By Pamela Constable
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
At a fashionable plaza in this serene Pakistani capital, a few dozen people gather in the evenings at the spot where provincial governor Salman Taseer was gunned down on Jan. 4. More than the man, their candlelight vigils mourn the open debate and religious compassion that have been lost with the assassination of the outspoken liberal politician.
Fifteen miles away, in a working-class alley of Rawalpindi, thousands of people flock each day to the home of Mumtaz Qadri, the elite police guard who killed Taseer. Qadri is in jail now, but the site has become a shrine to what many Pakistanis see as his heroic act against a blasphemer who insulted their prophet. Someone has even put up posters of Qadri riding a white horse to heaven.
In the days since Taseer's death, Pakistan has become a different country. The veneer of Western democracy has been ripped away, the liberal elite has been cowed into silence, and the civilian government has beaten a hasty retreat from morality, authority and law. Islamic extremist groups, once dismissed as unable to win more than a few seats in Parliament, are filling the streets, with bearded acolytes waving flags and chanting like giddy crowds at a post-game victory rally.
Suddenly, a crucial U.S. ally in the fight against terrorism seems incapable of stopping a tide of intolerant and violent Islam at home - raising doubts about Pakistan's ability to play a constructive role in the war against the Taliban or to help the United States extricate its forces from Afghanistan, Pakistan's northern neighbor.
Qadri, who happily confessed to murdering the politician he was assigned to protect, has little chance of being convicted. Instead of suffering ostracism, he was greeted with handshakes and garlands by courthouse lawyers, who offered to defend him pro bono. The provincial court system, notorious for freeing radical Islamic leaders, is unlikely to condemn a national religious hero.
"There is no justice in our country for the common man, but Qadri's act against a blasphemer has made all Muslims feel stronger," a shopkeeper in Rawalpindi told me. "They can punish him, but what will they do with a million Qadris who have been born now?"
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, whose ruling coalition recently recovered from near-collapse, has reassured the restive Muslim masses that not a word of Pakistan's blasphemy law will be changed. One of the harshest such statutes in the Muslim world, it makes any purported slur against the prophet Muhammad - even a misinterpreted remark or a discarded Koran - grounds for execution.
Taseer had proposed softening the law. Another legislator who did the same has received death threats. The police, whose ranks produced the killer, seem duped or complicit. The army, caught between fighting the Taliban and courting public opinion, has remained prudently silent.
Pakistani commentators have expressed shock at the public lionization of Qadri and the demonization of Taseer, who did nothing worse than criticize the blasphemy law and commiserate with a Christian peasant woman who was sentenced to death under it. The atmosphere is so charged now that most clerics refused to officiate at Taseer's funeral, and the Christian woman's prison warden said he may not be able to protect her even from the guards.
For the past several years, a few voices have warned against the growth of religious hatred in Pakistan. Columnist Kamila Hyat described a "Talibanization of minds" creeping across the country, emboldening extremist groups and censoring debate. Physicist and activist Pervez Hoodbhuy decried the quashing of critical thought in Pakistani schools and the rote Koranic learning that shapes many young minds.
But in Friday sermons and at many levels of Pakistani society, one hears warnings about creeping Westernization, secular culture and forceful aggression against Islam by America and its allies. When Pope Benedict XVI called for a repeal of Pakistan's blasphemy law this month, some Muslim clerics decried it as part of the foreign conspiracy and said the pope was inviting attacks on minority Christians in Pakistan.
Some observers here say it is unfair to tar millions of Pakistani Muslims as extremists just because they feel strongly enough about the sacred nature of the prophet Muhammad to justify killing someone who insults him. What is needed, they say, is stronger national leaders who will uphold the laws - against blasphemy and murder alike. "This is an Islamic republic, and people feel very strongly about the blasphemy issue," said Hamid Mir, a leading television journalist here. "We have to respect that, but we also have to respect the law and the constitution, or we will be lost."
Others argue that a mind-set that finds spiritual justification for shooting a government official 26 times will also accept the public flogging of drunks, the beheading of policemen and the stoning of unmarried lovers - all hallmarks of the Taliban forces that swept through Pakistan's scenic Swat Valley two years ago.
Pakistan's army, a close partner of the U.S. military, ultimately drove the Taliban out of Swat after cementing public opinion in its favor. Now Washington is prodding army leaders here to extend their campaign to other insurgent-infested tribal areas.
But public opinion in Pakistan today is not what it was a year ago, and no one wants to risk igniting popular wrath. Not the nuclear-armed security establishment, which still sees Islamic militants as a useful tool to harass arch-rival India. Not the weak, unpopular government, saddled by a secular past and still reeling from the slaying of its most charismatic leader, Benazir Bhutto, three years ago.
In recent days I have listened to Islamic activists rant about the sanctity of the prophet and the evil of those who offend him or dare to question any tents of Islam. They even have a label for such dangerous subversives, which translates roughly as "ought to be killed."
But there is one conversation that haunts me in particular, an encounter I had with a young man on a flight between Islamabad and Karachi. He was neatly dressed and beardless, a recent science graduate on his way to a job interview. As I read through the morning papers and discarded them on the floor, I noticed him squirming.
"Madam, could you please pick up the papers?" he finally said. "The name of our prophet is on the front page, and it must not be on the ground."
I complied, and we spoke cordially about our respective religions. But when I asked about Taseer's murder, his tone changed. "They say he blasphemed against our prophet," the young man said solemnly. "If this is true, then it would be my duty as a Muslim to kill him, too."
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
State of the Union a 'fundamental moment' for Obama
President Obama plans to use his State of the Union speech Tuesday to articulate a centrist vision that will shape the remaining two years of his term and provide a template for his reelection campaign.
Obama has been moving steadily to the political center since his midterm election drubbing two months ago, agreeing to extend tax cuts for the richest Americans, calling for business-friendly regulations and attempting to repair his relationship with the business community. His speech Tuesday is an opportunity to showcase that transformation, especially for independent voters.
"This is a fundamental, if not the fundamental, moment of the Obama presidency," said Douglas Schoen, who was an advisor to former President Bill Clinton. "He has been moving to the center by fits and starts. But he has yet to declare where he stands and what he wants to accomplish. This is his chance to eschew the partisanship of the first two years, to put himself in the center and be responsive to the mandate that elected him."
In the speech, set for 6 p.m. PST, Obama will lay out the steps he'll take to boost an economy bedeviled by high unemployment, while summarizing the progress made to date, according to White House aides. He will also address the whopping federal debt, a topic that contributed to voter angst in November when Republicans won control of the House.
He will try to plant the idea that things are getting better, but avoid suggesting that troubles are over. With unemployment at 9.4%, no one is apt to believe the economy has recovered.
"You've got to be careful not to take too much credit when people are still feeling pretty bad," said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. "But you also have to put yourself in position to take credit down the road as things do improve."
In a short video preview of his speech on his grass-roots website Organizing for America, Obama said: "My principal focus, my No. 1 focus is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing and we are creating jobs, not just now but well into the future. I'm focused on making sure the economy is working for everybody."
Building on a theme from his speech in Tucson after the shooting rampage that killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), Obama is likely to call for more civility in politics. The conciliatory message is a sharp break from some of Obama's more combative oratory of the last two years, when he said Republicans deserved to take a "back seat" to Democrats.
"This is his opportunity to close the book on the 2010 election and open up the Obama 2012 campaign," said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster. "This is his initial opportunity to make the case to voters that he understands the message that they sent last November — that he's listening and he gets it."
Predecessors have faced a similar predicament. Clinton, the last Democratic president, also delivered a high-stakes speech coming off a midterm election debacle.
In 1995, after his party lost control of Congress, Clinton opened his State of the Union address with a pledge to get back in step with voters. In the following year's address, Clinton proclaimed "the era of big government is over." Clinton won reelection that year.
"This is the speech that, if done right, will put [Obama] in the center and allow him to reclaim the mandate he got in 2008," Schoen said. "So this will effectively define his presidency. If he does it, it will inestimably increase his chances of reelection. And if he doesn't, it will be an opportunity lost."
Underscoring the importance of the speech, the White House is using various media tools to pique public interest, beginning with a special website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2011. White House policy experts will take online questions from the public after Obama finishes.
On Thursday, the president will field questions in a live interview on YouTube.
White House senior advisor David Plouffe sent an e-mail to supporters Friday asking them to take part. The e-mail was reminiscent of the many messages Plouffe sent out when, as Obama's 2008 campaign manager, he shared insights into Obama's campaign prospects.
The lead writer for the president's second State of the Union address is Jon Favreau, the chief White House speechwriter and architect of some of Obama's most memorable speeches from the '08 campaign. However, advice is coming in from all directions.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), in a suggestion to Obama's budget director, Jacob Lew, recommended that Obama include a reference to the bipartisan deficit reduction commission, whose final report was approved in December.
Durbin, who served on the panel, said Obama could point to the commission's work as "a template to follow" at a time when Republicans control the House and Democrats dominate the Senate.
"I have no doubt that the president is going to invite the Republicans to join us in getting the economy on track and reducing our national debt," Durbin said in an interview.
Obama has taken a series of steps in recent months aimed at compromising with Republicans and appealing to business interests, agreeing to extend tax cuts for the nation's wealthiest earners, freezing federal workers' pay and announcing a review of federal regulations.
Last week, he named General Electric Chief Jeffrey R. Immelt as a top economic advisor, a signal to business that follows his appointment of former Commerce Secretary William M. Daley as his chief of staff.
Voters like what they see; Obama's approval ratings have jumped in recent weeks.
However, as he veers to the political center, the president risks alienating liberals who want progress on goals such as an immigration overhaul and climate change legislation.
"People are not dumb," said Rena Steinzor, president of the think tank Center for Progressive Reform. "They understand what it means when he moves to the middle: It means placating big companies."
Obama has been moving steadily to the political center since his midterm election drubbing two months ago, agreeing to extend tax cuts for the richest Americans, calling for business-friendly regulations and attempting to repair his relationship with the business community. His speech Tuesday is an opportunity to showcase that transformation, especially for independent voters.
"This is a fundamental, if not the fundamental, moment of the Obama presidency," said Douglas Schoen, who was an advisor to former President Bill Clinton. "He has been moving to the center by fits and starts. But he has yet to declare where he stands and what he wants to accomplish. This is his chance to eschew the partisanship of the first two years, to put himself in the center and be responsive to the mandate that elected him."
In the speech, set for 6 p.m. PST, Obama will lay out the steps he'll take to boost an economy bedeviled by high unemployment, while summarizing the progress made to date, according to White House aides. He will also address the whopping federal debt, a topic that contributed to voter angst in November when Republicans won control of the House.
He will try to plant the idea that things are getting better, but avoid suggesting that troubles are over. With unemployment at 9.4%, no one is apt to believe the economy has recovered.
"You've got to be careful not to take too much credit when people are still feeling pretty bad," said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. "But you also have to put yourself in position to take credit down the road as things do improve."
In a short video preview of his speech on his grass-roots website Organizing for America, Obama said: "My principal focus, my No. 1 focus is going to be making sure that we are competitive, that we are growing and we are creating jobs, not just now but well into the future. I'm focused on making sure the economy is working for everybody."
Building on a theme from his speech in Tucson after the shooting rampage that killed six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), Obama is likely to call for more civility in politics. The conciliatory message is a sharp break from some of Obama's more combative oratory of the last two years, when he said Republicans deserved to take a "back seat" to Democrats.
"This is his opportunity to close the book on the 2010 election and open up the Obama 2012 campaign," said Neil Newhouse, a Republican pollster. "This is his initial opportunity to make the case to voters that he understands the message that they sent last November — that he's listening and he gets it."
Predecessors have faced a similar predicament. Clinton, the last Democratic president, also delivered a high-stakes speech coming off a midterm election debacle.
In 1995, after his party lost control of Congress, Clinton opened his State of the Union address with a pledge to get back in step with voters. In the following year's address, Clinton proclaimed "the era of big government is over." Clinton won reelection that year.
"This is the speech that, if done right, will put [Obama] in the center and allow him to reclaim the mandate he got in 2008," Schoen said. "So this will effectively define his presidency. If he does it, it will inestimably increase his chances of reelection. And if he doesn't, it will be an opportunity lost."
