Tag: Opposition

Syrian government is mobilising troops on several fronts: Opposition

The Syrian opposition said Friday that the government is mobilising its troops on several fronts, questioning the feasibility of continuing peace talks that were set to be held this week.

As the regime continues to raid some locations near the city of Jisr al-Shughur, the opposition believes that resuming the negotiations will be impossible. The current ceasefire is the result of a US-Russian sponsored agreement, which also addressed the deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Until now, the opposition has not yet decided whether they will attend the second round of the peace talks in Geneva. The head of the Supreme Negotiations Committee Riyad Hijab said the current circumstances are “not suitable” for the talks.

Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad confirmed the army is committed to the agreement, which exclused the Al-Nusra Front and “Islamic State” (IS). US and Russian foreign ministers have spoken in favour of launching intra-Syrian talks as soon as possible, according to by the Russian foreign ministry.

“They discussed the implementation of the Russian-US initiative on a ceasefire in Syria, which excludes anti-terrorist efforts,” the statement read.

US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to “continue active efforts to promote all the aspects of the Syrian settlement via the International Syria Support Group co-chaired by Russia, the United States and the United Nations”.

UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said Thursday the ceasefire is still intact, but fragile. De Mistura previously attempted to launch peace talks a month ago, but they failed due to the Syrian regime’s continuing strikes on Aleppo.

He added that Syrians alone should decide the fate of Bashar Al-Assad.

Meanwhile, the UK and France said all sides must commit to the ceasefire and help deliver humanitarian aid into Syrian cities. “Without those two conditions, the negotiations will fail,” French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told journalists in Paris.

French president Francios Hollande said the idea of early presidential elections in Syria is “provocative” and “unrealistic”, following a phone call between Russian president Vladimir Putin and European leaders. Hollande further said it “would be proof that there is no negotiation and no discussion taking place”.

The Kremlin however declared that early elections in April would not be an obstacle for the peace process.

March 5, 2016
In Cartoon: The Gulf and the opposition

January 4, 2016
Opposition figure Ayman Nour denied entry to Egypt

Politician Ayman Nour was denied renewal of his passport based on a decision from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the State Litigation Authority appealed on Sunday an earlier court decision obliging the ministry to renew his passport.

The memorandum of appeal rejected the first-degree verdict and stated that Nour had not filed a request to the foreign ministry to extract a passport. It further added that Nour frequently announced his disdain and disloyalty to the Egyptian state, while galvanising international opposition against it.

The Foreign Ministry was contacted for further details, however, the comments were not forthcoming by the time of publishing.

The First Degree Court of the State Council looked into and ruled in Nour’s favour in October after he filed a lawsuit demanding the renewal of his passport. The court alluded to the person’s natural right, guaranteed by the constitution, to retrieve all documents and papers that prove their belonging to the state.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) denounced the “foreign ministry’s intransigence” towards Nour by refusing to perform its duty to renew passports for citizens.

ANHRI said the foreign ministry’s refusal to renew Nour’s passport is considered a grave violation of the natural right of any citizen to retrieve documents related to their identity in the country. It also violates the constitutional right of freedom of movement.

Article 62 of the Egyptian constitution states the “Freedom of movement, residence, and emigration shall be guaranteed. No citizen may be expelled from the State territory or prevented from returning thereto…”.

Currently residing in Lebanon, Nour is a prominent opposition figure and highly critical of the regime since former President Hosni Mubarak’s era. He participated in Egypt’s first multi-candidate elections, in which he was a distant second to the then-incumbent president Mubarak. Months later, Nour was put on trial for fabrication to form his opposition party. He was found guilty in 2005, the verdict was ratified by the Appeals Court in 2006, and he was eventually released in 2009.

December 1, 2015
$Montenegro’s fractious opposition takes to the streets$

Montenegro’s fractious opposition takes to the streets

Around 3,000 people protested in Podgorica against the government of Milo Dukanovic. They are convinced that there voices on the streets are louder than their ballots, reports Nemanja Rujević.
“Milo, you thief,” chant the crowd in the Republic Square in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica. Then a speaker says the word “thief” is too weak to describe the evil that Prime Minister Milo Dukanovic has caused during his 24 year rule.

“Milo, you murderer,” retort the spectators immediately. “You are this dictator’s nightmare,” shouts Slaven Radunovic, one of the leaders of the opposition Democratic Front, to the crowd from the stage. There follow more speeches, punctuated with the words “dictator” und “regime” to keep the demonstrators’ attention.

