Spain: New All-Time Record, 4.3 Mln Unemployed in February
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 2 — Unemployment in Spain has reached a new all-time record in February with an increase of 68,260 compared to January, bringing the total number to 4.3 million, the worst figure since 1996 when unemployment statistics began. Compared to last year, unemployment has increased by 168,838 (+4.08%), according to figures revealed today by the Labour and Immigration Ministry. The number of jobless increased in all sectors in February, including services (+1.6%), industry (+0.71%), construction (+0.34%) and agriculture (+6.67%).
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Exclusive: Rep. Allen West Sits Down With CBN News
I recently sat down for a wide-ranging interview with freshman Forida congressman Allen West.
The retired Army Lt. Col and I discussed homegrown jihad, Iran, the Muslim Brothehrood, Israel, healthcare, the national debt and much more.
And the take-no-prisoners approach that has made West a rising political star is on full display.
Click the link above to watch.
| — Hat tip: Erick Stakelbeck | [Return to headlines] |
Diana Johnstone: The Scandal in Vancouver
I am not alone in being utterly astounded by the fact that Dr. Srdja Trifkovic has been refused entry into Canada. This amazing decision is all the more scandalous in that it was taken ad hoc in response to the hate campaign by self-declared representatives of one Bosnian ethnic group carrying out a vendetta against another Bosnian ethnic group. Is this what you mean by “multiculturalism”?
The banning of a peaceful speaker is contrary to the democratic principles which the Western NATO powers, including Canada, constantly preach to the rest of the world. It would be reprehensible regardless of the circumstances. However, upon examination, the circumstances aggravate the case.
The hate campaign launched against Dr. Trifkovic by certain groups claiming to represent Bosnian Muslims is based on distortions, lies and glaring sophistries. I say this as one who by no means shares all of Dr. Trifkovic’s political analyses or religious convictions, but who recognizes that he defends his convictions with an intellectual integrity totally lacking in the attacks against him.
In particular, I tend to consider Dr. Trifkovic’s assessment of an alleged Muslim threat to the West to be misplaced or exaggerated. However, the treatment that he has received from Canada in response to the complaints of a Muslim lobby provides unexpected support to his argument.
One point on which I do agree with Dr. Trifkovic is precisely the point for which he is most fiercely attacked: Srebrenica. I wish to point out the ambiguities in the expression “genocide denial” used to characterize Dr. Trifkovic’s position on Srebrenica.
The ambiguity concerns the difference between facts and interpretation of facts. I must insist that everyone has the right to be wrong about both; Canada has no means to exclude from its territory all the people who are constantly misstating facts and interpreting them erroneously. But I wish to point to a difference.
On Srebrenica, the facts are partly established, partly disputed, and partly unknown. This is because material evidence is by no means as clear and comprehensive as the general public has been led to believe. Independent studies have been hard to carry out, but certain facts can now be considered established. There were a large number of Muslim casualties following the July 1995 fall of Srebrenica, some of them victims of executions, in violation of international law. These were massacres that took place in the context of a bloody three-sided civil war in which massacres were committed by all sides….
| — Hat tip: Srdja Trifkovic | [Return to headlines] |
Europe Longs to Back Mideast Change, Fears Chaos
Experts say Europe is viewing democratic change in the Middle East much more cautiously than the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, naming the threat of Islamic fundamentalism as the continent’s “major concern.”
“New leaders could take power whose policies would not be favorable to the goals of EU and NATO,” said Tomas Karasek, an analyst with the Association for International Affairs in Prague. “This is a major threat..”
Other Europeans say the world must embrace a historic opportunity in the Middle East — regardless of the risks.
“We should make it clear that we are on the same side as the democracy movement,” Danish lawmaker Naser Khader said.
“We should not let ourselves be threatened by reports of refugee flows. It is in our interest that North Africa, that the Arab world becomes democratic.”
| — Hat tip: Costin | [Return to headlines] |
‘God’s House’ Being Built in Suburban Stockholm
As religious tensions continue to cause friction in Sweden and elsewhere, Lutherans, Catholics, and Muslims in a small Stockholm suburb have come together to present a new model for religious tolerance, The Local’s Geoff Mortimore discovers.
On the other side of the Atlantic, an emotional debate rages about the suitability of building a mosque near the Ground Zero site in New York City.
At the same time, the recent political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East has raised concerns in some quarters that religious fundamentalism may fill the void.
Meanwhile in the parish of Fisksätra, Nacka, a few kilometres south of Stockholm, Muslims, Lutherans and Roman Catholics are joining forces in a unique project attempting to tackle sectarianism by bringing the three groups together under a single roof.
“Religion has been used in such a negative way in history so this is a way of us showing it can be put in a positive light as well,” Imam Awad Olwan of theMuslim Association in Nacka (Muslimska fÃreningen i Nacka) explains.
According to Henrik Larsson, a pastor with the Church of Sweden in Nacka and project manager for the initiative, the new building would be the only place of worship of its type in the world and the first time that a mosque and a church have been part of the same building since the Umayyad Mosque was built in Damascus in the 600s.
“This is something unique in the world,” he says.
The idea for what has been termed “God’s House” to be built in Fisksätra, near SaltsjÃbaden, began to take shape a few years ago as a natural extension of the growing cooperation between the Church of Sweden, St. Konrad’s CatholicChurch in Nacka, and the Muslim Association.
“No one really knows how the idea came about, but the three organisations have been working closely together since the 1960s,” Larsson explains.
“In 2004, the local schools came to us and asked us for help and advice in how to teach children about religious tolerance and address any problems, and the idea to do something together started to take form as we thought, ‘Could we do something?’“
The question of religious tolerance in Sweden was brought into sharp relief last autumn after the far-right Sweden Democrats won seats in the Swedish parliament for the first time.
The party campaigned on an openly anti-immigration platform, with advertisements and speeches which singled out Muslim immigrants in particular.
In the wake of the Sweden Democrats’ electoral success, Bishop Bengt Wadensjà of the Church of Sweden wrote an open letter about the Nacka project to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper taking issue with party leader Jimmie Ã…kesson’s views on immigrations and Muslims.
“We saw that fear of Islam gained a profile with the Sweden Democrats winning parliamentary seats, so I wanted to convey a completely different picture of Sweden,” wrote WadensjÃ.
“In Nacka we do not think that Muslims or immigrants should be seen as a threat, as suggested by Jimmie Ã…kesson. The idea is to demonstrate how people can get along together regardless of culture, language or faith.”
First unveiled in 2009, plans for the project include major renovations to the current building which is owned by the Church of Sweden but which also has space rented by the Catholic Church.
After completion of the first phase of the project, which includes a facelift for Church of Sweden facilities and the expansion of space available for the Catholic Church, a mosque will also be built on land adjacent to the current structure.
The Christian and Muslim houses of worship will then be connected by a communal foyer.
In the longer term it is hoped that together they can also create a youth club and children’s centre together.
The new church will be the culmination of years of hard work put in by leaders from organisations representing Lutherans, Muslims, and Catholics who have sought to build a new place of worship together.
Imam Olwan believes the project is the ideal way to carry on the longstanding cooperation between the three parties.
“It was easy to agree to it, because we have lived and worked side by side for over 20 years,” he explains.
“There are actually not so many differences between our religions, we do after all believe in one God, our children attend the same schools, and we all share similar local issues.”
Not surprisingly, when news began to spread about the church, it received plenty of attention. Larsson says that although he and others involved in the project were expecting a degree of opposition, they have been generally pleased with the response.
“We knew there would be a lot of interest in this and there has been extensive media coverage,” he says
Larsson admits, however that he has received a “fair amount” of negative reaction to the project.
“A lot of it is because, on both sides, we have such a strong picture of each other,” he explains.
“This is at times based on historically bad experiences of each other and much of it could be put down to suspicion these days about Islam. The encouraging thing is that the positive reaction has so far outweighed the negative.”
There is plenty of work still to be done, however, before “God’s House” becomes a reality.
The first stage of the rebuilding work, to be done later this year, will see the shared Catholic and Church of Sweden prayer room completed.
The planning application for the mosque, to be built on land purchased from the Church of Sweden, has been sent to the local authorities and Larsson is hoping for a decision later this year. Therefore it is likely to be at least two more years before the extension is built.
Nevertheless, Olwan of the Muslim Association is optimistic about the power of the project to sway perceptions.
“The idea of Gods House is a big, radical step, but we feel it is a highly symbolic way of showing that we wish to create something together,” he says.
Olwan says he understands that the project won’t necessarily change everyone’s negative attitudes toward other religions, nor does it mean that the groups “have to agree on everything”.
“We just want to bring people together. This is a chance for us to do something of great meaning,” he says.
Presuming the plans are approved, there will another round of financing and planning, which has led to doubts from some that the project will be completed.
And in another symbolic gesture, the Muslim Association is looking to break from tradition by trying to find financing closer to home.
“Generally, when new mosques are built, money tends to come from wealthy donors abroad, but we have decided to try and do it differently and raise money locally instead,” he explains.
“We feel we are all Swedish citizens and we will be looking to work together in this respect as well, seeing it as more proof of how we can all cooperate.”
Larsson says the groups involved with the project remain hopeful that the money necessary can be raised both within Sweden as well as elsewhere in Europe if necessary.
“We believe that the mosque will be ready by 2014,” says Larsson, adding that he hopes the project becomes a model that can be followed elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: Steen | [Return to headlines] |
Italy 150: Lega: Time for Official Holiday and Lombard Flag
(AGI) Milan — The Lega Nord has asked for 29th May to be declared a holiday and for the regional flag to be made official. An agreement struck between the PDL and the Lega at the Lombard Regional Council has opened the way for an amendment to the regulations on the 150th anniversary of the Unity of Italy to be made. The document includes a commitment from the Bureau “to set up a technical and scientific committee, coordinated by the Council President, within 30 days.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Ruby and the First Policeman
Woman claims that “Berlusconi told his escort to pick me up and give me an envelope containing €15,000”
MILAN — “Ruby told me the prime minister ‘tried it on’ with her”, “made approaches of an intimate nature”, “gave her €15,000” and that there were “parties with women who took their clothes off” at Arcore. The information comes from the hitherto confidential report of the questioning of flying squad officer Ermes Cafaro, leader of the “Monforte-Vittoria” unit and at 7 pm on 27 May 2010 in Milan’s Corso Buenos Aires, the first police officer to encounter the young woman accused by her flatmate of stealing €3,000. It explains why magistrate Cristina Di Censo called Karima El Mahroug, aka Ruby, an “unbiddable” young woman who “could easily have jeopardised the impunity” the prime minister sought to protect in his nocturnal telephone call to officers at police headquarters, in which he urged them to hand Ruby over at once to People of Freedom (PDL) regional councillor Nicole Minetti. Ruby was very much a “ticking bomb”, ready to “explode” her astonishing secrets to the first person she met. In this instance, the first person was an officer at the police station. By 7 pm, it was clear to those on duty at police headquarters that Ruby could not be the Egyptian president’s niece [“nipote” can mean niece or granddaughter — Trans.].
“Me Mubarak’s niece? Who’s going to believe that?”
