Yemen pro & anti regime protests leave 12 injured

As police fire shots in air to disperse crowds

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Yemeni protesters call for the release of political prisoners

SANAA (AFP)

At least 12 people were injured and police fired warning shots during fierce clashes in Yemen's capital between anti-government protesters and regime loyalists on Thursday, an AFP reporter said.

Some 2,000 protesters, mostly students, had just left Sanaa University headed for the central Tahrir Square when they ran into regime supporters and clashes broke out for the fifth straight day, the reporter said.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh's loyalists were gathered and waiting near the university since early in the day and attacked the protesters with batons and stones, said the reporter.

The protesters, chanting "The people want to overthrow the regime," responded by hurling stones. Police intervened with warning shots to separate the rival demonstrators.

Hundreds of Yemen government loyalists wielding batons and daggers chased off a small group of protesters trying to kick off a seventh day of rallies on Thursday to demand their president end his 32-year rule.

Police lost control of the crowd of government loyalists trying to attack around 100 anti-government protesters meeting at Sanaa University. But as the demonstrators fled, police were able to prevent loyalists from chasing them down sidestreets.

"The people want the fall of the president, the people want the fall of the regime," protesters shouted as they retreated from the university campus. But they appeared to be trying to regroup, a Reuters reporter said.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh is a U.S. ally against a resurgent al-Qaeda wing that has launched attacks on foreign and regional targets from Yemen, a failing state that is one of the Arab world's poorest countries.

Yemen, where a third of the population faces chronic hunger and 40 percent live on less than $2 a day, is also struggling to cement a truce with north Shi'ite rebels in the north and stifle an increasingly violent southern separatist movement.

He may prove harder to topple than Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said Khaled Fattah, a Yemen scholar at Scotland's St. Andrews University, contrasting the centralisation of state power in Egypt with the fragmented nature of authority in Yemen.

Unlike Egypt

Yemen lacks Egypt's big urban middle class, with about 70 percent of its 23 million people still living in rural areas.

"The continuity of protests, however, may put pressure on Saleh's government to offer more political concessions to the southern (secessionist) movement. Such concessions might lead to the adoption of a federal system," Fattah added.

Saleh, trying to calm three weeks of protests, has made concessions such as a promise to step down when his term ends in 2013 and a vow not to let his son inherit power.

Since the opposition coalition accepted Saleh's offer of national dialogue a week ago, spontaneous anti-Saleh protests have broken out. But they are smaller than the opposition-led rallies that which at their peak drew tens of thousands.

Recent demonstrations, organized by text messaging and Facebook, rather than any political party, have been countered by pro-government crowds ready to use violence.

One protester was killed in the southern port city of Aden on Wednesday, when police fired to disperse a demonstration, the first confirmed death since the unrest began.

Provincial tours

Saleh, who has been touring Yemeni provinces each day trying to rally support as unrest grows, said on Thursday he would set up a committee to investigate the violence in Aden.

In Sanaa, Saleh loyalists have occupied the capital's main Tahrir Square and have slept there in tents for the past week to deny anti-government protesters access to a symbolic public space similar to the square in Cairo that bears the same name.

But in Taiz, south of Sanaa, anti-government protesters took over a main square several days ago, with their numbers swelling to a few thousand in the evening and thinning out at dawn.

Four dead ahead of Libya a ‘day of anger:’ opponents

Rights group urges against security crackdown

Thursday, 17 February 2011

A protest against Moamer Kadhafi who ruled Libya for 40 years, the longest-serving leader in Africa

TRIPOLI (Agencies)

At least four people were killed in clashes with Libyan security forces, opposition websites and NGOs said on Thursday, as the country faced a nationwide "Day of Anger" called by cyber-activists.

The websites and a Libyan rights group based in London said the clashes with demonstrators opposed to the regime of Libya's leader Moamer Kadhafi took place on Wednesday in the eastern town of al-Baida.

"Internal security forces and militias of the Revolutionary Committees used live ammunition to disperse a peaceful demonstration by the youth of al-Baida," leaving "at least four dead and several injured," according to Libya Watch.

The people want to bring down the regime

People\'s chant

A Geneva-based rights group, Human Rights Solidarity, citing witnesses, said that snipers on rooftops had killed as many as 13 protesters and wounded dozens of others.

