Friday, December 30, 2011

AU-U.N. mission says insecurity higher in Darfur


Thousands have been displaced since the crisis began in the Darfur region in Sudan despite the presence and efforts of the joint African Union-United Nations mission. (Photo courtesy U.N.)
Increased insecurity in Sudan’s Darfur has restricted peacekeepers’ ability to work, the head of the joint U.N.-AU mission in the western region said on Friday.

“Our ability to monitor and respond has ... been restricted in the past few days due to the heightened insecurity in parts of North and South Darfur,” said Ibrahim Gambari, who leads UNAMID, the joint African Union-United Nations Mission to the region.

He did not elaborate on the exact source of instability but said: “Fighting continues in some places, most dramatically with the recent clashes in North Darfur which spilled over into North Kordofan where JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim was killed”.

The Darfur-based Justice and and Equality Movement (JEM), which was Darfur’s most heavily armed group, announced on December 25 that Ibrahim had been killed by government forces two days earlier.

Sudan’s military said the rebel chief was wounded and died later from a clash with Khartoum’s troops in Umm-Gozain, an area of North Kordofan state near North Darfur.
His death has created uncertainty as to the future of JEM, which in November formed with other rebel groups the new Sudanese Revolutionary Front dedicated to “popular uprising and armed rebellion” against the National Congress Party regime in Khartoum.

Factions of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) of Darfur, headed by Minni Minnawi and Abdelwahid Nur, also joined the alliance, along with the SPLM-North rebel group which operates elsewhere in Sudan.

SLA and JEM refused to sign in July the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, which Khartoum inked in Qatar with an alliance of rebel splinter factions, the Liberation and Justice Movement.

Sudan’s foreign ministry alleged Thursday that 350 members of JEM had crossed the previous day into South Sudan, which became independent from Sudan in July.

Despite the recent insecurity, Gambari said violence has cooled in several parts of Darfur, where UNAMID has increased its presence in the past year, nearly doubling its daily patrols.

Almost 18,000 troops are assigned to the mission.

“In addition, the continued efforts by the governments of Sudan and Chad to secure their common border have decreased tensions and violence,” Gambari said.

According to the U.N., at least 300,000 people have been killed in Darfur, where fighting began in 2003 between non-Arab rebels and the Arab-dominated central government.

Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

Iran warns U.S. over Strait of Hormuz as Tehran resumes large-scale Gulf naval drill


A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said on Thursday the United States was not in a position to tell Tehran “what to do in the Strait of Hormuz,” state television reported, after the U.S. said it would preserve oil shipments in the Gulf.

Tehran’s threat to block traffic through the crucial passage for Middle Eastern crude suppliers followed the European Union’s decision to tighten sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, as well as accompanying moves by the United States to tighten unilateral sanctions.

Iran’s English-language Press TV quoted Hossein Salami as saying: “Any threat will be responded by threat ... We will not relinquish our strategic moves if Iran’s vital interests are undermined by any means,” according to Reuters.
Separately, Salami was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency: “Americans are not in a position whether to allow Iran to close off the Strait of Hormuz.”

The U.S. Fifth Fleet said on Wednesday it would not allow any disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a strip of water separating Oman and Iran.

At loggerheads with the West over its nuclear program, Iran said earlier it would stop the flow of oil through the strait if sanctions were imposed on its crude exports.

The Iranian threat pushed up international oil prices on Tuesday although they slipped back on Wednesday in thin trade.

Analysts say that Iran could potentially cause havoc in the Strait of Hormuz which connects the biggest Gulf oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. At its narrowest point, it is 21 miles (34 km) across.

But its navy would be no match for the firepower of the Fifth Fleet which consists of 20-plus ships supported by combat aircraft, with 15,000 people afloat and another 1,000 ashore.

This is not the first time the Iranians have threatened to disrupt the oil flow in the Gulf, including in 2008 and 2010 when Iran talked about shutting the Strait as retaliation for any military strike on the country’s nuclear sites.

Neither the United States nor Israel have ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve a long-running dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, has described Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its existence. Iran refuses to recognize Israel.

Tehran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity. Iran has been hit by foreign sanctions, including four rounds of U.N. sanctions, over its refusal to halt its sensitive nuclear work.

To show off its military capabilities, Iran launched a 10-day large-scale naval war games in the Gulf on Saturday.

The tough language came as Iran’s navy said a U.S. aircraft carrier entered a zone where its ships and aircraft were in the middle of 10 days of war games designed to be a show of military might.

The area was in waters to the east of the Strait of Hormuz, a choke point at the entrance to the Gulf through which more than a third of the world's tanker-borne oil passes, according to AFP.

Admiral Sayari said the U.S. aircraft carrier was monitored by Iranian forces as it passed from the Strait of Hormuz to the Gulf of Oman, according to state television.

The network showed footage of an aircraft carrier being followed by an Iranian plane.

An Iranian navy spokesman, Commodore Mahmoud Mousavi, told the official IRNA news agency the U.S. carrier went “inside the maneuver zone” where Iranian ships were conducting their exercises.

He added that the Iranian navy was “prepared, in accordance with international law, to confront offenders who do not respect our security perimeters during the maneuvers.”

The aircraft carrier was believed to the USS John C. Stennis, one of the American navy’s biggest warships.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that the ship and its accompanying carrier strike group was moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

Pentagon press secretary George Little said this was “a pre-planned, routine transit” on the way to the Arabian Sea to provide air power for the war in Afghanistan.

The United States maintains a navy presence in the Gulf in large part to ensure oil traffic there is unhindered. Its Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain.

Earlier this month, Iranian officials said a Revolutionary Guards cyber-warfare unit had hacked the controls of a U.S. bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel reconnaissance drone and brought it down safely.

Analysts and oil market traders are watching the developing situation in and around the Strait of Hormuz carefully, fearing that a spark could ignite open confrontation between the long-time foes.