As is often the case, a chance remark set the ball rolling. On 27 May 2010 “while I was sorting out the paperwork at the station”, Officer Cafaro told public prosecutor Antonio Sangermano on 6 December, “Karima said to me she would have liked to be a police officer. I replied, ironically, that I thought it was unlikely a Moroccan woman with no papers would be able to join the Carabinieri. That was when she told me she was a distant relative of Mubarak and that Silvio was helping her to get her papers. She repeated the name ‘Silvio’ several times but at first I didn’t make the connection with the prime minister”. Ruby was the first to poke fun at the Mubarak story. “She laughed and said: ‘Who’s going to believe a Moroccan girl has Egyptian citizenship?’ making it clear that the eminent relative was a ruse to get papers and Silvio was going to look after the application”. Ruby also told the police officer straight away about the Arcore parties. “I can remember perfectly that the under-age girl told me she had been taken, or at least introduced, to Arcore by Lele Mora” on an evening when “there was a party. Naturally, Berlusconi was present with other girls and also men, but I don’t recall whether she mentioned their names. Ruby said she didn’t have a very good time, or at least that she felt uncomfortable, and in fact the prime minister noticed and went over to her to ask if she would prefer to leave. There was no stopping Ruby now, and she went on to describe how Berlusconi saw that she wasn’t feeling at ease and had her driven home by his bodyguards. According to Ruby, the head bodyguard gave her an envelope that he said came from the prime minister himself. She said that the envelope contained €15,000 in cash”.
“She told me the prime minister had made a pass”
Why was she uncomfortable? “The girl said that there were a lot of women at Arcore that evening and some had stripped off” but Mr Cafaro said that he could not remember whether Ruby had used the expression “bunga bunga” at the time or whether he had read it in the papers later. “What is beyond doubt is that she told me about a party with women taking their clothes off and a ‘train game’ she described but I can’t remember what she said”. She found the game “irritating” and didn’t want to take part but in this connection “Karima told me that the prime minister ‘tried it on’, making it clear that he had made an intimate pass at Ruby but without specifying its nature or method of execution”. Ruby “asked to leave”. To the PM’s favour is the fact that Ruby immediately told the police officer “that the prime minister did not know that she was a minor and was favourably impressed by her refusal of his advances, to the extent that the girl’s wilfulness sparked off a friendship that still goes on” and “to the extent that Berlusconi had her accompanied by his bodyguards and had the unit leader give her an envelope with €15,000”.
Another important aspect of Officer Cafaro’s testimony, for the alleged abuse of power by Mr Berlusconi over senior officers at police headquarters, is that the police officers who became very agitated at midnight after the prime minister phoned to spin his yarn about Ruby being a relative of the Egyptian president already knew at 7 pm that she was an under-age Moroccan who had run away from residential centre and been accused of theft. Mr Cafaro said that as soon as he asked the girl to identify herself in Corso Buenos Aires, “she replied she was Karima El Mahroug, born in Morocco on 1 November 1992 [the correct date — Ed.] and a belly dancer at various Milan clubs, domiciled in Via Villoresi”. The address is the home of the Brazilian prostitute Michelle who phoned the prime minister on his mobile phone in Paris and then gave Ruby somewhere to stay, even though theoretically she had been handed over to Ms Minetti. Michelle squabbled with Ruby on 5 June, when the two women accused each other of prostitution. The police database “told me that Karima had been reported for leaving a reception community in Sicily” and “that there was an earlier charge of theft outstanding against her”.
“Public prosecutor Fiorillo was clear. Ruby could only go to a centre”
Equally important, in view of the fact that the police actually did hand the 17-year-old over to Ms Minetti before she ended up at the Brazilian prostitute’s flat again, is Officer Cafaro’s recollection of the very different, “absolutely clear, unambiguous” instructions given by juvenile public prosecutor Annamaria Fiorillo. “She ordered Ruby’s transfer to a reception centre after she had been booked”. If this is not possible, “the procedure is to hold the minor at the police station”. In this specific case, “public prosecutor Fiorillo named the La Zattera centre and, if that would not take her”, in line with procedure “she authorised me to detain the minor at the police station until the following morning, when it is easier to find an available centre”. Nothing of the sort actually happened…
English translation by Giles Watson
www.watson.it
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Hundreds of Migrants Arrive by Boat From North Africa
Rome, 2 March (AKI) — Hundreds of immigrants arrived in Italy early Wednesday after the Italian coast guard intercepted the boat that transported them from North Africa.
Among the 347 passengers who were aboard the 15-metre boat were two German journalists who aimed to film the voyage. The boat was escorted to the tiny southern Italian island of Lampedusa at around 3:30.
Italy has warned of a “biblical” exodus of illegal immigrants to Europe as unrest shakes North Africa. It argues that all European Union countries must share this burden. More than 6,000 immigrants mostly Tunisian have made the trip by boat to Lampedusa since an uprising toppled the government in Tunisia in January. No boat had been intercepted in about a week.
Lampedusa lies around 113 kilometres from Tunisia and 205 kilometres south of Sicily. The nationalities of the latest arrivals were not immediately made available.
Another 22 immigrants were apprehended on the island of Linosa, 42 kilometres northeast of Lampedusa, according to Italian news reports.
The violent crackdown against an uprising opposing Libyan authoritarian leader leader Muammar Gaddafi threatens to unleash a further wave of immigrants toward Italy’s shores.
Italy in May 2009 agreed to begin controversial joint patrols with Libya, turning back thousands of illegal immigrants aboard boats in the Mediterranean. Gaddafi hinted that he may unilaterally scrap cooperation, warning that he would allow thousands of migrants to pass through his country on the way to Europe if the EU sided with opponents of his embattled rule.
Italy has described the wave of immigrants as a “humanitarian emergency” and appealed to the European Union for help.
“The political system of the Maghreb has collapsed and there and no more governments or ?interlocutors we can work with,” Italian interior minister Roberto Maroni said on Rai state television late Tuesday.
A refugee crisis is looming in North Africa, where over 140,000 people have fled the unrest in Libya and crossed into Egypt and Tunisia the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Embattled Culture Minister to Resign Over ‘Lack of Support From Allies’
Rome, 2 March (AKI) — Italian culture minister Sando Bondi said he will resign after his allies in the government failed to rally around him when he came under fire following the partial collapse of an ancient house at the 2,000-year-old ancient Roman city of Pompeii.
“This lack of support came at the moment I found myself in the most difficulty,” he said in a letter published Wednesday in Italian daily Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by Berlusconi’s brother Paolo.
Following heavy rains late last yer, Pompeii was hit by three cave-ins in less than a month.
The collapse in November of part of its frescoed House of the Gladiator and a wall at the site of the House of the Moralist prompted headlines around the world.
The collapses were followed by another cave-in at an ancient house in Pompeii in early December. The opposition blamed Bondi and said neglect and a cut in funding for the fragile archaeological site had caused the tragedy.
He survived a January no-confidence vote in Parliament tabled by Italy’s centre-left opposition.
The opposition blamed Bondi for the Pompeii collapses and said neglect and a cut in funding for the fragile archaeological site had caused the tragedy.
The minister denied the accusations, saying his government had done its best to preserve and restore Italy’s artistic heritage, and rejected calls for his resignation.
The culture mnistry press office told Adnkronos International by phone that no date had been set for Bondi’s resignation.
“Berlusconi…knows about my decision to leave the ministry and will deal with the issue as soon as possible,” Bondi said in the letter.
Bondi is a close ally of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and is a national coordinator of his ruling conservative People of Freedom party.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Netherlands: Somali Terror Suspects Threaten to Sue Wilders
Twelve Somali men arrested on terrorism charges just before Christmas and later released are threatening to take MP Geert Wilders to court for libel, the Telegraaf reports
Wilders used the microblogging service Twitter to comment on the men’s arrest in relation to the queen’s Christmas speech about unity and shared values.
‘The 12 arrested Somali terror suspects were not exactly looking for what binds us and don’t share our values,’ Wilders wrote.
The 12 want Wilders to apologise or say they will sue for damages. Police said later they had no terrorist connections. The secret service tip-off about them is though to have been part of a blackmail plot.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkish Prime Minister’s Fiery Rhetoric May Burn EU Hopes
Turkey’s tough language toward the European Union, seen as a way for the government to rally domestic political support, may also erode public confidence in the idea of joining the bloc, experts have said.
“Instead of repairing the difficult relations and waiting for the political outlook of today to improve, making assertive statements that put relations into further difficulty does not serve the intended goal [of EU membership],” Sinan Ülgen, an EU expert at the Istanbul-based Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Tuesday.
Commenting on Turkey’s stalled bid for EU membership, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Germany over the weekend that the European bloc was becoming a Christian union, not an alliance of civilizations.
“If they do not want Turkey in, they should say this openly … and then we will mind our own business and will not bother them,” Erdogan said, speaking in the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “I do not have a hidden agenda and I do speak clearly … Don’t stall us … Let’s not stall each other.”
The prime minister’s comments were the latest in a string of remarks made by government officials indicating that Turkey’s patience toward the European Union is running thin. The country’s chief negotiator for EU talks, Egemen Bagis, recently said the bloc could “pull the plug” on the accession bid if it wanted, while Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan accused the EU of becoming an inward-looking “Christian club.”
Some observers believe that such statements, in addition to being a domestic political tactic ahead of the June 12 general elections, could also pave the way for Turkey to abandon the EU bid in the future.
“Such statements will undoubtedly shake the trust of the public but Turkey has made serious strides over the last couple of years, both politically and economically, boosting its self-confidence,” said Ceren Mutus, an EU expert with the Ankara-based think tank USAK.
“Turkey, always deemed by the EU as an unqualified student, is today a country that can develop strategies and is held up as a role model in the Middle East. This could give both the government and the Turkish public the upper hand to face off against the EU in the coming period,” Mutus said.
Turkey and the EU formally began accession talks in 2005, but little progress has been made due to Ankara’s refusal to open its ports to shipping from EU member Greek Cyprus, and because of stiff opposition from key bloc members Germany and France.
Thirteen chapters have been opened in Turkey’s accession negotiations; Paris is blocking the opening of five chapters, while Brussels froze eight chapters in response to Ankara’s failure to open its ports. This leaves only three chapters that Turkish officials say do not carry any “political baggage,” but Ankara has been reluctant to fulfill the benchmarks required to open the competition, social policy and public procurement chapters.
“Turkey’s eventual membership in the EU is as important to Turkey and its people as it is to the EU given our common commercial, cultural, political, security and other interests. This is a strategic goal that both sides have worked toward for some time,” an EU diplomat told the Daily News, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It is too important to give up or undermine. We understand that the unilateral blocks on several negotiation chapters are frustrating for Turkey, just as the lack of progress on implementing the [benchmarks]… With patience and diplomatic efforts on all sides, these obstacles can be overcome,” the diplomat said.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule recently expressed concerns about the harm the upcoming general elections in Turkey, set for June 12, may cause in Turkey’s EU accession process. He said Turkey was a good example and source of inspiration for the North African states, while saying he was upset about the growing disappointment in Turkey over the EU.
“I have doubts about the upcoming elections,” Fule was quoted as saying.
Erdogan had planned to make a one-day visit Tuesday to the EU Commission, but the trip was postponed so the prime minister could attend the Istanbul funeral of former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who died Sunday.
“We all know what is causing the problems in Turkish-EU relations under the current circumstances. They will not be overcome overnight,” said EU expert Ülgen, calling for responsible and constructive leadership on the issue.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UK: ‘I’m Off to Kill Someone’: Knifeman Planned to Kill Train Passenger to Commit ‘Suicide by Cop’
A knifeman who held more than 30 train passengers hostage in a bid to commit ‘suicide by cop’ has been jailed for five years.
