The Pessoptimist

Hungerstriking Khader Adnan is fast approaching death

2012-02-12T17:14:00.004+01:00

Demonstration in Tel Aviv in front of Red Cross office, 12-2-12 (Active Stills, Oren Ziv)

Both Amnesty International en Human Rights Watch called on Israel last week to either bring charges against him or immediately release Khader Adnan, 33, is - what is unlawful - kept in administrative detention and is in hunger strike since his arrest in December.

As the human rights organisation Addameer stated:

Khader was arrested on 17 December 2011, when Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) raided his home outside Jenin at 3:30 am. Before entering his house, soldiers used the driver that takes Khader’s father to the vegetable market, Mohammad Mustafa, as a human shield by forcing him to knock on the door of the house and call out Khader’s name while blindfolded. A huge force of soldiers then entered the house shouting. Recognizing Khader immediately, they grabbed him violently in front of his two young daughters and ailing mother.

The soldiers blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back using plastic shackles before leading him out of his house and taking him to a military jeep. Khader was then thrown on his back and the soldiers began slapping him in the face and kicking his legs. They kept him lying on his back until they reached Dutan settlement, beating him on the head throughout the 10-minute drive. When they reached the settlement, Khader was pushed aggressively out of the jeep. Because of the blindfold, Khader did not see the wall right in front of him and smashed into it, causing injuries to his face.

Demonstration last week of schoolboys in Ramallah.

Adnan, who is a leader of the Islamic Jihad on the West Bank, started his trike under the motto ´´My dignity is more precious than food´´. Today is his day no 57. Adnan is extremely weak, his health is deteriorating rapidly. He is kept shackled against his bed in an Israeli hospital in Safed. He only takes water and some pills. His hunger strike is the longest ever held by a Palestinian. It brings to mind the case of Bobby Sands of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and 10 of his comrades who in 1981 maintained their strike till the very end. Bobby himself died after 66 days. The strike gave a fresh impulse to the struggle of the IRA

Syria-related clashes in Tripoli continue for third day

2012-02-12T11:12:00.001+01:00

Armed citizens gather in Tripoli. (Photo The Daily Star)

Gun battles in the north city of Tripoli, which killed two people and wounded 17 Saturday, resumed Sunday between the pre-dominantly Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and the mainly Sunni district of Bab al-Tabbaneh in the northern city of Tripoli. The two neighbourhoods, both rather poor, are notorious for the frequent.clashes that have been taking place between them. There were fights in 2008 and 2011, for instance. The present fighting, like the fighting in 2011, is directly related to the tensions in Syria. The Alawites of Jabal Mohsen are supporters of the Assad-regime, while the Sunnis of Bab al-Tabbaneh side with the opposition.
One of the wounded from Saturday’s clashes included a teenage girl who is in critical condition.
The Lebanese Army, which stepped in Friday to stem the violence, saw at least six of its members wounded.
Heavy shooting was heard on Sunday throughout the rival neighborhoods. Security sources told Lebajese newspaper The Daily Star on Saturday that the Lebanese Army had been ordered to arrest on sight anyone carrying weapons.

Malaysia deports Saudi journalist who 'insulted Muhammad'

2012-02-12T10:12:00.000+01:00

Malaysia on Sunday deported the 23 year old Saudi journalist Hamza Kashgari, accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter, in spite of warnings of rights groups that he will be persecuted at home.

Haza Kashgari

Kashgari, a journalist from Jeddah, was detained Thursday upon his arrival in Malaysia. Amnesty International had called Kashgari a "prisoner of conscience" and called for his release.Human Rights Watch had urged Malaysia to allow him to seek asylum. On Sunday he was flown back to Saudi Arabia.

Kashgari wrote on the birthday of the prophet Muhammed:

“On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I shall not pray for you,”
In another tweet he said: “On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.”
And in a third: “On your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no more.”

Two Saudi clerics deemed him an apostate because of this. He then fled the country. Kashgari may face the death penalty.
Shame on the Malaysian (and Saudi) authorities.

Armed resistance and the Syrian dilemmas II

2012-02-11T19:19:00.001+01:00

A Syrian oil train was derailed by an explosion on 15 January 2012. (SANA)

More food for thought on Syria: Many things have been said about the Arab League observer mission, but strangely enough the official report of this mission was not really brought into the open by the League, let alone by Western powers. Below are some excerpts. And from them it is not too difficult to grasp why it was suppressed. The picture that arises from it is rather different from what we were used to read in most accounts by the press.
Divisions within the Arab League about the path to be taken must have been the reason why it was kept somewhere in a drawer - the Saudis who are in favor of taking the toughest possible line against Assad will hardly have been pleased with its content. While others, who were aware that it's not only a question of a regime butchering its subjects but that the situation is more complex, were inclined to seek ways to find a negotiated solution.
The full report is worth reading - it can be found here.

The excerpts are followed by fragments of an interview that the Tunisian blog Nawaat held with a Tunisian former member of the observer force, Ahmed Manaï. He was happy with the Russian- Chinese veto (it spared Syria the sort of Iraq and Libya), but foremost he is extremely critical of the way the Arab League handled the matter.

26. In Homs and Dera‘a, the Mission observed armed groups committing acts of violence against

Government forces, resulting in death and injury among their ranks. In certain situations, Government forces

responded to attacks against their personnel with force. The observers noted that some of the armed groups

were using flares and armour-piercing projectiles.

27. In Homs, Idlib and Hama, the Observer Mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against

Government forces and civilians that resulted in several deaths and injuries. Examples of those acts include the bombing of a civilian bus, killing eight persons and injuring others, including women and children, and the

bombing of a train carrying diesel oil. In another incident in Homs, a police bus was blown up, killing two

police officers. A fuel pipeline and some small bridges were also bombed.

28. The Mission noted that many parties falsely reported that explosions or violence had occurred in
several locations. When the observers went to those locations, they found that those reports were unfounded.
29. The Mission also noted that, according to its teams in the field, the media exaggerated the nature of the
incidents and the number of persons killed in incidents and protests in certain towns.

44. In Homs, a French journalist who worked for the France 2 channel was killed and a Belgian journalist

was injured. The Government and opposition accused each other of being responsible for the incident, and both sides issued statements of condemnation. The Government formed an investigative committee in order to determine the cause of the incident. It should be noted that Mission reports from Homs indicate that the French journalist was killed by opposition mortar shells.

74. In some cities, the Mission sensed the extreme tension, oppression and injustice from which the Syrian

people are suffering. However, the citizens believe the crisis should be resolved peacefully through Arab

mediation alone, without international intervention. Doing so would allow them to live in peace and complete

the reform process and bring about the change they desire. The Mission was informed by the opposition,

particularly in Dar‘a, Homs, Hama and Idlib, that some of its members had taken up arms in response to the

suffering of the Syrian people as a result of the regime’s oppression and tyranny; corruption, which affects all

sectors of society; the use of torture by the security agencies; and human rights violations.

Arab observers in action (EPA).

And here is part of Nawaat's interview:

Nawaat: By continuing to work with the Syrian regime and the divided Syrian opposition, the Arab League seems to believe in a possible ‘political solution’ to the Syrian crisis, in a way President Bashar Al-Assad delegates his powers to Vice President to form, within two months, a government of national unity that would lead the country to free elections.
The Sino-Russian veto blocks the resolution, what kind of pressure you feel is necessary to get Bashar Al Assad on his knees?

AM: The Arab League is entirely discredited by burying the report of its own observers’ mission and its appeal to the Security Council. It missed the opportunity to participate in the settlement of the Syrian affair. All it can offer in the future will be worthless.
Now it’s Russia’s turn to play the lead role but also to the Syrian leadership required to accelerate and implement the reforms.

Nawaat: In your opinion, what is the true weight of the CNS (pro military intervention) and the National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change (against intervention and which is rarely we hear from it in the international media)?

AM: The CNS does not have a good reputation in Syria precisely because it calls for armed intervention. The Syrians have a long tradition of patriotism and a high history of resistance to foreign domination. By cons, abroad, it is a media darling and favorite partner of politicians, who support and finance.
Besides the CNS does not have representatives inside the country and one of its components, the Kurds, has just left it.
It’s different in the case of the Coordination Committee, because its representatives are almost all activists within the country, and have no spokesman abroad, Haytham Manna. It is quite normal that we do not speak of this Committee in the propaganda and disinformation’s Medias that support the intervention.

Nawaat: How do you assess the actions taken by deserters from the Syrian army? Do you have evidence to prove that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) commits acts of barbarism?

AM: The report of on the Arab observers’ mission reported the existence of FSA and other armed groups who attack governmental forces, carry out the abduction of civilians who are released only against payment of ransom, murder, sabotage oil facilities, civil buildings, trains and railways…

Nawaat: Last question: can we be for or against the regime of Bashar Al Assad and the Syrian president himself?

AM: Those who believe that the departure of a president would solve all the problems of the country, are simply idiots. We were unable to learn from the examples of Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen and agree that the aftermath of dictatorship are often harder to manage than the dictatorship itself because oppositions have not yet learned to govern!

Armed resistance and the Syrian dilemmas I

2012-02-11T10:34:00.000+01:00

Checkpoint manned by the Free Syrian Army in the Baba Amro district of Homs, picture taken in December 2011, (Der Spiegel).

Somebody who uses the alias 'Ehsani', writes On Joshua Landis' blog Syria Comment from within Syria about the frightening direction the Syrian opposition has taken by more and more resorting to armed resistance. It is not Ehsani's first contribution on Landis' blog, but this one is the most sobering:

Since Hama, Syrian opposition members have begun increasingly to call to demand weapons and a military response to overpower the regime. For the next 6 months, Syrian streets and neighborhoods became armed enough that the mighty Syrian army had to think twice before entering the developing mini enclaves ruled by the opposition within its cities. Not surprisingly, taking up arms suddenly became the accepted modus operandi of the opposition and the uprising. Those cautioning against such strategies were referred to as ignorant or regime supporters.

Young opposition activists who followed the advice to arm and fight the regime are now being left to fend for themselves against the military Goliath of the Syrian Army. As I wrote following my return from the country, many assured me that the armed forces were yet to use more than 20% of their capacity. As I listened to pronouncements by opposition leaders about the necessity to arm, I could not help but wonder what would happen when Damascus would unleash its full military might. We will now find out.

and:

Sadly, following the double veto at the U.N., many capitals have announced that they are willing to further arm the rebels. This is a travesty. The fact is that no amount of arms in the hands of such untrained rebels will come even close to defeating the Syrian army. This insanity must stop. The Syrian National Council and regional powers must come up with a different strategy if they truly care about the Syrian people who are now dying on the streets and in their homes. Some have argued that had it not been for the veto at the U.N., the Syrian army would not have responded this way over the past 48 hours. This is false. The decision to storm Homs and Zabadani was made before the vote. The central government decided to restore its control

over all its cities before a Syrian Benghazi could be established.

At the beginning of this crisis, I was skeptical that the opposition was as armed as the government media claimed. By the end of Ramadan, I had no doubt that armed elements were indeed committing violence against government forces and others.

Food for thought in some Western capitals?

Free Syrian Army denies responsiblity for explosions in Aleppo

2012-02-10T14:03:00.001+01:00

On of the sites of the blasts in Aleppo.

The Free Syrian Army denies responsibility for two deadly bombings in Syria's second largest city Aleppo, according to a French news channel. Syrian state television says 25 people died in the explosions, which targeted the Military Security Branch and headquarters of law enforcement forces in the city.
It said the death toll, which included civilians and members of the security forces, was based on preliminary information but gave no further details. The number of wounded was said to be 175.
Early in the morning Colonel Arif Hamood of the Free Syrian Army, talking to FRANCE 4 claimed responsibility for the two blasts. However a message posted on the group's Facebook site later on denied they had planted the bombs, which killed at least two dozen people.
"The Free Syrian Army denies any connection or involvement with the bombing in Aleppo," the statement said.
Friday's blasts were the biggest since two suicide bombings in the capital Damascus, one of which killed 44 people in December and the second 26 people in January.

More than 80 people were killed in Syria Thursday, most of them in a new regime blitz on the city of Homs, an attack US President Barack Obama decried as "outrageous bloodshed".

Shelling erupted at daybreak, killing more than 50 civilians in the besieged central city and burning several bodies beyond recognition, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Troops trying to crush opponents of President Bashar al-Assad have killed at least 400 people in a relentless six-day onslaught on Homs, opposition activists say.

"The shells are raining down on us and regime forces are using heavy artillery," said Ali Hazuri, a doctor in the Baba Amr district reached by telephone from BeiruTanks stormed a neighborhood in the flashpoint city near the Lebanese border on Friday morning as soldiers launched a house-to-house sweep of the area, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The tanks entered the neighborhood of Inshaat overnight," the Observatory's Rami Abdulrahman said.
Inshaat is next to the protest hub of Baba Amr in Homs, which has been subjected to a bombardment by regime forces since Saturday that has killed several hundred people, activists say.
Abdel Rahman said that the government forces were in the main streets of Inshaat, while tanks were firing on Baba Amr from a bridge positioned between the two neighborhoods.

Ghetto Israel

2012-02-09T14:20:00.003+01:00

Fencxe along the Israeli-Egyptian border. The project is partly finished, at the end of 2012 the work should be done. Cost: $ 360 million.

Under the title 'Israel overcome by paranoia' the military correspondent of the Israeli newspaper Ynet (Yedioth Ahronot), Alex Fishman, writes about the strange way Israel is fencing itself in:

In the year 2000 we built a smart, electronic fence on our northern border. It made sense; after all, Hezbollah is a dangerous and unpredictable foe.

In the past decade we started to erect the West Bank barrier: A cement wall along with an electronic fence equipped with sensors and cameras. We’re still building it today. This made sense; we must curb the suicide bombers and illegal aliens. In 2005 we also built a sophisticated fence around the Gaza Strip. It monitors the area, fires on its own, and can even sing our national anthem if you want. It made sense; Hamas is also a dangerous foe. After that we also had to curb terrorism and infiltrators from the Sinai. There is no argument that we need a fence. We also need one on the Golan Heights, after Palestinian refugees crossed the border and rushed into Majdal Shams. So we came up with a proud Zionist response – a sophisticated 15-kilomter fence. In a few years, once the fence on the Jordanian border is built, we shall complete our disengagement from the Middle East. Who would believe that once upon a time we spoke about integrating into the region? By now we are a tiny state with a large fence. How did it happen to us?

He himself gives some of the answers to his last question:
''Apparently this is deeply entrenched in our DNA: A persecuted people who seeks cover.'' And 'We are again Diaspora Jews in our own country. There is no wonder that the polls show a religious revival; after all, it is God who shall protect us.'
I'don't agree with all that Fishman says. For example: "Such society, which loses its self-confidence, does not convey deterrence. With all the bombs and advanced aircraft, this is not a society that conveys a sense of strength. The Americans and Iranians can sleep well; this is not a society that will decide to strike in Iran and pay the price.'' is not a text I could easily get out of the keyboard of my laptop.
But the rest: yes. Somewhere on my Dutch blog I once wrote that it is a remarkable experience for someone who descended from a family that once -literally - lived in the ghettoes of both Frankfurt and Venice, to see how the whole of Israel is turning itself into a fortress that in a creepy way ressembles a gigantic contemporary ghetto.

Human Rights Watch sounds alarm over executions in Iraq

2012-02-09T13:13:00.000+01:00

Executions in Iraq are mostly done by hanging. Leaked images of the hanging of Saddam Hussein in 2006 offered a rare view of the procedure.

Human Rights Watch has sounded the alarm about a mounting number of executions in Iraq. Since the beginning of 2012, Iraq has executed at least 65 prisoners, 51 of them in January, and 14 more on February 8, for various offenses, the organisation says.
Human Rights Watch is particularly concerned that Iraqi courts admit as evidence confessions obtained under coercion. The government should disclose the identities, locations, and status of all prisoners on death row, the crimes for which they have been convicted, court records for their being charged, tried, and sentenced, and details of any impending executions, HRW says.
A Justice Ministry official confirmed to HRW on February 8 that authorities had executed 14 prisoners earlier in the day. “You should expect more executions in the coming days and weeks,” the official added.
According to the United Nations, more than 1,200 people are believed to have been sentenced to death in Iraq since 2004. The number of prisoners executed during that period has not been revealed publicly. Iraqi law authorizes the death penalty for close to 50 crimes, including terrorism, kidnapping, and murder, but also including such offenses as damage to public property.

Russian FM obtains promises in Damascus but their effects remain to be seen

2012-02-07T17:51:00.002+01:00

Bashar Assad welcomes Russia's top spy Mikhail Fradkov (m) and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Russia won a promise from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday to bring an end to bloodshed in Syria. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who visited Syria accompanied by Russia's top spy, said Russia now wanted to resolve Syria's crisis in line with an Arab plan Moscow and Beijing vetoed in the U.N. Security Council.

"The president of Syria assured us he was 'completely committed to the task of stopping violence regardless of where it may come from'," Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying after his meeting with Assad. Russia has supported an Arab League peace proposal for Syria floated last November envisaging a withdrawal of troops from cities and towns, release of prisoners, and reforms. It was not clear from Lavrov's remarks whether Russia was now also backing the League's call on Assad to step down.

Lavrov said Assad assured him he was committed to halting bloodshed by both sides and that he was ready to seek dialogue with all political groups in the country. However, the question remains what Assad's promise is worth. Assad made similar promises in the past, which have been brushed off by opposition forces as missing any substance. Opposition activists also said that government forces renewed shelling of the central city of Homs on Tuesdapry just before Lavrov's arrival, killing some 19 people in this city, where according to them over 300 have been killed in the last five days. There were also reports from residents of shelling and fighting on Tuesday between government and rebel forces in Hama, another urban stronghold of anti-Assad sentiment.

The United States shut its embassy and said all staff had left Syria due to worsening security in the country, which has also been hit by suicide bombings in Damascus. Also the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said its members were recalling their ambassadors from Damascus and expelling Syrian envoys from their own capitals.European Union states followed up their denunciation of the veto by preparing a new round of sanctions on Syria, EU diplomats said on Tuesday, with the focus on central bank assets and trade in precious metals, gold and diamonds. Also France, Italy, Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain recalled their ambassadors from Syria. Japan was considering reducing the number of its diplomatic staff in Damascus.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an ex-ally who has turned against Assad, described the U.N. vetoes as "a fiasco for the civilised world" and said Ankara was preparing a new initiative with those who oppose the Syrian government.

U.S. President Barack Obama said that, however hard Western countries are prepared to lean on Assad diplomatically, they still had no intention of using force to topple him, as they did against Muammar Gaddafi in Libya last year."I think it is very important for us to try to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention. And I think that's possible," he told NBC's Today show.

Deplorable Russian veto?

2012-02-07T11:58:00.001+01:00

The reaction of the US (Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice, Obama) to the Russian/Chinese veto in the Security Council of the resolution against Syria was that it was disgusting, shameful, deplorable and a travesty.
Oh was it?
In order to balance the anger a bit, the site Jadaliyya published a complete list of US vetoes over the years. It it includes among other thing, vetoes against the following resolutions:

1972 Condemns Israel for killing hundreds of people in Syria and Lebanon in air raids.
1973 Affirms the rights of the Palestinians and calls on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
1976 Condemns Israel for attacking Lebanese civilians.
1976 Condemns Israel for building settlements in the occupied territories.
1976 Calls for self determination for the Palestinians.
1976 Affirms the rights of the Palestinians.
1978 Urges the permanent members (USA, USSR, UK, France, China) to insure UN decisions on the maintenance of international peace and security.
1978 Criticises the living conditions of the Palestinians.
1978 Condemns the Israeli human rights record in occupied territories.

The whole list is to be found here. Don't be surprised to find that it is much longer. Most concern Israel and the Palestinians, but there are also a few against Apartheid South Africa.

New heavy Syrian bombardments of Homs

2012-02-06T11:31:00.003+01:00

House on fire during bombardment of Homs, 6 February 2012.

Syrian forces bombarded Homs on Monday, killing 50 people in a sustained assault on several districts of the city, the Syrian National Council opposition group said."The tally that we have received from various activists in Homs since the shelling started at six this morning is 50, mostly civilians," the group's Catherine al-Talli told Reuters.
"The regime is acting as if it were immune to international intervention and has a free hand to use violence against the people," she said.
The bombardment came a day after the United States promised harsher sanctions against Damascus in response to Russian and Chinese vetoes of a draft U.N. resolution that would have backed an Arab plan urging Assad to step aside. "This is the most violent bombardment in recent days," said one activist in Syria who was in touch with Homs residents. Another activist said forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were using multiple rocket launchers in the attack. Damascus denies firing on houses and says images of dead bodies on the Internet were staged.

Baba Amro being targeted.

The latest assault, which began shortly after 2 a.m. (7 p.m. ET) on Monday, appeared to be more widely targeted, with explosions in Khalidiya, Baba Amro, Bayada and Bab Dreib neighborhoods, the activists said. "They want to drive the Free Syrian Army out," said Bab Amro resident Hussein Nader by telephone, referring to the rebel force of army deserters and gunmen who have controlled parts of the city for months.
As well as those killed, 150 people had been wounded, he said. "Rockets are falling seconds apart on the same target."
Activists also said Zabadani, a town north-west of Damascus near the Lebanese border which has been largely under the control of Assad's opponents for several weeks, had come under fire on Monday.