The United States had proposed a military hotline between Tehran and Washington to defuse any “miscalculations” that could occur as their navies brush against each other. But Iran in September rejected that offer.

Copts protest Church’s Christmas invitation to SCAF and Islamists

copts
Tens of Coptic activists staged a demonstration inside the Coptic Cathedral, the main Coptic Church, on Thursday.
The protesters who included members of Coptic activism group Coalition of Maspero Youth was protesting the Church’s invitation to the ruling military council as well as Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists figures to attend Christian celebrations on the 6 January which is the eve of Coptic Christmas.
Coptic activists rejected the Church’s invitation to members of the current ruling military council (SCAF), on grounds that the army is responsible for the killing of peaceful protesters since taking power in February.
“The Church should not have invited the military council members after they ran over and killed our honourable Coptic brothers in Maspero” says Rami Kamel, member of Coalition of Maspero Youth.
On 9 October, a Coptic march in front of the state television building Maspero was met with deadly force. Eyewitnesses reported that the army shot live gunfire, and video footage showed military armed personnel carriers (APCs) running protesters over. Twenty-six protesters, mostly Copts, were killed in the deadly crackdown.
Kamel also rejected the Church’s invitation to representatives of Salafist political parties, who have made defamatory and sectarian statements about Egypt’s Copts.
Moreover, some Coptic activists also denounced the Church’s decision to hold Christmas celebrations at all, arguing that the Church should officially mourn the lives of at least 21 Copts who were killed on new year’s eve in 2011 in a terrorist attack on the Two Saints Church in Alexandria.
No perpetrators of the attack on the Alexandria church have been identified or punished by the authorities yet.
The Maspero Youth Coalition demanded that the Coptic Church not take part in political deals altogether, rejecting the idea of sending invitations to political parties and the country rulers. 

Human rights organisations condemn mass raids of NGOs

In a press conference held at the premises of Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) on Thursday, 27 human rights organisations denounced the raids earlier in the day of the Cairo offices of 17 non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The raids were carried out by officials from Egypt’s public prosecution office, with back-up from police and military personnel.
The Arab Center for Independence of the Judiciary ‎and the Legal Profession (ACIJLP); the Budgetary and Human ‎Rights Observatory; and the Washington-based National ‎Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and ‎Freedom House were among the NGOs that the government raided.
Head of Hisham Mubarak Law Center, Ahmed Saif Al-Islam, said that Egyptian NGOs are now exposed to attacks unprecedented in their magnitude at the hands of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).
Saif Al-Islam pointed out that restrictions on public freedoms had been felt since the closure of Cairo’s Al-Jazeera Network office in September, along with the renewal of emergency law in the same month. Under the auspices of emergency law, freedom of expression is severely curtailed, and journalists and TV interviewers risk facing questioning or even prosecution.
Nasser Amin, head of the Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession, challenged state authorities by affirming that the center will continue with its work despite the closure.
‘Even if we are jailed, we will work from inside the jail,’ Amin declared.
Amin referred to his contributions to the Egyptian revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak, declaring that he is most proud of his career as a political activist.
Hafez Abu Saeda, head of EOHR, described the crackdown as “illegitimate” and expressed willingness to battle the raids through the courts.
At the press conference, Abu Saeda welcomed any of the 17 closed NGOs to use the EOHR premises to resume their work, and declared the organisation’s cooperation with other social movements such as the Revolutionary Socialists and Ultras.  
Presidential hopeful and prominent political figure Mohamed ElBaradie stated on Thursday through his official Twitter account that human rights organisations represented "the guardians of nascent freedom." He added that "efforts to suffocate them will be a major setback and will surely backfire."
The participating rights organisations signed a statement to condemn the “unprecedented campaign” against political activists and rights entities and slammed the SCAF’s "shameful humanitarian violations and failures in managing the transitional phase."
Signatories to the statement include: the Arab Foundation for Civil Society and Human Rights Support; One World Foundation; New Woman Foundation; Society for the Study of Human Development; Cairo Centre for the Study of Human Rights; the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights; the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights; Egyptian Center of the Right to Housing; the Hisham Mubarak Law Center; the Egyptian Society for the Dissemination and Development of Legal Awareness; the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights.
One Nation Foundation for Development and Freedoms also signed on to the statement as well as: the Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression; See Justice Center; Center for Egyptian Woman's Legal Assistance, El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence; the Center of Andalusia; the Budgetary and Human Rights Observatory; and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

Israeli air strike on Gaza kills one, injures one: Palestinian medics


A masked Palestinian fighter surveys the damage at a training camp after an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Thursday. (Reuters)
An Israeli air strike east of Gaza City on Friday killed one man and injured at least another, Palestinian medical officials told AFP.

The Israeli military said that the target was a group of men preparing to fire a rocket into Israel. Palestinian eyewitness said they saw fighters in the area immediately before the strike.

“Aircraft targeted a terrorist squad that was identified moments before firing rockets at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. A hit was confirmed, thwarting the rocket fire attempt,” a military statement said.

“The aforementioned squad is responsible for the firing of rockets at Israel in the past number of days,” it added.
Palestinians named the dead man as Moamen abu-Daff, but did not immediately link him to a specific fighter group.

Palestinian fighters fired two rockets at southern Israel on Thursday, after Israeli warplanes attacked “terror sites” inside the Gaza Strip, the army said.

Both fell in open ground without causing injuries or damage.

Early on Thursday morning, Israeli warplanes targeted “terror sites” in central and northern Gaza in retaliation after rockets were fired across the border on Wednesday.

“Israeli air force aircraft targeted a terror activity site in the central Gaza Strip, and a terror tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip,” a military statement said, indicating it was a response after five rockets landed in Israel, none of which caused any damage or injuries.