Mohammed Hussain, 20, left a note telling his family he was off to kill someone in the hope he would be gunned down by police.
After an all-night drinking session, he grabbed a kitchen knife and boarded a Docklands Light Railway carriage where he terrorised victims, including the elderly and children.
But when brave passenger Tariq Elmenstirly wrestled him to the ground, the 23-year-old ended up ‘Tasered’ by police who confused him with the frenzied attacker.
During the ordeal, which lasted more than an hour, a number of desperate travellers risked their lives escaping over live rails as Hussain waved his blade and snarled: ‘You’re all hostages, I want police to shoot me right here.’
…
Hussain had been drinking before the incident and left a scrawled suicide note at the home he shared with his mother at Swedenborg Gardens, Shadwell.
It said: ‘I love you all very much. This is my time to die any way possible. So I took a knife to kill someone. Allah is calling me — I can hear him.’
Anita Arora, prosecuting, said: ‘He wanted suicide by police, effectively.’
| — Hat tip: Kitman | [Return to headlines] |
Christian Copts Demonstrate Against Governor in Upper Egypt
by Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) — Christian Copts staged a massive demonstration on Monday, February 28, against the Governor of Minya Ahmed Dia-el-Din, calling for his resignation. The demonstration was prompted by the governor’s decision to demolish a church community center for the care of the handicapped, located in the village of Deir Barsha, in Mallawi, Minya Governorate.
Over 10,000 demonstrators, mainly from the village of Deir Barsha, were joined by Copts from the neighboring village of Deir Heness. They marched to the local council in Deir Barsha, holding slogans calling on the governor to resign and chanted “Go, go after your master [Mubarak]” and “We stopped giving bribes, so now you want to demolish the center.”
After the demonstration was over, more than two hundred Copts refused to leave the handicapped center and staged an open-ended sit-in until the governor revokes his demolition order.
The 5-storey community center, which cost four million Egyptian pounds, belongs to the Coptic diocese of Mallawi and serves children and youth with special needs from 75 villages all over Minya governorate. It has a workshop to teach them a suitable vocation, as well as a free day clinic.
The Governor wanted to demolish the services building in January 2011, but could not because of the Coptic anger and demonstrations all over Egypt after the massacre of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve, where a bomb killed 25 Copts and injured nearly 100.
“Those children and youth, some of them cannot talk or do anything for themselves,” said to one demonstrator, “so why deprive them of the place which can help them. It is utterly inhuman. This building was inaugurated by the governor himself four years ago and all licenses and papers are fully correct. Suddenly he wants to demolish it.”
Coptic priest Father Antonious Bouchra, who is in charge of the community center, met with the village council officials in an effort to find a solution. He said that nearly 500 Coptic women demonstrated today in front of the council and stormed the meeting, forcing the meeting to be reconvened in the afternoon with the Mallawi city council director.
“The director pretended he had no idea about the demolition order and we felt he was procrastinating,” said Father Antonious, “but he promised to put the matter to the governor and explain that the situation is urgent and explosive as the Copts are enraged and insist on keeping the center open.”
He added that nearly 100 handicapped youth and over 2000 Copts are still staging their sit-in at the center since Monday, “fearing that the forces might come and pull down the building. The villagers insist on protecting the place by all means.”
In another incident in the series of continued provocation of the Copts, the Governor of Minya ordered the demotion of ten newly built homes belonging to three Coptic families in the village of Saeed Abdelmassih, 30 km from Minya, without any reason.
Villagers said that the Governor asked the families to pay one million pounds as a voluntary contribution to the governorate in order not to pull down the houses and when they refused they were asked to donate one-fifth of the land to build a mosque near St. Demiana Church. The owners also denied his request as all inhabitants of the village are Copts and no Muslims live there. This prompted the governor to carry out the demolition of the homes on February 28 by the police and army forces.
The new Freedom and Equality Party called on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on February 28, to sack the governor of Minya and accused him and others of causing sectarian strife in the governorate.
The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), an NGO that monitors the situation of religious freedoms in Egypt, published a two-year report from January 2008 to January 2010. According to the report there have been at least 53 incidents of sectarian violence or tension against Copts by Muslims (about two incidents a month) that have taken place in 17 of Egypt’s 29 governorates, with Minya coming on top with 21 incidents.
| — Hat tip: Mary Abdelmassih | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Number 3 of Muslim Brothers Set Free
(ANSAmed) — CAIRO, MARCH 2 — Today the Egyptian authorities freed from jail the number three man of the Muslim Brothers, Khairat el Shater, and a businessman, Hassan Malek, linked to the brotherhood, both of whom had been sentenced to seven years in jail in 2006 because they were part of a prohibited group.
Security sources made the reports.
The two exponents of the Muslim Brothers, a group that is still banned in Egypt, were sentenced by the military Supreme Court after being charged with supporting a military-style parade set up by students on the campus of the Al Azhar University.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt: Minya: Copts Protest After Governor Decides to Tear Down Church Building
Some 10,000 Copts march against the decision taken by the governor of Minya, southern Egypt, to demolish a five-storey building used a centre for the disabled. Shouting “Go, go after your master, [Mubarak],” they call for his resignation.
Cairo (AsiaNews/Agencies) — More than 10,000 Copts in Minya Governorate, 250 kilometres south of Cairo, took to the streets to demand the resignation of the local governor, Ahmed Dia-el-Din, after he ordered the demolition of Church-run welfare centre for the disabled in the village of Deir Barsha.
Demonstrators from Deir Barsha and Deir Heness marched through the streets shouting slogans against the governor: “Go, go after your master [Mubarak]” and “We stopped giving bribes, so now you want to demolish the centre.”
At the end of the demonstration, more than 200 Copts refused to leave the centre for the disabled, staging a non-stop sit-in until the demolition order is revoked.
The five-storey building belongs to the Coptic diocese of Mallawi and provides services to the elderly and children from 75 villages in Minya Governorate.
The governor wanted to demolish the building in January 2011, but was prevented by Coptic anger and demonstrations all over Egypt after the massacre of the Two Saints Church in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve.
The building slated for demolition “was inaugurated by the governor himself four years ago and all licenses and papers are fully correct. Suddenly he wants to demolish it,” one of the demonstrators said.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
France Rules Out Libya Intervention Without UN Mandate
(AGI) Paris — France’s Alain Juppe’ has ruled out any military action in Libya without a prior UN mandate. “At the present time”, the foreign minister told the French parliament’s lower house, “no military action has been planned […]. There are several options; among which, establishing a no-fly zone.” Lacking a “clear Security Council mandate there will be no intervention.” .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy “Transparent” In Its Dealings With Libyan Regime
(AGI) Rome — Italy is not afraid that any embarrassing revelations will be revealed in Rome’s relationship with Tripoli, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said. Appearing on 8 1/2 television program he said, “We have nothing to hide, what we did, we did in a very transparent way.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya Suspended From UN Human Rights Council
(AGI) New York- The United Nations General Assembly has suspended Libya’s membership in the UN Human Rights Council.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Ghaddafi: “Thanks to Me Italy Forced to Apologise”
(AGI) Tripoli — Muammar Ghaddafi has said “do not forget that I forced Italy to apologise and pay 4 billion a year for 20 years.” Colonel Ghaddafi was speaking from Tripoli as he was taking part, with his supporters, in celebrations to mark the thirty fourth anniversary of the ‘establishment of the people’s authority.’ .
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: No-Fly Zone Still Far Away, US and UK Pressure
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK — The issue is ever more hotly-debated.
However, despite pressure from the US and the UK, the possibility of establishing a no-fly zone over Libya remains far away for the time being, barring any unexpected events, since both NATO and numerous countries on the Security Council — including France and Russia, which have veto powers — consider a new ad-hoc resolution essential. While the British William Hague does not see the go-ahead for the UN as obligatory, France’s new foreign minister Alain Juppe’, sceptical on any NATO role, is focusing on an explicit go-ahead by the Security Council. On the same line are also the Russians, despite the fact that today they have raised the tone by calling leader Muammar Gaddafi a political corpse to be kicked out as soon as possible. In Italy Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has asked for a resolution, saying that Italian bases are available, and the same was requested in Brussels by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, ready to take into consideration a request for a no-fly zone by the UN to neutralise Gaddafi’s MIGs. US and to an even greater extent Great Britain, which are pushing for a no-fly zone more than others — continue to say that no possibility can be discarded within the UN. The United States insists on an exclusively humanitarian nature of any future operations were the situation to become worse. The fact remains that barring any unexpected turn of events, the timeline within the United Nations is likely to be lengthy and the only decision on Libya on the calendar so far is the official expulsion of Libya, which came in through voting by a show of hands, by the Human Rights Council on behalf of the General Assembly. As a number of western diplomatic sources of the 15 members of the Security Council, “at the moment the Council is not speaking” on any further resolution and any hypothesis on the subject “is premature”. A no-fly zone, a military decision, in theory requires the go-ahead by the Security Council after the approval on Saturday of Resolution 1970 with an initial list of sanctions against the Gaddafi clan. Some countries — the US and the UK, for example — are prepared however to — should the situation worsen in a decisive manner — invoke the pressing humanitarian reasons which made it possible to set up a no-fly zone in Iraq in 1991 to protest Kurds and Shias based on Resolution 688, which did not mention them. It was in order to avoid mechanisms of this type that Russia made sure that Resolution 1970 — approved on Saturday — did not provide for any sort of armed intervention. For the time being, within the United Nations there is no talk of contacts between the Security Council and other international organisations such as the African Union (AU), which some would like to involve in order to avoid accusations of neo-colonialism if any intervention were to be entrusted exclusively to NATO countries. Currently there are three African countries in the Security Council: Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa. In order to follow and monitor compliance with sanctions, as decided on by Resolution 1970, an ad hoc committee will be set up over the next few days by an ambassador from a Security Council member. According to the Financial Times, there is no agreement within the UN as to whether to consider Libya’s central bank and sovereign wealth funds (LIA, Libyan Investment Authority) Gaddafi’s property: it is a point on which neither the US nor the UK have any doubt.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Gaddafi Supporters Give Food to Refugees, ‘Don’t Leave’
(ANSAmed) — RAS JEDIR (TUNISIA), MARCH 2 — Libyan police and Gaddafi supporters distributed food and water to a mass of thousands of Bangladeshi citizens who are trying to flee to Tunisia, crowded into no man’s land between the Libyan and Tunisian border at Ras Jedir, the main border crossing between the two countries. Supporters of the Libyan leader arrived on pickup trucks, distributing food and water and telling the crowd, “you are welcome, don’t leave”. The Gaddafi supporters’ faces were covered with green scarves, and some of them were holding machine guns, while others shouted slogans against Al Jazeera. A police officer held a picture of Gaddafi and praised the leader: “There is no reason for these people to leave,” the officer explained to journalists, “in our eyes, they are welcome here.” Tunisian and Libyan soldiers watched the scene unfold without intervening.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Italy ‘Can’t Block Libyan Shares’, Minister
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 2 — The Italian government can’t block Libyan stakes in businesses and banks, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told parliament Wednesday.
Libya has a large stake in Italy’s biggest bank, Unicredit, as well as shares in aerospace and engineering giant Finmeccanica, soccer club Juventus and other companies.
“I don’t think the government can intervene and freeze these shares,” Maroni said.
