BAGHDAD — Rebuffing a plea by the Obama administration, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki signaled Wednesday that he's ready to gradually drop his key partner party, the largely Sunni Iraqiya bloc, and move toward a government run by the country's Shiite majority at the expense of minority Sunnis and Kurds.
At a news conference where he repeatedly emphasized his own powers under the Iraqi constitution and berated his coalition partners, Maliki seemed unconcerned if some Iraqiya members quit the broad coalition, and he spoke at length about the options available to him if they did.
Maliki all but ignored Vice President Joe Biden's expression of U.S. support for an "inclusive partnership government," referring to the broad coalition between Maliki's State of Law bloc and Iraqiya, headed by veteran politician Ayad Allawi.
Biden telephoned Maliki on Tuesday in the midst of a political crisis that erupted over allegations that bodyguards in the employ of Maliki's Sunni vice president, Tareq al Hashemi, had been running assassination squads against public figures.
Maliki also seemed to brush aside Biden's emphasis in the phone call on "the importance of acting in a manner consistent with the rule of law and Iraq's constitution."
Maliki told reporters that justice should take its course against Hashemi, and he said he would not allow the case to be politicized. Nevertheless, he described this as "a very simple case, a criminal case with confessions available," and demanded that Hashemi go before a court and declare his innocence.
He even compared the trial of Hashemi to that of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein. "We provided a fair and clean trial to Saddam, the dictator of Iraq, and we will ensure and be determined to provide a fair trial to Mr. Tareq al Hashemi," he said.
It was the latest turn in the transformation of what might have been simply a judicial process into a trial-by-television. After a panel of judges issued an arrest warrant for Hashemi on Monday, the government aired videotaped "confessions" of arrested members of his security detail implicating Hashemi.
One day later, and in seeming defiance of the arrest warrant, Hashemi held a news conference in Erbil in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region. His whereabouts were unknown Wednesday, but Maliki, in response to a reporter's question, appealed to the regional government to "hand over" this "wanted man."
Maliki warned that not doing so or allowing him to escape "would cause problems."
Several leading political figures said Maliki could have forged a consensus for dealing with the Hashemi case by calling together all the country's political leaders, presenting them with the evidence, in secret, and seeking their advice.
Instead he decided to go it alone, a decision that immediately took on a sectarian tinge in a country still recovering from a devastating conflict between Sunni and Shiite Muslims. Maliki seemed to take the possible breakup of the current power-sharing arrangement in stride, and he spoke instead of a "new stage" in Iraq.
The Iraqiya bloc boycotted the final session of parliament and announced it was withdrawing ministers from the government as well. But Maliki said that if Iraqiya members did not attend cabinet meetings, he would replace them.
"The former stage required agreements, where we're the pretty face of a (sectarian) quota system," he said, but "in the current stage we are living ... this is a policy which is gone."
One leading expert on Iraqi politics said Maliki was emphasizing his own freedom of action in the wake of the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Reidar Visser, a Norwegian scholar who runs the website www.historiae.org, said Maliki seemed willing to move now toward a "sectarian alliance of mostly Shiites."
In his prepared remarks, Maliki repeatedly referred to the Iraqi constitution as being the only guide to the organization of government, and at one point he called it the country's "supreme holy document." In so doing, he effectively was repudiating the extra-constitutional deal, supported by the United States at the time, which made him prime minister, even though Allawi won more seats in parliament, Visser said.
"Maliki ... is saying that much of the so-called Erbil agreement about power-sharing is not really in the constitution," Visser said. "He is glad the others gave him the premiership in return for certain promises about power-sharing, and having been granted the premiership, he now intends to ignore what was stipulated about power-sharing at Erbil. Instead he will follow the constitution only."
Visser said he doubted that Maliki would resign as prime minister, which would put the initiative in the hands of President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, but instead would let the current power-sharing arrangement evolve into a majority government.
"I think how this may work in practice is that he will marginalize Iraqiya and appoint acting ministers if they fail to show up at cabinet meetings," Visser said. "Parliament may become irrelevant or, if Iraqiya withdraws, dominated entirely by the Shiite alliance. Maliki also will rely on a judiciary that is increasingly susceptible to his demands."
Maliki also disclosed that he had reached an agreement with the United Nations under which he'd allow Iranian dissidents who've been living in Iraq since the 1980s to stay beyond his own deadline of Dec. 31. He said the condition was that they move to the former Camp Liberty, which had been a U.S. base at Baghdad's international airport, and that the U.N. move about 800 out of Iraq before the end of the year. U.N. officials said the Mujahidin E Khalq, or MEK, had not yet agreed, and it wasn't clear what will happen if no deal is reached.
