By Correspondents and - -
DOHA, Qatar, May 9 2012 (IPS)

A roadside bomb struck a Syrian military truck near Deraa, wounding six soldiers just seconds after a convoy carrying the head of the U.N. observer mission passed by.

An Associated Press news agency reporter who was travelling in the U.N. convoy said the explosion blew out the military vehicle’s windows and sent out a plume of black smoke. Vehicles in the U.N. convoy were not hit.

Major-General Robert Mood, the head of the U.N. mission, was in the convoy but escaped unharmed along with 11 other observers, said an AFP photographer travelling with them.

The Norwegian officer said the attack was “a graphic example of violence that the Syrian people do not need”.

“We were driving behind the U.N. convoy as protection when a roadside bomb exploded, wounding a first lieutenant and five troops,” a soldier who asked to be identified only by his first name, Yahya, told AP at the scene.

At least three bloodied soldiers were rushed away.

The blast went off after the head of the U.N. observer mission headed into the southern Syrian city with a team of observers and a convoy of journalists.

The explosion was more than 100 metres behind the convoy. It was not clear who was behind the blast.

‘Responsibility claim’

Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from neighbouring Lebanon, said: “We heard some news coming from Free Syrian Army claiming responsibility for the attack, saying they did attack a military vehicle in Deraa, but it was a vehicle with no U.N. observers.

“How will this affect the U.N. mission and their free access is not clear.”

Bernard Valero, French foreign ministry spokesman, strongly condemned the attack. “We hold the Damascus regime responsible for the observers’ security,” he said in Paris.

Meanwhile, troops pounded a rebel hideout near Damascus killing at least three people on Wednesday, among them two soldiers and one civilian, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

Residents of Douma, about 13km from Damascus, reported heavy shelling since dawn and bursts of gunfire in the town, the SOHR said.

Rebels fighting to overthrow the government of President Bashar al- Assad have apparently sought refuge in Douma.

In Damascus itself, clashes erupted briefly between a security patrol and rebels in the neighbourhood of Maisat, but there were no casualties, the SOHR said.

In the eastern province of Deir Ezzor, security forces carried out raids and arrests in the villages of Al-Safira and Al-Hisan.

Two members of Syrian security forces were killed after midnight in the Jura district of Deir Ezzor, the scene of heavy shooting and explosions, the watchdog reported.

On Tuesday evening, a man was killed in the town of Soura in Deir Ezzor after unidentified gunmen attacked his car, leaving his daughter wounded.

Reports of violence

One civilian was killed and three wounded in heavy machinegun fire by regime forces in Tell Ain al-Hamra, near the town of Jisr al-Shughur in the northwest province of Idlib, on Wednesday.

“Jisr al-Shughur is near the Turkish border and has had a significant presence of rebels since the beginning of the revolt,” the Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Rural villages east of Jisr al-Shughur and the town itself came under mortar attack by security forces, he added.

In the same province, in the village of Ahsem, an army checkpoint was targeted by an explosion followed by gunfire, the Observatory reported.

Shots were also heard early on Wednesday in several districts of the central Syrian city of Homs, a stronghold of opposition groups.

Kofi Annan, the international peace envoy, said on Tuesday his peace plan that went into effect April 12 but has since been regularly violated by both sides to the conflict was “probably the last chance to avoid civil war” in Syria.

Nearly 12,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria since an anti-regime uprising erupted in mid-March last year, according to the Observatory.

*Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Excerpt:

Lingering violence, intolerance and oppression in Tunisia, following the ousting of former dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011, tells the revolutionaries who sparked the Arab Spring that their work is just beginning.

With extremist violence on the rise, many Tunisians believe the revolution never ended, and that a second wave of protest is not far off. Credit: scossargilbert/CC-BY-2.0

Islamic fundamentalists represented by Salafists have presented themselves as the biggest challenge to Tunisian democracy.

By sanctioning and inciting violence against more progressive forces in the country, they are filling the cultural and political vacuum left by Ben Ali, whose regime effectively shackled freedom of expression, especially among the youth.

On Apr. 21 and 22, Jawhar Ben M’barek, the speaker for the social democratic group Doustourna, was violently assaulted by fanatics in the southern towns of Douz and Souk El Ahad, with the perpetrators going so far as to call for his death.

An undefined group of Salafists and others, acting in the name of ‘Muslim identity’, are responsible for these acts of aggression, which are becoming increasingly commonplace as traditionalists try desperately to steer the country’s post-revolutionary development with conservative reins.

Adnan Hajji, a member of the national trade union UGTT and former coordinator of the upheaval in the Gafsa mines in 2008, told IPS that “the situation is blocked because this government doesn’t want to listen and to negotiate with representatives of the different regions or with the “outraged”. The police are aggressive; the Salafists, supported by the (recently elected Islamist) Ennahda party, attack the media and civil society activists,” he lamented.

“You cannot yet call this a revolution, because it did not go till the end. It was an upheaval and we are going to have a second one.”

Freedom for all, or freedom for none

Tunisia has long boasted a very progressive family code and Tunisian women are seen as some of the most liberated in the region.

Now these freedoms are at risk, with Salafists clamouring for a return to a more “traditional” society.

“The way Tunisian society is evolving is worrisome because some are trying to impose limits to individual freedoms. The biggest threat is the expression of violence,” Tunisian filmmaker Salma Baccar, currently in Geneva to chair the International Oriental Film Festival, told IPS.

“The situation of women is not isolated from… society as a whole. If we manage to strike a balance between those who want the veil and those who don’t, those who want to drink alcohol and those who don’t, then we will have an equilibrated society where everybody can exercise his or her rights.”

The renowned artist – whose movie ‘Fatma 19’ has been censored for 36 years because it attributed Tunisian women’s progressive status not to the statesman Habib Burguiba but to a long cultural evolution – had never before been tempted by politics.

In February 2011, when 280,000 sub-Saharan African migrants fled worn-torn Libya to seek refuge in southern Tunisia, she decided to build a “cultural tent” to play music and movies, for which she was assaulted by the Islamic fundamentalist Salafists.

It was then that she realised that culture needed to go hand in hand with politics. She joined the Democratic Pole and in October 2011 was elected to the constitutional assembly.

She considers the progressive status of Tunisian women to be “irreversible”, but admits to being “a bit worried” by the situation in the country, particularly after Ennahda won the constitutional assembly elections.

“But you cannot stop history. Our real gain is the mentality of the people, not the laws. If a woman wants to wear a veil, or even a niqab, she is free to do it as long as she is an adult. For secular people like me, accepting (that) is a good exercise in democracy. But imposing it on children is a completely different story. And if someone physically assaults me in the name of his ideas, then it is not acceptable any more.”

Baccar says she would like to see another revolution, but a cultural one this time.

“The worst aspect of Ben Ali’s regime was that it deprived people of culture and education.”

Because this fundamental right was violated for so long, young people today are starting to express themselves exclusively through violence. Most of those who resort to aggression and attacks come from neglected regions and impoverished neighbourhoods, she added.

For her, these “cultural losers” are the biggest problem in today’s Tunisia, more of a liability than the 800,000 unemployed. Even the youngsters who went to colleges and universities were not truly educated – rather, their minds were emptied of any form of free expression, and some have turned into fanatics.

“This (was) Ben Ali’s worst crime against our society and remedying it will be a long term task.” She warned that society should also keep a close watch on primary schools, where many children are indoctrinated with reactionary ideas at a very early stage.

“In some maternal schools, mothers are encouraged to veil their daughters. That is where the fight starts: we have to invest in childhood and in the youngsters,” she stressed.

Ennahda’s limitations

For Hajji, nothing has changed since January 14, 2011, the legendary day when Ben Ali was forced to flee the country. In fact, things are actually getting worse, “which is normal after an upheaval where people are allowed to speak out for the first time; but something must be done to cool down a social situation that has been rotting since independence.”

“This government doesn’t know where it is going,” he complained. The constitutional assembly, which was supposed to complete its work by March 2013, has to act quickly.

“Ennahda doesn’t have a clear social or economic programme. They have never dealt with economic issues, never supported any social movement. I personally negotiate with the government and I can see how scared they are of taking any decision.”

The lack of a strict time frame within which to draft the constitution worries him, since the initial date of March 2013 has not been confirmed.

Hajji believes Ennahda is quickly losing the trust and support of its voter base. Though the party won the elections quite comfortably, only 46 percent of eligible voters turned out on polling day, while the majority abstained.

Next time around, Ennahda might not be first in line if they fail to deliver concrete solutions in the post-revolutionary period.

The two weeks since Egypt’s abrupt cancellation of a Mubarak-era gas-export deal with Israel have seen an exchange of indirect threats and warnings between the two countries, culminating in an apparent Israeli military build-up on the border of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

The banners at this Cairo demonstration say: 'No to gas exports to the Zionist enemy'. Credit: Khaled Moussa al-Omrani/IPS.

On Apr. 22, Egypt unilaterally cancelled a 2005 export agreement for the sale of natural gas to Israel, which for the past five years had ensured a steady supply of Egyptian gas from the northern Sinai Peninsula to Israel. Egyptian energy officials attributed the move to Israel’s failure to meet payment deadlines, stressing that the decision was “not politically motivated.”

Israel, which is said to depend on Egyptian gas for some 40 percent of its electricity needs, was quick to register its opposition.

Several Israeli officials warned of the move’s dire implications for the Camp David peace agreement, signed between Egypt and Israel in 1979. Israeli opposition leader Shaul Mofaz called on his country’s chief patron, the United States, to intervene on Israel’s behalf.

The Israeli Finance Ministry went so far as to describe the move as “a dangerous precedent that casts clouds over the peace agreements and the atmosphere of peace between Egypt and Israel.”

While Israeli officials have vowed to take legal action to ensure the supply of Egyptian gas, local energy analysts say Egypt was well within its legal rights to opt out of the deal.

“The Israeli purchasers failed to pay their bills to the tune of some 100 million dollars,” Ibrahim Zahran, Egyptian petroleum expert, told IPS. “The contract clearly states that if either party fails to live up to its obligations, the other has the right to terminate the agreement.”

Egypt first began pumping natural gas to Israel in 2008, based on a deal hammered out three years earlier that allowed Egypt-Israel joint venture East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) to sell Egyptian natural gas to Israeli buyers, including the government-run Israel Electric Corporation.

Given Israel’s broad unpopularity on the Egyptian street, the gas-export deal has met with widespread public opposition since its inception. Critics note that, by providing Israel with Egyptian gas at far below international prices (while Egypt itself suffers from chronic energy shortages), the deal effectively supports – albeit indirectly – Israel’s ongoing occupation and annexation of Palestinian land.

Notably, the pipeline that carries the gas across the northern Sinai Peninsula to Israel has been subject to 14 attacks of varying severity – all by as-yet-unidentified culprits – since Egypt’s revolution early last year, often resulting in lengthy supply stoppages. As a result, electricity prices in Israel have reportedly increased by over 20 percent since the beginning of 2011.

Given the export deal’s broad unpopularity, the decision to scrap it was welcomed by Egyptian public figures and groups across the political spectrum.

Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesman for Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (which now controls almost half of the seats in parliament), called the decision “excellent,” noting that Egypt “badly needs all of its natural gas to meet its own domestic consumption needs.” The liberal Egyptian Social Democratic Party described the move as “the inevitable fruit of Egypt’s January 25 Revolution.”

Frontrunners in Egypt’s first post-Mubarak presidential polls, slated for May 23/24, likewise hailed the decision. “The move should come as no surprise given the information about the corruption that surrounded the deal,” former Arab League chief and presidential hopeful Amr Moussa told IPS.

Indeed, Sameh Fahmi, Mubarak’s last petroleum minister, is currently on trial – along with six other former officials – on charges of squandering public funds related to the gas-export agreement. According to prosecutors, the deal has so far resulted in over 714 million dollars in losses to the public purse.

While the decision to terminate the agreement was officially attributed to “commercial reasons”, Egyptian analysts believe it was prompted by political and strategic considerations.

“The move transcends mere commercial factors,” said analyst Fahmi. “A decision of this magnitude couldn’t have been taken without the approval of Egypt’s ruling military council.

“The decision has certainly bolstered the popularity of both the military council (which has governed the country since Mubarak’s ouster) and the military-appointed government, both of which had come under increasingly strident popular criticism in recent months.”

Fahmi does not rule out the possibility of military escalations should relations deteriorate further.

Only days before the termination of the gas-export deal, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman reportedly described Egypt as a “greater threat than Iran”, calling for the deployment of additional divisions to Israel’s southern border. “We have to be prepared for all possibilities,” Lieberman was quoted as saying in the Hebrew press.

And one day after the deal’s termination, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt’s ruling military council, warned that Egypt’s border was “perpetually in danger.” In a speech before troops from the Egyptian Second Army – who were conducting exercises in Sinai at the time – Tantawi promised to “break the legs of anyone who dared encroach on our borders.”

According to Fahmi, Tantawi’s statement “sent a message to Israel that Egypt is ready to defend its territory from any aggression.” It was not insignificant, Fahmi went on to point out, that Tantawi’s comments “came as the Egyptian Second Army was holding its first live-fire military drills in Sinai since the signing of the peace agreement.”

In a further apparent escalation last week, reports emerged that Israel planned to deploy at least 22 reserve battalions to its borders with Syria and Egypt due to “growing instability” and possible “security threats” emanating from both countries. Israel’s military has reportedly already approved official requests for the call-up of reserve forces.

“Recent developments point to an Israeli military build-up on the border with Sinai, carried out in order to deal with Egypt from a position of strength,” said Fahmi. “In the absence of a diplomatic resolution of the current crisis in relations, it would be a mistake to dismiss the potential for eventual military conflict.”

By Giuliana Sgrena
ALGIERS, May 8 2012 (IPS)

“Is that your photo on the poster?” a policeman asked a woman standing in front of an electoral campaign board in Algiers. “Why do you ask?” she inquired. “Because only the candidates are interested in these elections,” he replied.

The woman was Cherifa Kheddar, president of Djazairouna or ‘Our Algeria’, an association formed to support victims of terrorism. She was, in fact, proposed as a candidate for the general elections slated to be held on May 10, but refused to participate in what many commentators, citizens and activists are describing as a ‘sham’.

When Tunisia went up in flames in December 2010, the unrest quickly spread to neighbouring Algeria, where a population of 36 million people was already simmering over the lack of proper housing, rising food prices and widespread political corruption.

As polling day inches closer, many of Algeria’s 21.6 million eligible voters are expressing discontent and scepticism that elections will bring any lasting change.

Kheddar, a resident of the Islamist stronghold of Blida, located 40 kilometres from the capital city of Algiers, told IPS, “In my electoral district alone there are 44 lists for just 13 deputies.”

Anyone who wanted to be a candidate but wasn’t able to find a place on a party list simply created a new civil list and ran as an independent candidate, she added; but nobody has a clear programme of action.

A staggering 44 parties and 183 independent candidates will compete for the 462 seats in parliament, 30 percent of which are reserved for women.

Rubber stamp elections?

“These elections are just a comedy,” Djamal, a shopkeeper on the central Didouche Mourad Street, told IPS. The customers around him agreed.

“Nothing is changing, the politicians are all the same, they make promises when they want to get votes but when they are elected they (act) only on their interests,” added Sidi Ali, an unemployed youth.

“We are a rich oil country but the money is only for a few people. The majority of us are poor people – I will not vote,” he said.

Algeria is the world’s sixth largest natural gas producer, behind Russia, the United States, Canada, Iran, and Norway. A member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the country has raked in substantial oil revenues since 2010, but few besides the country’s elite see the benefits of this wealth.

The official unemployment rate in Algeria is 9.8 percent, a figure that rises to more than 20 percent for young people.

State officers echoed the sentiments of people in the streets – many told IPS, under condition of anonymity, they wouldn’t vote in the upcoming election.

This common feeling of apathy towards the ballot has prompted politicians to call off ill-attended meetings, while opposition rallies or assemblies draw only a handful of activists.

Many politicians have taken to holding their meetings in villages or small towns where they have a higher chance of drawing a crowd, since most people in the capital have grown indifferent to politics.

In the popular neighbourhood of Bab al Oued, a former Islamist stronghold back in the 1990s, most election propaganda has been scratched off the walls.

Election observers fear that voter turnout will not exceed the 35 percent who graced the 2007 polls.

Islamists regroup

Inspired by the success of Islamist parties in Egypt and in Tunisia, three Algerian Islamist forces merged to form the Islamic Green Alliance, a coalition comprised of the Society for Peace Movement (MPS) – an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood – Ennahda and el Islah, in the hopes of snagging a majority of the Islamic vote.

The Green Alliance has the support of numerous Gulf countries including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Doha-based Al Jazeera broadcasting network.

But their local support base is fractured. “MPS has been in power for long time now, and is not reliable as an opposition force. I think that Abdallah Djaballah (leader of the new Islamic Justice and Development Front or JDF) is more appreciated by the (population),” sociologist Nacer Djabi told IPS.

Opposed to an alliance with MPS, Djaballah left el Islah to form the JDF, thereby weakening what would otherwise have been a united Islamic front and lessening its chances of victory at the polls.

Still, the result depends on the turnout at the ballot boxes this Thursday.

One secular party, the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), has decided to boycott the elections altogether because “it is impossible to reform the system in power.”

And in an ironic twist, the party that was famous for boycotting elections in the past, the Socialist Forces Front (FFS), has announced it will run this time, “for tactical reasons,” according to its leader Hocine Ait Ahmed, who is hopeful that the presence of 500 international election observers is a step in the right direction for democracy in the country.

Mustapha Bouchachi, who served as chairman of the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights before heading the FFS list in Algiers, says his party rejects the system in power but “wants a peaceful change; violence does not allow us to build a democracy,” he told IPS.

Widespread corruption

A low turnout will be a disaster for the current government, the National Liberation Front (FLN) and the National Democratic Rally (RND). Both parties have thrown the full power of the state behind their electoral campaign, including the rampant use of state television and promises of distributing houses to voters.

They are not the only parties defying electoral laws and regulations. Amar Ghoul, minister of Public Works and head of the Green Alliance list in Algiers is offering ten iPads to voters who will contribute to his campaign.

Nearly 400 complaints, most of them related to the wasteful use of state resources, have been lodged at the National Independent Commission for Election Monitoring (CNISEL) since the launch of the campaign on Apr. 15.

Both the FLN and RND have been harkening back to the pre-independence period, when the FLN was instrumental in toppling French colonial rule and ushering in a ‘liberated’ Algeria; but in a country where 70 percent of the population is under the age of 30, such rhetoric pales in comparison to the harsh reality of unemployment and poverty.

“They made me drink my own urine,” said one former detainee, Addam Ayedh al-Shayef, describing his experiences in detainment in Yemen. “When I refused to drink it, they electrocuted me. After I came home, I would dream I was still being tortured and I’d wake up screaming.”

Shayef and nearly two dozen other former detainees told their stories to the rights group Human Rights Watch, which released a news report today on the illegal detention of opposition protestors, fighters and sympathisers, and opponents of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh since protests began in February 2011.

Since that time, Human Rights Watch found, people were detained for days, weeks and even months by security forces and usually denied access to attorneys, with no ability to visit with relatives and without adequate food and shelter.

During detainment, prisoners were subjected to beatings, electric shock, death or rape threats, and long periods of solitary confinement.

The organisation spoke with both former detainees and relatives of protestors and opposition fighters. Its report incorporated vivid accounts by former detainees of their experiences in detainment after the group documented 37 cases of arbitrary detainment.

Shayef, 21, said that men he believed to be from the government’s National Security Bureau grabbed him from a street in Sanaa, Yemen’s capital, on March 4 of this year. In prisons in Sanaa and Aden, a port city in the south of the country, they repeatedly tortured him for a week.