Underscoring the importance of the speech, the White House is using various media tools to pique public interest, beginning with a special website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2011. White House policy experts will take online questions from the public after Obama finishes.
On Thursday, the president will field questions in a live interview on YouTube.
White House senior advisor David Plouffe sent an e-mail to supporters Friday asking them to take part. The e-mail was reminiscent of the many messages Plouffe sent out when, as Obama's 2008 campaign manager, he shared insights into Obama's campaign prospects.
The lead writer for the president's second State of the Union address is Jon Favreau, the chief White House speechwriter and architect of some of Obama's most memorable speeches from the '08 campaign. However, advice is coming in from all directions.
Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), in a suggestion to Obama's budget director, Jacob Lew, recommended that Obama include a reference to the bipartisan deficit reduction commission, whose final report was approved in December.
Durbin, who served on the panel, said Obama could point to the commission's work as "a template to follow" at a time when Republicans control the House and Democrats dominate the Senate.
"I have no doubt that the president is going to invite the Republicans to join us in getting the economy on track and reducing our national debt," Durbin said in an interview.
Obama has taken a series of steps in recent months aimed at compromising with Republicans and appealing to business interests, agreeing to extend tax cuts for the nation's wealthiest earners, freezing federal workers' pay and announcing a review of federal regulations.
Last week, he named General Electric Chief Jeffrey R. Immelt as a top economic advisor, a signal to business that follows his appointment of former Commerce Secretary William M. Daley as his chief of staff.
Voters like what they see; Obama's approval ratings have jumped in recent weeks.
However, as he veers to the political center, the president risks alienating liberals who want progress on goals such as an immigration overhaul and climate change legislation.
"People are not dumb," said Rena Steinzor, president of the think tank Center for Progressive Reform. "They understand what it means when he moves to the middle: It means placating big companies."
Algeria Police Break Up March; At Least 19 Injured
At least 19 people were injured, the government said, but an opposition party official put the figure at more than 40.
Algeria has been among the many North African and Middle Eastern countries hit by shows of resistance against their autocratic leaders after a young Tunisian man set himself on fire last month, triggering a wave of protests that led Tunisia's longtime strongman to flee the country.
Protest organizers at the democratic opposition party RCD draped a Tunisian flag next to the Algerian flag on a balcony of party headquarters where the march was to begin in the capital, Algiers.
Riot police, backed by a helicopter and crowd-control trucks, ringed the exit to ensure marchers couldn't leave the building — and striking those who tried to come out to take part. Outside, some young men waved the national flag and chanted "Assassin Power!"
"I am a prisoner in the party's headquarters," said Said Sadi, a former presidential candidate who leads the Rally for Culture and Democracy party, said through a megaphone from a balcony window.
Demonstrators shouted "Boutef out!" referring to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika — echoing cries against Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before he fled Jan. 14 to Saudi Arabia amid huge street protests in Tunisia.
Some would-be marchers reportedly scuffled with police along the planned march route in Algiers.
"They indeed stopped us from marching, but politically, we have succeeded in breaking the wall of fear," RCD lawmaker Mohamed Khendek said. He said the party's task now is to broaden the movement.
The Interior Ministry said 19 people were hurt — eight police officers and 11 demonstrators and passers-by, the state news agency APS reported. The ministry estimated the crowd at around 250 people and said everyone who was injured was treated at the scene.
The ministry, in a statement, said "stones, chairs and blunt instruments were thrown toward security force agents out of the windows at the party headquarters," APS reported. Nine people were detained, including some for possession of banned knives, the ministry said.
A party spokesman, Mohcine Belabbas, said that 42 protesters were taken to hospital for treatment of injuries. The party's leader in parliament, Atmane Mazouz, was hit in the face with a police baton.
Algeria's government in 2002 enacted law banning public gatherings, a move largely targeting Islamic militants involved in a bloody insurgency that erupted in the country a decade earlier.
The regional government for Algiers denied the RCD's request for an authorization to demonstrate, the official news agency said.
Protesters in countries like Algeria have set themselves on fire in apparent attempts to copy Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian whose self-immolation helped inspire the protests that brought down Ben Ali.
Earlier this month, two demonstrators died in unrest over rising food prices, and the government responded by announcing it would cut the cost of sugar and cooking oil. Some self-immolations have been reported in Algeria.
Algeria has had a simmering Islamic movement, and al-Qaida's north African branch was born on the remains of a radical Muslim group that had fought against the military-backed government.
TUNISIA...One Small Revolution
New York Times:
By ROBERT D. KAPLAN
THE West stands captivated by Tunisia, where a month of peaceful protests by secular working- and middle-class Arabs has toppled a dictator, raising hopes that this North African country of 10 million will set off democracy movements throughout a region of calcified dictatorships. But before we envision a new Middle East remade in the manner of Europe 1989, it is worth cataloguing the pivotal ways in which Tunisia is unique.
Start with a map of classical antiquity, which shows a concentration of settlements where Tunisia is today, juxtaposed with the relative emptiness that characterizes modern-day Algeria and Libya. Jutting out into the Mediterranean close to Sicily, Tunisia has been the hub of North Africa not only under the Carthaginians and Romans, but under the Vandals, Byzantines, medieval Arabs and Turks. Whereas Algeria and Libya were but vague geographical expressions until the coming of European colonial map makers, Tunisia is an age-old cluster of civilization.
Even today, many of the roads in the country, particularly in the north, were originally Roman ones. For 2,000 years, the closer to Carthage (roughly the site of Tunis, the capital, today), the greater the level of development. Because urbanization in Tunisia started two millenniums ago, tribal identity based on nomadism — which, as the medieval historian Ibn Khaldun says, has always disrupted political stability — is correspondingly weak.
After the Roman general Scipio defeated Hannibal in 202 B.C. outside modern-day Tunis, he dug a demarcation ditch, or fossa regia, that marked the extent of civilized territory. The fossa regia remains relevant. Still visible in places, it runs from Tabarka on Tunisia’s northwestern coast southward, and then turns directly eastward to Sfax, another Mediterranean port. The towns beyond that line have fewer Roman remains, and today tend to be poorer and less developed, with historically higher rates of unemployment.
The town of Sidi Bouzid, where the recent revolt started when a vendor of fruit and vegetables set himself on fire, lies just beyond Scipio’s line. Tunisia is less part of the connective tissue of Arab North Africa than a demographic and cultural island bordered by sea and desert, with upwardly mobile European aspirations.
Tunisia has a relatively large middle class because of something so obvious it goes unremarked upon: it is a real state, with historical and geographical legitimacy, where political arguments are about budgets and food subsidies, not the extremist ideologies that have plagued its neighbors, Algeria and Libya. It is a state not only because of the legacy of Rome and other empires, but because of human agency, in the person of Habib Bourguiba, one of the lesser-known great men of the 20th century.
Bourguiba was the Arab Ataturk, who ruled Tunisia in a fiercely secular style for its first three decades after independence from France in the mid-1950s. Rather than envision grandiose building projects or a mighty army, Bourguiba devoted generous financing to birth control programs, rural women’s literacy and primary-school education. He cracked down on the wearing of the veil, actually tried to do away with Ramadan, and advocated normalizing relations with Israel more than a decade before Anwar Sadat of Egypt went to Jerusalem. Yes, he was an authoritarian, but the result of his rule was that Tunisia, with moderate political tendencies and no serious ethnic or sectarian splits, has been poised since the 1980s for a democratic experiment.
In 1987, while faced by an Islamic rising, Bourguiba became too infirm to rule, and was replaced by his former interior minister, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, essentially a security boss with little vision, much like the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. Mr. Ben Ali’s strategy was to keep order, which largely meant killing and torturing Islamists and other dissidents.
But before we dismiss Mr. Ben Ali entirely, we should keep in mind that for many years he presided over a growing economy and middle class, with progress penetrating to the areas beyond the fossa regia. What happened was classic development theory: rising expectations along with uneven economic growth that led to political upheaval. Unlike Bourguiba, who was always revered as the man who led the country to independence, Mr. Ben Ali had no particular cachet to save him, despite an outrageous personality cult, and his extended family was famously corrupt.
Because Bourguiba insisted that the army remain small and apolitical, it is now the most trusted institution in the country. Indeed, the Tunisian Army is a benign Leviathan that may well ensure public order and thus allow for the tumult of democracy.
Nevertheless, despite all these advantages of history, prosperity and stability, Tunisia’s path forward is treacherous. As for other benighted countries in the Arab world — the ones that many observers hope will be shaken to the core by Tunisia’s revolt — they are in far worse shape.
Egypt has been effectively governed by military emergency law since 1952, with Islamic militants waiting in the wings for any kind of opportunity, even as the country is rent by tensions between its majority Muslims and Coptic Christian minority. Algeria and Libya have neither the effective institutions nor the venerable tradition of statehood that Tunisia has. Libya, should Muammar el-Qaddafi fall, would likely be much more of a mess than Tunisia post-Ben Ali.
Then there is Lebanon, with its vicious communalisms, and Syria, which has the potential to break up the way Yugoslavia did in the 1990s, given its regionally defined sectarian divisions. Syria held three free elections from 1947 to 1954 that all broke down along sectarian and regional lines, and the military regimes that have followed in Damascus did nothing to prepare their people for another bout of democracy.
As for Iraq, once the dictator was removed, tens of thousands — and perhaps hundreds of thousands — died in sectarian and ethnic violence. Often, the worse the dictator, the worse the mess after he is toppled. There have been many comparisons between Tunisia 2011 and Europe 1989, but the idea that the coming of democracy in the Middle East won’t have far more disruptions than occurred in Eastern Europe following the collapse of Communism seems naïve.
And there are plenty of reasons to think we are not on the cusp of a democratic avalanche. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 began as a revolt against the tyranny of the shah, but ended with a theocratic regime that was even worse. The seizure of the Grand Mosque at Mecca the same year by Islamic radicals might have brought a tyranny far worse than that of monarchial Saudi Arabia. In any event, it was put down and so remained a localized revolt. The Cedar Revolution in 2005 in Lebanon was stillborn.
There are some promising factors. For one, Arabic-language cable television makes the Middle East a virtual community, so that an event in one part of the region can more easily affect another part. It’s worth hoping that Tunisia’s secular Jasmine Revolution can seed similar uprisings in a restive Middle East that has undergone vast economic and social change, but suffers under the same sterile national security regimes that arose half a century ago.
Still, as the situation evolves in Tunis, and as we watch other Arab capitals expectantly, we would do well to focus less on what unites these places than on what divides them. Just as Tunisia’s circumstances are unique, so are those in all the other countries. The more we focus on the particularities of each place, the less surprised we will be by political developments.
Another thing to keep in mind: in terms of American interests and regional peace, there is plenty of peril in democracy. It was not democrats, but Arab autocrats, Anwar Sadat of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan, who made peace with Israel. An autocrat firmly in charge can make concessions more easily than can a weak, elected leader — just witness the fragility of Mahmoud Abbas’s West Bank government. And it was democracy that brought the extremists of Hamas to power in Gaza. In fact, do we really want a relatively enlightened leader like King Abdullah in Jordan undermined by widespread street demonstrations? We should be careful what we wish for in the Middle East
By ROBERT D. KAPLAN
THE West stands captivated by Tunisia, where a month of peaceful protests by secular working- and middle-class Arabs has toppled a dictator, raising hopes that this North African country of 10 million will set off democracy movements throughout a region of calcified dictatorships. But before we envision a new Middle East remade in the manner of Europe 1989, it is worth cataloguing the pivotal ways in which Tunisia is unique.
Start with a map of classical antiquity, which shows a concentration of settlements where Tunisia is today, juxtaposed with the relative emptiness that characterizes modern-day Algeria and Libya. Jutting out into the Mediterranean close to Sicily, Tunisia has been the hub of North Africa not only under the Carthaginians and Romans, but under the Vandals, Byzantines, medieval Arabs and Turks. Whereas Algeria and Libya were but vague geographical expressions until the coming of European colonial map makers, Tunisia is an age-old cluster of civilization.
Even today, many of the roads in the country, particularly in the north, were originally Roman ones. For 2,000 years, the closer to Carthage (roughly the site of Tunis, the capital, today), the greater the level of development. Because urbanization in Tunisia started two millenniums ago, tribal identity based on nomadism — which, as the medieval historian Ibn Khaldun says, has always disrupted political stability — is correspondingly weak.