(Lesley Clark in Washington and special correspondent Sahar Issa in Baghdad contributed.)
(miamiherald.com)
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Rabu, 21 Desember 2011
Biden urges Iraq leaders to resolve sectarian disputes
US Vice-President Joe Biden has urged Iraqi leaders to work together to avert renewed sectarian strife.
The White House said Mr Biden had expressed his concerns in a phone call to Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
It comes after an arrest warrant was issued for Iraq's Sunni Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashemi, on terror charges.
That sparked fears that Iraq's fragile year-old unity government could fall apart, shortly after the last US soldiers left the country.
Fighting between Sunnis and Shia left thousands dead in the tit-for-tat attacks of 2006-2007.
The entire al-Iraqiyya Sunni political bloc is boycotting parliament and the cabinet in protest at the warrant, while the Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak has said Iraq is facing "chaos and disaster".
Mr Hashemi, who is now in Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan Region, has denied any wrongdoing.
Barely had the last American soldier stepped across the border into Kuwait than the fragile Iraqi political structure the US military left behind began to fall dangerously apart, as long-standing tensions between Shia and Sunni political leaders came to a head.
The most dramatic symptom of the exploding crisis is the fact that Iraq's most senior Sunni Arab politician, Tariq al-Hashemi, is effectively a fugitive. While he hides out under Kurdish protection in the north, the entire al-Iraqiyya political bloc to which he belongs has pulled out of both parliament and the cabinet.
That paralyses Sunni participation in the hard-won power-sharing deal that underpins a year-old national unity government which has rarely pulled together. Frantic efforts are now under way to try to hold that structure together.
The alternative, at its direst, could be the country's de facto partition, as part of a wider regional Balkanisation along sectarian lines.
Rift endangers unity government
'I blame Maliki'
In a statement, the White House said Mr Biden had spoken separately with Mr Maliki and parliamentary Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi to discuss the political situation and to stress Washington's "commitment to a long-term strategic partnership with Iraq".
He told them of the importance of an inclusive government and of "acting in a manner consistent with the rule of law and Iraq's constitution".
"The vice-president also stressed the urgent need for the prime minister and the leaders of the other major blocs to meet and work through their differences together," the statement said.
The last US troops left Iraq on Sunday, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The next day, Iraq's interior ministry announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for Mr Hashemi. It said members of his security detail had confessed to carrying out terror attacks.
State-run television broadcast what were said to be the men's confessions.
Mr Hashemi has said the accusations are "fabricated". He has accused Mr Maliki of being behind a plot to discredit him and blow apart recent attempts at national reconciliation.
"All the efforts that have been exerted to reach national reconciliation and to unite Iraq are now gone. So yes, I blame Maliki," he said.
Mr Hashemi said he was ready to defend himself against accusations of terrorism
In response to the warrant, the main Sunni Arab political bloc al-Iraqiyya - which was already boycotting parliament in protest at Mr Maliki's alleged authoritarian manner - said its ministers would suspend participation in cabinet.
Mr Mutlak said said the Sunni minority was "being oppressed" by Mr Maliki's Shia-dominated government and his "unwise running of the country", and has called for a confidence vote in parliament.
He said Iraq risked descending into renewed sectarian conflict.
Iraq's power-sharing government was formed a year ago after nine-months of negotiations which followed inconclusive election results.
But the BBC's Middle East correspondent Jim Muir say the government has rarely pulled together, and a gulf of mistrust remains between the two sides.
Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani, who brokered the deal, has warned it is now in danger of collapsing.
(bbc.co.uk)
The White House said Mr Biden had expressed his concerns in a phone call to Shia Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
It comes after an arrest warrant was issued for Iraq's Sunni Vice-President, Tariq al-Hashemi, on terror charges.
That sparked fears that Iraq's fragile year-old unity government could fall apart, shortly after the last US soldiers left the country.
Fighting between Sunnis and Shia left thousands dead in the tit-for-tat attacks of 2006-2007.
The entire al-Iraqiyya Sunni political bloc is boycotting parliament and the cabinet in protest at the warrant, while the Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlak has said Iraq is facing "chaos and disaster".
Mr Hashemi, who is now in Iraq's semi-autonomous northern Kurdistan Region, has denied any wrongdoing.
