08 May 12 | Russia
Following an inauguration ceremony on Monday, Vladimir Putin is once again Russia’s president. After an absence of four years, Putin won a third term as president in controversial elections in March.
But as former President Dmitry Medvedev retook his role as Prime Minister — finalising the Putin-Medvedev job swap — Moscow was filled with thousands of policemen who blocked all central streets and central underground stations.
Putin’s opposition were also out in force. The opposition held a sanctioned march on Sunday which they believe drew a crowd of approximately 100,000 protesters in Bolshaya Yakimanka street in the centre of Moscow (some Russian news reports estimated the crowds at 20,000 people, while police said there were 8,000 people present).
The march — the largest since anti-Putin protests last December — was meant to end at a protest rally on Bolotnaya Square, but the square was blocked by metal detectors that prevented people from entering it quickly. As protesters spent what seemed like an eternity queuing up to pass through the detectors, their outrage grew. Losing hope, some sat down in the middle of the street while they waited to enter the square.
Then the protest stopped being peaceful.
Members of a radical youth group threw smoke bombs at the police, triggering mass arrests and beatings. Protesters then began throwing stones and asphalt, which hit journalists, policemen and fellow protesters.
Hundreds were arrested during the fray, including opposition leaders Sergei Udaltsov, Alexey Navalny and Boris Nemtsov. One photographer fell to his death while attempting to photograph the clashes.
Most of the arrested were released next day, but over 100 young men arrested during the protest have now been drafted into the military.
On the day of their release, protesters returned to the streets to walk peacefully with white ribbons — symbols of the latest protests — on Moscow’s central boulevards. Once again, the police blocked protesters, and attempted to force the crowds towards underground stations to go home. Protesters wandered around the boulevard in a bid to thwart the police’s attempt to disperse crowds and find a safe place to peacefully protest Putin’s return to power. Protesters finally settled in near the presidential administration. Police quickly move in to arrest protesters who remained near the building, including journalists from Kommersant, the Moscow Times and the Dozhd TV channel. RFE/RL Russian service reporters were threatened by policemen, who forced them to stop using video cameras, but managed to escape. Hundreds of arrests were made.
Leading human rights activist, Lev Ponomarev, who was arrested on 7 May for walking on a boulevard with a white ribbon, told Index that he congratulates Putin on establishing a Nazi regime on the day of his inauguration. He said the clashes between protesters and the police showed that “the Putin regime stopped pretending to respect human rights, particularly freedom of expression”.
04 May 12 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa
Violent clashes between protesters staging a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry Headquarters in Cairo’s Abbasseya district and unknown assailants killed at least 20 people on Wednesday and left scores of others injured.
The violence began in the early hours of Wednesday when unidentified men in plain clothes attacked the peaceful sit-in —apparently with the aim of dispersing the protesters who had camped out there for several days.
Supporters of Salafist former presidential candidate Hafez Abou Ismail had marched to Abbasseya on Friday evening to protest his exclusion from the presidential race. They were later joined by other activists: mainly liberals and members of the 6 April Movement. They all demanded an end to military rule and a swift handover to a civilian government.
“What started as a peaceful demonstration has turned into a bloodbath,” cried Iman Mohamed, an activist who had joined the sit-in a couple of days earlier. She added that the assailants had fired gun shots and used Molotov cocktails and tear gas. Some of the protesters responded by hurling rocks and stones at the assailants, others engaged in fist fights.
“I saw several men wielding batons and another carrying a sword,” said Haytham Sallam, another protester who had arrived at the scene Wednesday morning.
“People dropped dead right in front of our eyes,” he added.
There was a brief lull in the early morning hours before clashes erupted again at 9am and continued for several hours. Most of the dead had sustained fatal head injuries or had been shot in the head. The attackers had also used bird shots and dozens of injured protesters were receiving treatment at a makeshift field hospital set up at the scene or in the nearby Demerdash Hospital.