After the Roman general Scipio defeated Hannibal in 202 B.C. outside modern-day Tunis, he dug a demarcation ditch, or fossa regia, that marked the extent of civilized territory. The fossa regia remains relevant. Still visible in places, it runs from Tabarka on Tunisia’s northwestern coast southward, and then turns directly eastward to Sfax, another Mediterranean port. The towns beyond that line have fewer Roman remains, and today tend to be poorer and less developed, with historically higher rates of unemployment.
The town of Sidi Bouzid, where the recent revolt started when a vendor of fruit and vegetables set himself on fire, lies just beyond Scipio’s line. Tunisia is less part of the connective tissue of Arab North Africa than a demographic and cultural island bordered by sea and desert, with upwardly mobile European aspirations.
Tunisia has a relatively large middle class because of something so obvious it goes unremarked upon: it is a real state, with historical and geographical legitimacy, where political arguments are about budgets and food subsidies, not the extremist ideologies that have plagued its neighbors, Algeria and Libya. It is a state not only because of the legacy of Rome and other empires, but because of human agency, in the person of Habib Bourguiba, one of the lesser-known great men of the 20th century.
Bourguiba was the Arab Ataturk, who ruled Tunisia in a fiercely secular style for its first three decades after independence from France in the mid-1950s. Rather than envision grandiose building projects or a mighty army, Bourguiba devoted generous financing to birth control programs, rural women’s literacy and primary-school education. He cracked down on the wearing of the veil, actually tried to do away with Ramadan, and advocated normalizing relations with Israel more than a decade before Anwar Sadat of Egypt went to Jerusalem. Yes, he was an authoritarian, but the result of his rule was that Tunisia, with moderate political tendencies and no serious ethnic or sectarian splits, has been poised since the 1980s for a democratic experiment.
In 1987, while faced by an Islamic rising, Bourguiba became too infirm to rule, and was replaced by his former interior minister, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, essentially a security boss with little vision, much like the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. Mr. Ben Ali’s strategy was to keep order, which largely meant killing and torturing Islamists and other dissidents.
But before we dismiss Mr. Ben Ali entirely, we should keep in mind that for many years he presided over a growing economy and middle class, with progress penetrating to the areas beyond the fossa regia. What happened was classic development theory: rising expectations along with uneven economic growth that led to political upheaval. Unlike Bourguiba, who was always revered as the man who led the country to independence, Mr. Ben Ali had no particular cachet to save him, despite an outrageous personality cult, and his extended family was famously corrupt.
Because Bourguiba insisted that the army remain small and apolitical, it is now the most trusted institution in the country. Indeed, the Tunisian Army is a benign Leviathan that may well ensure public order and thus allow for the tumult of democracy.
Nevertheless, despite all these advantages of history, prosperity and stability, Tunisia’s path forward is treacherous. As for other benighted countries in the Arab world — the ones that many observers hope will be shaken to the core by Tunisia’s revolt — they are in far worse shape.
Egypt has been effectively governed by military emergency law since 1952, with Islamic militants waiting in the wings for any kind of opportunity, even as the country is rent by tensions between its majority Muslims and Coptic Christian minority. Algeria and Libya have neither the effective institutions nor the venerable tradition of statehood that Tunisia has. Libya, should Muammar el-Qaddafi fall, would likely be much more of a mess than Tunisia post-Ben Ali.
Then there is Lebanon, with its vicious communalisms, and Syria, which has the potential to break up the way Yugoslavia did in the 1990s, given its regionally defined sectarian divisions. Syria held three free elections from 1947 to 1954 that all broke down along sectarian and regional lines, and the military regimes that have followed in Damascus did nothing to prepare their people for another bout of democracy.
As for Iraq, once the dictator was removed, tens of thousands — and perhaps hundreds of thousands — died in sectarian and ethnic violence. Often, the worse the dictator, the worse the mess after he is toppled. There have been many comparisons between Tunisia 2011 and Europe 1989, but the idea that the coming of democracy in the Middle East won’t have far more disruptions than occurred in Eastern Europe following the collapse of Communism seems naïve.
And there are plenty of reasons to think we are not on the cusp of a democratic avalanche. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 began as a revolt against the tyranny of the shah, but ended with a theocratic regime that was even worse. The seizure of the Grand Mosque at Mecca the same year by Islamic radicals might have brought a tyranny far worse than that of monarchial Saudi Arabia. In any event, it was put down and so remained a localized revolt. The Cedar Revolution in 2005 in Lebanon was stillborn.
There are some promising factors. For one, Arabic-language cable television makes the Middle East a virtual community, so that an event in one part of the region can more easily affect another part. It’s worth hoping that Tunisia’s secular Jasmine Revolution can seed similar uprisings in a restive Middle East that has undergone vast economic and social change, but suffers under the same sterile national security regimes that arose half a century ago.
Still, as the situation evolves in Tunis, and as we watch other Arab capitals expectantly, we would do well to focus less on what unites these places than on what divides them. Just as Tunisia’s circumstances are unique, so are those in all the other countries. The more we focus on the particularities of each place, the less surprised we will be by political developments.
Another thing to keep in mind: in terms of American interests and regional peace, there is plenty of peril in democracy. It was not democrats, but Arab autocrats, Anwar Sadat of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan, who made peace with Israel. An autocrat firmly in charge can make concessions more easily than can a weak, elected leader — just witness the fragility of Mahmoud Abbas’s West Bank government. And it was democracy that brought the extremists of Hamas to power in Gaza. In fact, do we really want a relatively enlightened leader like King Abdullah in Jordan undermined by widespread street demonstrations? We should be careful what we wish for in the Middle East
Tunisian protesters demanded the departure of the embattled prime minister
Tunisian protesters demanded the departure of the embattled prime minister on Saturday, and an investigator promised to uncover the interior ministry's role in this month's shooting of scores of unarmed demonstrators.
Emboldened by their overthrow of the president a week ago in a "Jasmine Revolution," marchers took to the streets to try to force out his lieutenants.
Not satisfied with his pledge to quit once free elections can be held, hundreds surged past a half-hearted police cordon at the office of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi. One banner read: "No place for men of tyranny in a unity government."
Ghannouchi, who stayed on to head a would-be unity coalition after strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled on January 14, made an emotional late-night plea for patience on television on Friday. He portrayed himself as a fellow victim and pledged to end his political career as soon as he could organize elections.
But as he met cabinet colleagues on Saturday, thousands -- including many policemen -- took to the streets of Tunis and other towns to keep up the protest momentum and reject what many deride as Ghannouchi's token attempt to co-opt a handful of little-known dissidents into his government.
One demonstrator outside the premier's office said: "We want to tell Mr Ghannouchi the definition of 'revolution' -- it means a radical change, not keeping on the same prime minister."
The toppling of an authoritarian ruler by waves of street protests has transfixed Arabs across North Africa and the Middle East. The underlying problems of unemployment and corrupt rule are common across the region, and its leaders -- many supported by Western powers as bulwarks against radical Islam -- are watching anxiously as events in Tunisia unfold.
In neighboring Algeria, still scarred by an Islamist revolt in the 1990s against the ruling party, police used batons on Saturday to stop a gathering by an opposition group.
In Saudi Arabia, a man burned himself to death. It was not clear if he was, like numerous others in Egypt and elsewhere, inspired by the self-immolation of a Tunisian vegetable seller whose desperate act last month launched the wave of protests.
In Tunis, a man died after setting himself on fire outside a telephone company. It was not clear what his motive was.
The heads of three commissions established by Tunisia's interim government this week said they would overhaul the country's laws and examine the interior ministry's role in the shooting of protesters.
"We saw in some cases shots had been directed to the head or to the chest... We will look into the reason those who held guns or knives struck those with empty hands who called for bread and freedom," said Taoufik Bouderbala, head of the National Commission to Investigate Abuses.
"We will accuse no one. We will check the facts... but we will ask who gave permission to those who opened fire?"
Tunisia's interior minister has given a death toll of 78 since the start of the demonstrations, but the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights put the number at 117, including 70 killed by live fire.
It is unclear when elections for president and parliament might be held. But leaders of secular and Islamist opposition groups, harshly repressed under Ben Ali's rule, are rushing to re-enter the political fray.
Rached Ghannouchi, exiled leader of the banned Islamist Ennahda (Renaissance) movement, told Al Jazeera his movement supported the democratic trend and should not be feared: "We are a moderate Islamic movement, a democratic movement based on democratic ideals in ... Islamic culture," he said.
Moncef Marzouki, a secular dissident who returned from exile in Paris and hopes to run for president, urged the appointment of a new, independent prime minister. He said premier Ghannouchi's presence was hampering, not helping, efforts to restore stability.
But mindful of the dozens of deaths this month and of the thirst for retribution against Ben Ali's clan and the organs of his police state, Marzouki urged those in the streets to stay calm.
"The great thing is that this revolution has been peaceful," he said. "Please continue this way and don't get into revenge."
Even policemen, once the feared blunt instrument of Ben Ali's 24-year rule, were declaring changed loyalties. In Tunis thousands joined in a chant of "We are innocent of the blood of the martyrs!" at a rally to show their support for the revolt.
Clearly under pressure, Prime Minister Ghannouchi said on television late on Friday: "I lived like Tunisians and I feared like Tunisians." He added: "I pledge to stop all my political activity after my period leading the transitional government."
The response of the street protesters was scornful: "Since 1990, Ghannouchi has been finance minister, then prime minister," said student Firass Hermassi outside Ghannouchi's office. "He knows everything, he's an accomplice."
Egyptian activists plan demonstrations Tuesday
A call that first came from the Khaled Saeed Facebook page requested that Egyptians take the streets on Police Day, 25 January, to protest police violence.
Khaled Saeed was allegedly tortured to death at the hands of two Egyptian policemen. Subsequently, youth mobilised over the Internet condemning police violence.
Several opposition groups have responded by expanding the day of action beyond ending police violence.
Opposition groups have decided that 25 January will be a long day of demonstrations demanding greater freedom, justice and citizenship rights.
Groups taking part include Kifaya, the National Association for Change, Hashd, Karama, the 6th of April Youth, the Revolutionary Socialists, Egyptian Women for Change, and Youth for Justice and Freedom.
Khaled Saeed was allegedly tortured to death at the hands of two Egyptian policemen. Subsequently, youth mobilised over the Internet condemning police violence.
Several opposition groups have responded by expanding the day of action beyond ending police violence.
Opposition groups have decided that 25 January will be a long day of demonstrations demanding greater freedom, justice and citizenship rights.
Groups taking part include Kifaya, the National Association for Change, Hashd, Karama, the 6th of April Youth, the Revolutionary Socialists, Egyptian Women for Change, and Youth for Justice and Freedom.
Clean & Green Peshawar campaign begins tomorrow
Provincial president, Pakhtun Milli Awami Party, (PMAP), Mukhtar Khan Yusufzai has demanded the exposure of those responsible for violence against protesters in district Bannu. Addressing a news conference here on Saturday, he also called for ousting of the local administration of the district Bannu to carryout fair and transparent probe into the incident. He said that Chief Minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ameer Haider Khan Hoti had announced judicial inquiry against the use of force on peaceful protesters. He lamented that the responsibility of the mayhem was not exposed yet despite the formation of committee in this regard. "We want transparent and independent investigation and there will be difficult to carry out impartial probe in presence of the present local administration", he maintained.
Karzai backs down in dispute with Afghan lawmakers
Under heavy pressure from Afghan lawmakers and Western diplomats, President Hamid Karzai agreed on Saturday to convene the newly elected parliament, ending a political standoff that threatened to spark a constitutional crisis.
After hours of tense discussions at the presidential palace, Karzai backed off his earlier order to delay the session for a month to allow more time for a special tribunal to investigate allegations of fraud in September's parliamentary election, according to two of the lawmakers involved in the talks, Shukria Barakzai of Kabul and Gul Pacha Majidi of Ghazni province.
In return, Karzai asked the parliamentarians to agree that any criminal case against a lawmaker could go forward, said Mirwais Yasini, a representative from Nangarhar province who was deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament in the last session. The legislators agreed to this Saturday evening and drafted a letter to send to the president on Sunday, Yasini said.
While he has not said so publicly, it is generally believed that Karzai is unhappy with the election results and thinks fraud reduced voter turnout among his fellow ethnic Pashtuns. Some of the hundreds of losing candidates said Karzai told them that he believed they were wronged and that he would do everything to support further investigations into election fraud.