Barely had the last American soldier stepped across the border into Kuwait than the fragile Iraqi political structure the US military left behind began to fall dangerously apart, as long-standing tensions between Shia and Sunni political leaders came to a head.
The most dramatic symptom of the exploding crisis is the fact that Iraq's most senior Sunni Arab politician, Tariq al-Hashemi, is effectively a fugitive. While he hides out under Kurdish protection in the north, the entire al-Iraqiyya political bloc to which he belongs has pulled out of both parliament and the cabinet.
That paralyses Sunni participation in the hard-won power-sharing deal that underpins a year-old national unity government which has rarely pulled together. Frantic efforts are now under way to try to hold that structure together.
The alternative, at its direst, could be the country's de facto partition, as part of a wider regional Balkanisation along sectarian lines.
Rift endangers unity government
'I blame Maliki'
In a statement, the White House said Mr Biden had spoken separately with Mr Maliki and parliamentary Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi to discuss the political situation and to stress Washington's "commitment to a long-term strategic partnership with Iraq".
He told them of the importance of an inclusive government and of "acting in a manner consistent with the rule of law and Iraq's constitution".
"The vice-president also stressed the urgent need for the prime minister and the leaders of the other major blocs to meet and work through their differences together," the statement said.
The last US troops left Iraq on Sunday, eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The next day, Iraq's interior ministry announced that an arrest warrant had been issued for Mr Hashemi. It said members of his security detail had confessed to carrying out terror attacks.
State-run television broadcast what were said to be the men's confessions.
Mr Hashemi has said the accusations are "fabricated". He has accused Mr Maliki of being behind a plot to discredit him and blow apart recent attempts at national reconciliation.
"All the efforts that have been exerted to reach national reconciliation and to unite Iraq are now gone. So yes, I blame Maliki," he said.
Mr Hashemi said he was ready to defend himself against accusations of terrorism
In response to the warrant, the main Sunni Arab political bloc al-Iraqiyya - which was already boycotting parliament in protest at Mr Maliki's alleged authoritarian manner - said its ministers would suspend participation in cabinet.
Mr Mutlak said said the Sunni minority was "being oppressed" by Mr Maliki's Shia-dominated government and his "unwise running of the country", and has called for a confidence vote in parliament.
He said Iraq risked descending into renewed sectarian conflict.
Iraq's power-sharing government was formed a year ago after nine-months of negotiations which followed inconclusive election results.
But the BBC's Middle East correspondent Jim Muir say the government has rarely pulled together, and a gulf of mistrust remains between the two sides.
Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani, who brokered the deal, has warned it is now in danger of collapsing.
(bbc.co.uk)
Selasa, 20 Desember 2011
Syria, Egypt and Middle East unrest - live updates
11.06am: Syria's president Assad has a signed a new law that will impose the death penalty on anyone caught distributing weapons "with the aim of committing terrorist acts".
The regime has branded political opponents as terrorists since the start of the uprising, so the new law appears to be another signal of its determination to carry on with the crackdown.
10.49am: The Democratic Alliance, a political bloc in which the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party is the biggest player, has released a statement throwing its support firmly behind the protesters
.
Confirming its intention to participate in the sit-in at the supreme judiciary court until violence against protesters is halted and executive powers are handed over to the new parliament, it says:
Scaf (Supreme Council of Armed Forces) has failed in the management of the transitional period up to this critical moment, and it bears full responsibility for immediate cessation of violence, abuse of the citizens, assault of female demonstrators, the targeting of the revolutionaries who stood in the face of heavy-handed attacks, and for the immediate release of all protesters detained for no legal reason.
The conferees insist on bringing to justice and accountability military leaders and security officials responsible for ordering and carrying out violent attacks on the protesters, sitters and demonstrators, and on the formation of a special independent judicial commission of inquiry to take the necessary measures for the afore-mentioned purpose with full authority to initiate an investigation with the military and the security forces in charge of the area at the time. The conferees also condemn attempts to tarnish the image of the revolution and the revolutionaries who were always determined to maintain the peaceful nature of their protest and sit-in, which lasted nearly three weeks without any attack on a single institution.
10.46am: Video filmed by the Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm TV
at dawn today shows security forces in riot gear and protesters hurling projectiles at each other. What sounds like gunshots can be heard in the background.
Four people were killed in the raid on this morning's raid on Tahrir Square, a doctor told Ahram Online (see 10.07am).
10.22am: Reports of the killing of scores of Syrian army defectors in Idlib are sketchy, but the area is known to be a centre of desertion.
