Modern Sinbad

Monday, 21 February 2011

Royals seek dialogue as protesters press demands

Protesters gathered in Manama's Pearl Square again on Sunday as Bahrain's ruling royal family sought to open talks with the opposition. Opposition leaders, however, are demanding a "real constitutional monarchy" and the resignation of the government.

AFP - Bahraini protesters camped out in Manama's Pearl Square on Sunday as police held back amid growing pressure on the Sunni Muslim ruling family to open meaningful talks with the Shiite-led opposition.

"The night passed off without any problems," said Tahar, a student who had stayed up all night with dozens of other youngsters to guard the central square, which has been the focal point of the demonstrations that have rocked the small but strategic Gulf kingdom since February 14.

BAHRAIN

Big powers warily eye revolt in the world's smallest Arab nation

"We are frightened that the security forces will launch another surprise attack like they did on Thursday," he said, referring to a nocturnal police raid to clear the square which left four people dead.

Protesters flocked back to the square on Saturday after the army, which had deployed on the streets of the capital following Thursday's raid, was ordered to return to base.

Riot police fired tear gas in an unsuccessful attempt to disperse the demonstrators but then withdrew as Crown Prince Salman, the deputy commander of armed forces, ordered police and troops alike to hold back.

Bahrain's main trade union said it was calling off its general strike from Monday, saying its demand for the right to demonstrate peacefully had been heeded.

"In the light of the army's withdrawal and respect of the right to demonstrate peacefully, the general union for labour syndicates has decided to suspend the general strike and return to work on Monday," the union said.

The heir to the throne has been tasked by his father King Hamad with launching a sweeping dialogue with the opposition.

But emboldened by a wave of uprisings in the Arab world that has swept the strongmen of both Tunisia and Egypt from power, the opposition has raised its stakes, demanding a "real constitutional monarchy" and the resignation of the government.

Prime Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman, an uncle of the king, has held office ever since independence from Britain in 1971 and is widely despised by the opposition.

"The government that was unable to protect its people must quit and those responsible for the massacres must be judged," said Abdel Jalil Khalil Ibrahim, head of the parliamentary bloc of the main Shiite opposition group, the Islamic National Accord Association.

"The opposition does not refuse dialgue but they ask for a platform that is favorable to dialogue."

Bahrain is the base of the US Fifth Fleet and National Security Adviser Tom Donilon spoke with the crown prince on Saturday urging him to respect human rights and launch "meaningful" reform, the White House said.

"As a long-standing partner of Bahrain, the United States believes that the stability of Bahrain depends upon respect for the universal rights of the people of Bahrain, and a process of meaningful reform that is responsive to the aspirations of all Bahrainis," a statement said.

Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, voiced its "absolute rejection" of any foreign meddling in Bahraini affairs, pledging to stand by its tiny neighbour.

Riyadh called on the opposition to heed government calls for dialogue, an appeal that was echoed by the United Arab Emirates.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan urged the Bahraini people to "respond favourably to the appeal for dialogue by the crown prince."

Prince Salman acknowledged the need for reform but called for calm before the launch of dialogue.

"There are clear messages from the Bahraini people... about the need for reforms," he said in a television interview on Saturday.

A large banner erected by the protesters in Pearl Square insisted: "We do not accept dialogue with any of the murderers."

Another read "Khalifa, Go!" in reference to the veteran prime minister.

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said it was vital that the promised dialogue "should begin without delay."

In a telephone call to the crown prince on Saturday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said he had expressed "the UK's deep concern about the situation and strong disapproval of the use of live ammunition against protesters."

Bahrain's unrest has cast doubt on next month's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, with Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone saying it may be moved to a later date in the calendar.

31 dead as suicide blast hits government office in Kunduz

At least 31 people were killed Monday in a suicide attack on an administrative building in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, which has witnessed a sharp increase in violence in recent months.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - A Taliban suicide bomber struck an Afghan government office on Monday, killing 31 people and raising to more than 100 the death toll from a surge in high-profile bomb attacks.

A string of insurgent attacks has targeted civilians and government forces over the last three weeks, just a few months before limited withdrawals of US-led NATO forces are due to start in July.

Monday's attack took place as people queued outside a district office in Imam Sahib in the northern province of Kunduz to collect new identity cards and other paperwork.