The order to delay the parliament, however, sparked an outcry among lawmakers and drew heavy pressure from the United States, the U.N. and other world powers for Karzai to resolve the dispute and allow the 249-seat legislature to get to work.
In a statement released Friday night, the United Nations expressed its "deep concern and surprise" at the president's order for a delay. Siding with the newly elected lawmakers, the U.N., the European Union, the United States, Canada and other nations said they continued to support a "reasonable, enduring and peaceful resolution to this issue" so that the Afghan parliament could convene as soon as possible.
Legislators had threatened to defy the president's ordered delay and start the session on their own on Sunday, as originally scheduled, even if they had to meet in a hotel or on the street. Under Afghan law, the president inaugurates the legislature at its opening session.
In an effort to avert a public showdown on Sunday, Karzai invited all the lawmakers to the palace for lunch Saturday and after much debate, a compromise was reached.
"He is coming and Wednesday will be the opening," Barakzai said.
Some politicians, however, were not happy with the outcome, signaling that the political tension could drag on.
Daoud Sultanzoy, a former parliamentarian who lost his seat in a chaotic election in Ghazni province, said Karzai bowed to pressure from the international community to support the appearance of a fair vote rather than waiting for the courts to make a decision.
"The United States and the European Union and everyone are ganging up on the people of Afghanistan," Sultanzoy said. "It's a very tragic situation that the president is deciding to do this under international pressure."
Sultanzoy and other losing parliamentarians planned to stage a demonstration in Kabul on Sunday. He said he expected more demonstrations to follow nationwide. He said that Afghans would not be able to trust in their government after this decision.
"Karzai is hitting the last nails in the coffin of this government," Sultanzoy said.
An earlier investigation by an anti-fraud watchdog into the charges of election irregularities discarded 1.3 million ballots — nearly a quarter of the total — and disqualified 19 winning candidates before final results were issued on Nov. 24.
But Afghanistan's attorney general concluded that investigation had not been thorough enough.
The attorney general launched a new round of inquiries, which led the Supreme Court to create the special tribunal in late December.
It was unclear, however, if the tribunal — deemed unconstitutional by both the international community and the electoral bodies that organized and oversaw the election — has the power to alter the result of any races. Afghan electoral law names the fraud investigation panel as the ultimate arbiter of such issues and the Independent Election Commission as the body to declare final results.
After hours of tense discussions at the presidential palace, Karzai backed off his earlier order to delay the session for a month to allow more time for a special tribunal to investigate allegations of fraud in September's parliamentary election, according to two of the lawmakers involved in the talks, Shukria Barakzai of Kabul and Gul Pacha Majidi of Ghazni province.
In return, Karzai asked the parliamentarians to agree that any criminal case against a lawmaker could go forward, said Mirwais Yasini, a representative from Nangarhar province who was deputy speaker of the lower house of parliament in the last session. The legislators agreed to this Saturday evening and drafted a letter to send to the president on Sunday, Yasini said.
While he has not said so publicly, it is generally believed that Karzai is unhappy with the election results and thinks fraud reduced voter turnout among his fellow ethnic Pashtuns. Some of the hundreds of losing candidates said Karzai told them that he believed they were wronged and that he would do everything to support further investigations into election fraud.
The order to delay the parliament, however, sparked an outcry among lawmakers and drew heavy pressure from the United States, the U.N. and other world powers for Karzai to resolve the dispute and allow the 249-seat legislature to get to work.
In a statement released Friday night, the United Nations expressed its "deep concern and surprise" at the president's order for a delay. Siding with the newly elected lawmakers, the U.N., the European Union, the United States, Canada and other nations said they continued to support a "reasonable, enduring and peaceful resolution to this issue" so that the Afghan parliament could convene as soon as possible.
Legislators had threatened to defy the president's ordered delay and start the session on their own on Sunday, as originally scheduled, even if they had to meet in a hotel or on the street. Under Afghan law, the president inaugurates the legislature at its opening session.
In an effort to avert a public showdown on Sunday, Karzai invited all the lawmakers to the palace for lunch Saturday and after much debate, a compromise was reached.
"He is coming and Wednesday will be the opening," Barakzai said.
Some politicians, however, were not happy with the outcome, signaling that the political tension could drag on.
Daoud Sultanzoy, a former parliamentarian who lost his seat in a chaotic election in Ghazni province, said Karzai bowed to pressure from the international community to support the appearance of a fair vote rather than waiting for the courts to make a decision.
"The United States and the European Union and everyone are ganging up on the people of Afghanistan," Sultanzoy said. "It's a very tragic situation that the president is deciding to do this under international pressure."
Sultanzoy and other losing parliamentarians planned to stage a demonstration in Kabul on Sunday. He said he expected more demonstrations to follow nationwide. He said that Afghans would not be able to trust in their government after this decision.
"Karzai is hitting the last nails in the coffin of this government," Sultanzoy said.
An earlier investigation by an anti-fraud watchdog into the charges of election irregularities discarded 1.3 million ballots — nearly a quarter of the total — and disqualified 19 winning candidates before final results were issued on Nov. 24.
But Afghanistan's attorney general concluded that investigation had not been thorough enough.
The attorney general launched a new round of inquiries, which led the Supreme Court to create the special tribunal in late December.
It was unclear, however, if the tribunal — deemed unconstitutional by both the international community and the electoral bodies that organized and oversaw the election — has the power to alter the result of any races. Afghan electoral law names the fraud investigation panel as the ultimate arbiter of such issues and the Independent Election Commission as the body to declare final results.
Saudi man dies after setting himself on fire.......SIGNS OF REVOLUTION!!!
A Saudi man died after setting himself on fire in the southwestern town of Samta, local media said Saturday, in what could be the latest example of a rash of self-immolations sweeping the region following events in Tunisia.
It would be oil-rich Saudi Arabia's first such incident since an unemployed man set himself on fire in Tunisia last month protesting the economy and sparking riots which brought down the government.
Since that time there have been a wave of copycat immolations across the region, though with few fatalities.
Civil defense spokesman Capt. Yahia al-Qahtani said in a statement carried by Saudi newspapers that the man, in his sixties, set himself on fire Friday and died in the hospital.
No name or motive was given.
In Egypt, a 25-year-old unemployed man died in a hospital on Tuesday after setting himself on fire in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, while three others in Cairo also attempted to set themselves on fire, but survived.
Protesters in Mauritania and Algeria have also set themselves alight in apparent attempts to copy Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi, 26, whose self-immolation helped inspire the protests that toppled Tunisia's authoritarian president.
These incidents, though isolated, reflect the growing despair among much of the Arab public which has no real means of expressing its dissatisfaction. They are deeply symbolic means of protest in a region that has little or no tolerance for dissent.
It would be oil-rich Saudi Arabia's first such incident since an unemployed man set himself on fire in Tunisia last month protesting the economy and sparking riots which brought down the government.
Since that time there have been a wave of copycat immolations across the region, though with few fatalities.
Civil defense spokesman Capt. Yahia al-Qahtani said in a statement carried by Saudi newspapers that the man, in his sixties, set himself on fire Friday and died in the hospital.
No name or motive was given.
In Egypt, a 25-year-old unemployed man died in a hospital on Tuesday after setting himself on fire in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, while three others in Cairo also attempted to set themselves on fire, but survived.
Protesters in Mauritania and Algeria have also set themselves alight in apparent attempts to copy Tunisian Mohammed Bouazizi, 26, whose self-immolation helped inspire the protests that toppled Tunisia's authoritarian president.
These incidents, though isolated, reflect the growing despair among much of the Arab public which has no real means of expressing its dissatisfaction. They are deeply symbolic means of protest in a region that has little or no tolerance for dissent.
Demonstrations in Tunisia as political purge continues
Tunisia's popular uprising has claimed its latest victim with the prime minister announcing he will leave politics after elections planned for the next six months, and no sign of a let up in demonstrations demanding a purge of politicians linked to the country's ousted president.It leaves the country on a knife edge with opposition supporters saying they will not stop their campaign until members of the old guard, once loyal to President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, have been removed from power and their cronies hunted down and put on trial.
In a TV interview, Mohamed Ghannouchi, the long serving prime minister, said he would quit "in the shortest possible timeframe" and give up politics after stepping down from the transitional government.
He was a key ally of the ousted president, a position that has meant he has struggled to restore calm under the new national unity government.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the centre of the capital Tunis to demand further reforms. They were joined for the first time by police officers, who were blamed for shooting dozens of people as the protests gathered pace this month, marking a fresh turning point.
"We want people to know that we are with them now and that the brutality was carried out by ignorant policemen," said one officer among the protesters.
Tunisia's interim government, which took over after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia nine days ago in the face of widespread popular unrest, has faced continued protests by demonstrators angry that former members of his RCD party remain in positions of authority.
The government says at least 78 people have been killed since the start of the uprising, while the United Nations has put the toll at about 100.
However, the tidal wave of change has not gone far enough for many, still angry at the Ben Ali family's appetite for property and wealth. Former prisoners are seeking a peace and reconciliation commission to examine past abuses.
Abdallah Sfax, who spent three months in prison for protesting against an official edict seizing half a hectare of land in Tunis, said he wanted his property restored. "I am free now to complain but that is not enough," he said. "I want my property back and more than that I want to look the people who imprisoned me in Burg al-Ami prison, which was a horrible hellhole, to face justice for treating me badly."
Ben Ali resigned and fled in disgrace to Saudi Arabia after 23 years in power, felled by a populist uprising against unemployment, corruption and poverty that quickly spiralled out of control despite a bloody crackdown.
The protests began when a young fruit seller set himself ablaze in the town of Sidi Bouzid in anger at local officials who had confiscated his handcart in order to demand "baksheesh", a bribe – as they did almost every week. Mohamed Bouazizi's suicide resonated with many ordinary Tunisians with dismal prospects in a country where many graduates struggle to find work, sparking an unstoppable torrent of anger.
Like many Arab leaders, Ben Ali styled himself as a bulwark against the spread of Islamic extremism and al Qaeda and enjoyed good ties with the West until the last days of the Tunisian uprising that unseated him this month.
Vigilante groups armed with iron bars and hammers have sprung up to patrol the streets at night and take part in demonstrations by day.
A curfew remains in place and a state of emergency has not been lifted and there is no date yet for university students to return to campuses – another potential flashpoint.
At the same time fears that a "mafia" linked to the presidential security service could go on the rampage as part of a fight-back from the old regime are running strong.
"We're not just here to defend our neighbourhood. We're protecting Tunisia," said Mongi, a member of a vigilante group set up in the Bardo neighbourhood in Tunis who has been nicknamed "The General" by residents.
"We have to defend the liberties that we have conquered," Mongi said.
Workers have taken over companies and state departments to defend their position and ensure new appointments do not reimpose state control.
"We are expecting a lot of change and don't want the old guard to steal our revolution away," said one Tunis office worker at Star Insurance, which was owned by Mr Ben Ali's son-in-law Sakher Materi, and who refused to give her name in fear of reprisals.
"There is an inbuilt bureaucracy here and this is not over. We hope that we will not return to the old domination by the yes men but we don't know and have to stand up for ourselves."
The revolutionary fervour that has swept Tunis leaves many people re-examining their complicity with the Ben Ali regime in order to get jobs and provide for their families. As the demonstrations intensified last week some were warning that events could spiral into a Chinese-style Cultural Revolution in which everything is destroyed.
Mouldi Mubarak, who was said to be Mr Ben Ali's favourite newspaper columnist, said: "The revolutionary conditions have been good but there is a danger it will undermine all society. It is very important to avoid cultural anarchy. Democracy will only work if we ensure that there is no anarchy."
Meanwhile, the family of Mohamed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old man whose death was the spark for a regime's downfall, visit his grave every day. Just outside the town of Sidi Bouzid it has become a pilgrimage site for opposition politicians and protesters.
His family say they are proud of the stand he took against local corruption.
"They offered us two billion dinar (£880m) not to bring his body back here for the funeral," said his older brother, Salem Bouazizi, 30. "They knew it would make things worse for them but there was no way we would sell our brother like that."
His mother, swathed in black and hunched over a charcoal burner against the winter chill in their tiny one-storey home, said Mohamed did not have a political bone in his body.