Dissident Ammar Abdulhamid claimed 72 defectors were killed in Kinsafrah.
The Syrian Observatory for Human said 60 to 70 defected troops were killed as they fled military positions between Kinsafrah and Kefer Quaid.
Last week residents of Kinsafrah were filmed hoisting an independence flag after reports that hundreds of troops switched sides in the town.
10.07am: Four people were killed when the Egyptian security forces raided Tahrir Square this morning,
a doctor told Ahram Online reports.
Yamen El Genedy, a doctor at the Omar Makram Mosque field hospital, told Ahram Online that he saw four people admitted at 8 this morning. All of them had been shot dead. "The bullets had entered and exited their bodies, making it seem like the result of snipers. The force of the gunshots was very strong," said El Genedy. One of the deaths, he added, was a 19-year-old.
9.50am: The US state department has also appears to suspect Syria of playing for time by signing a deal with the Arab League to allow in observers.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters:
We've seen too many broken promises from the Syrian regime, so we're really less interested in a signed piece of paper than we are in actions to implement commitments made.
We firmly support the calls by the Arab League and the stipulations in this agreement that monitors, international human rights monitors, would have unfettered access to all locations in Syria, that the violence will stop, that all political prisoners will be released, and that armed elements of the Syrian regime will be withdrawn from populated areas. So it's on that basis that we will judge the seriousness of the Syrian regime with regard to this – its apparent acquiescence now to the Arab League's proposal.
On the other hand, Russia and China have welcomed the deal.
Russia's foreign ministry said:
We believe the document signed in Cairo offers an opportunity to use a mechanism of independent monitoring on the ground, to provide protection for all Syrian citizens and to stabilize the situation. This chance must be utilized.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90777/7682071.html?
8.21am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Grim reports of escalating violence in both Syria and Egypt continue to emerge. Here's a round up of the latest developments.
Syria
• Up to 70 army deserters were killed on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, making it one one of the bloodiest days in uprising so far.
A survivor told the Observatory that defected soldiers were shot by machine gun fire
as they tried to flee their base. It also counted 40 civilians shot dead across Syria in the crackdown on protests.
• The regime of president Bashar al-Assad has signed an Arab League initiative that will allow observers into the country, in a move seen as another stalling tactic by Damascus.
Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, said the observers will have a one-month mandate that could be extended by another month if both sides agree. The observers will be "free" in their movements and "under the protection of the Syrian government," he said, but would not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites. Dissident Ammar Abdulhamid said the deal gave the regime more time
to allow the crackdown to continue:
The move was not a concession, but another stalling tactic. Assad was just granted several weeks of respite in which he can do pretty much what he wants, knowing that nothing will take place in the meantime on the regional or international scene to hurt him.
• The authorities have released US-born blogger Razan Ghazzawi who was charged last week with fomenting sectarian strife and spreading false information through a secret organisation.
The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, where she worked, said in a statement that Ghazzawi was freed on Sunday night on bail.
Egypt
• Egyptian troops and riot police raided Cairo's Tahrir Square early on Tuesday in their latest attempt to evict protesters who want the ruling military to immediately step down, according to a field hospital doctor.
Ahmed Saad said a 15-year-old protester was in critical condition after suffering a gunshot wound in the attack, AP reports.
• Prominent political personalities and newly elected MPs are planning to stage a sit-in at Cairo's supreme judiciary court to demand immediate halt of violence against protesters, Jadaliyya reports.
The sit-in will also demand an immediate transfer of power from military to civilian rule, it says.
• Amnesty has condemned the excessive use of force used by the army against protesters.
"It is clear that either the military police has been given orders to disperse demonstrators at any cost, or the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces does not control the army and security forces. Either scenario is equally worrying," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
• US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has accused the security forces of targeting female protesters for beatings.
In a speech in Washington she said:
Recent events in Egypt have been particularly shocking. Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago. And this is part of a deeply troubling pattern. Egyptian women have been largely shut out of decision-making in the transition by both the military authorities and the major political parties. At the same time, they have been specifically targeted both by security forces and by extremists ...
Women are being attacked, stripped, and beaten in the streets. This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform, and is not worthy of a great people.
• Revolutionaries are partly to blame for the clashes, according to a Foreign Policy magazine article by Steven Cook from the Council on Foreign Relations.
He writes:
What is perhaps most disturbing is that the weekend's battle ... didn't seem to have a point. The young toughs who descended on Qasr al-Aini Street after news spread of the Army's efforts to clear the area seemed less concerned with principle than combat ...
