Tunisian Revolution and the Middle East--And Now, The Withdrawal From Afghanistan (M.E.T.)

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http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/full-text-email-un-libya-envoy-bernardino-leon-uae-foreign-minister-1313023554

Full text of email from UN Libya envoy Bernardino Leon to UAE foreign minister

 

Middle East Eye publishes the full text of an email sent by Bernardino Leon to UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed

 

This is the full email sent by UN Special Representative in Libya Bernardino Leon to UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan on 31 December 2014.

 

Middle East Eye has seen the email and reproduced it in full here, with email addresses removed.

Edited November 8, 2015 by visionary

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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/egypt-military-arrests-journalist-blow-freedom-151108194121623.html

Egypt military arrests journalist in 'blow for freedom'

 

The Egyptian army has arrested a prominent journalist and human rights advocate, prompting condemnation by human rights groups.

 

Military intelligence arrested Hossam Bahgat, an investigative journalist and contributor at the local Mada Masr news outlet, on Sunday morning after delivering a summons to his home on Thursday. According to Mada Masr, Bahgat was charged with "publishing false news that harms national interests and disseminating information that disturbs public peace".

 

In a statement  published on Sunday night, Amnesty International said Bahgat's arrest is part of the Egyptian authorities' "ferocious onslaught against independent journalism and civil society".

 

Philip Luther, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa programme, slammed the move as "yet another nail in the coffin for the freedom of expression in Egypt".

"The Egyptian military cannot continue to consider itself above the law and immune from criticism," Luther said.

 

The Committee to Protect Journalists' Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator, Sherif Mansour, said the arrest and detention of Bahgat is "a clear attempt to stifle reporting".

 

"The Egyptian military has already indicated its contempt for the role of an independent media with a series of arrests of journalists," Mansour said.

 

"The Egyptian authorities should release Hossam Bahgat immediately. The fact that he was questioned for so long without his lawyers present only heightens the outrage."

 

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/164086.aspx

BREAKING: Hossam Bahgat to be detained for four days pending investigations by military prosecution

Edited November 9, 2015 by visionary

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http://www.buzzfeed.com/borzoudaragahi/egypts-military-offered-top-activisit-a-deal-to-escape-jail?utm_term=.qbb3ZMRez

Egypt’s Military Offered Top Activist A Deal To Escape Jail Time, But He Refused It

 

After the Egyptian military official interrogated human rights activist and investigative journalist Hossam Bahgat on Sunday, they offered him a deal: sign a document promising never again to write about Egypt’s armed forces and walk out of the military intelligence office in eastern Cairo that very moment.

 

Bahgat refused, said Amr Ezzat, a member of an organization he founded, and two other sources close to the case. Shortly after spending nearly 10 hours with an interrogator, 36-year-old Bahgat was taken away to Group 77, a military intelligence unit in Cairo with a detention facility, where he will be held for at least four more days, sources close to the investigation told BuzzFeed News.

 

“At the beginning, the officer questioning him was very polite and decent and said ‘no problem,’ you will go home with your lawyers at the end of the day,” Taher Abu-Nasr, a member of his legal team, told BuzzFeed News.

 

Instead, Egypt’s military authorities are holding Bahgat on charges of publishing false information that endangers national security because of an article he wrote nearly a month ago, detailing rifts within the country’s military-security apparatus. His four-day detention can very well — and most likely — will be renewed.

 

“We’ve seen this before,” said a Western diplomat in Cairo, who spoke to BuzzFeed on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the subject. “Since they didn’t release him today, it’s quite a bad sign.”

 

Bahgat, who speaks fluent English, is warmly embraced by Western officials and international journalists. His arrest will cause ripple among both within diplomats seeking to draw Egypt back toward the democratic path it absconded and rights advocates struggling to improve the country’s tattered civil liberties record.

 

Human rights lawyers say this is the first or among the first applications of a new rule barring anyone from publishing information about the army without official approval, an ominous sign to journalists seeking to cover a country where the military plays a prominent role in politics and the economy.

Edited November 9, 2015 by visionary

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/world/middleeast/hossam-bahgat-egypt.html?smid=tw-share

Hossam Bahgat, Journalist and Advocate, Is Released by Egypt’s Military

 

CAIRO — The Egyptian military on Tuesday released the journalist Hossam Bahgat, hours before planned demonstrations in Cairo, London and other cities to call for his freedom.

 

Mr. Bahgat, 36, founded a highly respected human rights advocacy group, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, in 2002. Over the last two years, he has become a leading investigative journalist in Egypt, writing in English and Arabic for the online news organization Mada Masr.

 

Egyptian military intelligence had summoned him on Sunday morning for interrogation about a recent report he had published describing criminal convictions against 26 military officers for plotting a coup. He had been detained since then and was under investigation by a military prosecutor on charges of publishing false news harmful to national security, a crime that under Egyptian law can be punished with a jail sentence.

 

It was not immediately clear whether Mr. Bahgat could still face those charges after his release, friends of his said on Tuesday. His friends said that he had called one of them after being released from a military intelligence building unexpectedly, and that he was taking a taxi to meet them.

 

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:1eda4e04281d423c8cc45acc1bf465cd

Bahgat said military prosecution officials told him he was accused of spreading false news that would "compromise national security," and of maliciously spreading information that would "harm the public peace."

 

"I still do not know the fate of the investigation with me regarding the two mentioned accusations," Bahgat said. "The defense lawyers will try to find out more in the coming days."

 

Bahgat, who founded the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in 2002, said he "resisted several attempts to intimidate and entice me to waive my right to call a lawyer."

During his detention, Bahgat said he was escorted around by armed men in civilian clothes, and was blindfolded on three occasions.

 

At one point, he was taken to an empty field, told to take off his shirt and trousers, and was then inspected superficially by a doctor, he said. He was also held temporarily in "a narrow, dark cell void of anything but two blankets on the floor."

 

Bahgat is one of Egypt's best-known rights advocates, honored with a Human Rights Watch Alison Des Forges Award in 2011.

 

The army had said he was referred to military trial for "compromising national security" and writing about the military without its written permission, while lawyers said he faced charges of spreading "false news."

 

A day earlier, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon expressed concern over the detention, with his spokesman calling it "the latest of a series of detentions of human rights defenders and others that is profoundly worrying."

Edited November 10, 2015 by visionary

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/11989106/Revealed-Saudi-Arabias-manifesto-for-change-in-the-face-of-rumours-of-coup-plots.html

Revealed: Saudi Arabia's manifesto for change in the face of rumours of coup plots

 

Saudi Arabia has issued a manifesto for change in the face of rumours of coup plots and international pressure, ranging from economic reform to the role of women and allowing human rights groups into the country.

