Arab League suspends Syria Over Crackdown

Date: 2011.11.13 | Category: Al-Jazeera, Democracy, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights | Response: 0

The Arab League has given Syria three days to end its violent crackdown on protesters demanding President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation or face suspension from the regional body.

“We are hoping for a daring move from Syria to halt the violence and to begin a real dialogue toward real reform,” said Sheik Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, the prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, as well as the current league chairman.

Sheikh Hamad said that the suspension would take effect on November 16; and that 19 member countries voted in favour of the measure, while Lebanon and Yemen objected and Iraq abstained.  The decision, which came after a meeting of Arab ministers, does not amount to a full suspension of membership from the regional body.

The Arab League called on its member states to withdraw their ambassadors from Damascus and threatened to recognise the Syrian National Council (SNC), a broad-based opposition group, if Syria does not implement an Arab peace deal that it previously agreed to. “The Arab League also called Syrian opposition parties to a meeting at the Arab League headquarters to agree a unified vision for the transitional period.”

Al Jazeera’s Jane Arraf, reporting from Cairo, explained: “The Arab League could have imposed immediate sanctions or suspended Syria outright, but surprisingly did not do that but wanted to send a very strong message to Syria.”

International support for decision

Barack Obama, the US president, welcomed the move from the Arab League.

“These significant steps expose the increasing diplomatic isolation of a regime that has systematically violated human rights and repressed peaceful protests,” Obama said in a statement issued in Hawaii, where he is hosting an Asia-Pacific summit.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said the league’s decision was a “strong and historic stance”.

“The failure of the Assad regime, once again, to heed the call of regional states and the international community underscores the fact that it has lost all credibility,”

Arab governments, seeking to reflect popular demand for democratic change, are trying to address the issue without prompting the violent downfall of the Syrian government or international military action, analysts said.

“They all want to appear democratic, proactive and standing up for people because they are so embattled at home,” said Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, Lebanon.

Read more reports:-

Arab League decides to suspend Syria – Al Jazeer

Arab League Votes to Suspend Syria Over Crackdown – The Newyork Times

“Don’t shoot”: Qaddafi’s last moments

Date: 2011.10.21 | Category: Democracy, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights | Response: 0

Muammar Qaddafi’s final day most likely began as it ended: In a squeeze. He was almost surely in the 700-square-yard area of Sirte where Libya’s ex-rebels had penned in the die-hard forces remaining loyal to him.

The transitional government had for some time speculated that Qaddafi was out wandering the desert, recruiting fighters for a counter-insurgency. Therefore, at around 8 a.m., the ex-rebels where probably unaware that their ultimate target was actually within their grasp as they began an assault on that small final area. It was around that time that Qaddafi got in a convoy to flee, according to most accounts.

Somewhere just outside of the loyalist-held area, NATO aircraft struck Qaddafi’s convoy, but didn’t kill him. According to NATO officials, they were unaware Qaddafi was inside. That airstrike, however, hastened his demise.

The Telegraph’s Ben Farmer visited the scene where Qaddafi’s convoy was hit and the ex-dictator’s final moments played out. He writes: “Colonel Gaddafi was finally cornered in a drain underneath a road in open countryside to the west of the city of Sirte. Rebels said a column of vehicles tried to punch out of an encirclement at dawn. They parked up around 3-4kms west of the town, which was hit by a NATO airstrike. Gaddafi and several bodyguards were then forced to take refuge in the drain where they were then captured and taken away by revolutionary forces.”

An ex-rebel fighter named Mohammed, “a young fighter in his 20s wearing a blue t-shirt and a New York Yankees baseball cap,” told the BBC he found Qaddafi hiding in the tiny drain pipe. The colonel allegedly looked up and said simply: “Don’t shoot.”

They didn’t listen.

