Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 24 June 2008.
Kim Howells
Minister of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office
2:30,
24 June 2008
My right hon. Friend will know as well as I do that civil unrest in Yemen is growing. There are grievances throughout the country. Al-Houthi-led rebels in the north have been exploding bombs, and indeed exploded bombs while I was there, although luckily out of my earshot for a change. There is also a great deal of disquiet in the south, even around Aden. As my right hon. Friend will know, people in the south feel that they are not receiving the investment that they should be receiving for their industries and infrastructure.
There is a great feeling of unease. Tourists have been kidnapped, and although they have not been British tourists—thank goodness—I am not sure that I would like to ease that travel advice and then find that as a consequence someone caught up in a bomb outrage had been killed or maimed, or someone had been kidnapped or shot. I am sorry to say that, because Yemen is a very beautiful country which ought to be prospering as a result of tourism.