 

At a time when the country’s internal politics are under more scrutiny than at any time for decades, close advisers to the new King Salman and his powerful son have taken the unprecedented step of outlining a detailed programme of its future government to The Telegraph.

 

It amounts to a Thatcherite programme of budget cuts, increasing the role of the private sector, and reforms to the way the kingdom is governed.

 

It obliquely acknowledges that radical changes in the royal family since the king acceded to the throne in January, including the sidelining of a generation of older princes and the former heir to the throne, have met with opposition. There have been claims outside the country that disgruntled princes are attempting to mount a coup to replace the king with one of his brothers.

 

But the statement of principles shown to the Telegraph says that the way the country has been run since its founding a century ago must give way to “youth”. “These resolute and decisive changes may have annoyed some people but it does not amount to a crisis,” it says.

 

“The media is talking about a crisis within the royal family but they forget to talk to the Saudi people who are thirsty for change and economic reform.

“People want a ‘remake’ of the Kingdom on new foundations that will make it a major economic power, and this will not happen without a shake-up.”

 

It also makes a rare acknowledgement that the Saudi authorities are themselves in part to blame for the country’s poor international image, particularly over the issue of women’s rights.

 

“The Saudi women issue has become a global issue of public opinion and it seems that we have lost a lot in this case (in terms of public opinion),” it says. “(But this) was fair, because we did not improve the way we managed that issue.”

 

In what would be a major step forward, it says the solution is to “open the doors of the kingdom to international committees and human rights organizations”.

 

The reform proposals spring from the dramatic political changes in Saudi Arabia since the death of King Abdullah in January. He had been king since 2005, but had already been effectively running the country for a decade before that, since his brother and predecessor King Fahd suffered a debilitating stroke.

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/borzoudaragahi/nobodys-sure-whos-running-algeria-but-it-definitely-isnt-the?utm_term=.txKjzzwQR#.hdZ8ZZgzDN

Nobody’s Sure Who’s Running Algeria But It Definitely Isn’t The President

 

It is the largest country by land mass in all of Africa, and the second or third largest by population in the Arab world, blessed with massive oil and gas reserves that have turned it into one of the key military and political powers of the Mediterranean.

 

But many say Algeria is in deep trouble, with its ailing longtime ruler nowhere to be seen and factions struggling over a successor. On Wednesday the future of the country took on a new tone of urgency amid a report that Abdelaziz Bouteflika, president of Algeria for the last 16 years, had been rushed to France a day earlier for emergency medical treatment. Algerian officials have not responded to the report.

 

Algeria, a key partner in Western efforts to fight a burgeoning Islamist militant threat in Africa as well as a crucial source of energy supplies, has been undergoing a governance crisis for years, said Ali Benflis, a former prime minister and presidential candidate.

 

“We all know that there is a state of power vacuum and that Bouteflika is no longer able to be in charge and that this power vacuum is being filled with extra-constitutional forces,” he told BuzzFeed News in a telephone interview from Algiers, the capital. “There is no one to lead the country.”

 

A group of 19 politicians, including former ministers, last Friday signed a letter voicing concern about Bouteflika”s heath, wondering whether he was actually running the country’s day-to-day affairs and requesting a meeting with him. “We believe it is our duty as Algerian patriots to draw your attention to the deterioration of the general climate in our country,” the letter said.

 

Bouteflika’s prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, insisted Monday his boss was in “full control,” but the president hasn’t appeared public for weeks.

 

Algeria has long been one of the most stable countries in the region after emerging from the wreckage of a decade-long civil war that spanned the 1990s between security forces and Islamist militants that left tens of thousands dead. It weathered the Arab Spring uprisings that shook its neighbors by raising public salaries and handing out cash for housing and municipal projects. Beyond security cooperation and close energy sector ties, U.S. firms have increased investments in Algerian agriculture, pharmaceuticals and education.

 

But the crash of oil prices has hit Algeria hard. Oil and natural gas exports account for 97% of its foreign earnings and two-thirds of its budget. Algeria this year experienced a budget shortfall for the first time in a decade after oil revenues plummeted 50%.

Edited November 12, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34814832

Burundi violence: Belgium and EU act over 'rising risk'

 

Belgium has advised its citizens to leave Burundi, and the EU is cutting staff levels in the country because of the "rising risk of violence".

 

Belgium says those among about 500 Belgians in the country "whose presence is not essential" should leave.

 

The EU says it will evacuate temporarily its employees' "families and part of the non-essential staff".

 

The cycle of violence began with protests against President Pierre Nkurunziza's bid for a third term.

 

At least 240 people have been killed there since the demonstrations began in April.

 

There are fears of a Rwandan-style genocide in Burundi, which also has a history of tensions between Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups.

 

In a statement on Friday, the Belgian foreign ministry said: "We advise Belgians who are currently in Burundi and whose presence is not essential to leave the country as soon as normal measures allow."

 

Meanwhile, the EU ambassador to Burundi, Patrick Spirlet, told Reuters that the "rising risk of violence" had prompted the EU mission in the capital Bujumbura to reduce some staff.

However, he stressed that "the delegation will continue functioning normally".

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/11/uncertainty-looms-myanmar-muslims-151115101345438.html

Uncertainty looms for Myanmar's Muslims

 

Two nights before Myanmar's November 8 election, hundreds of leaflets were scattered on the sun-baked streets of Mandalay, the former royal capital.

"It's time for change," they said, echoing the slogan of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

 

But the plain white fliers were not printed by the NLD. Instead, they warned that a vote for the party would lead to a takeover by the 'kalar'- a derogatory word for Myanmar's Muslim minority.

 

"The kalar have the Muslim pea**** in their hands," they concluded, referring to the NLD's logo.

Some fliers were more vulgar: one featured a badly manipulated image of the NLD's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi embracing a Muslim leader; another showed her in cartoon form, breast-feeding a Muslim man, while neglecting her child, the nation of Myanmar.

 

Muslim community leaders in Mandalay said the pamphlets were a crude attempt to whip up sectarian fears to the benefit of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the political arm of Myanmar's powerful military.

 

"They were just scattered everywhere," said Thein Swe, 60, the deputy chairman of the Shwe Pone Shein mosque, Mandalay's oldest. "We feel a bit uncomfortable about it."

 

In the end, Myanmar's voters paid little attention. Going to the polls on November 8, for the first free national election since 1990, they voted overwhelmingly for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, which as of Sunday had won 387 of the declared 478 parliamentary seats, to the USDP's 41. It was a stunning repudiation of military rule and a decisive vote for change.