Videos circulating on the Internet showed dozens of young Libyans apparently gathered on Wednesday night in al-Baida chanting, "The people want to bring down the regime," and a building which had been set on fire.

Thursday’s protest a test

The scale of Thursday's protests will be a test for Kadhafi, 68, who has been in power since 1969, but whose counterparts in neighboring Egypt and Tunisia have been toppled in uprisings over the past month.

One Facebook group urging the Day of Anger, which had 4,400 members on Monday, had seen that number more than double to 9,600 by Wednesday following clashes in Benghazi, Libya's second largest city.

Quryna newspaper said security forces and demonstrators clashed late on Tuesday in Benghazi, also eastern Libya, in what it branded the work of "saboteurs" among a small group of protesters.

The director of the city's al-Jala hospital, Abdelkarim Gubeaili, told AFP that 38 people were treated for light injuries.

Security forces intervened to halt a confrontation between Kadhafi supporters and the demonstrators, said the paper which is close to Colonel Kadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam.

West calls for restraint

Countries across the region have the same kind of challenge in terms of the demographics, the aspirations of their people, the need for reform

State Department Philip Crowley

Both Britain and the European Union called for restraint by the authorities in Libya, whose relations with the West have improved sharply over the past decade after years of virtual pariah status.

The European Union urged Libya to allow "free expression," while Britain underlined "the right of peaceful assembly."

The United States said it encouraged Libya, like countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, to take steps to meet the hopes and needs of their people.

"Countries across the region have the same kind of challenge in terms of the demographics, the aspirations of their people, the need for reform," State Department Philip Crowley told reporters.

"And we encourage these countries to take specific actions that address the aspirations and the needs and hopes of their people," he added.

In the aftermath of the Benghazi protests, activists were rounded up in the opposition stronghold on Wednesday, according to an informed Libyan source, who declined to be named.

Amid the rivalry on the streets, pro-Kadhafi demonstrations were held in the capital late on Wednesday, on the eve of the Day of Anger called to mark the deaths of 14 protesters in an Islamist rally in Benghazi in 2006.

Also on the eve, text messages circulated across the Libyan mobile network from "the youth of Libya" warning against crossing "four red lines: Moamer Kadhafi, territorial integrity, Islam and internal security."

"We will confront anyone in any square or avenue of our beloved country," the message read.

The Revolutionary Committees, the backbone of Kadhafi's regime, have warned they would not allow anti-regime protesters to "plunder the achievements of the people and threaten the safety of citizens and the country's stability."

Revolt unlikely in Libya

Libya has been tightly controlled for over 40 years by Kadhafi-- who is now Africa's longest-serving leader -- but the oil exporter has felt the ripples from the overthrow of long-standing leaders in its neighbors Egypt and Tunisia.

Though some Libyans complain about unemployment, inequality and limits on political freedoms, analysts say an Egypt-style revolt is unlikely because the government can use oil revenues to smooth over most social problems.

Late on Wednesday evening, it was impossible to contact witnesses in Benghazi because telephone connections to the city appeared to be out of order.

State media reported there were pro-Kadhafi protests too across the country, with people chanting "We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, our leader!" and "We are a generation built by Muammar and anyone who opposes it will be destroyed!"

Call to join protests

People posting messages on opposition site www.libya-watanona.com, which is based outside Libya, urged Libyans to protest and drew parallels with the uprising this month that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

"From every square in our beloved country, people should all come together in one city and one square to make this regime and its supporters afraid, and force them to run away because they are cowards," said a post from someone called Mustafa.

Kadhafi says Libya does not need to import Western concepts of democracy because it is run on his system -- known as the Third Universal Theory -- under which citizens govern themselves through grassroots institutions called popular committees.

Thursday is the anniversary of clashes on Feb. 17, 2006 in Benghazi when security forces killed several protesters who were attacking the city's Italian consulate.

Rights group Amnesty International voiced concern about a new crackdown. "The Libyan authorities must allow peaceful protests, not try to stifle them with heavy-handed repression," it said in a statement.

Libya accounts for about 2 percent of the world's crude exports. Companies including Shell, BP and Eni have invested billions of dollars in tapping its oil fields, home to the largest proven reserves in Africa.