Israeli cabinet approves construction of fast rail link between Mediterranean and Red Sea

2012-02-05T21:40:00.002+01:00

Oil import terminal, Eilat.

Israel's government on Sunday gave the green light to building the first rail link between its Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts, offering a new Asia-Europe trade route to compete with the Suez Canal.
"This is a strategic decision," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ministers at the cabinet's weekly meeting.
"In the coming decade, new (economic) powers will arise," a statement from his office quoted him as saying. "It is within our power to create an alternative transport route, bypassing the Suez Canal."
At an initial cabinet meeting on the project last week, Netanyahu said the plan had "created very great interest among the emerging powers, China and India, and others."
Te project also envisages a passenger line through the Negev desert which would for the first time would put Israel's southern Red Sea resort of Eilat a two-hour train ride from Tel Aviv, 350 kilometres away. The electrified rail line will reach top speeds of 300 km per hour, allowing it to complete the trip in two and a half hours. The route will include 63 bridges and five tunnels.Statutory planning of the line has already begun, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2012. Construction is expected to take another four years.
Netanyahu's office said the first stage would be to choose between three alternative financing schemes -- a bilateral agreement "between Israel and another government," a partnership between the Israeli government and local investors, or full government funding.
The transport ministry says its preferred option is a joint project with China. On its website it said that minister Yisrael Katz met China's transport minister in Beijing last September and the two agreed to prepare a joint proposal for the Eilat link.
Israeli officials say a so-called "Med-Red" railway could also be used for future exports of gas to India, and possibly China, from Mediterranean fields currently under development. The two biggest Israeli finds, Tamar and Leviathan, lay respectively about 80 and 130 kilometres (50 and 80 miles) off the northern port city of Haifa.Tamar is believed to hold at least 8.4 trillion cubic feet of gas (238 billion cubic metres), while Leviathan is believed to have reserves of 16 trillion cubic feet (450 billion cubic metres).In June, an Israeli company announced the discovery of two new natural gas fields, Sarah and Mira, around 70 kilometres (45 miles) off the city of Hadera further south along the Mediterranean coast.

Russia and China again veto resolution on Syria in Security Council

2012-02-04T19:53:00.000+01:00

Russia and China have vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protests. The resolution was introduced by Morocco and called for the regime to put an immediate stop to violence against protesters and for-Assad to hand over power to his deputy. The text also called for the formation of a unity government leading to "transparent and free elections," while stressing there will be no foreign military intervention in Syria.

Sergei Lavrov

Thirteen countries on Saturday voted for the resolution. However, Russia and China, repeated their double veto of 5 October.
The move was condemned by Human Rights Watch (HRW). In a statement from Ne York, the rights group said: "Vetoes by Russia and China are not only a slap in the face of the Arab League, they are also a betrayal of the Syrian people.The death toll has more than doubled in the last four months, and the risk is high that the Assad regime will see this double veto as a green light for even more violence."
Susan Rice, the US envoy to the UN, called the double veto "unforgivable". "Since these two members last vetoed the resolution an estimated 3,000 Syrians have been killed, with nearly 250 killed just yesterday,'' she said. Ahead of the vote, President Barack Obama accused the Syrian government of murdering civilians in an "unspeakable assault" in Homs, and demanded that Assad step down. "Assad must halt his campaign of killing and crimes against his own people. He must step aside and allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately."
Sergei Lavrov, Russian foreign minister, had said earlier on Saturday that if a resolution is put to a vote without taking Moscow's opinion into account, it will only lead to "another scandal" at the Security Council. Lavrov said Moscow had objections to what he termed "the imposition of the terms and conditions of the dialogue, which must be started without prejudging the results". He also said that "measures must be taken to influence not only the government ... but also the armed groups, because unless you do it both ways, you are taking sides in a civil war".
Sergei Lavrov will visit Damascus on Tuesday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad, together with the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (Mikhail) Fradkov. The aim is to 'obtain a political solution to the conflict," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov twittered.

Tunisia on Saturday announced it was expelling the Syrian ambassador and revoking recognition of Assad's government. The head of a committee of parliamentarians from Arab states said Arab countries should expel Syrian ambassadors and cut ties.

Lavrov defended his attitude by saying that armed groups were manipulating peacuful protesters and that one was taking sides if nothing was said or done about that. Russia. On Tuesday in Australia, he also said, that Russia did not want to interfere in Syria. It was ''not Russian policy to ask people to step down, regime change is not our profession,'' he told the national broadcaster ABC. ''It is up to the Syrians themselves to decide how to run the country, how to introduce the reforms, what kind reforms, without any outside interference. We're not a friend, we're not an ally of president Assad. We never said that president Assad remaining in power is the solution to the crisis."
I know that it might be somewhat tricky to say, but personally I believe that Russia (and China) had a point, in this situation where Assad has still the backing of large segments among the population (most Alawis, many Christians and many in the cities Damascus and Aleppo). Also the backbone of the army is still on his side and the opposition is far from united in this very fragmented country. However terrible the human rights situation at this moment may be, it is still not an all out civil war. But outside interference at this junction might push it over the threshold. (I'll co me back on this later).

Egypt's spymaster, 'the most powerful man you've never heard of'

2012-02-04T15:30:00.001+01:00

Egypt's spy chief, general Murad Muwafi.

Under Mubarak the boss of the General Intelligence Directorate (or mubakharat = secret service), general Omar Suleiman, used to be the most powerful man in Egypt after the president. With the fall of Mubarak Suleiman's power did not survive, but the mukhabarat did, and much of the power he used to have went over to his successor Murad Muwafi. Magdi Samaan paints a portrait in Foreign Policy of Muwafi as the 'most powerful man that you've never heard of'':

When, for example, the leaders of the military decided itwas time to talk with human rights activists last fall, it was Muwafi whorepresented the SCAF at the meeting. One factor may have been his ampleexperience as Egypt’s chiefmediator between Israel and the Palestinians. And when the SCAF dispatchedemissaries to Washingtonlast year, Muwafi figured in that delegation, too. (He even had his own privateaudiencewith Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.) U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta madea point of including Muwafi among his interlocutors when he visited Egypt in the fall -- right after a sessionof cheesecake and bowling with SCAF supremo Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi. Andperhaps most revealingly of all, it was Muwafi -- rather than Tantawi or theEgyptian foreign minister – to whom Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu turnedwhen a mob stormed the Israeli Embassy in Cairo in September.

And that was no coincidence since the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) itself, one of the most powerful pillars of the old regime, happens to be also one of the strongest factors behind the military of SCAF:

“Events since the fall of Mubarak demonstrate thatSCAF’s plans to control Egyptian society were actually dominated by StateSecurity and the GID, which served as the eyes and the memory of the regime,”wrote political analyst Amin Al-Mahdi in a column last year.Former army officer Ahmed Ezzat, who started a Facebook page that trackedallegations of corruption among Egypt’s military establishment, claims that theGID has used its budget funds to start private companies whose profits benefithigh-ranking officers of the intelligence service. What’s more, says Ezzat, GIDcompanies have no-bid access to government contracts. “The GID is a statewithin the state,” he writes.“There is no professional, financial, or legal oversight of its operations.”

For the article in full, click here

Syrian army stages bloodbath in Homs

2012-02-04T10:02:00.001+01:00

More than 200 people were killed in shelling by Syrian forces in the city of Homs, activists said Saturday. Death tolls cited by activists and opposition groups ranged from 217 to 260, making the Homs attack the deadliest so far in Assad's crackdown on protests which erupted 11 months ago.
Residents said Syrian forces began shelling the Khalidiya neighbourhood at around 8 p.m. (6 p.m. British time) Friday using artillery and mortars. They said at least 36 houses were completely destroyed with families inside. Some activists said the violence was triggered by a wave of army defections in Homs, a stronghold of protests and armed insurgents who Assad has vowed to crush.
"The death toll is now at least 217 people killed in Homs, 138 of them killed in the Khalidiya district," Rami Abdulrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Reuters, citing witnesses.

A Syrian activist said Assad forces bombarded Khalidiya, a key anti-Assad district, to scare other rebel neighbourhoods. "It does not seem that they get it. Even if they kill 10 million of us, the people will not stop until we topple him."
The opposition Syrian National Council said 260 civilians were killed, describing it as "one of the most horrific massacres since the beginning of the uprising in Syria." It added that it believed Assad's forces were preparing for similar attacks around Damascus and in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour.
Another group, the Local Coordination Committees, gave a death toll of over 200. It is not possible to verify activist or state media reports as Syria restricts independent media access.

As news of the violence spread, a crowd of Syrians stormed the Syrian embassy in Cairo in protest, and rallies broke out outside Syrian missions in Britain, Germany and the United States.

(Islamist) opposition wins big in Kuwait

2012-02-03T19:37:00.000+01:00

Checking the boxes. (AFP)

Kuwait's Islamist-led opposition has made significant gains in the Gulf state's fourth parliamentary election in six years. Opposition candidates won 34 of the 50 seats in the National Assembly, with 23 of them going to Sunni Islamists.Liberals won nine seats. Women did not win any. There were four women in the last parliament, but Ayesh al-Rasheed, a journalist and 2009 candidate, felt “women wouldn’t have won the four seats in the last election had they not had government support.”

Friday's results showed Islamist candidates, including ultra-conservative Salafists, winning 14 seats, while independent Islamists representing tribes took nine. Tribal-based candidates took 20 seats overall.Another seven seats went to candidates from the Shia minority community, which generally sides with the Sabah family.

Kuwait's Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, called the snap election amid a crisis over corruption allegations.He said in December that "deteriorating conditions" had led to "difficulties in achieving progress and threatened the country's higher interests". In November, the cabinet resigned shortly before former Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammed al-Sabah was to be asked about the alleged payment of bribes to pro-government MPs. Protesters had stormed the parliament building the previous month when the government tried to prevent Sheikh Nasser facing questions.

Sixty-two percent of Kuwaitis cast their vote on Thursday, this is up slightly from the 2009 election with 58 percent casting ballots. Kuwait’s rulers still retain full control over the country, but the parliament can challenge policies, initiate legislation, and bring no-confidence motions against officials. ”Meaningful constitutional reform is unlikely under the leadership of the current emir.

After the football disaster in Port Said

2012-02-03T11:13:00.000+01:00

Grieving family members of some of the 74 people that were killed in the football stampede in Port Said at the morgue in Cairo. (AP)

Update Saturday: According to the Egyptian ministry of health, the death toll in clashes that broke out on Thursday between thousands of protesters, angry over the Port Said massacre on Wednesday, and police forces has risen to 12 by midday Saturday.
Five protesters were killed in Cairo, and seven in Suez.

A siege in front of the Interior ministry this Friday, fresh demonstrations in Cairo, (where two people were killed, one man by birdshot and an officer who was run over by a military vehicle) and in Suez (where two people were killed by police bullets). A debate in parliament, the resignation of the governor of Port Said - it is clear that the shadow of Wednesday's events in the football stadium in Port Said (74 dead, 400 wounded) still hangs heavily over Egypt's political life.
Many blame the military for the way things went out off hand, as it is yet another blatant show of their incompetence in the management of the country. Others go one step further and fear that it was a deliberate attempt at destabilizing the country by the many remnants of the former regime who are still omnipresent and in powerful functions. It might even have an act of revenge on their part, many think, on the ''ultras'', the hard core of the supporters of the club Ahly, who played an important role during the uprising at Tahrir, particularly in protecting other protesters on 28 January 2011, the 'Battle of the Camels', against the onslaught of thugs of the Mubarak-regime.

One thing that is beyond doubt, is the weakness of Egypt's police forces in dealing with matters like these, particularly after the revolution. Issandr Lamrani (blogger The Arabist) writes in an OpEd in The National:

One of the decisive points of the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak was January 28, when the protesters defeated riot police and several hundred police stations across the country were attacked. This prompted the military to take to the streets, while ministry of interior forces - from traffic police to riot control squads to infamous state security officers - went into hiding. It took a few months for the police to return to the streets, but many still hold a grudge: they feel disrespected and no longer intimidate citizens. Many a police chief prefers to sulk in his office rather than risk confrontation with uncontrollable mobs - particularly when these mobs can be armed with anything from the tasers and small arms that have become popular because of the insecurity, to more heavy firearms in places like Sinai, where Bedouins have received an influx of guns from Libya's civil war.

One effect of what happened in Port Said, however, was that the Muslim Brotherhood took its distance from the military. Only a few days ago members of the Brotherhood stopped demonstrators who demanded the speedy transition to a civilian rule from reaching parliament under the slogan ''The army and the people are one hand''. This week the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party mixed in the chorus of parties that - once again - demanded the military of SCAF to step down.

Muslim Brothers prevent protesters from reaching building of Egyptian parliament

2012-02-01T10:12:00.002+01:00

People march towards the parliament on the Tuesday of Determination (The Daily News Egypt)

The animosity between progressive protesters and the Muslim Brotherhood has been heated up after Muslim Brothers on Tuesday prevented thousands of protesters from reaching the parliament in downtown Cairo. The protesters were holding marches on this so-called “Tuesday of Determination” to demand a speedy transfer of power from the military. Ar least seven marches headed to the parliament building from different spots in Cairo.
However Brotherhood supporters formed a human chain in order to stop the protesters from reaching the parliament and chanted ´The people and the army are one hand´. The demonstrators quickly turned their slogans in anti-Muslim Brotherhood slogans like “Where is the right of the martyr? Whoever sells the right of the martyr is a new National Democratic Party,” (the former ruling party under Mubarak). Or: “Badie sold the revolution,” which referred the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide, Mohammed Badie.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that the clashes resulted in the injury of 43 people. In Suez and Ismailiyya there were also demonstrations that demanded the military hand over power soon to civilian institutions.

Arab League and Western countries pushing peace plan for Syria in Security Council

2012-01-31T12:12:00.000+01:00

Syrian goverment troops seen entering a village at the outskirts of Damascus. (Reuters)

While Syrian government troops continue an offensive to retake areas that fell into the hands of opposition troops in the past weeks, the UN Security Council is going to debate a plan of the Arab League that calls on Assad to relinquish power to his deputy and prepare for elections. Secretary-General of the Arab League Nabil El-Araby and the prime minister of Qatar will make the case at the world body on Tuesday and try to overcome objctions from Russia and China.The Arab delegation will be supported in person by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Foreign Secretary William Hague and French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe as the West presents a united front.
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Meanwhile the violence in Syria continues. On Monday 96 people, including 55 civilians, were killed, mostly in the region Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday. Also 25 soldiers were killed. Included in the 96 people killed were 10 dissident soldiers and six members of the security services. The organisation said in a statement received in Nicosia that 40 civilians were killed in Homs, nine in Syria's southern Dera'a region, five in outlying districts of Damascus (where Syrian govenment troops succeeded in retaking several areas from Free Syria Army-soldiers) and one in northwestern Idlib region. In addition, the bodies of a family of six killed last Thursday were found in the Karm Al-Zeitun neighbourhood of Homs, it said. On Sunday, 80 people were reportedly killed, equally divided between military and civilian deaths, in the most intense clashes of the uprising began, the Observatory reported.
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A draft of the U.N. Security Council resolution, obtained by Reuters, calls for a "political transition" in Syria, and says the Security Council could adopt unspecified "further measures" if Syria does not comply with its terms. It endorses the Arab League power transfer plan.So far Moscow has shown little sign of being persuaded to let it pass. "The current Western draft is only a step away from the October version and can by no means be supported by us," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told Interfax. "This document is not balanced ... and above all leaves the door open for intervention in Syrian (internal) affairs."
Moscow said earlier that Damascus had agreed to its offer to host talks with opposition representatives.However, the Syrian opposition rejected this out off hand. The head of the Syrian National Council said that the opposition rejects all talks with the Damascus regime until Assad steps down. “The resignation of Assad is the condition for any negotiation on the transition to a democratic government in Syria,” Burhan Ghalioun told AFP. The second largest opposition grouping, the Syrian National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, followed suit. “Any negotiation or meeting is inconceivable in the shadow of the growing violence and killings, and the persistent arrests,” its leader Hassan Abdel Azim told AFP.

Syrian army kills 33 in border town

2012-01-29T11:14:00.003+01:00

The New York Times took this picture from an officer of the Free Syrian Army talking to reporters in a house in Rankous on Saturday.

Syrian government forces have killed at least 33 people in Rankous, a mountain town of 25,000 people, 30 kms north of Damascus, activists and residents of a nearby town said Sunday. Fighting has been going on since Wednesday in Rankous, when it was besieged by several thousand troops led by the elite Fourth Division, under the command of President Bashar al-Assad's brother Maher.But the worst apparently happened after the Arab League suspended its monitoring mission on Saturday. The New York Times reported from Rankous that day that hours after the observers left on Saturday morning, tanks appeared on the outskirts of town.
A resident of the nearby town of Sednaya said the 33 were killed since Wednesday. "We have managed to get through to people there who say the bombardment has brought down at least 10 buildings," he said, adding that tens of soldiers have defected and went in to help defend the town. "A tented army camp has been set up near the entrance of Rankous. Most of the town's residents have fled to nearby villages," he added.

It was the second major attack on Rankous since November when it was stormed by troops after a demonstration demanding Assad's removal was broadcast on the Arab news channel al-Jazeera, activists said.

Russia blocks resolution on Syria in Security Council

2012-01-28T11:30:00.000+01:00

Pro government demonstration on Thursday 26 January 2012 in Damascus with huge posters of Bashar al-Assad.(AFP)

Russia has blocked a joint Western-Gulf Arab draft UN Security Council resolution on Friday, supporting the Arab League plan of last weekend, which demanded that President Bashar al-Assad hand over powers to a deputy so that new elections can be held. The draft, which was presented by Morocco had been drawn up by Britain, France and Germany with Arab states. The text demanded an immediate end to the government violence and "encouraged" all states to follow sanctions imposed by the Arab League against Syria in November, but contains no mandatory action.
Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN ambassador, said the Europe-Arab draft resolution was unacceptable in parts, but his country was ready to "engage" on it. Churkin was critical of the Arab League, accusing it of seeking to "impose" a solution on Assad before talks had started between the government and opposition groups. "Syria will not be Libya," he declared.
Days of tough talks loom before any vote is held. No action is likely before Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby and Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani brief the council on Tuesday.
Meanwhile the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights updated its death toll to 62 on Friday. Activists said Syrian forces raided the city of Homs, while a car bomb exploded at an army checkpoint in the northwestern town of Idlib.The Homs raid began in the Karm Al-Zeitoun neighbourhood, with the UK-based Observatory reporting 33 people killed.The Local Coordination Committees (LCC), which organize protests on the ground, said that by Friday regime forces had pounded the Bab Seba neighbourhood with heavy artillery and rocket fire. Fighting was also heard in Baba Amro district.
The Observatory said another flashpoint central city, Hama, also came under assault on Friday, with intense firing from heavy machineguns and loud explosions heard. In the outskirts of Damascus, an 11-year-old boy was killed at a checkpoint in Hamuriyeh, the Observatory said, and in Aleppo, the country's second-biggest city, two civilians were killed when security forces "fired indiscriminately."
And a car bomb hit a security checkpoint at the entrance to Idlib, the Observatory said, killing and wounding an unknown number of security people.
The attack comes less than a week after a roadside bomb killed 11 detainees being transported in a Syrian prison truck in Idlib province.
In a further development, armed Syrian rebels claimed on Thursday they captured five Iranians they accuse of being military officers working with the regime.The Free Syrian Army broadcast a YouTube video showing five men holding up what appeared to be Iranian passports.Iran denied the captured Iranians were military officers, but were rather pilgrims en route to the Syrian capital.

Update: The Arab League has suspended its monitoring mission in Syria due to what it called the escalation of violence and "critical deterioration of the situation" in the country.Nabil Elaraby, the secretary-general of the Arab League, announced the decision in a statement on Saturday. "It has been decided to immediately stop the work of the Arab League's mission to Syria pending presentation of the issue to the league's council," he said. The bloc said around 100 observers would remain in the country but would not undertake new missions. Activists in Syria say that at least 80 people have been killed in the past three days across the country.

Huge crowds on anniverary of ´25 January´ testify that Eypt´s revolution is not over yet

2012-01-26T15:22:00.002+01:00

Tahrir Square at sunset yesterday, 25 January 2012.

Hundreds of thousands streamed towards Tahrir Square in Cairo yesterday on the first anniversary of the beginning of the Egyptian revolution. The square was completely packed, surrounding places like Talaat Harb square or the Qasr el- Nil bridge were as well. Al-Ahram Online reported that some people thought that the day saw a bigger turnout than on 11 February of last year – the day that president Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
Like on 25 January 2011 marches to the square were held from places like Mostafa Mahmoud Mosque, Cairo’s Ramses, Ghamra, Shubra and Giza districts and even farther away, like Ma'adi. Again according to Al-Ahram Online it is believed that from these marches alone some 300,000 people entered Tahrir, where also the Moslem Brotherhood with its Freedom and Justice Party which has become the dominant force in the parliament, was very much present. Also there were large crowds in Alexandria and other places like Suez.
From the reports it was clear that this anniversary was not solely a celebration, but also a reminder that the people that made the revolution are determined to continue Egypt's path to freedom and democracy. There were many slogans from the more leftist groups demanding the military to step down. The Freedom and Justice Party supporters though, by their huge presence, rather expressed their confidence that they are the biggest fraction in parliament now and that the military will keep their promise and withdraw from power in June.
Not everybody is even assured of the trustworthiness of SCAF. The April 6 youth movement and the National Front for Justice and Democracy, for their part, started an open-ended sit-in in Tahrir Square.

