PoliticsTunisia: New cabinet: Defence, finance, foreign, interior ministers kicked out, Ounais new foreign minister

AFP via Yahoo! News (Jan29,2k11)
by Ines Bel Alba

Clashes in Tunisia 

as new cabinet sworn in

Tunisia's new cabinet line-up culled key figures associated with Ben Ali's ousted regime including the defence, finance, foreign and interior ministers.

Ghannouchi has promised to hold democratic elections within six months.

The reshuffle was received positively by the influential UGTT trade union -- which played a vital role in the anti-Ben Ali movement and had led opposition to the interim government, with the union saying it approved of Ghannouchi.

EU officials said the new foreign minister, Ahmed Abderraouf Ounais, a Paris-educated career diplomat, was set to visit Brussels on Tuesday.

A statement from European Union chief diplomat Catherine Ashton congratulated Ounais on his appointment.

She stressed the EU's "solidarity with the Tunisian people in their efforts to build a stable and pluralistic democracy with full respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights and freedoms."

The EU said it would send experts next week to help prepare elections.

France, which has come under fire for backing Ben Ali and failing to support protests against him early on, said it wished the new government "success".

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Tunisia has a chance for a cooled-down peaceful transition, with a time-horizon for new elections under a care-taker govt under Ghannouchi but representing diverse social demographics instead of the present residues of the totalitarian regime further phasing out of power.  May God have mercy on the emerging new Tunisia.  And may its Muslim majority show mercy upon its Christian minority, both Protestants and Catholics.

-- Politicarp

PoliticsEgypt: Prez Mubarak: Fires cabinet, "tomorrow there will be a new one"

Yahoo! News [Jan29,2k11]

by Jailian Zayan

Mubarak defiant 

as Egypt toll rises, 

Obama wades in

CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt's embattled President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday addressed the nation for the first time since deadly protests erupted against his regime, vowing reform but showing no sign of relaxing his decades-old grip on power.

US President Barack Obama meanwhile called on Egyptian authorities not to use violence against the raging political protests, and drove home his message in a 30-minute phone call with Mubarak.

Four days after angry protesters first took to the street and with at least 27 people killed in subsequent street battles, a stoney-faced Mubarak said he had sacked the government and would pursue economic and political reforms.

"I have asked the government to resign and tomorrow there will be a new government," Mubarak, 82, said on state television as protests raged in Cairo and other cities despite a night-time curfew.

"We will not backtrack on reforms. We will continue with new steps which will ensure the independence of the judiciary and its rulings, and more freedom for citizens," he said.

Protesters who have been demanding Mubarak step down, as well as an end to endemic state corruption and police brutality that have become systematic under his rule, dismissed the speech as too little, too late.

"We don't care if the government resigns, we want him to resign," said demonstrator Khaled, 22, in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

Student Abdo, 20, said: "Prices are still high, the problems are still there, this doesn't solve anything."

Thirteen people died in clashes with police on Friday in the canal city of Suez, at least five in Cairo and two in Mansura, north of the capital, with many fatalities caused by rubber-coated bullets, medics and witnesses said.

Seven more people died on Wednesday and Thursday.

Key allies including the United States, Britain and Germany on Friday expressed concern about the violence, with Britain noting that the protesters had "legitimate grievances."

PoliticsEgypt: Taliban-type theocrats: Mubarak arrests 20 Muslim Brotherhood, Bolton predicts 1,000 more, ahead

A tweet on Twitter says "Muslim Brotherhood trying to gain political ground during the protests. We can see through that."


Update (Jan28,2k110): 
"Egypt uprising; the Muslim Brotherhood a 'wildcard'," by Elizabeth Tenety, Washington Post.

John Bolton, former USA diplomat and UN Representative, said tonite on Greta's news show on Fox News TV, that it's in Egypt's Prez, Hosni Mubarak's, interest to split the Muslim Brotherhood off from the main flow of the revolutionary forces.  A revolutionary council shoud be formed so as to represent as many diverse elements (thru formally organized groups and movements, and professions). Perhaps labour unions too. To represent as broad a coalition as possible, as bearable.  Whatever else, the Brotherhood in Egypt must be excluded if an alternatively-directed leader/ship for broad democracy, not another coup de culte in a Sunni move toward Talbanism.   Remember, when Mubarak leaves Egypt (his family has already been packed up and sent out of the country), a new cabinet must be formed or, at least, some sort of Army-backed transitional govt established to prepare new elections.  An alliance of the Army and the Muslim Brotherhood woud be disastrous.  Hopefully, the Army will see the wisdom of supporting a standout leader from the current mainstream.  That woud certainly include ElBaradei, who joined the protest and added lustre to the cause of the protesting masses;  ElBaradei is surely among the top five on a shortlist.  I found what follows, at CoffeeToday (breaking news):