Edited November 16, 2015 by visionary

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http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/22/iran-sentences-washington-post-reporter-to-prison-sentence-iran-state-tv.html?utm_content=nobylines&utm_campaign=ajam&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

Iran sentences Washington Post reporter to prison

 

Journalist Jason Rezaian, detained by Iran since July 2014, has been sentenced to an unspecified prison term

 

An Iranian court has sentenced Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian to a prison term, the state news agency said on Sunday, quoting the judiciary spokesman in a case that is a sensitive issue in contentious U.S.-Iranian relations.

 

The length of the prison term was not specified. "Serving a jail term is in Jason Rezaian's sentence but I cannot give details," judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei told a weekly news conference in Tehran, according to IRNA.

 

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters he was aware of the IRNA report but could not independently confirm it. It was not immediately clear why Iran has not given details of the ruling against the 39-year-old Rezaian, who Iranian prosecutors accused of espionage.

 

On Oct. 11, Ejei said Rezaian, the paper's Tehran bureau chief who has both U.S. and Iranian citizenship, had been convicted, without elaborating. He said then that Rezaian had 20 days to appeal against the verdict.

 

The Washington Post said last month that the verdict, issued soon after Iran raised hopes of a thaw in its relations with the West by striking a nuclear deal with world powers including Washington, was "vague and puzzling".

 

It said the vagueness of Ejei's remarks showed Rezaian's case was not just about espionage and that the reporter was a bargaining chip in a "larger game". The Post and his family denounced the espionage charges against Rezaian as absurd.

Edited November 22, 2015 by visionary

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http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-attack-tunisia-presidential-guard-bus-kills-11-171954570.html;_ylt=A0LEVxogrFRWvTgAabFXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyMHV0ajY0BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjA5MzJfMQRzZWMDc2M-

Bomb attack on Tunisia presidential guard bus kills 12

 

A bomb blast on a bus transporting Tunisia's presidential guard in central Tunis on Tuesday killed at least 12 people and wounded 16, the interior ministry said.

 

A security source at the site of the attack said "most of the agents who were on the bus are dead."

 

The presidency had said the blast on the bus killed at least 14 people, but this was revised down, with the interior ministry giving the latest toll as least 12 dead.

The explosion, described as an "attack" by presidential spokesman Moez Sinaoui, struck on the capital's Mohamed V Avenue, a ministry official told AFP.

 

An AFP journalist reported seeing the partly burnt-out shell of the bus, with police, ambulances and fire trucks at the scene.

Many people were in tears.

 

A bank employee working nearby reported hearing a large explosion and seeing the bus on fire.

 

While there was no immediate claim of responsibility, Tunisia has been plagued by Islamist violence since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

 

Two attacks earlier this year claimed by the Islamic State group targeted foreigners -- at the National Bardo Museum in March, killing 21 tourists and a policeman, and at a resort hotel in Sousse in June, killing 38 tourists.

Edited November 24, 2015 by visionary

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/28/world/asia/once-inguantanamo-afghan-now-leads-war-against-taliban-and-isis.html?emc=edit_au_20151127&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=13104264&_r=0

Once in Guantánamo, Afghan Now Leads War Against Taliban and ISIS

 

Hajji Ghalib did just what the American military feared he would after his release from the Guantánamo Bay prison camp: He returned to the Afghan battlefield.

 

But rather than worrying about Mr. Ghalib, the Americans might have considered encouraging him. Lean and weather-beaten, he is now leading the fight against the Taliban and the Islamic State across a stretch of eastern Afghanistan.

 

His effectiveness has led to appointments as the Afghan government’s senior representative in some of the country’s most war-ravaged districts. Afghan and American officials alike describe him as a fiercely effective fighter against the insurgency, and the American military sometimes supports his men with airstrikes — although Mr. Ghalib complains that there are too few bombers and drones for his taste.

Edited November 28, 2015 by visionary

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http://www.newsweek.com/hundreds-saudi-women-are-running-local-elections-399925?rx=us

Hundreds Of Saudi Women Are Running in Local Elections

 

Hundreds of women across Saudi Arabia started preparations on Sunday to run for public office in municipal elections to be held on December 12.

It is the first time that women in Saudi Arabia will be allowed not only to vote, but also to stand as candidates in local elections that will be the third vote for local councils in the nation’s modern history.

 

Around 900 women are standing in the country’s local elections out of about 7,000 candidates vying for seats on 284 councils, according to the Saudi electoral commission, reports the Saudi Gazette.

 

Saudi Arabia’s previous ruler, the late King Abdullah, pledged to reform women’s rights before his death in January of this year. In 2011, he issued an order to grant women some opportunities for political participation. This followed a royal decree issued in 2013 mandating that the Consultative Council, a royally appointed body that advises the King, be at least 20 percent women.  

 

Since campaigning commenced on Sunday, Saudi officials have so far disqualified two women for reasons yet to be clarified, reports the Guardian newspaper.

Both women are human rights activists, including Loujain al-Hathloul, who confirmed her disqualification in a message on Twitter on Sunday. She said: “No particular reason has been mentioned regarding my elimination, yet.”

 

Saudi authorities detained al-Hathloul in February of this year for more than 72 days after she attempted to drive into the country from the United Arab Emirates. At the time, the 25-year-old said that her actions were part of a campaign to allow women to drive.

 

While no laws explicitly ban women from driving in Saudi Arabia, authorities do not issue them licenses. Women who drive in public, such as al-Hathloul, risk being fined and arrested by the Saudi police.

 

Officials also banned Nassima al-Sadah, a candidate in the Gulf coast city of Qatif, on Saturday. She posted a message on Twitter saying that officials had informed her late on Saturday evening and that her name had been removed from the candidate list.

 

Human Rights Watch (HRW) told Newsweek by phone that the number of disqualifications could be higher. Adam Coogle, Middle East Researcher for HRW, said he had heard unconfirmed rumors that four women had been disqualified. “It seems certain that the disqualifications have some sort of relation to their statuses as activists,” he said.

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1597471/al-qaeda-threatens-saudi-over-mass-executions

Al Qaeda Threatens Saudi Over Mass Executions

 

Al Qaeda's wing in Yemen has vowed to attack Saudi Arabia over the kingdom's plans to kill some of its members in a mass execution.

 

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) pledged on Twitter to carry out attacks in response to the executions.

 

"We swear to God, our blood will be shed before the blood of our captives, and their pure blood will not dry before we shed the blood of the soldiers of al Saud," the group said in a post on Tuesday.

 

"We will not enjoy life unless we get the necks of the al Saud rulers."

 

Over the past year, a new wave of terror attacks, mostly claimed by Islamic State, have killed dozens in bombings and shootings in the kingdom.

 

Last week it was reported that Saudi authorities were planning to execute more than 50 people convicted of "terrorist crimes".