How many more accounts are similar to Addam Ayedh al-Shayef’s story? According to Human Rights Watch, that fact is difficult to ascertain, due to limited accessibility to public information and little to no access to detention facilities, even though a new transition government is in power.

Security forces and intelligence agencies have even prevented government officials, including Human Rights Minister Hooria Mashhour, and lawyers from accessing detention centers, according to the report. Mashhour said she believed that dozens are still being held in arbitrary detainment, including by opposition forces.

Lip service

In January, Yemen’s transitional cabinet and a military restructuring committee headed by Abdu Rabo Mansour Hadi, who was the sole candidate for and winner of the presidency in February, ordered the release of those arbitrarily detained.

Yet even after this order, about 100 detainees still need to be released. “I honestly think many sectors of the government do not know how many people are being held,” Human Rights Watch spokesperson Letta Tayler told IPS.

Human Rights Watch still managed to gather information and accounts from former detainees, finding that detainees had been kept from a few days to ten months by security and intelligence units that were run by relatives of former president Saleh and even now generally remain outside of the government’s control.

Meanwhile an immunity law enacted on January 21, under the transitional government, gives amnesty to former president Saleh for his political crimes as well as those who served under him during his 33- year rule.

“The law violates Yemen’s international legal obligations to prosecute serious violations of human rights and does not shield officials from prosecution for offenses committed since its enactment,” said the report.

Furthermore, when Human Rights Watch visited Sanaa earlier this year, many local human rights groups and officials said that people were still being detained and kept out of communication, by both government and opposition forces, even as both sides denied doing so.

In the news report, Human Rights Watch called for “the United States, the European Union, and the Gulf states (to) call for the transfer of all detainees to judicial authorities so they can be freed or charged and prosecuted in impartial and fair proceedings”.

“I think many countries around the world want to see stability in Yemen,” said Tayler.

However, Tayler noted, the problem is that there are security concerns, which tend to come first. “What you see happening is there is less focus on human rights because of security issues. Yemen has a very active branch of Al-Qaeda and if there is ever reason for concern, human rights and security can go hand in hand.”

The typical person detained is considered to be from one of four broad categories, said Tayler. These categories include foes of the fallen government, opposition protestors or fighters, or members of government forces; sympathizers, even if they are not protestors; those people who hailed from cities or towns that were flash points of opposition to the government; and fighters from opposition forces.

More than a year since president Hosni Mubarak was removed from power, the money he allegedly syphoned from Egypt during his 29-year rule remains beyond the reach of authorities attempting to recover it.

Mubarak amassed a fortune by carving up Egypt as if it were his own private estate. The dictator and his family are believed to have accumulated anywhere from 2 billion to 70 billion dollars in illicit wealth, much of it tied up in secret offshore accounts as well as lavish estates in London, Madrid, New York and across Egypt.

Authorities responsible for identifying and recovering these assets have dragged their feet, giving Mubarak’s intermediaries more time to move the money to safe havens, says Amir Marghany, a member of the Egyptian Legal Group for Recovering the People’s Wealth (ELGRPW), an ad hoc group of lawyers and jurists seeking restitution of Mubarak’s ill-gotten gains.

“People are getting frustrated,” says Marghany. “The process could take years, and there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see a penny.”

Egypt’s public prosecutor issued a travel ban and a freeze on the domestic assets of Mubarak and his family, as well as their close associates, after the dictator was toppled in February 2011. The foreign ministry ordered Egyptian embassies around the world to request that governments identify, freeze and return the assets of these individuals in accordance with the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, to which Egypt is a signatory.

Financial institutions in the European Union and Switzerland are working with a list of 19 names that includes the families of Mubarak and his closest associates. Canada’s foreign affairs department has adopted a more comprehensive list of over 140 individuals.

Although the Mubarak family is rumoured to own prime real estate in Manhattan and Beverly Hills, the American government has refused to issue any directives to locate or freeze the former dictator’s assets. U.S. Treasury officials claim Egyptian prosecutors have not provided the required documents.

According to one legal expert, Mubarak’s associates – and even the man himself – could walk into any U.S. bank and withdraw money.

Foreign governments may be reluctant to act against Mubarak and his cronies until judicial investigations can confirm the illicit origin of the assets. Secrecy jurisdictions, that is countries with opaque financial systems such as Liechtenstein and Cayman Islands, must also weigh the potential impact on their reputation.

“If a precedent is set and assets are revealed, these countries would no longer be considered safe havens for laundered money and their national economies would go belly up,” Marghany told IPS.

What little progress has been made has been bogged down by legal procedures.

Switzerland was among the first countries to block suspected Mubarak family assets, enacting legislation passed just weeks before the dictator’s ouster that allows its government to freeze and repatriate embezzled funds deposited in Swiss bank accounts and trusts by autocratic rulers.

“The objective of (the freeze) was to preserve assets that may have been illegally acquired and deposited in Switzerland and to prevent them from being transferred elsewhere,” explains Rita Adam, deputy director of the Directorate of International Law.

Assem El-Gohary, head of Egypt’s Illicit Gains Authority (IGA), announced last October that Mubarak and his family held assets worth 450 million dollars in now-frozen Swiss bank accounts. A lawyer for the family, however, denied the money had been embezzled.

Swiss government officials have said the assets would remain frozen until judicial authorities could determine whether they were acquired legally or had an illicit origin. But with no apparent timetable for a judicial ruling, the Egyptian public is growing impatient.

Meanwhile, acrimony is growing over the fate of Mubarak family assets frozen in the UK. The British Treasury’s Asset Freezing Unit (AFU) froze the equivalent of 138 million dollars in Egyptian assets after Mubarak’s ouster last year, yet has refused to provide Egyptian authorities with details on the nature and ownership of the frozen assets.

Treasury officials claim disclosing the information would breach national laws protecting bank client confidentiality.

Facing pressure at home to show results, Egyptian officials have taken the matter to court. The military-run government has filed a lawsuit in British administrative courts against the UK Treasury to disclose information needed to complete the legal procedures for repatriating assets.

Sceptics, however, claim the efforts are purely for public consumption. They accuse Egypt’s ruling generals and the institutions they control of ostentatiously crusading against corruption while tacitly sheltering Mubarak and his assets.

Amr Adly, head of the Economic and Social Justice Unit at the Cairo-based Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), says state prosecutors responsible for retrieving Mubarak’s foreign assets appear to have buried the case.

“Recovering these assets is a very complex procedure… that depends foremost on a verdict passed by our judiciary,” explains Adly. “Mubarak is on trial for several charges, including ordering the killing of protesters, selling gas to Israel, and financial crimes related to estates in Egypt.”

Yet none of the charges involve the former dictator’s overseas assets, he notes.

Citing growing violence and polarisation along sectarian lines, human rights groups and independent experts here are urging Washington to exert more pressure on the government of Bahrain to free political prisoners and launch a serious dialogue with its opposition on major democratic reforms.

While the administration of President Barack Obama has repeatedly called on the al-Khalifa monarchy to follow through on recommendations made by an international commission last November, it has been reluctant to take stronger steps for fear of alienating Saudi Arabia, Bahrain’s much larger neighbour, according to analysts here.

The Pentagon also does not want to jeopardise its use of the island as the headquarters for its Fifth Fleet, particularly given its strategic location directly across the Gulf from Iran.

The administration “should be telling the Bahraini government that time is short, and, if they don’t act, there will be an escalation on the U.S. side,” said Tom Malinowski, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), who was briefly detained by police at a demonstration during a visit to the Gulf kingdom last month.

In addition to maintaining a de facto suspension on arms sales to Bahrain, he called for Washington to consider supporting a resolution on the situation at the U.N. Human Rights Council and denying visas to senior officials deemed responsible for abuses committed during the past year’s crackdown against the predominantly Shi’a opposition.

Speaking at a forum sponsored by the Washington-based Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) Thurday, Malinowski also urged Washington to signal its willingness to consider moving the Fifth Fleet out of Bahrain. “The military base is not sustainable as violence grows,” he said.

Malinowski’s advice fell short of that of some Gulf specialists here, notably a former top Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst for Near Eastern and South Asia. Writing in the Financial Times just after the controversial running of the Formula One race in Bahrain last month, Emile Nakhleh urged the administration to begin pulling the fleet out now.

“The huge U.S. naval presence in Bahrain has not improved western security in the Gulf; has not altered Iran’s behaviour; and, more important, has not silenced the anti-regime opposition in the Gulf and in other Arab countries,” wrote Nakhleh, who also headed the CIA’s Political Islam desk.

“Instead, its presence has arguably increased Iran’s belligerence and given Sunni regimes, including Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the false impression that Washington has given them a licence to kill their own people,” he added, noting that such a move would signal all regimes in the region that “Arab dictatorship will no longer be tolerated whether in Bahrain, Syria, Saudi Arabia, or elsewhere.”

The appeals for a stronger U.S. stance reflect growing concerns here that hardliners led by the world’s longest-serving prime minister, Khalifah ibn Sulman al-Khalifa, have solidified their hold on power and successfully marginalised reformist elements identified with the crown prince, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.

The administration had hoped to bolster the crown prince’s position in the immediate aftermath of the last year’s Saudi-backed crackdown against the opposition by, among other things, arranging a high- profile White House meeting with Obama last June.

They had also hoped that he and King Hamad, considered a “moderate” by the administration, could force through implementation of the key recommendations made in November by the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), which was tasked to investigate abuses committed during crackdown.

In addition to the use of excessive force by security forces, resulting in several dozen deaths, the BICI’s nearly 500-page report detailed other serious abuses, including the rounding up, detention, torture and mistreatment of hundreds of demonstrators, the wrongful dismissal of thousands of others from government posts and universities, and serious due-process violations, including the admission of forced confessions, committed against defendants brought before special security courts.

The BICI’s key recommendations included the release of all political prisoners, investigation and prosecution of senior officials suspected of giving orders to carry out abuses, and launching a serious dialogue with the opposition, which has been led by the al- Wefaq party, leading to democratic reforms that would give the Shi’a community, which is believed to comprise between 60 and 70 percent of Bahraini citizens, a much bigger voice in the government.

While some technical suggestions, such as the installation of cameras in jails to discourage torture (although Malinowski noted that police now commit abuses against detainees in the streets and back alleys) have been implemented, the government has done little or nothing on the more overarching recommendations designed to further reconciliation and prevent radicalisation.

“The crown prince has been marginalised,” according to Joost Hiltermann, a Gulf expert at the International Crisis Group (ICG).

He also noted that the government appears intent on increasing its dependence on Saudi Arabia – hundreds of whose troops remain in Bahrain after they were sent there to back up Bahraini forces during the crackdon – to the extent of favouring a “Saudi-Bahraini confederation” that, if consummated, would mean “political suicide by Saudi embrace”.

Like Malinowski, Hiltermann said the situation on the ground is deteriorating as more radical anti-monarchical elements in the Shi’a community, notably the February 14 Youth Movement, in support at Al- Wefaq’s expense.

The recent use of molotov cocktails by some opposition elements against the police, as well as the police’s increased use of tear gas and birdshot, represents a “disturbing trend” that underlines the urgent need for implementation of BICI’s recommendations, he said.

“The value out of the BICI is zero on the ground,” according to Khalil Al-Marzooq, an Al-Wefaq leader and former parliamentarian, who also participated in the POMED forum and appealed for a stronger response by the U.S. and the international community, which, he complained, has taken a “wait and see” attitude.

“The cycle of violence is growing; …the hope is still there, but we have to act fast because time is against us.”

In that respect, many analysts are focused on the fate of Abdul Hadi al-Khawaja, a dual Danish-Bahraini citizen and long-time human rights activist who was sentenced by a military court with 20 other activists last year to life imprisonment on charges that they plotted to overthrow the government.

Al-Khawaja, who has been on a hunger strike for 88 days and, according to some reports, is reportedly being forced-fed in an army hospital, and is co-defendants are considered “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International. Earlier this week, Bahrain’s Court of Cassation accepted an appeal of their case but declined to release them on bail.

“The most important step in turning down the temperature in Bahrain at this point is if Al-Khawaja were released, even as a preliminary move, with an indication that other political prisoners will be released,” according to Toby Jones, a Gulf expert at Rutgers University.

“Things are very, very bad and will only get worse unless there’s a breakthrough,” he told IPS. “Letting Al- Khawaja go would be seen as an important gesture, and it would save his life.”

The administration has also pushed hard both privately and publicly for precisely that, calling earlier this week for Manama “to urgently consider all available options to resolve his case humanely and expeditiously.”

“Many political activists remain in prison, some of them arrested for participation in non-violent demonstrations, and we encourage the speedy resolution of all of these cases, as recommended by the BICI report,” a State Department spokeperson told IPS. “We further urge the government of Bahrain to drop charges against all individuals who engaged in free speech and peaceable assembly.”

But whether the government is listening to Washington remains to be seen.

In another action this week, Bahraini authorities reversed a previous decision to grant visas to representatives of several U.S. and international mainstream organisations – including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom House, Index on Censorship, and Reporters Without Borders – to travel to the kingdom next week to assess press and free-speech conditions there.

*Jim Lobe’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com.

The Lebanese army seized a ship last weekend carrying three containers filled with weapons reportedly intended for Syria’s rebel fighters. Although Lebanon has remained relatively stable throughout the sustained violence next door in Syria, this discovery is the most recent reminder that the country is far from immune to the unrest plaguing its neighbour.

A shop window in Tripoli in Lebanon marked by bullet holes after sectarian fighting over the Syrian revolution. Credit: Zak Brophy/IPS.

The Basher Assad government in Syria has often complained of arms being smuggled into Syria from neighbouring countries, and since the inception of the uprising little over a year ago there have been a number of weapons shipments intercepted in Lebanon. The smuggling routes across the notoriously porous border between the two countries are now being used to move weapons and supplies into Syria and to provide passage for the fleeing refugees and injured fighters.

“I’m going to see my army,” said Zaki while waiting in a safe house just inside the Lebanese side of the border. His family are from Hama and Homs, hotbeds of the Syrian opposition. They were exiled in 1981 during the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood by former president Hafez al-Assad.

They now have a successful trading company in Saudi Arabia and, according to Zaki, “are transferring money to people (in Lebanon) and they send the money to the revolutionary people to buys guns.”

He claimed they have been sending 100,000 dollars every month for the past eight months to opposition fighters of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). He said his father had sent him to make sure the money was providing the fighters with the weapons they expected. “The Saudi government does not want to stop anyone who works like this. They are covering us. They want us to work without talking,” he said.

The funding and arming of the FSA has been a divisive issue among the countries within the international community supporting the uprising. While there has been no inter-governmental agreement to overtly arm the fighters, after the last ‘Friends of Syria’ meeting in early April, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states reportedly committed to establishing a multi million-dollar fund to pay members of the FSA.

A Syrian activist, who smuggles humanitarian supplies and refugees between the two countries, complained that certain gangs trading arms within Lebanon were exploiting the Syrian uprising to boost their profits.

Speaking on condition of anonymity he said, “Some merchants are trying to create their markets inside of Homs by getting certain groups to buy their weapons and create war. We have a problem with them. It is known now that those merchants are creating a small war for their market.”

The increased demand, whether it is for the revolutionaries in Syria or militias in Lebanon, has caused prices to rise sharply. The same activist said a Kalashnikov rifle now fetched around 2,000 dollars whereas the pre-revolution price tag would have been closer to 200 to 300 dollars. “You could spend 25-30,000 dollars just on providing munitions to a single checkpoint,” he calculated.

As well as weapons being smuggled from sea before being sent overland to Syria, there have been reports of weapons being stolen and sold from within the Lebanese army.

In early April the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported that an intelligence officer who was in charge of a weapons depot had been detained for questioning on suspicion of stealing and selling arms. That same week at the safe house on the border, Zaki said, “The (arms dealers) are selling from Lebanon, some even thieve from the Lebanese army and others are importing to Lebanon.”

In addition to the flow of arms across the border there is a steady stream of people, with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimating there are 24,000 displaced Syrians who have made the journey to seek sanctuary in Lebanon. Along with the civilians fleeing in search of safety, fighters regularly cross the border.

The traffic of fighters has predominantly been Syrian combatants. But recent reports suggest some Lebanese are now making the journey to join the revolution. Hilal Khashan, professor of political science at American university of Beirut, said, “Like what happened in Iraq, parts of Syria are now becoming a land for jihad…The Syrians are responding by crossing the border and opening fire. There is a low intensity conflict on the border between Syria and Lebanon but I don’t see it developing into a major confrontation.”

Tripoli in north Lebanon is a conservative Sunni city that has close societal, familial and historical ties with the communities in western Syria revolting against the Assad regime. Sheikh Mazen al-Mohammad is a leading religious figure in the city and has been at the forefront of the regular demonstrations in support of the Syrian uprising.

He denies recent media reports claiming he said he has sent religiously inspired fighters, or mujahideen, to Syria but added, “If these international efforts we see fail in helping our brothers in Syria, and they request us to help them to victory then we will do it, whatever the consequences.”

Syria enjoyed a strong military presence in Lebanon from 1976 until 2005, and many of the Sunni communities, especially in the north, harbour strong resentment over their treatment during this time. Sheikh Mazen al-Muhammad said, “The Sunnis in Lebanon, because of their suffering at the hands of the Syrian regime, can understand the position of the Syrian revolution more than anyone in the Arab World… When this uprising began in Syria the wounds were opened afresh here.”

The fragile balancing act played by Lebanon’s politicians and sectarian leaders has so far kept the nation aloft from the violence next door. However, Lebanon is intrinsically connected to Syria, and its sectarian and political tensions have been tangibly exacerbated by the uprising there.

The thriving trade in weapons and potential militarisation of certain communities does little to allay fears of renewed civil strife in Lebanon if the Syria crisis deteriorates further.

The widespread practice of marrying minors continues to be one of the most incendiary legal and political issues in Morocco today, causing open confrontations between hard-line Islamists and moderates throughout the country.

Speaking on national television last month, Mohammed Abdenabawi, an official of the Ministry of Justice, declared that 30,000 minor girls are married every year – roughly 10 percent of the 300,000 marriages recorded every year in this country of 32 million inhabitants.

The phenomenon is widespread, the consequences for young women and girls severe, and the efforts of civil society sustained, though maintaining momentum against a tide of cultural and religious conservatism is challenging.

A campaign to gather one million signatures to forbid the marriage of minors is already in progress, sparked by the death of Amina Filali, a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide after being forced to marry her rapist.

Supposedly to protect family and female “honour”, a court evoked legislation in the penal and family codes to force Filali to marry the man 10 years older than she who forced her, at knifepoint, to submit to him.

Both the court case and Filali’s suicide opened the floodgates to a deluge of public debate and activism around the issue, which had hitherto been a taboo topic in traditional Moroccan society.

Jamal Rhmani, a member of the opposition Socialist Union for Popular Forces and former Minister of Employment, told IPS, “The campaign has gathered more than 780,000 signatures up to now.”

Despite being a member of the political opposition and one of the lead organisers of the campaign to ban marriage of minors, Rhmani sees his involvement in activism first and foremost from his perspective as the father of a 14-year-old daughter.

“Before being a politician, I am a father. We cannot be indifferent to what is happening around us,” he explained.

Activists, rights groups and members of the opposition have been clamouring for the abolition of article 475 of the penal code, which allows rapists to get off scotfree if they agree to marry their victims; as well as articles 20 and 21 of the family code, which allows the marriage of minor girls.

But the root of the problem runs deep, and will require more systemic change than the abolition of one or two laws

“The culprit is archaic jurisprudence implemented by ignoramuses,” Chakib Khettou, a citizen of Casablanca, told IPS, referring to the Muslim law allowing the marriage of girls older than nine years, according to traditional law.