“One thing is freezing current accounts while stakeholdings are another,” he said, urging bourse regulator Consob to “say something about this”.
Also on Wednesday, the Bank of Italy ordered monitoring of transactions with Libya and the family of leader Muammar Gaddafi to prevent money laundering.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Annulling Treaty With Libya a Mistake, Frattini
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 2 — “The Italian Parliament might even annul” the Friendship Treaty with Libya, “but it would be a mistake. When there is a reliable interlocutor we would like to reinstate it,” said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. The head of Italian diplomacy did however reiterate that in the current conditions “the suspension” of the treaty “in unavoidable”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Gaddafi’s Forces Retake Brega
(ANSAmed) — BENGHAZI, MARCH 2 — The forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have regained control of the eastern city of Brega, where there is the oil export terminal, following a hard battle, reports Al Jazeera’s TV channel.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Gaddafi Names New Interior and Justice Ministers
(ANSAmed) — TRIPOLI, MARCH 2 — Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has replaced two of his ministers who had joined the ranks of those waging the revolt, reports state TV. Gaddafi designated as his Interior Minister Masud Abdel Hafiz in the place of Abdel Fattah Yumes al Abidi, and as his Justice Minister Mohamed Amhamad al-Qamudi in the place of Mustafa Mohamed Abud Ajleil.
The Libyan leader also replaced prosecutor general Abdul-Rahman Al-Abbar with Mohamed Agri Al-Mahguby.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Gaddafi’s Property in Malaga Confiscated, Assets Frozen
(ANSAmed) — MADRID, MARCH 2 — The Spanish government has frozen the construction plan that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi planned to carry out in Benahavis (Malaga) on a 6,000-hectar property where plans were in the works to build 2,000 flats, a golf course and a convention centre. The news was revealed by sources in the Foreign Ministry, cited by the media. The decision was made following the sanctions imposed by the UN and EU on Libya last weekend, which call for all assets and accounts abroad belonging to the Gaddafi family to be frozen. The Spanish government decided to close the Spanish Embassy in Tripoli and to recall their diplomats, even though the office will remain operative thanks to local personnel. Gaddafi’s property in the south of Spain is located in the municipalities of Marbella, Estepone and Ronda. It is being confiscated in order to prevent it from being used to provide profits or economic benefits to the Libyan president and his family members. All of the Gaddafi family’s financial assets in Spain will also be “frozen immediately”, according to sources in the ministry.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Gaddafi: Will Fight to the Last Man
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 2 — “We will fight for Libya to the last man and woman”. The statement was made by Muammar Gaddafi during a television speech delivered a few hours after the start of a military counterattack to the east in which troops loyal to the rais managed to regain the port and airport of Marsa Brega, an oil terminal 800km east of Tripoli. Meanwhile concerns are increasing over the humanitarian emergency that is emerging, especially along the border with Tunisia.
On television Gaddafi stated that Libya’s future “is in the hands of the Libyan people”, and he reasserted that he is not the president, nor does he have any political role in the Country, because “direct authority is in the hands of the people who will exercise it through committees of the people”.
The rais also mentioned Italy again, stating that “We forced Italy to kneel, to apologise for its colonialism and to pay damages. We forced Italy to admit its mistakes. It is a historical event”. And “the West feels insulted because Italy kissed the hand of Gaddafi”.
The rais also asked the UN to send an investigation commission to the Country to investigate accusations of having killed peaceful protesters.
On the military front, the regime first denied the launch of a counterattack, which was reported by Al Jazeera, but then a State TV announcement confirmed that government troops regained control of the Marsa Brega port and airport. The rebels instead claimed that they turned back the attack. Local sources reported that many died during the clashes. It is impossible to gain any independent verification, since the city is off-limits to journalists.
According to Al Arabiya, pro-regime troops also regained Gharyan and Sabratha, south and west of the capital city, and launched air raids on Ajdabiyah, where the rebels, who announced that they brought down another military aircraft, control the military base and an arms depot.
Meanwhile concerns increase over the humanitarian emergency.
A crowd extends for “miles and miles” in Libya and is pressing at the border with Tunisia, as emphasised by the UNHCR, which issued a new appeal to “rent out hundreds of aeroplanes” to evacuate all the people there.
In Ras Jedir, on the Tunisian side of the border, things are relatively quiet, at least compared to yesterday when Tunisian soldiers had to fire bullets into the air to calm the throng.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: H. Clinton: No-Fly Zone Decision a Long Way Off
(ANSAmed) — NEW YORK, MARCH 2 — The process of deciding whether or not to impose a no-fly zone over Libya will take time and, if agreed, will be the result of a decision which still “far away”, according to the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who has been speaking to the US Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
If international intervention in Libya is not examined with extreme caution, Clinton continued, “there is a risk of Libya descending into chaos and turning into a giant Somalia”.
The American Defence Minister, Robert Gates, said that the creation of a no-fly zone would require an attack against Libya.
“Let us tell the truth. A no-fly zone begins with an attack against Libya to destroy its air defences,” Gates explained during a session of Congress.
“Only after such an attack would it be possible for our planes to fly over the country without fear of our pilots being shot down,” the Pentagon chief added.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
North Africa: Europe’s New Frontier
La Stampa Turin
Thirty years ago nobody could have foreseen the process that brought the Warsaw Pact countries into the European Union. Now that the same is happening to Arab nations, the EU must offer them the same opportunity to strengthen democracy: the true prospect of membership.
Bill Emmott
The resistance of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to accepting either the moral or the practical logic of his situation, holed up in Tripoli and with more than half of his country (measured by population) in opposition hands, should surprise no one. During his more than 40 years in power in Libya he has never shown either a strong moral or practical instinct, except for preserving his own power.
Nevertheless, the long-term surprise that will occur because of the events in Egypt, Tunisia and now Libya is one that casts us far into the future. It is the consequence for the European Union of the now possible, even likely, spread of a democratic revolution across a wide swathe of North Africa and the Middle East. We should be patient in assessing how far that revolution will go, just as we were in the first months after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. But also, like then, it will pay to plan and think ahead.
The evolution of the EU has consisted of a series of ideas that seemed far-fetched when they were first proposed but which later came to seem inevitable. The next such idea is likely to be the expansion of the EU to encompass the southern coast of the Mediterranean. No one now expects such a development; given that France, Germany and several other EU countries cannot even accept the idea of membership for Turkey, which is already a democracy.
EU membership for some North African countries?
But think back to the early 1990s: it quickly became clear that Western Europe had a huge interest in fostering the stability, friendliness and economic development of its neighbouring former Soviet satellites, which it did in a long, slow process that culminated in full EU membership for ten of them well over a decade later. Not all the former Soviet satellites became democracies, and not all have now joined the EU. The same will probably apply in North Africa and the Middle East.
Still, just think about the parallels between the fall of the Soviet Union, in the EU’s eastern borderlands, and the fall of Arab dictatorships on the southern coast of the Mediterranean. As after 1989, the huge interest and historic opportunity that today’s Arab awakening offers to Europe will become clearer and clearer, in the next months and years, for both good and ill.
America has tricky military issues in the region, and will be held responsible for what does, or doesn’t, happen in Palestine. Europe, as after 1989, mainly has economic and cultural links to offer, which are more positive. European countries are already the biggest trading partners for most North African states; Italy is a leader in its oil and gas links with Libya and Algeria for example. The logic of those links, along with fears of instability and mass migration, can point in only one long-term direction: membership of the EU of some sort for some North African countries.
We have something very valuable to offer
More likely than full membership, as we understand it today, is a new sort of union in which there are several forms of membership. That is already true today, with only some of the 27 EU members being part of the euro, or of the Schengen passport-free zone. So a new formula will need to be found to offer economic integration, including eventual open trading access and the single market, to democratic countries in North Africa, probably stopping short of full free movement of labour. All this will mean that the European Union itself will have to again change its name: it can become the European and Mediterranean Union…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
The Muslim Brotherhood in Post-Revolutionary Egypt
Mohamed El Dahshan
“You’re in the seat of the supreme spiritual guide of the Brotherhood,” Dr. Essam el-Erian, member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance council, told me, laughing.
I sprung out of my seat and apologized.
“Oh no, please, it’s absolutely fine — besides, if a member of the Brotherhood sat there someone would assume that he wants to be a guide — but you’re not one of us, so that’s quite fine. Sit, please, I insist!”
His good mood betrayed a confident, borderline pompous future outlook.
It’s understandable though — why wouldn’t he be confident? The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s most organized opposition force so far, appears at first sight atop the winners list of the Jan. 25 revolution. It is being invited to meetings with the Armed Forces’ supreme council in its capacity of head of state, it is on the way to establishing a political party, the “Freedom and Justice Party,” for the first time in its history of more than 80 years, and one of its most famous sympathizing imams, Youssef el-Qaradawi, has returned to Egypt from exile and sent waves across society when he led a million-person Friday prayer in Tahrir last week.
When asked about future plans, Dr. el-Erian is confident. He speaks slowly, in detached words. “For the sake of preserving national cohesion, we will not be fielding a candidate for the presidential elections. We will not seek to be a majority in the parliament either. Probably target 35 or 40 percent; we’d like to see all parties represented. Remember when Hamas got a majority — they didn’t want it.” He tells me the Brotherhood won’t be fielding candidates in all constituencies. I ask him whether he believed that, if they fielded candidates countrywide, the Brotherhood could indeed gain a parliamentary majority.
He smiles — an amused, confident smile. “I told you. We’re simply not attempting to be the majority.”
But along with its apparent wins, the organization is being faced by a number of new challenges it is yet to decide how to best address; the months to come may be less smooth than it hopes and far from winning a potential majority, many believe that the Brotherhood is losing ground.
For one, the Brotherhood will enter a competitive, perhaps even harsh, public political arena, and will be viewed by the Egyptian public, especially its newly politicized youth, under the same light as other political parties — a new situation for the organization. From now on, the Brotherhood will officially be part of the political game, alongside a number of old and new actors. Its position as sole opposition, which had allowed it to win nearly one-fifth of the seats of the Parliament in 2005, will be diluted into a wider and more diverse political spectrum.
Second, in 2005, as in previous elections, the Brotherhood had fielded candidates as independents or through other parties — gaining the benefits of political participation without being held accountable as a party for its members’ actions. This will no longer be an option. As it steps into the political arena, the Brotherhood will now be compelled to compromise and cut deals with its political opponents and partners, another first in the Brotherhood’s political maturity process, after an 80-years-long adolescence.
A third point is that the Muslim Brotherhood is also conceding another staple in its rhetoric: its excuses. They had always relied on its “outcast” position and blaming the government for demonizing it and seeking to elbow them off the public opinion board — a valid accusation, but one that ran its course the day they were invited to the first post-Mubarak discussion panel with the army, as one of the country’s legitimate political forces. The organization will now be fully accountable to the public.
Finally, the Jan. 25 revolution uncovered a new fault line within the Brotherhood, between the old establishment and the younger generation — the “Brotherhood Youth.” Characterized by a greater openness toward other movements, the Brotherhood Youth were part of the nebulous coalition of youth groups that met and coordinated before and throughout the revolution.
It took the rest of the organization several days after Jan. 25 to realize that the movement on the street was irrevocable and decided to toe the line, at times stepping on the youth wing’s feet. The public face of the organization remains that of the old guard, represented primarily in the guidance council, but the internal strife is far from being won, as the youth wing is bound to slowly gain in political stature and to attempt to exert its pressure within the organization.
