Replies to post #124016 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

Tunisia set to release political prisoners

Members of the Islamist Ennahdha movement among those set to go free and could have role in Tunisia's political future

* Peter Beaumont in Tunis
* guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 January 2011 20.55 GMT


Tunisia's Islamist party leader Rachid Ghannouchi, pictured in
London in 2000, set conditions today for his return home.
Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

Tunisia's new government appears on the brink of releasing political prisoners, including all members of the Islamist Ennahdha movement.

Najib Chebbi, an opposition party leader who has joined the new government, claimed that all prisoners had been released. A prominent figure in Ennahdha said it had been unable to confirm the release but was hopeful it would happen shortly.

Samir Dilou, a lawyer and Ennahdha leader, said: "We've spoken to the families. It is not confirmed. They are not free yet." But the government could discuss a general amnesty as early as tomorrow.

Supporting the idea of Ennahdha's involvement in Tunisia's political future, Chebbi told the BBC Hard Talk programme: "To have democracy, we must integrate any people who want to respect the law and play the game of democracy. Moderate political Islam is a component of the Arab and Islamist landscape."

A general amnesty would open the way for Ennahdha's exiled leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, to come home. He has said he would wait for a general amnesty before returning to Tunisia from London.

Ghannouchi was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 1992 for allegedly planning to overthrow the then president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, an accusation he has denied.

His allies have gone out of their way to reassure Tunisians that – despite the former president's claims – the politics that they represent are closer to those of Turkey than "Tora Bora", a reference to the Taliban.

Banned for almost 30 years with many key members in exile, members of the mainly moderate Islamic opposition admitted that it must regroup if it is to be relevant.

Dilou, who spent 10 years in prison in the 1990s, said this week: "We were caught off guard by the popular uprising." Activists inside and outside of Tunisia, including Dilou, have suggested in recent days that the party might participate in legislative elections, perhaps in partnership with other secular parties, but it would not run in presidential elections.

The party also plans to ask for formal legal status in Tunisia, something that was denied to them under the Ben Ali regime.

Ghannouchi is no relation of the country's interim leader, Mohammed Ghannouchi, who has promised parliamentary and presidential elections within six months.

Figures closely associated with Ennahda within Tunisia have been vocal in recent days in criticising attempts by former regime figures – including Mohammed Ghannouchi – to form a government of national unity including former members of Ben Ali's RCD party.

Among those who have been visible at rallies has been former Ennadha leader Sadok Chourou, who has joined other demonstrators in Tunis calling for a new government without Ben Ali's former ministers.

While Rachid Ghannouchi is waiting for an amnesty, Moncef Marzouki, another Tunisian opposition leader, has already returned to Tunisia from exile in France and today visited the grave of Muhammad Bouazizi, who set fire to himself in an act of protest and started the wave of unrest that toppled Ben Ali. Unlike Ghannouchi, Marzouki has said he plans to run for president.

At a demonstration in central Tunis today calling for a new government free of any former Ben Ali allies, Hamid Bin Zidane, a school teacher, said Tunisians were "happy to see the exiled leaders" such as Ghannouchi head home. "There must be an amnesty from the government," he said, adding that the west had fuelled false stereotypes of what Islamist politics in Tunisia represented.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/19/tunisia-political-prisoners?INTCMP=SRCH

[StephanieVanbryce]

In Tunisia, freedom blossoms......


Photo Gallery here [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2011/01/14/GA2011011403817.html#photo=1 ]

Sudarsan Raghavan Monday, January 24, 2011; 12:36 AM

TUNIS - Workers stormed out of the state-run shipping company the other day. For decades, they had lived quietly in relative poverty as their bosses, all members of the former ruling party, drove luxury cars and owned mansions.

Only 10 days ago, the police would have suppressed this mini-uprising and arrested them. Now, it was a new order. Pumping their fists, the workers accused the company's chairman of embezzlement and demanded his resignation.

Across this nation, Tunisians are experiencing a blossoming of freedoms after a popular uprising ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali from power on Jan. 14, ending his autocratic rule. Many are voicing their thoughts and ideas after living for nearly a quarter of a century in fear. Others, for the first time in their lives, are demanding justice for relatives killed by his regime.

The happiness is tempered by unease, for their future is still uncertain. Protests are unfolding daily in the capital to demand that the interim government purge all members of Ben Ali's party. The opposition is weak and divided; some fear militias that supported the president might create problems.