Bahrain police crackdown kills four & injures others

Police assault neglected presence of children

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Around 10,000 people thronged Pearl Square as a political protest merged with a funeral procession in Bahrain

MANAMA (Agencies)

Riot police stormed through a Manama square in the dark early Thursday firing rubber bullets and tear gas in a harsh crackdown on anti-regime protesters that left four dead, witnesses and opposition said.

Up to 95 protesters were wounded when police launched the operation in the iconic Pearl Square without warning at around 3.00 am (midnight GMT), sending protesters fleeing in panic, they said.

They attacked the square, where hundreds of people were spending the night in tents

Fadel Ahmad, one witness

"They attacked the square, where hundreds of people were spending the night in tents," said one witness, 37-year-old Fadel Ahmad.

At the city's main Salmaniya hospital, medical staff were overwhelmed as ambulances and private cars were still ferrying in the injured more than three hours after the assault began.

Relatives of the victims gathered outside the hospital, angry and weeping.

During the operation, explosions and ambulance sirens could be heard a few hundred metres (yards) from the central square, which had been sealed off. Demonstrators fled pursued by security forces, as a helicopter flew overhead.

By dawn Thursday, police officers were clearing away the tents as acrid clouds of tear gas hung over the square.

Security forces were later in the morning deployed across Manama, with armed police blocking roads leading to the square and setting up checkpoints in other streets, causing heavy traffic congestion.

A surprise crackdown

We yelled, 'We are peaceful! Peaceful!' The women and children were attacked just like the rest of us

Mahmoud Mansouri, a protester

The assault came with little warning. Mahmoud Mansouri, a protester, said police surrounded the camp and then quickly moved in.

"We yelled, 'We are peaceful! Peaceful!' The women and children were attacked just like the rest of us," he said. "They moved in as soon as the media left us. They knew what they're doing."

Dr. Sadek Akikri, 44, said he was tending to sick protesters at a makeshift medical tent in the square when the police stormed in. He said he was tied up and severely beaten, then thrown on a bus with others.

"They were beating me so hard I could no longer see. There was so much blood running from my head," he said. "I was yelling, 'I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor.' But they didn't stop."

He said the police beating him spoke Urdu, the main language of Pakistan. A pillar of the protest demands is to end the Sunni regime's practice of giving citizenship to other Sunnis from around the region to try to offset the demographic strength of Shiites. Many of the new Bahrainis are given security posts.

Akikri said he and others on the bus were left on a highway overpass, but the beatings didn't stop. Eventually, the doctor said he fainted but could hear another police official say in Arabic: "Stop beating him. He's dead. We should just leave him here."

Bahrain's parliament - minus opposition lawmakers who are staging a boycott - met in emergency session. One pro-government member, Jamila Salman, broke into tears.

As the crackdown began, demonstrators in the square described police swarming in through a cloud of eye-stinging tear gas.

"They attacked our tents, beating us with batons," said Jafar Jafar, 17. "The police were lined up at the bridge overhead. They were shooting tear gas from the bridge."

Lost children

Then all of a sudden the square was filled with tear gas clouds. Our women were screaming. ... What kind of ruler does this to his people? There were women and children with us!

Hussein Abbas, Bahraini citizen

Many families were separated in the chaos. An Associated Press photographer saw police rounding up lost children and taking them into vehicles.

Hussein Abbas, 22, was awakened by a missed call on his cell phone from his wife, presumably trying to warn him about reports that police were preparing to move in.

"Then all of a sudden the square was filled with tear gas clouds. Our women were screaming. ... What kind of ruler does this to his people? There were women and children with us!"

ABC News said its correspondent, Miguel Marquez, was caught in the crowd and beaten by men with billy clubs, although he was not badly injured.

Hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said four people were killed early Thursday. Wounded streamed by the dozens into Salmaniya medical center, the main state-run hospital in Manama, with serious gaping wounds, broken bones and respiratory problems from the tear gas.

Outside the medical complex, dozens of protesters chanted: "The regime must go."

Tanks and armored personnel carriers were seen on some streets - the first sign of military involvement in the crisis - and authorities send a text message to cell phones that said: "The Ministry of the Interior warns all citizens and residents not to leave the house due to potential conflict in all areas of Bahrain."

Hours before police moved in, the mood in the makeshift tent city was festive and confident.

