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Patience is a virtue – maybe even the supreme one in Egypt's popular hierarchy of values, but patience also has its limits and, now, at last, it seems as if we've arrived at ours. And fittingly, it's the young of the country who are leading us. They've had enough of unemployment, deteriorating education, corruption, police brutality and political impotence.As is now well known, they organised Tuesday's protests over Facebook and in closed virtual and actual meetings. Talk about grassroots! "They" is some 20 groups that have sprung up over the last five years. The question has always been how and when will they coalesce? They did on Tuesday; they fused, and with them multitudes of Egyptians young and old – inspired by what happened in Tunis.
The internet has galvanised dissidents, but the key events that fuelled the uprising happened offline Middle-class, urban, web-savvy – the archetypal media image of the young protesters who have shaken Egypt's dictatorship this week captures only part of the reality.This generation of dissidents, most of whom have lived their entire lives under the three-decade rule of President Hosni Mubarak, have rejected the moribund landscape of formal politics that has ensnared many of their liberal elders since Nasser's 1952 revolution.
Anonymous flyers provide practical and tactical advice for confronting riot police, and besieging government offices Egyptians have been urged to come out after Friday prayers tomorrow and demand the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's government, along with freedom, justice and a democratic regime.Anonymous leaflets circulating in Cairo also provide practical and tactical advice for mass demonstrations, confronting riot police, and besieging and taking control of government offices. Signed "long live Egypt", the slickly produced 26-page document calls on demonstrators to begin with peaceful protests, carrying roses but no banners, and march on official buildings while persuading policemen and soldiers to join their ranks.
After December 5th – the date that will be remembered in Italy’s history as ‘No Berlusconi Day’ - the colour purple gained sufficient media attention to guarantee it significance beyond any momentary trend. It’s the symbolic colour of a battle for the affirmation of democracy, for the respect of our Constitutional Charter as the foundation of civilised living, for the defense of a free and plural information system, for the construction – in short – of that cultural and political renovation process that has been far too long delayed in this country.
Police in Ivory Coast have fired on hundreds of demonstrators at an anti-government rally, killing three people and wounding a dozen others in the latest protest since the president dissolved the government last week.Moussa Dembele of the opposition RDR party said the protest took place in Gagnoa, about 200km northwest of Abidjan, the country's economic capital.Demonstrations spread to at least eight cities on Friday over a decision by Laurent Gbagbo, the country's president, to dissolve the government and the electoral commission after a row over voter registration.
A leading Iranian human rights activist and journalist was arrested Wednesday, activists said. Kaveh Ghasemi Kermanshahi was taken by seven security agents who searched his home and took personal belongings including his computer, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said in a statement.It is not clear where he is being held."Kermanshahi is one of the most important sources of objective human rights information and analysis in Iran, and one of the few still courageously working to document, in a scientific way, the deprivation of human rights there," said ICHRI representative Hadi Ghaemi from New York.
Security forces fire tear gas and plastic bullets at thousands of protesters in Caracas and elsewhere after RCTV is banned for violating a law that requires stations to air the president's speeches.Reporting from Caracas, Venezuela, and Quito, Ecuador -- Protests broke out in Venezuela on Monday after cable companies dropped transmission of a popular channel that the government declared had broken telecommunications laws by not broadcasting President Hugo Chavez's speeches.Government critics and supporters of Radio Caracas Television took to the streets of Caracas, the capital, and several other cities after companies dropped RCTV's programming under threat of losing their licenses.
A Western Sahara activist on hunger strike in Spain's Canary Islands has been told to appear in court on public order charges, her supporters say.Aminatou Haidar has been refusing food at Lanzarote's airport since Sunday after being expelled by Morocco from the disputed territory. She is protesting at Spain's refusal to let her return to Western Sahara. Morocco controls most of the Western Sahara but Algerian-based separatists want a vote on independence. Ms Haidar was held by Moroccan authorities on Friday when she arrived in Western Sahara's main city, Laayoune - where she lives - on a flight from the Canary Islands. She was then sent back to the islands without her Moroccan passport.
Ramallah / PNN - Hundreds of people took part in Friday prayers in the threatened village of Na’lin. Thousands of dunams have already been confiscated for the Wall and settlements in the area.Leading yesterday’s service was Sheikh Salah Al Khawaja who said that the prayer and ensuing demonstration were not only part of the continuing struggle in Na’lin, but were also being held in solidarity with Jerusalem. He called for full participation in the ongoing campaign to stop the conversion of the city and the attacks on its holy places. The Sheikh added that national Palestinian unity - a full reconciliation between parties - is necessary to combat the policies of occupation.
The two leaders from the National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (NANGO), who were arrested on Sunday on allegations of holding ‘an illegal political meeting,’ were granted bail on Tuesday. NANGO Chief Executive Officer Cephas Zinhumwe, and board chairperson Dadirai Chikwengo, were arrested at the airport when they were trying to leave for Harare after attending a two-day scheduled conference in Victoria Falls.NANGO spokesperson Fambai Ngirande told SW Radio Africa that the two were granted bail, pending another hearing in November, after the State failed to clarify what regulation they had violated under the Public Order and Security Act. Ngirande said the police claim that as ‘conveners of the meeting the two tolerated political discourse’ and should have notified the police in advance if they were going to have a political gathering.