In a crackdown on key allies of Ben Ali, police on Sunday placed two high-ranking officials under house arrest and detained the head of a well-known private TV station for allegedly trying to slow the country's steps toward democracy.

But for now, at least, many here are embracing freedoms they thought they would never have.

"They stole the nation's money. They were a mafia. Our company is like a little example of what was wrong with Tunisia," said Sofiyan Abu Sami, one of the workers who walked off the job the other day. Some carried placards that read "No to corruption."

"Now, we can finally speak our minds," he said.

Under Ben Ali, Tunisia was perceived by the West as a model nation in the Arab world - moderate, relatively prosperous and secular. The autocratic leader, who seized power in 1987, stamped down on Islamic radicalism; he was a U.S. ally in the war against terrorism in a region where al-Qaeda was making inroads.

Ben Ali also lorded over a landscape of repression and corruption. Journalists were censored, harassed and monitored by his intelligence service. Critical voices were silenced.

His family owned more than half the companies in Tunisia, including banks, hotels and real estate development firms. Bribes and good ties with the government were the route to jobs and promotions.

In the streets, shops and offices, Ben Ali's photos were everywhere, as were the secret police.

For years, Mohammed Nasrallah, who was once jailed for supporting an opposition group, was forced to keep a large photo of Ben Ali in his restaurant near the Avenue Habib Bourghiba, the epicenter of the protests, which winds through downtown Tunis. Removing it would have meant a visit from city inspectors, stiff fines, perhaps even a beating by the secret police.

But after Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia, Nasrallah took the photo from the frame and set it on fire. "It was like I was born again," he said.

A block away, Radhiya Mishirsi said she once worried that the police would insult her when she wore her head scarf. On Friday, she stood near a group of policemen and declared that she would cover her entire face, leaving only her eyes exposed. The policemen nodded and smiled.

Around the capital, once forbidden jokes about Ben Ali are circulating openly. One goes like this: Ben Ali returns to Tunisia and visits a shoe store. The salesman brings him a pair. "How do you know my shoe size?" Ben Ali asks.

"We have been under your shoes for 23 years," the salesman replies. "So of course we know your size."

'First, the people'

On the Avenue Bourghiba, Mohamed Dhakar carried a placard calling for a new national motto: "First, the people. Freedom. Rights. Justice."

"I am not part of any party," Dhakar yelled. "I am for Tunisia."

His presence attracted a large crowd and triggered an impromptu discussion.

"We are against the secret police. We want all of them in uniform," a man yelled.

"If the new government is making a piece of theater, the people will remove them like we did the old government," another man yelled.

Communists, socialists and atheists were all staging demonstrations downtown on this day. Opposition groups were once banned or harassed by the old government. On Friday, more than 1,000 Islamists marched along the avenue, calling for a parliamentary form of government. A group from a rural area in Tunisia's impoverished south distributed pamphlets demanding more jobs and development in their region.

Some hurled insults at the once-feared police.

"There is a God," a man shouted at some policemen. "There is a God to protect the truth. How can you have killed your own people?"

Sueda Guesmi was also asking that question. She said her son was accused of selling alcohol illegally and imprisoned without a trial. A few weeks later, she was told he had died in his cell.

"I want to know why my son was killed," Guesmi said. "I want justice for him."

Writing without fear

At the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the 300 or so employees demanded that the minister, an ally of Ben Ali, depart along with his staff. He complied. As his chief of staff left the building, the employees exploded in thunderous applause.

"Long live the revolution! Long live Tunisia!" they chanted.

"We are rejecting this new government," said Rauda Assel, an employee standing outside the ministry building. "This is not the moment for taking your ministry car and your responsibilities, but to be with the people for the right cause."

The employees appointed a three-member committee from their own ranks to run the ministry until, they said, a government is formed that satisfies them.

At La Presse newspaper, the editor in chief, who was appointed by the former government, also stepped down. A committee of editors took over. Ten days ago, they were publishing official propaganda delivered by the state news agency. On the front pages, they always published a picture of Ben Ali. They wrote fawning articles about Besma - The Smile - a charity run by his wife, Leila Trabesi.

"It was a smoke screen to hide the corruption of the first family," said Hmida Ben Romdhane, an editor on the committee now running the newspaper. "Before the revolution, we were not publishing information. We published disinformation. The regime forbade any attempt to write the truth."

Now, for the first time in their lives, La Presse's 50 journalists are writing without fear.