The Dukanovic era has already lasted far too long, the people here say. They describe corruption and nepotism, from the distribution of jobs through the grace of the party and the economic misery in which many of the 620,000 citizens of this small Balkan country live.

The current prime minister was just 26 when in 1989 he eked out an important role in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in the so-called Anti-Bureaucratic Revolution. After Yugoslavia broke up in 1991, he shaped Montenegro’s fate. He was chief ideologue of its 2006 split with Serbia.

Dukanovic’s dominance of the political landscape has become so self-evident that his rivals seldom make the effort to speak his name. They simply say “he.”

“We want to put an end to this hell and this slavery. The streets brought him to power; the streets will disempower him,” hopes Mirela Dobljanic. The fragile pensioner has to get by on just 250 euros ($270) a month. “How shall I pay for my medication?”

NATO is a taboo word

A Montenegrin and a few Serbian flags are flying this evening; small groups sing Serb nationalistic songs. The protests are being led by a pro-Serbian party that still cursees Montenegro‘s independence and vehemently opposes the Balkan country joining NATO.

Dukanovic has declared membership in the alliance to be his highest goal: many prominent faces campaign for it from billboards. The anti-government demonstrators are treated by Dukanovic as an attempt to spoil NATO membership, just before the country receives an invitation to join, which observers expect at the beginning of December.

But the speakers at the demonstration abstain from using anti-NATO slogans. The reason: There are also political powers in the Democratic Front who favor Atlantic integration.

After the recent polls the alliance advanced to become the strongest opposition group, but after a lot of disputes and splits, polls suggest it can count on only around 8 percent of the vote. The speakers call for an interim government that should have the task of organizing the country’s first, really free elections. Other opposition parties don’t support the demonstrations.

“But they are the only way,” says Aleksandar Jankovic. The young father of two has no job and no trust in the institutions. “Our rulers cannot be deposed through elections. The situation is the same in Romania or in Arab countries, where the people are forced to go out onto the streets. As God wishes, this is also how it will be for us.”

Everything is peaceful

There is still evidence of damaged windows from the riots at the end of October, when around 10,000 demonstrators took to the streets. The official version of events was that hooded hooligans attacked the police first. But some social network users believe the violent perpetrators were government provocateurs.

The protests ended in chaos with dozens of injuries. Three protest leaders are to be charged with “calling for the violent overthrow of the constitutional order” and attacks on the police, as soon as their parliamentary immunity is lifted. On the other side, only two police officers from the notorious anti-terror unit are being investigated, despite video pictures showing security forces beating citizens.

This time, there were no acts of violence. A human chain around the “dictator-occupied institutions” – that was opposition’s plan. Some stood with candles in the chain, many with light torches.

“We are so many that we could also encircle the Beijing government quarters,” one opposition deputy called at the end. The statement is more an example of exuberance, as Beijing would be too big for the 3,000 demonstrators.

But for the government quarter of the tiny state it was enough – the government building, the parliament and the presidential seat in the center of Podgorica are located next to each other. A few thousand people – was this too few to pressure the undisputed leader to change his mind? Or not so few at all, in a country where most people are apathetic and have become apolitical because they are convinced that change is impossible.

Blazo, a young political scientist, who just came by, says he doesn’t know the answer.

“I think the swing has already been lost. There are always new protests. It’s the same as if you suffer from sleepiness and you’re always setting your alarm clock back another ten minutes.”

What was lacking, he said, was younger opposition members who want to overturn the whole corrupt system: “These opposition members have been in the scene here for the last 25 years.”

Quickly and quietly the crowds disappeared from the center of Podgorica – with the message that the protests would continue in other Montenegrin cities. The police, keeping a low profile in side streets, packed up their shields and cans of tear gas. This time there was no deployment.

November 17, 2015
Egyptian elections to yield president-friendly parliament

Egyptian elections will give the country its first elected parliament in over three years. President el-Sissi’s supporters called the vote free and open, but critics said electoral laws suppress political opposition.
As Egyptians head to the polls on Sunday to elect the first parliament since then-army general and now President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi el-Sissi led the military ouster of former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013, it will mark the final step in what the government claims is a transition to democracy.

But with opposition squashed and an election law seen as a throwback to the era of former autocrat Hosni Mubarak, critics have said the new chamber will serve as little more than window dressing for an authoritarian regime.

“The president is quite popular in Egypt and clashing with him will not help,” said Shebaq Waguih, spokesman for the Free Egyptians party, a political party funded by billionaire media tycoon Naguib Sawiris. “We believe that there will be a kind of agreement between the parliament and the presidency and a kind of advanced sharing of power.”

