Wednesday, 23 February 2011

Demonstrations resume in Yemen

Protesters take to the streets of Sanaa for 12th day but Saleh insists he will step down after serving his term.
Last Modified: 22 Feb 2011 14:54 GMT
The protests broke out a day after a teenager was killed in a clash with soldiers in the southern port of Aden [Reuters]

Anti-government protesters in Yemen have resumed demonstrations to try to force Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president, to quit, burning a car belonging to his supporters in the capital Sanaa, reports say.

Tuesday's protests broke out a day after a teenager was killed and four people wounded in a clash with soldiers in the country's southern port of Aden, according to witnesses.

Demonstrators, inspired by revolts in Tunisia and Egypt that have forced long-serving presidents out of power, have been protesting for 12 days against the rule of Saleh, in power since 1978.

But mounting pressure has so far yielded little result as Saleh insists he will only step down after national elections are held in 2013.

He said protesters demanding an end to his rule could not achieve their goal through "anarchy and killing".

He told a news conference on Monday that he had ordered troops not to fire at anti-government protesters, except in self-defence, though medical officials say at least 11 people have been killed in demonstrations.

Saleh's government was already weak before the protests, facing a southern separatist movement and disaffected tribesmen around the country.

He has been quietly co-operating with the US in efforts to battle an al-Qaeda branch that has taken root in Yemen, but his government exercises limited control in the tribal areas beyond Sanaa. The US gives Yemen military aid and training.

Police back off

In Tuesday's protests, police seemed to back off slightly in at least one instance. Officers stood by as demonstrators marched in the eastern town of al-Shiher, chanting "Down, down with Saleh".

Thousands rallied at a university campus while hundreds continued to camp out in a nearby square, just the way protesters in Cairo did during the unrest that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Protesters also set up checkpoints around the Sanaa square and searched those trying to enter.

In Taiz, Yemen's second-largest city, thousands of protesters marched in the Safir square. An activist, Ahmed Ghilan, said hundreds have been camping in the square for more than a week. They have renamed it "Freedom Square".

In the port city of Aden, schools closed, most government employees were not working and many shops were closed as hundreds gathered for another round of protests.

A spokesman for the opposition has rebuffed Saleh's offer of dialogue and an influential group of Muslim religious leaders has called for a national unity government that would lead the country to elections.

As anti-government protesters carried on, Saleh's supporters, armed with daggers and batons, clashed violently with students in Sanaa before police intervened.

Five people were hurt in the confrontation.

Swelling crowd

About 1,000 students had spent a second night camped at a square near Sanaa university, dubbed Al-Huriya (Liberty) Square, where they erected a huge tent on Tuesday.

The crowd swelled to about 4,000 and as the protesters moved from the square close to where Saleh's loyalists are bunkered down, the group attacked them with daggers and batons.

The students, some of whom were also armed with batons, responded.

"Thanks to Saleh, Yemen has remained one. I do not want him to fall," Hussein al-Yassin, a retiree, said as he fastened two red, white and black Yemeni flags on his car.

"Those behind the unrest are southerners being financed from the outside," the retiree said, repeating official views that unidentified outside forces have been behind the unrest.

The stability argument is rejected by unemployed Yemenis.

"Those who support Saleh are the ones who benefit from his rule," Ahmad al-Sharif, a 25-year old unemployed technician, said.

"Even if he is a good man, the corruption that he has allowed by the people around him is inexcusable."

Yemen's average per capita income is only $1,100 per year and the country is excluded altogether from the Global Competiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum.


Source:
Agencies

Jordan's politicians demand limit to king's powers


Tue, 22/02/2011 - 15:43
King Abdullah of Jordan
Photographed by AP

Amman-Jordan's King Abdullah faces unprecedented calls by a mix of Islamists, liberals and traditional supporters for moves toward a constitutional monarchy, Jordanian politicians said on Tuesday.

Emboldened by uprisings across the region, these usually divergent voices are grouping around a broad demand for constitutional changes to limit the extensive executive powers of the Hashemite monarchy.

Sheikh Hammam Said, head of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, said voters should have the right to elect their prime minister, an appointment currently made by the king.