Read the full news at cbsnews

Break the Silence in the UAE

Date: 2011.07.26 | Category: Other | Response: 0

The U.S. reaction to the spreading democratic uprisings in the Middle East has been notably selective. The latest state to join the movement, United Arab Emirates, has no political parties and no free elections. The authorities recently cracked down on activists who were calling for constitutional and parliamentary reforms and arrested a number of  the movement’s representatives. The Obama administration did not publicly condemn the crackdown and has continued to emphasize its alliance with the UAE government, an ally in the region and in the war on terror and the largest foreign buyer of U.S. defense equipment (as of 2009).

Although it comes as no surprise that businesses would be indifferent to political oppression when their interests are threatened, it is rather discouraging that non-profit cultural and educational institutions also choose to ignore the issue. Partnered with the UAE government, Paris-Sorbonne is opening an extension in Abu Dhabi, this past fall New York University established a campus in Abu Dhabi, and the Guggenheim museum is currently constructing an extension on Saadiyat Island. Despite the letters from Human Rights Watch urging those institutions to publicly condemn the government’s crackdown, they have refused to speak out against the UAE authorities.

They justify their silence with a strategy of gradualism, a belief that global educational and cultural institutions in the UAE will advance a free exchange of ideas and bring social and democratic reform. Martin Luther King Jr. famously criticized this seemingly practical approach during the civil rights movement. One should break the silence, not compromise in the hopes for future change. Tomorrow’s goal of creating an environment of artistic and academic freedom may be rendered impossible by today’s hesitation to speak out against the violations of liberty.

The full column can be read here at: Break the Silence in the UAE

‘Foreign Policy In Focus’  Columnist Hannah Gurman is an assistant professor at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She writes on the politics, economics, and culture of U.S. diplomacy and military conflict. Her forthcoming book, The Dissent Papers: The Voice of Diplomats in the Cold War and Beyond, will be published by the University of Columbia Press in fall 2011.

(Submitted by: UAE Human Rights)

At al-Jazeera, we saw the Arab revolutions coming. Why didn’t the West?

Date: 2011.03.04 | Category: Al-Jazeera, Democracy, Dictators | Response: 0

Al-Jazeera chief Wadah Khanfar asks why, when Al Jazeera saw the uprisings coming, the West did not.
Sunday, February 27, 2011

DOHA, QATAR on the right way to cover the Arab world. The popular revolutions now sweeping the region are long overdue. Yet in some ways, they could not have come before now. These are uprisings whose sons and daughters are well educated and idealistic enough to envision a better future, yet realistic enough to work for it without falling into despair. These revolutions are led by the Internet generation, for whom equality of voice and influence is the norm. Their leaders’ influence is the product of their own effort, determination and skill, unconstrained by rigid ideologies and extremism.

It is now clear to all that the modern, post-colonial Arab state has failed miserably, even in what it believed it was best at: Maintaining security and stability. Over the decades, Arab interior ministers and police chiefs devoted enormous resources and expertise to monitoring and spying on their own people. Yet now, the security machineries in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have disintegrated in short order, while the rest of the authoritarian and repressive regimes in the region can see the writing on the wall.

These revolutions have exposed not just the failure of traditional politicians but also the moral, political and economic bankruptcy of the old Arab elites. Those elites not only attempted to control their own people, but also sought to shape and taint the views of news media in the region and across the world.

Indeed, it should surprise no one that so many Western analysts, researchers, journalists and government experts failed to recognise the obvious signs of Arab youth movements that would soon erupt into revolutions capable of bringing down some of the most pro-Western regimes in the Middle East. That failure has exposed a profound lack of understanding in the West of Arab reality.

US and European allies, supporters and business partners of the Arab regimes persistently preferred to deal with leaders who were entirely unrepresentative of the new generation. They were detached from the emerging reality and had no way to engage with the social forces that now matter. It is the growing periphery of the Arab world – the masses at its margins, not its feeble and decaying centre – that is shaping the future of the region.

