The News Social Change Swiping the Dictators from the Middle East And Africa in 2011-13
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Uprising in Syria: Dozens killed in protests in Syria - Arab World - Politics -AFP
You read right? Syrian President Bashar al Assad in December 2010 in Paris
22. April 2011
In Syria, the power struggle between President Bashar al Assad and the opposition is in full swing. According to consistent reports of eyewitnesses, TV stations and human rights activists the security forces used live ammunition in several cities and tear gas against the demonstrators. From the suburbs of Damascus, from the southern cities and Asraa Daraa and from the northern city of Homs deaths were reported in the evening said the London-based Syrian Human Rights Committee of 72 dead and hundreds injured. In Daraa 50 people were injured by gunfire.
The protesters had walked to the demands for a change of system and the resignation of the heads of state on the road - one day after the lifting of emergency in force since 1963. However, it maintains other laws that grant broad powers of state security, in force. The opposition has therefore intensified their demands.
© REUTERS
The struggle continues: protesters on Thursday in Southern Syrians Daraa
The opposition called for a joint declaration of an end to the monopoly power of the Baath party and a democratic system. It also demands the release of political prisoners. The existing security apparatus must be dissolved and replaced by an institution which is bound by the law. The statement was sent to the Reuters news agency.
Determined to overthrow the regime
"This was a first test in the seriousness (of the reform will) of the guide, and it has failed," commented the opposition Amar Kurabi the brutality of the regime. It is one of the highest body count since the protests began a month ago - since then, nearly 250 people have been killed.
The Syria expert Joshua Landis of the University of the U.S. state of Oklahoma, spoke of a landmark day. Assad had "drawn a boundary line in the sand" with the proposed reforms and made it clear that there is now no reason to give his opinion to more demonstrations. The opposition in return try to mobilize as many people as possible. "They are determined to overthrow the regime, and have recognized their opportunity," said Landis. "Today is a day of reckoning." Protests covered virtually the whole country with about 20 million people. In Banias on the Mediterranean has also been demonstrated in Deir al-sor and Kamischli in eastern Syria.
"Go away, Doctor!"
Before beginning the Friday prayers were soldiers in Damascus and Homs position relative and checkpoints set up. In Deraa several thousand demonstrators demanded the resignation of the trained physician Assad, who had started in 2001 succeeded his father. "Go away, Doctor," cried the crowd. "We are on you and your butcher regime trampled." The human rights organization Human Rights Watch said that reforms in Syria, demanded an end to the power of the security apparatus. This must stop shooting and stop with the arrest and torture of political opponents.
Also in Yemen and Oman last to power struggles. In the Yemeni capital Sanaa, and possibly hundreds of thousands gathered at Tai's supporters and opponents of the authoritarian ruling President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The opposition demanded the immediate resignation of the reigning head of state in 32 years, which rejects this before. In Oman, the opposition mobilized about 3,000 people to one of the largest demonstrations for reform.
Text: AFP / dpad
Pictures: DAPD, REUTERS
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
EU urges UN to authorize humanitarian military operation in Libya (Xinhua)
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BRUSSELS, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, Tuesday urged the United Nations to authorize the EU to launch its humanitarian military operation in Libya.
The EU Foreign Affairs Council gathered in Luxembourg to discuss the EU's southern neighborhood, especially Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.
The council was expected to adopt conclusions on some additional restrictive measures against Libya. But it would wait for the UN to decide whether they wish the EU to engage with any military assets.
The EU has begun planning a military operation named EUFOR Libya to facilitate humanitarian assistance in Libya, but is waiting for the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to authorize its deployment.
"European Union stood ready to support in anyway we can the humanitarian operation," Aston said. "If the United Nations asks us to help them with our military support, to get aid into the country, we are ready to do so."
"Let me be clear it is for the UN to decide they wish the EU to engage with any military assets, they must make that decision and they will have to make that decision recognizing the importance of keeping humanitarian operations clearly focused on the humanitarian aspects of what they are trying to do," she said.
Later, Aston would meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and leaders of the African Union and the Arab League in Cairo "to consider the future and make our preparations and planning to support the people of Libya."
Monday, April 18, 2011
China Overreacting to Fears of Arab-Style Uprising | Miller-McCune
China’s repressive efforts to prevent its own Arab Spring, which include detaining renowned and outspoken artist Ai Weiwei, worries Western leaders, upsets rights activists — and just may be way overblown.
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| Outspoken artist Ai Weiwei is pictured on a poster for an exhibit last year in Germany. Ai, who has long made his antigovernment sentiment known, has been detained by Chinese officials, which has sparked anger among rights activists and worry here in the U.S. that China is overreacting to the possibility of Arab-style uprisings. |
The People Republic of China’s apparently prophylactic response to the popular uprisings in the Arab world seems to have claimed its highest profile figure so far, provocative and idiosyncratic artistAi Weiwei.
The hirsute 53-year-old was acclaimed variously as the son of beloved poet Ai Qing, for his wide-ranging talents (from designing the Bird’s Nest stadium for the Beijing Olympics to showing sunflower seeds at London’s Tate Modern) and for his most un-Chinese big mouth.
Ai’s antigovernment statements and tweets had historically escaped Beijing’s heaviest hand, perhaps for those first two reasons, and his detention has spawned fears about the “bad old days” returning to China. Whether that’s hyperbole or not, Western governments have pricked their ears at Ai’s case, although not enough to satisfy human rights watchers, who even before this case were calling this crackdown “the most severe in a decade.”
“What has made Beijing, which has tolerated some demonstrations in recent years, show zero tolerance toward the current ‘shadow revolution’ that so far has not generated a single mass gathering?”
So asked Jeffrey Wasserstrom of the University of California, Irvine, a historian of Chinese protest, in an April 1 article on Miller-McCune.comthat examined the ground where a Jasmine Revolution presumably might bloom.
Predicting exactly how China might react to dissent is a game that even longtime observers like Wasserstrom are chary of playing. Even with that caveat, Wasserstrom answered in part: “One reason, I feel, is that China’s leaders are scared not just of the prospect of something happening in their country that resembles events in the Middle East but also of historical upheavals that had wracked their own land when, as now, inflation was a problem and many members of the populace were frustrated by official corruption.”
Despite those real problems, those fears at the top — and Wasserstrom, for one, looks at the leadership change for hints of what may occur — may be overblown. The most recent Pew Global Attitudes Project survey findsChinese remarkably upbeat about their station, in marked contrast to, say, Egypt. “It would be wrong to assume that the Chinese public is indifferent to the performance of their national or local governments,” wrote Pew’s director of international survey research James Bell. “In fact, news reports indicate that a good number of Chinese care enough about official corruption and government accountability to voice their concerns online or in other forums. But the Chinese public’s overall state of mind is very distant from the pessimism that helped set the stage for massive protests in Egypt.”
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