DAKAR, 28 October 2009 (IRIN) - Youths in the Guinea capital Conakry went on hunger strike on 28 October - one month after the deadly military attack on civilians – to call for political dialogue, an end to violence and the arrest of those who attacked demonstrators. “No to violence, no to injustice and impunity, yes to national unity, yes to peace and social tranquillity” is written on a banner hanging outside the Dixinn Port youth centre, where some 30 people gathered for the five-day hunger strike.
For once, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change appear to have scored a palpable hit against President Robert Mugabe and his allies.Following a meeting with Tsvangirai on 21 October in Cape Town, South African President Jacob Zuma declared that 'the country should not be allowed to slide back into instability, and that he was ready to assist the parties in implementing the Global Political Agreement (Africa Confidential Vol 50 No 17).Tsvangirai's temporary walkout of the power-sharing government came on 16 October, as the faction-fighting around Mugabe and the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front seemed to be reaching a crescendo.
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s former finance minister and now leader of an opposition party Simba Makoni on Wednesday blasted Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC-T party for cutting all contact with President Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF party, saying the move had “nothing to do with delivering real change to the people” of the country.In a statement, Makoni who is the interim president of Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn (MKD) said the MDC-T and ZANU PF should “stop playing with the people of Zimbabwe over petty positions and power”.“On careful examination, it emerges that the reasons for the MDC -T disengagement from ZANU PF have nothing to do with delivering real change to the people of Zimbabwe. The fight is about the MDC-T being allowed a bigger share of public sector jobs, motor cars, travel allowances and good living,” Makoni said.
South Africa’s main political opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), on Thursday said Robert Mugabe cannot be part of Zimbabwe’s road to democracy, saying the dictator must be offered an ‘exit strategy’ for the country to ever recover.The party presented its ‘Roadmap to Democracy in Zimbabwe’ in the South African parliament on Thursday morning, as a response to the MDC’s decision to disengage from ZANU PF in the unity government. DA Parliamentary Leader Athol Trollip told SW Radio Africa that the ‘neutral and objective’ document is the best basis for a new course of action for Zimbabwe’s future, saying “it will allow for a clear path towards the establishment of democracy.”
Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's prime minister, has appealed for regional help in his stand-off in Zimbabwe's unity pact, as his ministers boycotted a meeting with Robert Mugabe, the president.The suspension of ties has cast a shadow on the fragile partnership, as Mugabe chaired a cabinet meeting on Tuesday - without his Zanu-PF party's main government partners - as Tsvangirai's 13 cabinet ministers met separately.The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader flew to Mozambique on Tuesday to ask southern African leaders to step in, after he cut ties with Mugabe's "dishonest and unreliable" camp four days ago.
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said his MDC party has "disengaged" from the unity government over the treatment of his senior aide.He said all outstanding issues of a power-sharing deal had to be dealt with before the MDC would work with Zanu-PF. Senior MDC member Roy Bennett was later released on bail after two days in prison, but Mr Tsvangarai's spokesman insisted the boycott would continue. Mr Bennett was detained for alleged arms and terrorism offences.
Citizen Initiative for Constant Light mobilized 30 million people in Turkey to turn off and on their lights to demand that the government act against corruption. The action resulted from public outrage after a car crash openly revealed connections between government, police and the mob. Turkey is a secular nation with a tradition of democracy. But it also has a tradition of human rights abuse. The influence of corruption extends throughout society through local patronage systems undeterred by any investigative reporting from a mass media industry, which is itself complicit in the corruption. As a result, the corruption issue has historically sparked only apathy and hopelessness in Turkish civil society.
In 1999, ICT successfully pressured the World Bank to relinquish its funding to China’s Western Poverty Reduction Project through a two-pronged approach of mobilizing at the grassroots level to lobby the U.S. government and convincing Washington specialists to draft a claim to the World Bank investigation panel listing the internal policy violations.
The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) is a Washington based, non-profit organization that has worked to promote human rights and self-determination for Tibetans since 1988. In 1999, ICT launched a massive campaign to protest against the World Bank’s agreement to fund China’s Western Poverty Reduction Project, which proposed to move nearly 60,000 poor Chinese farmers into the Tibetan region. ICT opposed such a project on the grounds that massive migration degrades the environment, and dilutes Tibetan culture.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said in her final state of the nation address Monday that she doesn't plan to extend her time in office beyond her current term limit in 2010, flagging that the race to succeed her is under way. Ms. Arroyo, who is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama in Washington on Thursday to discuss security and climate-change issues, has struggled to shake off speculation that she aims to stay in power after her term expires in June.
Phase 2 has begun. Six weeks after millions took to the streets to protest Iran's presidential election, their uprising has morphed into a feistier, more imaginative and potentially enduring campaign.The second phase plays out in a boycott of goods advertised on state-controlled television. Just try buying a certain brand of dairy product, an Iranian human-rights activist told me, and the person behind you in line is likely to whisper, "Don't buy that. It's from an advertiser."
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