If the revolutionaries and their supporters are now stunned that the Islamists -- both the Brotherhood and the Salafists -- are set to dominate post-uprising Egypt, they must take a hard look at what they have done, or not done, over the last 11 months. Indeed, their ability to read Egyptian public sentiment is as bad as that of the military, and a good deal more myopic.
The Muslim Brothers are just about the only ones who have played post-Mubarak Egypt well.
• Thousands of historic manuscripts are feared destroyed after the Institute of Egypt, a research centre set up by Napoleon Bonaparte during France's invasion in the late 18th century, caught fire during the clashes.
Volunteers have spent the past two days trying to salvage what's left of some 192,000 books, journals and writings from the Institute.
Iraq
• Iraq's Shia-led government has issued an arrest warrant for the vice-president, Tariq al-Hashimi, the country's highest ranking Sunni official, on terrorism charges.
The move, a day after the last US troops left Iraq and ended the nearly nine-year war, could signal a sharp escalation in the sectarian tensions that drove Iraq to the brink of civil war a few years ago.
Libya
• A Libyan military commander and rebel leader has launched legal proceedings against the British government over his rendition and alleged "barbaric" treatment meted out to him and his pregnant wife.
Abdel Hakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and a former leader of the militant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, is suing ministers and MI6 for the part he claims they played in secretly sending him and his wife to Libya in March 2004.
Posted by
Matthew Weaver and Haroon Siddique
Tuesday 20 December 2011 11.15 GMT guardian.co.uk
The regime has branded political opponents as terrorists since the start of the uprising, so the new law appears to be another signal of its determination to carry on with the crackdown.
10.49am: The Democratic Alliance, a political bloc in which the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party is the biggest player, has released a statement throwing its support firmly behind the protesters
.
Confirming its intention to participate in the sit-in at the supreme judiciary court until violence against protesters is halted and executive powers are handed over to the new parliament, it says:
Scaf (Supreme Council of Armed Forces) has failed in the management of the transitional period up to this critical moment, and it bears full responsibility for immediate cessation of violence, abuse of the citizens, assault of female demonstrators, the targeting of the revolutionaries who stood in the face of heavy-handed attacks, and for the immediate release of all protesters detained for no legal reason.
The conferees insist on bringing to justice and accountability military leaders and security officials responsible for ordering and carrying out violent attacks on the protesters, sitters and demonstrators, and on the formation of a special independent judicial commission of inquiry to take the necessary measures for the afore-mentioned purpose with full authority to initiate an investigation with the military and the security forces in charge of the area at the time. The conferees also condemn attempts to tarnish the image of the revolution and the revolutionaries who were always determined to maintain the peaceful nature of their protest and sit-in, which lasted nearly three weeks without any attack on a single institution.
10.46am: Video filmed by the Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm TV
at dawn today shows security forces in riot gear and protesters hurling projectiles at each other. What sounds like gunshots can be heard in the background.
Four people were killed in the raid on this morning's raid on Tahrir Square, a doctor told Ahram Online (see 10.07am).
10.22am: Reports of the killing of scores of Syrian army defectors in Idlib are sketchy, but the area is known to be a centre of desertion.
Dissident Ammar Abdulhamid claimed 72 defectors were killed in Kinsafrah.
The Syrian Observatory for Human said 60 to 70 defected troops were killed as they fled military positions between Kinsafrah and Kefer Quaid.
Last week residents of Kinsafrah were filmed hoisting an independence flag after reports that hundreds of troops switched sides in the town.
10.07am: Four people were killed when the Egyptian security forces raided Tahrir Square this morning,
a doctor told Ahram Online reports.
Yamen El Genedy, a doctor at the Omar Makram Mosque field hospital, told Ahram Online that he saw four people admitted at 8 this morning. All of them had been shot dead. "The bullets had entered and exited their bodies, making it seem like the result of snipers. The force of the gunshots was very strong," said El Genedy. One of the deaths, he added, was a 19-year-old.
9.50am: The US state department has also appears to suspect Syria of playing for time by signing a deal with the Arab League to allow in observers.
Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters:
We've seen too many broken promises from the Syrian regime, so we're really less interested in a signed piece of paper than we are in actions to implement commitments made.