People sipped tea, ate donated food and smoked apple- and grape-flavored tobacco from water pipes. The men and women mainly sat separately - the women a sea of black in their traditional dress. Some youths wore the red-and-white Bahraini flag as a cape.

Bahrain defies US call

The security forces evacuated Pearl Square ... after having exhausted all chance of dialogue

General Tarek al-Hassan, interior ministry spokesman

Bahrain's authorities, defying U.S.-led appeals for restraint, said they had no choice.

"The security forces evacuated Pearl Square ... after having exhausted all chance of dialogue," interior ministry spokesman General Tarek al-Hassan said, in a statement from the official news agency BNA.

"Some left the place of their own accord, while others refused to submit to the law, which required an intervention to disperse them," he said.

Thousands of demonstrators inspired by uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, had been occupying the square since Tuesday, after police killed two young Shiite demonstrators during anti-government protests.

The leader of the main Shiite opposition condemned it as a "savage and unjustified attack against a peaceful assembly."

Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), told AFP: "This attack was a mistaken decision which will have catastrophic repercussions on the stability of Bahrain."

The INAA said riot police had opened fire without warning using rubber bullets.

Relatives named two of the dead as Mahmoud Makki Ali, 22, and Ali Mansour Ahmad Khoder, 52, though they did not indicate the circumstances of their deaths.

One of Khoder's relatives said: "We refuse to receive the body until we get a written report on the main reasons behind his death."

An MP from INAA, Ali al-Aswad told AFP that a third protester shot in his chest with a hollow-point bullet died of his wounds, naming him as Hussein Zaid.

He said another protester, 60-year-old Issa Abdul Hassan died after being shot in the head by police, adding that at least 95 people were injured, some seriously.

Aswad also accused the security forces of denying ambulances access to the square to hospitalise injured protesters.

Death toll increases

The latest deaths bring to six the number of demonstrators killed since the protests began on Monday in response to messages posted on Facebook.

Protesters had renamed Pearl Square as Tahrir (Liberation) Square, after the area in Cairo that became the focal point of an uprising that finally toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak last Friday after 18 days of nationwide protests.

On Wednesday, thousands of Bahrainis chanted for a "real constitutional monarchy" after the burial of the second protester.

But the atmosphere had been relaxed as thousands poured into Pearl Square after the funeral. The interior ministry had said it would allow demonstrators to stay in the square, "taking in consideration the feelings" of the people.

Before the latest clashes, the White House said Wednesday it was watching the developments "very closely" and called on Bahrain's rulers to allow peaceful anti-government protests.

Bahrain serves as headquarters for a pillar of American military power, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which commands a rotating flotilla of vessels charged with safeguarding oil shipping lanes in the Gulf and countering Iran.

Protesters' demands

While the protests began as a cry for the country's Sunni monarchy to loosen its grip, the uprising's demands have steadily grown bolder. Many protesters called for the government to provide more jobs and better housing, free all political detainees and abolish the system that offers Bahraini citizenship to Sunnis from around the Middle East.

Increasingly, protesters also chanted slogans to wipe away the entire ruling dynasty that has led Bahrain for more than 200 years and is firmly backed by the Sunni sheiks and monarchs across the Gulf.

Although Bahrain is sandwiched between OPEC heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Qatar, it has limited oil resources and depends heavily on its role as a regional financial hub and playground for Saudis, who can drive over a causeway to enjoy Bahrain's Western-style bars, hotels and beaches.

Social networking websites had been abuzz Wednesday with calls to press ahead with the protests. They were matched by insults from presumed government backers who called the demonstrators traitors and agents of Iran.

The protest movement's next move is unclear, but the island nation has been rocked by street battles as recently as last summer. A wave of arrests of perceived Shiite dissidents touched off weeks of rioting and demonstrations.

Before the attack on the square, protesters had called for major rallies after Friday prayers. The reported deaths, however, could become a fresh rallying point. Thousands of mourners had turned out for the funeral processions of two other people killed in the protests earlier in the week.

After prayers Wednesday evening, a Shiite imam in the square had urged Bahrain's youth not to back down.

"This square is a trust in your hands and so will you whittle away this trust or keep fast?" the imam said. "So be careful and be concerned for your country and remember that the regime will try to rip this country from your hand but if we must leave it in coffins then so be it!"