Gulf states follow example S-Arabia and pull observers out of Syria

2012-01-24T11:59:00.001+01:00

Saudi Arabia's Gulf allies joined it on Tuesday in pulling out of an Arab League monitoring team to Syria, further damaging the credibility of the League mission.
The Arab League demanded on Sunday that Assad step down in favor of a unity government to end the bloodshed, but said Arab observers should stay in Syria for another month.
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said at the time his country was quitting the mission because Syria had not implemented an earlier Arab peace plan. He urged Muslim states as well as Russia, China, Europe and the United States, to exert "all possible pressure" on Syria to ensure its compliance.
"The GCC states have decided to respond to the decision of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to withdraw its monitors from the Arab League delegation to Syria," the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council said in a statement.
It said the GCC was "certain the bloodshed and killing of innocents would continue, and that the Syrian regime would not abide by the Arab League's resolutions."

Syria rejects new plan Arab League

2012-01-23T10:30:00.000+01:00

Syrians demonstrated outside the Arab League headquarters on Sunday (AFP)

Syria's state-run news agency says Damascus rejects a new Arab League plan aiming to end the country's 10-month crisis.The agency quotes an unnamed official as saying Syria considers the plan "a violation of its sovereignty and flagrant interference in its internal affairs."

Monday's announcement came a day after Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani told reporters after an Arab Foreign Ministers meeting in Cairo that the Arab League was launching a new initiative to solve the crisis.

The new initiative calls on the Syrian government and the opposition to form a unity government within two weeks to lead to the country through a transitional period in which elections would be held and a new constitution written.

The new plan was to go hand in hand with an extension by a month of an observer mission that originally aimed at overseeing a peace plan agreed by the Syrian government in November. Saudi Arabia, however, pulled out its observers because it said the regime was not honouring the accord.

The new plan was also rejected by an opposition group, the Local Coordination Committees (LCC). The group, which organises anti-regime protests, said in a statement received in Nicosia that the plan was "unattainable" and would allow President Bashar al-Assad's regime more time to pursue its bloody crackdown."The Syrian people have lost confidence in the Arab League's ability to stop the regime’s ongoing bloodshed," the LCC said. "It is clear that the regime has been pulling the country towards chaos and destruction while the Arab League remains stagnant."The LCC said 795 people were killed in the first month of the mission, "making it a failure in accomplishing all of its initiatives."

The League on Sunday asked the UN to support the new plan that sees Assad transferring power to his deputy and a government of national unity within two weeks.

Egyptian brotherhood gets 47%

2012-01-21T18:54:00.002+01:00

Egyptian Islamists have won more than two-thirds of parliamentary seats, almost half only for the Muslim Brotherhood, according to official results of the first election since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.

Katatny

The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), from the Muslim Brotherhood, is carving out the lion's share with 235 seats out of 498 in the race, approximately 47% during the elections held in phases since November 28. The Salafist fundamentalist party Al-Nour came in second with 121 seats (24%).
The Liberal Wafd got about 9% of the seats. The Egyptian Bloc, a secular coalition of liberal parties, gets 7% of MPs in this election.
Ten additional seats in Parliament, not elected, remain to be filled by the head of the Military Council that ruled the country, Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
The FJPJ has already announced it has chosen its secretary general, Saad al-Katatni, to chair the People's Assembly (Chamber of Deputies), following an agreement with other parties.
The first session of the People's Assembly to be held Monday in the presence of Marshal Tantawi.

The election of senators (The Shura Council) for its part should begin on January 29 and ends in late February. The future Parliament will be responsible for appointing a commission to draft a new constitution. The election of a presidet is expected before the end of June, with the opening of nominations on April 15.

Egyptian marshall Tantawi: videos of military attacks were falsified

2012-01-21T12:24:00.003+01:00

Jimmy Carter at a meeting during his trip with Muhammad Mursi, the lader of the Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Former USA President Jimmy Carter wrote a report about his recent visit to Egypte (8-14 January) during the elections that were overseen by, among others, people from his Carter Center. He met with several important figures and made some interesting observations. Below a quotation of some remarks that seems to be quite revealing about the mentality and thinking of Egypt's military leaders:

''Since the overthrow of King Farouk in 1953, Egypt has been governed by military leaders, who have accumulated and maintained full political and military power and substantial control over economic and commercial affairs. Despite the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, the military has retained an overwhelming portion of its historic authority. Only pressure from the revolutionary forces on the streets has resulted in grudging concessions.

I was received with a friendly welcome as I congratulated the military leaders for what seemed to be a successful election, and then asked a number of questions. It seemed that the SCAF had full confidence that there would be accommodation to their demands by the Muslim Brotherhood and their coalition partners as the new government is formed. Instead of the reported 12,000 mostly political prisoners being held for trials in military courts, the Field Marshal stated that there were no more than 3,000, all of whom were guilty of criminal acts and being tried in civilian courts. He stated that the widely promulgated videos showing military attacks on demonstrators and a woman "with the blue brassiere" were all falsified. (My emphasis, AbuP)He said the soldiers were actually helping the woman re-clothe herself with what was provocative attire. I was assured that the emergency law would be lifted before the presidential election, no later than June.
The military leaders could not imagine any constitutional issues being unresolved through dialogue. Full civilian control of the government was envisioned by June, but it was my impression that some key elements of historic autonomy and privileges would be retained. (See later comments.) They fully supported all facets of the peace agreement and would continue to be cooperative with Israel. When I asked about the raids on offices of NDI, IRI, and other NGOs, they stated that specific laws had been violated and that action had been taken by the Ministry of Justice as required. They realize that this is a matter of contention with the U.S. and are trying to resolve the issues.''
(click here for Carter's full report)

Netanyahu visits Holland: agreement about regular common meetings of the Dutch and Israeli cabinets

2012-01-19T15:12:00.002+01:00

Netanyahu and Dutch minister of Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal shake hands.

The Dutch government has realized at least one point from the agreement on the basis of which it was installed in 2010 by Liberals and Christian Democrats with the passive support of Geert Wilders' Freedom Party (PVV), the point that stipulated that Holland would strive to 'strenghten the bond with Israel'.
The wish became reality with the visit on 18 ad 19 January, at the invitation of the Dutch government, of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. It was the first visit by an Israeli PM in 15 years. Netanyahu met his colleague, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, and the ministers Uri Rosenthal (Foreign Affairs) and Maxime Verhagen (Trade). He was also received by Queen Beatrix.
As one of the most concrete results of the visit it was announced that Israel and the Netherlands will from now on hold yearly joint meetings of the Dutch and Israeli cabinets. The Netherlands joined the club in this respect: Israel already has similar agreements with Germany, Poland and Italy (countries that like Holland regularly vote against common EU-positions when they tend to be somewhat critical towards Israel, AbuP.)
With Trade minister Verhagen it was agreed that a trade mission will soon visit Israel to increase mutual trade. Holland and Israel are important trade partners. Holland exported goods worth about 1 billion euros to Israel last year (mainly trucks and electrical appliances) and imported for 2.1 billion (mainly medicine, computers and fruit). The Netherlands is Israel's second most important export destination in Europe.

In a speech for the Dutch Jewish community on Wednesday evening in the 17th century Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, Netanyahu stressed that there is much in common between the Dutch and Israeli positions. In fact he made it clear that his visit was partly to thank the Netherlands for the positions it recently took in international fora. "The one issue in which we stand together is in opposing Iran's nuclear ambitions," he said to loud applause. He called Iran's nuclear programme "the greatest threat to Israel, the region and the world and thanked the Dutch government for its 'strong stance on sanctions against Iran'.

A small number of people protested in front of the synagogue.

Other points that Netanyahu and Israeli officials mentioned, were the Dutch vote against the admittance of the Palestine to UNESCO, the rejection of the Goldstone report critical of the 'Cast Lead Operation' in Gaza in 2008-2009, Dutch opposition towards the Palestinian bid to be accepted as a member-state of the UN and the stance that Holland recently took against a common EU position in the UN-Human Rights Council.
So actueally it could be said that Netanyahu came to thank the Dutch for its anti-Palestinian stand. Geert Wilder's party, which had ties with the most radical parties in Israel like Lieberman's Israel Beiteinu and the National Union, can be quite satisfied. The same goes for minister Rosenthal who is by far the most Israel-friendly minister Holland has ever had. Rosenthal last year discarded a tradition of decades during which advocacy for human rights was one of the strongest pillars of Dutch foreign policy by saying that fo him it was not the number one issue, but that safety and stability in the world came first. (Interview in de Volkskrant, Dutch)

Tension between Iraq and Turkey after Erdoğan criticised Al-Maliki

2012-01-17T09:14:00.003+01:00

Tension between Iraq and Turkey mounted on Monday other after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticised the Iraqi government led by Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite bloc a few days earlier.Iraq's deputy foreign minister summoned the Turkish envoy in Baghdad, Yunus Demirer, on Monday to call on Turkey to consider the "necessity of avoiding anything that might disturb" Iraq's good relations with Turkey.

Al-Maliki

Turkey responded by summoning Iraq's envoy to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara. Diplomatic sources said Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu conveyed to the Iraqi ambassador that criticisms by Iraqi prime minister that Turkey is interfering in Iraq’s domestic affairs is “unacceptable,” and that it is absolutely normal that Turkey is closely interested in the stability of its neighbor, state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

The summons came a few days after Maliki slammed Turkey for allegedly interfering in its domestic issues 'as if Iraq was run by Turkey'.Maliki's outburst at Turkey over the weekend targeted Prime Minister Erdoğan's comments last week, when he talked about the what he called “historic responsibility” of the Iraqi government to keep the country together, saying that those who would be responsible for a partition in Iraq would go down in history as devils, regardless of their sectarian or ethnic background.
Erdoğan's warnings followed the issuing of an arrest warrant for Iraq's most senior Sunni politician, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, and a number of similar incidents that tried to push Sunni officials out of office in the coalition government.The Sunni officials, who feel threatened as their houses get blockaded by tanks for what they call politically motivated accusations, also contacted Turkish officials for support in averting a sectarian clash.
Hashemi, who is currently hiding out in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region to dodge the arrest warrant, repeated his claim on Monday in an interview with the Anatolia news agency that the law in Baghdad was controlled by certain forces. “I feel indebted to the prime minister for his comments regarding my cause,” Hashemi said. He also uttered words of gratitude for Erdoğan, who urged Maliki in a phone call to take steps to reduce the tension and make sure his rivalry with other blocs does not turn into a political vendetta.
Turkey stays in touch with Iran and the US about the tensions in Iraq. Erdoğan said at a meeting of his party in early January, that he is concerned that without the buffer of US troops in the country, separate Iraqi blocs will fall under the influence of other regional actors (a reference to Iran and Saudi Arabia) and face partition in the long run.

A façade has crumbled, the Israeli supreme court can no longer pose as defender of justice and democracy

2012-01-16T17:06:00.001+01:00

No more is there reason to defend an institution that issued the shameful rejection of the petition against the amendment to the Citizenship Law. A court that vets this nationalistic and racist amendment, which discriminates against Arab citizens of Israel solely on the basis of their ethnicity, which in the name of security is prepared to deny basic rights and destroy the lives of thousands of Israeli families, which makes false use of security to try to cover up its racism - is an institution that must no longer be defended.

That is what Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy wrote on 15 January about the Israeli Supreme Court, after it had rejected by a 6-5 vote a petition by the human rights organisations Adala and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) to abolish the Citizenship Law. Actually the court did so for the third time. The same happened in 2005 and 2006.
The Citizenship Law prohibits inhabitants of Israel to live together with their spouses from the West Bank (or, for that matter, from 'enemy countries' like Iraq, or Syria). The law was adopted in 2003 after the Second Intifada. It was meant to be temporal, but was prolonged a few times.Thousands of couples - almost all of them Palestinians - suffer from it, among them a particular great number of inhabitants of East Jerusalem. The eastern part of the city was annexed by Israel in 1967, which had as a consequence that its Arab inhabitants came to live inside Israel. Since the city in recent years has become more and more cut off from its hinterland, the thousands of Jerusalemites who married partners from the West Bank are in big trouble. (For more information about the law and the discrimination of Palestinian inhabitants of Israel as far as family (re)unification is concerned, turn to the site of the organisation Miftah, which gives a good overview).

The Citizenship Law is, as the minority of the court indicated, a breach of Israeli constitutional rights. It is also discriminatory, als judge Dorit Beinisch, the outgoing president of the court noted, as it robs almost exclusively Israels Arab population from their right to live together with the partner of their choice. The majority of the court concurred with the view that couples have the right to live together, but nevertheless uphold the law out of 'security considerations'. Or as judge Miriam Naor put it, because 'it was not evident that 'the fulfillment of family life' had to take place specifically in Israel'.


Building of the High Court in Jerusalem.

I wrote about the court's decision on my Dutch blog, but I want to repeat it here, as the decision about the Citizenship Law was the last in a string of events that ought to make it evident for even the most frantic defenders of the court - see what Gideon Levy wrote - that it cannot any longer pretend to safeguard justice and democracy. Just have a look, we go back step by step:
In the first week of January four new members of the court were nominated. Among them was m Noam Sohlberg (50), who is not only a rightist with a disputable record as a judge (for instance he once acquitted a border policeman who killed a fleeing Palestinian by shooting him the back, on the ground that the officer rightly may have believed that his life was in danger), he is also an inhabitant of the settlement Alon Shvut. As such he is the first judge in the court who - according to international law - is committing a criminal act by living on land that is occupied.The court itself, however, was swift in rejecting objections against Sohlberg, brought by the organisation Yesh Gvul, on the ground that nowhere in Israel's Basic Laws is mentioned anything that indicates that the place where a judge is living might disqualify him for his function....

On 5 January the court rejected a petition (again by ACRI and Adalah) against the so called Nakba-Law. The law gives the minister of Finance the authority to withdraw funding from institution sand associations that (among other things)
'commemorate (Israeli) Independence Day or the day of the establishment of the state as
a day of mourning'.
The court admitted that the law raised questions about its constitutionality (i.e. concerning the freedom of speech), but said that the time was not yet ripe for the court to take a decisions, as the meaning of the l,aw depended on its interpretation and it had not yet been applied. ACRI and Adalah commented - rightly so in my opinion - that of course the law had already an effect on the freedom of speech before it ever was implemented, as many institutions would censor themselves in order to avoid putting themselves at risk.

On 28 December 2011 in another strange decision the court ruled that the ten stone quarries on the West Bank which are in Israeli hands and mine stone almost exclusively (94%) for use in Israel, may continue their work. This goes against article 55 of the The Hague Convention, which states that occupying powers shall safeguard the natural resources of an occupied land. But the court gave the rather twisted opinion that the quarries employ Palestinians and also pay taxes to the Palestinian Authority and therefor work in the interest of the PA. (For the full text of the decision click here)

So, four highly disputable decisions in the time of no more than some two weeks.According to some it shows that the supreme court is rather toothless and afraid to go on a confrontational course with the government and the majority in the Knesset. I personally believe that it is in fact even more serious than that, since it is really a structural feature of this court. In the seventies it refused to rule against the settlements and went no further than declare that no settlement could be established on private Palestinian lands, which for a number of reasons (military requisitioning, non-recognition of Palestinian property deeds) was just no more than hollow words. In 2006 the court condoned targeted killings, under the condition that it was only allowed if there were no alternatives and if there were no others nearby who's lives would be put at risk (which in practice remained no less a dead letter). In 1999 the court refused to speak out against the use of 'psychological and physical pressure' during interrogations. These two last decisions put together mean that Israel is the only state in the world where torture and murder are legally permitted.
Finally there were several decisions concerning the building of a 'Separation barrier' (better known as The Wall) deep in Palestinian lands, whereby explicitly also the decision by the International Court of Justice from 2004 was rejected, that the Wall had been built unlawfully on Palestinian land.

Altogether the result is not exactly a picture of a court that is a strong bastion against the erosion of justice and democracy. Rather a court that - gradually - mirrors the changes in the Israeli social and political landscape towards more exclusivist attitudes, and a court that always bends justice to serve the magic word 'security' whenever the authorities throw it on the table. An institution that must no longer be defended, as Gideon Levy wrote. Or, like B.Michael, another columnist wrote after the settler Sohlberg had been appointed a judge in the court: the State of Israel no longer deserves a Supreme Court without Sohlberg. It deserves a court in its own image. Someone "representative," as the MK Zeev Elkin types are loudly demanding. We should do as they wish. Because from now on, the court really is far more representative of the State of Israel. It suits the state far better.

Israeli students for hire and other hasbara stories

2012-01-16T09:46:00.001+01:00

El Al employees are being informed about the evil nature of judge Goldstone. Hasbara is everywhere in Israel it seems. In September it also hit the skies, after it was decided that the employees of El Al would be trained by the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Hasbara and the organisation Stand with Us to represent the beautiful face of Israel''. (Photo Stand with Us)

'The wave of anti-Israeli criticism sweeping across many countries, including in North America' has prompted the Jewish Agency to significantly increase the number of Shlichim (emissaries) abroad, s Ynet writes this Monday. These emissaries, who engage in advocacy for the State of Israel have been a central part of the Jewish Agency's vision during the past two and a half years.
Jewish Agency's chairman Natan Sharansky believes sending more shlichim to campuses in North America will tilt scales in the fight against de-legitimization of Israel. Nowadays some 400 Jewish Agency emissaries are spread across the globe, out of which some 250 are stationed in North America.Until recently, the shlichim fulfilled a more educational role in the Jewish communities to which they were sent. However, according to Ynet, 'events in the past few years, including the Second Lebanon War, Operation Cast Lead, the Gaza blockade and the flotilla raid, compelled the agency to change direction'. A Jewish Agency official noted that the political affiliation of the emissaries is irrelevant in this case: "We don’t care whether they vote Likud or Meretz. What's important is that they love Israel and fight against the movement that denies the Jewish people's right to exist and its right for its own country."

That not all. Recently Ali Abunimah revealed on his blog that The National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) has become a full-time partner in the Israeli government’s efforts to spread its propaganda online and on college campuses around the world. NUIS has launched a program to pay Israeli university students $2,000 to spread pro-Israel propaganda online for 5 hours per week from the “comfort of home,” he writes. The union is also partnering with Israel’s Jewish Agency to send Israeli students as missionaries to spread propaganda in other countries, for which they will also receive a stipend.

Abunimah also found out that the NUIS receives funding from the ministry of Foreigh Affairs, the ministry of Hasbara, the Jewish Agency and the organisation StandWithUs to carry out hasbara activities abroad. Such is stated in NUIS’s 2011-2012 workplan and budget. Quote: Plan: using students who go on delegations abroad on behalf of the Union (approximately 250 students a year) for hasbara purposes. Before each delegation the students will undergo a hasbara workshop on behalf of the Ministry of Hasbara, which will give them the tools and information to contend with the questions and the critical salvos and the ability to present in their stead “a different Israel.”
Abunimah reveals that the hasbara training is compulsory for students who want to be sent abroad.
Furthermore in its workplan, the NUIS Foreign Relations Department sets as a target: “Explaining Israeli policy in the European Student Union” (ESU). Abunimah quotes that it will do this by:
Sending a quarterly report to the ESU about the situation in Israel, relying on reports issued by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Hasbara, the SWU [StandWithUs] organization, and others.

According to its budget, NUIS receives the following grants:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs scholarship project: NIS 180,000 ($47,000)
Jewish Agency scholarship project: NIS 100,000 ($26,000)
Nefesh Yehudi org: NIS 300,000 ($78,000)

On the expenditure side, the Foreign Relations Department budget includes a payment of NIS 5000 ($1300) to StandWithUs.

Israeli Mossad posed as American CIA in recruiting Iranian dissidents who executed terror attacks

2012-01-14T19:18:00.005+01:00

The leader of Jundallah, Abdolmalek Rigi, was arrested in February 2010 by Iranian commandos after the plane on which he was traveling from Karachi to Kyrgyzstan had been forces to land in the Caspian region of Iran.

Mark Perry of Foreign Policy reports that Israeli Mossad agents posing as CIA operatives recruited Iranian Sunni dissidents affiliated with the organisation Jundallah in Iranian Baluchistan to engage in acts of terror inside Iran.
The Mossad officers recruited operatives belonging to Jundallah by passing themselves off as American agents. According to two U.S. intelligence officials, the Israelis, flush with American dollars and toting U.S. passports, posed as CIA officers in recruiting Jundallah operatives — what is commonly referred to as a “false flag” operation.
It is a new amazing revelation concerning theft of identity, but not the first of its kind as far as the Mossad is concerned.In an operation that was widely publicized a squad of Mossad operatives killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, an official of the Hamas movement in charge of buying weapons in a hotel in Dubai in January 2010. It turned out that the Mossad agents used false pasports belonging to citizens from the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and Austria.
Perry's revelation is based on conversations with several former and active CIA operatives. The recruiting of the Jundallah members by the Mossad occurred in 2007 and 2008. It is not known if Israel is still using contacts with Jundallah. One of them said: "It'samazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with. Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. Theyapparently didn't give a damn what we thought."