The election will take place in two phases, with the first beginning in Egypt on Sunday and the second continuing next month. Run-offs will be held in December and new legislative chamber is expected by the end of this year.

Parliamentary election law calls for 75 percent of the 596 seats in parliament to get to directly elected candidates, 20 percent of seats will be filled by politicians on party lists and the final 5 percent of representatives will be appointed by the president.

While government supporters say the elections are free and the field is open for anyone who wishes to run, critics argue the system favors individual candidates and resembles the system under Mubarak, when wealthy individuals and those with connections to the government dominated elections.

“We are not very optimistic about our chances in winning a lot of seats in the upcoming elections because the priority in independent individual system is for your ability to spend,” said Khaled Dawoud, spokesman for the Democratic Current coalition which is running in the elections, and a member of the Dostour party, a liberal party founded by Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei.

“In big constituencies where you have 40 or 50 candidates running for seats, you will have fragmentation of votes and people with money and influence can basically buy votes,” Dawoud added. “They could win constituencies with a very small number votes considering what we expect of the relative turnout.”

A politically wary populace

To make matters worse, Dawoud said Egyptians had grown tired of the political process in the aftermath of the 2011 revolution and that a state of apathy had taken over among many voters.

“Especially young people do not feel that we are about to witness true diverse elections in which people are competing against each other over programs or over ideas and legislation,” said Dawoud, adding that he expected low voter turnout. “Most young people that I speak to have this impression that the results are known in advance in terms of having the parliament that’s mostly in support of president Sisi.”

While in many ways the new parliament may resemble past parliaments under Mubarak, with the absence of the National Democratic Party, the former autocrat’s ruling party, there will likely be a very weak party structure in the new parliament, according to Nathan J. Brown, a scholar of Middle Eastern law and politics at George Washington University and expert on Egypt.

No real opposition

“In the entire Mubarak era, except arguably in the final parliament there were viable opposition movements that were represented,” said Brown. “This parliament…you can point to some independent figures…you can point to ideological tendencies that might be rivals with each other, but there’s nobody in there that would really pose as opposition.”

The Muslim Brotherhood, which dominated elections following the 2011 elections before being ousted from power by the army, has now been branded a terrorist organization and its members banned from participating in elections.

The party that came in second to the Muslim Brotherhood, the ultraconservative Salafi Nour party, has struggled to survive. Its standing among previous supporters has not yet been put to the test after supporting the military’s ouster of Morsi. It was the only Islamist group to back the coup and associate with a government that led a bloody crackdown on fellow Islamists.

Amr Farouk, chairman assistant of foreign affairs of the Salafi Nour party said they did not expect to win as many seats as in the previous parliament, but added that it was because they were fielding fewer candidates and contesting fewer seats.

“We need…representatives from all parties, that’s why we are not running for 100 percent of seats,” said Farouk, believing their success rested on convincing Egyptians they sought to share power. “I think a successful measurement of the Nour party is to have a good candidate who can really translate the dream of Egyptians into reality.”

Government’s parliamentary safety valve

How the el-Sissi’s government will see as the role of the parliament or how the president chooses to use it also remains uncertain.

“The whole process of getting to this point has been messy and unorganized, which gives the impression that [the parliament is] not that important,” said Amy Hawthorne, deputy director for research at POMED and who formerly served in the US State Department focusing on the Egyptian transition.

Hawthorne said the new parliament could end up playing any number of possible roles, including a political cover for an authoritarian government.

“I think always there is a role in authoritarian systems for parliament and it has very much played its role Egypt in the past, as kind of a bit of a safety valve,” said Hawthorne. “Even though true oppositional voices are excluded from this process, the parliament will be a way for all these people to…in a way that lets out a little bit of steam.”

Whatever its role is to be, Dawoud said his coalition will continue to participate in Egypt’s political debate in the hopes of future change.

“At the end of the day … we are … under siege by the media, we are being attacked day and night for being people who supported the January 25th revolution,” said Dawoud. “I don’t think we should omit the chance to show our ideas, and state and engage directly with the people.”

October 17, 2015
6 April leader arrested in Menufiya

The leader of the 6 April Youth Movement, Amr Ali, has been arrested in Menufiya, the opposition movement said on Tuesday. It claimed Homeland Security police was behind the arrest.

The charges or reasons behind Ali’s arrest are unknown, according to 6 April. The Ministry of Interior was not available for comment.