Palestinian security sources said the air strikes hit a training ground used by Islamic Jihad fighters near central Gaza and another training ground northeast of Gaza which belonged to Hamas's armed wing, causing no casualties.

An earlier series of Israeli strikes overnight Tuesday had killed a Palestinian and wounded about 20 others, as the military struck what it described as “global jihad” targets who were planning cross-border attacks on southern Israel from the Egyptian Sinai.

On Wednesday, a senior Israeli officer said the military was preparing for a possible large-scale military campaign in Gaza if the Palestinians did not halt their rocket attacks.

“We are preparing and ready for an additional campaign... to renew the deterrence,” Tal Hermoni, commander of the Gaza division’s southern brigade, told reporters in remarks widely published in the Israeli press.

Israel's last major operation against Gaza was Operation Cast Lead, a 22-day offensive launched on December 27, 2008 that cost the lives of 1,400 Palestinians ̶ at least half of them civilians ̶ and 13 Israelis, including 10 soldiers.

Egypt urges U.S. to freeze assets of 100 former regime officials including Mubarak


Egypt urged the United States to freeze assets of 100 former regime officials including that of Hosni Mubarak and his family. (File Photo)
Egypt’s ambassador to the United States, Samih Shukri, says that Cairo has requested Washington to freeze the assets of 100 former regime officials including former president Hosni Mubarak and his family, due to issues related to corruption, fraudulent profiteering and manipulation.

“The embassy has received requests for judicial assistance from the Egyptian general prosecution for the United States to freeze any assets belonging to Mubarak and his family and some officials from the former regime,” said Shukri.

The ambassador said the embassy was quick to direct the requests to the United States and that both Cairo and Washington continuously communicate over findings from the investigations.
He said the Americans had yet to finish investigation because they had decided, in March, to deal directly with the Egyptian justice ministry and through an official in the American embassy in Cairo.

The ambassador expects to see a reply from Washington when both sides have shared their legal findings.

This won’t be the first attempts to seize assets of fallen strongmen in the Arab world.

Earlier this month, a probe to seize vast assets of Mubarak and former Tunisian president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was launched in Europe and North America by Eurojust.

“The investigation into all European assets of these two former presidents has started,” a Eurojust’s spokesman Joannes Thuy told AFP.

“In addition to Europe, Canada and the United States are also involved as possible locations of these assets,” he added.

Thuy said the investigation started after a meeting between Eurojust, the European Union’s justice co-ordination body, and Tunisian and Egyptian authorities in The Hague, where Eurojust is based.

“Both Tunisia and Egypt explained the ex-presidents illegally transferred a lot of money out of their countries and invested in bank accounts and property all over Europe, even Canada and the United States,” Thuy said.

Thuy could not say whether any assets have yet been recovered but added it was believed to be running “into millions and millions” of euros.
Mubarak is currently facing a murder trial before an Egyptian court and may get the death sentence if found complicit in the killings of some 850 people who died during 18 days of protest that ousted him from power in February.

Ben Ali and his wife were forced into exile in Saudi Arabia in January after a popular revolt led to his ouster from power.

Kurdish rebels call for an uprising in Turkey after dozens killed in an air strike

Turkish riot police stand guard at Taksim Square during a pro-Kurdish protest against military air strikes in central Istanbul. (Reuters)
The rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on Friday urged Kurds in Turkey to stage an “uprising” after an air force raid killed 35 villagers near the Iraq border.

“We urge the people of Kurdistan... to react after this massacre and seek a settling of accounts through uprisings,” Bahoz Erdal from the armed wing of the PKK, labeled a terrorist organization by Ankara, said in a statement.

Turkey’s ruling party on Thursday said the strike could have been a “blunder” that killed civilians and not Kurdish separatists.

“According to initial reports, these people were smugglers and not terrorists,” said Huseyin Celik, vice-president of the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).

“If it turns out to have been a mistake, a blunder, rest assured that this will not be covered up,” he said, adding that it could have been an “operational accident” by the military.

Turkey’s military command said it had launched an air raid on PKK militants after a spy drone spotted a group moving toward its sensitive southeastern border under cover of darkness late Wednesday.

“The area where this happened is called Sinat-Haftanin, in northern Iraq, where there is no civilian population, and where the terrorist organization has bases,” a military statement said, referring to the outlawed PKK.

But the country's main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) said the planes had bombed villagers from Kurdish majority southeastern Turkey who were smuggling sugar and fuel across the border on mules and donkeys.

“It’s clearly a massacre of civilians, of whom the oldest is 20," BDP leader Selahattin Demirtas said in a statement that called on Turkey’s Kurdish population to respond “by democratic means.”

The PKK took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives. It is labeled a terrorist organization by Ankara and much of the international community.

Clashes between Kurdish rebels and the army have escalated in recent months.

The Turkish military launched an operation on militant bases inside northern Iraq in October after a PKK attack killed 24 soldiers in the border town of Cukurca, the army's biggest loss since 1993.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Iran: no oil will be allowed to pass through Strait if West applies sanctions


The Iranian vice president has warned that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed off to oil shipments if the West increases sanctions against his country. Navy commander Habibulah Sayari, above, speaks during a press conference.  (Reuters)
No oil will be permitted to pass through the key oil transit Strait of Hormuz if the West applies sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, Iranian Vice President Ali Rahimi warned on Tuesday.

The threat was reported by the state news agency IRNA as Iran conducted navy wargames near the Strait of Hormuz, at the entrance of the oil-rich Gulf.

“If sanctions are adopted against Iranian oil, not a drop of oil will pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” Rahimi was quoted as saying.

“We have no desire for hostilities or violence ... but the West doesn’t want to go back on its plan” to impose sanctions, he said.

“The enemies will only drop their plots when we put them back in their place,” he said.

The threat underlined Iran's readiness to target the narrow stretch of water along its Gulf coast if it is attacked or economically strangled by Western sanctions.
However, Gulf OPEC delegates told Reuters that Iran would harm itself if it disrupts the flow of oil from the Strait of Hormuz,.