Back in 2008, Sheik Mohamed El Maghrawi, a well-known Moroccan Muslim scholar, published a Fatwa reiterating families’ right to marry off their daughters over the age of nine. His position provoked a major scandal but the scholar suffered no consequences.

During a press conference in the city of Marrakesh last April, El Maghrawi even expressed his attachment to his position, “based on the Quran and the words of the Prophet ” according to him.

However, opposition to this particular reading of Sharia’a law has become widespread.

Ahmed Faridi, a teacher who holds a licence degree in Sharia’a law, told to IPS, “Nothing in the Quran allows marrying a nine-year-old girl,” he explained. Even if it turns out that the Prophet of Islam himself had married a minor girl, “he is in that case an exception and cannot be a rule,” Faridi stressed.

Traditionalists won’t let go

Minister of Justice and Liberties, Mustapha Erramid, is not as moderate as some of the activists pushing for the marriage ban.

In a national televised address last March, the Minister said, “The marriage of minor girls is not forbidden by the law.”

A lawyer by trade, Erramid is “tolerant” towards the amendment of article 475 of the penal code, but refused to speak about the amendment of articles 20 and 21 of the family code.

The Islamist Minister hinted that demonstrations similar to those held against the National Plan for Women’s Integration in Development, enacted under the socialist government of Abderrahmane Youssoufi in 1999, were not far off.

Back then, thousands of Islamists hailing from the ruling Justice and Development Party (PJD) took to the streets of Casablanca against Youssoufi’s plan to include women in political and economic development, which they judged as “incompatible” with Sharia’a because it forbade polygamy and fixed the minimum age of marriage for women at 18 years old.

Still, current members of parliament are not too worried that today’s activism will see such a vehement reaction by conservatives.

“A national debate on this subject is at present necessary to amend the penal code and the code of the family. A legislative initiative is already being taken by the socialist group in parliament to guarantee more protection to minor girls,” Rhmani said.

The second chamber of parliament held a meeting on the subject last week. The president of the chamber, Mohamed Cheikh Biadilah, said the proposed amendments should be viewed in “the spirit of the new constitution”, adopted during the turbulence of the Arab Spring, which “commits the State to guarantee the social and economic rights of the family” and “to protect minors (regardless) of their family or social position” and “forbids any shape of discrimination based on gender.”

Biadilah also said, “The legislative power has the obligation to intervene every time it notices that a law has become incompatible with the development of the society.”

“All the laws that go against the dignity of women must be amended or even abolished “, said the president of the Chamber of Councilors in Moroccan parliament.

The recent outbreak of violence between the largely segregated Zwai and Tabu tribes in Libya’s remote, Saharan town of Kufra shattered the uneasy calm that held since last February’s clashes, resulting in more than 100 deaths. The clashes illustrate the challenges in building a new state.

Young militia members in Kufra. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS.

In the power vacuum following Muammar Gaddafi’s overthrow, the fighting over turf and rights at this lucrative smuggling hub – nearly 1,000 miles from Libya’s coast bordering Egypt, Sudan and Chad – threatens Kufra’s equitable participation in June’s national elections and the stability of Libya’s southeast region.

Days before Kufra’s violence reignited, adult students from both tribes gathered under a tree at a vocational institute downtown to voice fears about the town’s security, and their future in it.

“It’s not easy to get employed in Kufra, and nepotism plays a role,” says Omasayad, 26, a medical student from the Zwai tribe. “There are too many people and not enough jobs,” she adds. “From a security point of view, under Gaddafi it was better.”

Her 25-year old Tabu classmate, Kadisha Jacky, is married with four children. “Security is less than under Gaddafi,” she interjects. “But life is still better.” Jacky says priorities should be security, peace and human rights.

Kaltroun Toushi, 23, is a computer student from a Tabu family. “The tribal conflict is chronic,” she says. “I feel secure at school, but not in the city.”

Kufra’s Tabu population is an estimated 4,000 out of a total of 44,000 of mostly Arab Zwai inhabitants. Semi-nomadic, the darker-skinned Tabu tribe has ties to Sabha, a trade hub in Libya’s west, as well as to Sudan, Chad and Niger. The Zwai clan is spread north from Kufra through the oil rich desert to coastal Ajdabiya.

The Tabu suffered chronic discrimination under the Gaddafi regime, exacerbated by a violent territorial war with Chad over minerals, that Libya eventually forfeited in the 1980s.

A United Nations Human Rights Council report in July 2010 says Kufra’s Tabu, accused by Gaddafi of being Chadian, were stripped of their citizenship in 2007. They were subsequently barred from education and health services, and subject to arrest and house demolitions.

The Tabu played a crucial role in last year’s overthrow of Gaddafi. Tabu networks were activated across southern borders to block the flow of sub-Saharan mercenaries to the old regime.

Libya’s new transitional government subsequently assigned Tabu leader Issa Abdelmajid Mansur to watch over Kufra’s vast Saharan corner, with its lucrative legal and illicit cross-border trade of food, fuel, migrants, weapons and drugs.

“We are mainly concerned with the traffickers network,” says Col. Suliman Hamed Hassan, head of Kufra’s military council. “Issa Abdelmajid is with them, controlling the border points. We asked him to stop and he didn’t. He is making money from this.”

“The Tabu have made fortunes from this and the Zwai have made fortunes from this,” asserts Bill Lawrence, North Africa director for the International Crisis Group.

The death of a Tabu taxi driver triggered the current violence between the Tabu and those they accuse of the crime, the Libyan Shield Brigade. This militia, allied with the military council, was directed by the defence ministry from Benghazi to keep the peace.

“Basically, this is an old chronic problem between two tribes,” Col. Abdul Rami Kashbour, an army advisor sent to Kufra, says. “It’s bigger than before because of the availability of weapons.

“One of the causes is identity. So many Tabu have a problem with identity, and the government should resolve this. Then we control the borders.” He adds, “All conflicts only happen in border areas. It happens because every side wants to control the border.”

Bill Lawrence agrees. “The conflict between the Tabu and the Zwai is partially over control of smuggling routes, partially who is a Libyan, and partially revenge over violence.

“All conflicts in Libya share fault lines that existed throughout the Gaddafi era, but below the radar and suppressed by the authoritarian regime,” he says. “When you take the lid off, it all starts percolating again.”

Critically, Kufra’s violence has diverted attention from the difficult task of building up local democratic institutions from scratch. Unlike war-ravaged towns like Misrata that rapidly voted in its municipality, Kufra’s local council chairman is appointed, with no elections slated soon.

All students interviewed by IPS say they know little about the national constitutional elections on Jun. 19. They are not informed about registering to vote, about political parties, candidates or the critical issues.

“I know something about the national elections, but not really,” admits architecture student Fateh Hamed Mabrouk, 25. “No one is telling us what they are about. The local council is not telling us…Like our brothers in other cities, we want local community elections.”

Al Sanussi Salem Al Gommi, head of Kufra’s election committee, claims Tripoli’s government still hasn’t provided voter registration details. The town violence, he says, has affected an electoral awareness campaign, and electing a local council is postponed until a new Libyan government is voted in.

“Some Tabu have threatened to stop the election process here until they register some more families of theirs to become Libyans. They don’t have documents to prove this though,” he says.

“The issue of citizenship and documents is a massive mess,” says Fred Abrahams, an advisor with Human Rights Watch. “In south Libya you have some Tabu without documents that do deserve them, and some who do have them, but don’t deserve them.

“It’s going to cause considerable problems in the upcoming elections because the Tabu fear they may be disfranchised.”

Abrahams dismisses Tabu cited aspirations for regional homeland covering their tribal base. “At this point I think they are posturing. They are divided themselves and this is not a serious option,” he says.

“What is serious is the nervousness those claims reveal. There is a high level of distrust and suspicion, and now blood has been spilled.”

In a major speech commemmorating the Nazi Holocaust, U.S. President Barack Obama Monday announced several steps his administration will take to curb mass atrocities abroad, including in Syria where he is under continuing pressure to intervene with military force.

Among other measures, he announced that Washington will now impose sanctions against individuals, government agencies and private companies that use or provide advanced communications or computer technologies to track, disrupt or target opposition activists for violent repression.

In the first use of such sanctions, the U.S. Treasury said Monday it was applying the new measure against Iranian and Syrian intelligence agencies, Syria’s state-controlled mobile phone company, an Iranian internet provider, and several individuals for their involvement in repression in both countries.

“These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them,” Obama declared at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “It’s one more step that we can take toward the day that we know will come – the end of the (Bashar al-) Assad rebime that has brutalised the Syrian people.”

In his speech, Obama also announced the formation of a much- anticipated Atrocities Prevention Board (APB), a high-level inter- agency body that will report directly to the White House on the potential outbreak of genocide, war crimes, or other mass atrocities and possible options to prevent or contain them.

The Board, which will meet at least monthly, will be chaired by the senior director for multilateral and humanitarian affairs, Samantha Power, a long-time close adviser to Obama who authored a book about the 1994 Rwanda genocide and reportedly played a key role last year in persuading him to intervene militarily as part of a NATO force in Libya.

In addition, Obama announced that the 17 agencies that comprise the U.S. intelligence community will for the first time prepare a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on the risk of mass atrocities and genocide as part of an effort to, in his words, “institutionalise the focus on this issue”.

“In short, we need to be doing everything we can to prevent and respond to these kinds of atrocities – because national sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people,” Obama said.

On his visit to the museum, Obama was accompanied by the Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel who, in an interview with the Times of Israel last week, had rebuked Benjamin Netanyahu for repeatedly comparing the alleged threat posed by Iran to Israel with the Holocaust, as the Israeli prime minister did last Thursday at a memorial in Jerusalem in a particularly hawkish speech that drew widespread notice in elite foreign policy circles here.

But, in introducing the president Monday, Wiesel echoed some of Netanyahu’s themes. Reciting the West’s failure to challenge the Nazis as they perpetrated “the greatest tragedy in history”, he suggested that the West was playing a similar role today with respect to Assad and Iran.

“How is that Assad is still in power? How is that the Holocaust’s No. 1 denier, (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad is still president?” he asked. “He who threatens to use nuclear weapons destroys the Jewish state.”

“Mr. President, we are here in this place of memory. Israel cannot not remember. And because it remembers, it must be strong, just to defend its own survival and its own destiny,” he said.

In his remarks, Obama noted that his administration had repeatedly rejected attempts to condemn Israel at the U.N. and other international forums.

“When faced with a regime that threatens global security and denies the Holocaust and threatens to destroy Israel,” he said, “the United States will do everything in our power to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon,” he stressed.

But most of his remarks were directed both at his administration’s efforts to prevent mass atrocities around the world – in Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, Libya, and in Central Africa with the ongoing hunt for Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) – and his promise last August to make “preventing mass atrocities and genocide …a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States of America.”

It was in that context that he also cited the steady build-up of U.S. sanctions against Damascus – including its documentation of atrocities allegedly committed by the Assad regime and its backing for the multinational “Friends of Syria” that supports the opposition – and announced the latest measure to punish those who use or supply “technologies to monitor and track and target citizens for violence”.

The U.N. estimates that more than 9,000 Syrians have died in the violence of the past 13 months.

The use of information technology by repressive governments constituted a “new and growing human rights threat”, according to a White House fact sheet distributed to reporters.

The new sanction, it stressed, is aimed not only against governments, but also “the companies that enable them with technology they use for oppression and the ‘digital guns for hire’ who create or operate systems used to monitor, track, and target citizens for killing, torture or other abuses.”

While this sanction is directed exclusively at Syrian and Iranian companies for now, it could potentially apply to others that sell technology to repressive governments, if there is reasonable ground to believe that the technology will be used to track and target dissidents, according to independent analysts.

“The Obama administration has made a significant decision today to attack the accomplices of mass atrocities by employing targeted sanctions against high-tech industries abroad and enforce such controls here when such trade empowers regimes that kill their own people,” said George Lopez, of the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

“These U.S. actions have real potential to disrupt, if not end, (commerce in) such goods and services.”

At the same time, the fact sheet stressed the administration’s recognition of the “importance of preserving the global telecommunications supply chains for essential products and services.”

Human rights and conflict-prevention groups, meanwhile, hailed the formation of the APB, which held its first meeting Monday afternoon, as a major bureaucratic breakthrough. First introduced by a bipartisan commission headed by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright and former Pentagon chief William Cohen in 2008, the idea of the APB has won approval from both sides of the aisle in Congress.

“It will be coordinating all the information both in and outside the government and meeting on a regular basis,” Mark Schneider, vice president of the International Crisis Group (ICG), told IPS. “And the aim is not simply to bring together the information, but to force a response. That’s new. The U.S. government has never had a focal point on this issue in that way.”

“This new ‘all-of-government approach’ reflects hard-learned lessons from tardy responses to past humanitarian crises,” said Frank Jannuzi, a former top Congressional staffer who heads advocacy for the U.S. chapter of Amnesty International.

Albright and Cohen also praised the initiative but cautioned that it “should not be viewed as a new doctrine for humanitarian intervention or global adventurism, as some might suggest.

“Rather, it is a clear-eyed and pragmatic attempt to expand our government’s toolbox to meet the challenges posed by tyrants who pose an extraordinary threat to their civilian populations. This toolbox is about more than sending in the Marines,” they added.

*Jim Lobe’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com.

It might be a cliché and often an elaborate exaggeration to term a particular event “historic”. However, few can doubt that along with the Civil Rights movements, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall, the revolutions that have swept through the Arab world are no less momentous or historic.

While the first decade of the millennium got off to a bad start with the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, and the ramifications which resulted in death, destruction, war, conflict, fear, and division across the world, the second decade seems to have started off with an entirely different theme.

The “Arab Spring” fully deserves to be labelled “historic” for two main reasons.

The first is that the sweeping changes and transformations taking place were totally and completely unexpected, and almost without any introductions or preliminary phases. Speaking to a political analyst from Tunisia, where the tidal wave commenced in January this year, he assured me that despite his expert knowledge and close following of Tunisian politics and society, he could never have predicted what then happened.

The same is true for Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Oman, Morocco and other locations throughout the Arab world.

Indeed, the mere concept of such radical changes and transformations taking place in a region renowned for political stagnation and corruption, human rights violations, absence of democracy and tyrannical and authoritarian regimes, would have been unimaginable, merely a few days before the region lit up.

So to actually see the first of what promises to be a long queue of Arab dictators standing trial before a court of law representing the people, charged with ordering the killing of civilian protestors, is truly amazing and almost unbelievable.

Every single aspect of this revolution, whether the nature and the structure of the change, how it all started, the manner in which the protestors communicated with each other and coordinated positions, the rapid pace of progress that led to the downfall of the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes, or the glorious stories of sacrifice, endeavour, courage and selflessness, is worthy of praise and mention.

The second reason is that this fantastic awakening of a nation deemed dead a long time ago was lead by its youth. Young people who were born, raised and educated in these suffocatingly prohibitive conditions, but who used their individual and collective endeavour and creativity to bring about this illuminating chapter of history in such an inspiring fashion is in itself an event to be highlighted.

Among the factors that led to the world-wide audience being captivated by the performance of the Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans, Yemenis, Syrians and others is that this revolution was a 100-percent non- political movement in terms of the real actors on the ground.

It was purely political of course in its remit, mandate and objectives, but no political party or political grouping could claim ownership or directorship of the movement on the streets. What this presented was a unique opportunity for everyone concerned.

Those who had long given up on corrupt, malfunctioning, sub-standard political entities, all of a sudden were presented with an opportunity to induce change themselves. Further, the regimes who once felt that matters had gone out of control and began making unprecedented concessions, found that there wasn’t a particular party or body with whom they could negotiate, offer political gains or even bribe, into stopping the popular movement.

If the regimes wanted to talk, they had to talk with the people on the street, and they often had to do so “on the street”; literally.

Most importantly, the youth decided that with this movement, they wouldn’t just topple the corrupt dictatorships, but they would also topple aged myths and counter many lies dispersed for political opportunism.

Therefore, despite the streets of many Arab cities and towns being virtually inundated with protestors and out of the establishments’ control, there was no anarchy, no violence, no sectarian clashes, no attacks on churches, synagogues or mosques and no destruction of public property. The youth proved that change and revolution does not have to mean misery, pain and suffering.

They also sent the world a clear and unequivocal message. The West had for decades established alliances with corrupt regimes on the premise that the alternative would be far worse. The dictators seemed to have convinced their Western allies that democratic changes would bring Extremists into power, would empower violent thugs and would create anarchy.

The people also sent a message to the likes of Al-Qaeda that change through peaceful protests and non-violent means is the most effective means of change, and that violence is actually an impediment to real, meaningful and radical change.

They were all proven wrong.

*Anas Altikriti is the founder & CEO of The Cordoba Foundation in the U.K. He has initiated multiple projects and campaigns to help foster a healthy dialogue between Muslims and non-Muslims in Europe and the Arab world.

© 2012 Global Experts, a project of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

In times of political and financial crisis, the rights women thought they had secured decades ago are once again under attack. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS

By Jennifer Hattam
ISTANBUL, Apr 23 2012 (IPS)

The world’s recent financial and political upheavals have not been kind to women. In Libya’s Tripoli, female suicide rates increased tenfold during the revolution, while dismal job prospects have young Greek women abandoning their career aspirations, participants in a global forum on women’s rights said over the weekend. “Many people say this is a time for transformation and moving forward but we know from our work that it’s also a time of instability and uncertainty,” Jamaican activist Mariama Williams, a senior programme officer at the South Centre, said at the closing session of the 12th International Forum on Women’s Rights and Development in Istanbul. “In times of crisis, the solidarity we thought we had, the rights we thought were secured are again being questioned. Whatever is not convenient for growth is being questioned,” Williams said. Participants in the Apr. 19-22 forum, organised by the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) around the theme of transforming economic power, engaged in questioning, among other things, how economic growth and development should be measured and defined. “If we were to account for inequality, the average Human Development Index would be 23 percent less than it is currently,” Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and former Vice-President of Costa Rica, Rebeca Grynspan, told the more than 2,000 attendees from 140 countries. From national budgets to financial-stimulus packages, economic policy typically fails to address women’s needs – or to recognise the contributions they make through their unpaid labour, participants said.

But forum organisers also expressed optimism that amid these challenges, the global climate is becoming more receptive to the demands for gender and social justice that activists have been making for decades. “What the financial crisis has provided is an (environment) where even mainstream actors have begun questioning the dominant economic model, (asking) whether there is a way to regulate the financial sector so it works in the service of everything else,” Lydia Alpízar Durán, executive director for AWID, told IPS. “Before, the system’s failures were only felt by the very poor. Now they’re starting to create a new poor, to hit the middle class, and people are beginning to wake up,” AWID Board President Lina Abou-Habib, the director of the Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action in Lebanon, told IPS. Durán cautioned, however, that women, especially women activists, face an elevated risk of backlash in many parts of the world. “One of the biggest challenges is increased violence and repression; those struggling for change are becoming targets of attacks,” she told IPS. One area of the conference venue was adorned with dozens of memorial photographs of women the movement has lost over the years – some dead of natural causes, many others mysteriously vanished or violently murdered. In another corner, the face of Galila Khamis Toto, a Sudanese activist from the Nuba mountain region, stared out from a poster, the text informing participants that she was supposed to be there among them but was instead being detained in inhumane conditions in her home country. During the forum, activists from Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Morocco, Libya, and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) spoke about their ongoing battles to enshrine women’s rights into new constitutions and increase female participation in new political systems – while often facing renewed challenges to their personal freedoms. “Polygamy has been abolished for more than 50 years in Tunisia, but now we’re talking about it again. Traditional marriages, how women dress, abortion limitations, even female circumcision, which we never had before, are all being discussed,” said Ahlem Belhadj, the president of the Tunisian Association of Democratic Women.