 

Some of those facing execution were affiliated with al Qaeda, it was reported.

 

Others were from the eastern town of Awamiya, where the government has suppressed Shi'ite demonstrations for equal rights.

 

One of the prisoners awaiting execution is Ali Mohammed al Nimr, who was reportedly sentenced to death for his part in anti-government protests, including breaking allegiance to the king and rioting.

 

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/11/remembering-moneem-gharsalli-died-tunisia-151118153159272.html

Remembering Moneem Gharsalli: 'He died for Tunisia'

 

Moneem Gharsalli looked exactly like his mother. His angular nose sloped downwards towards lips that stretched widely across his face.

 

His 61-year-old mother, Jamila, greets me warmly. We are in Moneem's childhood home in the western Tunisian city of Kasserine and the young man's eyes stare out from the photographs that plaster the living room walls.

But Moneem is not here.

 

He was killed four months ago in an attack 70km away, and Jamila is left with a pain so unbearable that no words can describe her loss.

 

"He was my first boy. He was the dearest because he was the first ... I still can't believe he's gone," she says, her eyes wet, her hands tightly clasped. She uses the ends of her canary yellow headscarf to wipe away her tears.

 

Early on the morning of June 15, Moneem, 32, a captain in the Tunisian National Guard who worked with the anti-terrorism brigade and then with the rapid intervention brigade, was at home, having just returned from a shift working as a security detail at a concert.

 

The phone rang. It was his superiors in Tunis alerting him to an attack in Sidi Bouzid. Could he respond straight away, they asked him.

 

"He was always the first to respond in these situations," says his younger brother, Najed, 30.

 

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/11/iran-reformists-attacked-parliament-elections-2016.html

The tumbling turban: Who is behind attacks on Reformists in Iran?

 

As Iran’s disparate political entities begin to lobby and organize for the 2016 parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections, attacks on Reformist gatherings portend a challenging path for a decimated group that hopes to return to power.

 

A significant factor in the election of moderate President Hassan Rouhani in 2013 was the overwhelming support he received from prominent Reformist figures. While many of them supported Rouhani in hopes of ending the policies of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — by denying hard-line Saeed Jalili the presidency — others hoped to enter political office themselves, taking advantage of Rouhani’s election promise of a more open political climate. However, attacks on Reformist gatherings by protesters appear to be dashing these hopes.

 

The most recent attack occurred Nov. 29 at a university in Yasuj. Azar Mansouri, a former adviser to President Mohammad Khatami and a Reformist political activist with the Participation Front, was scheduled to speak. According to organizers, they had received permission from both the university and the city to hold the event, but conservative groups from other universities filled the auditorium early, preventing others from entering. When Mansouri entered, the conservative groups began chanting “Death to seditionists,” a term used against Reformist organizers who supported Mir Hossein Mousavi in the highly contested 2009 presidential elections. “The sedition” is the term critics use to refer to the Green Movement.

 

One organizer of the event described the disruption as “being attacked from three sides.” Unable to deliver her speech, Mansouri left. Three people were injured when one of the protesters pulled a knife on the group accompanying Mansouri.

 

On Nov. 21, a scheduled speech by former Reformist parliamentarian Mostafa Kavakebian was canceled after about 100 people calling themselves Hezbollah Nation protested. The protesters had warned of a repeat of the “Shiraz event,” referring to a March incident in which outspoken Iranian member of parliament Ali Motahari was physically attacked by plainclothesmen in Shiraz. Motahari has been a vocal advocate of ending the house arrests of 2009 presidential candidates and Green Movement leaders Mehdi Karroubi, Mousavi and Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard.

 

Another attack on the Reformist gatherings occurred Nov. 19, when Hojat al-Islam Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari, Khatami’s former interior minister, was physically attacked in the city of Varamin. As he entered an auditorium to give a speech, conservative groups began chanting slogans and some physically confronted him, knocking the cleric’s turban off his head. According to reports, three people were injured in the attack and one person is still hospitalized.

 

While local authorities have promised to investigate the events, these types of attacks by protesters are rarely prosecuted.

 

The attacks also signal that Reformists with links to the Khatami administration haven't yet created the right climate for their political comebacks.

 

Moderate and other Reformist politicians who hope to run the parliamentary elections and break parliament's conservative dominance must also pass through the hard-line Guardian Council, a 12-member body that reviews candidates and laws for approval.

Edited December 1, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

Potentially huge news from Libya

 

https://twitter.com/wheelertweets

New declaration by Libya HoR & GNC (rival legislatures both past their expiration dates) appears to be the end of the UN's Leon/Kobler plan

8:15 PM

 

Libya HoR & GNC will form committee to make constitution based on 1951 constitution as amended in 1963. (Fractured, failed CDA is finished)
8:20 PM

 

Libya HoR & GNC will form a committee to select a new PM and 2 deputy PMs--the "unity" government that UNSMIL failed miserably to achieve
8:24 PM

 

Important to note that the Libya HoR & GNC members who announced an agreement tonight in Tunis Tunisia were there officially
8:27 PM

The main question will be what happens after (if) they do start working together.  Will there be attempts to undermine the government from some factions?

And what of links some of the members of the Islamist GNC members have to extremist organizations like Ansar Al Sharia and possibly to detentions and assassinations that occurred back when they were trying to take more power and stifle protests against them?

What of the HOR and the Libyan military' possible links to the UAE and Egypt and the GNC's to Turkey and Qatar?

Hopefully we won't see too much jostling of foreign powers trying to buy influence at the cost of stability in Libya like we did after the war.

Also there's a lot of hostiliy between to two main bodies and their various factions, so this won't be easy even putting aside other concerns.

That said, this is good news for putting up a stronger fight against ISIS in Libya.

Hopefully they will focus more on getting back Sirte and getting rid of ISIS there and in the pockets they have in Benghazi.

(ISIS' arrival did conveniently calm down a lot of the fighting between the two sides though, so there is that to worry about too)

 

 

For a rosier look at life in Libya right now, here's a couple of pictures from Derna, where ISIS was kicked out back in July.

https://twitter.com/Eljarh/status/673131592387268609

Libya A completely different Derna - "Derna Kids Festival" held today in the city. Great photos emerging. ISFree

8:27 AM

Edited December 6, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-election-idUSKBN0TV0E520151213?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Saudi Arabian women vote for first time in local elections
 

Saudi Arabian women voted for the first time on Saturday in local council elections and also stood as candidates, a step hailed by some activists in the Islamic patriarchy as a historic change, but by others as merely symbolic.

 

"As a first step it is a great achievement. Now we feel we are part of society, that we contribute," said Sara Ahmed, 30, a physiotherapist entering a polling station in north Riyadh. "We talk a lot about it, it's a historic day for us."