Across the city, government supporters in a caravan of cars waved national flags and displayed portraits of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

"Come join us!" they yelled into markets and along busy streets. "Show your loyalty."

Thousands of mourners turned out Wednesday for the funeral procession of 31-year-old Fadhel al-Matrook, one of two people killed Monday in the protests. Later, in Pearl Square, his father Salman pleaded with protesters not to give up.

"He is not only my son. He is the son of Bahrain, the son of this nation," he yelled. "His blood shouldn't be wasted."

Monday's bloodshed brought embarrassing rebukes from allies such as Britain and the United States. A statement from Bahrain's Interior Ministry said suspects have been "placed in custody" in connection with the two deaths but gave no further details.

Suez denies Iran asked for warship passage

Last Update: Thu Feb 17, 2011 12:18 pm (KSA) 09:18 am (GMT)

Egypt Suez Canal told Iran warship passing scrapped

Thursday, 17 February 2011

A news agency said Iran’s navy eyed a year-long training mission into the Red Sea & through Egypt’s Suez

Ismailia, EGYPT (Agencies)

Egypt's Suez Canal was informed that plans by two Iranian naval vessels to cross through the strategic waterway heading north to the Mediterranean had been cancelled, an official said on Thursday.

The Suez Canal Authority was "informed today about the cancellation of two scheduled trips of two Iranian warships and no new date was set to cross the Suez as part of the southern convoy coming from the Red Sea," the canal official, who declined to be named, said.

The official, who identified the ships as the Alvand and Kharg, said the vessels were near the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah. Shipping experts had earlier said the ships were the Alvand frigate and Kharg supply ship.

Separately, Egypt's state news agency MENA reported: "The Suez Canal Authority categorically denied the truth of reports that Egypt denied passage to two Iranian warships through the canal."

No Iranian warships ships crossed the Suez Canal today. The Suez Canal does not have any Iranian warship on its waiting list for tomorrow Friday

Ahmed El Manakhly, a member of the canal\\\\\\\'s board

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had said two Iranian warships planned to sail through the canal en route to Syria overnight on Wednesday, describing it as a "provocation".

The northbound ship convoy starts entering the canal from the Red Sea end at 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) daily, the Suez Canal website says. Ships head south from the Mediterranean at other times of the day.

"No Iranian warships ships crossed the Suez Canal today. The Suez Canal does not have any Iranian warship on its waiting list for tomorrow Friday," said Ahmed El Manakhly, a member of the canal's board who is responsible for shipping movement.

Another canal source said 26 ships, including one French warship, had entered in the morning northbound convoy but also said the convoy did not include Iranian warships.

Manakhly said warships of any country needed approval to pass from Egypt's defense and foreign ministries.

Egypt's Suez Canal Authority on Thursday said it has received no request to allow Iranian warships passage to the Mediterranean, after Israel said two vessels were on their way.

"We did not receive any request for the passage of Iranian warships," al-Manakhlytold AFP, adding he had no idea if any such ships were nearing the canal.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israel was tracking them and had alerted "friendly nations in the region" accordingly.

Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper described the two Iranian ships as an MK-5 frigate and a supply vessel, which would not present a significant danger to the Jewish state.

Syria is one of Israel's neighboring adversaries. It has an alliance with Iran which has deepened along with Tehran's isolation from the West over its disputed nuclear program, which the Jewish state sees as an existential threat.

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported on Jan. 26 that Iranian navy cadets were going on a year-long training mission into the Red Sea and through Suez to the Mediterranean.

The Suez Canal is a vital commercial and strategic waterway between Europe and the Middle East and Asia. It is also a major source of revenues for the Egyptian government.

Egypt before elections & Algeria before Feb.

Last Update: Tue Nov 30, 1999 12:00 am (KSA) 09:00 pm (GMT)

Egypt and Algeria vow to lift emergency laws

Thursday, 17 February 2011

Before Egypt’s revolution, undercover security forces can detain opposition supporters without prior warning

CAIRO/ALGIERS (Agencies)

While Egypt's ruling military council intends to lift emergency laws before parliamentary and presidential elections are held, Algeria will lift by the end of February the state of emergency slapped on the country 19 years ago.