The fact that the Israelis were posing as CIA-agents led to several Iranian accusations vis à vis the USA and the CIA that it was backing terrorist operations by Jundallah. Jundallah carried out a string of high-profile attacks in Sistan-Baluchistan in 2008-2009, including a suicide bombing near the Pakistani border that killed 42 people, including six senior Revolutionary Guards commanders, and a bombing in a Shia mosque in Zahedan that killed 25 people.
The leader of Jundallah, Abdolmalek Rigi, was captured by the Iranians in february 2010 after Iran had been tipped by Pakistan that he was on a flight from Karachi to Kyrgyzstan. The plane was forced to land in Iran and Rigi was taken. He was hanged in June 2010. One month earlier his younger brother Abdolhamid, who had been extradited to Iran by Pakistan, was also hanged. The younger Rigi told his interrogators that his brother had had several meetings in Islamabad and Karachi and even in Europe with American agents.

Perry writes in Foreign Policy that the Iranian accusations led to a number of memos in which CIA involvement was denied and the blame was put on the Mossad. Perry's sources reveal that president Bush, the then American president, was enraged about the reports. "Thereport sparked White House concerns that Israel's program was putting Americansat risk," one intelligence officer told Perry. "There's no question that the U.S.has cooperated with Israel in intelligence-gathering operations against theIranians, but this was different. No matter what anyone thinks, we're not inthe business of assassinating Iranian officials or killing Iranian civilians." However, in the end nothing was done, although Perry's source tells him that there were clearly two camps in the administration as to what to do about it. Probably it is not too far fethched to assume that the conservative pro-Israeli camp within Bush's troops (Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith and others) was simply too strong...
According to Perry Israel'srelationship with Jundallah continued to roil the Bush administration until theday it left office, this same intelligence officer noted. Israel's activities jeopardizedthe administration's fragile relationship with Pakistan, which was coming underintense pressure from Iran to crack down on Jundallah. It also undermined U.S. claimsthat it would never fight terror with terror, and invited attacks in kind onU.S. personnel.
Thedebate over Jundallah was resolved only after Bush left office when, within hisfirst weeks as president, Barack Obama drastically scaled back joint U.S.-Israelintelligence programs targeting Iran, according to multiple serving and retiredofficers.

ElBaradei withdraws candidacy out of protest against Egyptian military

2012-01-14T14:46:00.000+01:00

Mohamed ElBaradei pulled out of the race for the Egyptian presidency on Saturday, saying "the previous regime" was still running the country. “I have decided not to run for the post of the president of the republic,” the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog said in a statement distributed by his electoral campaign.
ElBaradei said the conditions for a fair election are not in place, and denounced what he called the military's failure to put the country on the path to democracy. "My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a democratic framework,” he said.
The Nobel laureate praised the revolutionary youths who led massive popular uprisings that ousted Mubarak last year but said "the former regime did not fall."

Suicide bomber in Basra kills at least 53 Shi'ites

2012-01-14T11:57:00.001+01:00

A suicide bomber disguised as a policeman killed at least 53 people and wounded scores in an attack on Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Saturday.The attack at the end of Arbain, one of the main religious observances on the Shi'ite calendar.
The pilgrims had been on their way to a major Shi'ite mosque to the west of Basra, police said.A provincial health official who asked not to be named put the toll at 35 dead and 90 wounded. Scoresof people have been killed in attacks on pilgrims in the last few weeks, including a suicide bombing which killed at least 44 people.Attacks on Shi'ites have killed dozens of people since Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government issued an arrest warrant for a Sunni vice president, triggering a political crisis that risks scuttling a power-sharing agreement.

Azhar-declaration confirms it new independent stature

2012-01-13T12:59:00.003+01:00

Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb and Pope Shenouda III. The picture was taken in May 2011, during a visit by the Grand Sheikh to St Marc's Cathedral in Cairo. (AP)

The Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayeb hosted a meeting on Wednesday devoted to “regaining the spirit of the revolution and completing its goals”, in the presence of some sixty political and religious figures. Among them were Coptic Pope Shenouda III; Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie; Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri; potential presidential nominees Amr Moussa and Mohamed Selim El-Awa; the leaders of the Social Democratic, Wafd, Adl, and Free Egyptians parties; and representatives of the Jamaa Al-Islamiya; and Salafist and Sufi trends.
After the meeting a statement was released that was underwritten by all present at the meeting, that confirmed Azhar's commitment to a democratic society with equal social, religious and political rights for all citizens. It also included 12 points concerning the desired next steps of Egypt's revolution. The statement called among other things for the need to respect the parliamentary election results; the necessity that the military swiftly hand over power to an elected civilian authority and return to its role of defending the country’s borders; a halt to military trials of civilians, the speedy prosecution of former regime figures, full compensation for the families of slain protesters, an independent Egyptian foreign policy and an end to dependency on foreign powers.
Al-Azhar previously issued a document in July 2011 outlining its support for the establishment of a civil – non-religious – state. On Tuesday, the Grand Sheikh also issued a statement reiterating Al-Azhar’s stand on freedom of expression in both the political and cultural arenas. Presidential candidate Amr Moussa said after the meeting that the declaration showed that Al-Azhar was on its way to regaining its leading role among Muslims on an international level.

Lecture Sara Roy at Amsterdam and Groningen Universities

2012-01-12T17:55:00.001+01:00

Dr. Sara Roy, Harvard University, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, the expert on the political-economic and humanitian crisis in Gaza, speaks on:
Gaza de-developed: Policy or collateral damage?

18 januari 2012, 20:00, Groningen: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Academiegebouw, Broerplein 5

19 januari 2012, 19:00, Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam, Oudemanhuispoort 4-6, zaal F0.01
Roy discusses what brought about the economical crisis in Gaza. Was it an unavoidable result of the conflict between Israël and the Palestinians or rather Israel's intention to create poverty and dependence?

Roy: The people of Gaza know they have been abandoned. Some told me the only time they felt hope was when they were being bombed, because at least then the world was paying attention.

After the lecture you'll be able to buy Roy's most recent book (only currency, price about €35,-): Hamas and civil society in Gaza (2011).

Entry free, no registration needed.
In case of questions please e-mail info@nipi.nl.
(Organized by NIPI, Studium Generale Groningen and Stichting Groningen-Jabalya).

Building boom on the West Bank in 2011 and E-Jerusalem, according to Peace Now

2012-01-11T10:15:00.000+01:00

The demolition of the Shepherd Hotel in Sheikh Jarrah in East-Jerusalem. In its place an appartment complex is under construction, called Beit Oron.

Peace Now, that quite actively monitors the movements and building activities in th settlements on the West Bank, has registered and alarming increase in construction during the past year 2011. In a report issued this week it points to a 20% rise. For at least 1,850 housing units the building has started, 35% of them (650 units) in isolated settlements east of the planned route of the Separation Barrier. All in all
some 3,500 units were under construction during 2011 (started to be built or continued construction from previous years)

As far as Jerusalem is concerned, Peace Now counted that the number of planned new housing units has reached the highest level in a decade. Also the building of 55 new housing units
started in the middle of Arab neighbourhoods, while a brand new settlement (neighbourhood) was started under the name of Givat Hamatos. Peace Now counted plans for 3,690 housing units which were approved for validation and another 2,660 housing units which were deposited for objections. Among the plans that got the final validation are the new neighborhoods of Har Homa C with 983 units and Givat Hamatos (stage 1) with over 2,000 units.
In addition, at least 823 construction permits were issued by the Jerusalem Municipality. After a permit is issued the contractor can start to build, and the number of permits can be a good indication for the number of actual construction starts.
The settlements at the heart of the Palestinian neighborhoods in East Jerusalem reached a new level with the beginning of the construction of new housing complexes for 55 families. 18 units in A-Suwane, 20 units in Sheikh Jarrah (the Shepherd Hotel) and 17 units in Ras El-Amud (the old police station). Furthermore, in 2011 the construction of stage 2 of the Maale Zeitim project in Ras al-Amud was completed with 60 housing units, some of which have already been populated.

Former police station in Ras al-Amud, now an appartment complex called Ma'aleh David.

Apart from these increases in building activities the State also informed the court in 2011 of its intention to officially establish 11 new settlements by legalizing illegal outposts which are home to some 2,300 settlers in 680 structures. At the same time the State informed the court of additional delays of the evacuation of three outposts on private Palestinian land. In addition, the State announced the promotion of plans to legalize hundreds of units of illegal construction in the settlements (119 housing units in Shilo, 86 housing units in Kiryat Netafim, 27 units in Halamish and additional hundreds in Nofim, Hemdat, Rotem and Sansana.)

Settlement Rechelim.. will probably be 'legalized'.

The E1 area – the area between Jerusalem and Maale Adumim is critical for creating territorial contiguity of a Palestinian state from south to north and for the connection of East Jerusalem with the rest of the Palestinian state. It was recently reported that the Netanyahu government is promoting the realization of the plan to build thousands of housing units in E1 by evicting the Bedouins from the area and completing a system of roads.

See for the complete report the Peace Now site

Again nuclear scientist killed in Tehran

2012-01-11T08:43:00.001+01:00

The damaged car of Ahmadi Roshan

An Iranian university professor and nuclear scientist was killed in a bomb attack in a Northern neighborhood in Tehran on Wednesday morning, the Iranian Fars News Agency reports. Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, was a graduate of oil industry university. He supervised a department at Natanz uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province.

The magnetic bomb which was planted by an unknown motorcyclist to the side of the car of Ahmadi Roshan, a professor at Tehran's technical university, also wounded two other Iranian nationals in Seyed Khandan neighborhood in Northern Tehran.
The blast took place exactly one year after Majid Shahriari, a well-known Iranian nuclear scientist, was killed on January 11, 2010. On that day the same method of attaching magnetic bombs to the side of their cars was used against Shahriari and his colleague, the then university professor, Fereidoun Abbassi Davani. Davani survived and is now the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization. Another Iranian university professor and nuclear scientist, Massoud Ali Mohammadi, was also assassinated in a terrorist bomb attack in Tehran in January 2010.The attacks are widely blamed on Israel, possibly in cooperation with agents of the Iranian opposition group Mujaheddin e Khalq.

Olivier Roy: Muslim Brothers and Ennahda are no longer islamist parties

2012-01-09T14:26:00.000+01:00

les matins - Olivier Roy door franceculture

Not long ago I paid attention to Olivier Roy's comments on the results of the elections in Tunisia. Where most French commentators were upset by the gains of the islamist Ennahda party, Roy remained rather relaxed. He pointed to the fact that Ennahda took a distance from its once radical islamist past already some 20 years ago. Consequently the fact that it won some 40% of the votes did not stem from a project to islamize the country, but from the fact that it is a conservative party that stresses the importance of cultural and family values, something that corresponds with a Tunisian society that is more conservative than its former rulers liked us to believe.

Now here is - for the French speakers among us - another interesting comment by this expert on Islam and islamism. Roy is a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He was previously a research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a lecturer for both the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (IEP). His most famous book is L'Echec de l'Islam politique (1992), which appeared two years later in an English translation (The Failure of Political Islam).
Here, in this video he is questioned on the French tv-channel France culture about the chances that the Arab Spring will bring an islamisation to the Middle East. Roy contends that
- parties like Ennahda in Tunisia or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are no longer the radical islamist parties they used to be. Out of necessity they shelved the hard core, much like the socialist parties in the West had to shelve Marxism. Right now they opt for democracy and are parties which in many respects are to be considered just conservative parties, stressing conservative values, like the family, chastity etc. In some ways they resemble christian democrats in the West, that as we tend to forget, made their first appearance not earlier than last century.
- About Libya and the call for a return to the sharia that could be heard, Roy argues that the future of Libya will not be a matter of sharia yes or no. It is a country that falls outside the scope of the Arab Spring, as it was outside intervention that got rid of the regime. Now its problems are not sharia, but tribalism and divisions and it's to be expected that not politics but weapons will decide its future.
- On the matter of the combined victory of Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists, like in Egypt, Roy again makes a comparison with the West. He compares the Salafists with the far right in some Western countries. And like Western conservative parties in some countries the Muslim Brothers now have the choice to align themselves with more liberal parties against the Salafist trend, or to have - as happens in some other countries - a coalition with the far right, in this case the Salafists.
(h/t Arabist)

Law granting immunity to Saleh in the making

2012-01-09T12:50:00.001+01:00

Yemen's cabinet proposed an immunity law Sunday under a Gulf-brokered plan to end months of protests that have paralyzed the country. The bill would give immunity to president Ali Abdallah Saleh ...''and those who worked with him in all civilian, military and security state bodies and institutions during his rule," the state news agency Saba reported.
Saleh's sons and nephews hold key posts in military and security units and were responsible for the death of hundreds of protesters during 11 months of demonstrations against Saleh's 33-year rule.
Yemenis are angry at the offer of legal immunity. Demonstrators have been taking to the streets, and a march has been held from Taiz to the capital Sana'a, calling for him to be put on trial.
The United States and Saudi Arabia are keen for the plan to work, fearing that a power vacuum in Yemen would destabilize the country even more and open opportunities for militants to gain more territory. However, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday any guarantee of immunity to Saleh would violate international law.

At least 25 killed by suicide bomber in Damascus

2012-01-06T18:01:00.000+01:00

(Photo AP)

An explosion ripped through a busy intersection in the Syrian capital Friday, hitting a bus carrying police and killing up to 25 people. The bus was left riddled with shrapnel. The blast came exactly two weeks after twin bombings targeting intelligence agencies in the capital and killed 44 people.Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar said a suicide bomber "detonated himself with the aim of killing the largest number of people."

Syrian television showed residents and paramedics carrying human remains, holding them up for the camera. The explosion damaged a nearby police station, shattering its glass, and left blood and flesh in the streets, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Police cordoned off the area with yellow police tape.

Syria's state media, SANA, said the initial death toll is 25 people. The figure includes 10 people confirmed dead and the remains of an estimated 15 others, whose bodies had yet to be identified. SANA said many of the dead are civilians.

The genefral secretary of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, meanwhile, asked Khaled Meshaal, the head of the Palestinian Hamas Movement to carry a message to the Syrian regime and to mediate in order that the Syrian government keeps its commitments vis à vis the mission of the Arab observers.The mission arrived in Syria on 19 December and will stay till 19 January unless its mandate is renewed by both the Arab League and Syria.

Meshaal and Al-Arabi during their talk. (Reuters)

Meshaal and Al-Arabi spoke about one hour with each other and afterwards gave a press conference. According to El-Arabi’s statement, members of the mission are not having an easy time and the Syrian regime is yet to honour its commitments towards the Arab League in terms of ending the violence, pulling military vehicles out of urban areas, releasing political prisoners and pursuing political reforms.
“They are not having an easy time and their task is difficult. I am sending a message via Khaled Meshaal to ask the Syrian authorities to honour their commitments,” El-Arabi said.
The talks between Meshaal and Al-Arabi came less than 24 hours after El-Arabi met with the US Assistant Secretary of State Jeffry Feltman to discuss developments in Syria, in anticipation of an Arab League meeting on Syria on Sunday and a UN Security Council meeting on the same issue on Tuesday.
The has been a lot of criticism of the mission of the observers, who according to many were not professional enough and not up to their task. Syrian opposition figures have asked the Arab League to withdraw the mission and admit that it has failed in its task, as sharp hooters still remain on the roofs and troops are still in the streets. Opposition figures put the number of casualties since the observers began their mission at at least 390 dead.
Among those who asked the mission to be withdrawn was colonel Riyadh al-Asaad, the head of the Free Syrian Army, who said that troops carriers are painted blue in the colors of the police and political prisoners are being transferred to army barracks where the observers don't have access. The Qatari Prime Minister sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani discussed the matter with secretary Ban Ki Moon of the United Nations and asked UN-assistance. Syria on Thursday released 552 prisoners, last week a number of 755 prisoners was released.

Bombs kill at least 73 in Iraq

2012-01-06T09:18:00.002+01:00

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bomb attacks in mainly Shi'ite Muslim areas of Iraq killed at least 73 people and wounded scores on Thursday, police and hospital sources said, raising fears of an increase in sectarian strife.

The biggest attack was beside a police checkpoint west of Nassiriya in the south, where a suicide bomber targeting Shi'ite pilgrims killed 44 people and wounded 81, Sajjad al-Asadi, head of the provincial security committee in Nassiriya, told Reuters

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki created the worst political crisis in a year on December 19 when he sought the removal of two senior Sunni politicians, a day after the last U.S. troops left Iraq. On December 22, bombs in predominately Shi'ite parts of Iraq's capital killed 72.

Maliki asked parliament to have his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlaq removed and sought the arrest of Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on charges he ran death squads.

On Tuesday, members of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc boycotted the parliament and cabinet, accusing Maliki's bloc of governing alone in a power-sharing coalition that was supposed to ease sectarian tension.

2012-01-04T09:21:00.003+01:00

ON THE ROAD TILL 6 JANUARY. Don't expect too much blogging.

Happy 2012

2012-01-01T03:09:00.004+01:00

Tunis Hurra, Free Tunisia. That wrote students at the beginning of 2011 in Tunis with their bodies. Tunisia freed itself of the dictator and is on its way to full democracy. May 2012 bring the same to Egypt and other Arab countries struggling for a better future.

Egypt reassures US that it will stop raids on NGOs

2011-12-31T13:13:00.001+01:00

Raiding an NGOs (AFP).

Egypt has reassured the US that it will stop raids on the offices of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the US state department says.Officials said property seized in the raids would be returned to the groups, which include two based in the US.Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has spoken to Egypt's military ruler by phone to discuss the issue, they added.
Egypt raided the offices of 17 NGOs in Cairo on Thursday, after expressing concern over foreign funding.The country's ruling military council has said repeatedly it will not tolerate foreign interference in the country's affairs. But the US reacted sharply to the move, condemning it as an attack on democratic values and hinting that it could review the $1.3bn (£0.84bn) in annual US military aid to Cairo if such incidents continued.
In a press conference held at the premises of Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) on Thursday, 27 human rights organisations denounced the raids, which were carried out on Thursday morning by officials from Egypt’s public prosecution office, with back-up from police and military personnel.
The Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary ‎and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP); the Budgetary and Human ‎Rights Observatory; and the Washington-based National ‎Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and ‎Freedom House were among the NGOs that the government raided.
Head of Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Ahmed Saif Al-Islam, said that Egyptian NGOs are now exposed to attacks unprecedented in their magnitude at the hands of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).Saif Al-Islam pointed out that restrictions on public freedoms had been felt since the closure of Cairo’s Al-Jazeera Network office in September, along with the renewal of emergency law in the same month. Under the auspices of emergency law, freedom of expression is severely curtailed, and journalists and TV interviewers risk facing questioning or even prosecution.
Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, challenged state authorities by affirming that the center will continue with its work despite the closure.
‘Even if we are jailed, we will work from inside the jail,’ Amin declared.
Hafez Abu Saeda, head of EOHR, described the crackdown as “illegitimate” and expressed willingness to battle the raids through the courts.At the press conference, Abu Saeda welcomed any of the 17 closed NGOs to use the EOHR premises to resume their work.

Hundreds of thousands demonstrate in Syria in presence of monitors, at least 12 killed

2011-12-31T10:48:00.001+01:00

Large demonstration in Hama on 30-12-2012

Syrian security forces have killed at least 12 protesters as hundreds of thousands demonstrated against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, opposition activists said. Five members of the security forces were also killed in a shooting in the city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday.
The presence of Arab League monitors in hotspots across Syria since Monday has given a new impulse to the protests. Demonstrators wanting to show the scale of their movement to the monitors threw rocks at security forces in the Damascus suburb of Douma, where troops tear-gassed the chanting crowds.Five people were shot dead in the city of Hama and five in the city of Deraa, the Observatory reported, adding that at least two dozen people had been injured in Douma. In Idlib province security forces shot dead two people and wounded 37, according to the Observatory.

Activists in Idlib said the army had concealed its tanks in buildings on the outskirts or in dugouts.
The Arab League mission has met with strong scepticism from the outset over its makeup, its lack of numbers - due to rise from 60 to 150 - and its reliance on government transport. A first assessment by its Sudanese head that the situation was "reassuring" prompted disbelief in the West Wednesday, but Friday Syria's ally Russia accepted the judgement.
The United Nations said it was critical that the team's "independence and impartiality be fully preserved." Spokesman Martin Nesirky urged the Arab League to "take all steps possible to ensure that its observer mission will be able to fulfil its mandate in accordance with international human rights law standards." He said the United Nations was willing to give the League observers training on human rights monitoring.
The commander of the anti-government Free Syrian Army told Reuters he had ordered his fighters to stop offensive operations while the FSA tried to arrange a meeting with the monitors.
"All operations against the regime are to be stopped except in a situation of self defense," Colonel Riad al-Asaad said.The FSA, formed by thousands of defectors from Assad's army and financed by expatriate Syrians, has taken the offensive in the past three months, taking the fight to the state rather than simply trying to defend opposition strongholds.