 

The election, which follows men-only polls in 2005 and 2011, is for two thirds of seats on councils that previously had only advisory powers, but will now have a limited decision making role in local government.

 

This incremental expansion of voting rights has spurred some Saudis to hope the Al Saud ruling family, which appoints the national government, will eventually carry out further reforms to open up the political system.

 

Saudi Arabia is the only country in which women cannot drive and a woman's male "guardian", usually a father, husband, brother or son, can stop her traveling overseas, marrying, working, studying or having some forms of elective surgery.

 

Under King Abdullah, who died in January and who announced in 2011 that women would be able to vote in this election, steps were taken for women to have a bigger public role, sending more of them to university and encouraging female employment.

 

However, while women's suffrage has in many other countries been a transformative moment in the quest for gender equality, its impact in Saudi Arabia is likely to be more limited due to a wider lack of democracy and continued social conservatism.

 

Before Abdullah announced women would take part in this year's elections, the country's Grand Mufti, its most senior religious figure, described women's involvement in politics as "opening the door to evil".

 

The pace of social reform in Saudi Arabia, while ultimately dictated by the Al Saud, is also strongly influenced by a tussle between conservatives and progressives over how the country should marry its religious tradition with modernity.

[visionary]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/13/world/middleeast/saudi-elections-are-first-to-include-women-as-voters-and-candidates.html?smid=tw-share&referer=

Saudi Elections Are First to Include Women as Voters and Candidates

 

There were no public debates, few campaign posters and no scandals. Candidates did not promote their platforms or undermine their rivals on television. And they risked disqualification for speaking to journalists.

 

But a small minority of Saudi citizens went to the polls on Saturday for a rare exercise in democracy, or at least its closest equivalent in a country ruled by an absolute monarch and according to Shariah law.

 

The elections for local councils across the kingdom were the first time that women were able to participate — as both voters and candidates — and rights activists lauded the move as further expanding the role of Saudi women in public life. The rules were largely the same for candidates of both genders.

 

“It is very important, with all its problems,” said Hatoon al-Fassi, a Saudi professor of women’s history, who helped organize workshops for female candidates until the government told her to stop. (It said the advice gave the women an unfair advantage, she said.)

 

 

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING Woman wins seat on Mecca municipal council in Saudi polls: official
12:25 AM

Edited December 13, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/women-win-seats-landmark-saudi-arabia-elections-151213054750832.html

Women win seats in landmark Saudi Arabia elections

 

At least four women have won seats in Saudi Arabia's municipal polls, the country's first-ever elections open to female voters and candidates, local reports said.

 

The female candidates were elected to three councils - two in Ihsaa governorate and one each in Tobouk and Mecca, as votes were still being counted on Sunday.

 

Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi was elected to the council of Madrakah, a region in Mecca, the official SPA news agency reported, citing election commission president Osama al-Bar.

 

Saturday's municipal poll, which was hailed by many as historic, saw a turnout of about 25 percent, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Riyadh Saad al-Saadi reported.

 

The fact that this was only the third time that Saudi citizens voted in an election meant that there was still little experience with the electoral process, al-Saadi said. The first local election was in 2005, and the second in 2011. Women were excluded in both.

 

Women are banned from driving and must cover themselves in public in the conservative kingdom, which was the world's last country to give its women the right to vote.

 

The official results in the latest election were expected to be announced on Monday.

 

More than 900 women ran for seats. They were up against nearly 6,000 men competing for places on 284 councils whose powers are restricted to local affairs including responsibility for streets, public gardens and rubbish collection.

 

"I am happy for having voted for the first time in my life," a woman, who declined to give her name, told the DPA news agency after leaving a polling station in the capital Riyadh.

 

Another female voter, Najla Harir, said: "I exercised my electoral right. We are optimistic about a bright future for women in our homeland."

 

Hatoon al-Fassi, a Saudi womens' rights activist and writer, said in a tweet: "This is a new day. The day of the Saudi woman".

Edited December 13, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/13/alaa-al-aswany-egypt-best-selling-author-government-cancellation?CMP=twt_gu

Egypt's best-selling author says government trying to silence him

 

Egypt’s best-selling author, Alaa al-Aswany, said on Sunday that authorities have pressured a cultural centre to cancel an event where he was scheduled to talk about how the government manipulates the public with theories that the world is conspiring against Egypt.

 

Aswany said the cancellation of his gathering last Thursday in Alexandria followed other measures in the past year that have prevented him from appearing on TV channels or getting published in Egyptian newspapers.

 

He told the Associated Press that “freedom of expression is at its lowest point, worse than in the days of Hosni Mubarak”, Egypt’s longtime president who was overthrown in a popular uprising in 2011.

 

Calls and a text message sent to the Interior Ministry weren’t answered, and the cultural centre could not immediately be reached for comment.

 

The cancellation follows the referral to trial by public prosecutors of the author Ahmed Naji for publishing in a literary magazine an excerpt from his novel The Use of Life that prosecutors said violated public morals.

 

Aswany rose to international fame after the publication of his 2002 novel The Yacoubian Building, which describes social and political changes in Egyptian society since the 1952 military coup by the Free Officers, who included former resident Gamal Abdel-Nasser. In 2006 the novel was made into one of Egypt’s biggest movie productions, featuring some of the country’s top movie stars.

 

Aswany broke social taboos by including an openly gay character, and described the radicalisation of a young man after being rejected from the police academy because his father was a doorman.

 

Aswany supported the Egyptian military’s ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in July 2013 but has grown critical of resident Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi, who as military chief ousted Morsi. Aswany says near-daily invitations for TV and newspaper interviews have ceased since Sissi’s inauguration in June last year.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/13/saudi-election-idUSKBN0TW08G20151213

First women elected to Saudi local councils

 

Saudi Arabians voted 17 women into public office in municipal elections in the conservative Islamic kingdom on Saturday, the first to allow female participation, a state-aligned news site reported on Sunday.

 

The election was the first in which women could vote and run as candidates, a landmark step in a country where women are barred from driving and are legally dependent on a male relative to approve almost all their major life decisions.

 

Sabq.org, a news website affiliated with the autocratic monarchy's Interior Ministry, reported that a total of 17 women had been elected in various parts of the country. Some results had been announced on the official Saudi Press Agency, including the victories of four women.

 

However, the election was for only two thirds of seats in municipal councils that have no lawmaking or national powers, and follows men-only polls in 2005 and 2011.

Huda al-Jeraisy, who as the daughter of a former head of the chamber of commerce in the conservative central part of the kingdom was seen by some Saudis as imparting an official stamp of approval on women's candidature, won a seat in Riyadh.