It is difficult to predict the influence of the Brotherhood in the phase to come, but with a compulsory period of political breaking in stemming from its new “legalized” status, the Brotherhood will need some time to find its bearings in a political scene becoming complex by the day.
*Mohamed El Dahshan is an economist and writer based in Cairo, Egypt.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Minister: Defamation of Army Contrary to Revolution
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 2 — The defamation campaign against the Tunisian Armed Forces that has recently been conducted on Facebook seeks to discredit this institution, which is engaged in the defence of the revolution, state institutions, citizens, and public and private possessions, explained a statement from the Defence Ministry.
The scope of this campaign is to compromise security to spread disorder and fear in order to cause the country to regress to its state prior to January 14, the day that Ben Ali fled from Tunisia, continued the statement.
The Army is committed to protecting the revolution in close coordination with internal security forces, and guaranteeing a real and irreversible democratic process based on national unity and cohesion of all social categories, concluded the statement.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Still the Outlier as World Mulls No-Fly Zone Over Libya
The Netherlands’ C130 military aircraft waits on the tarmac at Tripoli airport before evacuating foreigners. AP photo.
Turkey continued to play the role of outsider as world powers began discussing a no-fly zone over Libya, and a possible military intervention, following a U.N. Security Council decision over the weekend to impose sanctions.
“Reporters have been asking me whether or not NATO should intervene in Libya. It is such nonsense. What does NATO have to do with Libya? NATO’s intervention in Libya is out of the question. We are against such a thing,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said late Monday in a speech to the Turkish-German Economy Congress in Hanover, Germany.
Clashes between security forces and protesters seeking the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi have left hundreds dead in the North Africa country.
“There has been no preparation for intervention in Libya under the framework of NATO,” an official from Turkish Foreign Ministry told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Tuesday, emphasizing that the U.N. Security Council is the organization involved in the Libyan crisis and that Turkey is closely monitoring developments there.
The United States and its allies have also suggested a no-fly zone over Libya to stop alleged atrocities committed by forces loyal to the regime, but experts have warned such a move may be politically problematic, and carries military risks.
“If not configured properly, they [no-fly zones] can be worse than useless, signaling fecklessness instead of resolve while providing little real protective value to civilians,” said Michael Knights, a military analyst for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a conservative think tank in Washington.
“For the creation of a no-fly zone over Libya, a resolution by the U.N. Security Council is needed, and it’s not clear what China, for example, a veto-wielding power in the council, would say this time,” said an Ankara-based defense analyst who asked not to be named. “In addition, NATO cannot be involved, because Turkey would veto it.”
Turkey opposed sanctions passed by the U.N. Security Council of the weekend, saying the measures would hurt the Libyan people more than embattled leader Gadhafi, whose regime is accused of killing civilians and opposition members amid ongoing protests in the North African country. Its stances keep it in the role of an outlier as world leaders discuss a no-fly zone and possible military intervention.
“A no-fly zone is an option we are actively considering. I discussed it today with our allies and partners and we will proceed with this active consideration. What I said in my remarks is that all options are on the table,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Geneva on Monday.
The Pentagon said early Tuesday that the U.S. military is repositioning its forces near North Africa as Washington and its allies consider whether to establish a no-fly zone over the country, where a resistance army is building against Gadhafi.
Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said the military is repositioning forces to be ready to assist in Libya. Most likely, U.S. forces would be asked to provide humanitarian relief, though no decision has been made and the State Department has not yet made a request to the military, Lapan said, according to a report by the U.S. TV network Fox News.
“The United States is serious, it openly says Gadhafi must go and most probably is preparing for some kind of military action,” one Washington-based analyst, who asked to remain anonymous, told Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Tuesday. “If this military action happens, this would bring Washington and Ankara against each other, again, after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.”
What happened in Iraq?
The concept of no-fly zones came to prominence 20 years ago in the wake of the Persian Gulf War, when U.S. allies created Operation Provide Comfort to protect northern Iraqi Kurds who were engaged in revolt from attacks by former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s forces. Iraqi units were forbidden to operate north of the 36th parallel.
Based in Turkish territory, the operation’s original members included the United States, Britain, France, Australia, the Netherlands and Turkey. Originally the force also had a land-based element. A similar operation was later launched for southern Iraq, to protect “marsh Arabs” against Hussein.
In July 1991, the northern force transformed into Operation Provide Comfort II, which only involved the Air Force and included the United States, Britain, France and Turkey. At the beginning of 1997, the operation’s name became Operation Northern Watch, and France dropped from membership.
This force came under constant Iraqi surface-to-air missiles in the first several months of 1999, and U.S. aircraft responded by bombing Iraqi air-defense sites. Low-level conflict continued up until the 2003 invasion of Iraq, although the number of hostile incidents declined dramatically after 1999.
But Operation Provide Comfort and its successors over northern Iraq were replete with political and military-related problems.
“These operations constantly were a source of dispute between Turkey, the host country and the United States,” said the Ankara-based Turkish defense analyst. “Some in successive Turkish governments and the Turkish public generally believed that the U.S.-led operations were actually aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK]. Actually, these operations marked the beginning of anti-Americanism in Turkey.”
No-fly operations also incur some military hardships, according to analyst Knights.
“Collateral damage among civilian and friendly forces is always a risk, as occurred April 14, 1994, when two U.S. helicopters were destroyed by other U.S. aircraft in the northern no-fly zone, killing 26 coalition personnel,” Knights said in a Washington Institute policy paper released over the weekend.
“No-fly zone operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995 struggled to protect civilians against repression and functioned primarily as a means to demonstrate resolve and build consensus for future military operations,” he said.
In the event the United States and some of its allies were to pursue exclusion zones in Libya, Knights advised these world forces “to seek out a clear mandate from the U.N. Security Council, which provided the foundation for previous no-fly zones; to make the prohibitions mandated by no-fly and no-drive zones as clear as possible; and to provide a way out of an open-ended commitment, by seeking a U.N. resolution that requires renewal within a specified time limit.”
Erdogan criticizes international community
In his remarks on the possibility of a military intervention in Libya, Erdogan criticized the international community without naming any country. “We are not one of those who see oil when looking at the Middle East,” Erdogan said Sunday. “We are not one of those who see unearned income when looking at the Balkans. We are not one of those who look at the Caucasus, Asia and Africa with interest considerations.”…
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s EU-phemism is ‘Middle East Coal and Steel Community’
Apparently, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Danny “Oh Danny boy” Ayalon left an undeletable mark on the art of diplomacy when he invented the “low chair” method to humiliate the Turkish ambassador last year. The very important Turks who had fiercely protested Mr. Ayalon’s protest last year look highly inspired this year by the Israeli deputy minister’s “low chair diplomacy.” Furthering Mr. Ayalon’s scientific technique, the Turks have invented the “chewing gum” and “lower step” diplomacies.
The mayor of Ankara, Melih Gökçek, said his gum chewing during his farewell to French President Nicolas Sarkozy was a tit-for-tat because Mr. Sarkozy was chewing a piece of gum as he descended the steps of his plane after landing in Ankara. Similarly, the Turks felt proud when a skillfully planned photo showed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan greeting his guest, President Sarkozy, while the Frenchman was a few steps below the prime minister.
All the same, the twin Turkish contributions to the “Ayalon diplomacy” may create a dangerous diplomatic jurisprudence — especially for the not-so-tall Turkish dignitaries. I don’t want to think about the possibility of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu being pictured halfway through the steps while Chancellor Angela Merkel, all smiles, greets him on top of the same steps in Berlin.
Obviously, the Turkish show was put on for domestic consumption ahead of the parliamentary elections in June. But it’s a pity in the year 2011 if a photo showing a foreign head of state half the height of the Turkish prime minister can please the Turks. This is as ridiculous as the photo showing the Turkish ambassador to Tel Aviv seated on a low chair with the Israeli deputy minister, all smiles, looking (physically) down upon him.
Fortunately, President Abdullah Gül did not join the “Ayalon Club” and secretly put salt in the sugar sachet for Mr. Sarkozy’s coffee, or rose water into a bottle of pink champagne.
But as presidential sources have unofficially revealed, in the two presidents’ tete-a-tete, there was “veiled commercial threat” (Mr. Gül: “I must say that the blockage of Turkey’s EU negotiations by France shadows possible cooperation in many other areas”), and “ethnic reminders” (Mr. Gül: “Your granduncle was from Salonica, a Turkish city in his time. Knowing your family history, one would expect you to be closer to the idea of Turkey in Europe”). But that was better than salt in Mr. Sarkozy’s cup of coffee, or rose water in his champagne glass (one wonders, though, does Mr. Gül’s reasoning justify rejection of Turkey by European leaders whose granduncles were not from Ottoman cities?)
In any case, the EU diplomats dealing with Turkey may have to find new jobs after the elections in June. There is every reason to predict that the size of the European Commission representation in Ankara may gradually decline from its present 140 or so staff (the largest in the world) to half a dozen at the end of 2012. Parallel to that, the Secretariat General for EU Affairs in Ankara may gradually metamorphose into the Secretariat General for Middle Eastern Affairs. And that’s bad news for anyone who favors the idea of Turkish membership.
But for Messrs. Erdogan and Davutoglu the EU is becoming increasingly passe. Their hearts and minds belong to where Mr. Sarkozy said Turkey belong. Remember, the new Turkish foreign policy last year launched efforts for what this columnist calls the “Middle East Coal and Steel Community.”
First, a free trade zone between Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon; then a visa-less travel area a la Schengen; then an accord for cooperation in nuclear energy between Turkey and Jordan… The Community will certainly expand in quality and quantity as soon as the dust from the Arab spring settles. And this is what exactly Mr. Davutoglu recently hinted at when he said, “Turkey’s new foreign policy is about correcting the trajectory of history.”
But don’t think for a moment all that is bad news for Mr. Sarkozy et al. Turkey-skeptics in the Old Continent may be privately smiling. Mr. Sarkozy was even joyfully laughing the moment he ran into the “punishing low steps diplomacy” in Ankara as he was forced to shake Mr. Erdogan’s welcoming hand from half a meter down the stairs.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Turmoil Triggers ‘Business Migration’ To Turkey
Turkish companies are licking their wounds after the turmoil in Egypt and Libya hurt business, but on the other side of the coin some see new opportunities.
Looking at their options in the light of the ongoing turmoil, especially in Egypt and Tunisia, many foreign companies have been pondering shifting investments to Turkey, according to the executive shareholder of IEG, a German investment-banking giant.
“Regarding Tunisia, a German car industry supplier that manufactures mostly for Eastern Europe is planning to move its investments to Turkey,” said Stefan Heilman, speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review on the sidelines of a press conference Tuesday. “The total amount of the investment will be near 70 million euros,” he said, but declined to give further details on the company.
In addition to this possible foreign direct investment into Turkey, Heilman said that an Italian textile company is planning to shift investments from Egypt to Turkey. The total amount of this investment is expected to be nearly 30 million euros, according to Heilman, who also did not name the company. He said both investments would be “completed in the next few months,” but that there are others interested in shifting their North Africa investments to Turkey.
“A migration of business is taking place at the moment in North African countries” due to the political unrest, according to Heilman. “These companies want to be close to the Mediterranean. They do not prefer to invest in China due to the high logistical costs.”
