There was support for
insurgency from the new “Peoples Democratic Republic of
Yemen” recently freed from the British. The last
British forces to leave were a RE Airfield Squadron in December
1967. Two of the
principle donors of aid to the newly formed Dhofar Liberation Front were Russia
and China both of whom provided weapons and training. |
|
As time went by and more confidence was gained the Front
changed its name to the “Peoples Front for the
Liberation of the Occupied Arab Gulf” The plan was to
push up across the border from the south and gradually
take over the whole country. The Western view at this
time was that a communist country sitting alongside the
Straits of Hormuz could exert a stranglehold on the
export of oil from the Gulf and destabilise the region. |
|
The
resentment felt for the then ruler allowed revolutionary
ideology and promises to fall upon fertile ground. The
dissidents gradually established themselves in the Dhofar region
using aggressive methods to control the population and bring
them over on to their side. In many
ways this is surprising that this was effective as the treatment that they meted out to
the population in areas under their influence was
unquestionably brutal and contrary to Islamic practice. |
|
At first PFLOAG achieved considerable success in the
south and were able to mount a guerrilla war that had
partial support from the local population. The tribes on
the jebel were more often than not split up into factions who
main recreation was violent squabbles with each other that often
festered on as long term grudges. The dissidents were not
hindered significantly by SAF and emboldened by their
success continued to advance along the jebel towards Salalah
and then onwards to the north east of the plain. |
The sultan had one son, Qaboos bin Said who had been educated
partly in the West. He had the
good fortune to live with a
family in Suffolk for a considerable time. ( I would say
that coming from the Norfolk/Suffolk border with BurySt Edmunds as my
local large town ! ) ( see "Sultan in Suffolk" in the Documents
section of this website ).
He had attended Sandhurst
military academy and then served as
an officer in a Scottish regiment the Cameronians whose
sobriquet "The Poison Dwarfs" was earned on the streets of
Minden shortly before they were disbanded . On his return to Oman he was
isolated by his father in the palace in Salalah and apparently had little
influence or importance. |
 |
|
On the 23rd July 1970 Qaboos with help almost entirely from British officers and at the
instigation of Her Majesty's Government, was complicit in the overthrow
of his father. It was an almost bloodless coup.The violent
assault on Said bin Taimur resulted in gunshot wounds to himself
and others before Qaboos gained control of the country. |
|
Qaboos ruled in a more enlightened manner than that of his
father. He appeared to be sympathetic to the needs and
expectations of his fellow countrymen and anxious to develope
the country. This may have been partly a pragmatic approach as
his people that revenue from oil could buy an improvement in
their lives which was most attractive. Oil was just beginning
to flow. |
|
The confounding factor was the ever increasing presence of
PFLOAG in the south who, by this time, were well established on
the jebel overlooking Salalah. Indeed they were able to come
onto the plain at night , fire RCLs and mortars at the RAF
airfield near Salalah, and return to the jebel before dawn. SAF
appeared to be limited in their effectiveness to prevent these
actions. |
| RAF Salalah had been in existence since WWII and
was administered by the RAF as part of an agreement for the use of the
Masirah airfield as a staging post. In 1972 the CO of RAF Salalah was an RAF Squadron
Leader - Gerry Honey- and there were a number of RAF officers there plus
a large number of SOAF ( Sultan of Oman's Airforce) seconded and
contract officers. There were also a number of smaller units such as the
RAMC FST, Royal Artillery (Cracker Battery) Royal Engineers,
Signallers, RAF Regiment and a few "snowdrops". Maintenance of the SOAF
aircraft was effected by AirWorks. |
| The BATT (British Army Training Team) was an SAS unit
that had it's headquarters at Umm al Guarriff a few miles to the
NE of RAF Salalah. The primary purpose of the FST was to be in support
of the BATT. Various other specialists were also attached to BATT such
as the veterinary officers |
|
The Sultan had a small army of four regiments officered mainly
by British contract or seconded officers.
In the spring of 1972 the Sultan’s forces were quite limited in
what they could do and where they could venture without vigorous
interference from the dissidents. There were a
number of SAF and BATT bases on the jebel which were helicopter supplied and
came under regular attack. The plain surrounding Salalah was a
dangerous place both by day and at night; ambushes occurred and
the tracks were mined. RAF Salalah itself was subject to attack
by RCL and other means. The situation became even more serious
as the monsoon degraded the capabilities of all types of
aircraft. The dissidents, less liable to attack from the air, were
able to move with greater freedom in the mists and their camel trains
bringing supplies from the south were only subject to minor
interdiction. |
|
In an attempt to tip the balance the dissidents determined to attack and
capture and temporarily occupy a small fishing village, Mirbat, on the coast to the north east of Salalah.
They assembled a force about two hundred strong and on the morning of
the 19th of July attacked.
There are many accounts of this engagement which was one of the
most significant events in the war. In the event they all but
overwhelmed the BATT defenders and would have done so had they
not been driven off by the SOAF Strikemasters.The medical details of those
wounded in the battle are recorded in the "Clinical" section of
this website. |
|
The underlying strategy in the war was to win over the
inhabitants on the jebel - the jebalis - village by village
until the whole of the jebel from the border with PDRY was under
the influence of the central government. SAF with BATT
manipulating the firqats took possession of areas of the jebel one by one. RE drilled
boreholes, trading and medical centres were set up. Schools were
set up. Veterinary help was given and aid was provided to
encourage agriculture. Security was largely provided by local
firqats supervised initially by BATT. Once one area was made
safe and shown to be safe for further civil development the
process was repeated in the next group of villages or a tribal
area until the whole of the jebel was returned to government
hands. The improvement in local conditions, dependent on the government, gave the jebalis little inclination to provide an
infrastructure supporting the dissidents. The government had
demonstrably improved the quality of life for the jebalis where
the dissidents had brutalised them. |
|
The strategy was successful and by 1975 the whole of the jebel
was declared to be free of the enemy and "safe for civil
development". |
| |
| And what has happened since 1975 ? |
| In 1970
Oman had 10kms of hard topped road, one hospital, few schools
and few opportunities for women. |
| The conditions that obtained then
have changed out of all recognition and a visit by the
webmaster in December 2010 shows the jebel to have
extensive hardtop roads, electricity and sufficient
borehole water for the inhabitants and flocks. |
| The United Nations Index comments that "Oman is the most
improved nation in the last 40 years" |
| Oman is an absolute monarchy and Sultan Qaboos, head of both
state and government, rules by Royal Decree. A consultative
council, the Majlis Al Sura was created in the early 90s whose
83 members, locally elected, gain office once approved
by the cabinet and finally selected by the sultan. They
have no legislative powers but serve to channel local
opinion to the upper layers of government. Political
parties are not allowed in Oman. |
| 4/03/11 |
| Recent announcements would suggest that in the wake of current
unrest there may be moves being implemented which give the
council legislative powers in a move towards a form of
democratisation. However "If it ain't broke don't fix it" |
| 08/01/2015 |
Newspaper reports have suggested that Sultan Qaboos, who is reported to
have been on his estate in Germany for many months, is undergoing
treatment for an unspecified malignancy which has been speculated to be
cancer of the colon.
He did make an appeance on Omani television and was said to have looked
most unwell. |
| 07/04/2015 |
Sultan Qaboos returned from Germany a few days ago. It was reported in
the Times of Oman that his return would boost the economy.
|
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| 30th October 2017 |
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| The sultan attended the ROP parade in Seeb on
National Day. |