 

Salma bint Hazab al-Otaibi won a seat in the Madrika district of Mecca, the holiest city of Islam. Lama bint Abdulaziz al-Sulaiman, Rasha Hafza, Sana Abdulatif Abdulwahab al-Hamam and Massoumeh al-Reda won seats in Jeddah.

 

In northern Saudi Arabia, Hanouf bint Mufreh bin Ayad al-Hazimi won a seat in al-Jawf, Mina Salman Saeed al-Omairi and Fadhila Afnan Muslim al-Attawi both won seats in the Northern Borders province.

 

Two women won seats in al-Ahsa in Eastern Province, but their names were not immediately released. Elsewhere in the province, Khadra al-Mubarak won a seat in Qatif district. In the southern Jazan province, Aisha bint Hamoud Ali Bakri won a seat.

 

In Qassim, traditionally the most conservative part of the country, two women were elected but their names were not immediately released. Another was elected in al-Babtain district.

Edited December 13, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2015/12/14/israeli-turkish-rapprochement-crucial-for-region-says-erdogan

Israeli-Turkish rapprochement crucial for region, says Erdoğan

 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking to journalists during his trip back from the Neutrality Conference in Turkmenistan over the weekend, said a diplomatic thaw between Turkey and Israel was for the good of the entire region, repeating Turkey's three preconditions for any thaw. In the past week, certain signs from Israel sparked a new debate about the Israeli desire to re-establish links with Turkey.

 

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz voiced governmental discussions over possible natural gas exports to Turkey while the appointment of Yossi Cohen, a close ally of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an expert on the region, as the new chief of Mossad was seen as a signal that the country wants to create an avenue to improve ties with regional countries, especially Turkey.

 

Erdoğan said that out of Turkey's three conditions, which are an apology for the 2010 Mavi Marmara massacre of Turkish activists by Israeli forces,

compensation for the victims' families and an end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, only the first one was fulfilled. Erdoğan, during the interview, touched on Iraq, which he criticized for filing a complaint against Turkey at the U.N., and also described Donald Trump as an unsuccessful politician for his Islamophobic remarks.

 

"I already said that once the compensation and the embargo problems were resolved, normalization process may start. This normalization process would be good for us, Israel, Palestine and the entire region. The region definitely needs this. I don't believe the Israeli public is pleased with the current state of relations. We need to consider the interests of the people of the region and introduce peace," he said.

 

On his meetings in Turkmenistan, Erdoğan said he had the opportunity to meet with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedow along with Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Iranian First Deputy President İshak Cihangir and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. There were also comprehensive meetings with Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic. He said the talks centered on developing trade ties and that most had proposed to mediate the differences between Turkey and Russia.

 

When asked whether natural gas trade came up during his discussions with the Turkmen president, Erdoğan said: "Turkmenistan's main problem concerning natural gas is Russia, which has decreased gas purchases from 40 billion cubic meters a year to 4 billion a year. They are now searching for alternative markets. China currently is the main buyer. They are now readying to build a gas pipeline that will reach India."

 

http://news.yahoo.com/children-return-school-libyas-war-torn-benghazi-190618414.html;_ylt=A0LEVvt9221WykAAow1jmolQ

Children return to school in Libya's war-torn Benghazi

 

Schools in the war-torn Libyan city of Benghazi reopened Sunday for the first time in a year and a half, although international peace efforts have yet to quell the fighting there.

 

"I'm so happy to be back at school," a 13-year-old girl said before going into class at Beshayer school.

 

Its classrooms stand just 500 metres (yards) away from the scene of some of the fiercest clashes between government forces and armed groups including jihadists over the past 18 months.

 

"Everything's quite normal," the girl said, a wisp of hair showing beneath a flowery yellow headscarf. "I'm not scared."

 

In jeans and sweatshirts, young pupils improvised a football game in the schoolyard. Outside, parents dropped off their children, relieved that their education was back on track.

 

Abdelaziz al-Dinali waved his two children goodbye from his parked car as they resumed classes, two months later than pupils in the rest of the country.

"God willing, with the return to school, security will also return to Benghazi," he said.

Edited December 13, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

https://news.vice.com/article/burundi-is-going-to-hell-says-us-ambassador-to-united-nations

Burundi Is 'Going to Hell,' Says US Ambassador to United Nations

 

A day after the United Nations' Security Council received a report from the UN's special envoy for Burundi on the recent deadly violence in the country, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power dashed off a distressed note to diplomats at the British and French missions in New York.

 

"Flagging, we are leaving Burundi," Power wrote on Saturday in the email, which was obtained by VICE News. "Assessment is it is going to hell."

 

Before her entrance into diplomacy, Power was perhaps best known as the author of "A Problem from Hell," a book examining American inaction in the face of genocide.Though many consider Burundi's current crisis largely political, Power's choice of language on Saturday was an eerie reminder of the holocaust that beset its neighbor Rwanda 21 years ago – a genocide whose ghosts linger in the Great Lakes region.

 

While the UN and African Union are meant to be engaging in "contingency planning," to prepare for the possible outbreak of open conflict in Burundi, in her note, Power offered a dire assessment of those efforts.

 

"Yesterday's council session was pretty pathetic," she wrote. "No contingency planning, no UN presence, no dialogue…" For now, there are no armed UN personnel in the country.

"Let's engage capitals and figure out quickly what we are for," Power told French and British diplomats.

The briefing by envoy Jamal Benomar at the session Power termed "pathetic" came hours after violence in Burundi's capital Bujumbura that reportedly left almost 90 people dead.

 

Simmering street protests and deadly clashes have plagued the country since this spring, and continued after the re-election of President Pierre Nkurunziza in July to a controversial third term. In a briefing to the Security Council in November, UN human rights chief Zeid Raad al Hussein reported that extrajudicial killings and "political assassinations" had become common.

 

"At least 240 people have been killed since protests began in April, with bodies dumped on the streets on an almost nightly basis," he said. "There have been hundreds of cases of arbitrary arrest and detention," he added, "targeting members of the opposition, journalists, human rights defenders and their families, people attending the funerals of those who have been killed, and inhabitants of neighborhoods perceived to be supportive of the opposition."

More than 200,000 Burundians have fled the country in the face of recent violence, many of them north to Rwanda. Central to the allegations against Rwanda are claims that it has a hand in conscripting opposition fighters from among the roughly 75,000 Burundians inside the country. In November, Jeff Drumtra, a former UN refugee official, wrote in a letter to the Washington Post that Rwanda had in recent months "secretly recruited an army of Burundian refugees presumably for the purpose of conducting an armed insurgency inside Burundi."

 

Drumtra cited reports from the massive Mahama refugee camp in southeast Rwanda, where he had worked for five months through October.