Some protesters suspected that the assailants were security force members disguised in plainclothes. “How else would you explain the use of tear gas and bird shots?” quizzed Sallam. Others said the use of “thugs” to break up protests had become “an all-too- familiar tactic “ adopted by some elements in the government so that they would not directly take the blame for the violence themselves.
Military soldiers and riot police set up barricades around the area but most protesters said they had done little to break up the clashes or calm the situation. Seven political parties boycotted a meeting that had been called for Wednesday by the military council as rumours spread that the ruling SCAF was planning to postpone the presidential election scheduled for 23 and 24 May.
To allay concerns the Deputy Head of SCAF, General Sami Annan was quoted by Egyptian state television as saying the military was looking into transferring power to an elected president on 24 May (after the first round of elections) instead of at the end of June as had earlier been planned.
The announcement did little to quell public anger, as several protest marches to Abbasseya were organised later in the day by political parties and activists. Another million-person march has also been called for Friday by the Freedom and Justice Party to express outrage at the authorities’ response to the violence and pile pressure on SCAF to sack the government of Prime Minister Kamal el Ganzouri.
In another development, three presidential candidates have suspended their campaigns in honour of those who died in the latest wave of unrest.
Meanwhile back in Abbasseya, protesters issued fiery warnings to SCAF against any delay in the presidential election. ” If there’s any postponement, it will set off more unrest that would be difficult to contain,” warned activist Dina Nasr.
Journalist Shahira Amin resigned from her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV in February 2011. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
30 Apr 12 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa
The detention of an Egyptian human rights lawyer shortly after his arrival in Saudi Arabia last week to perform Umrah (or lesser pilgrimage) has evoked outrage and a wave of anti-Saudi protests in Egypt. The case has brought to light the deep resentment harboured by a sizeable portion of Egypt’s population against the oil-rich kingdom for alleged rights violations practiced by the monarchy against Egyptian migrant workers. It has also caused a rift between Egypt and the ultra-conservative Gulf country — one that has culminated in the withdrawal of the Saudi Ambassador to Egypt.
Scores of protesters gathered outside the Saudi Embassy in Dokki on Tuesday demanding the immediate release of activist and lawyer Ahmed El Gizawi who was tried in absentia and sentenced to one year in prison and 20 lashes for insulting the Saudi monarch. El Gizawi had earlier sued Saudi King Abdalla Bin Abdel Aziz for “the unlawful detention of Egyptian workers in Saudi prisons without charge.” He was arrested on arrival in the Saudi kingdom despite having obtained an entry visa to perform the religious rituals of Umrah.
In a show of support for El Gizawi, the protesters chanted “down with the Saudi family”. They vowed to take their revolution to Medina. Some waved their shoes in the air in a sign of disrespect for the Saudi authorities.
“It is unacceptable that Egyptian authorities are turning a blind eye and allowing Egyptians to continue to be stripped of their dignity after our revolution, ” retorted an angry middle-aged protester.
“If Gizawi is not released in the next few days, we will take matters in our own hands,” threatened another.
Protesters’ cries of “one hundred lashes for the Saudi Ambassador” could be heard several blocks away from the Embassy.
The issue is the subject of a lively debate on social media, which is once again being used by the activists to vent their frustration. This time the anger is directed at the Saudi royal family, not the Egyptian authorities. Facebook posts and tweets on the issue teeter between humorous sarcasm and offensive insults.
“You have recalled the Saudi Ambassador. We are hoping that the next step will be for the Saudis to stop the sweeping tide of Wahhabism exported to us from Saudi Arabia,” noted cyber-activist Yasmin Amin.
“When a Danish cartoon insulted Prophet Mohamed, Saudi officials did not react but when King Abdalla was insulted by an Egyptian lawyer, the Saudi Ambassador in Cairo was recalled to his country,” read another Facebook post.
Many of the activists are sceptical about Saudi accusations that El Gizawi was trying to smuggle narcotic tablets into the country — a serious charge punishable by death in Saudi Arabia. Egyptian Foreign Ministry officials have tried to appease the public, saying they are “in constant contact with Saudi counterparts to diffuse the crisis.”