Ben Ali's photo is no longer published on the front page - unless it accompanies a scathing article about the regime's excesses. Last week, La Presse published a story about Switzerland freezing Ben Ali's assets.

Soon, Ben Romdhane said, his reporters are planning to investigate the corruption and repression of the former regime. "We have to learn how to be free and work in this new atmosphere of freedom," he said.

His voice filled with emotion as he spoke about the profound change in the newsroom and his life.

"I am 59, and I have seen only two presidents. I have experienced two dictatorships," he said. "The freedom we have gained is a freedom imposed by the people on the political system. This freedom, I think, will last.

"It's a new era."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/23/AR2011012304126.html

[StephanieVanbryce]

darn ! wake up every morning and find a new Middle Eastern demonstration.. !! ..

....Egypt ..I see on the tv the cops are throwing tear gas, But it's NOT reaching the people ..thank God.

They say there are THOUSANDS ..

[StephanieVanbryce]

It's dark in Egypt NOW, It's after 7:30 close to eight or over ..but I thought these photos were excellent got them off of Twitter here http://twitpic.com/3tbdn3









This is amazing .. it started with just a few hundred and now it's thousands .. Plus they have run out of police vans so now the police are going by buses, THEY did NOT expect this, they were CAUGHT by surprise !. .. the MILITARY has NOT been called out YET ... I saw a young woman on CNN - they asked her .."What will be the end result" (something like that, to the best of my memory .. and SHE said "I don't know, BUT IF this keeps growing AS it all ready has ..????..and IF it lasts throughout the NIGHT ? .... who knows ? ....

[StephanieVanbryce]

AfriNomad Amine
by Reem_Ahmed
"Yesterday we were all Tunisian. Today we are all Egyptian. Tomorrow we'll all be free"
#jan25 #sidibouzid #opegypt
47 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23sidibouzid

[StephanieVanbryce]

The body of the man who started a revolution now lies in a simple grave, surrounded by olive trees, cactuses and blossoming almond trees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47d6fyaOjRM

The tragic life of a street vendor

Al Jazeera travels to the birthplace of Tunisia's uprising and speaks to Mohamed Bouazizi's family.

Yasmine Ryan Last Modified: 20 Jan 2011 15:00 GMT


A town not previously recognised outside of Tunisia is now known as the place where a revolution began [Al Jazeera]

In a country where officials have little concern for the rights of citizens, there was nothing extraordinary about humiliating a young man trying to sell fruit and vegetables to support his family.

Yet when Mohamed Bouazizi poured inflammable liquid over his body and set himself alight outside the local municipal office, his act of protest cemented a revolt that would ultimately end President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year-rule.

Local police officers had been picking on Bouazizi for years, ever since he was a child. For his family, there is some comfort that their personal loss has had such stunning political consequences.

"I don't want Mohamed's death to be wasted," Menobia Bouazizi, his mother, said. "Mohamed was the key to this revolt."

Simple, troubled life

Mohamed Bouazizi was 10 years old when he became the main provider for his family, selling fresh produce in the local market. He stayed in high school long enough to sit his baccalaureate exam, but did not graduate. (He never attended university, contrary to what many news organisations have reported).

Bouazizi's father died when he was three years old. His elder brother lives away from the family, in Sfax. Though his mother remarried, her second husband suffers from poor health and is unable to find regular work.

"He didn't expect to study, because we didn't have the money," his mother said.

At age of 19, Mohamed halted his studies in order to work fulltime, to help offer his five younger siblings the chance to stay in school.

"My sister was the one in university and he would pay for her," Samya Bouazizi, one of his sisters, said. "And I am still a student and he would spend money on me."

He applied to join the army, but was refused, as were other successive job applications. With his family dependant on him, there were few options other than to continue going to market.

By all accounts, Bouazizi, just 26 when he died earlier this month, was honest and hardworking. Every day, he would take his wooden cart to the supermarket and load it would fruit and vegetables. Then he would walk it more than two kilometres to the local souk.

Police abuse

And nearly everyday, he was bullied by local police officers.

"Since he was a child, they were mistreating him. He was used to it," Hajlaoui Jaafer, a close friend of Bouazizi, said. "I saw him humiliated."

The abuse took many forms. Mostly, it was the type of petty bureaucratic tyranny that many in the region know all too well. Police would confiscate his scales and his produce, or fine him for running a stall without a permit.

Six months before his attempted suicide, police sent a fine for 400 dinars ($280) to his house – the equivalent of two months of earnings.

The harassment finally became too much for the young man on December 17.

