Guardian UK (Mar21,2k11)
Egyptians strongly endorsed amendments to the country's constitution yesterday as aftershocks from the Arab spring revolts rumbled into the furthest reaches of the region.
More than 77% of the estimated 14 million-plus people who voted supported changes that will provide a blueprint for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held within the next six months.
Voting was mostly problem-free across the country, a significant result in a country that is emerging from more than three decades of dictatorship, when elections merely served to rubber-stamp ousted president Hosni Mubarak's rule, and voter turn out was low.
Elsewhere in the Arab world, tentative calls for democratic freedoms were met with force in both Saudi Arabia and Syria. In the Syrian town of Daraa, a second day of clashes with state security officers reportedly left one protester dead, in addition to the four reported killed yesterday.
A council building in the centre of town was burned down during the clashes. Some reports claimed it was a local headquarters of the Baath party, however they could not be verified.
In Saudi Arabia, where demonstrations are banned, protesters tried to force their way into the interior ministry in Riyadh demanding the release of prisoners who they said had been detained for up to two years without trial. Around 15 people were arrested, but no serious violence was reported.
However, the spectre of protests in the Saudi capital is something the Islamic kingdom's leader, King Abdullah, has been trying to avoid as he battles to contain an uprising in Bahrain on his northern border. The Saudi government holds grave fears that the Shia protests in Bahrain could stir unrest in eastern Saudi Arabia, which is home to most of the 12% Shia population.
Bahrain's rulers yesterday claimed to have uncovered a plot involving outside powers – an implicit reference to neighbouring Iran. The government asked Iranian diplomats to leave the tiny Gulf state and later called Lebanon's Hezbollah a terrorist organisation that was destabilising the region and impinging on Bahrain's sovereignty.
The unusually vehement tones underscore the sensitivity in the Gulf, where all the petro-states have been under pressure from their citizens to introduce widespread reforms.
Bahrain is in its second week of a three month period of martial law, which was introduced after weeks of violent clashes between citizens and riot police. The clashes have taken on a sectarian tone that the kingdom is anxious to play down.
Meanwhile, in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, the embattled leader of Yemen, Ali Abdullah Saleh, yesterday sacked his cabinet in the latest of a spate of moves designed to cling on to power. The clean sweep came two days after a massacre of more than 40 unarmed pro-reform protesters in the capital, Sana'a, which has drawn widespread condemnation and placed further pressure on Saleh to step down after more than 30 years in office.
The attacks on Libya have left the Arab world largely mute, unlike the opposition voiced before the last western assault on an Arab capital eight years ago.
Amid unrest and rebellion across the Middle East, a clear distinction has been made between the invasion of Baghdad and the bombing of selected targets in Libya. The former was widely condemned by many states that have had no such reservations about the bombing of Gaddafi's forces by US and European planes.
A key reason for that appears to be the west's stated desire not to overthrow Gaddafi but to leave his fate to be determined by Libyan citizens.
However, as the air campaign entered its second day, cracks began to appear in the regional solidarity on show last week when the Arab League voted in support of military action to protect civilians.
While the governments of Qatar and the Gulf states were in favour of the attack, the popular press throughout the Gulf has remained neutral, although there are a consistent tone that suggests consistent suggestions the raids are partly motivated by oil and western greed.
Qatar's al-Raya newspaper said Gaddafi bore sole blame for the attacks on Libya. "He insisted on stories about hallucinogenic rebels and terrorists being responsible, while the whole world saw for a month how he brutally killed and oppressed people," the paper said. "Gaddafi did not learn the lessons of Tunisia and Egypt."
In Bahrain, however, there was deep cynicism among Shia demonstrators, who argue that they too have been suppressed and attacked by loyalist forces, but have received no such western backing. "There is a double standard with the Americans," said Ali al-Akri, a committee member of the National Democratic Action society. "It suits their interests to go after Gaddafi now because the crimes he committed cannot be defended by anyone. But in Bahrain it is the same and our experiences are there for all to see. Yet what do we get from the US? Demands that we tone down our protests and gentle pleas that the regime change its ways."
Egyptian media saw the western raids through the prism of the country's revolution, which has overthrown the same sort of stagnant old order that clings to power across the border. "The Egyptian experience gave very good lessons, but Gaddafi ignored them," said the editor of al-Ahram newspaper, Kareema Abdul Ghani. "He humiliated himself and his people. It is time for democracy. The time of tyrants who keep their positions for ever is gone."
In Iraq, which is still recovering from the 2003 invasion, officials were more cautious about the attack on Libya, but few condemned it outright. "The Libyan regime committed crimes against humanity and killed civilians," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish MP. "He used military means to attack protesters and that led to reactions for the Arab League and the UN, which are legitimate. But I am not convinced that an international attack will solve the problem. It could lead to war and a humanitarian crisis."
A member of the hardline Shia Islamic Sadrist party, Ali Mohsen, said the campaign in Libya would have more chance of success if it was led by Arab forces. "I am against any attack on critical infrastructure," he said. "If this is not managed carefully, it could lead to another invasion like Iraq."
Syria and Saudi Arabia, both dealing with their own revolts, stayed silent. Up to six demonstrators were killed in Daraa in south-western Syria at the weekend as a protest was reportedly crushed by thousands of members of the security forces.
As momentum built last week towards the Libyan raids, the Saudi government was generally supportive of the rebel campaign against Gaddafi, but continued helping to quell rebellion in neighbouring Bahrain, which poses more of a threat to it than what is happening in Libya.
More on this story
- Air strikes hit Gaddafi's ground troops hard, but Libyan revolutionaries appeal for more