“If they do shut down Hormuz this would harm Iran’s exports not only the Gulf producers,” said a Gulf OPEC delegate.

Another delegate added that Iran would be “shooting itself in the foot” if it does go ahead with the threat.

“For now any move in the oil price is short term, as I don’t see Iran actually going ahead with the threat,” the second OPEC delegate added.

More than a third of the world’s tanker-borne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States maintains a navy presence in the Arabian Gulf in large part to ensure that passage remains free.

Iran is currently carrying out navy exercises in international waters to the east of the Strait of Hormuz.

Ships and aircraft dropped mines in the sea Tuesday as part of the drill, according to a navy spokesman.

Although Iranian wargames occur periodically, the timing of these is seen as a show of strength as the United States and Europe prepare to impose further sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors.

The last round of sanctions, announced in November, triggered a pro-regime protest in front of the British embassy in Tehran during which Basij militia members overran the mission, ransacking it.

London closed the embassy as a result and ordered Iran’s mission in Britain shut as well.

Trial for Mubarak, his sons and former interior minister is postponed till Monday


Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak risks the death sentence if he is found to have been complicit in the killings of some 850 people who died during protests that overthrew him in February. (Reuters)
The murder trial of Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak was expected to resume on Wednesday after a three-month hiatus that saw the ousted strongman’s fate eclipsed by deadly clashes and an Islamist election victory.

But a later, an announcement from an Egypt court said that the trial will be postponed and will take place on Monday instead.

Mubarak risks the death sentence if he is found to have been complicit in the killings of some 850 people who died during protests that overthrew him in February.

The ailing former president, 83, arrived by ambulance at the Police Academy -- which once bore his name -- and was wheeled out by stretcher into the courthouse.

Around 5,000 policemen were deployed to secure the trial at the academy in the outskirts of Cairo, in coordination with the army.
Mubarak’s two sons Alaa and Gamal, his former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six former security chiefs, defendants in the same case, also arrived in court.

Several pro-Mubarak supporters held banners of the former president, while families of the victims that died in protests carried pictures of their deceased relatives, an AFP correspondent said.

“The trial is a sham and the gang still rules,” the families chanted.

“We removed Mubarak, we got Hussein. To hell with both of them,” they shouted in reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak’s longtime defense minister who is now running the country.

The trial came to a halt when lawyers asked that presiding judge Ahmed Refaat be replaced, a request that was subsequently rejected on December 7.

Mubarak is the first leader to be toppled in the so-called Arab Spring uprisings to appear before a court.

Ever since the trial began in August, many in the country have been riveted by the sight of their ailing former ruler of nearly 30 years lying in a hospital bed inside the courtroom’s cage, where defendants traditionally sit during trials in Egypt.

During early sessions, the trial was bogged down by frequent commotion and arguments in the courtroom between the defense and the lawyers representing the protesters.

The first hearing on August 3 was broadcast live on television, but Refaat soon ordered the cameras out.

The judge drew the ire of lawyers representing Mubarak’s alleged victims after he issued a media gag order on testimony by high-profile witnesses, including Tantawi.

In statements after his testimony, Tantawi said Mubarak had never ordered the shooting of protesters.

But despite the media frenzy at the start of the case, Mubarak’s fate has since been overshadowed by deadly clashes between the army and people protesting against the military junta that took over when the long-time president resigned.

Attention was also diverted to the first post-revolution legislative elections which begun on November 28, in which Islamists have emerged as front-runners.

It is widely expected that the resumption of the trial will be merely procedural, with little discussion of the accusations against Mubarak.

But lawyers supporting the former president are hoping to clear his name.

Yussri Abdel Razek, who heads the defense committee -- which includes four Kuwaiti lawyers -- said Tuesday he had obtained “new documents that will prove Mubarak’s innocence.”

Mubarak resigned on February 11 after three decades of autocratic rule following a popular uprising in which more than 6,000 were also injured.

He is being held in a military hospital, where he receives treatment for a heart condition. His lawyer Farid al-Deeb says Mubarak suffers from stomach cancer.

Ever since the trial began in August, many in the country have been riveted by the sight of their ailing former ruler of nearly 30 years lying in a hospital bed inside the courtroom’s cage, where defendants traditionally sit during trials in Egypt.

During early sessions, the trial was bogged down by frequent commotion and arguments in the courtroom between the defense and the lawyers representing the protesters. It also became harder for media to cover the proceeding after the judge imposed a ban with high ranking Egyptian officials summoned to testify.

Iranian official says he was misquoted on threat to hang adulteress


An Iranian official who raised the possibility of hanging a woman convicted of adultery rather than stoning her to death says he was misquoted, according to media Wednesday.

Malek Ajdar Sharifi, the justice chief for East Azarbaijan province, at the weekend brought attention back to the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose 2006 stoning sentence for adultery brought international condemnation.

Fars news agency on Sunday published an interview with Sharifi in which he said he told justice authorities “we did not have facilities for stoning her.”

Sharifi said the reply from the chief of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, was: “If there are no facilities for stoning according to sharia, it could be changed to hanging.”
Other clerics were to be consulted on the issue, he said.

But Sharifi now says his comments were misinterpreted.

“In recent days, reports quoting me on the case, especially... on the method of carrying out the sentence against Sakineh Ashtiani were published in abbreviated form and with an incorrect interpretation,” he told other Iranian media.

“This case is following its normal course in line with the law,” he said.

Mohammadi Ashtiani was sentenced to death by stoning by two courts in the northwestern city of Tabriz, capital of East Azarbaijan province, in separate trials in 2006.

The sentence was upheld on appeal the same year, but in 2010 it was suspended pending a new examination of her case.

Mohammadi Ashtiani is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence on a separate charge of complicity in a lover’s murder of her husband. That punishment, originally also a death sentence, was commuted in a 2007 appeal.