"He was not campaigning or looking to bring down the government," said Mannoubia Bouazizi, speaking in Arabic. "He was just one man with his handcart who had had enough. We are proud though of what he achieved. It means we can walk tall."
The reverberations from his death are still being felt throughout Tunisia as its people try to decide what comes next and how far the revolution will cut through society.
In a TV interview, Mohamed Ghannouchi, the long serving prime minister, said he would quit "in the shortest possible timeframe" and give up politics after stepping down from the transitional government.
He was a key ally of the ousted president, a position that has meant he has struggled to restore calm under the new national unity government.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered in the centre of the capital Tunis to demand further reforms. They were joined for the first time by police officers, who were blamed for shooting dozens of people as the protests gathered pace this month, marking a fresh turning point.
"We want people to know that we are with them now and that the brutality was carried out by ignorant policemen," said one officer among the protesters.
Tunisia's interim government, which took over after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia nine days ago in the face of widespread popular unrest, has faced continued protests by demonstrators angry that former members of his RCD party remain in positions of authority.
The government says at least 78 people have been killed since the start of the uprising, while the United Nations has put the toll at about 100.
However, the tidal wave of change has not gone far enough for many, still angry at the Ben Ali family's appetite for property and wealth. Former prisoners are seeking a peace and reconciliation commission to examine past abuses.
Abdallah Sfax, who spent three months in prison for protesting against an official edict seizing half a hectare of land in Tunis, said he wanted his property restored. "I am free now to complain but that is not enough," he said. "I want my property back and more than that I want to look the people who imprisoned me in Burg al-Ami prison, which was a horrible hellhole, to face justice for treating me badly."
Ben Ali resigned and fled in disgrace to Saudi Arabia after 23 years in power, felled by a populist uprising against unemployment, corruption and poverty that quickly spiralled out of control despite a bloody crackdown.
The protests began when a young fruit seller set himself ablaze in the town of Sidi Bouzid in anger at local officials who had confiscated his handcart in order to demand "baksheesh", a bribe – as they did almost every week. Mohamed Bouazizi's suicide resonated with many ordinary Tunisians with dismal prospects in a country where many graduates struggle to find work, sparking an unstoppable torrent of anger.
Like many Arab leaders, Ben Ali styled himself as a bulwark against the spread of Islamic extremism and al Qaeda and enjoyed good ties with the West until the last days of the Tunisian uprising that unseated him this month.
Vigilante groups armed with iron bars and hammers have sprung up to patrol the streets at night and take part in demonstrations by day.
A curfew remains in place and a state of emergency has not been lifted and there is no date yet for university students to return to campuses – another potential flashpoint.
At the same time fears that a "mafia" linked to the presidential security service could go on the rampage as part of a fight-back from the old regime are running strong.
"We're not just here to defend our neighbourhood. We're protecting Tunisia," said Mongi, a member of a vigilante group set up in the Bardo neighbourhood in Tunis who has been nicknamed "The General" by residents.
"We have to defend the liberties that we have conquered," Mongi said.
Workers have taken over companies and state departments to defend their position and ensure new appointments do not reimpose state control.
"We are expecting a lot of change and don't want the old guard to steal our revolution away," said one Tunis office worker at Star Insurance, which was owned by Mr Ben Ali's son-in-law Sakher Materi, and who refused to give her name in fear of reprisals.
"There is an inbuilt bureaucracy here and this is not over. We hope that we will not return to the old domination by the yes men but we don't know and have to stand up for ourselves."
The revolutionary fervour that has swept Tunis leaves many people re-examining their complicity with the Ben Ali regime in order to get jobs and provide for their families. As the demonstrations intensified last week some were warning that events could spiral into a Chinese-style Cultural Revolution in which everything is destroyed.
Mouldi Mubarak, who was said to be Mr Ben Ali's favourite newspaper columnist, said: "The revolutionary conditions have been good but there is a danger it will undermine all society. It is very important to avoid cultural anarchy. Democracy will only work if we ensure that there is no anarchy."
Meanwhile, the family of Mohamed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old man whose death was the spark for a regime's downfall, visit his grave every day. Just outside the town of Sidi Bouzid it has become a pilgrimage site for opposition politicians and protesters.
His family say they are proud of the stand he took against local corruption.
"They offered us two billion dinar (£880m) not to bring his body back here for the funeral," said his older brother, Salem Bouazizi, 30. "They knew it would make things worse for them but there was no way we would sell our brother like that."
His mother, swathed in black and hunched over a charcoal burner against the winter chill in their tiny one-storey home, said Mohamed did not have a political bone in his body.
"He was not campaigning or looking to bring down the government," said Mannoubia Bouazizi, speaking in Arabic. "He was just one man with his handcart who had had enough. We are proud though of what he achieved. It means we can walk tall."
The reverberations from his death are still being felt throughout Tunisia as its people try to decide what comes next and how far the revolution will cut through society.
Veena Malik defends herself against clerics and media Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/302812#ixzz1BnIuamba
Actress Veena Malik after returning to Pakistan defended herself against allegations of indecency and offensive performance in India. Veena said she was accountable to god and not to people.
Pakistani TV and film actress Veena Malik defended herself emphatically against a religious cleric as well as media, which had been slinging mud at her, while bursting into tears on TV last evening, January 21, 2011. Veena had been the target of criticism since her participation in the famous Indian reality show Bigg Boss (Season 4), for which she remained in India for three months.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/302812#ixzz1BnJ16WIx
Pakistani TV and film actress Veena Malik defended herself emphatically against a religious cleric as well as media, which had been slinging mud at her, while bursting into tears on TV last evening, January 21, 2011. Veena had been the target of criticism since her participation in the famous Indian reality show Bigg Boss (Season 4), for which she remained in India for three months.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/302812#ixzz1BnJ16WIx
Friday, January 21, 2011
Arab world ponders future after Tunisia
‘IT IS on everyone’s mind that the Arab soul is broken by poverty, unemployment and a general recession,” according to Amr Mousa, secretary general of the Arab League. He referred to events in Tunisia as an example of “big social shocks that many Arab societies are exposed to”. These are “serious events” which “shape the beginning of one era and the end of another”.
The summit at which he spoke did not explicitly refer to Tunisia, but behind the scenes, in national capitals and in the Arab media, that country’s remarkable popular transformation monopolises discussions about the region’s future. Two major questions arise: will similar events occur elsewhere in an Arab world dominated by authoritarian governments and dynasties – and what role might transnational and social media play in any such change?
It is easy for outsiders to assume a greater homogeneity in the region than actually exists.
The hub and spoke relationship with former imperial powers like France and Britain means its states and peoples are surprisingly separate from one another – as was the case with the Soviet-dominated states of central and eastern Europe after 1989.
US and EU policy towards the region has recently been driven by a master narrative derived from the “war on terror”. In this frame, the Ben Ali regime was tolerated and subsidised despite its human rights abuses and kleptocratic structure because it dealt with fundamentalist Islamic resistance in the 1990s.
Economic growth, education spending and neoliberal reforms seemed to promise a modernised and secular society capable of gradual change. In retrospect, their underside of unevenly distributed benefits, 30 per cent youth unemployment and inequalities are seen to have created the tinders of popular revolt. Tunisia’s ruling family network was distinctive in its control of the tourism-dominated economy and hated for its self-promotion and centralised policing, providing a ready target for generalised popular anger.
Distinctive too compared to neighbouring states is a weaker army and relatively independent trade union movement, the one refusing to intervene for the regime in its last days, and the other capable of calling a strike which gathered a huge popular response. Fundamentalist Islamist groups are conspicuously absent from the turmoil; but no one can be sure how the vacuum will be filled, including by religious leaders returning from exile more attuned to reformist approaches.
Tunisia is a small state compared to Egypt, Algeria or Morocco, lacking oil wealth but more developed in several respects. Poverty, unemployment and recession affect each of them, and other Arab states, too, as Mousa pointed out.
Compared to Algeria’s multiple arenas of power, Tunisia’s political system is much more centralised. There is more scope for political opposition in Morocco, however circumscribed. And in Egypt the media are more diverse and independent, if still corralled, and the labour movement less capable of asserting leadership, despite widespread social conflicts.
Such structural factors are likely to constrain or diffuse revolutionary contagion until the Tunisian situation more fully unfolds. A military coup would stifle contagion, whereas functioning democratic elections would enhance it.
One factor favouring a movement of democratisation is the trans-border Arabic broadcast and social media. As during previous crises in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza, the Qatar-based satellite television channel al-Jazeera has played a central role in reporting the Tunisian events. Although banned from the state, its reporters relied on mobile phone photographs, Twitter and Facebook material to chronicle the escalating crisis and bring it to a wider Arab audience.
The impact of this reportage, reinforced by al-Jazeera’s favourable editorial line, should not be underestimated. Nor can the effects of the social media on which it drew so extensively.
Both types of media are new factors in the region’s public opinion, capable of bypassing or outwitting extensive state censorship and creating space for alternative politics. Television is more influential than the weaker printed media, while the social media embolden the emerging youthful and educated middle class. But as a study of new Arab journalism by Lawrence Pintak points out, in analysing media one should be careful about attributing them causal effects, as distinct from influencing or reinforcing emerging social and political movements.
Pintak quotes Rami Khouri, editor at large of the Beirut Daily Star , against conflating mass communication and mass democratisation, since “there remains a large gap between an informed citizenry and an empowered citizenry”. In the Financial Times , Khouri suspects “the Tunisian drama will be seen in retrospect more like the Solidarity movement in Poland that sparked a decade-long process of slow transformation in the Soviet satellites, than the fall of the Berlin Wall”.
China leader pledges US jobs
Chinese President Hu Jintao promised to help create needed jobs in the United States as he basked in a warm welcome in Chicago at the end of an often contentious state visit.
A day after heated discussions with lawmakers in Washington, Hu tried to show a more human side of the rising Asian power as he visited the third largest US city on Friday, where he met with business leaders, students and local dignitaries.
At a suburban warehouse, Hu toured an exhibition showcasing 10 Chinese companies that operate in the Midwestern metropolis which he said "have injected fresh momentum into the American economy and created jobs here."
"The Chinese government will continue to encourage our companies to do business and make investments here. We hope the American government will help provide a welcome environment for Chinese businesses," Hu said through an interpreter.
Hu afterward closed the long-awaited state visit, flying out of snowy O'Hare International Airport with the US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, seeing him off.
China has faced intense pressure from the United States and other major economies over its economic policies, with Beijing a favorite target of candidates during last year's congressional election.
Many US lawmakers accuse China of artificially keeping its currency low so it can flood the world with cheap exports. Hu, in a speech in Washington, hit back by saying that US consumers have saved $600 billion in the past decade thanks to "quality yet inexpensive Chinese products."
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, addressing a trade forum in Chicago on the sidelines of Hu's visit, said US businesses operating in China worry about the theft of intellectual property, closed decision-making and preferences toward domestic companies.
"In my travels across the country, I continue to hear stories of exasperation from American business leaders concerned about the commercial environment in China," Locke said.
Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming replied by calling for a boost in US exports to narrow the trade deficit.
"Our two countries need to sit down and work it out so there won't be such a huge trade deficit and trade surplus," he told the conference.
At the start of Hu's visit, President Barack Obama's administration said that China had agreed to contracts that would support 235,000 US jobs, including a $19 billion deal to buy 200 planes from Chicago-based Boeing Co.
Mayor Richard Daley escorted Hu throughout his tour of Chicago, the adopted hometown of Obama and headquarters of some 300 companies that do business in China including Boeing, telecom giant Motorola, and iconic chewing gum maker Wrigley.
"Our long-range goal is to make Chicago the most 'China-friendly' city in the United States," Daley said.
Hu started the final day of his state visit at a Chicago school that teaches Chinese language and culture. He beamed as a student presented him with a bouquet of orchids.
Chicago teenagers learning Chinese waved flags and shouted "Huanying," or "Welcome," as he arrived. Students donned traditional garb as they performed Chinese handkerchief and kung fu fan dances.
"I hope all the students here will value your precious time, study hard, enrich your lives and lay a full foundation for you future career and lives," Hu said, as he invited 20 of the teenagers and faculty members to visit China.
"We were especially struck by how bright and inquisitive the students are and by your many talents and you all around development."