"The military council said it guaranteed lifting the emergency law ahead of parliament and then presidential elections," Saleh, the only member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group on the 10-man committee responsible for redrafting the constitution, told Reuters on Wednesday, adding the elections are scheduled within the coming six months.

"The council has put these articles on the table according to people's demands for reform," Saleh said. It was not immediately possible to confirm whether the Military Council had given such a guarantee.

Army leading Egypt

This is not a political committee but a technical legal committee tasked with treating the legal flaws of the constitution

Saleh, member of 10-man committee

Egypt's Higher Military Council took control of the country of 80 million people last week when Mubarak resigned after more than two weeks of massive protests against his 30-year rule.

The army has said it will lift the emergency law when the country returns to stability following some three weeks of tumult. Many public sector employees are striking over pay and conditions and police are returning to Egypt's streets after withdrawing on Jan. 18 amid clashes with protesters.

The army has set up a committee to carry out constitutional amendments before new parliamentary and presidential elections which it hopes will take place within six months.

The military intend to hold a referendum on constitutional reforms within two months. The committee is headed by Tareq al-Bishry, a respected retired judge known for his independence. Other members are jurists, legal experts and lawyers.

The committee held its first meeting on Wednesday to discuss changes to Egypt's constitution after the overthrow of Mubarak, who maintained emergency laws imposed when his predecessor Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981.

The laws are regarded as having stifled political life in the country of 80 million and encouraged the extension of the security apparatus into every aspect of life.

"This is not a political committee but a technical legal committee tasked with treating the legal flaws of the constitution," Saleh said. (Reporting and writing by Marwa Awad; editing by Philippa Fletcher

Algeria

The lifting of the state of emergency will take place before the end of the current month along with the announcement of several measures regarding housing, jobs and administration management

State news agency (APS)

State of emergency was in force in Algeria 19 years ago at the start of a decade-long bloody conflict with Islamist militants.

"The lifting of the state of emergency will take place before the end of the current month along with the announcement of several measures regarding housing, jobs and administration management," the state news agency APS quoted Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia as saying.

The state of emergency was declared in 1992 amid the violence pitting radical Islamists against the military-backed government which claimed at least 150,000 lives over a decade.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika had announced earlier this month he would lift the state of emergency "in the very near future," among a series of new measures long demanded by the opposition. But he did not give a precise date.

Ouyahia's announcement comes ahead of a second protest march set for Saturday in Algiers by the National Coordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD), a coalition of opposition parties, rights groups and unofficial unions.

Domino effect

Emboldened by popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, roughly 2,000 protesters poured into the streets of the capital last weekend in another call by the CNDC, defying a ban on public demonstrations and the state of emergency. Roughly 30,000 riot police were dispatched to stop them.

The United States, Germany and France have all urged Algerian authorities to allow its citizens to demonstrate freely and exercise restraint toward the protesters.

The state "could not be unaware of the events taking place in Arab and Islamic countries," Ouyahia said in his remarks to Bouteflika supporters.

It was "critical to offer adequate solutions to the problems of Algerian youth," he said.

The CNCD wants the immediate end of Bouteflika's regime, citing the same problems of high unemployment, housing and soaring costs that inspired the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

The grievances triggered riots in early January that left five dead and more than 800 injured.

A protest called by the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) in Algiers on January 22 also left many injured as police blocked a march on parliament.

Like their counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt, the protesters have used Facebook and text messages to spread their call for change.

Bouteflika, in power since 1999, has acted to curb price rises and promised political concessions.

They include calling on state-owned broadcasting companies to offer coverage of officially authorised political parties and organisations -- a key demand of the opposition.

But the opposition says these steps are not enough.

The 74-year-old Bouteflika was reelected in 2004 and again in 2009 after revising the constitution to allow for an indefinite number of terms.