We firmly support the calls by the Arab League and the stipulations in this agreement that monitors, international human rights monitors, would have unfettered access to all locations in Syria, that the violence will stop, that all political prisoners will be released, and that armed elements of the Syrian regime will be withdrawn from populated areas. So it's on that basis that we will judge the seriousness of the Syrian regime with regard to this – its apparent acquiescence now to the Arab League's proposal.
On the other hand, Russia and China have welcomed the deal.
Russia's foreign ministry said:
We believe the document signed in Cairo offers an opportunity to use a mechanism of independent monitoring on the ground, to provide protection for all Syrian citizens and to stabilize the situation. This chance must be utilized.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90777/7682071.html?
8.21am: Welcome to Middle East Live. Grim reports of escalating violence in both Syria and Egypt continue to emerge. Here's a round up of the latest developments.
Syria
• Up to 70 army deserters were killed on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, making it one one of the bloodiest days in uprising so far.
A survivor told the Observatory that defected soldiers were shot by machine gun fire
as they tried to flee their base. It also counted 40 civilians shot dead across Syria in the crackdown on protests.
• The regime of president Bashar al-Assad has signed an Arab League initiative that will allow observers into the country, in a move seen as another stalling tactic by Damascus.
Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, said the observers will have a one-month mandate that could be extended by another month if both sides agree. The observers will be "free" in their movements and "under the protection of the Syrian government," he said, but would not be allowed to visit sensitive military sites. Dissident Ammar Abdulhamid said the deal gave the regime more time
to allow the crackdown to continue:
The move was not a concession, but another stalling tactic. Assad was just granted several weeks of respite in which he can do pretty much what he wants, knowing that nothing will take place in the meantime on the regional or international scene to hurt him.
• The authorities have released US-born blogger Razan Ghazzawi who was charged last week with fomenting sectarian strife and spreading false information through a secret organisation.
The Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, where she worked, said in a statement that Ghazzawi was freed on Sunday night on bail.
Egypt
• Egyptian troops and riot police raided Cairo's Tahrir Square early on Tuesday in their latest attempt to evict protesters who want the ruling military to immediately step down, according to a field hospital doctor.
Ahmed Saad said a 15-year-old protester was in critical condition after suffering a gunshot wound in the attack, AP reports.
• Prominent political personalities and newly elected MPs are planning to stage a sit-in at Cairo's supreme judiciary court to demand immediate halt of violence against protesters, Jadaliyya reports.
The sit-in will also demand an immediate transfer of power from military to civilian rule, it says.
• Amnesty has condemned the excessive use of force used by the army against protesters.
"It is clear that either the military police has been given orders to disperse demonstrators at any cost, or the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces does not control the army and security forces. Either scenario is equally worrying," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.
• US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has accused the security forces of targeting female protesters for beatings.
In a speech in Washington she said:
Recent events in Egypt have been particularly shocking. Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago. And this is part of a deeply troubling pattern. Egyptian women have been largely shut out of decision-making in the transition by both the military authorities and the major political parties. At the same time, they have been specifically targeted both by security forces and by extremists ...
Women are being attacked, stripped, and beaten in the streets. This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform, and is not worthy of a great people.
• Revolutionaries are partly to blame for the clashes, according to a Foreign Policy magazine article by Steven Cook from the Council on Foreign Relations.
He writes:
What is perhaps most disturbing is that the weekend's battle ... didn't seem to have a point. The young toughs who descended on Qasr al-Aini Street after news spread of the Army's efforts to clear the area seemed less concerned with principle than combat ...
If the revolutionaries and their supporters are now stunned that the Islamists -- both the Brotherhood and the Salafists -- are set to dominate post-uprising Egypt, they must take a hard look at what they have done, or not done, over the last 11 months. Indeed, their ability to read Egyptian public sentiment is as bad as that of the military, and a good deal more myopic.
The Muslim Brothers are just about the only ones who have played post-Mubarak Egypt well.
• Thousands of historic manuscripts are feared destroyed after the Institute of Egypt, a research centre set up by Napoleon Bonaparte during France's invasion in the late 18th century, caught fire during the clashes.
Volunteers have spent the past two days trying to salvage what's left of some 192,000 books, journals and writings from the Institute.
Iraq
• Iraq's Shia-led government has issued an arrest warrant for the vice-president, Tariq al-Hashimi, the country's highest ranking Sunni official, on terrorism charges.
The move, a day after the last US troops left Iraq and ended the nearly nine-year war, could signal a sharp escalation in the sectarian tensions that drove Iraq to the brink of civil war a few years ago.
Libya
• A Libyan military commander and rebel leader has launched legal proceedings against the British government over his rendition and alleged "barbaric" treatment meted out to him and his pregnant wife.