The turmoil “will have a positive impact on Turkey’s economy in the long run,” Heilman said, adding that there are also Turkish firms eyeing opportunities in North Africa, as the high level of risk corresponds to low asset prices.
Advising Turkish companies
IEG has an office in Tunisia, its only one on the African continent. The company also provides consultancy services to Turkish firms looking into possible acquisitions in the region.
“I have not been informed of such an investment plan by European firms yet,” said Ismail Bitirim, a senior project director at the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey, or ISPAT. Speaking to the Daily News, Bitirim said there could indeed be companies considering Turkey for “the opportunities it presents and not just because of the unrest in North Africa.” Bitirim noted that Turkey has great experience in the automotive and textile sectors.
Talking on the Turkish economy, Heilman said Istanbul has the potential to become a new finance center of the world. “In the last 15 years, many though Dubai would take that role,” he said. “But the financial landscape of the world has been reshaped after the global crisis. Dubai first has to digest the real estate bubble, which created a huge burden on its financial system.”
In contrast, Turkey has learned much thanks to its 2001 crisis, according to Heilman. “However, Turkey and most of Europe are facing a new danger recently: rising oil prices,” he said. “This development will push inflation in all economies that depend on oil imports.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
UAE: 1 Bln Euros in Investments to Improve Lives of Citizens
(ANSAmed) — DUBAI, MARCH 02 — The President of the United Arab Emirates has ordered investments amounting to over 1.1 billion euros to be made in order to improve the water and power distribution systems in the northern emirates and “to assure high standards of living for its citizens”. The decision was made following a tour of the country’s northern — and poorest- regions last month to examine the living conditions of the residents. The wave of uprisings and protests, which have gradually spread from North Africa to the Gulf region, have not yet disrupted the peace and stability of the federation of seven emirates, which in its 40 years of existence has invested a large amount of its revenue to benefit the country and its citizens, building infrastructural works and providing services free of charge. The country currently enjoys one of the highest per capital levels of income in the world. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has approved projects to provide the region with another 1,300 MW of power (Ajman, Ras al Khaimah and Umm al Qwain) and 700 MW in the emirate of Sharjah (just north of Dubai), where a new transmission station will also be built. He also ordered for 100km of water conduits (177 million euros) to be built, which will join Kalba, in the southwest, to Dibba, in the north, passing through Kor Fakkan and Fujairah. The Umm al-Qwain water distribution network will be extended by over 60km with an investment of 59 million euros.
The president also ordered a commission to be formed that will study and anticipate the future needs of the emirates in the north.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen President Blames US and Israel for Protests
Sanaa, 1 March (AKI) — Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh on Tuesday blamed Israel and the United States for encouraging protesters to take to the streets in his country as tens-of-thousdands of demonstrators called for Saleh and his government to resign.
“The events from Tunisia to Oman are a storm orchestrated from Tel Aviv and and under Washington’s supervision,” Saleh told journalists, according to reports.
“What is taking place on Yemen’s streets is just a copycat attempt, as Yemen is not Tunisia or Egypt and the Yemeni people are different,” he said. “The events from Tunisia to Oman are a storm orchestrated from Tel Aviv and and under Washington’s supervision,” Saleh told reporters.
Separately, in a speech at Sanaa University Saleh accused US president Barack Obama of meddling in the Middle Eastern affairs.
“Mr Obama, you’re the president of the United States; you’re not the president of the Arab world,” he said.
The US has depended on Saleh’s help in combatting a growing terrorist presence in his war-torn country that is facing duel conflicts with separatists and terrorist militants connected with Al-Qaeda.
Saleh on Monday made an attempt at pacifying critics with a pledge to allow opposition into his government. Opposition figures swiftly rejected the offer referring to it as a “tranquilliser,” while protesters met the gesture on Tuesday with chants of “leave” and “the people want the downfall of the regime.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Controversial Play Now Heading to the Caucasus
Renowned US feminist writer Eve Ensler’s controversial play ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is on its way to the Caucasus. Following Tbilisi and Baku, the play will be staged in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, in April but debate has already started, with some upset by the sexual imagery of the title. Turkey first staged the play in 2003 amid controversy
Turkish theater actress Almula Merter, the director of Turkey’s production of ‘The Vagina Monologues.’
“The Vagina Monologues” theater play will make its Armenian debut next month, yet the performance’s sensitive subject matter is already generating plenty of discussion in the Transcaucasus nation about sex and women’s rights.
“It is very important to stage such plays in this region where we live. The fact that women have sexual needs is ignored,” freelance Armenian journalist Ani Hovhannesyan recently told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.
The play, which was written by U.S. feminist Eve Ensler in 1996, has traveled to many countries around the world, including Muslim countries such as Egypt and Turkey. After stops in Tbilisi and Baku on its current tour, “The Vagina Monologues” will come to Yerevan, where it has all drawn reaction from some upset by the sexual imagery occasioned by the title.
“Women are dying every day in my country because of domestic violence,” Milena Bavagan, who adapted the play to the stage in Armenia, told the Daily News. “I want to ask if those who are against this play are aware of this painful fact.”
Play speaks to women’s problems common throughout Caucasus
Datevig Aghabedyan, a program assistant at the Women’s Resource Center in Armenia, said women’s problems in all three countries were typically the same.
“As the Women’s Resource Center in Armenia, we have been carrying out joint projects with Georgian and Azerbaijani women; we discuss common problems and try to find solutions,” she said.
In the Armenian adaptation of the play, some small changes will be made by the director to suit the Armenian context, said Bavagan, adding that their purpose was to make women more conscious about their rights with the play. “Violence against women should end,” she said.
Aghabedyan said her women’s center received phone calls every day from victimized women. “Most of the calls are because of physical and psychological violence. Of course the number of rape victims is very high. Our relations with Azerbaijani and Georgian women continue because our problems are the same.”
Turkish controversy
The play caused a storm of debate when it was first staged in Turkey in 2003. Its director, Turkish theater actress Almula Merter, was sued by the Kadiköy District Governor’s Office for sexual provocation because of the word “vagina” in the show’s poster. Merter also received death threats.
Having experienced adversity in trying to bring the play to the Turkish stage, Merter said she was ready to support Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian women in the fight for rights. “Never take a step backward and never give up demanding your rights.”
“Those criticizing this play get stuck on the word ‘vagina,’“ said Merter. “But Ensler handles many issues, from birth to maidenhood and from rapes in Bosnia to burqas, in this play.”
She said the Kadiköy District Governor’s Office had said the group could perform the play on condition that they removed the word “vagina” from the title.
“The word was found provocative and scary by the Kadiköy district governor at the time,” she said.
In the end, however, Merter staged the play under its original name despite receiving death threats.
“Newspapers called me a naughty woman but I don’t care. The main reason why I staged this play was to draw attention to rape and violence against women,” she said, adding that she would stage it again if possible.
‘Play needs to be brought to rural areas’
Merter staged the play even in the remote parts of Anatolia and talked to women there about their problems. Hovhannesyan said a similar thing should be done in Armenia as well.
“This play should be performed in small districts and villages in Armenia, too. Women living there think that their vagina is only for giving birth. But in spite of that there are also women who really know their rights in my country,” she said.
Ultimately, Hovhannesyan said discussing the issues in the play was a must. “An excessive imposition in a closed society may cause social explosion.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Bangladesh Dismisses Nobel Prize Yunus From Grameen Bank
(AGI) Dakha — Bangladesh’s Central Bank has dismissed Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, known as the ‘banker of the poor’ from the position of CEO of the Grameen Bank. Yunus had held the position since 1983 and is now accused of alleged irregularities.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
India: Eleven Sentenced to Death for Godhra Train Massacre in Gujarat
The Ahmedabad special court created to judge attack on Sabarmati Express hands down sentences. Suspected mastermind of “plot” acquitted. Responsibility of the Prime Minister of the state, Narendra Modi.
Ahmedabad (AsiaNews / Agencies) — A special court has sentenced to death 11 of the 31 Muslims charged with the Godhra train fire in Gujarat, February 27, 2002. The remaining 20 have been given life sentences. On 27 February 2002, the Sabarmati Express was stopped just outside Godhra station and attacked by a Muslim mob.
The train was carrying Hindu activisits returning from a pilgrimage to the temple in Ayodhya, in Uttar Pradesh. The Babri mosque, built on the holy site claimed by Hindus was destroyed by a Hindu mob in Ayodhya 6 December 1992. The S-6 coach of the train caught fire during the attack. 59 people died in the episode and many were injured.
94 people were indicted for the massacre at Godhra. Of these 63 were cleared (22/02/2011 2002 Gujarat massacre: 31 people convicted for the Sabarmati Express attack). In a controversial ruling the court agreed on a “conspiracy theory”, releasing who according to many is the main organizer of the violence, Maulvi Umarji.
The attack triggered a violent reaction in which 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, 253 people have been considered missing, and 523 places of worship, including three churches were damaged. 27,901 Hindus and 7,651 Muslims were arrested. The subsequent investigation brought to light the negative role played by the prime minister of the state, Narendra Modi. A report by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) revealed by two newspapers, Tehelka and Headlines Today highlighted his responsibilities. (04/02/ 2011; 2002 massacre in Gujarat: Responsibility of local government). The 600-page report does not completely nail Modi for lack of direct evidence linking him to massacres, but nevertheless has been a serious blow to the image of Modi as a skilled administrator and a man of good governance.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Christians Urge Church’s Re-Opening After Top Court Ruling
Bogor, 1 March — (AKI) — Christians in the Indonesian province of West Java have asked the local administration in the city Bogor to re-open a church after the Supreme Court rejected the government’s request to close it.
“We received the Supreme Court’s ruling last Thursday. There is no reason for the administration to refuse to re-open our church,” the church’s spokesman Bona Sigalingging told The Jakarta Post by phone.
The Taman Yasmin Indonesian Christian Church’s congregation has held services on the streets after Bogor’s administration locked the gates to their church in 2010, following protests from local Muslims and hardline Islamic groups.
The administration declined to reopen the church, claiming it had not received notice of the court’s ruling.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: A 25-Yr-Old Christian Woman Dies of Natural Causes, Doctors Say, But Body Shows Signs of Violence
Sadaat Masih was a nurse at a private hospital in the capital. Her body was found in the student hostel where she lived. Hospital administrators try to sweep the affair under the rug. Police refuses to open an investigation. Her family complains of an atmosphere of forced silence. A source in the medical facility points to the ambiguous role played by a Muslim male nurse.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — Mystery and silence surround the death of Sadaat Masih, a 25-year-old nurse who died last Friday in a student hostel in Islamabad. Officials at the Shifa International Hospital, a private health care facility, said she died of natural causes. Despite a complaint filed by her relatives, police said they would not investigate the case. The young woman’s family noted that her body showed unusual wounds that suggest a violent death. A colleague told AsiaNews on condition of anonymity that a Muslim male nurse played a key role in the affair. In fact, the deceased endured sexual harassment on the part of Muslim colleagues and doctors.
Originally from Dhoke Ratta, a neighbourhood in Rawalpindi, Sadaat Masih came to Shifa International in 2008 as a student. In June 2010, the hospital gave her a room at the nursing student hostel, where she was found dead in the afternoon of 25 February. The young woman, who was Christian, was buried two days later in a Rawalpindi cemetery, but the details of her death still have to be elucidated.
Fr Joseph Fazal spoke to AsiaNews about the “sad event”. In his view, “Sadaat could not have died of natural causes” because the body had a wound to the head and marks on her neck.