"We are seeking an elected government where people choose their governments," he said, echoing demands to curb the king's sweeping powers to appoint cabinets and dissolve parliament, granted in successive changes to a 1952 constitution.

Mohammad Abu Rumman, political analyst at Jordan University's Center for Strategic Studies, said competing political forces were speaking out for the first time on the topic, although they differed over how to move forward.

"Even traditional groups are now also talking openly about a constitutional monarchy that would pave the way for more mature democracy where power alternates among political parties," he said.

Widespread unrest across the Middle East has encouraged the country's small Twitter community to debate the monarchy's role.

"The current situation is flawed. Power is not with people. It's non checkable by law," Mohanad Al-Arabiat tweeted.

Unlike other anti-government protesters in the Arab world, Jordanian activists have not sought to topple the king, acknowledging that he is a unifying force among competing tribes and a majority of citizens of Palestinian origin.

Even Laith Shubailat, the country's most famous dissident and long-time advocate of a monarchy on the British model, who advised King Abdullah recently to give up most of his powers, cited the "stability of a throne that Jordan needs and without which the country will fall apart."

Aware of the gravity of the protests that rocked the kingdom in recent weeks, the king told lawmakers and top officials gathered at his palace on Sunday that his own attempts at reform had been derailed.

Abdullah has promised to meet long-standing demands to reform an electoral law that marginalizes heavily populated cities that are Palestinian and Islamist strongholds in favor of sparsely populated tribal areas that are the backbone of support for the monarchy.

"When I say reform. I want real and quick reforms ... Many officials wasted opportunities because of the reluctance to move forward and fear of change," the monarch said. "I will not allow that to happen again."

But those changes would do little to address the more recent calls to curb the powers of the throne.

Even modest efforts to modernize a tribally structured society have faced stiff resistance from those who benefit from state jobs and subsidies channeled mainly to native Jordanians, or East Bankers, as opposed to citizens of Palestinian origin.

Politicians say the mukhabarat intelligence service, which has a pervasive influence in public life, has held the king back from reforms on grounds they would hand power to the Islamists, the largest opposition group that draws support from both tribal and urban areas but has strong Palestinian roots.

Analysts say the monarch is torn between appeasing an East Bank establishment that holds a tight grip on power and worried by loss of state benefits, and pushing for wider reforms that would empower Jordanians of Palestinian origin, a majority of the seven million population.

Many Palestinians, pillars of the business community, say they face official discrimination and are mostly excluded from the security forces and underrepresented in political life.

The monarch has so far responded to anti-government protests by appointing a former intelligence general as prime minister in a step seen as dealing a blow to Islamist and liberal hopes for genuine reform.

"The monarch is caught in between. He wants reforms but what are the reforms that can satisfy his tribal power base and also appease Jordanians of Palestinian origin?" said Mohammad Omar, a prominent Jordanian blogger.

Cosmetic changes will not work


Tue, 22/02/2011 - 18:56

On Sunday night, news leaked that a number of well-known political figures, including independents who are not affiliated with any party, would be brought into government as part of a new cabinet shuffle.

According to the leak, Yahya al-Gamal, an eminent constitutional scholar, was nominated for the post of vice prime minister; Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, secretary general of the Wafd party, was nominated as the new minister of tourism; Gouda Abdul Khalek, head of the Economic Committee of the leftist Tagammu party, was nominated as the new minister of social solidarity. The new cabinet would also include technocrats and ex-ministers tied to the former ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).

Al-Gamal was the first to publicly discuss the shuffle (even while the news was still officially unconfirmed), asserting that the new cabinet would be coalition government. This description is an inaccurate, from a technical standpoint, and misleading from a political standpoint.

In democratic countries, coalition governments are formed when no single party can achieve a parliamentary majority. This does not apply to the current situation in Egypt. The NDP gained 97 percent of the seats in the last parliamentary elections in November. Because it did not need to form a coalition government, the NDP-government remained in place until 25 January. At this point, ex-President Hosni Mubarak tasked the current Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq with forming a new NDP government. Given the escalating pressure of the revolution, and the fact that the cabinet change was ineffective, Mubarak was forced to resign and hand power over to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. The latter suspended the constitution and dissolved both the upper and lower houses of the Egyptian parliament.