Mubarak’s murder trial resumes in Egypt after a three-month break


The murder trial of Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak resumed Wednesday in Cairo. The poster reads “Aladdin and the forty thieves” as well as “They stole metal and sold it to Israel” referring to activities of members in Egypt’s pre-revolution regime. (Reuters)
The murder trial of Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak resumed Wednesday after a three-month hiatus that saw the ousted strongman’s fate eclipsed by deadly clashes and an Islamist election victory.


Mubarak risks the death sentence if he is found to have been complicit in the killings of some 850 people who died during protests that overthrew him in February.


The ailing former president, 83, arrived by ambulance at the Police Academy -- which once bore his name -- and was wheeled out by stretcher into the courthouse.


Around 5,000 policemen were deployed to secure the trial at the academy in the outskirts of Cairo, in coordination with the army.
Mubarak’s two sons Alaa and Gamal, his former interior minister Habib al-Adly and six former security chiefs, defendants in the same case, also arrived in court.


Several pro-Mubarak supporters held banners of the former president, while families of the victims that died in protests carried pictures of their deceased relatives, an AFP correspondent said.


“The trial is a sham and the gang still rules,” the families chanted.


“We removed Mubarak, we got Hussein. To hell with both of them,” they shouted in reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak’s longtime defense minister who is now running the country.


The trial came to a halt when lawyers asked that presiding judge Ahmed Refaat be replaced, a request that was subsequently rejected on December 7.


Mubarak is the first leader to be toppled in the so-called Arab Spring uprisings to appear before a court.


Ever since the trial began in August, many in the country have been riveted by the sight of their ailing former ruler of nearly 30 years lying in a hospital bed inside the courtroom’s cage, where defendants traditionally sit during trials in Egypt.


During early sessions, the trial was bogged down by frequent commotion and arguments in the courtroom between the defense and the lawyers representing the protesters.


The first hearing on August 3 was broadcast live on television, but Refaat soon ordered the cameras out.


The judge drew the ire of lawyers representing Mubarak’s alleged victims after he issued a media gag order on testimony by high-profile witnesses, including Tantawi.


In statements after his testimony, Tantawi said Mubarak had never ordered the shooting of protesters.


But despite the media frenzy at the start of the case, Mubarak’s fate has since been overshadowed by deadly clashes between the army and people protesting against the military junta that took over when the long-time president resigned.


Attention was also diverted to the first post-revolution legislative elections which begun on November 28, in which Islamists have emerged as front-runners.


It is widely expected that the resumption of the trial will be merely procedural, with little discussion of the accusations against Mubarak.


But lawyers supporting the former president are hoping to clear his name.


Yussri Abdel Razek, who heads the defense committee -- which includes four Kuwaiti lawyers -- said Tuesday he had obtained “new documents that will prove Mubarak’s innocence.”


Mubarak resigned on February 11 after three decades of autocratic rule following a popular uprising in which more than 6,000 were also injured.


He is being held in a military hospital, where he receives treatment for a heart condition. His lawyer Farid al-Deeb says Mubarak suffers from stomach cancer.


Ever since the trial began in August, many in the country have been riveted by the sight of their ailing former ruler of nearly 30 years lying in a hospital bed inside the courtroom’s cage, where defendants traditionally sit during trials in Egypt.


During early sessions, the trial was bogged down by frequent commotion and arguments in the courtroom between the defense and the lawyers representing the protesters. It also became harder for media to cover the proceeding after the judge imposed a ban with high ranking Egyptian officials summoned to testify.

Head of Syrian monitors reports Homs is calm but calls for further inquiry


The head of an Arab League mission investigating if Syria is keeping its promise to implement a peace plan said some parts of the flashpoint city of Homs were in poor condition but that delegates saw nothing frightening.

“There were some places where the situation was not good,” said Sudanese Lt. Gen. Mohamed al-Dabi. “But there wasn't anything frightening at least while we were there. Things were calm and there were no clashes.”

But al-Dabi said more investigation is needed.

In a Youtube video that first appeared on Wednesday, Dabi declined to officially say that he could not cross a street in Homs because of sniper fire, which had been alleged.

Amid sounds of gunfire and with armored vehicles evident on the side of the street, the video showed, a Syrian activist from an opposition group urged the monitoring figure to officially report what he saw and denounce the violence being directed against protesters in Syria, but the official declined.

Abu Jaafar, media spokesman for the Revolution Council, told Al Arabiya TV from Homs that he was injured as he was accompanying the Arab observers; he added that protests had taken place in a neighborhood in Homs called al-Khaldiya during which activists called for the monitors to come see the violence and damage with their own eyes.

According to the local coordination committees, more than 42 protesters were killed across Syria on Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of defiant Syrian protesters have thronged the streets of Homs, calling for the execution of President Bashar Assad shortly after his army pulled its tanks back and allowed Arab League monitors in for the first time to the city at the heart of the anti-government uprising.

The pullback on Tuesday was the first sign the regime was complying with the League’s plan to end the 9-month-old crackdown on mostly unarmed and peaceful protesters.

Yet another amateur video released by activists showed forces firing on protesters even while the monitors were inside the city. One of the observers walked with an elderly man who pointed with his cane to a fresh pool of blood on the street that he said had been shed by his son, killed a day earlier.

The man, wearing a red-and-white checkered headdress, then called for the monitor to walk ahead to “see the blood of my second son” also killed in the onslaught.

“Where is justice? Where are the Arabs?” the old man shouted in pain.

Syrian tanks had been heavily shelling Homs for days, residents and activists said, killing dozens even after Assad signed on early last week to the Arab League plan, which demands the government remove its security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country.

But a few hours before the arrival of the monitors, who began work Tuesday to ensure Syria complies with the League's plan, the army stopped the bombardment and pulled some of its tanks back.