6 April was a key group in igniting the 25 January Revolution in 2011 that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak. The movement continued to be a vocal opponent to ruling regimes since then.

Ali was elected in October 2013 to be the group’s new coordinator to replace imprisoned Ahmed Maher. Prior to leading the group, Ali was responsible for the movement’s community work and a member of the group’s political bureau for three years.

September 23, 2015
Burundi opposition leader wins top position in National Assembly

In a surprise vote, Burundian opposition leader Agathon Rwasa was voted in as deputy speaker in the National Assembly despite being one of the main voices condemning the recent elections.
The vote came just a week after President Pierre Nkurunziza won a controversial third term. His win followed months of violent protests, much of it supported by Rwasa and other opposition figures.

Rwasa, a Hutu and head of the Burundians’ Hope independent coalition was elected first deputy speaker. This is one of the three top parliamentary positions in what the government calls the bureau.

A day earlier Rwasa said in an interview with DW that he was willing to work toward a “government of national unity.”

“The people want change. We must recognize this desire of the people and live up to their expectations,” he said.

Alongside Rwasa, Pascal Nyabenda, a Hutu and chairman of the ruling party, the CNDD-FDD, was elected speaker of the National Assembly and Edouard Nduwimana, a Tutsi and home affairs minister, was elected second deputy speaker.

“We pledge to promote all the activities here at the National Assembly to benefit the country and its people,” said Speaker Nyabenda soon after the vote.

“We will work for the same target even if we may have different opinions,” he added. “We will sit together until we find solutions to our differences.”

A surprise move

Opposition figures are not happy with Rwasa’s acceptance of this new role. Some have even come out to call him a “traitor.”

“From now on we don’t consider Agathon Rwasa to be a part of the opposition. He has been bought off by the government,” an opposition figure who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

Tatian Sibomana, spokesman for the opposition UPRONA party that was allied with Rwasa told AFP that “the decision by Agathon Rwasa does put our alliance in trouble, but not in danger. We will judge him on whether or not he joins the government.”

Many observers were surprised with the vote of Rwasa to this top post and fear that the move may fracture the relative peace in the country since the election last week.

“Most of these politicians always tell you that once I go inside, I can change the system from the inside. Everyone knows this is impossible and almost a lie but many of them sell it that way,” said Richard Shaba, an analyst at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Dar es Salaam.

“My fear is that we will have groups now within the opposition. Those who think they should go along with the regime and those who think they should stick to the principle of saying that it is all wrong [the election],” he added. “It may affect the whole peace process over the next five years.”

One less woman

Since 2005 at least one member of the bureau was a woman. The election of three male candidates to the top jobs occurred after the assembly voted to remove a provision in the internal rules of the National Assembly regarding gender and ethnic balances that one member of the bureau be a woman. This provision was a part of the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement for Burundi.

“There is of course added value if there is a woman in the bureau,” said Catherine Mabobori, one of the negotiators of the Arusha Agreement. Mabobori fears that this move may be a sign of things to come.

“Sometime in the future, MPs may come up with other amendments to the constitution to suppress the 30 percent of women’s representation because there is no guarantee that this is irreversible. Women MPs should keep a careful eye on gains they already acquired under the Arusha Agreement,” she added.

The Arusha Agreement was signed in Arusha, Tanzania in 2000 after about 4 years of negotiations. The agreement brought to an end over ten years of a brutal civil war.

Apollinaire Niyirora contributed to this article

August 1, 2015
Terrorism empowers ‘military dictatorship’: Political opposition

The Revolutionary Socialists logo. Photo courtesy of official Facebook page.

The Revolutionary Socialists issued a statement Sunday saying it rejects all forms of terrorism, because it empowers the “military dictatorship” in Egypt.

“Terrorist operations make our enemy, the military dictatorship, more powerful in leading the counter-revolution. It uses such attacks as justification for more crimes against the public, that is why we refuse attacks targeting the state,” the statement read.

The Revolutionary Socialists believe that the oppression of the military regime is more dangerous than that perpetrated by “Islamic State” (IS), currently the most violent militant group worldwide.

Military reactions to the latest attacks they faced, according to the Revolutionary Socialists, revealed that the political opposition is in crisis and that the state responds by more repression, killing, detention and torture in the face of any voice that differs from the intelligence services’ opinion.

The group said that one camp chose to “blindly” take the regime’s side because of “the fear of the Muslim Brotherhood”, while others who have opposed the state maintain that they equally oppose the banned Brotherhood organisation.