Abdel Hakim Belhadj, head of the Tripoli Military Council and a former leader of the militant Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, is suing ministers and MI6 for the part he claims they played in secretly sending him and his wife to Libya in March 2004.
Posted by
Matthew Weaver and Haroon Siddique
Tuesday 20 December 2011 11.15 GMT guardian.co.uk
Minggu, 18 Desember 2011
AP photographer travels with the last US troops to leave Iraq, crossing the border into Kuwait
Under the cover of night, America’s war in Iraq ended. It was called a “Tactical Road March” and consisted of five separate movements, all aimed at getting America’s last soldiers out of Iraq safely. First a team left to clear the route of any roadside bombs. Then the troops left in four different groups. In all, the movement had about 110 vehicles and 500 troops.
The destination was Kuwait. When the roughly five-hour drive was over, it marked the end of America’s nearly nine-year war in Iraq.
(washingtonpost.com)
The destination was Kuwait. When the roughly five-hour drive was over, it marked the end of America’s nearly nine-year war in Iraq.
(washingtonpost.com)
U.S. pullout leaves Iraq fragile, divided
BAGHDAD - "Baghdad was built by al-Mansour and cherished by Saddam," was a slogan that adorned many buildings in the Iraqi capital before the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Nearly nine years later, as the last American troops leave, a new slogan has taken its place: "Baghdad was built by al-Mansour, humiliated by Saddam and destroyed by the Americans."
Washington pulled its last remaining troops out of Iraq on Sunday.
They are leaving a nation divided across sectarian and ethnic lines and still struggling with an insurgency and political uncertainty after sectarian slaughter drove the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-7.
Nowhere illustrates the splintering of Iraq better than Baghdad, the capital built in 762 A.D. by the Abbasid Caliph Abu Jaafar al-Mansour on the Tigris River and for some time the centre of the Muslim world.
One symbol of the division is the Grei'at Bridge, a steel footbridge built in 2008 to enable people to move between Shi'ite areas without having to go through the mainly Sunni Adhamiya district.
Thousands fled their homes during the worst of the sectarian strife, fearing they would be attacked in their own neighborhoods because of their faith. Many never went back.
"We sold our house in Adhamiya in 2006 during the war and came here," said Shi'ite Abu Hassan, standing on the bridge which carries pilgrims and daily visitors from Grei'at to the sacred Shi'ite shrine in Kadhimiya.
"There were so many problems back then, so we left and rented a house here. It is better here," he said.
Many directly accuse the U.S. invasion of stirring up sectarian divisions in a country where Saddam, from the minority Sunni sect, ruthlessly crushed any signs of Shi'ite dissent but minimized sectarian divisions in daily life.
"There were no Sunnis and Shi'ites before the Americans, there was no sectarianism," said Abu Issam as he crossed the bridge. "I am a Shi'ite and my two sons are married to Sunni women."
STORY OF BAGHDAD
The identity of Iraq, once an influential political power and historically a thriving cultural hub in the Middle East, has changed through the years depending on who was in power, and these changes are reflected in Baghdad's urban landscape.
Under Saddam, statues and images of the ruler dotted almost every neighborhood and street.
After the invasion, Iraq's majority Shi'ites rose to political supremacy and stamped their mark on the capital. Saddam City is now Sadr City, and Saddam Bridge was renamed al-Hassaneen Bridge, after revered Shi'ite figures.
Green, black and red Shi'ite flags and banners depicting the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein, a Shi'ite hero, now fly high on buildings, a sight never allowed under Saddam.
Many Iraqis say they believed the U.S. invasion would bring them democracy and prosperity after years of war, economic sanctions and oppression by Saddam's security apparatus.
Many say they now feel betrayed.
The U.S. convoys, and the black-masked militiamen who five years ago controlled whole neighborhoods, have left the city's streets. But bombings and killings remain part of everyday life.
The city is often blanketed with dust and smoke, its buildings are crumbling and streets are littered with garbage. Blast walls and razor wire erected to protect buildings from bombings still cover the capital.
Iraqis worried about joblessness and insecurity must also contend with an acute water shortage and get only a few hours of electricity a day unless they have their own generators.
"They (Americans) brought us a corrupted government that does not reflect what the people want. They are leaving but they left chaos behind ... and the Iraqi people are the ones who suffer," said Abbas Jaber, a government employee.