Turkish airforce kills 30 smugglers by mistake

2011-12-29T09:12:00.001+01:00

Turkish warplanes killed 30 people in an air strike in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border overnight, apparently mistaking smugglers for Kurdish militants, a local official told Reuters on Thursday.
Turkish warplanes strike militant targets regularly in the region in their battle against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas, and have stepped up raids after a PKK attack in August.
"We have 30 corpses, all of them are burned. The state knew that these people were smuggling in the region. This kind of incident is unacceptable. They were hit from the air," said Fehmi Yaman, mayor of Uludere in Sirnak province.
The Turkish government was not immediately available for comment.
"There were rumors that the PKK would cross through this region. Images were recorded of a crowd crossing last night, hence an operation was carried out," a security official said.
"We could not have known whether these people were (PKK) group members or smugglers," he said.

Arab observers enter Syria, 45 killed on Monday

2011-12-27T11:02:00.000+01:00

Baba Amr neighbourhood in Homs under fire on Monday

Syrian army tanks were seen pulling out of Homs on Tuesday as a team of Arab League peace monitors headed for a first look at the protest hotbed city where 34 people were reported killed in the previous 24 hours.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cited reports from opposition activists in Homs saying at least 11 tanks had left a district they attacked on Monday, and that other tanks were being hidden.
Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad say districts of Syria's third biggest city have been hammered by government troops and tanks in recent days, with the Baba Amr neighborhood taking a pounding from tank fire, mortars and heavy machineguns.

The arrival of the observers and 10 Arab League officials came as activists reported the deaths of at least 45 people around the country on Monday (34 of them in Homs).
An advance team of monitors arrived in Damascus on Thursday to lay the groundwork for the observer mission to oversee the implementation of the peace plan.
Burhan Ghalioun, head of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), said some of the observers were in Homs "but they are saying they cannot go where the authorities do not want them to go".

Troops loyal to Saleh kill 13 participants of Yemeni 'March of Life'

2011-12-25T17:39:00.000+01:00

The participants of the 'March of Life' from Taiz to San'a on their way (AFP)

At least 13 anti government marchers were killed on Saturday during the “March of Life”.Protesters were attacked in the outskirts of Sana’a, near Dar Salm district.Eyewitnesses told the Yemen Post that pro government gunmen were on rooftops and shot directly at protesters. Among the 13 killed, seven were shot in the head.Medical staff in change square Sana’a told the Yemen Post that the total number of injuries exceed 200 while claiming that many of the injured were not reported to the camp due to the far distance between the attackarea and the camp.
The attackers of the march of about 100.000 were forces under the command of relatives of president Ali Abdallah Saleh.
The march started five days earlier in the city of Taiz as an impressive means to convey the message to the international community that the participants refused the immunity that was granted to president Saleh and his relatives in the Gulf peace initiative for Yemen. The participants walked 250 kilometers passing cities in the governorates of Ibb, Dhamar and Sana'a. On the way they were joined by many. The march was heading to Sana'a Altaghyeer Square ('Change Square') at the center of Sana'a city where it was going to join the youth protesters who camp there since several months.

Merry Christmas, Chanukka sameach

2011-12-24T19:36:00.001+01:00

I wih my Christian readers a merry Christmas!

And as yet a Happy Chanukka to my Jewish readers! (The picture is of an Arab house in the Sheikh Jarrah-area in Jerusalem that was taken over by Jews in 2008 - they immedately placed a gigantic chanukkiah (Chanukka chandelier) on the roof).

Arab monitores arrive in Syria a day after suicide bombs kill 44 in Damascus

2011-12-24T18:51:00.000+01:00

People at one of the bomb scenes in Damascus.

Arab League monitors met Syria's foreign minister on Saturday, a day after suicide bombers killed 44 people in attacks Damascus blamed on al-Qaeda, but which the opposition said were the government's work.
Thousands of people in the Syrian capital took part in funerals, and mourners carried coffins draped in Syrian flags into the eighth-century Omayyad mosque.The funerals turned into pro-government rallies, with Syrians chanting "Death to America" during the processions in Damascus, the Reuters news agency reported.
The bombings, which hit two security buildings on Friday, were the first against the powerful security services in the heart of the capital since an uprising against Assad began in March.

An Arab League delegation met Walid Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister, on Saturday to discuss the arrival of a team to oversee a deal aimed at ending nine months of bloodshed.
Residents in the Syrian city of Homs told Al Jazeera on Saturday that army tanks were shelling the city. Activists in the Bab Amr district said they had been under seige for the last 48 hours. "There is heavy bombardments going on since early morning and there is non stop firing so far," a resident of Bab Amr told Al Jazeera on Saturday. "So many people are been killed, we have counted so far 16 people have been killed and we've got so many injured, so many houses have been destroyed and we don't know what to do. Everywhere from every side we can see tanks very clearly and different types of heavy machine guns have been used since morning."
Meanwhile, the bodies of four civilians who had been arrested were found on Saturday with signs of torture in restive Homs province, activists said. They also said at least 21 civilians were killed across the country on Friday.

Tens of thousands Egyptians 'reclaim honor'

2011-12-24T18:29:00.001+01:00

Tens of thousands of Egyptians converged on Tahrir Square Friday for a rally dubbed "Friday of Reclaiming Honor" to protest against military and police forces' assaults on demonstrators over the past week. Marches around Cairo — including from Mostafa Mahmoud mosque in Mohandiseen and Esteqama mosque in Giza— arrived at the symbolic square to demonstrate anger with clashes that broke out on 16 December and in which at least 17 were killed and hundreds injured. The privately owned OnTV channel reported that a women's march from Abdel Moneim Riyad Street also joined the protest.Protesters could be heard chanting, "The people are the red line; down with military rule."

Hamas and other Palestinian factions 'on the way' to join the PLO

2011-12-24T18:20:00.000+01:00

Palestinian factions, including Hamas, are "on the path joining" the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said Thursday following unity talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas."This is a new departure on the path to joining the PLO of all Palestinian movements", Meshaal said following the talks in the Egyptian capital.
The Egyptian intelligence chief Murad Muwafi and Palestinian independents also took part in the talks.
Independent MP Mustafa Barghouti (The Palestinian National Initiative, PNI) said the participation of unaffiliated delegates such as himself and businessman Munib al-Masri alongside representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad was "a historic event. It is the first time there is a unified leadership for all political and intellectual streams," he told AFP.
Thursday's meeting of the so-called provisional leadership, which was chaired by Abbas, included the leaders of all the Palestinian factions and members of the PLO Executive Committee.`It was the first time the provisional leadership body had met since it was formed in 2005 with the aim of providing a forum for debating reform of the PLO and allowing for the participation of factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
This meeting was "the first concrete application of the Cairo agreement, of the reconciliation and of the partnership between all the political forces," Fatah delegation head Azzam al-Ahmed told AFP earlier on Thursday. The aim of the three-day meeting was to "focus on the restructuring of the PLO leadership and of the PNC," he said, referring to the PLO's parliament-in-exile which has more than 650 members on its books but which has not met in full session for 15 years. He said the provisional leadership body would meet again in Cairo on February 2.
Earlier Thursday, Abbas signed off on the creation of a separate nine-member panel to chart a path forward for Palestinian presidential and legislative elections. Hamas said in a statement that the groups had decided to create an electoral commission, including members of every Palestinian faction, tasked with managing elections within the PLO. The commison wil be led by the speaker of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), Selim Zaanoun, and will meet in Jordan's capital next month. "A law concerning elections to the PLO was given to the participants for them to study and each movement is to give its response for January 15 so that it can be discusssed at the first meeting of the commission", the statement added.

Egyptian posecutor refutes claims by the military about use of violence

2011-12-22T13:54:00.002+01:00

that the public prosecutor’s office has challenged statements made earlier this week by Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in which the council claimed that military personnel were simply “defending themselves” during violent clashes in October in Cairo’s Maspero district and late last month on Mohamed Mahmoud Street.

General Emara

At a press conference earlier this week, SCAF member Major-General Adel Emara stated that both incidents were being investigated by public prosecutors.

Al Ahram Online reports that iIn a statement issued Wednesday, the public prosecutor’s office announced that it had wrapped up investigations of both incidents and had referred them to magistrates who would announce results of their own investigations to the public prosecutor’s office. Magistrates answer to Egypt’s justice ministry and not to the public prosecutor’s office.

Meanwhile lawyer Tarek El-Awadi, head of the Law State Support Centre, revealed that four minors who appeared in video clips shown at the SCAF’s recent press conference had been arrested from their homes on 14 December – two days before clashes began between anti-government protesters and security forces outside Egypt’s Cabinet building. The SCAF had earlier screened footage from Egyptian television of street children allegedly arrested during the clashes. In the footage, the boys confessed to having been paid to set buildings on fire and make Molotov cocktails.

Some 14 bombs go off in Baghdad

2011-12-22T10:57:00.001+01:00

Update Friday: Two more blasts went off Thursday evening. The death toll now stands at 69 people killed. More than 200 are wounded.

A wave of bombings ripped across Baghdad on Thursday morning, killing at least 57 people and injuring nearly 200 in the worst violence Iraq has seen for months. The death toll is likely to rise.The bloodbath comes just days after American forces left the country.The blasts also came on the heels of a political crisis between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite factions that erupted this weekend, after a arrest warrant for the Sunni vice president Tareq al-Hashemi was handed down. .

Iraqi officials said at least 14 blasts went off early Thursday morning in 11 neighborhoods around the city. The explosions ranged from blasts from sticky bombs attached to cars to roadside bombs and vehicles packed with explosives. There was at least one suicide bombing among the attacks.

Most of the attacks appeared to hit Shiite neighborhoods although some Sunni areas were also targeted.

Assad's army continues the killing

2011-12-21T10:49:00.000+01:00

Funeral of a martyr in Khan Shaikhoun, province of Idlib

The death toll from an attack by Syrian forces in the northern province of Idlib on Tuesday has risen to at least 56, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday.
The British-based group said it had documented the names of 56 "citizens and wanted activists" who were killed, but that dozens more may have died. The Observatory's Rami Abdulrahman said one activist in the area reported 121 bodies had been taken to local hospitals.
One blog of a Syrian in the US gives a toll of no less than 182. His Breakdown:150 fell in Jabal Al-Zawiyeh region of the Idlib Province, 100were said to be defectors, while the remaining 50 were civilians, 36of whom fell in the village of Kafar Ouayd, including a local Imam whose bodywas mutilated post-mortem. Most defectors also fell in the areas between KafarOuayd and Fateerah. A further 6 were killed in the Dera'a province, 12 in Homs, and 14 loyalists got killed in Dera''a in retaliatiom for the killing og 100 defectors in Idlib on Monday.

Again clashes at Tahrir, women march against the army

2011-12-20T16:00:00.000+01:00

Egypt continues to amaze. After five days of violence by the army, all of a sudden there appears thess women, marching unto Tahrir, strongly protesting the violence and demanding that the army relinquishes power.

Violent clashes between protesters and joint forces from the Egyptian Army and police re-erupted in Tahrir Square at the crack of dawn Tuesday, with four deaths reported. Security forces tried and failed to evacuate Tahrir.At some point, the security forces managed to force protesters back towards the Egyptian Museum. Eventually, however, the soldiers regrouped at their position behind the concrete wall erected across El-Sheikh Rihan Street, which leads to the Ministry of Interior.
Yamen El Genedy, a doctor at the Omar Makram Mosque field hospital, told Ahram Online that he saw four people admitted at 8 this morning. All of them had been shot dead. "The bullets had entered and exited their bodies, making it seem like the result of snipers. The force of the gunshots was very strong," said El Genedy. One of the deaths, he added, was a 19-year-old.Another field hospital doctor, Ahmed Saad, told AP that a 15-year-old protester was in critical condition after suffering a gunshot wound in the attack. No deaths have been officially reported.The Ministry of Health announced that 32 people were injured in the recent violence, four of whom were hospitalised. Ambulances, on standby throughout near the square, ferried the injured to nearby hospitals.

Another picture of the march of the women. These ones carry the by now notorious picture of the young woman who was beaten, kicked and almost undressed by the military.

Syria will allow Arab observers in

2011-12-19T23:48:00.000+01:00

Update: More than 100 people have been killed in Syria, rights activists said, as the Arab League announced an advance party would be sent to the country this week to pave the way for monitors who will try to help end nine months of violence. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that more than 60 army deserters had been shot dead by machinegun fire as they tried to flee their base, citing accounts from wounded survivors. It also counted 40 civilians shot dead across Syria in the crackdown on protests.
(End of update)

Syria signed an Arab League initiative Monday that will allow Arab observers into the country, Syria's final acceptance of it was a response to mounting international pressure.
Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem told reporters in Damascus that the observers will have a one-month mandate that can be extended by another month if both sides agree. They will be "free" in their movements and "under the protection of the Syrian government," he said, but will not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites.

Walid al Muallem

Last month Syria agreed to an Arab League plan to end the crisis. It called for removing Syrian forces and heavy weapons from city streets, starting talks with opposition leaders and allowing human rights workers and journalists into the country, along with Arab League observers. Despite its agreement, Syria then posed conditions that made implementation impossible.

As the agreement was signed, security forces shot and killed at leastthree people in the southern province of Daraa and a demonstration in Damascus' central neighborhood of Midan, where a child was wounded, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Three soldiers were also killed in a clash between troops and army defectors in the northern town of Maaret al-Numan, the observatory said.Another activist group said Monday's death toll throughout Syria was 14.

The Arab League had given Syria until Wednesday to sign the agreement, warning that if Damascus did not, the League would likely turn to the UN Security Council for action to try to end the President Bashar Assad's crackdown on the uprising.

Many regime opponents have in the past accused Assad of waffling on the deal as a way to gain time as he continues his crackdown. They expressed skepticism that the regime will cooperate even after signing the initiative.

Egyptian military of SCAF not only target protesters but also the media and the truth

2011-12-19T19:42:00.000+01:00

This picture of soldiers beating and dragging this nwoman whose blue bra and belly have been exposed, has already become an icon of the way SCAF deals with its fellow Egyptians. Egypftian novelist Ahdaf Soueif wrote a beautiful piece about it in The Guardian.

Two versions have emerged of what has been happening these last days to the sit-in in front of the Cabinet building and on and around Tahrir Square in Cairo. One version was spread by the state media, the government and SCAF itself. It began with Prime Minister Kammal al-Ganzouri who on Saturday during a press conference denied that that the army used violence or live amunnition and

called what was “happening not a revolution, but [rather] an assault on the revolution”.

Next was the state media that described the protesters in the street as thugs, street kids, drug addicts and forces from outside Egypt. State television even broadcasted interviews with people who said that they were protesters who had been paid by liberal groups to attack the military. It was, as the New York Times wrote, an echo of the propaganda from the last days of the Mubarak government.

After that SCAF repeated this story. There was the hair rising remark, by General Abdel Moneim Kato, an adviser to the military's Morale Affairs Department, who talked to the private newspaper Al-Shorouk about the events and the violence used by the army. People had better worry about the country's welfare, he said, in stead of being concerned about "some street bully who deserves to be thrown into Hitler's ovens".

Kato's remarks were condemned by many. But on Monday afternoon a civilized version of what he said was presented during a press conference of General Adel Emara, one of the SCAF-leaders 'The armed forces,' Emara said, 'does not use violence systematically. We exercise a level of self-restraint that others envy. We do not do that out of weakness but out of concern for national interests.”

General Emara

As reported by Al-Masry al-Youm of which the English section recently has been renamed Egypt Independent), the general said that violence erupted on Friday when demonstrators who had been holding a sit-in in outside the cabinet’s headquarters for the last three weeks attacked a military officer. Military personnel guarding the cabinet’s building came to the officer’s rescue, but they were subjected to “deliberate humiliation and provocation,” continued Emara, who affirmed later that the armed forces had no intention of dispersing the protest.

According to activists and eyewitnesses, however, the version of what happened during the past few days is completely the other way round. Military personnel picked a fight with protesters with the intention of dispersing the sit-in, whose main demands were the firing of the newly appointed Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri and the transfer of power from the military to civilians.

The military started to throw stones and office furniture at protesters from the roofs of nearby buildings. Soldiers in military uniforms were even photographed urinating on protesters from the rooftops. In the meantime, gunshots were heard. The next day more ugly scenes emerged of soldiers beating up demonstrators with sticks and dragging a woman through the street, stripping her naked and kicking her. Also 14 protesters died so far, most of them by gunshots

Emara didn't challenge the authenticity of photos and videos showing the woman, which have gone viral in cyberspace and in the foreign media.Yet he argued that the footage didn't prove that the military had resorted to excessive violence.“I say yes, this scene actually happened and we are investigating it,' bu he added that the circumstances should be taking into account as well.

As Al Masry al-Youm/Egypt Independent wrote: The weekend’s violence brought back memories of earlier military brutality, including an attack on a Coptic-led protest in October and the dispersal of an anti-military rally in November. In the first incident, the military was held responsible for the killing of 27 people; in the second, both the armed forces and the police were blamed for the murder of at least 40.

On both occasions, the military and the state-owned media invoked conspiracy theories, using the common refrain that “hidden” hands were fomenting chaos to ruin the state and thwart the transition to democracy.

On two sides walls built by the army of concrete blocs and in the middle the burnt out building of the Institute for the Advancement of Scientific Research. (Picture M Shestawy)

The problem with the two versions, however, is that many ordinary Egyptians - indeed most Egyptians - tend to believe the version of the state media and the SCAF, in which the protesters are depicted as criminals and thugs, influenced by foreigners, who try to undermine the government and the army and in the process destroy Egyptian property.
That in itself is bad enough, as it clearly has the effect that the pro-revolution forces are marginalised. But it us not even the whole story. Al-Ahram Online reports that in the recent military raid on Tahrir Square, media personnel and cameras became a primary target. Men in military uniform, assisted by plainclothes men, confiscated cameras and smashed them.
Reporters and filmmakers on rooftops surrounding the square were not excluded from the attacks, Al-Ahram Online reports. Al-Jazeera English producer Adam Makary told the paper that 20 plain-clothed men stormed his hotel overlooking the square and smashed any camera they found.
Makary saw the men severely beating a French reporter and a female member of staff at the hotel, after which he hid in a closet and heard more people being beaten and equipment being smashed. According to Makary, the plain-clothed men who attacked the hotel – whilst protesters were being evicted from Tahrir – were “instructing each other and everything seemed very orchestrated.”
Filmmaker Cressida Trew, who was filming from a friend’s flat overlooking the square, was visited by a military officer, assisted by three others, who confiscated her cameras. According to Trew, she tried to negotiate with the officer to take her memory card and leave the camera but her proposal was refused. Two more media personnel accompanying Trew also had their cameras taken in addition to all their lenses.
This was not the first time the media had been targeted since military took power. Makary explained that this was the third time he had been attacked while doing his job. It had happened twice before in Alexandria.
Masry Al-Youm photographer Ahmed Abd El-Fattah lost his eye while covering clashes near the Ministry of Interior in Mohamed Mahmoud Street where 40 people were killed and over a thousand injured. Abd El-Fattah said police officers shot at his eyes. Although activists have also lost their eyes and even their lives, Abd El-Fattah said his injury was no coincidence as media were being targeted. “Five Masry Al-Youm reporters, in addition to ten working for other media institutions, were injured that day and they all had cameras,” he said.
Moreover, Abd El-Fattah said media personnel often suffered accusations of spying while on the job. “People are affected by the military’s media and the military also has secret agents all around to stir such accusations,” he said.

At least another three people killed in Cairo on Monday

2011-12-19T14:56:00.001+01:00

(Photo AP)

Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers in riot gear swept through Cairo's Tahrir Square early Monday and opened fire on protesters demanding an immediate end to military rule. The Health Ministry said at least three people were killed, bringing the death toll for four days of clashes to 14.

Violence has been raging in Cairo since Friday, when military forces guarding the Cabinet building near Tahrir Square heavily cracked down on a 3-week-old sit-in to demand Egypt's ruling generals immediately hand power to a civilian authority.

The raid early Monday may have been an attempt by the military to keep protesters away from key government buildings near the square, including parliament and the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the hated police force.

Ahmed Saad, a field hospital doctor who witnessed the crackdown, said six people were killed by gunshots, giving a toll twice that of the Health Ministry's. He said troops stormed a mosque on the square, beating up protesters who spent the night inside.

"It was like a rain of bullets in the early morning," Saad said.

Fights continue for third day in Cairo

2011-12-18T23:27:00.000+01:00

Fire consumes the Institute for the Advancement of Scientific Research in Cairo. The Institute, next to the Cabinet building, went completely up in flames. Many valuable books and manuscripts got lost. Among them the manuscript of 'Le désciption de l'Egypte' from the time of Napoleon's expedition.

Protesters and security forces fought in Cairo on Sunday, the third day of clashes that have killed 10 people, while 505 people were wounded (of whom 384 had been taken to hospitals). An army source said 164 people had been detained.There were no people, killed on Sunday.

Soldiers and police manned barriers on streets around Tahrir Square, with police (Central Security forces) appeared to have taken over the front line from soldiers.Clashes continued mainly on Qasr El-Aini Street and Sheikh Rihan Street.

Several people tried to mediate a cease fire. The group included recently-elected members of parliament Amr Hamzawy and Mustafa El-Naggar, and prominent activist Wael Ghoneim. Other members of the delegation were parliamentary candidates Ziad Eleimy and Ziad Bahaa El-Din; political analyst and former advisory council member Moatez Abdel Fatah; filmmaker/activist Mohamed Diab; and Muslim preacher Moaz Masoud.According to El-Naggar, the delegation had approached the army and interior ministry in hopes of discussing a proposed ceasefire.