20 members of 
the Muslim Brotherhood 
in Egypt have been arrested

Posted by Heru on January 27, 2011 in Featured News, World News | 0 Comment

At least twenty members of the first opposition party inEgypt, the Muslim Brotherhood have been arrested this morning in the capital, as reported by the party’s attorney, Abdel Maqsoud Abdelmoneim.  Those arrested include five former deputies and many other members of the politicalbureau, whose leaders are known Essam El-Erian and Mohammed Moursi.

The Muslim Brotherhood had announced late on Thursday that participate in the events scheduled for this Friday as part of a wave of protests that live in the country to demand an end to the regime of Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981 .  For its part, the Government has been willing to deal with the protests scheduled for the day today with all measures at its disposal. It includes a statement released by the Interior Ministry, which warned that “has renewed its guard” against the demonstrations and that “take decisive action to deal with the situation, according to the law.”

However, these threats are not enough for citizens from Tuesday starring protests that have already killed seven people across the country.  With the goal of leading the change, the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the Egyptian opposition leaders, Mohamed El Baradei, landed late on Thursday in the country with the promise to “lead the transition” if Hosni Mubarak leaves power.

“If people want it, and especially young people, I can handle the transition. I will leave in the lurch,” El Baradei told reporters in Vienna airport, from where he went to Cairo. “I think this is a key moment for the future of Egypt, and that change is inevitable,” he said after landing in the African country’s capital.

Incoming search:

• egypt
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• muslim brotherhood party in egypt
• topic:egypt
• muslim brotherhood in egypt
• muslim brotherhood
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• egyptian protest
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• cairo today

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I add only that Mubarak's goal at the moment is to split the Muslim Brotherhood off from the main current of the present revolutionary effort in Egypt.   At present, I tend to support Mohamed ElBaradei, newly returned from Austria, ready to serve in a transitional cabinet with all the forces represented -- except the Muslim Brotherhood which advocates full Sharia Law, a definitely represssive move modelled on the Afghanistan Taliban in alliance with Al Quaeda.  ElBaradei would constitute a Third Way, with the totalitarian Mubarak opposed to the Muslim Brotherhood and its masterplan for the country.  ElBaradei has a long history of diplomacy, negotiation, support for democracy and a market economy -- while still seeking relief for Egypt's poor with its young men unemployed to the tune of 34.1% of their demographic already 2005, and I understand that figure has been and is trending up. (I shoud document further).

--Politicarp

PoliticsEgypt: Video: Man shot dead

AOL video



-- posted here by Politicarp

PoliticsEgypt: Revolution today?: Yesterday's protests at Tahrir Square, Cairo

An Egyptian opposition Facebook page, Mama Qarat, just posted this stunning picture of the protests in Tahrir Square

COISAS PERFEITAMENTE INÚTEIS

 via The Atlantic here

-- Politicarp

PoliticArabs: 4 Arab countries: Will they tell USA 'We don't want your foreign aid!'

 
An earlier Arab Summit Photographed by أ.ف.ب 


As the number of Arab societies throwing up major opposition movements to challenge existing govts, as that number grows, one wonders whether the overthrow of tyrants will make a difference, first, to the democratic development of each country in turn.  And, second, whether the end of dictators overseeing widespread poverty will result in new dictators (deploying religious rhetoric, rather than democratic talktalk) overseeing widespread poverty.


The countries with mass demos calling for overthrow now include Tunisia, Egypt and a day or so ago Yemen. Lebanon is of course in the throws of far-reaching change with the terrorist Hezbollah taking power, Shiites there displacing Sunnis and Druze allying with Shiite Hezbollah while Lebanese Christians dividing to support either Hezbollah or the Sunnis backed by Saudi Arabia.  At the same time, the Sunni ruler of Bahrain (among the Gulf States) calling for an Arab Summit to head off a recurrence of the mass protests of its Shiites (a majority of its population).