Shafiq should have resigned after Mubarak stepped down and the NDP collapsed (with some of its prominent members facing trial) and parliament was dissolved. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces should have tasked an independent figure to form a neutral government to manage the country’s affairs until new parliamentary and presidential elections are held. This did not happen.

Making limited changes to a government formed by an ousted president and whose members predominantly belong to a fallen party is particularly puzzling. At best, it also reflects a degree of political panic. At worst, it raises a series of pressing concerns:

1. Shafiq’s government is itself illegitimate, especially because it was not sworn in before the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

2. Adding two or three independent or opposition figures to the cabinet does not make it a coalition government under any circumstances. It remains unclear who is coalescing with who in such a government and who is representing who.

3. The appointment of al-Gamal as vice prime minister, rather than putting him in charge of a particular ministry, is unprecedented. Al-Gamal’s name will be used to give legitimacy to a situation that is “suspicious” at best. I therefore worry that al-Gamal, who is a dear and respected friend, has gotten embroiled in a situation that neither he, nor his friends, will ultimately find acceptable.

When will Egypt’s interim leaders, along with all Egyptians, realize that cosmetic changes will not work under the current circumstances? The disadvantages of this approach far outweigh its advantages. To move forward, things need to done correctly.

Mubarak personally approved selling land in Toshka to Saudi prince


Tue, 22/02/2011 - 19:25
Photographed by Mohamed Mosaad

Sources at the Ministry of Agriculture said the contract for selling 100,000 acres in Toshka to Prince al-Waleed bin Talal was devised by the prince himself and approved by former President Hosni Mubarak after it was reviewed by the Council of Ministers on 12 May 1997.

The contract was then sent to the Ministry of Agriculture to sign in turn. Mahmoud Abu Sdeita, head of the ministry’s Agricultural Development Authority, had reservations about some clauses that were judged to violate state sovereignty. He also said the the contract should be reviewed by the ministries of irrigation, electricity and transport.

Those reservations were submitted to former Agriculture Minister Youssef Wali, who ordered Sdeita to sign the contract, telling him the contract was referred from “a higher authority.”

The sources called on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to review the contract.

The contract gives the right to the prince to dispose of the land in whichever way profitable to him.

Deputy PM: New cabinet includes ministers accused of corruption


Tue, 22/02/2011 - 19:41

Newly-appointed
Deputy Prime Minster Yehia al-Gamal on Tuesday pointed to the presence
of "certain ministers" in Egypt's new caretaker government that had been
accused by the public of corruption.

“I have no personal differences with them,” he said. “But I side with the public in this matter.”

Al-Gamal
also said he had briefed Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq on the issue. “The
prime minister told me that it was up to the Supreme Council of the
Armed Forces to replace these ministers,” al-Gamal said.

He
also ruled out rumors that ousted president Hosni Mubarak was still
running the country from the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh.

“This
is not true,” said al-Gamal, noting that Egypt's attorney-general had
frozen the former president's assets and those of his immediate family.

“Mubarak
is ill and depressed,” he added. “And the prime minister has informed
me that the armed forces council is now in control.”

Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Former Egypt official transferred US$620 million from UK to Switzerland


Tue, 22/02/2011 - 19:54

Mohamed Mahsoub, secretary-general of the popular "Egyptian Front for Reclaiming the People’s Wealth," said the group had documents in its possession proving that certain former Egyptian officials had transferred large amounts of money to foreign banks, where they had also deposited large numbers of gold and platinum ingots.
“We plan to submit these documents to the attorney-general and the prime minister,” Mahsoub said.

He also said that one former Egyptian official had transferred some US$620 million from Barclay's Bank in England to UBS Bank in Switzerland.

He also said that the attorney-general had asked Egypt's foreign ministry to monitor foreign bank accounts belonging to ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his immediate family.

Mahsoub called on Egyptian citizens to send any additional information they might have to the group’s website, www.elgrpw.org.