Thursday's papers: LE37 billion lost in land deals, Mubarak 'exhausted' but not comatose

Lina Attalah

Thu, 17/02/2011 - 10:35

Construction site in Sharm Elsheikh: an overview of the early work of the lagoon

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Photographed by other

• 1

After almost a week of celebratory headlines--some more sincere than others--Thursday’s papers turn their attention to more pressing matters, mainly involving missing money, illegal land deals and high-profile corruption cases.
State-owned Al-Ahram leads with a headline claiming the “involvement of 28 business men” in unlawful land transactions; a list that includes prominent entrepreneurs such as Mahmoud el-Gammal, Mansour Amer, Magdy Rasikh, Ibrahim el-Banna and Saudi Prince Walid Bin Tallal, among others. According to Al-Ahram, the Ministry of Agriculture had allocated the properties for agricultural development, a deal that the paper claims was dishonored by the businessmen involved, who instead developed their lands for maximum personal profit--and at a loss of LE37 billion to the state. Al-Ahram singles out Bin Tallal for owning 100,000 feddans in Toshka, which he has failed to develop. The incriminating list was compiled by officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and presented to Minister Ayman Abou Hadid for further review.
Al-Ahram’s frontpage features a report in which various Egyptian banks strongly deny any accusations transferring funds belonging to ministers of the former regime to foreign accounts, regardless of any investigations or allegations those ministers might be facing. The decision reportedly is in accordance with a decree issued by the Central Bank of Egypt.
State-owned and independent papers also report that former Minister of Agriculture Aziz Abaza and businessmen Mohamed Mohamed Aboul Enein and Amr Mansy have been banned from travel. The trio has also had their individual assets frozen, as well as those of their respective business, properties, and family members including their “underage children.” This is the latest in a series of similar announcements made by Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud targeting prominent players in the recently toppled regime. Abaza, Aboul Enein, and Mansy will all undergo an investigation, which independent daily Al-Dostour promises will “reveal numerous surprises.”
The frontpage of Al-Dostour arrives with a plea, warning against the “hijacking” of Egypt’s “White Revolution” and calling for an end to all protests in order to “give the ministries a chance” at re-establishing normalcy. Beyond the plea and aforementioned report, the independent daily concerns itself with a “deficiency in the national budget,” which, according to newly instated Minister of Finance Samir Radwan, adds up to LE60.4 billion. Discussing the country’s current financial state, Radwan asserted that, despite the losses resulting from the revolution, the economy was still “capable of handling the burden” of public compensation, which would go towards reconstruction and to families of victims of the uprising.
Also in Al-Dostour is a “confession” by Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayyeb, who claims that the religious institution’s silence was “one of the reasons behind the regime’s corruption.” Al-Tayyeb stated that Al-Azhar’s lack of interference regarding the regime’s dishonesty only emboldened the regime, and that, during the revolution, his only two concerns were for the “safety of the young protesters, and the security of the nation.”
Besides news reports similar to those covered in other papers, Al-Wafd’s frontpage features a piece by editor-in-chief Sayed Abdel Atti who, under the headline “the real battle has yet to start,” writes of the dangers of letting the former regime’s cronies go unpunished. Stating the obvious, Abdel Atti insists that the “point” of the revolution was not to bring down Mubarak, but to put an end to the rampant corruption that characterized his regime. “Where are Safwat el-Sherif, and Zakaria Azmy, and Ali el-Deen Hilal, and Moufid Shehab and Gamal Mubarak and Ahmed Ezz, and all those accused of grand treason?” Abdel Atti asks, before pointing out that surviving members of the toppled regime--if not punished--would no doubt soon be “regrouping, and plotting for revenge.” Abdel Atti ends his editorial by pushing for swift and harsh punishment, writing “without accountability, Egypt will never be reformed.”
Independent daily Al-Shorouk leads with a story on the constitutional review committee, which held its first meeting on Wednesday under the supervision of retired judge Tarek al-Bishry, who had been appointed by armed forces as head of the committee. The meeting, which lasted for four hours, saw attendees discuss possible amendments to articles 76, 77, 88, 93, and 189 of the constitution, as well as the potential annulment of article 179, which revolves around anti-terrorism measures and is seen to be largely responsible for Egypt’s perpetual state of emergency law. Following the meeting, al-Bishry announced his intention to hold similar meetings every day for the next ten days, in order to “achieve the largest number of accomplishments as quickly as possible.”
Al-Shorouk’s frontpage is also rife with speculation on former president Mubarak’s health, in a story titled “Is the time approaching for Mubarak to travel for ‘treatment’?” The paper’s report has “official sources” denying that the ousted president had recently slipped into a coma, but admitting that Mubarak had “passed out on Sunday morning, and then again on Monday.” The same official source states that medical attention was intensified on Tuesday, which probably resulted in the widely relayed rumors of his death. Reports of the former president refusing medication were also discredited by the source, who went on to state: “of course, he’s extremely exhausted--and who wouldn’t be after what he went through?”