That morning, it became physical. A policewoman confronted him on the way to market. She returned to take his scales from him, but Bouazizi refused to hand them over. They swore at each other, the policewoman slapped him and, with the help of her colleagues, forced him to the ground.

The officers took away his produce and his scale.

Publically humiliated, Bouazizi tried to seek recourse. He went to the local municipality building and demanded to a meeting with an official.

He was told it would not be possible and that the official was in a meeting.

"It's the type of lie we're used to hearing," said his friend.

Protest of last resort

With no official wiling to hear his grievances, the young man brought paint fuel, returned to the street outside the building, and set himself on fire.

For Mohamed's mother, her son's suicide was motivated not by poverty but because he had been humiliated.

"It got to him deep inside, it hurt his pride," she said, referring to the police's harassment of her son.

The uprising that followed came quick and fast. From Sidi Bouzid it spread to Kasserine, Thala, Menzel Bouzaiene. Tunisians of every age, class and profession joined the revolution.

In the beginning, however, the outrage was intensely personal.



It took Ben Ali nearly two weeks to visit Mohamed Bouazizi's bedside at the hospital in Ben Arous. For many observers, the official photo of the president looking down on the bandaged young man had a different symbolism from what Ben Ali had probably intended.

Menobia Bouazizi said the former president was wrong not to meet with her son sooner, and that when Ben Ali finally did reach out to her family, it was too late - both to save her son, and to save his presidency.

He received members of the Bouazizi family in his offices, but for Menobia Bouazizi, the meeting rang hollow.

"The invite to the presidential palace came very late," she said. "We are sure that the president only made the invitation to try to derail the revolution."

"I went there as a mother and a citizen to ask for justice for my son."

"The president promised he would do everything he could to save our son, even to have him sent to France for treatment."

The president never delivered on his promises to her family, Menobia Bouazizi said.

Contagious uprising

But by the time Menobia Bouazizi's son died of his burns on January 4, the uprising had already spread across Tunisia.

Fedya Hamdi, the last police officer to antagonise the street vendor, has since fled the town. She was reportedly dismissed, but her exact whereabouts are unknown.

Meanwhile, the body of the man who started a revolution now lies in a simple grave outside Sidi Bouzid, surrounded by olive trees, cactuses and blossoming almond trees.

He is sorely missed by his family, whose modest house is now one of the busiest in Sidi Bouzid, with a steady flow of journalists who have only just discovered the town where it all began.

"He was very sincere," Basma Bouazizi, his shy 16-year-old sister, said. "We are like soulless bodies since he left."

"We consider him to be a martyr," Mahmoud Ghozlani, a local member of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), said in an interview metres away from the spot where the street vendor set himself on fire.

Proof itself of the progress made in four short weeks: such an interview with an opposition activist on the streets of Sidi Bouzid would not have been possible until the day Bouazizi inspired the revolt.

"What really gave fire to the revolution was that Mohamed was a very well-known and popular man. He would give free fruit and vegetables to very poor families," Jaafer said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/201111684242518839.html

I had this to post on the first day ..somehow, I got carried with the other events ..today, I found it when I was cleaning out the mailbox .. I feel bad, THIS should have been the FIRST thing posted..! .....further, something is flirting in my mind ..something about another 'person' setting fire to themselves in VietNam .. .?

[StephanieVanbryce]

Anti-government rallies hit Yemen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGXj6cWpUhQ

Tens of thousands of people, inspired by events in Tunisia, protest in Sanaa to demand President Saleh's resignation.
Last Modified: 27 Jan 2011 13:03 GMT

Last Modified: 27 Jan 2011 13:03 GMT

Tens of thousands of people in Yemen have taken to the streets in the country's capital, calling for an end to the government of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president.

Inspired by recent events in Tunisia and Egypt, opposition members and youth activists are rallying at four different locations in Sanaa on Thursday, chanting for Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, to step down.

"Enough being in power for [over] 30 years," protesters shouted during the demonstrations.

They also referred to the ouster of Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, saying he was "gone in just [over] 20 years".

"No to extending [presidential tenure]. No to bequeathing [the presidency]," they chanted.

An opposition activist said that the staging of the demonstration in four separate parts of the capital was aimed at distracting the security forces.

One area chosen for the protest was outside Sanaa University. Security measures at the demonstrations appeared relaxed, but were tight around the interior ministry and the central bank.

'Not like Tunisia'

Meanwhile Saleh's ruling General People's Congress held counter marches attended by thousands of the government's backers.