Since the oil boom in the seventies, millions of Egyptian migrant workers have traveled to the oil- rich country seeking jobs and better lives for themselves and their families. But earning higher incomes has not come without a price. Graphic stories of their maltreatment by Saudi nationals and authorities have for years been reported by the Egyptian press fuelling anger and deepening the divide between the peoples of the two countries (staunch allies under ousted President Hosni Mubarak).
Before last year’s mass uprising in Tahrir Square, Egypt was a popular holiday destination for many Saudis because “Egypt is a freer, more open society and because of its affordable holiday rates,” according to a Gulf tourist who did not want to be named. Many wealthy Gulf holiday-makers frequent Egypt’s nightclubs, gambling casinos and brothels, lavishly spending petro-dollars on alcohol and prostitution because of restrictions on both in their own countries.
In a country where tourism is the number one foreign currency earner and a source of livelihood for millions of Egyptians, Egyptian authorities have for years encouraged tourism from the Gulf turning a blind eye to some of the negative aspects this type of tourism brings, such as the seasonal marriages that are commonplace in Egypt and which are considered a form of human trafficking: Deprived Egyptian families “sell” their daughters in marriage to wealthy Gulf visitors seeking brides who are often a lot younger than their ageing grooms. Many of these elderly husbands abandon their young Egyptian wives after a few brief months (sometimes weeks) returning home to their countries never to be heard of again. In many cases, the brides become pregnant and are left to fend for their children on their own after the disappearance of their “husbands”. Worse still, these child brides are exposed to an increased risk of HIV/AIDs because their husbands practice polygamy.
Liberal Egyptians are also concerned about the growing tide of Wahhabism, a rigid type of Islam exported to Egypt in recent decades from Saudi Arabia. Ultra-conservative Salafi principles like the face veil or nikab for women are a manifestation of this trend, rejected by Egyptian secularists. Many intellectuals and liberals complain that Egypt has been “Saudised” thanks to numerous Saudi-funded satellite channels infiltrating Egypt’s airspace during the Mubarak era. There are increasing suspicions that Saudi Arabia is pouring millions of petro-dollars into Egypt to fund Islamists who want Islamic Sharia law to be the source of all legislation in the country. “The Saudis are ready to do whatever they can to stop our revolution from reaching their shores,” explained Ibrahim el Toukhy, who owns a Red Sea tourist resort.
“We had our revolution to claim Egypt back from the grip of the Saudis, ” said political analyst Emad Gad from AlAhram Center for Political Studies. “Egypt has always been moderate and must remain so.”
In the meantime, the fate of one Egyptian rights activist hangs in the balance.
Journalist Shahira Amin resigned from her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV in February 2011. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
23 Apr 12 | Egypt, Middle East and North Africa
Tens of thousands of protesters returned to Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a massive demonstration Friday demanding that the ruling military generals immediately hand over power to a civilian government. The protesters also called for former regime members to be barred from running in next month’s presidential elections.
Revolutionary forces had earlier called for a day of rage which they dubbed “Self Determination Friday”. They accuse the military generals running the country in the transitional phase of “hijacking the revolution” and hope to steer the country back on the right path of democratic reforms.
“The military council has only plunged the country into deep political chaos and has not carried out any of the aspired goals of our revolution,” lamented Hazem Mahmoud, an activist who works for Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Trade.
He and other protesters in Tahrir Square on Friday expressed skepticism that the military regime had real intention to bring about the desired change, alleging that the military authority’s aim instead was “to maintain its tight grip on power and to ensure the appointment of yet another military candidate as the next president of Egypt”.
“Down with military rule!” and “The people are the red line” chanted the pro-democracy activists, insisting that they would foil SCAF’s attempts to re-instate a “feloul” (as former regime remnants are referred to) in the top job.