The British-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that government forces fired on protesters while the monitors were inside Homs and said two people were killed from the fire.

About 60 monitors arrived in Syria Monday night - the first foreign observers Syria has allowed in since March, when the uprising against Assad’s authoritarian rule began. The League said a team of 12 visited Homs.

After agreeing to the League’s pullback plan on Dec. 19, the regime intensified its crackdown on dissent; government troops killed hundreds in the past week and Syria was condemned internationally for flouting the spirit of the agreement.

On Monday alone, security forces killed at least 42 people, most of them in Homs. Activists said security forces killed at least 16 people Tuesday, including six in Homs.

One group put Tuesday’s toll at 30, including 13 in Homs province. Different groups often give varying tolls. With foreign journalists and human rights groups barred from the country, they are virtually impossible to verify.

Amateur videos show residents of Homs pleading with the visiting monitors for protection.

“We are unarmed people who are dying,” one resident shouts to one observer. Seconds later, shooting is heard from a distance as someone else screams: “We are being slaughtered here.”

Given the intensified crackdown over the past week, the opposition has viewed Syria’s agreement to the Arab League plan as a farce. Some even accuse the organization of 22 states of complicity in the killings. Activists say the regime is trying to buy time and forestall more international condemnation and sanctions.

“The Syrian government will cooperate symbolically enough in order not to completely alienate the Arab League,” said Bilal Saab, a Middle East expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. “But make no mistake about it, its survival strategy is to keep kicking the can down the road, until domestic and international circumstances change in its favor.”

US rejects appeal by human rights group for release of Blind Sheikh

Omar Abdel Rahman
The US ambassador to Egypt has refused a request by an Egyptian human rights group for help in the repatriation on health grounds of Omar Abdel Rahman, ‘the Blind Sheikh’, to Egypt.
Abdel Rahman, the spiritual leader of Egypt's Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, has been held in US-based facilities for involvement in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.
In November 2011, the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR) asked the Egyptian authorities and the US Embassy in Cairo to work with the US administration for the release of Abdel Rahman who they claimed was suffering from a multitude of health problems including diabetes, high blood pressure, stomach ailments, chronic headaches and an inflammation of the pancreas.
However, US Ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, responded by saying that Abdel Rahamn is getting all the medical attention he needs.
“The US Federal Prison System has gone to great lengths to provide Mr. Omar Abdel Rahman with the best possible medical care, specifically: Mr. Abdel Rahman’s medical conditions are being managed appropriately and he is medically stable,” Patterson said. “He is regularly evaluated by a team of healthcare professionals, including a physician, a physician assistant and a registered nurse.”
According to EOHR, in addition to his ailing health, the Sheikh is not allowed visitors and the last time he received a guest was in 1999 when his wife was allowed to see him. He is also permitted only two 15-minute phone calls per month, and was subjected to solitary confinement for 18 years.
Salafists and supporters of Abdel Rahman began putting pressure for his release since April 2011 and held several protests in front of the US embassy.  In August, his family and supporters began a sit-in in front of the US mission in downtown Cairo,and they are still in their sit-in.
Mohamed Omar Abdel Rahman or Asaad ullah as he is called,the elder son of sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman  said to me, my father said " how can I harm a country(USA) that offered shelter to me,denying any responsibility of the world trade center bombing".

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Iraq’s Sadr loyalists call for new elections as fears of sectarian crisis grow


The political party loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has said that instability in Iraq threatens its sovereignity. (File photo)
The political party loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called Monday for the dissolution of Iraq’s parliament and new elections in another move that could escalate the country’s growing sectarian crisis.

The anti-American Sadrist bloc is a partner in the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Bahaa al-Aaraji, the head of the Sadrists’ bloc in parliament, said the elections are needed because of instability in the country and problems that threaten Iraq’s sovereignty.

“The political partners cannot find solutions for the problems that threaten to divide Iraq,” he said.

Iraq plunged into a new sectarian crisis last week, just days after the last American troops withdrew at the end of a nearly nine-year war.

The new political crisis has been accompanied by a new wave of attacks on the Iraqi capital by suspected Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda. A suicide bomber set off a car bomb Monday at a checkpoint leading to the Interior Ministry, killing seven people and injuring 32, officials said. Police and hospital officials said the bomber struck during morning rush hour, hitting one of many security barriers set up around the ministry’s building.
Maliki is in a political showdown with the country’s top Sunni political figure, Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, after the government issued an arrest warrant for Hashemi on allegations his bodyguards ran hit squads targeting government officials.

The prime minister threatened to form a government without Hashemi’s Sunni-backed political party, Iraqiya, which is boycotting parliament and mulling whether to pull out of the ruling coalition.

Iraq was dominated by the minority Sunnis under Saddam Hussein until the U.S.-led war that began in 2003 ousted him. Majority Shiites have dominated the government ever since, though Americans pushed hard for the inclusion of Sunnis with a meaningful role in the current governing coalition.

Bitter sectarian rivalries played out in 2006-2007 in violence that took Iraq to the brink of civil war and the latest tensions have raised fears of a resurgence of Shiite-Sunni violence.

The political crisis taps into resentments that are still raw despite years of efforts to overcome them. The Sunnis fear the Shiite majority is squeezing them out of their already limited political role. Shiites suspect Sunnis of links to militants and of plotting to topple the Shiite leadership.

The Sadrists have played an important role in maintaining Shiite domination over government ─ their support last year catapulted al-Maliki back to the prime minister’s office for a second term.

For the proposal to dissolve parliament to gain traction, it would take the consent of at least 1/3 of parliament, the president and the prime minister or a simple majority of lawmakers. Maliki, who only secured his position after nearly nine months of political wrangling after the last elections, would likely be loathe to go through the process again and risk an unfavorable outcome.

Aaraji said the proposal first needs approval of the larger coalition between the Sadrists and Maliki’s alliance, the two most powerful Shiite parties.

