Popular Front for Liberation of Oman (PFLO)

This file concerns the activities of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman (PFLO) in the closing stages of the Dhofar conflict in Oman. It contains correspondence relating to:

• A copy of the PFLO magazine 9 June; containing articles on the conflict, schools in rebel-held areas, and women’s emancipation; expressions of solidarity to and from North Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Fatah, Bahrain National Liberation Front, and other groups; photographs of troops; revolutionary poetry; and various other items (in Arabic)
• Reports from HM Embassy in Algiers, reporting the visit of a PFLO leader to Algeria; the ransacking of the Omani Embassy in Algiers; and attempts to establish French-language publicity for the Omani Government
• International media coverage on the conflict, including an interview in Le Monde with a captured Iranian helicopter pilot [Parviz Ali Ashrafian] alleging Omani and British use of torture (in French)
• Pro-rebel media coverage from the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) and elsewhere; including statements by PFLO spokespeople claiming to have inflicted losses on the British and Iranian troops in Dhofar, captured important documents and vowing to continue the fight; and allegations that mercenaries for the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF) are being recruited in Australia, Canada and Rhodesia
• An October 1975 report by the FCO’s Information Research Department (IRD) on the PFLO and subversion in the Gulf; containing a brief history of the rebel movement in Dhofar; assessments of the strength, ideology, and objectives of the movement; its activities in the Gulf; links with foreign groups and powers, principally the Soviet Union; and the outlook for the end of the conflict
• A report from South Yemen that government employees are now subject to a ‘war tax’ to raise funds for the PFLO
• Reports from the Oman Intelligence Service (OIS) on PFLO movements and weapons received from the USSR
• A Soviet broadcast on Radio Peace and Progress criticising China for its position on Oman and the Gulf
• Reports that the PLFO, with possible Palestinian support, are planning to kidnap or assassinate Captain A Bodger of Gulf Air
• Reports of possible PFLO attacks on British Airways (BA) aircraft
• Reports of PFLO delegations visiting Iraq, Syria, Libya, Algeria, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union
• Reports of a meeting between the PFLO and Iranian revolutionary groups
• Reports of the capture and sentencing of PFLO members in Rostaq and Dubai who had been planning to spread the insurgency to northern Oman; with an article by Fred Halliday in Morning Star containing photographs of those sentenced to death
• Reports passed on by France that Iraq and Iran are arranging a meeting of Gulf States to discuss the security of oil shipments, and that Iraq is pressuring South Yemen to end its support for the Dhofar rebellion