Liberals had stayed away from an earlier protest organised by Islamists on 13 April. The latter are angry at the election commission’s decision to disqualify two Islamist candidates — who were both seen as frontrunners in the presidential race. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Khairat El Shater and the Salafi presidential candidate Hazem Abou Ismail have been barred from running in the upcoming election along with eight other presidential hopefuls. El Shater was disqualified as a candidate because of earlier convictions of money laundering and for funding the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood during former President Hosni Mubarak’s rule. He was released following Mubarak’s fall after spending four years behind bars. Salafi candidate Abou Ismail was meanwhile disqualified from the presidential race after the country’s election commission confirmed that the popular contender’s mother held American citizenship. According to the rules of the presidential vote, those who have criminal record or hold dual citizenship (themselves or their close relatives) cannot run for the presidency.
Mubarak’s Former Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman — highly unpopular with both the Islamists and the liberal revolutionary forces — was also barred from the presidential race in what was largely seen as an attempt to appease a disgruntled public.
“The move is a ploy by the military council to trick us into believing that they weren’t deliberately targetting the Islamist candidates alone. The Egyptian public did not accept Suleiman as Vice President in the weeks that followed the January mass uprising, why should they want him as their President now?” asked Sabbah el Sakkary, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Freedom Party who had joined this Friday’s protest.
But despite agreeing on the target goal to remove old regime remnants from the upcoming presidential election, liberals had refused to close ranks with the Islamists and join them in last week’s protest because of widespread sentiment among revolutionary youths that the Islamists had “betrayed the revolution , placing their own political ambitions before the country’s interests.”
“The Islamists have largely stayed out of anti-military protests since the revolution and have tried to appease the military council all along in the hope that they would get a sizeable slice of the pie ( meaning a share in political power),” said Ahmed Mostafa, an activist who had come from Alexandria to join this Friday’s protest. He demanded an apology from the Islamists for “their insincerity” — a demand voiced by other secularists in the Square.
Other secularists believe that the Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest political group, had initially struck a power-sharing deal with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ( SCAF ) and had thus, forsaken the revolution.
Islamists dominating the new parliament however feel powerless to effect change. They believe the SCAF is marginalizing them and has been monopolizing power.
“When parliament requested that the military-backed cabinet headed by Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri (a former Prime Minister under Mubarak) be dissolved, SCAF rejected the demand. This prompted the Brotherhood in turn, to renege on an earlier promise not to field a presidential candidate,” said El Sakkary of the Freedom and Justice Party.
Meanwhile, the Islamist-dominated assembly whose members were handpicked by parliament to draft the constitution last month was annulled by the military after fuelling anger among the liberal forces who saw it as an attempt by the Brotherhood to unilaterally determine the country’s future.
Members of both the Muslim Brotherhood and the hardline Salafists turned up in large numbers at Friday’s protests — a move that could pile pressure on the military to cede some of its own powers. Bearded supporters of Abou Ismail were seen flaunting posters of the ultra-conservative contender and called for his reinstatement. They were eyed with skepticism by liberals who accused them of “using the protest to campaign for their candidate”.
Fourteen months after the toppling of Mubarak, Egypt is divided into two main camps: secular and Islamist with further fragmentation within each camp. The common goals shared by both camps is that the military return to the barracks and that former regime loyalists be barred from coming to power. Yet, the shared goals have not succeeded in unifying the two forces and it looks unlikely that their ranks will be closed anytime soon.
Although presidential elections are scheduled for 23-24 May and SCAF has pledged to hand over power at the end of June, many Egyptians are skeptical — fearing the election may be postponed. Statements made by the ruling generals last week that Egypt’s new constitution should be written before a president is seated have fuelled worries that the military is serious about handing over power.
“Writing the constitution that will stay with us for a long time is a task that is impossible to complete within the limited timeframe. That is one more reason for us to be back in Tahrir,” said Mohamed Fathy, a sales manager for a pharmaceutical company.
Journalist n Shahira Amin resigned her post as deputy head of state-run Nile TV on February. Read why she resigned from the “propaganda machine” here.