“These are all things happening after the revolution.” Creating solidarity with women’s movements in the MENA region was one of the reasons AWID chose Istanbul as the 2012 location for its triennial forum, Durán said on the opening day of the event. “In the post-Arab-Spring phase, we need to be clear that what happens in this region has major implications for women around the world,” she told attendees. “Cultural relativism is growing and we cannot allow respect for cultural traditions to justify the violation of women’s rights.” Woman who participated in toppling Arab regimes sometimes think their countrywide struggles should take precedence over stronger pushes for women’s rights, speakers from the region admitted, adding that there can be no democracy without equality between men and women. Neither can there be “economic rights without also looking at bodily rights, at political rights,” Durán told IPS. “Women’s realities are determined by their ability to make decisions.” Tying all these different threads together into a cohesive movement is no small task. “What we see all around us at this conference, civil society, the women’s movement – that resource has to be really fostered and advanced,” U.N. Women Deputy Executive Director Lakshmi Puri told IPS.

“We’re trying to get resources directly into the hands of women who are working to bring changes about in their own areas.” At the AWID forum, those areas ranged from demilitarisation to the rights of domestic workers, religious fundamentalism to climate change, topics covered in the more than 200 different sessions on the conference program. Participants’ diverse interests were also represented in the hallways of the Haliç Conference Centre, where indigenous crafts, black-and-white nude portraits of Chilean transsexuals, and Egyptian graffiti art were all on display. The coming together of what one speaker called “the most diverse group of women outside the U.N.” is the most important outcome of the forum, Abou-Habib told IPS. “The idea of the ‘one percent’ is such a powerful one because the rest of us let it happen. We give them that power by not resisting,” she said. “There is a strong body of critical feminist economic analysis but we need to take it out of the journals and the classrooms and onto the streets,” Radhika Balakrishnan, the executive director of the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership, said at the forum’s closing session. Following her remarks, attendees did just that, massing in Istanbul’s central Taksim Square for a protest march in solidarity with their Turkish counterparts.

A government plan to reform Morocco’s dilapidated justice system, the details of which are still a mystery to the general public, has become the subject of much scepticism, especially from justice professionals around the country.

Justice Minister Mustapha Erramid told journalists on Apr. 6, “The national plan on justice reform will be launched this month,” but failed to specify what the reforms would entail.

Huge swathes of the population have long called for sweeping reforms of Morocco’s corrupt justice system. Following a wave of protests on Feb. 20, 2011, a group of magistrates that would later become the Club of the Magistrates of Morocco (CMC) created a Facebook page to address judges’ long-standing resentment about the clampdown on freedom of expression.

Furthermore, they claimed, the law allowed them no clear structure of professional organisation.

Last August, shortly after the CMC went viral, the police forbade judges from entering the premises on which they were scheduled to hold their association’s founding assembly. Undeterred, the judges simply held their meeting in the street, under the harsh summer sun.

On the virtual page and out in the street, the judges made their demands clear: freedom of expression and their own independent association, two requests that the country’s new constitution, approved on Jul. 1, 2011, had already acknowledged.

Still, the gap between rights on paper and rights in practice is very wide.

In a press declaration issued on Feb. 29, the president of the CMC in Casablanca, Abdelaziz El Baâli, said, ” (Improving) the material and social situation of the magistrates is a (necessary step) towards reform”, referring to the fact that Morocco’s magistrates have not had a salary increase since 1996.

Tensions are running high between the executive and judicial branches of the government, with the CMC threatening to “resort to unprecedented protests” and fixing May 15 as the final deadline for the government to answer judges’ demands.

The ‘Assabah’ daily newspaper reported, without clearly citing its sources, that the reform plan contains 13 strategic removals of existing laws, 28 action plans, and 174 measures all aimed at renewing the country’s legal infrastructure and computerising and modernising the judicial administration.

For citizens, these big promises say nothing about the justice system, which, they believe, must first and foremost be purged of corruption.

“A corrupt justice (system) cannot contribute anything to the fight against corruption,” Mohammed Jallab Elbouamri, a 55-year-old citizen from Casablanca, told IPS.

Various members of the political opposition share this view. Fouzia El Bayed, deputy of the Constitutional Union (UC), which holds 17 of the 379 seats in parliament, told IPS that Morocco’s legal system is blighted by malpractice and the abuse of power, which have eroded citizens’ trust in the rule of law.

Just last month, police arrested a judge in Tangier, 300 kilometres north of Casablanca, for corruption. According to the Justice Minister, the judge in question was caught red-handed receiving a sum of 70,000 dirham (approximately 663 euros) from a citizen.

Erramid revealed that the sting operation had been organised under the official direction of the Justice Ministry, following a tip-off from a conscientious citizen.

Simply increasing judges’ salaries, therefore, will not lead the way out of the crisis, El Bayed said, since the sector also suffers from a major shortage in human resources.

“We need more than 2,600 new magistrates to be able to handle the (ever-increasing) number of cases. At present, the country has just 3,400 magistrates handling three million cases every year.”

She stressed that it would also be necessary to do away with “administrative centralism and set up a new penal policy, whose philosophy is based on the realisation of justice.”

Anass Saadoun, another member of CMC, has published several articles on justice reform in various local newspapers, where he stresses that Moroccan society must abandon the idea that judges are entitled to a luxurious lifestyle, beyond the reach of their modest incomes. This widespread perception, he says, has laid the groundwork for corruption throughout the legal system.

Though hope in the efficacy of judicial reform still persists among the political class, most ordinary citizens are pessimistic, to say the least.

”We all know that the barons of dirty money manipulate everything in this country. They are corrupt and sabotage all those who resist them,” Abderrafie Lwali, a 27-year-old citizen from Asilah, 230 kilometres north of Casablanca, told IPS.

The country will have to act fast in order to withstand winds from the Arab Spring that are still blowing around the kingdom. Thus far the Moroccan government has been able to appease its citizens with satisfactory reforms, thereby warding off more incendiary protests; but the judges’ rancour will not be easily abated.

“We are no longer in the era of miracles,” acknowledged Elbouamri. Rather, people are counting on the balance of power between the government and its citizens to bring about much-needed change.

Like others, he believes reforms are a matter of political will. Currently, the government “has the necessary support to lead (an overhaul) of the justice system.”

Whether it will use this support for positive change remains to be seen.

Thousands of centre-left demonstrators violently clashed with police in street battles that completely shut down central Tunis last week, left scores seriously injured and underlined the persistent divisions in Tunisian society.

Thousands of Tunisians have protested against a government ban on street demonstrations. Credit: Jake Lippincott/IPS.

The demonstrations were organised by several political parties, unions and human rights groups. Ostensibly meant to mark the national Martyrs Day celebration, their more immediate aim was to challenge the recent government ban on protests in central Tunis.

The police response was violent and seemingly disorganised, and called into question both the government’s democratic credentials and its ability to maintain order even in the heart of Tunis.

The trouble started when the Tunisian government, which is dominated by the moderate Islamist party Ennahda, justified its ban on all demonstrations late last month, by painting it as an effort to ‘maintain order’ on the eve of the economically vital summer tourist season here.

However, the centre-left opposition saw this ban as a blatant attack on political freedom. After a small protest against unemployment was violently crushed by police on Apr. 7, the opposition began organising a massive protest to challenge the ban and the government.

The demonstration began on the morning of Apr. 9 and was attacked almost immediately by police wielding truncheons and tear gas guns. The uniformed police were supported by masked young men in plain clothes (generally known in Tunisia as “militia”) who also enthusiastically attacked protesters and journalists with sticks and stones.

Several hundred protesters built barricades and threw stones at security forces. By the end of the day scores of people, including French journalist Julie Schneider, had been hospitalised.

The excessive use of tear gas, involvement of militia and intentional attacks on journalists and bystanders with cameras brought to mind the worst excesses of the former dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali and has proved to be a public relations disaster for the governing coalition here.

Due to extensive public backlash, the government rescinded the protest ban. Recent polls have indicated that the Tunisian government is still popular, but facing increasing challenges.

According to the Tunisian National Association of Statistics, total unemployment here has risen 0.6 percent, going from 18.3 percent in the second quarter of 2011 to 18.9 this February. The unemployment rate for college graduates is even worse, rising from 29.2 to 30.5 in the same period.

While continued economic problems could be eroding Ennahda’s support, they have also been caught in the middle of an increasingly vicious cultural conflict between hard-line Salafis on the one hand, who want to scrap the Tunisian constitution and replace it with sharia law, and leftists who want to preserve Tunisia’s socially liberal traditions and increase protections for women and minorities.

Ennahda’s official ideology calls for inclusive parliamentary democracy loosely guided by moderate Islamic principles. During the election this mix allowed Ennahda to gain the support of a broad swathe of Tunisian society, from hard-line Salafis to non-practising Muslims.

However, now that it has to govern this sprawling voter base, Ennahda and its coalition allies are struggling to keep disparate constituents happy.

Earlier this month, in what was seen as a nod to the party’s more conservative supporters, the government spoke approvingly of a decision by a provincial judge to sentence two young men to over seven years each in prison for insulting the Prophet Muhammad on their facebook pages.

This decision to punish the two men was supported by many mainstream Tunisians but outraged intellectuals and many sexual and religious minorities who fear that this is the first step in a broader campaign of intolerance.

Furthermore, in recent months Salafi vigilante groups have been attacking people they see as ‘un-Islamic’. While the Salafis are not officially supported by the government, many leftist Tunisians accuse the authorities of turning a blind eye to their violence.

Saif Bjaoui is a young queer activist who participated in the Apr. 9 protest. When asked what motivated him to attend the demonstration, he told IPS more than anything else it was opposition to Ennahda and what he sees as their intolerant policies.

He mentioned the recent court case and added, “I’m afraid of Ennahda, because they are trying to take our rights, Samir Dilou (the current Tunisian minister for human rights, and an Ennahda party member) said last month that gays are ‘sick’,” he said.

Early last February, Dilou told a local talk show that gay people do not deserve freedom of expression because they are mentally ill.

As a result, Bjaoui is not very optimistic about minority rights in the new democratic believing that, “things will get worse before they get better.”

Two days after the protest, Rached Cherif, a member of the Tunisian League of Humanists, told IPS that the actions of the Ennahda government were putting certain segments of Tunisian society in danger.

“The government is tolerant of Salafi activism which is aimed directly at minorities like Christians, Jews and gays – this puts these minorities directly in danger,” he said.

“The government is friendly with the Salifists but they brutally suppressed the peaceful leftist protest (on Apr. 9),” he lamented.

Despite the significant number of Tunisians who support leftist parties and minority rights, it is clear that many people here also support Ennahda’s conservative policies and oppose increased rights for sexual and religious minorities.

Cherif believes that many Tunisians are frankly “intolerant” of social liberalism, which might hurt the new democracy’s chances at survival.

“Democracy without minority rights is not democracy,” Bjaoui added.

On Apr. 10, a day after the repression, demonstrators returned to the main drag in downtown Tunis accompanied by a group of opposition assembly members. Many of the rank and file protesters wore bandages from injuries sustained the day before. This time, however, both demonstrators and police showed restraint and the protest went on loudly but peacefully.

The next day, the government officially declared that protests were once again legal in central Tunis. The immediate crisis caused by the protest ban seems to have abated.

Still, Tunisian society remains starkly divided on social issues and plagued with economic problems. If the new democracy here is to survive, there must be some steps towards reconciliation.

By Correspondents and - -
DOHA, Apr 19 2012 (IPS)

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon the has called for a U.N. observer mission in Syria to be expanded, even though he says Damascus has failed to adhere to a ceasefire central to an agreed peace plan.

Ban Ki-moon. Credit: World Economic Forum

The council called for Ban to report back when it passed a resolution on Saturday which sent an advanced party of 30 unarmed military observers to Syria.

His report, obtained by the AFP news agency, said that even though Syrian troops have not withdrawn from cities and violence has escalated since the ceasefire began, “an opportunity for progress may now exist, on which we need to build”.

The 300 observers would deploy over several weeks and go to about 10 different parts of Syria to monitor the fragile cessation of hostilities which officially started on Apr. 12.

They would also monitor the implementation of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan, which Syrian authorities have agreed to support.

Ban said the proposed mission would “greatly contribute to observing and upholding the commitment of the parties to a cessation of armed violence in all its forms.”

The report will be discussed by the Security Council on Thursday and diplomats said a resolution allowing the full observer mission could be ready by early next week if there is agreement among the 15 members.

‘Intense shooting’

Meanwhile, a Syrian activist group says clashes between troops and army defectors in an eastern city have left at least one person dead.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says Thursday’s clashes in Deir el-Zour also wounded three civilians.

Activists say Syrian troops also shelled rebel-held areas in the central city of Homs and the nearby town of al-Qusair, which borders Lebanon.

The observatory says intense shooting and explosions could be heard in Homs’ al-Qarabis and Jurat al-Shayah neighbourhoods.

Al Jazeera is unable to independently verify reports of violence, as the Syrian government has placed strict restrictions on reporting.

The U.N. says well over 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since an uprising against Assad broke out in March 2011.

Activists says scores have died since the ceasefire started.

Ban said that violence “dropped markedly” when the ceasefire began, but Syria “has yet to fully implement its initial obligations regarding the actions and deployments of its troops and heavy weapons, or to return them to barracks.

“Violent incidents and reports of casualties have escalated again in recent days, with reports of shelling of civilian areas and abuses by government forces,” he said.

‘Partial’ action

Ban said only “partial” action has been taken on other parts of the Annan plan. “While difficult to assess, it does not amount yet to the clear signal expected from the Syrian authorities,” he said.

The U.N. secretary-general said it was “critical” for Assad to fully carry out his promise to “cease troop movements towards population centres, cease all use of heavy weapons in population centres, and begin the pullback of military concentrations in and around population centres.”

At the moment there are six observers in Syria, led by a Moroccan colonel. The full mission would be led by an officer of at least the rank of major general.

Ban said the team has so far been refused permission to go to Homs, with Syrian officials claiming “security concerns”.

The mission went to Deraa, the revolt’s epicentre, on Tuesday, where “it enjoyed freedom of movement” and “observed no armed violence or heavy weapons”.

But Ban confirmed violent incidents when the U.N. observers went to Arbeen, in the Damascus suburbs, on Wednesday.

“A crowd that was part of an opposition demonstration forced United Nations vehicles to a checkpoint. Subsequently, the crowd was dispersed by firing projectiles,” said the report.

“Those responsible for the firing could not be ascertained by the United Nations military observers.”

One U.N. vehicle was slightly damaged, but no injuries were observed by the team.

Ban said the new mission, to be known as the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), would include political, human rights, civil affairs, public information, public security, gender and other advisers.

However, it would not carry out humanitarian assistance duties.

*Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Excerpt:

As pressure mounts on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to keep up an uncertain truce, human rights advocates are demanding reforms to a sponsorship system that has left many migrant domestic workers in Syria with no place to run.

According to the United Nations (UN), more than 9,000 people have been killed in the last 13 months since uprisings began against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

Caught in the crossfire are more than 17,000 Filipino migrant domestic workers. Filipino labour rights organisation Migrante International estimates that only 2,000 Filipino migrant domestic workers have been repatriated since fighting broke out last year.

Earlier this month, a Syrian decree banning Filipino migrant domestic workers from entering the country went into effect. Meanwhile, thousands of Filipino migrant domestic workers are desperately looking for a way to get out.

Forty-year-old Violeta Cortez from San Pablo was one of two domestic workers killed after being hit by stray bullets while trying to flee Homs to seek shelter at the Philippine embassy in Damascus.

“When the initial violence broke out in Syria, the Philippine government dismissed the urgency of implementing an evacuation and repatriation strategy,” John Leonard Monterona, Middle East coordinator for Migrante International told IPS.

“As a result, several Filipino migrant domestic workers have served as collateral damage due to the Philippine government’s wait-and-see policy.”

Given the kafala system which links residency permits to the employer, repatriating workers out of Syria would entail negotiating with employers to buy out their contracts and paying fines to immigration officials.

“Filipino domestic workers in Syria, and this is the same for other migrant workers, are having a hard time getting out because their employers are not allowing them to leave. It’s a big problem because they can’t exit Syria without the final issuance from their respective employers,” Monterona said.

“Another problem is that we are getting claims that when some Filipino domestic workers go to the Philippine embassy to seek assistance they are being placed in the jails. Migrante is trying to get information from the embassy as to why they are failing to protect these women.”

“In terms of reforming the sponsorship system, governments in the region need to ensure that migrant domestic workers are able to resign from their jobs,” human rights lawyer and author of ‘Reforming the Sponsorship System for Migrant Domestic Workers: Towards An Alternative Governance Scheme in Lebanon’, Kathleen Hamill, told IPS.

“These workers must have the ability to change employers or leave the country without sponsor consent. Guaranteeing labour mobility and freedom of movement is essential for migrant workers, and this requires breaking the shackles of employer-tied visas. This also requires improving the recruitment process by regulating recruitment agencies, many of which are unlicensed,” said Hamill.

“Governments must also guarantee the right to live outside of the workplace or household, and they must guarantee statutory holidays for migrant domestic workers – in addition to a weekly day of rest and annual leave.”

Saudi Arabia’s Labour Ministry recently proposed a draft legislation canceling the traditional sponsorship system by shifting responsibility from the employer to new recruitment agencies.

The recommendations – which include abolishing the confiscation of passports, putting recruitment agencies in charge of repatriation, protecting workers’ rights, the establishment of a commission to monitor newly established recruitment agencies, and insurance – is based a five-year study that is set to be reviewed by the Council of Ministers.

“Recruitment agencies are also part of the problem when it comes to exploiting migrant workers,” Linda al-Kalash, director of Tamkeen, an organisation providing legal assistance for domestic workers in Jordan told IPS.

“Tamkeen dealt with a case where the recruitment agency in the worker’s home country lied about her age. It was later revealed that she was 13 years old. How did she pass the medical examinations, obtain the working visa and how did the agency in Jordan allow for her to be placed in a home? At fist sight, it’s clear that this was a child.”

“Migrante International is lobbying Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ministers to ensure the rights of all expatriate workers working in Arab countries by scrapping the current sponsorship system. We believe this is the root cause of the bondage labour which is akin to slavery,” adds Monterona.

“If we abolish this system, then migrants working in countries where there are natural disasters or even war can easily leave without asking for permission or being reported as an absconder by their employer.”

Over the past few years, the political landscape of the Middle East was wholly transformed by the diffusion of social media across the region. Accounting for 50-65 percent of the region’s population, young Muslims quickly embraced these new platforms of mass communication and soon thereafter, they became leaders of revolutions.

Social media has enabled citizen journalists with the ability to create and distribute content across the globe. It allowed millions of strangers to unite behind the cause of greater freedom and economic opportunity and organize mass demonstrations that would forever change the autocratic Middle East.

Social media along with Arab satellite television provided a real information alternative to the state-controlled media outlets that for generations engaged in pro-regime propaganda often at the expense the truth.

It is hard to imagine that Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter) ever foresaw the liberalising impact and magnitude that their creations would one day have on the Middle East. Social media was instrumental in the mass communication and organisation of the Arab Spring movement that expressed the aspirations of millions of young people for meaningful political change.

The Obama administration has time and again expressed its commitment to genuine relationship building with Muslims around the world. Through social media, it launched an ambitious multiplatform public diplomacy campaign that allows for direct two-way communication between the State Department and Muslims.

Through videos and blogs, Facebook pages, and mobile phone applications, America can now both talk and listen. It seems like technology is reinventing the very essence of international relations.