Insurgents have made increasing inroads into the north, expanding from their traditional power bases in the south and east, along the Pakistan border, as they pursue a nine-year insurgency against the government and US-led troops.

District governor Mohammad Ayob Haqyar said a suicide attacker detonated his explosives in the waiting area.

"The number of people killed in the suicide blast rose to 31," he said. "Some of the critically wounded also died in hospital. Thirty-nine people are wounded."

Officials locally and in Kabul said that all of the dead were thought to be civilians.

A local man, Mohammad Ismail, described the scene in the hospital where the wounded were being treated as chaotic.

"There are wounded and dead all over the floor in the hospital," he told AFP. "There are bodies with their chopped-off hands or legs next to them in the hospital. It's a disaster... you can hear screams everywhere."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed one of its "hero" members had carried out the attack, which he said targeted an army recruitment centre and killed 30 members of the security forces.

The insurgent militia, which has been fighting the Western-backed government since being toppled from power in the 2001 US-led invasion, routinely deny killing civilians in their attacks.

The attack was condemned as "very evil and anti-Islamic" by President Hamid Karzai, while the United States said it showed "the terrorists' cowardice and complete disregard for human life," a statement from the embassy in Kabul said.

Kunduz has been volatile in recent months. Earlier this month, a suicide bomber killed a district governor and two others after walking into an office ostensibly to hand over a letter.

In the deadliest attack in Afghanistan since last June, four suicide bombers killed 38 people in the east of the country Saturday, apparently targeting police collecting their salaries at a bank in Jalalabad.

On Friday, another nine people died in a car bombing near a district police headquarters in the eastern city of Khost.

The previous week, 19 people including 15 police and an Afghan intelligence agent, died when suicide bombers armed with guns, grenades and car bombs targeted police in Afghanistan's de facto southern capital, Kandahar.

There have also been two attacks in Kabul in recent weeks -- on January 28, when eight people were killed at a supermarket popular with Westerners, and on February 14, when two died at a shopping mall.

The Afghan police and army are due to take responsibility for security from 2014, allowing the bulk of international troops to withdraw.

There are currently around 140,000 international military personnel in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

Afghan officials have also accused NATO troops in recent days of causing mass civilian casualties in operations -- a highly sensitive subject in the fight to win hearts and minds while defeating the Taliban.

On Monday, local officials accused NATO forces of killing a family of six in an air strike, a day after Karzai said 50 innocent people had died in aerial attacks nearby over the course of five days.

Yemeni president refuses to quit amid mounting protests

Yemen's long-serving president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has ruled out stepping down even as opposition lawmakers join thousands of protesters calling for an end to his 32-year rule.

By News Wires (text)

AFP - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978, said on Monday that only defeat at the ballot box will make him quit, as he faced growing calls to step down.

"If they want me to quit, I will only leave through the ballot box," Saleh told a news conference as thousands of protesters, including opposition MPs, gathered outside Sanaa University to demand his departure.

"The opposition are raising the level of their demands, some of which are illicit," the Yemeni leader said.

Saleh, whose long reign makes him one of the Middle East's great survivors, said the protests were "not new," accusing his opponents of having been behind the demonstrations for a while.

The president's comments came as Yemeni police shot dead a protester and wounded four others in the main southern city of Aden on Monday, according to witnesses and medics.

The death of Ali al-Khalaqi took to 12 the toll of those killed in Aden during anti-regime protests since February 16.

At least 76 people, including seven soldiers, have been wounded in Aden since the protests began, according to an AFP tally based on figures supplied by medics and officials.

Pro- and anti-Saleh demonstrators have also clashed violently over the past week in the capital Sanaa.

Meanwhile, Yemeni clerics issued a statement on Monday prohibiting the use of force against protesters, which they described as a "crime," and calling for a ban on arbitary arrest and torture.

Saleh has outlived the Cold War division, civil war and an Al-Qaeda insurgency but is now scrambling to see his term through to the end as sustained popular uprisings in Sanaa and Aden test his grip on power.

Live coverage: Unrest in Libya

Follow FRANCE 24's live coverage of the worst unrest in Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's four decades in power.

By FRANCE 24 (text)

Libyan Unrest

18:46

FRANCE 24:

Al Jazeera reports that the two Lybian Air Force colonels who landed in Malta had been ordered to bombard protesters in Benghazi but decided to desert.

Monday February 21, 2011 18:46 FRANCE 24