A building nearTahrir with historic archives, was gutted on Saturday by a fire. The Institute for the Advancement of Scientific Research was completely destroyed. The institute contained some 196.000 books, among them many irreplaceable manuscript of rare editions. Some 30.000 volumes were saved by protesters who helped to save as much as possible.Among the manuscript that got lost was the original of Le description de l'Egypte, the compilation of descriptions, engravings and maps by the group of scientists who were brought in by Napoleon when he invaded Egypt in the beginning of the 19th century (1798-1801) and started its modernisation.

Mohammed Bouazizi, who started the Arab Spring one year ago, honored in his birthplace Sidi Bouzid

2011-12-18T13:23:00.000+01:00

Festivities in Sidi Bouzid (TAP)

(Updated) On Saturday 17 December, it was exactly one year ago that Mohammed Bouazizi, 26, a fruit seller from Sidid Bouzid in Tunisia, set fire to himself. He thereby started the uprisings in the Arab world that people later on started to refer to as 'The Arab Spring' (Tunisians prefer the name Ýasmine Revolution'). It seemed a good moment to honor this man who gave the sign for revolutions in several countries of the Arab world, not least his own, where recently the first elected parliament, president and government were installed.
In Bouazizi's city Sidi Bouzid festivities were held that lasted the whole weekend, with the paticipation of several pesonalities like Nobel Prize winner Tawakkol Karmon from Yemen. The newly elected president Moncef Marzouki unveiled a monument for Mohamed Bouazizi, representing his fruit cart.

The new - unfortunately rather ugly - monument for Mohammed Bouazizi. (AFP).

"Sidi Bouzid, that suffered from being marginalised, has the Tunisians given back their dignity,'' president Marzouki said in his speech. ''Now we have taken it upon ourselves to return to these regions their 'joie de vivre'. The president was referring to the economical situation, which has become worse after the revolution, as it has chased away tourists and investors.The past weeks there has been unrest in several places, among them Sidi Bouzid itself, because of the unemployment rate, which, according to the Tunisian Central bank, has gone up since the revolution from 13% to 18,3%.

Three times Mohammed Bouazizi. Left: setting fire to himself, top right: in the hospital, where he was visited by Ben Ali, who was still president at the time, and where he later died. Below right: one of the few portraits that are known of him.

Upon looking back on my blog, I dicoverd that I did not pick up the news right from the beginning. My first report about the uprising in Sidi Bouzid - almost entirely based on what was reported by Tunisian bloggers - was on 25 December (which was still some three weeks earlier than the bulk of the 'official' media, though). Below the first picture of the protests in Sidi Bouzid itself
that I put on this blog. By then the unrest was already spreading to the rst of Tunisia. One of the impressive events of these first weeks was the country wide protest of the lawyers at the end of December. One of the videos of the event - singing lawyers in Sfax - which I put on my blog, is resposted below.

Arrest warrant for Iraqi vice-president when last American troops cross border with Kuwait

2011-12-18T12:09:00.001+01:00

The last carriers leaving via Kuwait. (Reuters)

The last convoy of U.S. soldiers pulled out of Iraq on Sunday, ending nearly nine years of war that cost almost 4,500 American and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives and left a country grappling with political uncertainty.They leave behind some 17.000 American personnel and some 200 troops attached to the American embassy in Baghdad.

The final column of around 100 mostly U.S. military MRAP armored vehicles carrying 500 U.S. troops trundled across the southern Iraq desert from their last base through the night and daybreak along an empty highway to the Kuwaiti border.

For President Barack Obama the military pullout is the fulfillment of an election promise to bring troops home from a conflict inherited from his predecessor, the most unpopular war since Vietnam and one that tainted America's standing worldwide. For Iraqis, though, the U.S. departure brings a sense of sovereignty tempered by nagging fears their country may slide once again into the kind of sectarian violence that killed many thousands of people at its peak in 2006-2007.

Iraq's political uncertainty was underscored when late on Saturday an arrest warrant was issued against the Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi for being the mastermind behind the recent bombing targeting the parliament.The car bombing which took place on November 28, was an attempt to assassinate one of the members of the parliament.

Tareq al-Hashimi

According to the Iraqi government, evidence pointed at al-Hashimi’s embroilment after deriving confessions from four arrested Islamic Party members. An official from the interior ministry announced earlier Saturday that they will show confessions indicating the involvement of a higher rank official in terrorist activities.

Hashimi was the head of the Islamic Party, a political party representative of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq, in 2004, but in 2009 he announced that he is no longer a member of the party. Instead, he created the Tajdeed movement, which is considered to be one of the political parties component of the secular Iraqiya block.
The allegations against Hashimi came hours after the Iraqiya bloc which won most of the votes of Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority, walked out of parliament. The bloc, led by former premier Iyad Allawi, said it was suspending its participation in parliamentary business in protest at what it charged was Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s monopolization of all decision-making. “We can no longer remain silent about the way the state is being administered, as it is plunging the country into the unknown,” said the bloc, which holds 82 of the 325 seats in parliament, second only to Maliki’s National Alliance.
The bloc accused the Maliki government of “placing tanks and armored cars in front of the homes of Iraqiya leaders in the Green Zone,” the heavily fortified central Baghdad district that houses the official residences of leading politicians and government ministers as well as the British and U.S. embassies.
A spokesman from Iraqiya said that the allegations against Hashimi is an attempt by the Maliki to create a one-party system, thwart opposition and to gradually target and defile national Iraqi figures.

Egyptian army acts with extreme violence against protesters

2011-12-17T23:17:00.001+01:00

Cairo witnessed another day of violence on Saturday. From the above video it is crystal clear what kind of violence the brave Egyptian soldiers applied to the protesters. It's just unbelievable. Watch, and you'll know that there's no need for further comment.
At least nine people have been confirmed killed and more than 344 reported injured in the past two days. A building belonging to the Ministry of Transport that caught fire during the clashes continued to burn as military police launched a fierce attack on Tahrir Square. Tents in the square’s central island and near the Mugamaa state complex were burnt down and demonstrators were severely beaten.
Abou El-Ela Madi, head of Al-Wasat Party and a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' (SCAF) Advisory Council resigned from the council in protest over the army’s crackdown on the Cabinet sit-in.

Sheikh Emad Effat

Saturday two funerals were taking place. One of Sheikh Emad Effat, a member of the Dar Al-Ifta, the section of al-Azhar that is responsible for issuing fatwa's, who was shot in the chest during the military’s attack on the Cabinet sit-in. He was commemorated in a funeral that started at Al-Azhar Mosque and marched to the Sayeda Aisha cemeteries.
Elsewhere students from Ain Shams University attempted to march to the ministry of defence to protest the loss of their lost colleague, medical student Alaa Abd El-Hady, who was also shot dead during the military’s attack on the Cabinet sit-in, but were prevented from doing so by the military police. Both marches chanted against the SCAF and against the head of the military council Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.
Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri held a press conference Saturday denying that violence was used against demonstrators, adding that the military did not use live ammunition to disperse protesters. Also that is just unbelievable. People die from gunshot wounds, there are even video's to confirm that, and the prime minister says that no live ammunition has been used.

Yemenis demonstrate against immunity for Saleh

2011-12-17T01:45:00.000+01:00

Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated Friday across the country rejecting an amnesty given to President Ali Abdullah Saleh in a deal that eases him out of office. "A trial is a must and amnesty is rejected," chanted demonstrators in Sanaa's Sitin Street, close to Change Square—the focal point of protests that broke out in January demanding Saleh's departure after 33 years in power.
Similar demonstrations were staged in 18 cities and towns across Yemen in response to a call by the central organising committee of protests, as protesters insisted Saleh and his top lieutenants should face justice over the killing of demonstrators.
Last month, Saleh signed a Gulf-brokered deal aimed to end the political crisis in the impoverished country. Under the deal, he handed authority to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, and the opposition formed a national unity government.
Saleh serves now as an honorary president until polls are held in February to elect his successor.

Egyptian military again clash with protesters, 8 dead, hundreds wounded

2011-12-17T01:16:00.001+01:00

While others throw stones from the roof of the Parliament building, a soldier pisses on the protesters. Literally. (Photo Mostafa Sheshtawi)

Updated Saturday: The Egyptian Health ministry on Saturday morning reported that eight people died and 300 were injured Friday during the clashes between the military and the people that manned the sit-in in front of the government offices at Qasr al-Einy Street in Cairo. Among the dead were a member of the 6 April Youth Movement, Ahmed Mansour, and Sheik Emad Effat, a cleric of Al-Azhar. Both had been shot.
The fight between troops and demonstrators was the worst violence since Egypt began its elections. They broke out on Thursday night and seems to have been triggered by the fact that the people of the sit in
were playing a game of football and a ball went through a window inside the building of the Parliament. One of the players went inside the building to retrieve the ball and was reportedly beaten. After that a fight broke out during which military police burned the tents of the protesters and pelted them with stones, broken china and trash from the rooftop of the Parliament building. Later on some thousands took part in a protest march in a nearby street. The crowd was met with teargas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. By early afternoon, ambulance sirens were wailing as troops tried to disperse around 10,000 protesters with truncheons and what witnesses said appeared to be electric cattle prods.

Clashes raged on after nightfall. On Saturday a new round of fighting started with troops and protesters pelting each other with stones. The army had sealed off the area around the government buildings in the meantime and driven the protesters back in the direction of Tahrir Square .
Th sit-in was a left-over from the protests against the appointment of Kamal al-Ganzoury, a former Prime Minister from the Mubarak-era, at the head of a new government. The protesters from then on blocked his ministerial office.
The ruling military council, in a statement read on state television, denied troops had tried to disperse the sit-in. It also denied troops had used fire-arms and said the violence started when one of the officers maintaining security outside parliament was attacked while on duty. The public prosecutor would investigate that incident, the council said.
According to the protesters these were all plain lies. And a new civilian advisory council that was set up to offer guidance to the army generals on policy said it would resign if its recommendations on how to solve the crisis were not heeded. Presidential candidate Amr Moussa, who is a member of the civilian council, told an Egyptian satellite television station, the council had suspended its meetings until the military council meets its demands that include an end to all violence against demonstrators.

Reports of beatings of well-known pro-democracy activists buzzed across social media and politicians from Islamists to liberals lined up to condemn the army's tactics.
"Even if the sit-in was not legal, should it be dispersed with such brutality and barbarity?" asked Mohamed ElBaradei, a presidential candidate and former U.N. nuclear watchdog head.

Erroneous report on Dutch tv about Marinab starts playing nasty role in Egyptian politics

2011-12-15T22:17:00.000+01:00

The above is a remarkable report on the events in El Marinab (near Edfu) on 30 September that led to the march on 9 October from Shubra to Maspero. Which in turn ended in bloody repression leaving 24 people dead and many wounded. The report was broadcasted on Dutch public television on Saturday, November 26 and the maker is a roving Dutch reporter by the name of Lex Runderkamp, who was recently turned into a ´Special Middle East reporter´ by his bosses of Dutch NOS-tv, after having reported earlier from Libya about the events that led to the overthrow and death of Kadhafy.
As is clear from the video, Runderkamp, who stayed two days in Marinab, reached the remarkable conclusions that the church in Marinab that was supposedly set on fire, was not a church, that there live almost no Copts in Marinab (only some 25, according to him), that the Copts in Marinab did not have a proper permission to renovate or expand the building, and that it was not clear who ignited the fire. Under the motto ´things are not always what they seem to be´, he in fact suggested that it had been the Copts themselves who set fire to the building.
His report miraculously concurred in many ways with the things the governor of Aswan, Mustafa Al-Sayed, who is responsible for Marinab, said on the question. Like Runerkamp Al-Sayed, who sided with the Muslims in the conflict, denied that the church was a church, he also said that there live only a handful Copts in Marinab and he said that the Christians did not have a permit for the renovation of the building. The only thing in which El-Sayed differed with Runderkamp, was that he did not deny, that it was the Muslims who started the brawl. His refusal, however, to let the Copts continue the work on the church led to a sit-in of several days in Aswan of some 1500 angry Copts, which was followed by the protest in Cairo on 9 October.

Maybe Runderkamps report would not have been worth further comment, had it not en for the fact that the video of the broadcast, as can be seen above, has been picked up by Salafists- and other Egyptian media as can be seen here - to show that the whole story in Marinab was just another of those Christian conspiracies.

Runderkamp

Here in Holland Runderkamp´s report had mainly the ffect that it raised some eyebrows, as it went against all logic and all that people thought they knew. about the question. And apart from that there was some serious opposition, initially only from the blogosphere, later on also from some Christian circles. Particularly blogger Jan Dirk Snel was very detailed in his criticism, not only quoting the excellent piece that Sherry al-Gergawi wrote in Al-Ahram Online, but also - as it happened - another Dutchman living in Cairo, Cornelis Hulsman, who went with a pupil to El-Marinab one day after the events there, and who´s organisation, ArabWest, published a detailed report about what happened. Snel succeeded in getting some attention from other media, forcing Runderkamp to reply. The NOS-reporter however stuck to his version on his blog, during a radio interview, and in a second blog post, where he wrote:

Were Muslims responsible for the arson, as everyone assumes? Six judges from Cairo researched the facts in Al Marinab in October (Commission Omar Marawan). The commission concludes that it is impossible to prove that Muslim villagers set fire to the building. In the first place, according to the commission, because the the little church shows hardly traces of burning! That sounds strange, but check out my video and you´ll see that indeed only clean walls, pillars and floors are visible in the church:
Second, the six judges concluded that the Copts have no corroborating evidence for their claim that Muslims have started the fire. The commission ran into a (Muslim) witness who claimed that he had seen how a Copt set fire to a tire in the building next to the church. The Muslim was even going to help extinguish the fire.

I'm not sure from where Runderkamp got his claims about this commission Marawan. After reading here what Human Rights Watch on October 24 wrote about the findings of a commission that immediately after the events to Marinab had been sent to Marinab, a commission that had been established in May after sectarian violence in Imbaba - in other words: the Commission Omar Marawan:

Background to the Protest: The Burning of Mar Girgis Church in Marinab, Edfu, September 30, 2011

On September 30, a group of Muslim residents in the village of Al Marinab, near the town of Edfu in the south of Egypt, set fire to the Church of St. George (Mar Girgis) as it was undergoing reconstruction, destroying the walls, domes, and columns. Those involved in the attack believed the property was a “rest stop” and that Christians did not have a permit to worship there and objected to the height of a steeple that bore a cross and bell.
However, a cabinet-appointed “Justice Committee,” set up in the aftermath of the earlier sectarian violence in the Cairo district of Imbaba in May, confirmed that local church authorities had a church license for the property, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), which said it examined documents showing the Copts had government permission to build the church.
The local church authorities had met with Muslim residents at the instigation of a security official, and had agreed to lower the height of the building and take down the cross and bell, EIPR said. Before the alterations were complete, however, mobs attacked the church.
Mustafa El Sayed, the SCAF-appointed governor of Aswan governorate appeared to justify the Muslim attack on the grounds that the original building was not a church but a service center for local Christians. The cabinet Justice Committee conducted a fact-finding mission to Edfu and submitted its report to the cabinet on October 4, recommending the governor’s removal, prosecution of people who destroyed the church, and the reconstruction of the church at state expense. No action has been taken in response.

Seems clear, doesn´t it? The commission concluded that the church was a church, that the Copts had a license, that the Muslims lit the church, that the Governor of Aswan was wrong and should have been replaced and that the culprits should have been punished. Runderkamp just lied a couple things together in order to save his skin. He´d done better thought a tactical retreat or whatever. I must say I find it incredible. What are these people thinking at public NOS-tv? Is this racism? Dutch television knows better than the primitive, little brown Egyptians? Total lack of understanding of how it works in Egypt? Plain stubbornness? It´s outrageous. Anyway, Dutch tv is not going to rectify its blunder, and least of all Lex Runderkamp himself. Maybe someone in Egypt should take up the matter??

Epilogue
Perhaps - as a kind of a Postscript - some comments on how this could happen. How Runderkamp could have been misled. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an Egyptian human rights organisation which was already entioned above, followed sectarian clashes in Egypt during many years. In a report on sectarian violence between 2008 and 2010, in which it doccumented 53 cases, the EIPR described the way the Interior Ministry in Egypt in such cases usually proceeds. EIPR´s description explains why those involved - it victims as well as perpetrators - after clashes most of the time are not really motivated anymore to be too explicit about what exactly had happened.

Imposing quiet is the goal of the Ministry of Interior in all incidents of sectarianviolence, and this is often done against the will of the parties involved in the clashes.In order to achieve this goal, the Interior Ministry often takes a series of routine—and illegal—measures. Sectarian violence often ends in a reconciliation meetingsponsored by the Interior Ministry and brought about by the use of all means ofpressure it possesses, both legitimate and illegitimate. The end objective is to restorethe situation to the status quo, as if nothing has happened.49. The direct intervention of the Interior Ministry—which can be rapid in some cases ortake hours in others—usually involves the use of excessive violence by police forcesto disperse crowds, even when they are peacefully assembling and even if they areassemblies organized by victims protesting assaults on them. Indeed, EIPRresearchers have documented cases in which policemen themselves are involved inviolence against Christians and attacks on their property. Such was the case in theevents in Izbat Bushra al-Sharqiya, located in the Fashn district of Beni Soueif, on 21June 2009. A number of testimonies collected and corroborated by EIPR researchersstated that security personnel were involved in breaking into Christian homes andsmashing their property. In Saft al-Laban, in the Boulaq al-Dakrour area of Giza, on13 May 2009, some victims said that policemen were vandalizing the property ofChristians while arresting them inside their homes.50. In cases of sectarian violence, the police are unable and sometimes unwilling tointervene to protect the homes and property of Copts, particularly in attacks thattake the form of collective retribution and involve large numbers of Muslims. Insome cases this may be due to the fact that the assailants outnumber security forces,making the latter fearful of engaging them and risking losses in their own ranks. Aclear example of the inability or unwillingness to engage is seen in the violence thattook place in Dayrout in the Assyout governorate on 24 October 2009. In that case,the violence began at 10:30 am and security forces refrained from intervening until 3pm, leaving Muslims free for five hours to attack five churches and numerouspharmacies and shops. The same happened in Shouraniya, located in the Maraghadistrict of Sohag, from 28 to 31 March 2009, when local Muslims attacked the homesand property of their Egyptian Baha’i neighbors. As a result of police inaction, five-19-Baha’i-owned homes were burned nearly to the ground. This has been repeated inseveral other instances of sectarian violence.

Mar Girgis, Marinab

So send troops in, forces all parties to remain calm. Initiates reconciliation talks - even if the victims do not want that - and puts prssure on all sides to restore the status quo. Runderkamp writes in his second blog post 'Fire in Coptic church: the facts' the following: It's true that reconciliation talks were held, because it was insufficiently clear who was at fault. The accusations went back and forth. There wasn´t any complaint deposited, not even by the Copts, the lawyer of the Muslim inhabitants said.
So, apparently, the Egyptian Interior Ministry had been true to its habits. If Runderkamp had had any experience with Egypt, he would have asked himself why on earth the story of the Copts sounded so unlikely and if it might have been possible that they had been were intimidated with all those Central Security troops still around. But as it is, it´s all too clearc that this is something he hasn´t done.

Military court sentences Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil to two years in retrial

2011-12-15T09:26:00.003+01:00

An Egyptian military court on Wednesday reduced the sentence of blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad to two-years, much to the disappointment of his family and supporters who had hoped that he would be freed. Nabil had been sentenced on 10 April to three years for insulting the military in a blog post. Yesterday´s verdict, which was reachedafter weeks of postponements and jockeying by the court, cannot be appealed.

Maikel Nabil Sanad

“Maikel Nabil Sanad should be released immediately and unconditionally,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Deputy Director. “He is a prisoner of conscience who should never have been prosecuted in the first place,” Sahraoui said.

Nabil holds controversial views concerning Israel, including calling for normalization – which has left him outside the massive “No Military Trials” campaign started by a group of local activists. He got, however the support of Samira Ibrahim, the female activist who has filed a lawsuit against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces over their “virginity tests,” who came to show her solidarity.
Maikel Nabil has been on a hunger strike since August 23. His brother Mark told Bikyamasr.com at the court last week that his brother is facing liver and kidney problems but that he is determined to continue his hunger strike if he is sentenced to prison.

Palestinian film wins at Dubai festival

2011-12-15T00:32:00.000+01:00

Director Susan Youssef with Mohammed bin Rashid Maktoum, the son of the ruler of Dubai.

´Habibi´, the tale of two Palestinian lovers in Gaza, on Wednesday won the top prizes at the eighth Dubai Film Festival. The film, directed by Susan Youssef, got the first prize in the category Best Arab feature film, and the film's star, Maisa Abdel Hadi, won the prize for the best actress, while the film also won the best editor award.
Habibi is based on the ancient Arabic romance of Majnun Layla, and tells the story of young Gazan lovers who are prevented from seeing each other by family, social tradition, and politics. The idea came to writer-director Susan Youssef while shooting Forbidden to Wander in 2002, a documentary that recounts her own romance with a theater director in Gaza. Nine years and numerous grants later, Habibi is set to seduce audiences worldwide. Youssef, a New Yorker of Lebanese descent, lives part of the year in Amsterdam. The film is funded by the Netherlands, the US, the Palestinian Authority and the United Arab Emirates.
Youssef cried upon receiving the award, and in her acceptance speech said: "I hope we can show the film in Gaza." She said she began shooting the film in Gaza, but was forced to relocate after Israeli authorities blocked her from travelling to the territory.