Thus, the group also condemned a counter-revolution led by Islamist extremists who, like the ruling power, do not differentiate between peace and violence.

However, it mostly condemned a third group, which it referred to as the “neutral” camp, to which the Revolutionary Socialists always claimed they belonged. The group said some switched from their position of rejecting both types of oppression towards supporting the state in practice, despite opposing it in theory.

“This has been practiced by more emergency laws and the categorisation of any political opponent as a traitor because of not supporting the regime, ‘in a state of war’ on terrorism,” they added.

“The way to eliminate ‘IS’ and similar groups is not to stand by the regime of [President Abdel Fattah] Al-Sisi,” the statement added. Public struggle, represented in strikes, demonstrations and protests, is the only revolutionary path against the tyrannical military which has only brought more poverty, ignorance, defeat and torture, according to the Revolutionary Socialists.

After the assassination of the former prosecutor general Hisham Barakat last June, followed by heavy militant operations in North Sinai, several political parties from the opposition announced support for the state in the face of terrorism.

The Revolutionary Socialists group was a fierce supporter of 30 June 2013 uprisings against the Brotherhood and former president Mohamed Morsi, and actively engaged in the anti-regime popular campaign Tamarod. However, following the forceful dispersals of the sit-ins in Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Nahda Squares, the group soon took up a firm anti-military stance.

July 20, 2015
Syrian opposition representatives in Cairo agree outlines of transitional period

During the opening session, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stressed Egypt’s support for the Syrian people.
(Photo Foreign ministry handout)

The Syrian opposition’s two-day conference which was held in Cairo on Monday and Tuesday has outlined a code of conduct for the transitional period according to the Geneva I communiqué.

The code of conduct will, however, still need international support to enforce it.

The code of conduct tackled a wide range of issues in many fields on the political, social, and military levels, whilst also tackling refugees. The most significant ones included: announcing the immediate disarming of rebel troops in all Syrian provinces; releasing detainees and abducted people by all parties; allowing Syrian opposition politicians to return without interrogation; allowing rescue organisations to work inside Syria; and removing all the sentences issued against Syrians during the revolution.

The Syrian coalition is the only representative for Syrians as agreed by the ministerial council of the Arab League, said Secretary General Nabil El-Araby on Monday during the two-day Syrian opposition conference in Cairo.

He told Daily News Egypt that it has not been decided whether the Arab joint force, which is planned to be fully established before 29 July, will intervene in Syria or not.

The code of conduct also called on forming a government, an armed forces council, a national council, all of whom will be conditional, as well as writing a new constitution and declining the implementation of the current one. The transitional bodies’ roles will be determined according to the Geneva communiqué, and include representatives from all parties who support the peaceful transition.

The fourth anniversary of the Syrian uprising, which started in the city of Deraa, was marked on 15 March. Syria has gradually become a home for multiple Al-Qaeda-like insurgents, such as the Al-Nusra Front and “Islamic State” (IS). What started as a revolution has significantly deteriorated into one of the most deadliest conflicts of the past decade, leaving thousands of people dead, including children, and over 3 million refugees across border countries.

The conflict has left approximately 6 million refugees displaced inside Syria, and 3 million refugees displaced in neighbouring countries, such as Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon, and Egypt as well according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

June 10, 2015
3 policemen referred to trial over torture accusations

An Egyptian policeman arrests a Muslim Brotherhood supporter (C) following a demonstration in the Nasr City district of Cairo, on January 25, 2014.
(AFP FILE PHOTO/MOHAMED EL-SHAHED)

Three detained policemen have been referred to criminal court over reports of the death of a detained citizen from torture, said NGO Al-Haqaneya Law Center Sunday.

The three suspects, a police officer and two conscripts from a police station in the governorate of Beheira, were held in custody since 8 May for questioning.

The case is marked by conflicting accounts from the Ministry of Interior and the victim’s family reports, as well as reports from human rights groups.

According to Nady Atef, director of the Justice and Human Rights Development Centre, a Minya-based NGO, the victim was taken from his workplace, a car agency, which security forces raided on 1 May.

The police claimed the suspect was arrested in a security chase and was resisting police forces.

The victim later died, allegedly inside the police station. The police’s claims published in newspapers suggested he was suffering from low blood pressure, and that they tried to provide him medical assistance.

Following his death, a dozen local residents had gathered in front of the police station, accusing the police of torturing him to death. They were dispersed by force, and there were at least eight injuries reported.

May 25, 2015