A Shiite lawmaker loyal to Maliki, Kamal al-Saiedi, said the proposal should be studied.

“Forming the current government was not an easy issue, therefore going back in the direction of new elections would be more difficult,” he said.

A Sunni lawmaker with Iraqiya, the Sunni-backed bloc of the wanted vice president, said new elections would not bring security and stability. He pointed to the prolonged negotiations that were needed to agree on the government in place now, and said a new election would only bring the same people to office.

“We need to sit around the same negotiating table and that is the only path to salvation from this current crisis,” said Kamil al-Dulaimi.

Also Monday, a roadside bomb hit a passing army patrol in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad, killing two soldiers and injuring two, a police officer and a doctor said.

Maliki’s adviser for National Reconciliation Amer al-Khuzaie, said leaders of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the top Shiite militant groups, had decided to lay down their weapons and join the political system.

Asaib Ahl al-Haq, or Band of the People of Righteousness, was a splinter group from the Mahdi Army, also headed by al-Sadr. They, along with the Mahdi Army, were two of three Shiite militant groups active in Iraq that were dedicated to fighting the U.S. military presence.

Khuzaie said the group had signed an agreement in recent days renouncing violence. He said they would change their name and join the political process. He said he had been negotiating for months with the group, who said they would join the political process after the U.S. military left Iraq. All American troops departed on Dec. 18.

Officials from the group were not available to confirm the decision.

U.S. officials have warned that these Shiite militant groups could turn against the Iraqi government after the American military has gone. A key test to whether Asaib Ahl al-Haq, an Iranian-funded group, is committed to becoming a peaceful part of the political process is whether they actually turn in their weapons, especially the more powerful and sophisticated weapons they’re believed to get from Iran.

Court ruling on army virginity tests against female protesters expected Tuesday

Samira
A court ruling in protester Samira Ibrahim’s case against the ruling military council (SCAF) for subjecting her to virginity tests in March is expected on Tuesday.
The ruling will be announced by the State Council’s Administrative Court at 9am.
The court was initially expected to issue a verdict in the case on 29 November, but the ruling was postponed.
Ibrahim, 25, was among seven female protesters who claimed to have been subject to virginity tests after being arrested on 9 March when army personnel attempted to disperse a sit-in in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Ibrahim is the only one of the seven women to lodge a lawsuit against the military for the incident.
Two separate cases were filed on Ibrahim’s behalf by lawyers from the Hisham Mubarak Law Centre, the Nadim Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. The first case challenges the alleged decision to conduct the virginity tests, while the second challenges the referral of the case to a military court.
Ibrahim, along with 20 other women and 174 men, was taken to the grounds of the nearby Egyptian Museum where they were allegedly tortured. Several were released, but the rest were taken to Cairo’s notorious C28 military prosecution facility where they were detained. It was here that Ibrahim and the other women say they were subject to virginity tests.
Ibrahim told Human Rights Watch (HRW) that two officers had entered the prison cell in which the women were detained and asked them which of them were married. The officers then informed them that they would be subject to virginity tests to confirm that they were not lying, she said.
“They took us out one by one. When it was my turn, they took me to a bed in a passageway in front of the cell. There were lots of soldiers around and they could see me,” Ibrahim told HRW. “I asked if the soldiers could move away and the officer escorting me tased me. A woman prison guard in plainclothes stood at my head and then a man in military uniform examined me with his hand for several minutes. It was painful. He took his time. It was clear he was doing it on purpose to humiliate me.”
Ibrahim also gave a full account of the incident in a video posted on YouTube. In the video, Ibrahim, originally from the Sohag governorate, said that she had come to Cairo to participate in the 25 January uprising. She was arrested by Mubarak’s security forces and released. She was then detained again on 9 March when she took part in the Tahrir Square sit-in.
According to her account, she was taken along with other protesters to the Egyptian Museum. When she arrived at the premises, she was greeted by an officer she didn’t know. “He said, ‘Hello Samira, I was waiting for you’,” Ibrahim recalled. “The first thing he did was electrocute me in my stomach.”
Ibrahim and the other women were accused of belonging to a prostitution ring and allegedly tortured. “They splashed us with water, electrocuted us and insulted us,” she said.
The group was then taken to the C28 military facility where they were photographed holding empty Molotov cocktails, before being allegedly tortured through the night. The next day, Ibrahim was taken to a room with a big window, where men of different military ranks were standing. She was then asked to take her clothes off.
“I thought they would search me like they do in the army, so I took my jacket off,” Ibrahim said. “But they told me to take all my clothes off.”
Ibrahim requested that they close the window, but says she was beaten for asking. “I took my clothes off while the military personnel laughed and winked at each other,” she said. “I wanted to die.”
She was then told to lie down in order to be inspected by a man dressed in Khaki clothes. The inspection took a long time, Ibrahim said. "If he was a doctor, why did he need five minutes?” she asked. “They were trying to humiliate us so that we would never ask for our rights again or go to protests again.”
Ibrahim was later tried in a military court and given a one-year suspended sentence. She was released a few weeks later.
Ibrahim also says that, since having made the decision to file her lawsuit, she has received several threatening phone calls from an anonymous source. “I received phone calls saying, ‘Give up this case or you’ll pay with your life’,” she said.
Although the military initially denied having conducted the tests, an army general admitted in May that the incident had in fact taken place. Speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity, the general defended the practice.
"We didn't want them to claim that we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove they weren't virgins in the first place," he said. "The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine."
"These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, where we had found them in possession of Molotov cocktails and drugs,” he told CNN.

Activists say Syria pulls tanks from Homs before monitors’ arrival; U.N. meddling urged


Demonstrators protest against President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers in Kafranbel, near Idlib. (Reuters)
A hard-won Arab observer mission arrived Syria’s third largest city Homs on Tuesday following reports that scores of people had been killed in 24 hours in and around the hub of anti-government protests.