Official trailer of the film

Syrian troops storm Hama

2011-12-14T23:53:00.000+01:00

Hama on Wednesday 14 December.

Syrian troops swept into the city of Hama on Wednesday to break a three-day strike by opponents of President Bashar al-Assad. According to activists they killed at least 10 people but faced resistance from armed insurgents who destroyed two armored vehicles.
Outside the city, army deserters attacked a convoy of military jeeps, killing eight soldiers, they said, adding to a death toll of at least 30 people across the country on Wednesday.
The assault in Hama was the first armored incursion there since a tank offensive in August crushed huge protests in the city. Activists said troops fired machineguns and ransacked and burnt shops which had closed to mark a mass, open-ended "Strike for Dignity" called by the opposition.
Update Thursday: In the southern province of Dera´a army deserters killed at least 27 soldiers and security force personnel in a series of clashes on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The British-based group said the deserters fought forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad in two locations in the city of Dera´a itself, as well as a checkpoint at a crossroads about 25 km (15 miles) to the east of the city. Rami Abdulrahman of the Observatory said in the fighting near Musayfrah, east of Dera´a, all 15 personnel at a joint army and security checkpoint were killed.
Al Jazeera English reported on Wednesday:: In other parts of Syria, the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC) activist network reported that at least 10 people were killed in the central city of Homs, three in the northeastern province of Idlib, two in the capital Damascus, two in Deir al-Zor, two in Deraa, one in the northeastern province of Qamishli, one in the northern city of al-Raqqa and one in the town of Zabadany near Damascus.

Twenty human rights groups sound alarm over Israel´s violations of international law

2011-12-14T15:54:00.000+01:00

Demolition in East Jerusalem.

An international coalition of 20 aid agencies and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam International, stated on Monday that Israel has stepped up unlawful demolitions in the West Bank including East Jerusalem over the past year, displacing a record number of Palestinian families. They also said that this sharp rise in demolitions has been accompanied by accelerated expansion of settlements and an escalation of violence perpetrated by settlers.
The statement of the 20 groups coincided with a meeting of Middle East Quartet in Jerusalem in its latest effort to revive peace talks. The 20 criticised the approach of the Quartet and said it should hold all parties to the conflict to their international law obligations. The Quartet should, therefore, press the Israeli government to immediately reverse its settlement policies and freeze the demolitions that violate international law.
Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director of Oxfam Internationa said: “The increasing rate of settlement expansion and house demolitions is pushing Palestinians to the brink, destroying their livelihoods and prospects for a just and durable peace. There is a growing disconnect between the Quartet talks and the situation on the ground. The Quartet needs to radically revise its approach and show that it can make a real difference to the lives of Palestinians and Israelis.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, added: “The Quartet should call ongoing settlement expansion and house demolitions what they are: violations of international humanitarian law that Israel should stop.´´
And Phillip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Interim Programme Director of Amnesty International, called “Israel’s escalating violations´´ an illustration of ´´the fundamental failure of the Quartet’s approach. It’s time for the Quartet to understand that they cannot contribute to achieving a just and durable solution to the conflict without first ensuring respect for international law.”

The evidence of rapidly deteriorating situation on the ground, the organisations said, includes:

Doubling the number of people displaced by demolitions: Since the beginning of the year more than 500 Palestinian homes, wells, rainwater harvesting cisterns, and other essential structures have been destroyed in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, displacing more than 1,000 Palestinians, UN figures show. This is more than double the number of people displaced over the same period in 2010, and the highest figure since at least 2005. More than half of those displaced have been children for whom the loss of their home is particularly devastating.
Accelerating settlement expansion: Plans for around 4,000 new settler housing units have been approved in East Jerusalem over the past 12 months - the highest number since at least 2006, according to Peace Now. In November, moreover, Israel announced plans to speed up construction of 2,000 new units in the West Bank including East Jerusalem.
Sharp increase in settler violence: violent attacks by settlers against Palestinians have escalated by over 50% in 2011 compared to 2010, and by over 160% compared to 2009, the UN reports. 2011 has seen by far the most settler violence since at least 2005. Settlers have also destroyed or damaged nearly 10,000 Palestinian olive and other trees during this year, undermining the livelihoods of hundreds of families. The perpetrators act with virtual impunity, with over 90% of complaints of settler violence closed by the Israeli police without indictment in 2005-2010.
Impending threat of forced displacement of Bedouin: Up to 2,300 Bedouin living in the Jerusalem periphery could be forcibly and unlawfully relocated if Israeli authorities follow through with their reported plans in 2012, which would destroy their livelihoods and threaten their traditional way of life. Rural communities in the Jordan Valley are also facing the prospect of further demolitions as settlements continue to expand.

The following organisations signed the statement: Amnesty International; Avaaz; Broederlijk Delen; CCFD-Terre Solidaire; Church of Sweden; CNCD – 11.11.11; Christian Aid; DanChurchAid; Diakonia; Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network; FIDH; FinnChurchAid; GVC Italia; Human Rights Watch; Medical Aid for Palestinians; medico international; Norwegian People’s Aid; Oxfam International; Polish Humanitarian Action; Trócaire.

It was time that human rights organisations sounded this alarm and called on the Quartet to stop pretending it was trying to create an atmosphere in which one could talk peace, as far as I´m concerned. What, however, is missing from this statement is adhesion by Israeli and Palestinian organisations. The only thing I discovered that goes in the same direction is an observation by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) that Israel has been speeding up its demolitions and expulsions during this year 2011. One wonders why the Israelis and Palestinians aren´t there.

Moncef Marzouki sworn in as 'first president of the first free country of the Arab world'

2011-12-13T21:31:00.001+01:00

Marzouki during his installation speech (TAP).

Tuesday was an great day for Tunisia and for the Arab world in general as the first elected president of Tunisia was sworn in. Moncef Marzouki, 66, a French trained doctor, had tears in his eyes when he solemnly promised to be the "president of all Tunisians".
Marzouki was a long time advocate for human rights who was quite popular and some ten years ago was forced by the former president Zein al Abidin Ben Ali to live in exile in France. He returned only during last years revolution and and immediately after that founded the middle of the road 'Congress for the republic' party, which came in second in the elections. It was quite an achievement and after the the inauguration Marzouki told the news agency AFP that he felt that it was ''a great honour to become the first president of the first free republic of the Arab world."
The new president, wearing a traditional camel-coloured tunic over his jacket, promised that he will be 'faithful to the martyrs and to the objectives of the revolution. Without their sacrifice, I would not be here,' he added, calling on people to also "pray for the people of Syria and Yemen".
The new Tunisian leader said "other nations are watching us as a laboratory of democracy. The main challenge is to attain the revolution's goals. Our mission is to promote our Arab-Muslim identity and be open to the world; to protect the veiled (women) and girls in niqab as well as those who aren't veiled." He promised to safeguard health, education and women's rights.Calling for national reconciliation, he urged the opposition which objected to the alliance of his party with the islamists of Ennahda "to participate in the nation's political life and not confine itself to a role of observer".
Marzouki moved into Ben Ali's old seaside palace, beside the Roman ruins at Carthage. His first task will be to name Hamadi Jebali -- the number two of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party which won October elections -- as prime minister of a new government to be unveiled on Wednesday, he told reporters.
Most ministerial posts are expected to go to Ennahda, according to political sources, while its allies from Marzouki's Congress for the Republic, and Ettakatol that came third in the elections and some independents are also expected to take some portfolios.

Before taking up residence in the palace, Marzouki held talks with the outgoing president Fouad Mebazaa, who was appointed interim president after Ben Ali's January 14 ouster at the beginning of a tumultuous year for Tunisia.
Marzouki was elected on Monday with 153 votes in the 217-member constituent assembly, with three of the 202 deputies present voting against, two abstaining and 44 opposition members, who oppose any cooperation with the islamis, casting blank ballots. He will stay for a year, till the work of writing a neew constitution will be finiehd. After that ther will be new elections.
Marzouki, who headed the Tunisian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LTDH) from 1989 until Ben Ali supporters forced him out in 1994, has a deep-seated passion for human rights and is an admirer of India's independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, and Neslon Mandela of South-Africa. He is a father of three, and is divorced from his French wife. A prolific writer, he has penned several books in French and Arabic including one titled "Dictators on Watch: A Democratic Path for the Arab World."

UN: Death toll in Syria over 5000

2011-12-13T09:14:00.003+01:00

The call for a general strike was largely followed on Monday. Above: Areeha, Idlib province.
Under: Hama, vegetable market.

More than 5,000 people are now believed to have been killed in the Syrian government's crackdown on protests, the United Nations rights chief has told the UN Security Council.
The UN's Navi Pillay said on Monday there were reports of increased attacks by opposition groups on President Bashar al-Assad's security forces but highlighted "alarming" events in the besieged protest city of Homs, according to diplomats in the closed meeting.
More than 14,000 people are estimated to have been detained and at least 300 children are among the dead, Pillay told the 15-member council. She estimated that at least 12,400 have fled into neighbouring countries since the anti-government protests erupted in March.
Pillay noted that the last time she briefed the council on Syria, in August, the death toll was at about 2,000.
Syrians voted on Monday in municipal elections, which was meant to be a first step in further reaching reforms. But the elections were a failure with almost nobody participating. Instead in many parts of the country a general strike was observed, with businesses closed and children kept home from school in several parts of the country in a show of civil disobedience.
Yesterday the death toll was at least 20. In Homs, activists said at least four civilians were killed by tank fire on Sunni Muslim districts, where the strike held and voting was largely boycotted.
The Local Coordination Committees, an activist organization, said security forces killed another 16 people elsewhere in Syria, including in villages around Homs and in the northwestern province of Idlib on the border with Turkey.

The shelling of cities continued, in Homs as well as - in this video - in Hama.

More and more fights between het 'loyalist'' army and defectors are reported. Also more and more units of defectors are formed, like this one in the Damascus area.

Woman in S.-Arabia executed for 'practising sorcery'

2011-12-12T22:52:00.001+01:00

Saudi execution in 2009

An executioner in the northern province of Jawf in Saudi Arabia has beheaded Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar on Monday for "practising witchcraft and sorcery," the interior ministry said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.
It is not clear how many women have been executed in Saudi-Arabia, but another woman was beheaded in October for killing her husband by setting his house on fire.
The beheading took to 73 the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year. The 72th was Sultan al-Asiri, a Saudi, who was beheaded by the sword after he was found to have shot dead another citizen, Mufreh Asiri, "as they met for drinking intoxicants," said the statement carried by state news agency SPA. This beheading took place in the southwestern city of Abha.
In September, Amnesty International called on the Muslim kingdom where 140 people were on death row to establish an "immediate moratorium on executions." The rights group said Saudi Arabia was one of a minority of states which voted against a UN General Assembly resolution last December calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions. Amnesty says Saudi Arabia executed 27 convicts in 2010, compared to 67 executions announced the year before.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

Syrians hold strikes

2011-12-12T10:10:00.001+01:00

On Sunday a national strike was held across Syria. In Madaya (governorate of Damascus) shops were closed and people burned tires in the streets.

Opposition activists in Syria said they had shut down much of the capital and other towns with a strike on Sunday. The Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), a Syrian rights group, organised the civil disobedience campaign, including the closure of shops and universities in protest, as well as sit-in demonstrations across the country.
"For the first time we have seen business close in multiple districts in Damascus and spread to most of the suburbs and provinces. The aim is to reach civil disobedience that encompasses all sectors and forces the regime down," said Rima Fleihan, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council.
Elsewhere Syrian troops and army defectors fought one of the biggest battles so far.ii the uprising. Troops mainly from the 12th Armoured Brigade based in Isra, 40 km from the southern border with Jordan, stormed the nearby town of Busra al-Harir. The sound of explosions and heavy machineguns was heard there and in Lujah, an area of rocky hills north of the town, where defectors from the army have been hiding and attacking military supply lines, residents and activists said. "Lujah has been the safest area for defectors to hide because it is difficult for tanks and infantry to infiltrate. The region has caves and secret passageways and extends all the way to Damascus countryside," said an activist, who gave his name as Abu Omar.

At least 26 people were killed by government troops on Sunday, including a woman and four children, activists said. Nine of them were killed in the city of Homs, six in Hama, three in Deraa, two in Idlib and another two outside of Damascus.
Syrians are casting ballots in local elections on Monday, but turnout is expected to be low as activists have called for a boycott of the polls.
Arab foreign ministers will meet on Saturday to discuss a response to Syria's conditional acceptance of an Arab peace plan aimed at ending its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, Egypt's MENA news agency said, citing an Arab diplomat.
And in a development likely to raise Western pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Paris believed Syria was behind attacks that wounded French peacekeepers in neighbouring Lebanon on Friday. "We have strong reason to believe these attacks came from there (Syria)," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on RFI radio. "We think it's most probable, but I don't have proof." France has been leading Western efforts to force Assad to end the crackdown.

Demonstration are still going on in Syria, but are now mostly held at night. Here Anadan in the Aleppo governorate.

Cruelties committed in Homs, a video leaked by people in the army.

Tanks move into the town of Tafas in the southern governorate of Dera'a.

At least 41 Syrians killed on Friday

2011-12-10T13:37:00.001+01:00

Smoke over Homs, caused by the explosion of an oil pipeline that fed the refinery in Homs on Thursday.

Thousands of Syrians took to the streets across the country on Friday in response to calls by pro-democracy activists who urged citizens to turn out in support of a "dignity strike... which will lead to the sudden death of this tyrant regime." The British based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 41 civilians, including seven children, were shot dead by Syrian security forces.
It said in a statement on Saturday that 12 people -- among them two children aged 10 and 12 -- were killed in Homs and that a 14-year-old boy was killed in Aqrab village in the Homs area. In the city of Hama five civilians were shot dead by security forces. In Damascus province, 18 civilians including two children were shot dead in Duma, Saqba, Kfar Batna, Hamourieh and Dmeir. In Dera'a, cradle of the revolt that erupted in mid-March, a woman and a young girl were killed. And near the Turkish frontier in the north, in Idlib province, two civilians including a 15-year-old youth were killed in Maaret Numan town, and a taxi driver was shot dead in the same area.
Activists have also called for a campaign of civil disobedience from Sunday, the first day of the working week in Syria, with sit-ins at work, the closure of shops, universities and later a general strike. The Local Coordination Committees, which organises anti-regime protests on the ground in Syria, said the campaign would "snowball" and the strike is "the first step in an overall civil disobedience" campaign to overthrow the regime.
The opposition Syrian National Council warned of a looming final assault on Homs using the pretext of what the regime had called a "terrorist" attack Thursday on an oil pipeline."The regime (is) paving the way to commit a massacre in order to extinguish the revolution in Homs," said the SNC, a coalition of Assad opponents. Witnesses in the city have reported a buildup of troops and pro-regime "shabiha" militiamen in armoured vehicles who have set up more than 60 checkpoints, the SNC said.
An Arab League ministerial task force had been due to meet in the Qatari capital to mull a response to Syria which wants the League to lift sanctions in return for allowing observers to enter in order to monitor the unrest.But reports from Doha and Cairo suggested the meeting on Syria would be held in mid-December.
UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has said that at least 4,000 people have been killed in a government crackdown on dissent in Syria since the anti-regime protest movement started in March.
Pillay is to brief the UN Security Council about Syria and the wider Middle East at a meeting on Monday -- her second address to the world body since August when the number of dead was estimated at more than 2,000.

New clashes between Houthis an Salafists in the north of Yemen

2011-12-10T12:16:00.001+01:00

The Yemen Post reported on Friday that clashes between Salafists and Houthis escalated in the north of Yemen and that 14 fighters from both sides were killed in the fighting in two days.
More than 85 people have been killed over the last month in this kind of sectarian violence in the northern governorate of Sa’ada. The Houthi movement now controls Sa’ada after six long wars with the government since 2004. Houthis rejected the latest GCC power transfer proposal and called it a catastrophe that will never be forgiven by the Yemeni people.
Eyewitnesses on the ground said that although the Houthis were having the upper hand in the fighting of the last days, Salafi militants succeeded in taking over checkpoints and military positions previously under the control of the Houthis. Mediation committees were formed between both sides to help end the conflict and hundreds of tribal and political leaders tried to help end the crisis, but to no avail.
The Houthis are Zaidis, which is a branch of Shi'ite Islam, the Salafists are Sunni fundamentalists.

SCAF reiterates that it will have a final say in the make up of a constitutional assembly

2011-12-08T17:24:00.001+01:00

A rare press conference by the Egyptian leaders of the army, SCAF, on Wednesday for the foreign press in Egypt, confirmed once more that the army wants to hold a decisive grip on events in Egypt, whatever the results of the current election are going to be.
Major General Mokhtar el-Mulla – a member of SCAF – said the upcoming parliament would not be representative of all Egyptian people. Therefore those appointed in a 100 members counting assembly to write a fresh constitution must also be approved by the interim cabinet and a newly-created "advisory council" of intellectuals, civilian politicians and media personalities, both of which fall under the control of SCAF..

General Mokhtar al-Mulla

Mulla, who was speaking to a small group of mostly American reporters, made clear that the ruling military council, as the executive, will maintain ultimate authority over the functioning of the new parliament and government.
Asked whether the new council is an attempt to limit the influence of the hard-line Salafis, who want to impose strict Islamic law on Egypt, Mulla said: "Absolutely. ... The Egyptian people won't allow this to happen."
"There will be standards agreed upon by all the Egyptian people," Mulla said. "This is not out of mistrust of the parliament. What we are seeing is free and fair elections ... but it certainly doesn't represent all sectors of society."
What Mulla said was not completely new. The Deputy Prime Minister of the former cabinet, Ali al-Selmi, presented a paper at the end of November which was thought to have been inspired by SCAF, and which contained the idea that the constituent assembly would consist of about 20 parliamentarians and the rest to be chosen from all strata of Egyptian society.
The paper raised a lot of anger at the time, from all parties and activists, but particularly from the islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood and the salafists, who were already somewhat convinced that they would obtain a majority in the new parliament. The the fact that SCAF reiterated ts position drew anew criticism from this side.Youssri Hamad, spokesman for the salafist Al-Nour party, said the military council is again trying to reassure the liberals in society at the expense of legitimate demands by popular Islamist groups. He called it a continuation of the Mubarak regime policies that ostracized Islamists. "We have a significant presence in parliament. They must also protect our opinions and protect our presence in governing institutions," he said.
Saad al-Katatny, the Secretary General of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said his group will continue to object to the military rulers' attempts to force its hand. He said his group agrees that all sectors, and not the parliament, must be represented in the constituent. But he objected to the military council's attempt to guide or oversee the process. "Why does the council want to interfere in the will [of the people]?" he said.

The discussion with the journalists was at times rather heated, when question were asked about the role of the army in recent clashes which have left more than 40 dead and thousands injured. Mulla acknowledged that the military had ultimate control over security affairs, but denied that the armed forces would ever commit violence against the Egyptian people. He brushed away any suggestions that live bullets had been used against protesters, in spite of all evidence brought by doctors and human rights activists. Mulla also refused to discuss the cases of the imprisoned blogger Maikel Nabil, who was found guilty by a military tribunal of insulting the army earlier this year and is on hunger strike during his appeal, or the case of Alaa Abdel Fattah, another blogger who was arrested for alleged crimes he committed during the Coptic demonstration at Maspero n October which was broken up violently by the army at the cost of some 24 people killed.

New Egyptian government sworn in, Ganzouri gets 'presidential powers'

2011-12-08T09:23:00.001+01:00

Ganzouri (l) and Tantawi. (Reuters)

The new Egyptian government of Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri was sworn in on Wednesday afternoon at the headquarters of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) in the presence of SCAF head Field-Marshal Hussein Tantawi. At the same time Egypt's army rulers issued a decree handing presidential powers to Ganzouri, but keeping control of military affairs and the judiciary.
In the new cabinet the sensitive post of minister of the Interior went to Mohammed Ibrahim Yusuf, a former police chief from Cairo. The choice may raise some eyebrows (as seems to the case with all choices of interior ministers so far), since Yusuf was severely criticised in December 2005, when the Central Security Forces, under his command, violently dispersed a sit-in staged by Sudanese refugees at Mostafa Mahmoud Square in Cairo’s Mohandessin district, in which 27 refugees were killed and hundreds injured. Yusuf was head of the Giza Security Department at the time. The incident later became known as the “Mostafa Mahmoud massacre.”
The new finance minister is Mumtaz al-Saeed, while the foreign minister from the former cabinet, Mohammed Kamel Amr, was reappointed.
El-Ganzouri has faced difficulties forming his cabinet over the past two weeks, having been rebuffed by several revolutionary personalities who were offered cabinet portfolios. As a consequence most of his appointed government consists of academics and veteran bureaucrats.