Kristin Brantley, 16, said she studies Mandarin and Chinese culture because "I think it's going to be important in the future."
"It's pretty exciting. All my teachers have been telling us this is a huge deal," she told AFP.
Obama on Wednesday welcomed Hu for a gala black-tie dinner at the White House, part of efforts between the world's two largest economies to seek areas of cooperation despite rivalry on numerous issues.
Hu and Obama disagreed at a joint news conference on a series of points, including over China's human rights record.
But the Obama administration said that it sensed progress over North Korea, with China joining the United States in expressing concern over Pyongyang's uranium enrichment.
The New York Times reported Friday that Obama stepped up the tone on North Korea, warning Hu that the United States will have to redeploy forces in Asia unless Beijing reins in its ally.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs did not confirm the report, but said that the US side had tried to get China to understand its deep concerns over North Korea's actions.
A day after heated discussions with lawmakers in Washington, Hu tried to show a more human side of the rising Asian power as he visited the third largest US city on Friday, where he met with business leaders, students and local dignitaries.
At a suburban warehouse, Hu toured an exhibition showcasing 10 Chinese companies that operate in the Midwestern metropolis which he said "have injected fresh momentum into the American economy and created jobs here."
"The Chinese government will continue to encourage our companies to do business and make investments here. We hope the American government will help provide a welcome environment for Chinese businesses," Hu said through an interpreter.
Hu afterward closed the long-awaited state visit, flying out of snowy O'Hare International Airport with the US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, seeing him off.
China has faced intense pressure from the United States and other major economies over its economic policies, with Beijing a favorite target of candidates during last year's congressional election.
Many US lawmakers accuse China of artificially keeping its currency low so it can flood the world with cheap exports. Hu, in a speech in Washington, hit back by saying that US consumers have saved $600 billion in the past decade thanks to "quality yet inexpensive Chinese products."
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, addressing a trade forum in Chicago on the sidelines of Hu's visit, said US businesses operating in China worry about the theft of intellectual property, closed decision-making and preferences toward domestic companies.
"In my travels across the country, I continue to hear stories of exasperation from American business leaders concerned about the commercial environment in China," Locke said.
Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming replied by calling for a boost in US exports to narrow the trade deficit.
"Our two countries need to sit down and work it out so there won't be such a huge trade deficit and trade surplus," he told the conference.
At the start of Hu's visit, President Barack Obama's administration said that China had agreed to contracts that would support 235,000 US jobs, including a $19 billion deal to buy 200 planes from Chicago-based Boeing Co.
Mayor Richard Daley escorted Hu throughout his tour of Chicago, the adopted hometown of Obama and headquarters of some 300 companies that do business in China including Boeing, telecom giant Motorola, and iconic chewing gum maker Wrigley.
"Our long-range goal is to make Chicago the most 'China-friendly' city in the United States," Daley said.
Hu started the final day of his state visit at a Chicago school that teaches Chinese language and culture. He beamed as a student presented him with a bouquet of orchids.
Chicago teenagers learning Chinese waved flags and shouted "Huanying," or "Welcome," as he arrived. Students donned traditional garb as they performed Chinese handkerchief and kung fu fan dances.
"I hope all the students here will value your precious time, study hard, enrich your lives and lay a full foundation for you future career and lives," Hu said, as he invited 20 of the teenagers and faculty members to visit China.
"We were especially struck by how bright and inquisitive the students are and by your many talents and you all around development."
Kristin Brantley, 16, said she studies Mandarin and Chinese culture because "I think it's going to be important in the future."
"It's pretty exciting. All my teachers have been telling us this is a huge deal," she told AFP.
Obama on Wednesday welcomed Hu for a gala black-tie dinner at the White House, part of efforts between the world's two largest economies to seek areas of cooperation despite rivalry on numerous issues.
Hu and Obama disagreed at a joint news conference on a series of points, including over China's human rights record.
But the Obama administration said that it sensed progress over North Korea, with China joining the United States in expressing concern over Pyongyang's uranium enrichment.
The New York Times reported Friday that Obama stepped up the tone on North Korea, warning Hu that the United States will have to redeploy forces in Asia unless Beijing reins in its ally.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs did not confirm the report, but said that the US side had tried to get China to understand its deep concerns over North Korea's actions.
Tunisia to pay abuse victims, hunt Ben Ali clan
Tunisia will pay compensation to the families of victims of human rights abuse under its ousted authoritarian leader and will send envoys to other Arab states to pursue him, its prime minister said on Friday.
Anti-government protesters again took to the streets as Tunisia began three days of mourning for the dozens of people killed during president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's overthrow.
The interim government, which took over after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia last week in the face of widespread popular unrest, has faced continued protests by crowds angry that members of the old guard are still in the cabinet.
Mohamed Ghannouchi, Ben Ali's prime minister who has remained in office to lead an interim coalition cabinet, made an effort to distance himself from the ousted president in an emotional television interview.
"I lived like Tunisians and I feared like Tunisians," he said. He promised compensation for the families of victims of human rights abuses, and said envoys to Arab capitals would make the case that Ben Ali should be tracked down.
"We are sure they (Arab leaders) will all be with the Tunisian people because what happened was a real revolution that made us proud of our country," he said.
Hundreds of people protested peacefully in central Tunis on Friday and outside the headquarters of the state-owned Tunisian Transport Company, demanding the removal of senior officials from Ben Ali's era.
An employee who gave his name as Moftah said: "This company has corrupt people and it's time to demand our rights. We're not going to be silent about this. We want this minority out."
In central Tunis crowds chanted: "We won't accept this government, we will never accept it."
Outside the prime minister's office, protesters jostled Ahmed Ibrahim, leader of the opposition Ettajdid Party and minister of higher education in the new cabinet, apparently angered at his role in a government they dislike.
State TV also showed hundreds of people protesting against the government in the southwestern town of Gafsa, Sfax on the coast and Tataouine in the far south.
Three days of national mourning were announced late on Thursday for the victims of the unrest that convulsed Tunisia for several weeks. The government says at least 78 people have been killed since the start of the uprising, while the United Nations has put the toll at around 100.
"GENERAL AMNESTY"
The new government said schools and universities would reopen on Monday and sporting events, also on hold since last week, would resume soon.
It offered a blanket amnesty to all political groups, including the banned Islamist opposition. Some political analysts say moderate Islamists could attract more followers in post-Ben Ali Tunisia than their secular rivals like to admit.The Islamist movement was the most oppressed of all the opposition movements under Ben Ali. Its followers are also much greater in number than those of the secular opposition," said Salah Jourchi, a Tunisian expert on Islamic movements.
Protesters have complained that despite a promised amnesty, only a few hundred of those imprisoned for political reasons during Ben Ali's 23-year rule had been released.
"We are in agreement for a general amnesty," Higher Education Minister Ibrahim said on Thursday.
Authorities have said they arrested 33 members of Ben Ali's family for crimes against the state. On Friday, Interior Minister Ahmed Friia named one of those held as Imed Trabelsi, a nephew of Ben Ali's wife Leila.
"Regarding our ability to track down those relatives of the ex-president and his wife who ran away, fleeing from Tunisia will not help them," he told a televised news conference. "Tunisia has treaties with countries all over the world."
Tunisian state TV showed pictures of weapons being removed from the homes of Ben Ali family members. "This shows the excesses of this family," it said.
Ben Ali fell after weeks of unrest spurred by anger over poverty, unemployment and repression. It was the first popular uprising to topple an Arab leader in decades.
European traders said on Friday Tunisia's state grains agency had completed its first grains tender since the unrest.
Central Bank governor Mustafa Kamel Nabli told reporters Tunisia was considering postponing plans to borrow money abroad until its credit rating recovered.
"After what happened, we decided to review returning to international (debt) markets once things become clearer and after we return to (previous) rating levels," he said.
A 2014 deadline for the full convertibility of its dinar currency might also be delayed, he added
Karzai wins Russian backing on milestone visit
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev accepted an invitation Friday to visit Afghanistan during a milestone summit with Hamid Karzai that aimed to revive the two sides' Soviet-era trade ties.
The embattled Afghan leader paid his first state visit to Russia amid political mayhem at home that saw him delay the seating of a new parliament and face renewed questions about his ability to lead the war-ravaged state.
But Karzai found warm support in Moscow during a visit in which he also held private talks in the country residence of Russia's de facto leader, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
"I told the president that we expect to see Afghanistan provide for its own security and state independence -- and that the Russian government was ready to extend Afghanistan thorough support," Medvedev said after the talks.
A joint statement said "Medvedev has gratefully accepted Hamid Karzai's invitation to visit Afghanistan" but gave no date for the trip.
Karzai has waged a war of words with Washington over the timing of international troops' withdrawal and his ability to prepare a force that can take over security duties once the NATO-led presence winds down by 2014.
He said that Russia was likely to play a much broader role in preparing Afghan soldiers -- an assignment that has been largely handled by Washington -- and repairing the country's heavily damaged bridges and dams.
"We hope that Russia will be able to help transfer responsibility for security to the Afghan government and forces by the end of 2014 so that Afghanistan can determine its own fate in the future," said Karzai.
His visit came amid Russian efforts to resurrect its economic and political presence in a country that has haunted Moscow since the dying days of the Soviet state.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to stamp out the US-backed mujahedeen resistance but its troops were forced to beat a retreat 10 years later.
That traumatic experience prompted Russia to refuse a direct role in the current Afghan campaign.
But Moscow has allowed NATO to conduct non-military transports across its territory and further sought to boost the number of lucrative trade deals it signs with Kabul in exchange for Russia's technological know-how.
The blooming relationship has been periodically clouded by Russian misgivings over Karzai's inability to curb the flow of opium and other drugs to former Soviet lands in Central Asia and Russia.
Karzai has lashed out at a joint US-Russia drugs raid on a laboratory in eastern Afghanistan in October and pointedly refused to be drawn on the issue when asked about it during his joint appearance with Medvedev.
But a top Russian security officials said Karzai had agreed to allow Russia to take part in future drug busts.
"Such operations will continue," Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.
The two presidents' meeting concluded with the signature of an economic cooperation agreement and a broader commitment from the two heads of state to foster closer diplomatic relations.
A Kremlin communique said the agreements concerned Russia's construction of hydroelectric power plants and grain storage facilities around Afghanistan.
Putin separately promised Karzai some 500 million dollars in investments should Russia's Inter RAO UES energy company be put in charge of a major Afghan power line construction project.
The state-run ITAR-TASS news agency said the two sides also discussed Russia's supply of communication equipment to Afghanistan as well as fuel and spare parts.
Russia has sent more than 80 transport helicopters to Afghanistan under a 2009 agreement with the United States.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the United States has decided to award a contract to Russia's state exporter to supply another 21 Mi-17 helicopters to the Afghan military.
Chinese Leader Gets Ride on Chicago’s Big Shoulders
After three days of rock-star treatment — a glittering state dinner at the White House, a lunch with hundreds of American business and policy leaders who fairly gushed praise, a Thursday evening dinner here capped by a $1 million gift to Chinese students — President Hu Jintao of China and an entourage of senior officials departed for home on Friday.
Perhaps nowhere was he celebrated more than in Chicago, which is working feverishly to establish itself as the go-to city for Chinese corporate offices and investment. Mayor Richard M. Daley has been to China four times in six years to promote his (and President Obama’s) hometown. Chicago’s public schools have enrolled 12,000 students in Mandarin classes.
And one of Chicago’s elite public schools, Walter Payton College Prep, is host to the Chinese government’s most ardent effort at image-polishing — a Confucius Institute, one of roughly 280 established worldwide. On Thursday, Mr. Hu dined on filet mignon with civic and business leaders and Mayor Daley, who announced a $1 million grant from the Margot and Tom Pritzker Family Foundation to bring promising Chinese designers and architects to study at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The following morning, Mr. Hu reciprocated. During a visit to Payton College Prep, he announced that his government would bring 20 of the school’s faculty and students to China during this summer, prompting cheers from students — all of whom are studying Mandarin and needed no translation to understand his remarks. Whether Chicago’s courtship of Mr. Hu will pay off remains to be seen. But so far, it has not done badly. About 30 Chinese companies have offices in the city, officials say, and about 300 Chicago companies operate in China.
Translation Tweak
“President Hu realizes that — and told the world — that China has to do better.”