It seems to me the Tunisia Revolution may turn out well.  But I doubt that elsewhere the democratic moderates like Mohammed ElBaradei, now back in Egypt, will prevail against the Muslim Brotherhood which woud impose, it woud seem, a Taliban-like regime.  My chief concern at the moment is the fate of Egypt's several millions of Christian Copts and other Christians who have suffered much already under the ''benign negligence'' of Hosni Mubarak's regime.  I had thawt the situation there mite have been easing, as two of Mubarak's sons joined the vigil outside a threatened Christian church in which numerous Sunni Muslims formed a cordon sanitaire to protect the Christian worshippers inside.  Therefore, I'm rooting for ElBaradei -- who knows that if he succeeds, the USA will continue its enormous subsidies.  If instead the MuslimHoods win the current fite, one can expect that they will undergird the terrorist Hamas govt across Egypt's border in Gaza.  Will the Muslim Brotherhood break with Saudi Arabia (leader of the Sunni common front)?  Of course, the Hoods woud turn down USA aid, which the USA woud not offer any more, anyway.  So where woud Egypt get the wherewithal to govern and develop the country?  Hamas is already getting $25 million a month from Iran, how coud the latter finance the 70 million souls of an Egypt that, without USA dollars, woud, despite its relatively large middleclass, revert to a basketcase.  It's industry is too underdeveloped to support its ever-burgeoning population, despite the ruling of al-Azhar university that birth control is okay.


Bahrain, I'd tend to think, woud be next.  Surely, besides Gaza, the Iranians woud step in to ''liberate'' the Shia majority in that Gulf State.


So, it's back to Tunisia, about which I'm still able to be quite hopeful, for the moment.


Update:

Egypt:  This time, the protests have no clear leader, and no limit to how large they could grow. Those who have taken part see no limit to what they might achieve. In a region where transfers of power are almost always either hereditary or at the barrel of a gun, events this week have raised the prospect that Mubarak may be forced by popular unrest to yield authority before he can hand it to his son, Gamal.

Mubarak's government will not go quietly, of course, and security services have attempted to crush the protests through force. But with demonstrators driven by deep resentments and long-suppressed rage, police have been unable to squelch the nascent movement.

'It will be like Tunisia'


While the primary organizers have beenuniversity students, others have spontaneously joined the demonstrations as those in the streets beckoned in unison to those watching from the balconies: "If you are Egyptian, why don't you come with us?"

Many have, and while the demonstrations Wednesday and Thursday were significantly smaller than those on Tuesday, organizers said they were planning a much larger show of force after prayers Friday, despite a government ban on such gatherings.

Until now, the protests have been distinctly secular, with few representatives of the country's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood. Whether it will stay that way after Friday is an open question. Those involved in organizing the protests say they hope their movement to oust Mubarak is not overtaken by a group that has said it wants to bring Islamic law to Egypt but is widely suspected of occasional complicity with the government.

Washington Post
"Egyptian protestors feel the world has passed them" by Griff Witte (Jan27,2k11)

-- Politicarp

PoliticsCongo: Civil War: Rebel coalition formed in the Kivus region

Christian Science Monitor [jan26,2k11] 

More bad news from Africa.  Jason Stearns, an expert on the Great Lakes region of Black Africa, reports:

Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo met in Kigali [DRC] last week to discuss the military situation in the eastern Congo. At the end of the meeting, they alleged that a new coalition of rebel groups had formed in the Kivus region, including such unlikely allies such as the FPLC, Mai-Mai Sheka, FDLR, Mai-Mai Yakutumba and FDLR-Soki.

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• -- AfricaNews.com --

  "DRC's Kabila wants life presidency" by Prof. Bent Mboyo Ndombo Francis

Some sources familiar with the closed-door meeting suggest that the three countries were not just sharing information. Allegedly, new joint military operations on Congolese soil are being discussed. Congo Siasa reported a possible joint operation between the Congolese and Rwandan armies in November, but talk of such a plan subsided as tensions within the CNDP decreased; most importantly, the Congolese government decided not to move ex-CNDP units out of the Kivus, the CNDP political party joined the ruling AMP coalition and some ex-CNDP military ranks were confirmed. The massive recruitment drive Gen. Bosco Ntaganda had carried out between September and December relented somewhat, although some forced recruitment continues.

Those, like me, who desire peace in Africa will be waiting a long time before that elusive condition blossoms in the perennially conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo, a land-locked country in the centre of the subSaharan vastness of the continent.  The alleged cross-over of ''two Rwandan dissidents, Col. Patrick Karegeya and Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa'' is especially disappointing to those who monitor developments in DRC.

-- Politicarp