 

On Monday, researchers at Refugee International furthered those claims in a report on recruitment among refugees in Rwanda. The report said that efforts appeared to have begun in May of this year — the same month Nkurunziza was cleared by the courts to run again — in Mahama. In statements provided to Refugees International, Rwandan officials denied the reports.

 

"It is difficult to know how many are being recruited but we can say that over the past five months about 50 refugees have come forward to say that they are being recruited against their will, and another 30 said they were trained and sent to the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] on their way to Burundi," said Michael Boyce, one of the report's authors.

Edited December 14, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/12/egypt-child-raped-with-wooden-stick-by-police-officers-must-be-released/

Egypt: Child ‘raped with wooden stick by police officers’ must be released

 

A 14-year-old boy who says he was raped in detention by Egyptian National Security agents must be immediately released and those responsible for torturing him brought to justice, Amnesty International said today.

 

Mazen Mohamed Abdallah’s family told the organization the teenager was repeatedly tortured in custody, given electric shocks on his genitals and had a wooden stick repeatedly thrust into his anus as police forced him to confess to protesting without authorization and belonging to the banned Muslim Brotherhood group.

 

“The horrific abuse described by Mazen Mohamed Abdallah gives a sickening insight into the widespread and routine use of torture and ill-treatment by Egyptian security forces in police stations,” said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

 

“That such abuse is meted out against children in detention is utterly deplorable.”

 

Mazen Mohamed Abdallah was seized by heavily armed security forces from his family’s Cairo home on 30 September 2015. After questioning the teenager at home and searching his mobile phone and the house, two national security officers blindfolded Mazen and told his mother they would take him away to ask two questions and then return him home. They did not show a prosecutor’s arrest or search warrant to the family.

 

For the next seven days, Mazen was detained without being allowed visits or contact with his family or lawyers. The authorities denied he was in custody when the family searched for their son in police stations and prosecutor’s offices. Mazen’s family also filed reports to the Ministry of Interior and the Public Prosecutor about the disappearance with no success.

[visionary]

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/12/car-rebel-leader-declares-autonomous-state-151215165325544.html

CAR rebel leader declares autonomous state

 

A Muslim rebel leader in the Central African Republic (CAR) has declared an autonomous state in his northeastern stronghold after rejecting upcoming elections aimed at ending years of conflict.

 

A spokesman and chief lieutenant for Nourredine Adam, the leader of a splinter faction of the Muslim Seleka rebel group, said the Republic of Logone was proclaimed in the northeast on Monday.

 

"What we want first of all is autonomy. Then we'll look at how to move towards independence," Maouloud Moussa told Reuters from the group's headquarters in the town of Kaga-Bandoro.

 

"Muslims are marginalised ... The north has been abandoned by the central government. There are no roads, no hospitals, no schools."

The spokesman for Central African Republic's transitional government immediately denounced the rebels' declaration, Reuters reported.

 

"We call upon the international community and the international forces present in Central African Republic to do everything possible to neutralise the capacity to do harm of these terrorists," said Dominique Said Panguindji.

 

UN peacekeepers took down the rebel republic's flag - horizontal yellow, green and black stripes with a white star - after it was raised over the northern town of N'Dele.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/world/africa/shiite-muslim-sect-alleges-massacre-by-nigerias-military.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&smtyp=cur

Shiite Muslim Sect Alleges Massacre by Nigeria’s Military

 

Representatives of a Shiite Muslim sect in northwestern Nigeria said on Tuesday that hundreds of its members were killed by the military in a massacre over the weekend.

 

The government has disputed the death toll, acknowledging that at least seven members of the sect were killed but refusing to provide updated casualty figures. Still, the killings appeared to add a dangerous new dimension to the sectarian violence that has long bedeviled Nigeria.

 

The government has been battling an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria by Boko Haram, a Sunni Muslim extremist group, for years. Shiites, by contrast, are a tiny minority of the country’s Muslims.

 

On Tuesday, a leading human rights advocate called the killings of members of the Shiite sect a “massacre,” while the Iranian news media reported that Iran’s government, which sees itself as a protector of Shiites worldwide, had demanded an explanation.

 

Abdullahi Tumburkai, a Shiite journalist, said he had counted more than 830 bodies in the mortuary in Zaria, the headquarters of the sect, which calls itself the Islamic Movement in Nigeria.

 

A spokesman for the sect, Ibrahim Musa, said that as many as 1,000 of its members had been killed, and accused the army of covering up the death toll, saying that soldiers had been taking the bodies of the dead to an “unknown destination.”

 

At a news conference here on Monday, an army commander, Maj. Gen. Adeniyi Oyebade, said that soldiers opened fire on Saturday after members of the sect threatened a convoy that was taking the army’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, on an official visit to an emir in the region.

 

“They started throwing dangerous missiles, stones, machete and all kinds of traditional or crude weapons,” General Oyebade said of the sect’s members, adding that security forces concluded that General Buratai’s life “was under threat, and they had no other option than to force their way through the blockage, including the use of lethal weapons.”

 

General Oyebade said the army acted “within the rules of engagement permissible by law.”

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/reconciliation-pact-struck-turkey-israeli-official-194929944.html;_ylt=A0LEVxO6EnNWxGcA7PdXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyYjUwMmQzBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjExNzlfMQRzZWMDc2M-

Reconciliation pact struck with Turkey: Israeli official

 

Israel and Turkey have reached "understandings" to normalise ties, at a low since the Jewish state's deadly 2010 raid on a Turkish ship headed for Gaza, an Israeli official said Thursday.

 

The deal drafted at a secret meeting in Switzerland calls for Israeli compensation to victims of the raid, a return of envoys and the start of talks on gas exports to Turkey, once the pact has been signed, the unnamed official said.

 

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak

Libya's rival factions have signed a UN deal to form a national government - Western powers hope deal will bring stability & help fight I.S.
9:16 AM

 

https://twitter.com/BNONews

BREAKING: Niger foiled coup attempt by senior military officers, president says
2:49 PM

Edited December 17, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/17/britain-hopes-to-send-hundreds-of-troops-to-libya-peace-deal?CMP=share_btn_tw

Britain hopes to send hundreds of troops to Libya after peace deal

 

Britain hopes to send hundreds of troops to Libya after the signing of a UN-sponsored peace deal that nominally unifies the two rival Libyan governments.

 

This comes despite the agreement being denounced as illegitimate by some of the groups that it is meant to unite.

 

The UK expects to be asked by the new Libyan government to deploy troops to train and advise the country’s fledgling force as it attempts to stabilise Libya and stem the advance of Islamic State, which has a coastal base. A fortnight after sending fighter jets to Syrian skies, the Ministry of Defence is ready to send up to 1,000 troops in a non-combat capacity, the defence secretary, Michael Fallon, announced in an interview with Forces TV.