“We have received calls from several financial institutions informing us of huge money transfers,” he said. “But since we are not a formal institution, we can only pass on this information to the competent authorities.”

Tuesday’s papers: Mubarak’s assets frozen, Qadhafi's actions condemned

Tue, 22/02/2011 - 10:46
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi at closing session of Arab Summit 22nd, Surt, Libya, March 28, 2010.
Photographed by AFP

All major papers headline with the long-awaited news that Egypt’s Attorney General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud has announced his official request to freeze the assets of former President Hosni Mubarak, his wife Suzanne Thabet, his sons Alaa and Gamal, and their wives.

Independent Al-Dostour and Al-Wafd add that Switzerland have announced findings in the “tens of millions of Francs” since they decided to freeze possible assets of his on 11 February.

State-run Al-Ahram reports that the Unlawful Profiteering Committee has also taken additional steps against others accused of high-level corruption. State-run Al-Gomhorriya names former General Secretary of the NDP Safwat al-Sherif as one of those whose assets were frozen in Switzerland.

The escalating situation in Libya brought itself to the fore yesterday with President Muammar Qadhafi’s forces killing 400 protesters with the help of African mercenaries, according to al-Ahram. Inside the paper reports on Saif al-Islam Qadhafi’s maniacal claim that his father's regime will fight the protesters “to the last man.” Reports of ordered air raids and anti aircraft missiles to be used on the protesters had the world gripped in horror at the Libyan despot's retaliatory actions.

Civilians have reportedly taken over a few Libyan cities and are moving toward the capital. Independent Al-Shorouk breaks the news that 750,000 Egyptians are stranded in Beni-Ghazi with no evacuation plan or safety information. Amid mass resignations of Libyan representatives world-wide, the Arab League Libyan representative reportedly said, as quoted by Al-Shorouk, that “Qadhafi is committing genocide.” The paper describes Qadhafi as “the oldest president on earth…collapsing,” while Al-Wafd uses the word “swaying.” Al-Shorouk also posts a news item claiming ten Egyptians were killed in Tobrouk, Libya. The claim was denied by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Reports also came out yesterday regarding the orchestrated theft of land during the reign of former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif. Al-Dostour claims that around LE51 billion pounds was wasted on agricultural land when in 2009 a decision was passed to sell thousands of acres at the 2006 valuation, which was only around 5 percent of its actual value in 2009.

Al-Dostour has opened a file for “those who stole public land under direct orders.” The file includes land “stolen” in other governorates, including 22 million meters square sold to a business man for a mere LE5 per meter.

Much of the land, most of which was located on the Cairo-Alexandria road, was earmarked for agricultural use but was instead used to create desert resorts and residential areas. Al-Ahram and Al-Gomhorriya report that the price per meter was LE3000, while the Sulaymaneya land, which was worth a mere 47 piastres a few years ago, was sold at around LE2000 per meter.

Page three in Al-Ahram posts a lists of NDP figures and their families who have taken land generally seen as undervalued, costing the country around LE3 billion.

Al-Shorouq reports that there is widespread disagreement about the legality of the cabinet chosen yesterday by Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq. The cabinet includes Vice Prime Minister Yahia al-Gamal, and ministers from different political parties. The cabinet still contains majority NDP members. The paper notes that the call for another million-man protest this Friday will focus primarily on a demand for the removal of Ahmed Shafiq’s government.

Meanwhile Al-Wafd refers to the called-for million-man protest today as being independent of the revolution. The paper quotes the 25 January revolution’s so-called Board of Trustees accusing the NDP of calling for today’s protest in order to elevate tension between the people and the military.

The Muslim Brotherhood, previously seen as Egypt’s largest opposition group, has, for the first time, formed a political party called “Freedom and Justice.” Al-Gomhorriya writes that the group's Supreme Leader said that membership in the group’s party will be open to all Egyptians, even if they are not members of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Most papers report also on the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces’s decision to enforce a constitutional amendment setting a presidential term limit of two. Al-Shorouq reports that the Prosecutor Hatem Bagato of the Constitutional Amendment Committee stated that the committee has also decided to reduce presidential terms to less than six years.