That was the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, on Thursday, a day after Mr. Hu said at a news conference with Mr. Obama that “a lot still needs to be done in terms of human rights” in China.
One would have to work hard, Mr. Gibbs added, to recall any Chinese leader “making such a frank admission.”
True enough. But on closer inspection, it appeared that — publicly, at least — Mr. Hu actually conceded nothing. The problem begins with China’s definition of human rights. Practically, the government defines them in terms of economic development: a 2008 statement to the United Nations, for example, mentioned poverty, famine, disease, war, climate change and food, and financial and oil crises as threats to human rights. Political rights went unmentioned.
And Mr. Hu’s remarks that China had a long way to go? “They say that all the time,” said Susan Shirk, a professor at the University of California, San Diego.
Consider the 2009 edition of “Progress in China’s Human Rights,” a high-level government document. “Due to its inadequate and unbalanced development,” the report says of China, “there is still much room for improvement in its human rights conditions.”
Finally, Mr. Hu caught the ears of some American officials and China watchers when he said on Thursday that China accepted the “universal value” of human rights. That would signal a shift in official policy; up to now, the state media has condemned the notion that human rights are a universal value, dismissing it as a Western belief that is unsuited to China.
But in fact, it was Mr. Hu’s translator, not the Chinese president, who uttered the words “universal value.” What Mr. Hu actually said, it was later discovered, was “universal principle” — government boilerplate that underlies China’s longstanding policies.
Piano Politics?
One of the highlights of the state dinner was a performance by Lang Lang, a Chinese pianist who has been a sensation in music circles. Mr. Lang played a duet with the American jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, then a haunting traditional Chinese melody called “My Motherland.”
In China, it turns out, “My Motherland” is better known as the theme from the film “Battle on Shangganling Mountain,” a 1956 Chinese classic about a Korean War battle in which a vastly outnumbered band of Chinese soldiers held off American and United Nations forces for 42 days.
If, in retrospect, “My Motherland” might seem to be a regrettable choice for a state dinner, it clearly was unintentional. Mr. Lang, an American-trained pianist who divides his time between the United States and China, is an artist who melds American and Chinese cultures.
The Onion Weighs In
Not many American policymakers would disagree that the United States’ growing indebtedness to China, which has financed American spending through its purchases of Treasury bonds, is an issue of concern. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton put it succinctly when, according to one of the WikiLeaks cables made public last year, she asked the Australian prime minister, “How do you deal toughly with your banker?”
But leave it to The Onion, the satirical news outlet, to come up with a bright side to making your competitor rich. After the state dinner, the editors posted this flash on Twitter: “> @TheOnion: BREAKING #NEWS: Chinese President Hu Jintao Pays For #StateDinner While President Obama in Bathroom”
FATA-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Indoor Games to start Monday
The first FATA-Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Indoor Games would commence on Monday with the collaboration of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Olympic Association and Community Appraisal and Motivation Program (CAMP) here at Qayyum Sports Complex.
This was stated by Provincial Minister for Sports Syed Aqil Shah while addressing a press conference here on Sunday.
Flanked by Program Manager Tahir Ali of CAMP and Secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Olympic Association, Syed Aqil Shah said that the Game is first of its kind wherein players from FATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would compete.
A total of 150 players in events like Wrestling, Table Tennis, (Men & Women), Snooker, Judo, Karate, Badminton (Men & Women), Weightlifting, Football and Volleyball would compete in the Games to be continued for five-day.
Tahir Ali on this occasion said that CAMP has so far initiated 25 projects in different sectors for the youth development across the country including FATA. He thanked Syed Aqil Shah for extending all out support in holding the Games in befitting manners.
The aim and objective of the Games is to give awareness to the youth to come forward for establishing durable peace, democracy and development. The youth are the key assets and our future builders of the nation so the CAMP has give due importance by involving them in healthy activities.
He said all the indoor games have been included but with a special request made by Syed Aqil Shah so the events of Football and Volleyball (Men) have been in the overall discipline list. "We want to provide a proper platform for the youth of FATA in particular and other part in general so that they could come up and show their skills at national and international levels," he added.
Syed Aqil Shah said that he would talk to the Governor Owais Ahmad Ghani regarding holding of field games in future while utilizing the same platform. He said there is no dearth of talent in FATA, specially in games like volleyball, football, basketball and athletics, therefore, in future these games would also be included to provide due opportunities of the player of FATA to come up in the main stream of talent.
Afghan assembly must meet 'as soon as possible:' US
The United States called Friday for the new parliament in Kabul to "convene as soon as possible" after Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided to delay its opening.
"We're working to try to resolve this, but we've made clear, as has the UN, that we believe that parliament should convene as soon as possible," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) earlier voiced "deep concern" at Karzai's decision and said it wanted to see the fraud-hit parliament convene "as soon as possible."
The comments increased the pressure on Karzai, already facing a tense situation after many lawmakers vowed to open the parliament without him on Sunday in open defiance of his authority.
The US government, Crowley said, is "working to try to resolve" the situation, especially through US ambassador Karl Eikenberry.
"We obviously want to see the political process and the government move forward. There's no shortage of action for the government to take," he said.
Bacha Khan's Message In Pakistan And Afghanistan
Followers of the nonviolent Pashtun movement known as Khudai Khidmatgar Movement (Servants of God) are marking 23 years since the death of their legendary leader, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. In addition to celebrations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, peace gatherings, discussions, and seminars are being held in Europe, United States, and the Middle East to pay tribute to a beloved leader who admirers say dedicated his life to social, political, economic, and cultural emancipation for Pashtuns.
These days, the region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border garners international headlines mostly with images of war, destruction, and violence. From the rugged and mountainous Waziristan tribal region to the picturesque Swat Valley, the conflict between Pakistani security forces and Taliban militants has displaced millions of people, left thousands dead or wounded, and destroyed health and educational infrastructure in the region.
Many outside observers in the West do not know that peace-loving Pashtuns living in the violence-marred border regions once struggled under the banner of an epoch-making nonviolent movement. In the 1930s, Khan (1890-1988), also known as Bacha Khan (King Khan), launched his nonviolent movement to reform the stagnant Pashtun society and to mobilize Pashtuns to struggle for their rights against British imperial rule in the Indian subcontinent through peaceful agitation.
"Very rarely does the world see leaders who raise their society from the ignominious depths of ignorance and obscurity to the heights of enlightenment and glory. Abdul Ghaffar Khan was one of this rare breed of leaders," writes Sher Zaman Taizi, an eminent Pashtun scholar.
Himself the son of a feudal lord, Abdul Ghafar Khan advocated land reforms, equal economic opportunities, social justice, change through education, and peaceful coexistence of all communities irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations.Despite high claims and yearning for lasting peace and stability in the region by the international community, the fact remains that we have failed to revive Bacha Khan’s philosophy of non-violence. The perpetrators of violence have seized the upper hand by popularizing characters like Mullah Omar and Baitullah Mehsud and marginalizing true heroic figures like Bacha Khan -- who is not very well known to the younger generations either inside or outside of the Pashtun heartlands.
"I was shocked at how we in the West know nothing about Bacha Khan," says Human Rights Watch's Peter Bouckaert. "We learned about Gandhi in school. Almost everybody in the United States and Europe has seen the movies about Gandhi and the role he played in the nonviolence movement and then as an inspiration for Martin Luther King and others."
Bouckaert tells RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal that he first learned about Bacha Khan in 2001, when, while sifting through some pictures in the home of a friend, he saw a photo of Gandhi standing next to a bearded man. His host then told him the story of Khan and his importance in the Pashtun community.
"As I learned more about Bacha Khan, I realized he was as important and as courageous a figure as Gandhi was," Bouckaert says. "He played an important role not only in the struggle for nonviolence, but also in the struggle against extremism."
Bacha Khan was a true visionary who believed that world peace is not possible without healthy debate on all outstanding issues between nations. He was a person who thought beyond the narrow interest of Pakistan, or India, or Afghanistan and pursued an agenda that sought to ensure peace in the region.Khan paid a very high price for his activism. He spent almost half of his life in prison.
"I think if his message of peace and co-existence had been embraced by more people in the region, we would not be faced with the very difficult condition that we continue to see in Pakistan and Afghanistan," Bouckaert says.
Unlike in Pakistan, Bacha Khan is both well-known and looked upon with great respect in India, where he is known as "the Frontier Gandhi." The Indian government even bestowed two prestigious awards on Khan, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1969, and the Bharat Ratna Award in 1987.
B.R. Singh, a former senior Indian civil servant, told RFE/RL of a visit by Gandhi to the frontier regions where he met with the leaders of Khan's Khudai Khidmatgar Movement.
"Gandhi asked them, 'What would you do if tomorrow Bacha Khan turns violent?' Now such was the impact that Bacha Khan had created, that they replied, 'We would remain nonviolent.'
"Certainly the Pashtuns had a reputation for violence, yet it is remarkable that Bacha Khan was able to bring about a peaceful transformation, and the Pashtun people followed him. He made them commit themselves to nonviolence," Singh recalls.
After struggling against social evils, superstition, and suppression for 70 years, Bacha Khan breathed his last at the age of 98 on January 20, 1988, at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar. Pashtuns -- indeed, all the people of the world -- would do well to recall Khan's message of nonviolence and peace. Today, we remember him.
Attack on Sri Lankan cricketers was kidnap plot
The terrorist group which launched the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team planned to kidnap the players and swap them for militants jailed in Pakistan, according to one of the gunmen.
In an interview with Ahmad Faraz of Pakistan's Geo News television channel, Abdul Wahab, who was caught and jailed following the attack, said the raid was planned with militant leaders of the Lashkar e Jhangvi terrorist group in Waziristan. The LeJ is linked to various al-Qaeda and Taliban groups and has carried out a number of attacks on Christians and Shia Muslims.
The raid, in which six policemen and a driver were killed, left seven players and their coach injured. The ease with which the terrorists were able to strike at the players' team bus provoked serious criticism of the Pakistani authorities and calls for the country to be banned from hosting international cricket matches.
Abdul Wahab was one of 12 attackers who arrived on rickshaws close to Lahore's Gaddafi cricket stadium and ambushed the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team with a hail of machine gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. At the time the attack appeared to be inspired by the 2008 Mumbai attack in which ten terrorists killed 166 people in a three-day massacre.
In an interview with Geo News, Wahab, who is also known as Omar, said the group's plan had been to kidnap members of the Sri Lankan cricket team and hold them hostage until they could trade their freedom for the release of Lashkar e Jhangvi militants held in jail.
"The operation was planned in Waziristan and there were 12 of us designated for this mission. I belonged to the Lashkar e Jhangvi Amjad Farooqi group. We were supposed to take them hostage and then our superiors would have bargained their release in exchange for some of our companions in their custody," he said.He and his comrades had arrived at the Liberty roundabout close to the city centre a few minutes before the team bus. "We came in a rickshaw and on motorcycles that we had purchased for this operation," he added.
In an interview with Ahmad Faraz of Pakistan's Geo News television channel, Abdul Wahab, who was caught and jailed following the attack, said the raid was planned with militant leaders of the Lashkar e Jhangvi terrorist group in Waziristan. The LeJ is linked to various al-Qaeda and Taliban groups and has carried out a number of attacks on Christians and Shia Muslims.
The raid, in which six policemen and a driver were killed, left seven players and their coach injured. The ease with which the terrorists were able to strike at the players' team bus provoked serious criticism of the Pakistani authorities and calls for the country to be banned from hosting international cricket matches.
Abdul Wahab was one of 12 attackers who arrived on rickshaws close to Lahore's Gaddafi cricket stadium and ambushed the bus carrying the Sri Lankan team with a hail of machine gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades. At the time the attack appeared to be inspired by the 2008 Mumbai attack in which ten terrorists killed 166 people in a three-day massacre.
In an interview with Geo News, Wahab, who is also known as Omar, said the group's plan had been to kidnap members of the Sri Lankan cricket team and hold them hostage until they could trade their freedom for the release of Lashkar e Jhangvi militants held in jail.
"The operation was planned in Waziristan and there were 12 of us designated for this mission. I belonged to the Lashkar e Jhangvi Amjad Farooqi group. We were supposed to take them hostage and then our superiors would have bargained their release in exchange for some of our companions in their custody," he said.He and his comrades had arrived at the Liberty roundabout close to the city centre a few minutes before the team bus. "We came in a rickshaw and on motorcycles that we had purchased for this operation," he added.