The 6 April Youth Movement has reiterated its refusal of the new government. Mahmoud Afifi, a spokesman of the movement, said that it does not reflect the revolutionary forces’ will and cannot be named a national salvation government, since all of El-Ganzouri’s ministers are from the dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP) which was headed by ousted president Hosni Mubarak. Afifi said that the 6 April Movement firmly sticks to its demand that a national salvation government be appointed, and that it would have full powers, effectively supplanting the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

Yemen gets government of 'national unity'

2011-12-08T08:18:00.001+01:00

Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi

Yemen's vice president, Abed Rabbo Mansur Hadi, issued a decree on Wednesday approving the formation of a government of national unity. The cabinet consists of 34 ministers, 50 -50 divided between President Ali Abdullah Saleh's party and the opposition.The new government, headed by prime minister Mohammed Basindwa, will carry out its duties for three months, after which elections will be held and Hadi will formally take over the presidency.
Its formation is in line with a Gulf Cooperation Council plan, which president Saleh finally signed on 23 November after having refused three times in the past months. According to the plan, which is backed by the United Nations, Saleh transfers his powers to his deputy in return for immunity from prosecution for him and his family.
Saleh's ministers for foreign affairs and defence, Abu Bakr al-Kurbi and Mohammad Nasser Ahmad Ali respectively, have retained their old posts, according to the decree published by state news agency Saba.
However, the interior ministry has been entrusted to a member of the opposition, Abdelqader Qahtani, and the human rights portfolio goes to Huria Mashhur, spokeswoman of the National Council, an opposition umbrella group. "The revolution still in progress until achieving its all goals and the coalition government is the first step," Mashhur tweeted in English after the decree.

In addition to the interior portfolio going to Qahtani, who is close to the opposition Islamist Al-Islah (Reform) party, Islah member Mohammed Said al-Saadi becomes planning and international cooperation minister.Two opposition independents, Sakher al-Wajih and Ali Ahmed al-Amarani, become finance and information ministers respectively.
The opposition had warned on Saturday it would not go ahead with forming a unity government until a military commission was formed and fighting stopped in Taez where 31 people were killed in clashes between the army and dissident tribesmen.State media reported later the same day that a ceasefire had come into effect after Hadi called for an end to the fighting.He also formed the 14-member military commission under his chairmanship. Its task under the Riyadh accord is to restructure the security forces and oversee the removal of weapons from streets.

Muslim Brothers win 36 of the 56 workers' and professionals' seats in first phase of Egyptian elections

2011-12-07T11:39:00.001+01:00

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has won 34 individual seats of the 52 which were contested in the runoff of the first phase of the Egyptian elections. The FJP thereby crowned its success in this first phase of three, as it already won two seats in the first round. So all in all the FJP won 36 of the 56 seats that were to be contested. Four of the seats won by the FJP went to parties other than the FJP itself (the FJP-led alliance, formerly called the Democratic Alliance, contains 11 parties).

Mustafa al-Naggar

The Salafist Al-Nour coalition won five seats, the Egyptian Bloc two, Al-Wafd one, Al-Adl one, National Party of Egypt one and Egyptian Citizen one. Three went to independents.
Some remarkable results were that leftist El-Badry Farghaly, who was running as an independent in Port Said, secured the workers’ seat, beating Al-Nour's Ali Fouda. In Nasr City Mustafa El-Naggar, a revolutionary youth activist and member of the liberal El-Adly Party, won the professionals’ seat. In Alexandria’s second constituency, Judge Mahmoud El-Khodeiry won the professionals’ seat, beating Tarek Talaat Mustafa, a former member of Hosni Mubarak’s National Democratic Party, finally ending the Mustafa family’s three decade grip on the seat. Amr Hamzawy, a political science professor, one of the leaders of the 25 January revolution and founder of the Egypt Freedom Party already secured his seat in Heliopolis in the first round.

Amr Hamzawy

The turnout in this second round was much less than in the first round, which stood at 52% (the election committee initially reported a turnout of 62% but later on revised this number). Other figures released by the election committee show that the list led by the FJP secured 36.6 percent in last week's polls, followed by Nour's Salafi list with 24.4 percent, and the liberal Egyptian Bloc with 13.4 percent.

Emir of Kuwait dissolves parliament

2011-12-07T08:15:00.001+01:00

The emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, has decided to dissolve parliament, less than a week after he named a new prime minister and parliamentary sessions were put on hold. The decree dissolving the National Assembly was read out on state television.on Tuesday.
Last week, the cabinet resigned shortly before former Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammed al-Sabah was to be questioned about the alleged payment of bribes to pro-government MPs. Protesters stormed parliament late last month after the government tried to prevent him facing questions. The emir replaced Sheikh Nasser with Sheikh Jaber Al Hamad Al Sabah, the defence minister.
The emir said he disbanded parliament "due to the deteriorating conditions that led to difficulties in achieving progress and threatened the country's higher interests''. His decree said there would be elections but gave no date. According to the constitution, elections must now be held within 60 days.

Bombs kill at least 32 Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq

2011-12-06T08:22:00.001+01:00

A series of bombs on Monday killed at least 32 people in Iraq, mostly women and children, and wounded scores more. The victims were Shi'ite pilgrims celebrating Ashura, a major Shi'ite religieus festival, which commemorates the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein.

In the first attack, a car bomb blasted the end of one procession in the city of Hilla (some 100 km south of Baghdad) , killing 16 and wounding 45 others. A second attack involving two roadside bombs, killed at least six more people at another procession in Hilla and wounded 18 more, police sources said.

In Baghdad, at least 11 people were killed and 38 more wounded by roadside bombs targeting Shi'ite pilgrims in three different neighborhoods. On the outskirts of Baghdad, gunmen using hand grenades attacked Shi'ite pilgrims marching to the holy city of Kerbala, killing two and wounding four in Latifiya.

These kinds of attacks are still a fact of life in Iraq. Last week ten people were killed by a bomb in a market place in Khalis north of Baghdad on Thursday, and a few days earlier a suicide bomber killed 19 people in an attack on a military base. The week before that in Baghdad alone eight killed by three bombs in a market; one was killed by a mortar round; and six killed by a roadside bomb.Often double the fatalities are those left maimed.The monthly civilian death toll ebbs and flows - August 155, September 110, and the highest so far this year in October when the number killed by violence rose to 161. The attacks underscore Iraq's fragile security as the last U.S. troops withdraw from the country by the end of the year.

Yemen gets a military council to deal with security situation

2011-12-05T10:23:00.001+01:00

The Yemeni Vice President Abed Rabu al-Hadi came up on Sunday with a presidential decree forming a
14 member military council whose duties will be to reform the military.The members of the council will be evenly divided between the government and the opposition parties.
The formation of this military council got precedence over the formation of a new government, as Yemen’s opposition said that no progress would go forward unless this council would be formed and control over the military by president Saleh and his family dissolved. “If the ruling family still controls the military months from now, the council is useless,” said Ali Jaradi, a political analyst and prominent writer in Yemen. According to the power transfer deal signed in Riyadh on November 24, the council was supposed to be created within five days of the signing.

Meanwhile in the city of Taiz at least 28 civilians were killed the last three days by government forces. Five were killed on Saturday, six on Friday, and 17 on Thursday as protests continue in Yemen demanding that President Saleh’s ruling family be trialed for the crimes against humanity. Twelve civilians were injured on Sunday, raising the three day total to 146 in Taiz only. Roads leading to the province were closed and hundreds of troops continue to enter the province, according tot the Yemen Post.

Syria lets Arab League deadline expire, again 36 killed

2011-12-05T09:57:00.001+01:00

Syria on Sunday let the deadline expire to agree on a new Arab League plan to allow observers in to monitor the country's unrest or face further sanctions. Meanwhile on Sunday 36 people have been killed by security forces. Activists say. that November was the bloodiest month since the uprising started in March, with more than 700 civilians killed. More than 4,000 people have died since protests broke out in March, according to the United Nations, which says the violence in Syria is taking the shape of a civil war.
Syria signalled on Sunday that it might still be willing to comply with the Arab League's plan but was negotiating some details. But the news agency AFP quoted a senior Qatari official as saying Damascus had asked for "new clarifications and further amendments to be made to the protocol which was proposed to cover the deployment of the observer mission. But the Arab ministers had "refused". The Qatari official said, however, that if Syrian officials "still want to sign; they can come tomorrow to Cairo."
Syria's failure to meet an earlier deadline on November 25 to allow observers led to the the imposition of measures like a ban on dealings with the country's central bank and a freeze of Syrian government assets. .
Iraq and Lebanon have said they will not impose sanctions on their neighbour. Jordan has asked to be exempt, as its trade volume with Syria is in the order of $ 400 million a year.

Bahrain hires notorious American police chief in order to 'reform' security forces

2011-12-03T10:02:00.001+01:00

Funeral of protester who died during demonstations in Bahrain.

Matthew Cassel writes in The Guardian about the new police chief that the rulers of Bahrain hired to 'reform' their security forces, Miami's police commisioner John Timoney. Cassel tells how he once in 2003, in the midst of demonstrations in Miami, met with Timoney's forces: 'it was impossible to move more than a few feet in any direction without confronting the police and their brutality. The thousands of police dressed in full riot gear and armed with teargas, rubber bullets, batons, electric tasers – all of which were used against protesters and journalists – were everywhere around Miami.'

And he quotes journalist Jeremy Scahill:

"No one should call what Timoney runs in Miami a police force. It's a paramilitary group. Thousands of soldiers, dressed in khaki uniforms with full black body armour and gas masks, marching in unison through the streets, banging batons against their shields, chanting, 'back … back … back'. There were armoured personnel carriers and helicopters."

Now the Miami model is coming to Bahrain. The Associated Press reported on Thursday that Timoney has been hired by the kingdom's interior ministry "as part of reforms" following the release of a report last week by a government-sponsored fact-finding commission. (Click here for Matthew's full article)
Some reform the Bahrainis can look forward to, it seems..

The 'West' versus Tehran, the tension rises

2011-12-02T08:05:00.001+01:00

On 28 November a huge explosion caused heavy damage at the above uranium enrichment facility near Isfahan. The Times of London quoted sources who suggested that Israel - maybe in cooperation with the Iranian opposition group Mujahddin e-Khalq - had been responsible. Two weeks earlier a massive explosion at a missile base in Bidganeh not far from Tehran, killed general Hassan Moghaddam, the “father” of the nation’s missile program, together with 36 others (the death toll was revised twice). This blast reportedly caused heavy damage to Iran's rocket development program. Israel may have had a hand in this explosion as well. And in October 2010 18 people were killed in a blast at a Revolutionary Guards base in Khorramabad in the north-western Lorestan province.

The possibility that Israel will attack Iran seems to become more probable. The former head of the Israeli secret service Mossad, Meir Dagan, has again warned against this possibility. Dagan said that he was very worried as this might lead to a regional war with many casualties, also in Israel itself.
Dagan reacted to statements by the Israeli Defense minister Ehud Barak from which he concluded that Barak is convinced that Israel has less than a year to carry out a military strike on Iran. Barak made his statements in response to comments by U.S. Joints Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey., who on Wednesday said that he did not know whether Israel would alert the United States ahead of time if it decided to take military action against Iran. Dempsey also said that he was not sure that Israel shared the American view that sanctions and diplomatic pressure were the best means to deal with the nuclear threat by Iran.
Meanwhile the tension between the West and Iran is building up again as the European Union on Thursday tightened sanctions against Iran on Thursday in response to a report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog IAEA which suggested Iran has worked on designing an atom bomb. The EU ministers added 180 Iranian people and entities to a blacklist that imposes asset freezes and travel bans on those involved in the nuclear work. A decisions on a ban on oil imports will be taken later, probably at the next EU-meeting in January.. French President Nicolas Sarkozy proposed the embargo and won backing from Britain, but there was some fear that an import ban might raise global oil prices during hard economic times. EU member states import 450,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil, about 18 percent of the Iran's exports, much of which go to China and India.
The EU-sanctions come on the heels of a British decision to close the Iranian embassy in London and expel all of its staff, after its own embassy in Tehran was ransacked by Bassidj who posed as 'students'. Germany, the Netherlands and Italy have temporarily withdrawn their ambassadors from Tehran.
China and Russia have issued appeal to remain calm. Russiasaid "cranking up a spiral of tension," would undermine the chances Iran would cooperate with efforts to ensure it does not build nuclear arms.

The present tension would almost one make forget that the latest IAEA-report also has been met with strong criticism. China was one of the states that raised doubts about the credibility of the claim that Iran is working on a atom bomb. The IAEA still "lacks a smoking gun," Xinhua said in a commentary. "There are no witnesses or physical evidence to prove that Iran is making nuclear weapons."
Russia called it a “compilation of well-known facts ... intentionally presented in a politicized manner.” Moscow’s foreign ministry even went as far as to liken it to the false intelligence on Saddam Hussein’s nuclear activities used by the United States and its allies to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Also the 118 states strong Non-Aligned Movement sharply criticised the report.

Amnesty: new wave of repression against reformists and protesters in Saudi Arabia

2011-12-01T09:57:00.001+01:00

The last nine months has seen a new wave of repression in Saudi Arabia as authorities have cracked down on protesters and reformists on security grounds, according to Amnesty International. In a report, published on Wednesday 30 November, Saudi Arabia: Repression in the Name of Security, the organization says that hundreds of people have been arrested for demonstrating, while the government has drafted an anti-terror law that would effectively criminalize dissent as a "terrorist crime” and further strip away rights from those accused of such offences.
Thousands of people are in prison, many of them without charge or trial, on terrorism-related grounds. Torture and other ill-treatment in detention remains rife.In April 2011, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said that around 5,000 people connected to the “deviant group”, meaning al-Qa’ida, had been questioned and referred for trials.

Demonstration in Al-Qatif (Eastern Province) against arrests

Since February 2011, when sporadic demonstrations began – in defiance of a permanent national ban on protests – the government had carried out a crackdown in the Eastern Province. Since March 2011 over 300 people, mostly Shi'a Muslims, who took part in peaceful protests in al-Qatif, al-Ahsa and Awwamiya have been detained, either at demonstrations or shortly afterwards. Most have been released, often after pledging not to protest again. Many face travel bans.
Elsewhere in Saudi-Arabia protests have been stifled by warnings by the Interior Ministry that the authorities would “take all necessary measures” against those who tried to “disrupt order”.
Individuals who did demonstrate were swiftly arrested. Among them was 40-year-old Khaled al-Johani, the only man to demonstrate on the 11 March “Day of Rage” in Riyadh, who told journalists he was frustrated by media censorship in Saudi Arabia.Charged with supporting a protest and communicating with foreign media, he is believed to have been held in solitary confinement for two months. Nine months on he remains in detention and has not been tried.

Khaled al-Johani speaking with the BBC. He wanted to protest against the lack of democracy and openness in Saudi-Arabia. That was in March. He was arrested and disappeared. He has not been tried.

A number of people who have spoken up in support of protests or reform have been arrested. Sheikh Tawfiq Jaber Ibrahim al-Amer, a Shi'a cleric, was arrested for the second time this year in August for calling for reform at a mosque. He has been charged with “inciting public opinion”.
On 22 November 16 men, including nine prominent reformists, were given sentences by the Specialized Criminal Court ranging from five to 30 years in prison, on charges that included forming a secret organization, attempting to seize power, incitement against the King, financing terrorism, and money laundering. Amnesty International said that their trial, which began in May 2011, was grossly unfair. The defendants were blindfolded and handcuffed during the trial while their lawyer was not allowed to enter the court for the first three sessions.

In July 2011 Amnesty International published a leaked copy of a secret draft anti-terror law, which would allow the Saudi Arabian authorities to prosecute peaceful dissent as a terrorist crime and permit extended detention without charge or trial.
If the law was to be passed without being amended, terrorist crimes would include “endangering… national unity” and “harming the reputation of the state or its position”. Questioning the integrity of the King would carry a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.
After Amnesty International published the draft law, the Saudi Arabian authorities appeared to briefly block access to the organization’s website from within the Kingdom and said that its concerns about the law were “baseless, mere supposition and without foundation”.

Human Rights Watch also denounced the arrests in the Eastern Province (here)
It also severely criticized the rather medieval juridical system in the Kingdom (here)

Not only the Muslim Brothers, but also Salafists big winners of the Egyptian elections

2011-11-30T12:35:00.001+01:00

Ballot counting at a polling station in Cairo (Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters)

The preliminary results of the Egyptian elections show, as expected, that the Muslim Brotherhood is going to win. The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Brotherhood, said in a statement that it is the biggest winner so far, followed by (the salafist) Al-Nour party and then the Egyptian Bloc. A spokesman of the Egyptian Bloc confirmed this.
It is believed that the FJP has won about 40% of the party lists and that te Egyptian Bloc, a coalition of several left-liberal parties, among them the Free Eyptians Party of the millionair Naguib Sawiris and the Social Democratic Party, got between 20 and 30%. The Muslim Brotherhood did also well with the individuel lists of workers/farmers and of professionals.
The FJP got most of its votes in Cairo's and Alexandria's popular disrtricts, in Fayoum and in Upper-Egypt, it seems. No surprises there. But the fact that Al-Nour scored as high as it did (particularly in the Delta) gave more reason for astonishment. Other islamist parties, be it moderates like Al-Wasat or radicals like the Jama'a al Islamiyya, also did relatively well. Al-Ahram Online quoted Diaa Rashwan, an expert on Islamic movements and head of the Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, who said to expect Islamists, including the FJP, Salafists and Al-Jamaat Al-Islamyia, to win at least 65% of seats in the first round.

Of course these are preliminary results. And this is also only the first of a series of three election dates on which different parts of Egyt go to the polls. But it's certainly indicative for a trend. It can be expected that the future Egyptian political landscape will be quite interesting, as it wil be dominated by a variety of islamist trends, ranging from the well known, old fashioned politics the old foxes of the Brotherhood use to practise, to the Wasat-liberals who bear a striking resemblance to the Turkish AK Party on the left, and the deeply conservative salafists on the right, who will stress the importance of traditional values above all other things. What is quite interesting as well, though, is that the Qutla, the Egyptian Bloc, did so extremely well. Who had thought that these brand new parties (except for the small leftist Unionist (Tagammu) party that is, which is one of the old ones), in some six months would gain some 20 or even 30%. From scratch. It is almost unbelievable.

An interesting development was that the head of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, Mohamed Morsi, Wednesday said that the parliament’s majority will appoint the new government and that it will be a coalition government. This is not what the military are saying and does not follow the existing scenario. The SCAF is appointing its own governement under Kamal al-Ganzouri irrespective of what the outcome of the elections will be. In fact the new parliament, that will convene not earlier than 17 March 2012, will only serve to write a new constitution. But it is possible that Morsi's remark point to a new challenge for SCAF. Already the military have to deal with the Tahrir-youth who want a government of National salvation with ElBaradei at its head. The Muslim Brotherhood kept its distance from this controversy and also kept away from the last protests at Tahrir. Morsi's remark could mean that the Brotherhood intentionally saved its energy in order to start a campaign for a goverment of its own making only after the elections which it was sure to win anyway.

What was the other news fom Cairo? Yesterday evening a fight broke out between thugs and the protesters of Tahrir who are still there. Shots were fired, knives used and even molotov cocktails were thrown. The thugs, who seemed to have been organized (sent by the military? the ministry of the Interior?) were beaten back after heavy fighting on Adbdel Moneim Riad Square and Mahmoud Bassiouny Street near Tahrir. The paper Al Masry al-Youm mentioned that 108 people got wounded, some 20 of them seriously.
Other news - ven mor bizarre: Egypt is importing no less than 21 tons of teargas from the US. The news came into the open after the port authorities in Suez initially refused to accept a first load of 7,5 tons, for fear that it was destined to use against protesters at Tahrir.

Egypt goes to the polls

2011-11-29T11:08:00.001+01:00

In Alexandria, with bad weather. (Al-Masry al-Youm/Tarek Alfamarawy)

In Cairo, in the Manial district. (Mahmoud Hams/AFP/Getty)

Sometimes the army secured the order (Al-Masry al-Youm/Mohammed Rashed ).

Polling station in Damietta (Al-Masry al-Youm/ Al-Sayed al-Baz)

Women in the well to do district of Zamalek await their turn (Odd Andersen/AFP)

Tahrir on election day. The hard core people of the protest movement do not vote and stay at their tents. (Karim Hakiki/France24)

Queuing in Assiut. (Lauren Bohn)

UN panel: orders to shoot to kill came from highest Syrian echelons

2011-11-29T10:44:00.001+01:00

Investigators of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva have released a new report accusing Syrian government officials and leaders of the country's military and security forces of ordering mass atrocities in efforts to crush anti-government protests.
The Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria said on Monday that Syrian government forces committed crimes against humanity, including the killing and torturing of children, and held state officials responsible for murder, rape and torture. The panel interviewed 223 victims and witnesses, including defectors from President Bashar al-Assad's security forces who told of shoot-to-kill orders against demonstrators and cases of children being tortured to death. At least 256 children had been killed by government forces as of early November, with some boys sexually tortured, the panel said.
"The commission believes that orders to shoot and otherwise mistreat civilians originated from policies and directives issued at the highest levels of the armed forces and the government," the panel said in its report.
Amnesty International has called on the Security Council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court, order an arms embargo and freeze the assets of Assad and his associates. Human Rights Watch said the UN Human Rights Council must refer the Syria case to the Security Council and call for it "to impose targeted sanctions and refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court".Because of the internal divisions, the Security Council has so far only agreed to a statement, with less moral weight, against the violence in Syria. The 193 member UN General Assembly passed a resolution last week deploring the violence.