Experts fear fresh wave of migration following Tunisia, Egypt uprisings

Valentina Cattane

Wed, 16/02/2011 - 22:47

Photographed by other

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Nearly 100 irregular migrants believed to be Egyptian nationals have arrived in Sicily in two boats in the past three days, the International Organization of Migration reported on Tuesday. Among the immigrants, 36 minors were registered by the authorities.
The new arrivals have raised questions about the relationship between migration and post-revolution unrest in Egypt. The incident recalls the sudden outflow of Tunisian migrants that followed the toppling of former President Zein al-Abidin Ben Ali last month.
Since 7 February, over 5000 Tunisians have reached the Italian coast of Lampedusa Island. On 12 February, the Italian government declared a humanitarian emergency and called on the European Union for support, requesting 100 million Euros to staunch the influx of migration from North Africa.
Tunisia is currently undergoing a transition towards democracy, following one month of widespread popular demonstrations against unemployment, inflation, corruption and oppression.
According to Italian news agency ANSA, Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, after criticizing the EU for its ineffectiveness in stopping the flow of migrants from Tunisia, proposed sending police to Tunisia’s seaports to slow the departure of immigrants.
Tunisian authorities, for their part, promised to cooperate to curb migration, but strenuously rejected any interference in Tunisia’s internal affairs.
In an interview on Italian television, Maroni likened the current situation to a “biblical exodus” of Tunisians attempting to flee “an institutional earthquake, in a country without government or security.” Maroni expressed his concern that a similar scenario could play out in Egypt and Algeria in the near-term future.
“The Tunisians who landed in Lampedusa are mainly young people expelled in the year and half leading up to the revolution, who took advantage of the current situation to enter the country again,” said Gabriele Del Grande, founder of Fortress Europe, a website that documents migration flows. “Some others might be prisoners that escaped during the tumult. In general, however, the flow of migration is likely to diminish in a short time.”
For Katia Scannavini, professor of social sciences at Rome’s Sapienza University and expert in migration issues, the Tunisian example--and most likely the Egyptian one--falls within the context of ongoing economic migration from North Africa to Europe.
“While Maroni declared that the Tunisians were mostly refugees, with some possible infiltrations by terrorists, interviews conducted by humanitarian groups have shown that they are classical examples of so-called economic migrants,” says Scannavini. “They are men in their forties that did not leave the country to save their lives, as refugees do, but rather to look for jobs and better lives for themselves and their families.”
Scannavini told Al-Masry Al-Youm that, far from being political refugees, the migrants were mostly men who had already planned to leave the country with a “migration project,” by which they were allowed to work for a period before returning home.
Both revolutions, in Tunisia and in Egypt, were supported mainly by young people. While, in the past, many of them had aspired to leave their country, however, now many are returning home to their native land to support the respective uprisings. “Therefore, the flow of migrants is likely to be a normal and temporary consequence of the revolutions,” Del Grande, who covered both revolutions in January and February, said.
Some analysts believe that the scope of Tunisian migration following its revolution might spill over to Egypt and create a similar scenario.
“While Tunisia and Egypt are certainly different, if the current situation in Tunisia is generating an influx of irregular migrants, then it is likely that a similar situation in Egypt will have a similar effect, as protracted economic and political crises often force individuals and families to make this difficult and life-threatening choice,” said Agnes Czajka, assistant professor at the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo.
However, Czajka adds: “There’s a long history of irregular migration from and through Tunisia, as well as Egypt, Algeria and Libya.” This history, she said, is expected to continue because of lingering political, economic and environmental issues.
The increase in Egyptian migration to Italy, however, preceded the 25 January revolution. Scannavini recalls that migration from Egypt had already registered an increase before the events that led to the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak, noting that the higher number of underage people coming from Egypt was a noteworthy difference from the migration flow emanating from Tunisia.
According to a 2010 statistical dossier published by Caritas, Europe registers the highest number of immigrants, at about 71.8 million. Southern Italy has always attracted migration flows from Africa, even if illegal arrivals to the southern coasts of Italy decreased by about 90 percent after April 2009, following the closure of the port of Lampedusa Island and an agreement between Italy and Libya.