Yet, recent evidence indicates that launching a successful public diplomacy campaign via social media may be easier said than done. An innovative global digital outreach campaign was recently introduced by the U.S. State Department. Their campaign allowed citizens from across the world to ask under-secretary for public diplomacy, Judith McHale, questions in 10 different languages using the #AskUSA Twitter hashtag.

This campaign turned out to be a bust. Most of the tweets consisted of either spam or communication from American officials from outside the USA.

Yet, the American State Department should not let one failed effort deter them. All relationships both off and online take time to develop.

The American State Department understands this. Just last month it reached out to young Iranians with its “Ask Alan” campaign through the USAdarFarsi social media platform that combines Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Will “Ask Alan” fair better than previous campaigns? Only time will tell.

One key point that all public diplomacy officials should keep in mind is that communication does not take place in a vacuum. This is especially true in the Middle East.

Recent scholarship on Anti-Americanism reflects a key challenge to American public diplomacy. Public opinion data collected in the Muslim world points to perceived inconsistencies between the values that America communicates regarding its commitment to freedom and democracy and its regional policies. Such perceptions were often related to America’s support of autocrats past and present day.

As the struggle for democracy continues throughout the Muslim world, millions of young people look to the social sphere as a virtual meeting place where they can share ideas, frustrations, and hopes regarding the struggle for greater freedom in their nations.

America’s digital outreach campaign can both guide and support the cause of democracy.

But no matter how many Twitter followers or Facebook friends America will have in the virtual world, it will ultimately be judged on the basis of its actual policies.

As the old Arab proverb goes: A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain.

*Dr. Guy J. Golan is an associate professor of public diplomacy at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. You can follow him on Twitter @GuygolanEmail: gjgolan@syr.edu

© 2012 Global Experts, a project of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

Abdullah Aldiamy (right) outside his family shop at Omar Zerti's occupied building. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS.

By Rebecca Murray
TRIPOLI, Apr 17 2012 (IPS)

The future is uncertain for the gregarious Alhasairi family, living in a downtown apartment block battle-scarred from last year’s overthrow of the Gaddafi regime. Like countless of similar cases across Libya, the property itself is now contested, as the original owners want to return home.

“This is the holy inheritance of Omari Zerti,” declares the colorful graffiti across the whitewashed entrance. The government took the modern, three-storey building from the Zerti family in 1978, under the new stringent Law No: 4 pulled from the dictates of Gaddafi’s Green Book, limiting citizens to ownership of one property each.

Hafed Alhasairi, father of five children, explains how Gaddafi’s wife Safia bestowed Zerti’s residential building to a friend. Ten years ago, Hafed paid over 40,000 dollars for the right to live in, not own, one of the structure’s nine small apartments.

Although oil-rich Libya’s population is just over six million, for years the majority of steadily expanding families have been hemmed in by low-income government jobs and chronic housing shortages.

When Law No: 4 was passed, countless of residential and commercial properties were confiscated by the regime – then given away, sold on, or rented out. Some real estate owners, like Alhasairi’s neighbour on the next block, remain. He resides in a corner apartment in his former building, surrounded by former tenants who pay the government rent.

“This was originally thought of as taking from the rich to give to the poor, but it is only partly correct,” says Saleh Marghani, a Tripoli-based lawyer.

“Many valuable properties were taken by the regime and given as favours, and the original owners were the victims,” he says. “This has created an issue now – as many residents living in them today are not rich, and have nowhere to go.”

This is the case of the Alhasairi family. Belonging to the Amazigh sect – a minority Berber community discriminated against under the Gaddafi regime – Hafed secured a government job in the capital after years working in a coastal oil refinery.

“My wife recently received a visit from the Zerti family at our house,” he says. “They were nice and polite. But they said this was their building, and we had to leave. They are bringing the matter to court.”

Hafed is sympathetic to the Zerti family’s claims but he worries his family, with five young children, will have nowhere to go. “It will take time for the case because the law is still on the books. They are preparing a new law now, and residents might be moved to another apartment. But right now this housing is still under construction,” he points out, referring to Gaddafi’s ambitious plan to build sprawling concrete flats on desert land outside cities like Benghazi and Tripoli.

Colorful shirts on hangers adorn the cheap clothing shop on the building’s ground floor. Abdullah Aldiamy, 22, keeps an eye on the family business. They pay their landlord 2,000 dollars in monthly rent, and Aldiamy believes the landlord in turn pays as little as ten dollars to the government for the space; raking in a handsome profit. The Zerti family has dropped by four times to talk with him, Aldiamy says. He shrugs and drags on a cigarette. “I gave them the landlord’s phone number,” he says.

After enduring international isolation in the eighties and nineties, as part of Libya’s ‘opening up’ period, Gaddafi, prodded by his son Saif al-Islam, established a property compensation committee in 2007, led by the current transitional government head, Mustafa Abdul Jalil.

“Some people were provided compensation but it was of very little value,” explains Marghani. “Many did not dare to apply, especially those who fled the country. And many did not think it was serious. Saif’s project for Libya was not legitimate.”

Marghani believes time is one of the biggest challenges to untangling property disputes. “Properties have changed hands since the initial confiscation, and many don’t know who the original owners are. When Gaddafi ordered the destruction of the land registry in 1982, very important evidence was lost,” he says.

“Now some are having a hard time proving they own the properties. Some have a certificate from 1970, but this is no guarantee they did not sell it before 1978,” he says. “Also, some of the occupiers had rented the properties from the original owners before 1978, and the families stayed and continued to pay rent to the government.”

Last month the Ministry of Justice convened a committee to review the complex Law No: 4, and propose fair solutions for the unique circumstances of current occupants, and compensation for original owners. But the committee’s decisions have not yet been made public, and former owners are growing impatient.

Marwan El Jondi grew up in exile in California after his father, a successful Tripoli businessman, had his properties confiscated by the Gaddafi government. Last year, his family took the risk to return and file a petition with the compensation committee. “Someone on the committee said, ‘I’ll give you six million but give one million to me,” El Jondi says in disgust. “His property was worth a lot more than that. But you can’t blame people for paying a bribe, this is how the country worked.”

El Jondi is one of 400 members of a property owners’ advocacy, spearheaded by Shakr Mohamed Dakhil, the son of one of Libya’s most prominent businessmen in the 1970s.

Dakhil fondly remembers growing up in the villa in Tripoli’s leafy downtown, now home to the Palestinian Embassy. “We had property that valued about 300 million dollars in the 1970s,” he says. “They confiscated it all in a couple weeks – they issued some laws and took everything.”

Dakhil’s organisation is petitioning Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib’s office to repeal Law No: 4 immediately. He claims the majority of their members are not wealthy, and are eager to reclaim their homes for retirement.

“Properties were confiscated overnight, and this is how they should be returned,” he says. “We don’t want compensation, we want our properties back. Those tenants that can afford to pay rent in apartments can stay. The government should subsidise those that cannot, until they can move them into new housing.

“Many owners want to take the law into their own hands, and take back their properties by force. They are going in with guns bringing some of their friends. Of course we don’t want our members to do this.”

Wielding mobile phones and computers, the young activists across the Middle East have altered the way the world approaches popular mobilisation, social networks and Internet freedom.

The Internet can be a transformational force for societies and individuals, allowing for organisation on a mass scale and the free flow of information. However, we must remember that the Internet and social media are tools that do not bring change themselves, but act as facilitators in spreading the ideas.

The seminal use of social media as vehicles for change in the Arab Spring uprisings exemplifies the power of web-based communication and makes a strong case for Internet freedom.

Web-based communications have been used by young, tech literate activists across the Middle East for three core purposes: organisation, exposure and leverage. Youth led efforts to organise social and political movements, expose the injustices of governments and leverage internal and external stakeholders acted as catalysts for uprisings which would have otherwise remained dormant.

Social networks allow for communication across geopolitical, cultural and linguistic barriers. This tool allowed the youth leaders of Egypt, the West Bank, Jordan, etc. to organise in revolutionary new ways by creating online communities of supporters and using those networks to bring people into the streets and rally international support for their cause.

As mobile devices and smart phones become increasingly common, protesters are able to gather at a moment’s notice. This level of organisation is made possible by near instant communication and a network of vigilant, tech literate devotees.

Additionally, groups are able to develop, collaborate on and distribute content to a seemingly limitless audience. The ability of young activists to organise using technology has brought the nature of citizen action to a new level and given voice to previously unheard narratives.

Web-based communications, including blogs, YouTube and RSS allow for personal, unofficial or nongovernmental narratives to be exposed and widely consumed. Embedded in the nature of the Internet is the possibility to share multiple narratives through an array of platforms.

With the barrier to Internet access lowered each day, more people have the option to participate in self-expression via the web. However, the idea that everyone should have the ability to share their opinion over the Internet has quickly become contentious.

Citizen journalism and activists’ blogs have exposed the atrocities perpetrated by otherwise opaque regimes. In these situations, the Internet poses an existential threat to the government’s power to control a national narrative, but provides a space for free speech.

Predictably, civilians have been targeted and tracked by their governments for attending rallies, publishing anti-government content or posting footage of state perpetrated violence. Websites have been censored and attacked. Web access has been limited or debilitated. Clearly, social media and Internet-based communications are tools that hold the potential to both help and harm.

The leverage young activist have is both domestic and international. Much like the Velvet Revolution when youth mobilised across all sectors of Czech society to protest Soviet rule, the young activists of the Arab Spring brought people from across age, religious and class barriers together under a single banner.

Exposure of governmental wrongdoing through online citizen journalism can pressure the international and domestic media to focus on particular important events. However, leverage can reach even further; the protests in Tahrir Square helped pressure the United States to reassess its support of Hosni Mubarak.

Recently, the United Nations Human Rights Committee affirmed that the protections guaranteed by International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) apply to online communication. This announcement confirms that bloggers have the same protections as journalists.

Additionally, U.N. Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue issued a report which states that Internet use has become an important means by which individuals can exercise their right to freedom of opinion and expression. Denying such a right is a violation of the ICCPR.

While the idea that unrestricted Internet as a basic human right is far from a reality, its use by a young generation of tech-savvy Middle Eastern activists has put web-based social media communications at the centre of the debate on freedom, democracy and change.

*Megan Martin’s specialty is ethnic identity and U.S. foreign policy in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. She has a master’s degree in politics from New York University.

© 2012 Global Experts, a project of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

When an Egyptian court fined former president Hosni Mubarak and two aides a total of 90 million dollars for cutting mobile and Internet services during protests that led to his ouster, it indicated the value placed on communication services in this Arab country.

The 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak in February 2011 was largely organised by groups creatively using social networking websites like Facebook and Internet radio. The fines were handed down three months later.

“In Egypt, if you want to start an ordinary radio station, the government demands a lot of licenses and money,” Youssef Mohamed, campaign and activities coordinator at the Egyptian Democratic Academy (EDA), told IPS. “Mubarak’s National Democratic Party controlled everything, but the Internet offered more freedom.”

EDA, a youth NGO aimed at fostering a culture of political participation, had, by 2009, established its online community-run radio station, Elma7rosa, to disseminate views gathered through community reporting, on subjects like freedom of speech, democracy, tolerance and human rights.

“In terms of Internet radio before the revolution there was Elma7rosa, and also Radio Horytna and Radio Bokra,” said Mohamed. “The relative freedom on the Internet allowed online radio stations to emerge as the voice of a new generation fighting for its place in society.”

Radio Horytna, established in 2007 by a group of young journalists as Egypt’s first Internet radio, was first on the scene during the 18-day revolt, providing uncensored news and taking controversial topics head on.

“We were open 24 hours during the revolution. We set up a tent in Tahrir Square so that those documenting the events could give us material to publish online,” Mostafa Fathi, editor-in-chief of Radio Horytna, told IPS.

“They tried to control our material, but we resisted,” recalls Fathi. “They would threaten us if we published material that wasn’t to their liking and they arrested one of our reporters, Mohammed Al Arabi, while he was covering a protest.”

Fathi said Radio Horytna managed to stay afloat “because we have a lot of partnerships with Egyptian and International non-government organisations (NGOs).”

Since the spring of 2011, the EDA has been expanding its role, conducting audio training to raise awareness on being active citizens and evaluate platforms of election candidates.

Prominent figures at EDA include Esraa Abdel Fattah, 29, who rose to prominence in 2008 as a co-founder of a Facebook group to support industrial workers. EDA’s editor-in-chief, Bassem Samir, is a prominent blogger who faced detention on several occasions.

“EDA’s ‘Political Academy’ is a programme about democracy where we teach the youth how to vote, their rights as citizens, how to be a politician, form a political party or join parliament,” Mohamed told IPS. “Another project that we initiated, ‘Free Egyptian’, offers training to women on how to participate in political life.”

Radio is seen as an important means of fostering community participation. Radio Horytna runs an array of workshops on tolerance between Christians and Muslims.

“We recently started a project called ‘Reporter’ where we gathered ten young people from all over Egypt and taught them how to use the new media tools and how to work as a digital journalist,” adds Fathi.

“Independent media is very important because it gives young people the opportunity to publish, create and broadcast their own programmes. We offer an alternative to traditional outlets like Al Masry Al Youm where it’s very difficult to get published,” Fathi said.

Banat wa Bass (Girls Only), which became the region’s first online radio station catering to the issues of Arab women when it was established in April 2008, now has a fan base of nearly five million listeners across the Arab world.

“On a daily basis, women in Egypt face a lot of harassment, violence and gender inequality,” editor-in-chief of Banat wa Bass, Amani Eltunsi, explained in an interview with IPS.

“Arab media and movies always portray women as being weak and it’s important to counter this by showing the positive side of Arab women, which also empowers us,” Eltunsi said.

“On one occasion, national security wanted to know what we were doing. I told them that I was running an Internet radio station. They didn’t understand so I showed them the website and they told me that I can’t talk about politics, sex or religion,” adds Eltunsi.

“Unlike bloggers whose material is archived online, Internet radio stations have more freedom because the officials can’t access us easily or know who our listeners are,” Eltunsi said.

Last March, Reporters sans Frontières moved Egypt from its ‘Internet enemies’ list to countries ‘under surveillance’ due to the success of the country’s uprisings.

“Before and after the revolution there was a lot of monitoring. The military council investigated us and many lives were lost. We are using our voices for Egypt. This means that we’ll do more and pay more if it means freedom,” adds Mohamed.

Citizen journalists and community media played a leading role in producing and disseminating news during the Arab uprisings as the expansion of digital technology provided innovative ways of expressing freedom.

Well before the wave of pro-democracy uprisings swept the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Arab activists were harnessing the power of new media to circumvent the stifling of dissent by authoritarian regimes. Within MENA, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to have laws regulating Internet activities.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO

A Syrian refugee family in the Lebanese border village of Ersal Credit: Mona Alami/IPS

By Mona Alami
QAA, Lebanon, Apr 13 2012 (IPS)

A few kilometres separate the two Lebanese villages of Ersal and Qaa from the Syrian border, both of which have been unwillingly drawn into the violence of the Syrian uprising. Unrest has been brewing in the region for weeks and recently it was on the receiving end of intermittent gunfire from the Syrian army. The situation remains tense despite the fragile new ceasefire.

Official sources are now reporting Syrian army incursions into Masharii Qaa (the Qaa Projects), a border town consisting of Ersal, a Sunni village, and Qaa, which is predominately Christian. Ersal supports Syrian opposition fighters, whom Qaa residents view with great suspicion.

An increase in violent altercations, coupled with the area’s proximity to warring Syria, have made it a convenient smuggling hub and refuge for beleaguered Syrian refugees and the injured fleeing escalating fighting in their country – causing serious disruptions in the social fabric of the two villages.

In the past two weeks, the northern Lebanese border came under mortar and bullet attacks from the Syrian army and early this week, Ali Shaaban, a cameraman for the local television station New TV, was killed in Wadi Khaled.

“(People in) Ersal are drawing us into problems by supporting Syrian terrorists,” said Saadeh Toum, Qaa’s former mayor, who claims that Ersal inhabitants are harboring members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in the area.

But in nearby Ersal, residents deny playing any part in the conflict. “There are no FSA members in the region. The only support we are bringing to the opposition is first aid kits and medication along with food. We have not been able to smuggle anything in or out of the borders for the past week,” pointed out Abu Wadi, a Syrian activist who runs an underground clinic on the other side of the border and is responsible for the region’s underground railroad.

It is here, on the eastern flank of the mountain, only a few kilometres away from the battered city of Homs, that Syrian militants have set up their headquarters in a computer repair shop that looks more like the office of a non-governmental organisation. Syrian women come in and out, asking for the next round of aid cartons.

One month ago, a truck loaded with 200 loaves of bread would leave every other day for a secret destination: Baba Amr, in Homs. “We were supplying Free Syrian Army officers with their daily ration of bread,” boasted a local resident, speaking to IPS on condition of anonymity.

“Since the beginning of the uprising in Syria, the Qaa Projects have become a haven for smugglers, regardless of their political affiliation,” explained an officer in the Lebanese army, who participated in the arrest two weeks ago of 10 armed militants in the Bekaa valley, who were driving two vehicles loaded with weapons, mortar shells and rocket-propelled grenades into Syria, dressed in military uniforms.

In Ersal, residents and Syrian refugees are waiting for the snowcaps on the chain of mountains separating the two countries to melt.

“Up until now, our only connection to Syria has been through the Qaa Projects, which is heavily encircled by Syrian and Lebanese forces. As soon as the snow melts, we will regain access to Rif Dimashk, the Damascus suburb. It will be impossible for the army to control such a vast expanse of land,” said Ahmad, another Syrian on the lam.

The tension between Qaa residents and their pro-Syria neighbours in Ersal – in an area that falls largely within Hezbollah’s domain – also illustrates the villages’ apparent disconnect from the central government.

According to Mohamad Ezzedine, a member of Ersal’s municipality, the only organisations currently distributing aid in the region are Islamic relief organisations financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The Lebanese High Relief Commission, which is responsible for refugees, is not present in the Projects, although it is active in the northern border region of Wadi Khaled.

According to Lebanese activist Abou Mohamad Ali Oueid, there are about 185 Syrian families currently seeking refuge in Ersal. “Most are staying with local families (but) they have, in a way, overstayed their welcome due to the length of the crisis. We have no other solution than putting up tents on our private property as the government has refused to establish formal refugee camps,” he added.

As a result of improper government action, human rights activist Nabil Halabi claims that the severe shortage of food and shelter has been compounded by attempted hijackings, by pro-Syrian militants, of ambulances transporting injured Syrian refugees to city hospitals.

Within Ersal itself, which forms part of a region that has one of the highest poverty rates in Lebanon, internal tensions are rising as Syrian refugees begin to fill farming and construction jobs, ordinarily carried out by locals.

“They (the Syrians) are willing to work for half our pay, and this is making tensions worse. It is an additional source of pressure in a region that is already very tense,” Oueid said ominously.

By Correspondents and - -
DOHA, Apr 12 2012 (IPS)

An internationally brokered ceasefire in Syria is only being “partially observed,” the opposition says, as state television reported that a roadside bomb had killed an army officer.

Heavy weapons and government troops remain deployed in cities, the main opposition bloc said on Thursday, hours after the truce deadline at dawn.

“There is no evidence of a significant withdrawal,” the Syrian National Council’s spokeswoman Bassma Kodmani said.

“The ceasefire is … only partially observed … To us it is clear that ceasefire implied withdrawal of all heavy weaponry from cities, populated areas. This has not happened.”

Kodmani also said three people had been killed in the towns of Idlib and Hama since the truce, negotiated by U.N. and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, was to go into effect at 6am (03:00GMT).

Meanwhile, the government said “terrorists” were trying to sabotage the U.N.-backed peace plan.

State media reported that a roadside bomb in Syria’s second city, Aleppo, killed an army officer.