Syria’s Dunia TV reported that the monitors were meeting Homs governor.

The Syrian army pulled back heavy armor from the flashpoint central city of Homs early Tuesday ahead of the arrival of Arab League observers, a human rights watchdog said earlier.

Eleven tanks pulled out of the Baba Amro neighborhood of the city around 7:00 am (0500 GMT), Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.

“My house is on the eastern entrance of Baba Amr. I saw at least six tanks leave the neighborhood at around 8 in the morning (0600 GMT),” activist Mohammed Saleh told Reuters. “I do not know if more remain in the area.”
The mission’s leader, veteran Sudanese military intelligence officer General Mohammed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, earlier told AFP that he was on the road to the city and that the Syrian authorities were so far affording every assistance.

“I am going to Homs. Till now, they have been very cooperative,” Dabi told AFP.

At least 61 people were killed in the city on Monday as tanks fired into districts where opposition has been strongest to President Bashar al-Assad’s rule, Al Arabiya reported citing activists.

Syrian regime will not permit them

Meanwhile, head of the Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun said that the Syrian regime will not permit the Arab observers in Homs to tour the streets or to visit Bab Amro neighborhood, Al Arabiya reported on Tuesday.

“The regime is holding the observers in their hotel as hostages and does not provide them with their security requirements or means of transportation,” Ghalion said.

Ghalion called on the U.N. Security Council to “adopt” an implementation of the Arab initiative because the Arab League does not have the effective means to implement the plan.

The opposition leader expressed hope that the Arab initiative would succeed in order to spare Syria any possibility of a civil war. However, he underlined the importance of creating humanitarian corridors to save the Syrian people.

Assad’s opponents fear that the monitors - who arrived in the country on Monday after weeks of negotiations with Arab states - will be used as a cloak of respectability for a government that will hide the extent of violence.

On his part, Bassam Gaara, spokesman of the Europe-based Syrian General revolution Authority, said that the Authority refuse the mission of the Arab observers, Al Arabiya reported. He called on the Arab League to refer the whole crisis to the Security Council. He said that the Syrian people are exposed to a real “genocide.”

Assad, heir to a 41-year-old dynasty, says he is facing an attack by Islamist terrorists directed from abroad.

The launch of the monitoring mission marks the first international intervention on the ground in Syria since the revolt broke out nine months ago, when the government cracked down on protests inspired by uprisings across the Arab world.

The first 50 of an eventual 150 monitors arrived on Monday. They will be split into five teams of 10, one of which is due to visit Homs on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Arab plan

The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on Nov. 2 that calls for the withdrawal of security forces from towns and residential districts, a halt to violence against civilians and the release of detainees.

Since signing the deal, Assad’s regime has been accused of intensifying its crackdown, which has shown no signs of abating since it erupted in March and which the U.N. says has killed more than 5,000 people, AFP reported.

The private Dunya television channel, which is close to Assad’s regime, said: “A delegation of 50 observers arrived on Monday evening in Damascus,” adding that 10 team members were Egyptian.

The teams will use government transport, according to Dabi. Delegates insist the mission will nevertheless maintain the “element of surprise” and be able to go wherever it chooses with no notice.

“Our Syrian brothers are cooperating very well and without any restrictions so far,” Dabi, who had arrived in the Syrian capital on Sunday, told Reuters on Monday.

But he added that Syrian forces would be providing transportation for the observers -- a move likely to fuel charges by the anti-Assad opposition that the monitoring mission will be blinded from the outset.

Arab delegates said they would maintain the upper hand.

“The element of surprise will be present,” said monitor Mohammed Salem al-Kaaby from the United Arab Emirates.

“We will inform the Syrian side the areas we will visit on the same day so that there will be no room to direct monitors or change realities on the ground by either side.”

Amateur videos

Amateur video posted by activists on the Internet showed tanks in action in the streets next to apartment blocks in the Baba Amr district of Homs on Monday. One fired its main gun and another appeared to launch mortar rounds, reuters said.

Mangled bodies lay in pools of blood on a narrow street, the video showed. Power lines had collapsed and cars were burnt and blasted, as if shelled by tank or mortar rounds.

“What’s happening is a slaughter,” said Fadi, a resident living nearby.

Destruction inflicted by heavy weapons was evident.

“The situation is frightening and the shelling is the most intense of the past three days,” The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement received by AFP in Nicosia.

The Syrian government has banned most access by independent media, making it difficult to verify accounts of events.

On Sunday, the SNC said Homs was besieged and facing an “invasion” from some 4,000 troops deployed near what has become a focal point of the uprising against Assad.

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdisi said the observer “mission has freedom of movement in line with the protocol” Syria signed with the Arab League.

Under that deal, the observers are banned from sensitive military sites.

Attempt to confuse observers

The Observatory charged that the authorities had changed road signs in Idlib province to confuse the observers, and urged them to contact rights activists on the ground.

Opposition groups have said the observers must stop their work if they are blocked by the authorities from travelling to places like Homs.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said he expects the observers to vindicate his government’s contention that “armed terrorists” are behind the violence.

Western governments and rights watchdogs blame Assad’s regime for the bloodshed.

Opposition leaders charge that Syria agreed to the mission after weeks of prevarication in a “ploy” to head off a threat by the 22-member League to go to the U.N. Security Council over the crackdown.

An armed insurgency is eclipsing civilian protest in Syria. Many fear a slide to sectarian war between the Sunni Muslim majority, the driving force of the protest movement, and minorities that have mostly stayed loyal to the government, particularly the Alawite sect to which Assad belongs.

Analysts say the Arab League is anxious to avoid civil war. The West has shown no desire to intervene militarily and the United Nations Security Council is split.

Assad’s opponents appear divided on aims and tactics. The government still retains strong support in much of the country, which lies at a crucial nexus of Middle East political and strategic forces.