 

In a separate statement, David Cameron said: “Importantly, this agreement means the international community can now engage with one unified, representative government in Libya in the fight against Daesh [isis] and the migrant traffickers.”

 

The move demonstrates the west’s optimism in the fragile peace deal signed on Thursday in Morocco by some members of Libya’s rival parliaments in Tripoli and the eastern city of Tobruk. The deal’s supporters hope it will hasten the end of an 18-month civil war, as well as five years of political violence that followed the uprising against former dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

 

UN Libya envoy Martin Kobler, whose predecessor is accused of bias towards the Tobruk government, said the signing was a “historic day” for the country and insisted the door was open for non-signatories to sign in the future.

 

“The signing of the Libyan political agreement is the first step on the path of building a democratic Libyan state based on the principles of human rights and the rule of law,” he said.

 

But the sustainability of the deal has been thrown into doubt after key players on both sides did not attend or support the signing ceremony. Earlier this week president of Tripoli’s rebel government, Nuri Abu Sahmain, and Aguila Saleh, his opposite number at the official government in Tobruk, announced joint opposition to the plan, branding it foreign meddling.

 

https://twitter.com/wheelertweets

Pretext for US&UK troops in Libya: Kobler & Kerry on Sunday said these 15 ppl speak for Libya & want intervention
8:29 PM

 

Presidential Council of the UN's new Libya "unity" government (known as the "Government of National Accord" or GNA)
12:49 AM

Edited December 18, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/197491

At Least 75 Killed in Ethiopia Protests, Says HRW

 

At least 75 people have been killed during weeks of protests in Ethiopia which have seen soldiers and police firing on demonstrators, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.

 

"Police and military forces have fired on demonstrations, killing at least 75 protesters and wounding many others, according to activists," HRW said in a statement. There was no immediate response from Addis Ababa, but a government spokesman has previously put the toll at five dead.

Edited December 19, 2015 by visionary

[visionary]

https://opendemocracy.\net/arab-awakening/intissar-kherigi/tunisia-irresistible-flow

Tunisia: the irresistible flow

 

“Out of the revolution and counter-revolution…was born the dialectical movement and counter-movement of history which bears men on its irresistible flow, like a powerful undercurrent, to which they must surrender the very moment they attempt to establish freedom on earth.” Hannah Arendt, On Revolution

 

Today marks five years since the start of Tunisia’s revolution. 17 December 2010 was a day like every other, except for one act that transformed it into the beginning of an extraordinary set of events.

 

Tunisia’s revolution and the ensuing wave of protests that swept the Arab world caught the world by surprise. Much ink has been spilt in the last five years in an attempt to piece together a genealogy of this upsurge of dissent, seeking to trace the roots of an earthquake that emerged from the fertile inner reaches of Tunisia’s rural and deprived regions. While academics debate whether the determinant factors were economic, social, political, demographic or technological, what matters for those who lived them is that these uprisings laid bare the lived experiences of the people of this region and put their demands at the heart of political events, rendering the invisible visible.

 

The Tunisian revolution started with the story of one man, Mohamed Bouazizi, whose self-immolation lit the flame of dissent and struggle. His act would have remained an isolated act of desperate protestation at injustice, just like the tens of others who had set themselves on fire before him in similar conditions, had it not been for the acts of others who transformed it into a nation-wide call for freedom, justice and dignity.

 

What captures the essence of the uprisings of 2011 is that they were a moment of a reassertion of people and of politics from below. Through collective mobilisation, people created a moment so powerful that it toppled rulers and created the biggest political change in the region since decolonisation. The uprisings had no master narrative – they were a series of micronarratives produced by ordinary people. What made the scenes so inspiring was precisely this vibrant representation of all parts of society, What made the scenes so inspiring was precisely this vibrant representation of all parts of society. female and male, young and old, rural and urban, poor and wealthy, religious and secular, people of all walks of life - the unemployed, farmers, factory workers, lawyers, doctors, housewives, students, doctors. This desectorialised collaborative effort created a moment in which fiction was exposed, power was redefined and existing political and analytical frameworks shattered.

 

The first fiction to be shattered was that of the ‘Arab exception’. These events were made more extraordinary by the fact that they unfolded in a region long considered immune to the democratic waves that had swept across other regions, led by people who, it turned out, craved freedom, dignity, and social justice as profoundly as other peoples. The slogan invented in Tunisia and which spread throughout the region was “the people wants the fall of the regime”, a cry that at once constituted and asserted the existence of one people, who had the capacity to express a collective will and who demanded to be heard. This was an inconvenient truth for some – certainly for authoritarian rulers in the region, who had repressed and depressed their people into submission, crushing resistance through coercion and cooptation.

 

The second shattered fiction was that of the ‘security pact’, an arrangement by which Arab societies were expected to trade freedom, political inclusion and human rights in return for security and economic growth. This was nowhere exemplified better than in Ben Ali’s Tunisia, in which the scarecrow of disorder and instability were regularly brandished to silence opponents - in the 1990s by framing government repression as a response to an ‘Islamist threat’ to state and society, and then in the 2000s shifting to the fight against terrorism, making full use of the opportunities provided by the global ‘War on Terror’.

 

In exchange for obedience, the regime offered an ‘economic miracle’ built on macro-economically sound policies, neoliberal reforms and ‘good governance’, a discourse that convinced most international financial institutions and foreign governments. This ‘miracle’ turned out to be a mirage based on fictitious economic data, hiding a reality of gross inequalities, pervasive corruption and economic mismanagement that created mass structural unemployment, regional disparities and economic insecurity for vast parts of society. The security pact thus failed to deliver on its own promises, putting paid to the notion that the economic could be separated from the political, and that stability and security could be viewed in isolation from a wider notion of human security and wellbeing.

 

The third fiction shattered by the Arab uprisings is that the fate of Arab nations is dictated by external actors and allows no possibility for autonomy or change. The past century of Arab political and intellectual discourse has been saturated with a keen awareness that decisions about this part of the world are taken somewhere far removed from its people – whether by rulers who are unrepresentative of their wishes or by global powers whose interests far outweigh the interests of the region’s 300 million inhabitants. A deep sense of humiliated fatalism and strangled sovereignty made it difficult to even imagine alternative political realities. A deep sense of humiliated fatalism and strangled sovereignty made it difficult to even imagine alternative political realities. The Arab uprisings threw macropolitics out of the window in favour of “people politics” - the politics of individual actions, grassroots mobilisation, networks and communication. The future, it turned out, was not history waiting to be written by others, but a new reality to be forged through collaborative action.