“An armed terrorist group used an explosive device to target a bus transporting officers and non-commissioned officers to their unit in Aleppo. It killed a lieutenant colonel and wounded 24 other people” at 8am (05:00GMT), the official SANA news agency reported.

Continuing protests

Activists reported anti-government protests at universities in the southern city of Deraa, Aleppo in the north, and the eastern city of Deir el-Zor. A protest march was also held in the northern village of Tamanaa.

China, which has stood by Syria during the 13-month crisis, welcomed the truce, saying it hoped the government continued to “take concrete actions to support and cooperate with Annan’s mediation efforts”.

Western leaders have expressed doubts that the Syrian government will honour the deal and have called on other nations to take additional action against Syria at the U.N. Security Council.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported that the armed forces had called a halt to their mission as of Thursday morning, declaring the military “successful” in combating “criminal acts by armed terrorist groups”.

But the agency, quoting an unnamed defence ministry source, said the military would remain on alert to confront the “terrorists”.

Since protests inspired by uprisings in other Arab countries first broke out in Syria in March 2011, the government has brutally suppressed the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, killing more than 9,000 people according to a U.N. estimate, and spawning armed action.

Humanitarian aid

Syrian rebels, loosely organised across Syria’s provinces, do not obey a set chain of command, and it remains a question whether they will comply with the ceasefire.

Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught, reporting from Hatay in Turkey, said commanders in the opposition Free Syrian Army had declared their intent to abide by the ceasefire.

Rula Amin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Beirut, said Annan “doesn’t expect a total halt of the violence” but wants to ensure at least enough room for humanitarian aid to arrive.

Saif, an activist in hard-hit Homs in the centre of the country, told Al Jazeera that he thought shelling would resume within hours.

“All the shops have been closed for more than two months, nobody is able to go to work, all communications except phone lines are disconnected in most of the areas, schools are closed also … there are many difficulties,” he said.

Abu Rami, another Homs activist, said that while shelling and attacks in the city in the hours before the ceasefire had “claimed dozens of lives,” there had been no shootings or explosions on Thursday.

But soldiers and armoured vehicles were still stationed at checkpoints, he said.

“I think many people will go down to the streets and keep protesting in their demonstrations and calling for their main goal, that this regime must step down,” he said.

Suspicion and cynicism

U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed in a telephone call on Wednesday that “more resolute” U.N. Security Council action was needed on Syria, the White House said.

“The President and Chancellor shared the concern that the Assad government was not complying with the terms of the agreement negotiated by Kofi Annan and continued to engage in unacceptable brutality against its own people,” a White House statement said.

“They agreed that this underscored the need for the U.N. Security Council to come together to take more resolute action.”

Al Jazeera’s Cath Turner, reporting from the U.N. in New York, said the statement by the Syrian government “has been greeted with a great deal of suspicion and cynicism”.

“Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and the current president of the U.N. Security Council (Mark Lyall Grant), spoke about the letter that has been submitted by President Assad, and she was very clear in the fact that she was not taking anything in that letter at its word, because, she said, President Assad did not have a very good track record at keeping his word,” our correspondent said.

*Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Excerpt:

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood has surprised both supporters and rivals by abruptly announcing its own nominee for upcoming presidential elections, despite earlier promises that it would not field a candidate from within its own ranks.

Al-Shater at his first press conference as presidential candidate. Credit: Khaled Moussa al-Omrani/IPS.

“The Brotherhood’s sudden decision to field a presidential candidate was a hasty one,” Amr Shobki, sitting MP and political analyst at the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies told IPS. “The move is sure to have a negative impact on the Brotherhood’s credibility and public image.”

At the height of last year’s Tahrir Square uprising, as longstanding president Hosni Mubarak’s grip on power grew increasingly tenuous, the Muslim Brotherhood – long Egypt’s most formidable opposition force – rushed to assure critics both at home and abroad that it would not field a candidate in any post-Mubarak presidential poll.

Following Mubarak’s ouster in February of last year, the group went so far as to expel one of its leading lights, Abdel Moneim Abul-Fotouh, for his insistence on making a bid for the presidency. Abul-Fotouh is currently considered a leading Islamist candidate in the presidential election slated for next month.

Parliamentary polls earlier this year yielded a landslide victory for the Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which won almost half the seats in the People’s Assembly (the lower house of Egypt’s parliament). The FJP also dominates a newly-established Constituent Assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution, members of which were appointed by the FJP-led parliament.

Despite mounting criticism that the FJP was gaining inordinate influence over Egypt’s political machinery, the party shocked most observers when it announced its intention Mar. 31 to vie for the presidency as well. The same day saw Khairat al-Shater, the group’s second-in-command, officially register his presidential candidacy.

The Brotherhood’s critics from across the political spectrum blasted the move, saying it showed up the group’s penchant for authoritarianism.

“Al-Shater’s nomination confirms that the Brotherhood is only interested in monopolising authority, especially after its domination of parliament and the constitution-drafting process,” Abdel Ghaffar Shukr, founder of the Popular Socialist Alliance established in the wake of last year’s revolution told IPS.

“The move is likely to have an adverse impact on the electoral prospects of other Islamist candidates, especially Abul-Fotouh and (Salafist candidate) Hazem Abu Ismail, both of whom will lose the votes of Brotherhood members and sympathisers,” Shukr added.

In an Apr. 1 statement, the Brotherhood defended the move, saying its earlier decision not to contest the presidential race had been based on “internal and external reasons.” But the recent emergence of “real threats” to the democratic process, the statement went on, had prompted it to reverse its decision.

These threats, the group explained, included “attempts to disrupt the functioning” of Egypt’s elected parliament and the new Constituent Assembly, the ruling military council’s rejection of parliamentary demands to dissolve the government, and the recent entrance of several figures associated with the ousted Mubarak regime into the looming presidential contest.

“Faced with these challenges, and after studying the situation in its entirety, the Muslim Brotherhood decided to field its own presidential candidate,” the statement concluded.

Like most critics, Shobki remains “unconvinced” by the group’s stated justifications for its sudden policy change.

“Nothing has changed recently except for the Brotherhood’s relationship with the ruling military council, which has become increasingly tense in recent weeks due to disagreements over the incumbent government,” he said.

Last month saw the end of a year-long, post-revolution honeymoon between the Brotherhood and the military council – which has governed the country since Mubarak’s ouster – when the latter rejected demands by the FJP-led parliamentary majority to dissolve the military-appointed government of Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri.

Shobki went on to predict “fierce competition” between the three Islamist frontrunners – al-Shater, Abul- Fotouh and Abu Ismail – in the upcoming race. “The success of the Brotherhood candidate is by no means assured,” he stressed, “because presidential elections aren’t like those for parliament.”

According to political analyst Diaa Rashwan, the decision to nominate al-Shater represents a “watershed” in the Brotherhood’s history.

“It’s a sea change in the group’s policy, from a strategy of gradual change to one of rapid transformation,” he said at a Cairo University seminar. “And it’s indicative of the Brotherhood’s desire to dominate Egypt’s post-revolution political arena.”

Rashwan said the move would prompt the group’s rivals to join forces against it. “It’s entirely possible that the protesters’ chants we now hear against ‘military rule’ will eventually be replaced with chants against ‘Brotherhood rule’,” he said.

Rashwan said the move would also lead to “serious rifts” within Brotherhood ranks.

On Apr. 2, Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan reiterated the group’s commitment to following through on its decision, insisting that the move had “not led to any internal rifts within the Brotherhood.”

Debate continues, however, over whether al-Shater is legally eligible to contest the election – he was convicted on criminal charges of money laundering and “affiliation with a banned group” under the Mubarak regime. On Sunday (Apr. 8) the FJP officially registered party member Mohamed Mursi as an alternative candidate should al-Shater be disqualified on legal grounds.

Sunday, the final day to register candidacies, also saw Mubarak-era intelligence chief Omar Suleiman officially enter the presidential race. Although Suleiman is closely associated with the ousted president – he briefly served as Mubarak’s vice-president during last year’s uprising – he is said to enjoy considerable support, and is now seen as a serious contender.

“These eleventh-hour entrants into the race, especially al-Shater and Suleiman, have entirely changed the electoral equation,” said Shobki. “It’s impossible to predict who the frontrunners will be until all the candidates have a chance to present their political platforms.”

A final list of approved presidential candidates will be announced Apr. 26, to be followed by the election due to be held May 23 and 24. If no single candidate wins an outright majority, the two leading contenders will face each other in a runoff vote slated for Jun. 16 and 17.

Two young women in brightly coloured hijabs and tight jeans stand on the edge of a freeway as cars whiz by. They watch the traffic, heavy in Amman where car ownership is skyrocketing by 10-15 percent a year. When there’s a break in the steady flow of vehicles, the women hold hands and race across the road.

Amman’s streets are more for cars than for women. Credit: Michael Coghlan/CC-BY-SA-2.0.

It’s an odd sight here. The city is not pedestrian-friendly. Nor is it common to see women walking, much less darting, across freeways.

Though Western media has praised Amman’s urban planning as a step towards egalitarianism, highlighting the fact that the ‘Amman 2025’ urban master plan won the 2007 World Leadership Award in Town Planning, a visit to Amman, home to nearly three million people, reveals a starkly different picture.

Poor public transportation keeps women isolated from city life; low-income families are dependent on cars; and, ironically, the Arab Spring has sidelined urban development.

One of the women, Sandra Hiari, is an architect, urban planner, and founder of Tareeq (Arabic for street), a website that focuses on city design in the Middle East.

“If you want to know if a place is safe or not, count how many women are walking on the street,” she said, adding that in Amman, women are visible only “in limited areas, like Rainbow (Street).”

Located in a bourgeois neighbourhood, the avenue is filled with chic cafes, bars, and restaurants, drawing enough of a crowd for women to feel safe, Hiari explained. But the street is not an example of the city’s planning. It is a rare exception. Because women often face harassment and catcalls, many avoid public spaces including Amman’s public transportation system, relying on cars and taxis instead.

Women, Hiari said, have been forced to “resort to structures –buildings – and to stay there rather than to use the street as a safe place where they can navigate through the city. I think we women are captured in bubbles,” she reflected. “We move from one bubble to another in the city.”

Despite closing the education gap, with girls and women attending schools and universities in slightly higher rates than boys and men, Jordanian women comprise a smaller percentage of the workforce than their male counterparts.

According to Hazem Zureiqat, a transportation planner and economist at Engicon, the lack of transportation options in Amman – home to half of the country’s population – is largely to blame for this discrepancy.

Zureiqat pointed to a recent survey that asked Jordanian women why they don’t work. “Many of them cited mobility and transportation (issues),” he stressed, meaning that, often, women simply cannot get to work.

While at least half of Jordan’s low-income households have a car, the male usually drives it, leaving women, who might otherwise work, stuck at home.

When asked if creating separate bus lines for women is the answer to their transportation troubles, Zureiqat quickly answered, “No, no. I don’t support that…you have to fix the (social issue) rather than just separating women (from men).”

He added that service needs to be improved in general, not just for women. Amman’s few bus lines run infrequently and are very unreliable. Up until some shelters were erected at bus stops recently, Zureiqat lamented that there had been “barely any shelter from the sun and rain” for commuters.

The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system was an ambitious project that sought to correct many of these issues with 32 kilometres of new, bus-only lanes. Each BRT lane would have carried three times the amount of people than a regular traffic lane.

Zureiqat said that the BRT wasn’t just about improving the movement of people throughout the city. It was also about “human dignity.”

Ironically, however, the Arab Spring led officials to scrap the project.

Zureiqat explained, “Fighting corruption became the buzzword here and everything (was called into) question.”

Former Amman mayor Omar Maani came under particularly intense scrutiny, as did the projects that the municipality had a hand in during his tenure from 2006 to 2011. That included the BRT; the Amman Institute for Urban Development, a city-funded “think and do tank” that sought, among other goals, to help reverse the country’s brain drain; and the Amman 2025 master plan, which emphasised public transportation and fostering a more pedestrian-friendly city.

Although the BRT passed an intensive governmental review that probed every aspect of the project – including its finances – it was sidelined in September of 2011.

In December 2011 Maani was arrested on unrelated fraud charges. He is currently out on bail.

While the Amman Institute for Urban Development was beset with problems from the get-go, the Arab Spring spelt the end for the inefficient organisation, including what many considered its “overinflated” wages.

Hiari, who was employed by the Amman Institute, explained that there’s a stigma attached now to the Amman 2025 master plan as well as projects that were born of the Amman Institute.

“Officials (at the Greater Amman Municipality) are afraid to sign off on anything associated with the Amman Institute and the master plan,” Hiari said, because they don’t want to be “associated with corruption.”

These reactionary changes have left the city as unplanned, chaotic and isolating as ever.

By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Apr 11 2012 (IPS)

The White House Wednesday said it was “deeply concerned” about growing polarisation between the ruling monarchy and the majority Shi’a community in Bahrain and the welfare of a jailed human rights activist who has been on a hunger strike since early February.

“We continue to underscore, both to the government and citizens of Bahrain, the importance of working together to address the underlying causes of mistrust and to promote reconciliation,” said President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, in a written statement.

“In this respect, we note our continued concern for the well-being of jailed activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja and call on the Government of Bahrain to consider urgently all available options to resolve his case,” the statement said.

It added that the government should “redouble its ongoing efforts” to implement democratic reforms recommended by an independent international commission last November.

While the immediate cause of the statement appeared to be a response to growing pressure from a large number of human rights and labour groups for Obama to intervene in the case of Khawaja, it also reflected increasing concern over the increase in violent clashes between the kingdom’s security forces and youths in predominantly Shi’a communities in and around Manama, the capital, in the absence of movement toward serious dialogue between the government and the main opposition party, al-Wefaq.

Bahrain is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet and occupies a strategic location in the Gulf opposite southwestern Iran.

The violence has reportedly increased over the past few weeks with the approach of next week’s Formula One race on the island -against which protestors have called for a boycott – as well as growing concerns over Khawaja’s deteriorating condition, which has become a rallying point for both the opposition.

Seven police officers were wounded Monday when a bomb exploded as demonstrators just outside Manama gathered to protest the authorities’ rejection of an appeal by the Danish government to release Khawaja to its custody for medical treatment.

“The United States continues to be deeply concerned about the situation in Bahrain, and we urge all parties to reject violence in all its forms,” the White House statement said.

“We condemn the violence directed against police and government institutions, including recent incidents that have resulted in serious injuries to police officers,” it went on. “We also call on the police to exercise maximum restraint, and condemn the use of excessive force and indiscriminate use of tear gas against protestors, which has resulted in civilian casualties.”

The latest events come 14 months after the arrival of the “Arab Spring” in Bahrain and the outbreak of pro-democracy protests against the long-reigning al-Khalifa family.

In mid-March last year, the Sunni Muslim monarchy, supported by troops and police from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, cracked down hard against the predominantly Shi’a opposition in what has become an increasingly sectarian conflict.

The Obama administration had spoken out publicly in favour of democratic reform until the Saudi-led intervention which bolstered hard-line forces within the government led by the country’s prime minister, Khalifah ibn Sulman al-Khalifa.

Since then, Washington has resorted more to “quiet diplomacy” reportedly designed to strengthen the position of the more reform- minded crown prince, Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, who met with Obama in the White House last June.

Washington, which has been particularly concerned that a lack of democratic reforms would lead the Shi’a community, estimated at between 60 percent and 70 percent of Bahraini citizens, to radicalise and possibly seek support from Shi’a-led Iran.

That radicalisation may indeed be taking place. In recent months, the so-called Coalition of February 14th Youth, which calls for the overthrow of the monarchy, has led most of the protests, undercutting al-Wefaq, which so far has been committed to a more reformist approach.

The administration also spoke out strongly in favour of the conclusions and recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) headed by a prominent international jurist, Cherif Bassiouni, which was tasked to investigate allegations of human rights and other abuses committed during the crackdown.

In addition to the use of excessive force by security forces which resulted in several dozen deaths, the nearly 500-page BICI report released in November detailed other serious abuses, including the rounding up, detention, torture and mistreatment of hundreds of demonstrators, the wrongful dismissal of thousands of others from government posts and universities, and serious due process violations, including the admission of forced confessions, committed against defendants brought before special security courts.

Khawaja, a long-time human rights activist who had been exiled to Denmark in the 1980s but returned to Bahrain in 2001, was himself arrested last April on charges of trying to overthrow the monarchy and subsequently sentenced by one of the courts criticised by the BICI to life imprisonment two months later.

He, along with 13 other prominent opposition activists, has been named as “prisoners of conscience” by Amnesty International which has called repeatedly for his unconditional release.

While in prison awaiting trial, Khawaja was beaten so severely that his jaw and skull were cracked and he has undergone several surgeries since.

To protest his continued detention, he began a hunger strike on Feb. 8, and is now on his 64th day without eating solid food. In an open letter to King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, he said he would continue fasting until “freedom or death”.

Reports of his deteriorating health spurred 15 civil society groups here, including Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, the Open Society Foundations, and the AFL-CIO labour confederation, to send an open letter to Obama Monday in which they urged him “to publicly call on the Government of Bahrain to immediately and unconditionally release (him) from prison”.

Amnesty reiterated that call Tuesday in light of a decision by Bahrain’s Court of Cassation, which is reviewing the verdicts of Khawaja and his 13 co-defendants, to adjourn its deliberations until Apr. 23 without setting bail. Despite concerns voiced by Danish consular officials who have been able to visit Khawaja, the Bahraini government has insisted that his life is not at imminent risk.

“This delay will have potentially disastrous consequences for his health, which continues to deteriorate as a result of his hunger strike,” Amnesty said. “The authorities’ single-minded determination to persecute Abdulhadi al-Khawaja seems to override any consideration for justice or humanity.”

*Jim Lobe’s blog on U.S. foreign policy can be read at http://www.lobelog.com.

By Correspondents and - -
DOHA, Qatar, Apr 11 2012 (IPS)

Kofi Annan, the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy on Syria, has welcomed Iranian support for his efforts to secure peace in the country, telling Tehran that it can be “part of the solution”.

Annan was speaking in Tehran on Wednesday following talks with Ali Akbar Salehi, the Iranian foreign minister.

But while endorsing Annan’s peace plan, which calls for a ceasefire by Thursday, Salehi said Syria’s government needed to be given time to implement reforms.

Tehran is considered a key regional ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who faces growing international pressure over the crackdown by security forces that has seen cities shelled and thousands of people killed.

Annan stressed again the urgency of finding a way to end the killing and to provide humanitarian assistance to those in need, before getting all parties to the table.

“The political process must be Syrian-led and respect the aspirations of the Syrian people,” Annan said. “What is important is that governments in the region and beyond work with Syria to resolve the crisis.

“The geopolitical position of Syria is such that any miscalculation can have unimaginable consequences.”

Regarding a ceasefire agreement which requires Syrian government forces to halt operations by Apr. 12, Annan said he had received assurances that the deadline would be honoured.

“If everyone respects it I think by six in the morning on Thursday we shall see improved conditions on the ground,” Annan said.

Answering a question whether he supported calls by some countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to arm the Syrian opposition, Annan said “any further militarisation will be disastrous”.

Salehi offered qualified Iranian support for Annan’s efforts.

“We believe the people of Syria, like other countries, have the right to enjoy all the rights enjoyed by other world nations, such as freedom of political parties, freedom of elections, a constitution that encompasses all the wishes of a nation,” he said. “At the same time, we have announced that we oppose interference in the affairs of all countries, including Syria. The government of Bashar al-Assad has promised change to meet the demands of the people… and in fact the opportunity must be given to the Syrian government.”

Ceasefire deadline

Annan’s peace plan, presented last month, calls on the Syrian government to withdraw troops from towns and end the use of heavy weaponry. Under the plan, both the army and opposition fighters must adhere to the ceasefire.

Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister, on Tuesday demanded guarantees from Annan that rebels would also honour any truce.

“We will not ask the terrorist groups, which are killing, kidnapping and destroying infrastructure, for guarantees. We want Annan to give us these guarantees,” Muallem said during a visit to Moscow.

Syria failed to observe a Tuesday deadline to withdraw its forces from urban areas, and activists reported fresh violence on Wednesday.

The Local Co-ordination Committees said there was shelling of several opposition-held neighbourhoods in the central city of Homs.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “tens of army vehicles” were deploying in the southern town of Maaraba amid intense shooting.

The Syrian National Council’s spokeswoman Basma Kodmani said that if Assad does not show sign of adhering to the ceasefire, the U.N. Security Council must set an ultimatum with the will to enforce by power.

“What we would like to see is a unanimous decision by members of the Security Council that sends an ultimatum to the regime with a deadline that is not too far down the road that says on such and such a date enforcement measures will intervene,” Kodmani told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, the U.S. secretary of state, was expected to meet Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, in Washington.

“We will have another go at trying to persuade the Russians that the situation is deteriorating and the likelihood of regional conflict and civil war is increasing,” she said on Tuesday.

Assad’s forces have killed more than 9,000 people in the past year, according to a U.N. estimate. Damascus says rebels have killed more than 2,500 soldiers and security personnel.

*Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Excerpt:

By Correspondents
DOHA, Qatar, Apr 9 2012 (IPS)

Gunfire from the Syrian side of the border has hit a refugee camp inside Turkey, wounding at least three people.

Two Syrian refugees and one Turkish translator were wounded in Monday’s incident when the Kilis border refugee camp in Gaziantep province came under fire from the Syrian side of the border, a Turkish foreign ministry official said.

However, it is unclear whether the camp was deliberately targeted.

A Turkish foreign ministry official said the Syrian charge d’affaires in Ankara was summoned to the ministry following the incident.

“We demanded an end to this (shooting),” the official said.

Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught, reporting from Antakya in southern Turkey, said the incident signifies “a remarkable escalation in tensions on this already tense cross-border area”.

The incident occurred as reports indicated that Syrian government forces were trying to prevent refugees from entering Turkey.

Thousands of Syrians are sheltering in eight refugee camps set up in Turkey’s southern provinces of Hatay and Gaziantep, while others have crossed into Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

Against this backdrop, a U.N.-brokered ceasefire agreement that is due to come into force on Tuesday is looking shaky after Bashar al- Assad’s government raised new, last-minute demands that were rejected by the country’s armed opposition.

Under the deal, brokered by Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League special envoy, the Syrian army is scheduled to withdraw from protest cities on Tuesday, with a complete end to fighting set for 48 hours later.

But Syria has since said it would only carry out its side of the bargain if the rebels first handed over written guarantees to stop fighting, a demand rejected by the leader of the largest armed opposition group, the Free Syria Army (FSA).

China has urged Syria to stick to its earlier pledge to stop fighting and start pulling back its troops, while also calling on the opposition to honour its commitments.

‘Criminal gang’

Colonel Riad al-Asaad said the FSA was committed to the peace plan but would give guarantees only to the international community and not the Syrian government.

“It is not a regime that is ruling the country. It’s a criminal gang. So we will not give guarantees to it,” Asaad told Al Jazeera just hours after the government issued its demand on Sunday.

Asaad said that if the Syrian government abided by Annan’s six-point plan to end the violence, the FSA would hold its fire. He demanded that the government withdraw its forces to bases and remove checkpoints from the streets.

Last week, Assad accepted the ceasefire agreement, which also called for the government and opposition fighters to lay down their arms by 6am local time on Thursday.

For his part, Annan urged Syria’s government to fully implement its commitment to the ceasefire, and condemned “a surge in violence and atrocities” that is occurring there.

The truce is meant to pave the way for negotiations between the government and the opposition over Syria’s political future.

However, activists say Syrian troops are continuing their assault on flashpoint regions.

Idlib shelled

Forces loyal to President Assad have also shelled an area in the province of Idlib near the border with Turkey, leaving dozens dead or injured, opposition activists said on Sunday.

Around 90 tanks and armoured vehicles, backed by helicopters, bombarded the al-Rouge Plain, southwest of Idlib city, the provincial capital, Reuters news agency reported quoting activists inside Syria and on the border with Turkey.

The activists further said fighters from the FSA were surrounded in al-Bashiriya, one of about 40 villages in the plain.

The Syrian National Council, as the main opposition umbrella group is known, called on Sunday for U.N. intervention after monitoring groups said 86 of those killed on Saturday were civilians.

Towns north of Aleppo have endured days of clashes and bombardment, prompting 3,000 civilians to flee over the Turkish border on Friday alone, about 10 times the daily number before Assad accepted Annan’s plan 10 days ago.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said on Saturday the number of refugees entering Turkey was rising.

“At the moment, we have 24,000 Syrians who have entered Turkey. Of course, this number is rising,” Erdogan said before departing on a trip to China.

“In particular, Kofi Annan has to hold firm. He announced a deadline of April 10. I believe that he should monitor the situation very closely.”

The U.N. estimates that at least 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since the crisis began 13 months ago.

*Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.

Excerpt:

At a crowded corner of the Tripoli Medical Centre, people gather every morning to submit paperwork for medical treatment abroad, or worriedly scan new lists of approved names plastering the walls.

Kaltoum Alhadi bound for Italy for corrective surgery stands before a list of approved patients. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS.

Kaltoum Alhadi Marwan, 29, is one of the lucky ones. She won a visa and the go-ahead for surgery in Italy to correct a congenital bone deformity in her right leg. She is at the TMC – Tripoli’s largest hospital – to collect a cheque from the Libyan government for her airfare.

Kaltoum is a manager at a local disability clinic. But she has little faith in the quality of Libyan healthcare. “I had another deformity in my finger and had corrective surgery in Tripoli,” she says. “It was useless. It made it worse than before.”

Dr. Arbi Gomati, a UK-trained surgeon at the TMC, takes a breather during another hectic day. He is one of 11 decision makers on a committee to choose candidates for treatment abroad under the auspices of the Ministry of Health. His Tripoli group is one of three nationwide; the others are in Benghazi and Sebha. Five more are opening soon.

Dr. Gomati says since they started in November his committee reviews up to 250 patient files per day, of which an estimated 20 percent qualify. These are usually Libyans suffering from severe ailments like cancer, kidney failure, pediatric surgery and congenital heart failure. Common destinations for the pre- approved treatment are Germany, France, UK, Italy, Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia.

“In Libya we have shortages in medication,” says Dr. Gomati. “You can have an up-to-date MRI or CT scan, but no single radiologist who can look at the film or give an accurate report. Many cases we send are just because we need someone to do an intervention for radiology, that’s it.

“Because there were no health services immediately after the revolution and too many people needed them, the only way was to send people outside. But we don’t like the system and we’d like to stop it.”

Dr. Gomati’s committee is a separate entity from the transitional government’s programme to send injured rebel fighters for treatment abroad. Recent outrage over substantial abuses of the plan, to the detriment of some genuine candidates – including procedures like plastic surgery, fertility treatments, extended hospital stays and overbilling – has cost an embarrassed Libyan government an estimated 800 million dollars and forced a revision of the oversight.

Tripoli Central Hospital, an Italian-era built trauma facility in the capital’s downtown, has posters of missing people lining its emergency room walls.

“It was risky to go out, and the ER was also very unsafe – most people had guns. There was a shortage of medicine, staff and doctors,” says Dr. Ezdeen Elnaam, a young neurosurgeon who spent many nights in a row working there.

Some things are no better now. “Many days the CT scan isn’t working, or the MRI isn’t working, and we lack ultrasounds,” says his colleague, Dr. Naili Samar. “As for most of the doctors, the emphasis is on salary and not on treatment.”

“The hospitals here are terrible,” Fawzia Toshani remarks sharply. She is a media spokesperson with the health ministry, a place she’s worked for 15 years.

The health ministry just received an estimated 2.3 billion dollars in the recent government budget. “There is a problem with bureaucracy and mismanagement,” she says. “Corruption? Yes, that’s true.

“Libyan professional doctors go abroad first to study or get better money. Here the doctors get around 1000 dinars (800 dollars) a month. Patients would prefer to go to a private clinic if they had money. But that doesn’t mean you’ll get better treatment.”

Dr. Rami Ben Ahmeida, general practitioner at the private Libyan British Medical Centre, equipped with an ambulance and surgery bay, disagrees. “This place is better. It has good hygiene, better staff, and is well organised. There is no waiting list for operations, while at the government hospital you can wait up to one month.”

A two-tier health system matured under the Gaddafi regime to accommodate wealthier citizens and businesses has yielded a multitude of private facilities like the Libyan British Medical Centre.

As nurses from the Philippines bustle through the small white corridors, patients interviewed by IPS say they had health insurance through work with banks, construction and oil companies.

In post-Gaddafi Libya, as the national economy’s largely oil revenue ramps up and commercial businesses and investment start to return, the debate around a new model for Libya’s new governance, and healthcare system intensifies.

Dr. Gomati from the Tripoli Medical Centre says he would like to see medical insurance companies introduced nationwide, and encourage a public-private system. “People should pay for health services. Right now it’s costing the country money – draining money.”

“I can tell you there is a need to improve the quality of health services here, or maybe market it better,” says an official from the recently reopened U.S. embassy in Tripoli. “Libyans really do have this firm belief they cannot get appropriate health care in their country.

“But we’ve done extensive medical surveys of the facilities here, just when we were coming back and in terms of contingency planning, and there is actually very good care available here in Libya in both (government and private facilities).”

At the busy private Al Mokhtar Clinic in one of Tripoli’s more affluent neighbourhoods, Salma Gouma, supervisor for the mostly foreign nurses from the Philippines, Ukraine, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, says they reduce prices for poorer families.

“I don’t know why people go away for medical treatment. People don’t trust Libya, but we have done a lot of procedures correcting mistakes from Tunisian hospitals.”

A new report released by Human Rights Watch (HRW) Friday contends that the dearth of meaningful reform in the protection of human rights and the rule of law in Yemen threatens political stability as the fledgling transitional government copes with a deteriorating economy and continued violence.

“While Yemen’s new government has taken several promising steps, the repressive security apparatus of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh remains largely intact,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW’s Middle East and North Africa director, after observers met for two weeks in Sanaa.

“Civilian leaders reiterated that they cannot move forward on accountability and reform of the security services so long as Saleh continues to play a hand in directing various security forces there,” Whitson added.

Since last December, when Saleh and his political supporters were granted legal immunity in exchange for a new government under President Abu Rabu Mansur Hadi, the progress made thus far is insufficient, according to the report.

Some of the reforms in Yemen, the poorest member country in the Arab League, include a draft law that would open investigations into last year’s government abuses and the authorisation for a new office of the United Nations Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the country.

But after a number of interviews with senior government officials, civil society leaders and other witnesses, HRW found that large gaps remain in government accountability, arbitrary detentions, children forced into the military, and judicial and legal reforms.

No government or security officials have been charged with crimes that left hundreds of Yemeni citizens dead during last year’s anti- government protests.

“Events in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya show that removing an authoritarian leader is only the first of many difficult steps…The best way for Hadi to gain the support of all Yemenis is to ensure their grievances are addressed,” Whitson went on to say.

Regional experts have suggested that Saleh has retained a strong influence in Yemeni politics, which has only exacerbated the violent rivalries between different factions vying for power.

“So far, all signs point to Saleh’s unwillingness to give up his influence, especially as long as his political rivals remain active and in a position to dominate Yemen… Their continued presence represents a threat to the emergence of a stable political order in the country,” Princeton Professor Bernard Haykel wrote for majalla.com last week.

With extremely high levels of unemployment, food shortages, dwindling foreign exchange reserves, and an economy almost entirely dependent on neighbouring Saudi Arabia for food and oil subsidies, Yemen’s stagnant economy is just as worrying for some analysts as the growing political instability.

On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved 93.75 million dollars in assistance to Yemen to “address its urgent balance of payments needs”. Other governments and international organisations such as the U.S., the European Union and the United Nations are in the process of securing additional funds in economic and humanitarian assistance to Yemen.

“The Fund-supported program will help the authorities tackle pressing economic challenges while giving them time to formulate their medium- term strategy to address structural issues,” Nemat Shafik, chair of the IMF’s executive board, said on Wednesday.

“The role of donors is crucial. Financing needs are likely to remain large as the political crisis has worsened poverty and unemployment conditions and severely impacted tax revenues,” Shafik added.

Some experts argue, however, that without an end to Yemen’s political instability, the economic situation is unlikely to improve.

In a report published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Tuesday, regional specialist Dr. Charles Schmitz emphasised that structural economic reforms such as a revised tax system, more investment in human capital programmes, an enhanced partnership between the government and private business, and proper management of Yemen’s non-hydrocarbon natural resources will all work to promote economic growth.

“Yemen’s economic problems are real, but they are not caused by an absolute, irreparable shortage of resources. Rather it is Yemen’s contentious politics and its lack of institutional development that constitutes the main obstacle to surmounting economic difficulties,” the Schmitz wrote.

“Ultimately, long-term success depends on the Yemeni state, not on outside help from the U.S. or the Gulf countries – though they can play a critical role in helping to stabilise the Yemeni economy in the short term,” the report goes on to say.

While the U.S. commended the negotiated political transition brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) last year, U.S. policy remains focused on its support for counterterrorism operations in the country and, in what U.S. officials have begun to emphasise more frequently, countering Iran’s alleged influence in Yemen.

Speaking at a GCC forum in Saudi Arabia last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserted that Iran has been undermining “regional security” with “interference” in both Yemen and Syria.

One substantial component of the U.S.’s campaign against organisations affiliated with Al-Qaeda in Yemen is an increasing number of drone attacks.

According to a study published last week by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the number of U.S. drone strikes, cruise missile attacks and naval bombardments in Yemen now rivals the intensity of a similar covert campaign against militants in Pakistan, with up to 35 attacks since May 2011 that have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 55-105 Yemeni civilians.

After suspending 150 million dollars in military aid to Yemen during the uprisings last year, U.S. officials have stated that they plan to seek authorisation for nearly 75 million in military aid to resume this year. Yemen has received nearly 316 million dollars in civilian aid since 2007.

“The U.S. government has no business resuming aid, overt or covert, to security forces that are implicated in murdering Yemen’s citizens and refuse to accept accountability for these abuses…Direct military aid to these forces could undermine the government’s ability to ensure accountability and bring peace and security to the country,” HRW’s Whitson said.

“The U.S remains focused on supporting a peaceful political transition in Yemen, and will continue to address the needs of the Yemeni people by delivering humanitarian and economic aid and providing security assistance as requested by the National Consensus Government,” the State Department said in a press release on Monday, after a senior level delegation, which included U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Ambassador Jeffery Feltman, returned from Yemen last week.

“We want to help the people of Yemen. They are in great need of development assistance and other forms of help so that they can begin to realise the benefits of a new government that wishes to try to help them,” Clinton said last week during her trip to Riyadh.

Ties between Turkey and Iran appear to be headed downward in the wake of Tehran’s statement earlier this week that it would prefer not to hold the negotiations with the P5+1 group on its nuclear programme in Istanbul, as had been announced last week by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton.

The P5+1 is a group of countries, composed of the five United Nations Security Council permanent members, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany, which have been seeking assurances from Tehran since 2008 that its nuclear programme is intended for civilian purposes only and is not designed to produce a nuclear weapon.

The next round of negotiations, which had been scheduled to begin next Friday after more than a year’s hiatus, is widely seen, among the group’s Western members in particular, as critical to assessing whether or not Tehran is willing to make serious concessions, including possibly transferring its growing stockpile of 20-percent enriched uranium outside Iran, in exchange for easing ever-tighter economic sanctions.

Turkey has attempted on several occasions in the past to reassure the West of Tehran’s peaceful intent.

“Islam does not allow for use of weapons of mass destruction,” Erdogan told reporters last week on his return from an official visit to Iran during which he reportedly conveyed a personal message from U.S. President Barack Obama to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But, after Tehran’s suggestion that it preferred not to meet in Istanbul, Erdogan’s tone changed sharply. “We have to be honest. Because of the lack of honesty they (the Iranians) are continually losing their international prestige,” he told reporters. The head of the Iranian parliamentary committee for national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, and members of the government close to him had publicly opposed Istanbul as the venue, proposing instead Baghdad, Beijing, Beirut and Damascus.

“The offers going round at the moment, Damascus or Baghdad, are a waste of time; it means (the meeting) won’t happen, because (the Iranians) know the other side won’t come to Damascus or Baghdad,” Erdogan fumed.

While officials here who have been in touch with their Iranian counterparts have since suggested that Tehran may yet agree to have the Turks host the meeting, media analysts speculate that Erdogan’s outburst may have reflected more growing bilateral tensions over Syria, Iran’s closest Arab ally.

Once-warm relations between Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al- Assad have deteriorated steadily over the year due to Damascus’ violent crackdown against the opposition to the point that Ankara now finds itself close to Qatar and Saudi Arabia in their call for arming rebel forces, some of which are based in Turkey.

Ankara has already reportedly drawn up contingency plans for forcibly setting up refugee safe zones inside Syria, even without U.N. Security Council authorisation, if the violence, which has already taken more than 9,000 lives according to the U.N., worsens.

And last weekend, Turkey hosted the second meeting of the “Friends of Syria”, consisting mostly of Western and Arab League nations that have called for Assad to step down without delay, even as former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, a special U.N.-Arab League envoy, tries to arrange a cease-fire between the two sides of what has effectively become a civil war.

Despite the secular nature of Assad’s regime, Iran has long been Syria’s most important regional ally, and is widely believed to be, along with Russia, its biggest source of security and military assistance during the year-long crackdown.

Their strategic alliance has been based in part on their “resistance” to Israel, but they also share, along with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the ruling coalition in Iraq, common sectarian roots in Shi’a Islam. The Assad family and the top ranks of the Syrian army and security forces are Alawis, who also make up about 13 percent of the country’s population. Alawi Islam is a Shi’a offshoot.

Sunni Islam, on the other hand, is the dominant faith in Turkey, as well as in North Africa and in all of the Arab kingdoms, except Bahrain. And while Erdogan himself has defended Turkish secularism, his AKP party is avowedly Islamist, and its leadership is predominantly Sunni.

Fanned by fears of an Iran-led “Shi’a Crescent” in the aftermath of the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, propagated in particular by Jordan and Saudi Arabia, the Greater Middle East has found itself increasingly divided by sectarian differences both within societies and between states. Over the past year’s “Arab Spring”, those rivalries appear to have intensified.

In their own relationship, Iran and Turkey have largely avoided such conflict, even as they competed for influence after the “regime changes” that took place in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, all three with overwhelmingly Sunni populations. And even though Turkey was cited as a possible “model” for new governments to follow, the influence of both countries has been limited, in major part due to the fact that neither is Arab.

The Syrian revolt, on the other hand, appears to have changed the Turkish-Iranian entente. Turkey has joined the anti-Assad coalition, composed of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, both Sunni states supported by the U.S., Britain and France.

This is apparently making Iran reconsider its foreign policy with its Western neighbour, especially at a moment when Iraq, with a majority Shi’a population, is seeking good relations with both countries and trying to position itself as a peace broker between Tehran and Washington, a position to which Ankara has been aspiring all along.

In spite of the tension, Ankara and Tehran still need each other, although to different degrees and for different reasons.

Bilateral trade last year exceeded 15 billion dollars. Not only has Iran become an important market for Turkish goods, but Iranian oil and gas account for roughly half of Turkey’s annual energy supplies. Until now, Turkey remains one of the last countries, along with India, China, Russia, and Iraq, to resist Western pressure efforts to cut economic ties.