Speaking about Christian female nurses, he said it was “sad to know that they are targeted in different ways rather than rewarded and respected.” At least, “we will make sure that her case does not end up like that of Magdalene, a Christian nurse from Karachi who was raped by a medical officer.”
After 10 August 2010, when Sadaat became engaged to Riaz Masih, male nurses and doctors started harassing her. One doctor told her that because she was Christian she could “not expect promotions or career advancement”, Riaz said, “unless she pleased him by coming to his room”.
Last Friday afternoon, the hospital contacted the young woman’s family, saying that she had been in an accident. However, hospital officials prevented her family from seeing her on various pretexts.
“I was told by the hospital administration that my daughter had an accident,” Sadaat’s father Javed Masih said. “Another one said that she was undergoing an appendix operation. After a while they told us that my daughter was dead.”
“The next day they handed us the body,” he added. “They told us that she died of natural causes. When we got the body there was a wound to the back of her head, and another mark on her neck.”
Despite the many unanswered questions and a formal complaint filed by the family of the deceased, police refused to open an investigation against hospital officials.
However, a nurse did speak to AsiaNews on condition of anonymity. “After her shift Friday afternoon, Sadaat went to her room. Her fellow female nurse had just left for her shift. After a while a Muslim male nurse sent a text message saying that Sadaat was in her room, unconscious.”
Staff rushed to the room and removed the young woman to the emergency ward where the doctor on duty pronounced her dead.
“The male nurse who sent the text message was never interrogated to find out how he knew that she was unconscious since the door to her room was locked,” the source said.
Sadaat’s fiancé Riaz went further, complaining about a wall of silence around the whole thing. “The hospital administration is not cooperating,” he said. In fact, “they do not want to give us the name of the Muslim male nurse.”
Suleman Javed, Sadaat’s brother, said his family does not want money. “We want justice. We want to know exactly what happened last Friday, and who is responsible.”
His cry of pain is felt by Mgr Rufin Anthony, bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi. “Anti-Christian violence continues, especially in Punjab,” he explained. Yet, “When the law is enforced, violence stops,” he noted. For this reason, the government ought to take notice of injustice. In any event, “the Catholic Church will continue to stand by persecuted minorities and raise its voice on behalf of victims.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Shahbaz Bhatti, The Pakistani Minister Who Defended Asia Bibi, Is Assassinated
The attack took place this morning in Islamabad. An armed commando gunned down the Catholic minister in his car. Rushed to hospital he did not survive his wounds. Murder claimed by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — The Pakistani minister for minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti was killed this morning by an armed commando. The attack was carried out in the I-8 / 3 neighbourhood by a group of masked men who ambushed the minister on the street. They pulled him out of his car and opened fire at point blank range before fleeing in a car.
The grandson of Shabhaz Bhatti was traveling with him when the attack took place. The terrorists continued to fire for about two minutes. There was no security guard with Bhatti when the attack occurred. The minister was immediately rushed to Shifa hospital, where, however, the doctors failed to save him. The killers left a note at the scene of the crime: “Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) claims responsibility for the assassination of Bhatti for speaking out against the blasphemy law”. Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan ‘is an umbrella organization of various groups of Islamic militants.
Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic, was recently confirmed in his post of Minister for Minorities in a government reshuffle. He boldly defended Asia Bibi, a Christian sentenced to death for blasphemy on the basis of false accusations. He belonged to the PPP, the progressive party in government. After the killing of Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab, who Islamic fundamentalists blamed for having defended Asia Bibi, Bhatti had become the radicals “top target”.
This is a concerted campaign to suppress all progressive, liberal and humanitarian voices in Pakistan, “said Farahnaz Ispahani, assistant to President Asif Ali Zardari. “It ‘s time for the national government and federal governments to speak out and take a firm stand against these murderers to save the very essence of Pakistan”.
Robinson Asghar a personal friend of Bhatti, relayed that the murdered minister had received threats after the assassination of the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer. Asghar said he had advised Bhatti to leave Pakistan for a period because of threats, but Bhatti had refused.
Information Minister, Firdous Ashiq Awan said that Bhatti played a key role in promoting inter-religious harmony, and was a great resource. “We are saddened by his tragic death”, he said, adding that the government will investigate why he was without an armed escort.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Shahbaz Bhatti, A Catholic Defender of the Weak and Marginalized
The minister for minorities came from a Catholic family deeply committed to justice. Of his work he said: “I only want a place at the feet of Jesus. I want my life, my character, my actions to speak for me and say that I am a follower of Jesus Christ.”
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani minister killed by the Taliban, was born September 9, 1968, to a Christian family from the village of Kushpur. His father Jacob, served in the army before entering the field of education as a teacher and later chairman of the board of the Churches of Kushpur. In the Autumn of 2010 he was hospitalized in Islamabad. According to local sources, his condition deteriorated significantly after the news of the assassination of the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, on January 4, 2011. He entered into a form of mental and physical depression that ultimately led to cardiac arrest, and his death on Jan. 10, 2011.
Jacob Bhatti was of fundamental importance in his son’s life. One testimony of this appeared in newspapers in Pakistan at the time of death describing him thus: “He was a brave man and was the main source of strength for his son. He encouraged him and helped him to deal with the most risky and precarious of situations”.
Shahbaz Bhatti, after completing his studies, started his political career in Pakistan People’s Party, the most progressive political group for the reform of the nation. He was quickly noted by party executives, and especially Benazir Bhutto, with whom he worked closely until the assassination of the charismatic leader of Pakistan. In an interview with AsiaNews he had called for the creation of “an independent UN commission” of investigation into the murder of Benazir Bhutto.
Shahbaz was on the train along with Bhutto at the time of the attack and suffered only minor physical injuries. He described what happened to AsiaNews: “At a certain point, around the area of Karsaz, there were two huge explosions, right next to the carriage carrying Ms Bhutto, at head of the procession. The former premier had just gone down into the lower compartment of to rest, when there was an explosion. The windows of the vehicle were shattered, the door was destroyed, all around there were dead and injured. When I got off the train, there was blood and bits of bodies everywhere. This vile act of cowardly terrorism offends us deeply and saddens all the people of Pakistan. These are days of mourning and sorrow. “
Bhatti always paid special attention to the situation of the country’s most discriminated against. He was chairman of the APM (All Pakistan Minorities Alliance). This is a representative organization of marginalized communities and religious minorities in Pakistan, working on several fronts in support of the needy, the poor, the persecuted. Speaking of the reason for his commitment, he would simply say: “I just want a place at the feet of Jesus I want my life, my character, my actions to speak for me and say that I am following Jesus Christ.”
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Pain and Sorrow of the Pakistani Church and the World Over the Murder of Shahbaz Bhatti
For the bishop of Islamabad, it is a sad and bitter day for the entire country. He remembers the minister as a “devout Catholic” who lived under “constant threat”, but now “enough is enough”. A source tells AsiaNews that fundamentalists are operating like a “state within a state”, perpetrating crimes and violence with impunity. Indian Christians express their solidarity to their fellow Christians in Pakistan, calling for the repeal of the blasphemy law. Vatican spokesman expresses sorrow, demanding respect for the “right to religious freedom”.
Islamabad (AsiaNews) — “It is a sad incident, a sad day not only for minorities” but also “for humanity,” said Mgr Rufin Anthony, bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi as he spoke to AsiaNews, after hearing the news about the coldblooded murder of Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti. “This should be an eye opener for minorities and the government. How much more blood will it take to realise that enough is enough,” he said. Indeed, how much time will it take for Pakistan to find peace and harmony. In the meantime, a Christian source, anonymous for security reasons, said that there is a “state within the state”, made up of fundamentalist elements “who commit crimes and act with total impunity”.
As he remembered Shahbaz Bhatti’s precious work on behalf of Catholics and other minorities, Mgr Anthony could not stop speaking of such a “sad incident,” a bitter day not only for minorities but for mankind as well.
The prelate knew the minister’s everyday schedule. “Bhatti’s daily routine was that he used to go to meet his mother, pray with her. He used to call me and ask me to pray for him every morning,” the bishop said.
Badly shaken by the murder, he went on talking about Bhatti. “I remember him as a child; he regularly attended the Church; he was passionate since childhood. He was under threat and the government did not provide sufficient security.” He “was a brave man, a man of courage, he took a stand for the minorities,” the bishop of Islamabad reiterated.
“When he took the oath for the new cabinet,” after President Ali Zardari had it reshuffled, “he said he would fight till the last drop of his blood. He proved himself, stood firm and paid the price by his blood. This should be an eye opener for minorities and the government. How much more blood will it take to realise that enough is enough,” he concluded.
In the meantime, a Christian source, anonymous for security reasons, said that there is a “state within the state”, made up of fundamentalist elements “who commit crimes and act with total impunity”.
“There are elements working inside the government. There is a state within the state,” the source explained, “that is more powerful, moved by an extremist ideology”
“By contrast, ordinary citizens, civil society, moderate Muslims, i.e. the majority, want to live peacefully, but they are powerless vis-à-vis fanatical and fundamentalist movements.” In the end, such a “deplorable incident” takes away “courage and hope from religious minorities and civil society.”
This is the second high profile murder after the assassination of Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, “who was killed for his opposition to the blasphemy law and his work in favour of religious minorities”.
The end result will be that “Minorities will be silenced, their voice suppressed along with those who defend them.” On this occasion as in previous ones, “violence is committed in the name of religion.”
Indian Christians also slammed the brutal murder of Shahbaz Bhatti, killed because he opposed the draconian blasphemy law. Human rights activists have appealed to the United Nations and the international community to put pressures on the government of Pakistan, which so far has been unable to stop extremists.
Sajan George, president of the Global Council o Indian Christians (GCIC), called for the “immediate repeal of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws”.
On previous occasions, the “GCIC asked the Indian government to raise the matter with the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Pakistani government and with the international community to save the life of the mother of two children sentenced to death,” namely Asia Bibi.
For the GCIC, the Pakistani government has “sponsored Islamic terror against minorities and women,” and this might “trigger cycles of violence in other Islamic nations against minorities.”
The Vatican also sent words of grief. The assassination of Pakistani Minority Affairs Minister Shabbaz Bhatti is a “new act of violence of a terrible gravity,” Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said. It shows the correctness of papal warnings against anti-Christian violence and threats to religious freedom.
“To our prayers for the victim, our condemnation of the act of unspeakable violence, our closeness to the Pakistani Christians subject to hate, we add an appeal concerning the dramatic urgency of the defence of religious freedom and of Christians who are suffering from violence and persecution,” the director of the Vatican Press Office added. (DS)
(Jibran Khan and Nirmala Carvalho contributed to the article)
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan: Taliban Claims Responsibility for Assassination of Minister
Islamabad, 2 March (AKI) — By Syed Saleem Shahzad — Four militants who on Wednesday assassinated Pakistani minorities minister escaped unharmed after firing 25 shots at Shah Bhatti’s car, while a spokesman for the country’s branch of the Taliban says his group carried out the attack.
Bhatti, a Christian, opposed a blasphemy law that critics of contend is abused to persecute religious minorities or settle grudges since convictions can be delivered with little evidence.
“This is punishment for a person who committed and supported blashphemy, “ said a police officer who read a pamphlet left at the crime scene
Police chief Wajid Durrani told reporters that the Bhatti was not accompanied by his security at the time of the attack.