Barack Obama to run re-election campaign from Chicago
Barack Obama has finalised plans for his re-election campaign, deciding to move senior White House staff members to his home town of Chicago in an attempt to recreate the winning formula from 2008.
Although the next US presidential election is not until November 2012, and Mr Obama has little idea who his Republican opponent will be, discussions about the re-election effort have been taking place for months.
Aides have now revealed that Mr Obama decided on Chicago in order to help the campaign to escape the insular political atmosphere of Washington and to connect more easily with the "real" America.
The campaign will start by rebuilding the grassroots volunteer network that was crucial to Mr Obama's earlier success.
However, no president in the modern era has been re-elected with a headquarters so far from the capital, and some White House officials argued that the move to Chicago would lead to a lack of co-ordination.
Mr Obama will send Jim Messina, his deputy chief of staff, to run the campaign, along with two other aides, Julianna Smoot and Jennifer O'Malley Dillon. David Axelrod, his chief adviser in the White House and a Chicago native, will return home to advise the campaign.The president's thoughts are turning to re-election at a time when he is enjoying surprising political momentum. Despite a heavy defeat for his Democratic allies in Congress in November's midterm elections, he has since outmanoeuvred Republicans by moving to the centre. He has also been praised for his handling of the Arizona shooting.
Recent polls have shown that voters are increasingly appreciative of the president's job performance. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey showed Mr Obama's approval rating surging to 53 per cent, eight points higher than in December.
He is likely to begin campaigning in late spring or early summer, around the same time in the cycle as Bill Clinton and George W Bush, who both won second terms.
Within the next few months a number of Republicans hoping to win the nomination to challenge Mr Obama will throw their hats into the ring. Likely contenders include several former state governors such as Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, as well as Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House.
Even at this early stage, the thrust of Mr Obama's case for re-election is clear. He will maintain that he staved off a second Great Depression and urge Americans not to change course in the middle of a recovery, however slow it may be.
He will also seek to turn his landmark health care reform into an electoral asset and say he has renewed America's image abroad after the polarising presidency of George W Bush. He will also be able to say he has brought US troops home from Iraq.
Although the next US presidential election is not until November 2012, and Mr Obama has little idea who his Republican opponent will be, discussions about the re-election effort have been taking place for months.
Aides have now revealed that Mr Obama decided on Chicago in order to help the campaign to escape the insular political atmosphere of Washington and to connect more easily with the "real" America.
The campaign will start by rebuilding the grassroots volunteer network that was crucial to Mr Obama's earlier success.
However, no president in the modern era has been re-elected with a headquarters so far from the capital, and some White House officials argued that the move to Chicago would lead to a lack of co-ordination.
Mr Obama will send Jim Messina, his deputy chief of staff, to run the campaign, along with two other aides, Julianna Smoot and Jennifer O'Malley Dillon. David Axelrod, his chief adviser in the White House and a Chicago native, will return home to advise the campaign.The president's thoughts are turning to re-election at a time when he is enjoying surprising political momentum. Despite a heavy defeat for his Democratic allies in Congress in November's midterm elections, he has since outmanoeuvred Republicans by moving to the centre. He has also been praised for his handling of the Arizona shooting.
Recent polls have shown that voters are increasingly appreciative of the president's job performance. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey showed Mr Obama's approval rating surging to 53 per cent, eight points higher than in December.
He is likely to begin campaigning in late spring or early summer, around the same time in the cycle as Bill Clinton and George W Bush, who both won second terms.
Within the next few months a number of Republicans hoping to win the nomination to challenge Mr Obama will throw their hats into the ring. Likely contenders include several former state governors such as Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, as well as Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House.
Even at this early stage, the thrust of Mr Obama's case for re-election is clear. He will maintain that he staved off a second Great Depression and urge Americans not to change course in the middle of a recovery, however slow it may be.
He will also seek to turn his landmark health care reform into an electoral asset and say he has renewed America's image abroad after the polarising presidency of George W Bush. He will also be able to say he has brought US troops home from Iraq.
4 million flood-hit Pakistanis still homeless: Red Cross
More than four million Pakistanis are still homeless six months after historic floods devastated the South Asian country, the Red Cross said Friday.
"Six months on from the devastating flooding in Pakistan, more than four million people remain in a desperate situation without adequate shelter," said the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in a statement.
Families who have begun leaving camps and temporary shelters have returned to find that their homes are no longer inhabitable, leading to a "secondary wave of displacement."
"The cruelty of this disaster is that millions of people were driven from their homes by the floods. They have endured miserable conditions, living for months under canvas or tarpaulins," said Gocha Guchashvili, IFRC flood operations coordinator in Pakistan.
"Now they are returning home to almost nothing. Their houses, their fields and their livelihoods are ruined," she noted.
Catastrophic monsoon rains that swept through the country in July and August affected 21 million people, destroyed 1.7 million homes and damaged 5.4 million acres of arable land.
The IFRC urged donors to dig deep, saying that its appeal of 130 million Swiss francs (135 million dollars) is only 59 percent covered.
"Full funding will allow the IFRC to support 130,000 families in their recovery over two years," it noted.
Hu's US visit shapes new political civilization
The joint statement signed by the presidents of China and the US, setting out a new cooperative partnership, put to rest any fears that new Cold War might break out between China and the US.
Their coexistence has created a geo-political miracle. The next decades will tell whether the competition between China and the US will truly change human history, or if differences will triumph. The joint statement was dismissed by some overseas observers. A Reuters analysis stated that no major breakthrough was achieved by the visit of President Hu Jintao.
This view ignored the fact that China and the US are trying to shape a new political civilization. Dependence on mutual cooperation is leaving behind the traditional zero-sum competition between major powers.
Sino-US relations have gone up and down, but both countries have displayed significant care in their handling. China's rise has not challenged existing global institutions, and the US is showing a moderate and pragmatic attitude toward a rising power.
The public in both countries do maintain a certain distrust toward each other, but their leaders have correctly advanced bilateral ties in uncertain times, thus laying a foundation for lasting world peace.
Strong rhetoric, though eye-catching, cannot prevail over the desire of peace and prosperity. Mutual respect and mutual benefits advocated by the joint statement represent the desired true public opinion.
The visit of President Hu Jintao deserves the applause of the world. The message sent has soothed apprehensions in the Asia-Pacific region and ended various speculations. The clearer the stance of China and the US remains, the more stable global development can be. More resources can be devoted toward growth, rather than set aside for nameless fears.
But the cooperative partnership is still subject to change. President Obama said that "the US welcomes China's rise." The message has not been widely accepted in the US. The acceptance and judgment of China's rise in the US will largely decide the direction of Sino-US relations.
Confidence is reciprocal. Mutual trust between China and the US will be built gradually, but firmly.
Afghan Political Crisis Grows as Legislators Vow to Defy Karzai and Open Parliament
By RAY RIVERA
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan’s political crisis worsened on Thursday, as the winning candidates in September’s elections vowed to take their seats in the new Parliament on Sunday in defiance of a delay announced by President Hamid Karzai.
The declaration set up a potentially volatile showdown with the president, who announced on Wednesday that he would postpone the Parliament’s inauguration while a special court he appointed investigated allegations of fraud by losing candidates. Many of them are from Mr. Karzai’s political base in the heavily Pashtun south.
The winning candidates and several Afghan and international officials say the court has no jurisdiction, and Mr. Karzai’s opponents charge that the president is trying to engineer a more favorable outcome for himself.
There are growing concerns among diplomats, Afghan officials and candidates on all sides that the standoff could lead to violent protests and even open war between Afghanistan’s rival ethnic groups.
At a meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel here, more than 200 newly elected members of Parliament agreed in a public display of unity to open the new session on Sunday, with or without the president’s approval. If the government stopped them from entering the Parliament headquarters, they said, they would meet in the street or in a mosque.
“We don’t care about President Karzai’s decree about delaying the new Parliament, because this is totally against our national Constitution and against the election laws,” said the interim speaker of the new Parliament, Hajji Mohammad Sarwar Osmani, who is from Farah Province.
“Even if the government forces oppose us from going to the Parliament building,” he added, “those soldiers are also our sons, and we won’t arm wrestle with them. We will go to one of the big mosques in Kabul City or come to this hotel if the owner of the hotel lets us and start work of our new Parliament here.”
Naheed Farid, of Herat Province, the interim secretary of the body, said, “Maybe we’ll start in the street if we have to.”
The show of defiance by the incoming legislators not only heightened the prospect of a constitutional crisis, but also showed signs of ethnic fractures within the Parliament. Although 213 of the 249 elected members were at the meeting, it was not clear the extent to which the Pashtuns in the group would support the move. Some interviewed afterward said they would not attend the opening Sunday.
The members had already gathered at the hotel for a weeklong training session in preparation for what had been the expected inauguration on Sunday.
Mr. Osmani, who was named interim speaker by the members until a new speaker could be chosen after Parliament opened, said all of the attending members agreed. And throughout the two-and-a-half hour meeting, the only strong signal of dissent came when one member walked out near the end, later telling a reporter that he was too disturbed to talk.
Another member, Hajji Obaidullah, a new Pashtun member of Parliament from Oruzgan Province, said in an interview after the meeting that the winning candidates should wait for the special court to finish its work.
“Me, personally, I will not go to the Parliament on Sunday,” he said. “I will wait for the court’s decision.”
He said he thought 60 to 70 members, mainly Pashtuns, also believed that they should wait for Mr. Karzai to open the session.
“The reason why most of them said yes was because they were kind of under pressure or didn’t want to make any of their friends mad,” he said. “But the facts are something else, and you’ll see something different in one or two days.”
The uncertainty about what may happen on Sunday — whether the candidates’ efforts prompt riots or worse — is causing concern. One losing candidate who hopes for a new election predicted violence if the Parliament did not defer to Mr. Karzai.
“Warlordism will start again in this country,” said the former candidate, Abdul Hadi Safi, 49, a former Parliament member from Kapisa Province who lost his seat in September. “Because if these people do not believe in the president, in the courts and in Islam, then it’s better to start jihad against them.”
The question of whether Mr. Karzai will inaugurate the new Parliament has been brewing since election results were certified by separate commissions set up to run the elections and investigate complaints.
The commissions have the backing of the international community. But the Karzai administration, led by the attorney general, has appeared intent on overturning the results and forcing a new election, as well as indicting several members of the Independent Elections Commission, which ran the election, and the Elections Complaint Commission, which investigated voter irregularities.
The appointment of the special court last month added new fuel to the crisis.
The dispute is proving especially difficult for the international community in behind-the-scenes efforts to broker a deal. Establishing a stable, democratic government able to provide services across the country is a crucial steppingstone in the plan by the United States-led coalition forces to turn over responsibility for security of the country in 2014.
But for a government overrun by corruption and barely visible in many parts of the country, the electoral crisis is proving to be another step backward after the fraud-tainted presidential election in 2009, with no easy way to reverse course.
“Nobody wants to be on the wrong side,” meaning the losing side, said a Western diplomat in Kabul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid offending Afghan politicians. “There has to be an outcome so nobody loses face.”
According to this diplomat, the most likely outcome will be some form of a limited recount, rather than an outright annulment.
“A general recount is unrealistic,” the diplomat said. “Karzai now talks about changing 30 seats. That will not give him the Parliament he hoped for, but it is enough to say he did not lose.”
But any form of recount is likely to cause more discord, particularly from those forced to give up their seats.
President Karzai, meanwhile, left for Russia on Thursday for talks on trade and counternarcotics efforts with President Dmitri A. Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin. His office issued no statements and did not return calls about the Parliament issue on Thursday.
Pashtuns, who make up more than 40 percent of the population, are not alone among the aggrieved parties but have been the most outspoken in complaining about the results. They lost 26 members, giving them only 94 out of 249 seats.
Before lunch on Thursday, the winning candidates formed three committees: one to deal with the media; one to negotiate with the government to provide security for Sunday when they begin their work; and one to urge the international community to pressure Mr. Karzai into accepting the election results.
“In this regard, we want America, the United Nations, human rights groups and the international community to rescue our country from this crisis,” Mr. Osmani, the interim speaker, said. “Otherwise no one will be able to prevent this from leading to a bigger crisis and violence.”
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