But if political tensions worsen, that could change. Indeed, just last week, and only one day after Erdogan concluded his visit to Iran, Turkey announced it would reduce oil imports from Iran by 20 percent and intended to make up the difference with imports from Libya.

In the last week of July, the United Nations held its High Level Meeting on Youth as part of the closing of the International Year of Youth 2011 in the General Assembly. This year was definitely a historic year that witnessed the massive mobilisation and leadership of youth in the Arab world.

The secretary-general of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, mentioned the Tunisian young man – Mohamed Bouazizi – as an example of a young man who triggered the removal of two long dictators in Tunisia and Egypt at the very beginning of this year 2011.

I was preparing for my intervention to the High Level Meeting at General Assembly right after the SG speech when many ideas came to mind. In fact, many words and phrases came to mind: 2011, youth, international, Arab Spring, Tahrir square, among others. I also listened to many interventions by official delegations to the U.N., youth, civil society, among others.

I was asking myself why were we here in this massive and unique room of the United Nations General Assembly? What does it mean to be in such a huge room with all these faces, representations, and experiences? How can we come out of this room with something concrete?

I recalled the days and nights we spent in Tahrir Square in the middle of Cairo. The values that brought Egyptians together in one place – sharing space, thoughts, ideas, food, among many others things – were unique.

Egyptian young people of all walks of life, backgrounds, education, shapes and sizes got together in Tahrir Square for the first time united as one. They developed a sense of belonging to this square that was gradual, systematic and indeed, humane. It was like a utopia where human beings unite based on their humane values, forgetting their differences and work together for the common good.

It was the specificity of time and place that brought those men and women into their default human values of coexistence. Such strong idealistic strength shaped a revolt against dictatorship and caused the Egyptian head of regime to collapse in 18 days.

It also put together a reference for the Egyptian revolution’s demands, which shaped the societal pressure on the transitional government until today. It also provided a new face for Egypt that the whole world was looking up to.

The rest of the Arab nations’ youth were given a strong push to lead their own revolts and demand freedom and democracy their own ways. Although it was not as peaceful as Tahrir Square, it is still powerful, consistent and committed to bring change to their societies.

Tahrir Square was not only a place of revolution and change, but also a place of consensus, solidarity, and coexistence where Egyptians of all walks of life, cultures, religions, and social class were hand in hand in sharing everything from laugh to sorrow and from bread to medicine. They were living together and protecting each other to the extent that we came up with new names like: Tahrir Square republic and Tahrir moral system.

In the U.N. General Assembly, I felt that same sense of unity that was felt in Tahrir Square. We were a very diverse group of people and organisations sitting under one roof to discuss youth issues in a High Level Meeting. The collection was unique, representative and powerful.

It was like the collection of people in Tahrir Square, and I was wondering, can we have a dialogue that is similar to that of Tahrir Square and make real breakthroughs in the reality of youth?

We have always said we needed the wisdom of the elders and the energy and enthusiasm of the youth. The same applies today to international organisations, governments, and civil society as it does to the wise and the young and the energetic and enthusiastic.

Youth need that wisdom, power, knowledge and experience so we can complement each other. This is the value of Tahrir Square, which I see is necessary to be internationalised everywhere.

The U.N. General Assembly High Level Meeting on Youth was just a symbolic example of this. Tahrir was just a physical space in the heart of one of the largest cities in Africa, the Middle East and the developing world until it changed the way young people voiced their needs differently and peacefully.

This is what the world should learn from Tahrir. Indeed, the young people of Tahrir have played a major role in the world for the sake of humanity at large.

*Karim Kasim is a consultant and researcher on youth issues in Egypt. He was an active participant in the youth revolts during Egypt’s Arab Spring.

© 2012 Global Experts, a project of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.

The large proportion of Islamist-leaning members in Egypt’s Constituent Assembly elected last month has led to accusations that Islamist parties – especially the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) – are effectively monopolising the constitution-drafting process.

Demonstrators in Cairo protesting against an Islamist-dominated Constituent Assembly. Credit: Khaled Moussa al-Omrani/IPS.

On Mar. 17, elected MPs from both the People’s Assembly and the Shura Council (the lower and upper houses of Egypt’s parliament) agreed regulations governing the establishment of the 100-member assembly. The move came under Article 60 of a Constitutional Declaration issued by Egypt’s ruling military council – and endorsed by popular referendum – in the wake of last year’s revolution.

At the meeting, the parliamentary majority decided that parliament itself would select assembly members, 50 of whom would be drawn from among from sitting MPs and 50 from outside parliament. The decision was rejected by most liberal and leftist representatives, who complained that such a system would provide Islamist parties – which currently dominate both houses of parliament – with unparalleled influence over the constitution-drafting process.

“The Muslim Brotherhood’s insistence on including 50 sitting MPs in the 100-member assembly suggests that it hopes to monopolise Egypt’s political life in the same autocratic manner as did (ousted president Hosni Mubarak’s now defunct) National Democratic Party,” says Sherif.

Earlier this year, elections for Egypt’s People’s Assembly yielded a landslide victory for Islamist parties, with the Muslim Brotherhood’s FJP and its allies capturing more than 75 percent of the seats. Shura Council elections, which wrapped up last month, returned similar results, leaving Islamist parties – again led by the FJP – in control of some two-thirds of parliament’s upper, consultative chamber.

Amid mounting criticism from non-Islamist political actors, both houses of Egypt’s Islamist-heavy parliament convened again on Mar. 24 to select members of the Constituent Assembly. Although initial reports were conflicting, it now appears that between 60 and 70 of the assembly’s 100 members are either members of Islamist parties – mainly the FJP and the Salafist Nour Party – or closely linked with them.

The preponderance of Islamist-leaning figures in the assembly quickly triggered a wave of resignations among its non-Islamist members.

Over the next few days, almost every assembly member not affiliated with the two main Islamist parties formally withdrew from the constitution-drafting body, including representatives of the centre-left Egyptian Social Democratic Party, the liberal Free Egyptians Party, the leftist Popular Socialist Alliance, and the liberal Wafd Party. Even representatives of Egypt’s Al-Azhar University and the moderate-Islamist Wasat Party ultimately quit the assembly.

Hazem al-Beblawi, a former finance minister and one of the first to announce his withdrawal, complained that the majority of assembly members lacked the necessary qualifications for the task at hand.

“The assembly should consist of legal scholars, intellectuals and veteran politicians, but the current members lack these credentials,” al-Belbawi was quoted as saying in the local press. “It doesn’t matter that most are of an Islamist orientation, but they must have the prerequisite political and legal qualifications.”

Speaking to IPS, presidential candidate Amr Moussa, former foreign minister and Arab League chief, asserted that the methods used to select assembly members should be “reconsidered” so as to “better represent all segments of Egyptian society.”

Constituent Assembly member Mahmoud al-Khodeiri, prominent judge and head of parliament’s legislative and constitutional affairs committee, defended the assembly’s composition, asserting that members had been elected in compliance with last year’s Constitutional Declaration. “No one can say that the constitution-drafting process will reflect only one point of view, since all political orientations were represented in the assembly,” al-Khodeiri told reporters.

Recent days have seen several demonstrations in Cairo organised by non-Islamist parties and movements – including one outside Egypt’s parliament building – to protest the assembly’s large proportion of Islamist members. Some activists are now calling for a million-man demonstration in Cairo’s Tahrir Square next week to demand the assembly’s reformulation.

Muslim Brotherhood officials downplay the significance of the resignations.

“The withdrawal of certain political forces will affect neither the assembly’s mission nor its legitimacy,” FJP Secretary-General for Cairo Mohamed al-Beltagi tells IPS. “Members have the right to withdraw, but I reject accusations that the FJP is dominating the assembly, because the party – in agreement with other parties – chose assembly members from among all political orientations.”

In statements to the press, Shura Council president and FJP member Ahmed Fahmi stressed that it was “only natural that Islamist parties, which enjoy an elected majority in parliament, would have a corresponding majority in the Constituent Assembly.”

On Mar. 28, despite the absence of a quarter of its membership, the assembly held its first meeting, at which it elected parliamentary speaker and leading FJP member Saad El-Katatni as assembly chairman. It also drew up a committee tasked with collecting proposals for constitutional articles from civil society and opening talks with resigned members in hopes of persuading them to rejoin the assembly.

In an effort to appease critics, the Brotherhood and its allies have offered to replace some current assembly members. Spokesmen for the non-Islamist minority, however, appear bent on seeing the assembly reformulated from scratch.

On Sunday (Apr. 1), Sameh Ashour, head of the ruling military council’s Advisory Council and one of the Constituent Assembly’s former members, called for the current assembly’s dissolution. He went on to assert that Article 60 of last year’s Constitutional Declaration, which gives parliamentarians the authority to elect assembly members, should be “modified”.

With the next Constituent Assembly meeting slated for Wednesday (Apr. 4), many express doubt that the decimated congregation will be up to the task at hand – namely, the drafting of a new national charter. According to the timeline laid down by the ruling military council, a new constitution should be hammered out within six months.

“The Brotherhood is making a historical mistake with its insistence on dominating the assembly,” liberal MP and former assembly member Wahid Abdel Maguid, who is also an expert in political affairs at the Cairo-based Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, said in a recent statement. “With only 75 percent of its membership still intact, the success or failure of this assembly will quickly become apparent.”

Wanted members of the regime of former president Hosni Mubarak remain at large more than a year since he was ousted, and their illicit wealth lies safely beyond the reach of prosecutors.

Under Mubarak, top officials and businessmen with close ties to the regime seized public assets and acquired monopolies in strategic commodities. Prosecutors say the elite group grew rich on the spoils of crony capitalism, including sweetheart privatisation deals, stock market manipulation and preferential treatment in land contracts.

Following the uprising that ended Mubarak’s 30-year rule, Egyptian prosecutors imposed travel bans and froze the assets of regime leaders and business associates. Foreign ministry officials also contacted world governments to request that they identify and freeze assets belonging to individuals suspected of corruption.

Yet hundreds of senior Mubarak regime figures remain at large, many living comfortably in exile on ill- gotten gains, claim activists. Some accused of graft and malfeasance have yet to be charged, while others have international warrants for their arrest.

One former official accused of engineering some of the most chequered privatisations in Egypt’s history holds a top position at a prestigious international financial institution.

“Mubarak’s associates aren’t exactly in hiding,” says Amir Marghany, a corporate lawyer and anti- corruption expert. “We know where many of them live, work and spend their time. But it seems nobody is really trying to catch them.”

In January, Egyptians were infuriated to learn that Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Mubarak’s former finance minister, had been spotted attending a public forum at the London School of Economics (LSE). The university’s security staff escorted the fugitive official out of the lecture hall after an Egyptian activist in the audience called him out publicly.

Boutros-Ghali, seen by many as the public face of a regime that enriched itself at the expense of the poor, fled to Britain shortly after Mubarak was toppled. A Cairo court sentenced him in absentia to 30 years imprisonment for abuse of power and squandering public funds. His name is on an Interpol watch list.

“We know he is living in London, but until now nobody has lifted a finger against him,” says Marghany.

He says local and international media coverage has created the impression that there is a worldwide manhunt for Mubarak’s cronies and a global freeze on their assets. In reality, only a handful of countries have ordered assets frozen, and the mandate is limited to Mubarak’s family and inner circle.

Analysts question the resolve of Egyptian authorities. Prosecutors have targeted the coterie of Gamal Mubarak, the former president’s son and presumed successor, while passing over officials and businessmen with strong links to the ruling military council.

“The old regime is still running the show, and it appears they have financial interests in the people charged (with corruption) and is not enthusiastic about prosecuting them or retrieving their stolen money,” says Amr Adly, head of the Economic and Social Justice Unit at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR).

While a number of former regime leaders have been brought to trial, including Mubarak and his two sons, court rulings are continually and inexplicably delayed. Moreover, certain individuals appear to have escaped scrutiny.

Egypt’s prosecutor-general has shown uncanny deference to Mahmoud Mohieldin, who served as Mubarak’s investment minister between 2004 and 2010. Corruption watchdogs charge that Mohieldin abused his position as head of the country’s unpopular privatisation programme to manipulate the valuation of public assets, which were sold to foreign investors at a fraction of their value.

Mohieldin has lived in the United States since his appointment as managing director of the World Bank in October 2010. Despite numerous allegations of financial misconduct, no charges have been laid against him.

“Egyptians are surprised that he is still holding this post,” says Amr Hassanein, chairman of MERIS, a regional affiliate of Moody’s credit ratings agency. “There have been corruption scandals around the (privatisation) transactions, but not him personally. The perception is that the World Bank is protecting him, but it may have more to do with Egypt’s side.”

Mubarak’s cronies have maintained a low profile in exile, obtaining residency papers and carrying on business activities – in some cases using illicit funds syphoned from Egypt.

Legal experts say foreign governments might be reluctant to act against former Mubarak regime members and their assets until they are satisfied that all corruption allegations are substantiated and those accused are assured due process. Others appear to have political motives for sheltering them.

Egyptian authorities have requested that Qatar hand over Rachid Mohamed Rachid, Mubarak’s former trade minister. Rachid was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison last June, and another 15 years in September, for squandering public funds and profiteering. Interpol has issued a warrant for his arrest.

Sources close to Rachid say he fled to the Arab Gulf during the uprising, staying in Dubai for several months before settling in Qatar.

In a breakthrough, on Mar. 2 a Spanish court ordered long-time Mubarak confidant Hussein Salem and his son extradited to Egypt.

Spanish authorities arrested the fugitive business tycoon, widely seen as a front man for Mubarak, in June 2011 at his mansion in Majorca on multiple charges of corruption and laundering involving illicit funds transferred from Cairo. They also froze his 47-million-dollar bank account and seized homes worth over 14 million dollars, including seven villas in the Andalusian resort town of Marbella.

Salem, who holds Egyptian and Spanish passports, is alleged to have used his connections with Mubarak to secure lucrative property and business deals, including a heavily criticised contract to export underpriced Egyptian gas to Israel. He fled Egypt days before Mubarak’s ouster and was on an Interpol watch list until his capture.

A Cairo criminal court sentenced Salem and two of his children in absentia to seven years in prison on charges of profiteering and laundering over 2 billion dollars in gas exports. Salem was also sentenced in a separate case to 15 years in prison for illegally acquiring public property. Yet despite the extradition order, he remains in Spanish custody.

“People are getting frustrated with the delays and excuses,” says Marghany. “The Spanish court ordered Salem extradited nearly a month ago. So where is he?”

A few hundred police cadets in ad hoc camouflage uniforms march up and down the grounds at a training centre in the coastal town Zawiyah. “You are the people protecting the revolution and symbol of our pride,” proclaims the scrawled writing on the wall behind them.

The police training camp at Zawiyah. Credit: Rebecca Murray/IPS.

Integration of rebels into the Libyan national army and police, or their return to civilian life, is critically important to the country’s ability to navigate the fragile post-conflict period of elections, reconstruction and institution building.

But despite promises by militias like the Zintan and Misrata brigades to hand Tripoli’s security over to government authorities, deadlines have passed repeatedly.

Sporadic shootouts between militias and armed criminal activity in the capital are not uncommon, as well as violent protests by some rebels who did not receive a one-time payment by the transitional government – 4,000 Libyan Dinars (3,200 dollars) per family, or 2,400 LYD (1,900 dollars) per individual – for their role in the conflict.

“Because the government is still new, they are not strong enough to control the situation,” says Col. Yazin Fituri, operations head of the Tripoli Military Council, the coordinating body for the capital’s military brigades.

“The thuwar first hesitated to join the army, but now they have accepted the situation and would like to join,” he affirms, acknowledging a missed recent deadline to sign up. “Many times we discussed with the Misrata brigade to leave, and we started to talk with the Zintan on the same issue. We are trying to make it peaceful. We don’t want to fight with brothers.”

A further complication to the militias’ integration process is the uncoordinated and overlapping registration of rebels by key institutions.

The Warriors Affairs Commission for Rehabilitation and Development (WAC) was established during the conflict, with the prescient view that when the fighting stopped, rebels needed to be reintegrated back into society to avoid instability.

Regarded as a ‘human resources’ centre for former fighters, the WAC was intended as the first port of call for reintegration registration. The estimated 200,000 rebels in their database are given the choice to join the police or army, or to return to civilian life.

One qualification for registration is an ID that affirms the candidate belonged to a brigade. But there are allegations that some of those on the rolls were not genuine fighters in the uprising.

Starting this month the WAC will conduct interviews and skills training for civilian jobs, and evaluate those who might be suitable for the government armed forces.

The problem, says WAC deputy director Mohammed Shaeiter, is that the ministry of the interior and the ministry of defence pursued parallel registration processes without consulting the WAC first. “This creates confusion. They should have come to us first, before them. The MOI and MOD have not given us their lists yet, and we don’t know when they will.”

At Zawiyah’s training facility, Souhail Ali Milad, 25, is one of the police cadets with a monthly starting salary of 600 Libyan Dinars (480 dollars). He has been promised his first paycheck at the end of March.

The freshly painted barracks was a former military facility for the Gaddafi regime. It reopened in November after sustained damage by NATO bombing and looting. There was fierce fighting in this strategic Mediterranean town, 30 miles west of Tripoli.

Since Gaddafi’s state security infrastructure was mostly destroyed, makeshift bases like Zawiyah’s double up to accommodate both army and police cadets across the country. This site, rebuilt with local council and private funds, has rudimentary equipment, and lacks sleeping quarters.

“The goal is to bring the thuwar to the training centre,” says veteran army commander Ramadan Shnety, who runs the facility. “But the army has not been paid so far. This does not encourage thuwar to sign up.”

The MOI and MOD have agreed upon an initial estimated force of 25,000 men each to secure this vast, oil- rich desert country of just over six million people. “The army will be strong, and won’t let the militias act on their own accord,” says MOD spokesman Col. Adel El Barrassi.

In a new building downtown, Col. Jamal Ibrahim Safar spearheads the MOI’s strategic development and coordination team. He says more than half the police force will be trained outside of Libya.

Jordan is committed to mentor up to 10,000 police, with Turkey, Italy, France and Sudan pitching in with specialty training like border surveillance and election security. Key advisors include the United Nations, the European Union, and the United Kingdom.

Border security was highlighted at a governmental regional conference this month in Tripoli. The threat of weapons proliferation, Al Qaeda groups and undocumented refugees headed to Europe topped the agenda. But the actual size of the force is undecided; as is the ministry it will report to.

“This is the million dollar question right now, because the MOD and MOI are sort of fighting over this issue,” says a U.S. embassy official in an interview with IPS. “Sometimes it looks like they’ve reached a resolution, and sometimes they haven’t.”

The U.S. Army Command (AFRICOM) has an increasing presence across the region. “We’re looking for ways in which we can be helpful,” says AFRICOM commander Gen. Carter Ham.

“I think the Libyans and U.S. would like to see improvements in Libya’s border security infrastructure, and there is a real need to develop some sort of border security force to provide the training and the equipment.

“Libya in general is part of AFRICOM’s sphere, and I think the Libyan government really welcomes the idea of a robust military to military relationship with the U.S.,” the official adds. “They appreciate the value added having a strong relationship with the U.S., so we are just in the very initial phases now of figuring out what that means.”

At the Tripoli Military Council offices located next to the city’s small Mitiga airport – recently retaken from the government by the Suq Al Juma brigade – Col. Yazin Fituri says, “If the government is strong enough, all the thuwar will give back their weapons and go back to civilian life.

“But the government is not strong enough and the revolution is still new. It needs one to two years to become stronger.

“Most brigades are in Tripoli,” he adds. “We know everyone – their names, ID, and the places they stay… Most of them went home, but when we need them we will call them.”