"No to toppling democracy and the constitution," the president's supporters said in their banners.

Motahar Rashad al-Masri, the Yemeni interior minister, ruled out any resemblance between the protests in Yemen and the public outcry in Tunisia and Egypt.

"Yemen is not like Tunisia," he said, adding that Yemen was a "democratic country" and that the demonstrations were peaceful.

He told Al Jazeera that Yemeni authorities will not curb any demonstrations that are peaceful, regardless of their size.

Seven-year mandate

Saleh was re-elected in September 2006 for a seven-year mandate.

A draft amendment of the constitution, under discussion in parliament despite opposition protests, could allow him - if passed - to remain in office for life.

Saleh is also accused of wanting to pass the reins of power in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state to his eldest son Ahmed, who heads the elite Presidential Guard.

But in a televised address on Sunday, Saleh denied such accusations. "We are a republic. We reject bequeathing (the presidency)", he said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011127100660857.html

[fuagf]

Leading Tunisian Islamist Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi returns from exile
Jan 31, 2011, 01.18am IST

TUNIS: Thousands of Tunisians turned out on Sunday to welcome home an Islamist leader whose return from 22 years of exile indicated that his party would emerge as a major force in Tunisia after the ousting of its president.

The reception for Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahda party, at Tunis airport was the biggest showing by the Islamists in two decades, during which thousands of them were jailed or exiled by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Ghannouchi was exiled in 1989 by Ben Ali, who was toppled on Jan 14 by popular protests that have sent tremors through an Arab world where similarly autocratic leaders have long sought to suppress Islamist groups.

Protesters in Egypt demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule have been inspired by the example of Tunisia.

Ennahda is expected to contest future legislative but not presidential elections, dates for which have yet to be set.

The Islamists were Tunisia's strongest opposition force at the time Ben Ali cracked down on them in 1989 but are thought not to have played a leading role in the popular revolt.

But at Tunis airport on Sunday, they were out in force. Up to 10,000 young men and veiled women packed the arrival hall and car park. Some climbed trees and electricity pylons to catch a glimpse of the 69-year-old Ghannouchi, who says he has no ambition to run for state office.

"Oh great people who called for this blessed revolution, continue your revolution, preserve it and translate it into democracy, justice and equality," Ghannouchi told the crowd, to chants of "Allahu Akbar".

Ennahda supporters embraced each other in joy. A group of men performed prayers on a grass verge, a scene unthinkable in Tunisia just a few weeks ago.

Ennahda likens its ideology to that of Turkey's ruling AK Party, saying it is committed to democracy. Experts on political Islam say its ideas are some of the most moderate among Islamist groups.

Secular order imposed

Tunisia has imposed a secular order since independence from France in 1956. Habib Bourguiba, the independence leader and long-time president, considered Islam a threat to the state. Ben Ali eased restrictions on the Islamists when he seized power in 1987, before cracking down on them two years later.

The protests which dislodged Ben Ali and electrified the Arab world have largely dried up in the last few days following the announcement on Thursday of a new interim government purged of most of the remnants of Ben Ali's regime. The security forces have tried to restore order to the capital, where confrontations between shopkeepers and protesters have indicated dwindling support for demonstrators on the part of Tunisians who want life to return to normal.

Ghannouchi told the crowd the path to democracy was "still long". "Unite and consolidate, democracy cannot happen without national consensus and development can only happen with justice and democracy," he said.

Ennahda activists wearing white baseball caps tried to marshal the crowds. Asked how they had managed to organise so quickly, one activist said: "Our activities were stopped, but you can't disperse an ideology."

Some Ennahda activists were among the political prisoners released under an amnesty granted by the interim government.

A handful of secularists turned up at the airport to demonstrate against the party, holding up a placard reading: "No Islamism, no theocracy, no Sharia and no stupidity!"

Ennahda and its supporters say they do not seek an Islamic state and want only the right to participate in politics.

"We don't want an Islamic state, we want a democratic state," said Mohammed Habasi, an Ennahda
supporter who said he had been jailed four times since 1991 for "belonging to a banned group".

"We suffered the most from a lack of democracy," he said. Abdel Bassat al-Riyaahi, another Ennahda activist who returned from exile, said: "We were banned for 21 years ... but we came back with our heads held high.

"Thank God for the great Tunisian people."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Leading-Tunisian-Islamist-Sheikh-Rachid-Ghannouchi-returns-from-exile/articleshow/7393902.cms