Pakistan’s Punjab provincial governor Salmaan Taseer, an opponent of the law, was shot dead in January by his bodyguards. Bhatti was considered a high-profile target for assassination because of his opposition to the blasphemy law.
A Christian mother-of-five in November was sentenced to death under the law, while a seventeen-year-old Syed Samiullah is facing a charge of making blasphemous remarks about Prophet Muhammad in answer sheets of a school examination early last year.
Bhatti was reportedly en rout to a cabinet meeting when the gument attacked in a residential area.
Pamphlets attributed to Al-Qaeda and Tehrik-i-Taliban Punjab (TTP), a branch of the Taliban in Pakistan’s most populous province, were found at shooting site.
TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ahsan made a round of telephone calls to media organizations to claim responsibility for the murder.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Pakistan Gunmen Kill Christian Politician
Militants gunned down the only Christian in Pakistan’s government outside his widowed mother’s home Wednesday, the second assassination in two months of a high-profile opponent of laws that impose the death penalty for insulting Islam.
Shahbaz Bhatti was aware of the danger he faced, saying in a videotaped message that he had received death threats from al-Qaida and the Taliban. In it, the 42-year-old Roman Catholic said he was “ready to die” for the country’s often persecuted Christian and other non-Muslim minorities.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Sanctions Helping China Do Business With Iran
With Iran penalised by sanctions over its foreign and nuclear policies, China profits. In a few years, it has increased its trade with the Islamic Republic tenfold, with oil topping the list. Beijing has close trading relationships with many dictatorial regimes.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) — Sino-Iranian trade jumped tenfold in ten years, going from US$ 2.5 billion in 2000 to US$ 29.3 billion last year. Iran is now China’s second trading partner after the European Union. This was made possible by sanctions against Iran, which have created more opportunities for trade with China.
“China’s economic ties with Iran have to some extent been made easier by Western divestment,” said An Baojun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation.
Many democracies have in fact curtailed or ceased trading with Iran to protest against Tehran’s policies, especially its nuclear programme. Although the Iranians claim the latter is for peaceful purposes, they have failed to live up to their obligations in terms of controls and inspections. This has given Chinese companies an opportunity to fill the gap left by Western firms.
For example, the China National Offshore Oil Corp reached a lucrative deal to develop the North Pars gas fields. SINOPEC gained a 51 per cent stake in developing Iran’s Yadavaran oil field, and Iran agreed to supply China with 150,000 barrels of oil a day for 25 years at market price.
More recently, Japan’s unilateral sanctions, passed in September, banned financial activity with 15 designated Iranian banks that could contribute to nuclear activities.
In September, South Korea temporarily closed 102 companies believed to be helping Iran’s nuclear programme, including the Seoul branch of Bank Mellat, an Iranian bank that handles about 70 per cent of South Korean exports to Iran.
Since international sanctions affect primarily weapons or nuclear-related matters, most of bilateral trade between China and Iran is not covered. Thus, Western disengagement has benefitted the mainland immensely.
Trade is expected to hit US$ 50 billion by 2015, said Asadollah Asgaroladi, chairman of the Sino-Iranian Chamber of Commerce, during a meeting in Beijing last month.
Already, China is the largest importer of Iranian goods—last year, the volume was US$ 18.2 billion (US$ 13 billion in oil and mineral fuel).
What is more, “An estimated 30 per cent to 40 per cent of trade with Iran is channelled through its neighbours,” An told the South China Morning Post, countries like the United Arab Emirates.
In June, the UN Security Council issued more sanctions against Iran with the support of China. The United States, EU, Japan and Australia followed with even harsher sanctions. Yet, Beijing continued to boost trade with Iran, selling nuclear technology for example.
Under the present circumstances, Ahmadinejad said, the world needed a “new, humanitarian and fair order which could be defined and established with the help of Iran and China.”
For China, this means mutual respect for independence, national sovereignty and non-interference in the domestic affairs of other nations. Hence, Beijing is prepared to trade with any dictatorship ostracised by democratic states, from Sudan to Zimbabwe and Angola.
Chinese companies are present everywhere, developing energy resources and building infrastructures in countries like Libya, where 36,000 Chinese worked until forced to flee by a popular uprising with major losses for Chinese firms (see “Heavy losses for Chinese companies operating in Libya,” in AsiaNews, 26 February 2011).
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Labor Leaves Legacy of Debt
THE Wonthaggi desalination plant, conceived in such haste by the former Labor government, is now its ruinous legacy.
The cost to taxpayers could reach $23.9 billion over the life of the project.
As reported in today’s Herald Sun, households will pay through higher water bills. While the total cost is difficult to comprehend in its sheer magnitude, the cost per litre brings the massive financial blowout into some perspective.
The current cost of a litre of water is $1, a startling figure in itself since a litre of milk costs the same as supermarkets engage in a price war.
But water from the desalination plant will cost up to $1.50 a litre. The plant has been described as a white elephant, but is more a great white whale spouting taxpayers’ dollars.
Yesterday, Premier Ted Baillieu announced that after three months of trying, he finds Victoria is locked into the contract signed by Labor.
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There is no wriggle room. The previous government has signed Victorians to decades of debt, for water they may not need, but will have to pay for in any case.
Like the controversial north-south pipeline, it was a political rather than a practical solution to supposedly “drought proof” Victoria.
The Coalition preferred the backstop of another major dam to store water, which has now flooded the east coast of Australia.
It was always the best option, but the public was sold the desalination option in a flood of hyperbole from a Labor government willing to grasp at what was popular rather than what was prudent.
This whale of a debt can be added to the increasing household charges that have forced many families to ask charities and welfare agencies for assistance.
Former premier John Brumby has left Parliament with a pension of up to $3.6 million. But he has left the tap running on a public debt of billions.
| — Hat tip: Nilk | [Return to headlines] |
Indonesia: Employment Agencies Banned From Sending Workes to Libya, Egypt
Jakarta (AKI/Jakarta Post) — The Indonesian government has forbidden migrant employment agencies from sending workers to Libya and Egypt amid the political and security tension in those countries.
“Private employment recruitment agencies will not be allowed to send workers to Libya and Egypt for the time being,” Manpower and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar has said.
He said the government did not want migrants to become casualties of conflicts in the two countries.
Muhaimin said the government had repatriated four batches of Indonesian migrant workers. The last batch, consisting of 420 migrant workers, was flown home last Monday.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Italy Gears to Set Up Refugee Camp in Tunisia
120,000 people milling around Libya-Tunisia border, Maroni says
(ANSA) — Rome, March 2 — Italy is gearing to set up a refugee camp in Tunisia to help stop thousands of people from Libya crossing the Mediterranean, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said Wednesday. “Currently around 60,000 migrants who have fled from Libya are camping in Tunisia and there is the same number still in Libya, near the border,” Maroni told a joint session of parliamentary foreign affairs committees.
He said the situation was “grave” and on the verge of becoming “dramatic, because Libya is giving no help to these people”.
Tunisia was providing aid, he said, but it “was not organised”.
“Therefore we have decided to launch a humanitarian mission to set up a refugee camp”.
There were 1.5 million displaced persons in Libya moving east and west but who might eventually head north, the interior minister added.
So far some 5,600 illegal immigrants had reached Lampedusa, an island between Africa and Sicily, and “last night, after 10 days’ respite thanks to a return of controls in Tunisia, another 347 Tunisians arrived”.
Anti-immigrant controls on the coasts of Libya, however, had been “reduced to zero”.
According to sources at a government summit Tuesday night, the humanitarian mission to Tunisia is expected to help around 10,000 refugees, many of them women and children.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Lampedusa is Getting Ready for 3 Boatloads of Refugees
(AGI)Palermo — 3 boats full of refugees are expected to reach the isle of Lampedusa, where another 500 North African migrants landed last night. An ATR aircraft of the corps of Italy’s financial police spotted the vessels when crossing the Strait of Sicily. The pilots believe 100 people or so could be amassed on the first boat which is expected to come ashore in a couple of hours. However many more could be hiding below deck.
| — Hat tip: C. Cantoni | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: EU: Civil Protection Activated for Tunisian Border
(ANSAmed) — BRUSSELS, MARCH 2 — “Yesterday the civil protection mechanism was activated and we are capable of mobilising tools to assist the UN immigration office to help deal with the flow of Egyptian migrants at the border with Tunisia,” said European Commission spokesman Raphael Brigandi. The spokesman said that according to the figures available to the commission, there are “77,000 refugees at the Tunisian border and 70,000 on the Egyptian side of the border.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Libya: Italian Mission in Tunisia to Prevent Exodus
(ANSAmed) — ROME, MARCH 2 — An Italian mission in Tunis to stem the tide of the exodus to Italian coasts, intervening where most of the refugees from Libya are concentrated, was decided on yesterday evening by the government in the hope that other countries will also imitate Italy, since the UNHCR has reported about 12-15,000 people crossing the border into Tunisia. The decision came in a short summit meeting which focused on the humanitarian aid which is to give assistance to 10,000 refugees, including many women and children. The idea is to intervene with a few million euros to help Tunisia manage the large number of people arriving. “It is an emergency intervention of a humanitarian and healthcare nature,” explained Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, “introduced in accordance with Tunisian authorities to assist the populations where they are now and prevent them from departing” since “just standing by and watching is a crime.
One must act.” The decision made during the meeting was immediately communicated by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over the phone to British Premier David Cameron, and will be taken by the former to the extraordinary council meeting scheduled for March 11 in Brussels. On this occasion Italy will aim to involve also other European countries in the humanitarian mission. An initial comparison of views on the issues to bring before the EU was carried out by Berlusconi with Cameron, with whom he spoke on the issues linking the European Union to Libya: from those concerning the immigration emergency to economic ones. These issues were also brought up by the prime minister in his phone conversation with the current EU president Herman Van Rompuy this afternoon. In a Libya in revolt, estimates speak of the presence of about a million to a million and a half foreigners who are currently trying to flee towards Tunisia and Egypt. The risk is that the route going northwards may also open up, the one which leads to the Mediterranean and therefore the Italian coastline, as warned by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni. And this without even taking into consideration the fact that Tunisia and Egypt are currently unable to handle the tens of thousands of migrants who crowd round the Libyan borders. To make the Italian mission operative, the first “technical” meeting has been scheduled for today under the chairmanship of the Red Cross, the Civil Protection and fire fighters who will be setting up a “camp”. Stock was also taken within the Cabinet on the evacuation of Italians and foreigners from Libya. So far Italian vehicles have evacuated 1,400 Italian nationals and 800 foreigners.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Tunisia: Migrants Heading for Italy Again From Zarzis
(ANSAmed) — TUNIS, MARCH 2 — >From the Tunisian port of Zarzis, according to reports in today’s French-language daily La Presse, three boats have left over the past few days loaded with clandestine migrants headed for Italy. The last, name Ras Marmour, alleged weighed anchor on Monday evening. Due to both rising levels of surveillance and very bad weather conditions at sea, departures from Zarzis had been interrupted for several days.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
(Islam) A Legacy of Violence
Prof.efraim Karsh in the Jpost takes on Bernard Lewis’ notion of pre-modern peaceful Islamic regimes
Violence and oppression, then, have not been imported to the Middle East as a byproduct of European imperialism; they were a part of the political culture long before. If anything, it is the Middle East’s tortuous relationship with modernity that has left physical force as the main instrument of political discourse.
| — Hat tip: KGS | [Return to headlines] |
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