Iraqis also fear meddling from their regional neighbors after the U.S. pullout. Sunnis fear the rising power of Shi'ite Iran as it grows closer to the government in Baghdad, and Shi'ites say they fear a Sunni coup pushed by Saudi Arabia, which has never come to terms with Shi'ite rule in Iraq.
From the mainly Shi'ite southern city of Basra through the Sunni stronghold Ramadi in the west to the northern, Kurdish city of Arbil, Iraqis appear to agree on one thing: they want the Americans out, but they are anxious about the timing.
"Yes we want the occupation out, but this is not the time for them to leave," said Mahdi, a government employee in Basra.
"The Americans will get out from here and everyone else will start coming in from elsewhere."
(Reuters.com)
Nearly nine years later, as the last American troops leave, a new slogan has taken its place: "Baghdad was built by al-Mansour, humiliated by Saddam and destroyed by the Americans."
Washington pulled its last remaining troops out of Iraq on Sunday.
They are leaving a nation divided across sectarian and ethnic lines and still struggling with an insurgency and political uncertainty after sectarian slaughter drove the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-7.
Nowhere illustrates the splintering of Iraq better than Baghdad, the capital built in 762 A.D. by the Abbasid Caliph Abu Jaafar al-Mansour on the Tigris River and for some time the centre of the Muslim world.
One symbol of the division is the Grei'at Bridge, a steel footbridge built in 2008 to enable people to move between Shi'ite areas without having to go through the mainly Sunni Adhamiya district.
Thousands fled their homes during the worst of the sectarian strife, fearing they would be attacked in their own neighborhoods because of their faith. Many never went back.
"We sold our house in Adhamiya in 2006 during the war and came here," said Shi'ite Abu Hassan, standing on the bridge which carries pilgrims and daily visitors from Grei'at to the sacred Shi'ite shrine in Kadhimiya.
"There were so many problems back then, so we left and rented a house here. It is better here," he said.
Many directly accuse the U.S. invasion of stirring up sectarian divisions in a country where Saddam, from the minority Sunni sect, ruthlessly crushed any signs of Shi'ite dissent but minimized sectarian divisions in daily life.
"There were no Sunnis and Shi'ites before the Americans, there was no sectarianism," said Abu Issam as he crossed the bridge. "I am a Shi'ite and my two sons are married to Sunni women."
STORY OF BAGHDAD
The identity of Iraq, once an influential political power and historically a thriving cultural hub in the Middle East, has changed through the years depending on who was in power, and these changes are reflected in Baghdad's urban landscape.
Under Saddam, statues and images of the ruler dotted almost every neighborhood and street.
After the invasion, Iraq's majority Shi'ites rose to political supremacy and stamped their mark on the capital. Saddam City is now Sadr City, and Saddam Bridge was renamed al-Hassaneen Bridge, after revered Shi'ite figures.
Green, black and red Shi'ite flags and banners depicting the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein, a Shi'ite hero, now fly high on buildings, a sight never allowed under Saddam.
Many Iraqis say they believed the U.S. invasion would bring them democracy and prosperity after years of war, economic sanctions and oppression by Saddam's security apparatus.
Many say they now feel betrayed.
The U.S. convoys, and the black-masked militiamen who five years ago controlled whole neighborhoods, have left the city's streets. But bombings and killings remain part of everyday life.
The city is often blanketed with dust and smoke, its buildings are crumbling and streets are littered with garbage. Blast walls and razor wire erected to protect buildings from bombings still cover the capital.
Iraqis worried about joblessness and insecurity must also contend with an acute water shortage and get only a few hours of electricity a day unless they have their own generators.
"They (Americans) brought us a corrupted government that does not reflect what the people want. They are leaving but they left chaos behind ... and the Iraqi people are the ones who suffer," said Abbas Jaber, a government employee.
Iraqis also fear meddling from their regional neighbors after the U.S. pullout. Sunnis fear the rising power of Shi'ite Iran as it grows closer to the government in Baghdad, and Shi'ites say they fear a Sunni coup pushed by Saudi Arabia, which has never come to terms with Shi'ite rule in Iraq.
From the mainly Shi'ite southern city of Basra through the Sunni stronghold Ramadi in the west to the northern, Kurdish city of Arbil, Iraqis appear to agree on one thing: they want the Americans out, but they are anxious about the timing.
"Yes we want the occupation out, but this is not the time for them to leave," said Mahdi, a government employee in Basra.
"The Americans will get out from here and everyone else will start coming in from elsewhere."
(Reuters.com)
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