In TED’s first talk of 2011, Al Jazeera’s director-general shares his view on the uprisings sweeping the region. View Video:- A historic moment in the Arab world

Demanding equal rights in Bahrain

Date: 2011.03.01 | Category: Bahrain, Democracy, Dictators, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights | Response: 0

Bahrain’s anti-government camp is calling for a genuine constitutional democracy in which “the royal family is no longer a ruling family, but just a royal family”, says Ibrahim Sharif, leader of the secular-liberal Wa’ad party and the most prominent Sunni member of the opposition.

Core structural changes – if enacted – could pacify the protesters, who complain that about half of cabinet posts are filled by members of the Khalifa family.

During the past few days, the government has already moved to sack five ministers and has announced the release of 300 prisoners, including 23 alleged terror suspects. The selection of two Shia to become housing and health ministers likely aims to reverse discrimination in public services.

At Bahrain’s protests, “Down, down, Khalifa” (in English) is a common slogan. While hard-line protesters want to boot the whole family, every demonstrator is passionate about the ouster of Prime Minister Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, who assumed office in 1971.

In his address to the nation on February 18, accomodating Crown Prince Salman, whose job is more secure than the prime minister’s, said, “Youths are going out on the street believing that they have no future in the country … But this country is for you all, for the Shia and Sunnis”.

Despite this claim, protesters say the situation on the ground is different. The Bahraini security forces are mostly made up of Sunnis from countries like Jordan, Yemen and Pakistan – allegedly including those who opened fire on Bahrainis in their own capital. Full Text: Pearl Roundabout, Aljazeera Report

Also visit: Dictators must go!

Post-Mubarak era dawns on Egypt

Date: 2011.02.12 | Category: Democracy, Dictators, February, Human Rights, Video From Cairo | Response: 0

Post-Mubarak era dawns on Egypt

‘Dream come true’

The crowd in Tahrir responded to Suleiman’s statement by chanting “we have brought down the regime”.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent opposition leader, hailed the moment as being “a dream come true”.

“I can’t tell you how every Egyptian feels today,” he said. “We have been able to restore our humanity … to be free and independent”.

ElBaradei reiterated that Egypt now needs to return to stability and proposed that a transition government be put in place for the next year.

The government, he said, would include figures from the army, from the opposition and from other circles.

“We need to go on … our priority is to make sure the country is restored as a socially cohesive, economically vibrant and … democratic country,” he said.

Ayman Nour, another opposition figure and a former presidential candidate, told Al Jazeera that he would consider running for the presidency again if there was consensus on his candidacy.

He said Februray 11, 2011 is “the greatest day in Egyptian history”.

“This nation has been born again. These people have been born again, and this is a new Egypt.”

Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, said that he would resign from his post, one that he has headed for about 10 years, “within weeks”. Some analysts say he may well run for the Egyptian presidency when elections are held.

Following Mubarak’s announcement, our correspondent in Tahrir Square, said: “Tonight, after all of these weeks of frustration, of violence, of intimidation … today the people of Egypt undoubtedly [feel they] have been heard, not only by the president, but by people all around the world.”

Source: Al Jazeera: Triumph as Mubarak quits

Authoritarian Regimes -UAE’s Dictators

Date: 2011.02.09 | Category: Democracy, Dictators, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights | Response: 0

Sheikh Saif, a full brother of Sheikh Issa (View Video), is the interior minister of the UAE. The Ministry of interior is in fact, the nerve centre of UAE’s dictatorial regime. A near-death experience of… Full Text At: UAE LEAKS

The ruling families repress political dissent, with even relatively privileged citizens banned from forming political parties, associations or trade unions. …A new mood of militancy by migrant construction workers has emerged in the UAE, democracy activist Issam Hambouz tells Simon Assaf. Full Text At: Socialist Worker UK

Cop cars run down innocent civilians – A horrible video from Cairo

Date: 2011.02.05 | Category: Dictators, February, Freedom of Expression, Human Rights, Video From Cairo | Response: 0

Below link take you to another disturbing video showing drivers seemingly purposefully ramming their vehicle into demonstrators in streets that appear to be around Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
The diplomatic car that ran over 20 people in cairo on January 28