Protesters, police clash in Algerian capital

Tensions erupted in another restive North African nation as security forces in Algeria on Saturday clashed with anti-government protesters who chanted, "Change the power."
Police detained about 100 protesters in the nation's capital of Algiers, according to the Algerian League for Human Rights. The league is one of the main opposition groups that organized the rallies -- unauthorized gatherings that came a day after embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down.
More than 3,000 demonstrators, including activists, students, doctors, and parliament members, joined the rally but were blocked by more than 30,000 police officers, said league president Mustafa Boushashi.
"The police attacked the demonstrators," Boushashi told CNN. "Many activists were beaten and over a hundred were taken into custody, including the parliament members from the Rally for Culture and Democracy Party."

Khalil AbdulMouminm, the league's general secretary, called the situation "very tense on the ground" and said police were preventing protesters from assembling, with authorities blocking all entrances to the capital.
"We want this rally to break the wall of fear in the first place," AbdulMouminm said. "And to trigger change in order to reach our legitimate demands, like lifting the emergency law after all these years, liberating media, freedom of political expression."

Mubarak's ouster -- fueled by 18 days of angry protests -- was preceded by last month's overthrowing of Tunisian leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, helping stoke demands for reform in the Arab world.
In the past few weeks, demonstrators in the region have protested against various issues, including unemployment, high food costs and corruption. The problems are similar to those that fueled uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
"Population growth and associated problems -- unemployment and underemployment, inability of social services to keep pace with rapid urban migration, inadequate industrial management and productivity, a decaying infrastructure -- continue to affect Algerian society," the U.S. State Department says in a background note about Algeria.
Earlier this month, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said he will end a state of emergency that has lasted nearly two decades, according to a report from the Algerian Press Service. Experts have said the announcement is a clear attempt by the Algerian leader to head off the kind of social unrest that toppled Ben Ali and Mubarak.
The state of emergency was imposed in 1992 to quell a civil war that eroded the country's resources and led to what the U.S. State Department says were the deaths of more than 150,000 people.
"The Algerian Civil War lasted well over a decade and pitted a corrupt military junta, which had ruled behind the facade of an elected government, against Islamists who effectively won a popular election in the early 1990s, and were then deprived of power," a paper by the Centers for Strategic and International Studies said in December.
"When civil war broke out, violent extremist elements among these Islamists quickly came to dominate the fighting, while the military increasingly relied on equally violent repression."
However, opponents of the regime say the Islamist threat has long since diminished and that the law now exists only to muzzle critics of the government.

Source: CNN

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A Message From Egypt To The World. 01.02.11

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Women Are a Substantial Part of Egyptian Protests

An unprecedented number of Egyptian women participated in Tuesday’s anti-government protests. Ghada Shahbandar, an activist with the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, estimated the crowd downtown to be 20 percent female. Other estimates were as high as 50 percent. In past protests, the female presence would rarely rise to 10 percent. Protests have a reputation for being dangerous for Egyptian women, whose common struggle as objects of sexual harassment is exacerbated in the congested, male-dominated crowd. Police hasten to fence in the demonstrators, and fleeing leads to violence. And women, whose needs are not reflected in the policies of official opposition groups who normally organize protests, have little reason to take the risk.

One of the protest organizers is a woman: Political activist Esraa Abdel Fattah, whose 15-day detention in 2008 for her activism made her a symbol of resistance. But Abdel Fattah’s position at the helm of the movement did not previously mean a large female presence. In 2008 Abdel Fattah tried to mobilize all of Egypt around labor conditions in El-Mahalla El-Kubra, north of Cairo. The male workers in the industrial town constituted the majority of the original protesters, and subsequent protests organized by the movement likewise failed to draw as large of a female crowd as seen on Tuesday.

So why are women so much more involved in this protest, called “The Day of Anger,” than in previous demonstrations against the Egyptian government? The Facebook-initiated groups are unaffiliated with a major opposition group. These protests also seemed safer. Organizers urged those attending to make it a peaceful one, and this became a rallying cry in some areas of the city on Tuesday. Moreover, Egypt’s educated youth, men and women, were fed up with a government that had not changed at all in most of their lifetimes, and which cuts even the educated off from any opportunity. And then there was Tunisia. Suddenly, attending the protest seemed not only worth the risk, but capable of inciting real change.

Alia Mustafa El Sadda, a 20-year-old law student at Cairo University, went to protest with her mother, aunt, and two younger sisters, ages 13 and 16. El Sadda told me that the demonstrations were the “only chance” for change. Her aunt is an activist, but for El Sadda and the other women, this was their first protest.
Shahbandar spent Tuesday on Kasr Al Aini Street and Tahrir Square in Cairo’s downtown area, where demonstrators numbered in the thousands and stayed, clashing with the police, until the early morning. She described the protest as being unique both for the high number of women, and for the respectful way the men were treating them.

The protest did not stay safe for long. The police began spraying the crowd with water and tear gas, and beating and arresting protesters. People were kicked to the ground or chased out of the square in a general chaos. Shahbandar packed herself into a building's foyer with 70 other people; the police plucked them out one by one, arresting the men.

Now organizers urged women to keep their distance. Wednesday’s demonstrations were much smaller, and much more male-dominated. What women did attend risked being arrested along with the men. El Sadda and her sisters want to protest again tomorrow, but their father has forbidden it, fearing for their safety.

Source: DoubleX

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Egypt protesters call for million-man march

There is an increased police presence on the streets of Egypt as demonstrators call for a "million-man march" to mark one week since the anti-government protests began.

Protesters continue to defy curfews and express their anger at president Hosni Mubarak, with at least 125 people killed in the violence so far.

As the chaos continues to unfold, the Federal Government has announced it will send a Qantas plane to evacuate Australians stranded in Egypt on Wednesday.

Local police had all but vanished from duty last week after clashes with thousands of demonstrators who effectively overpowered them.

Army tanks and soldiers have remained in position across Cairo and other major cities but they have done nothing to enforce the nightly curfew or shut the protests down, raising questions as to which side the military is on.

Demonstrators say the military must choose between the people and the president.

To maintain their momentum, protesters have called on all Egyptians to join a national strike today and a political march tomorrow to force the president from power.

The protesters say they will not stop until Mr Mubarak goes, but security is becoming more of an issue as the chaos continues.

Thousands of prisoners are reported to have staged mass jailbreaks over the weekend, which have left many Egyptians anxious.

"Right now nobody wants the president. Right now the government that serves him is not on the streets, we are out on the streets protecting ourselves," one Cairo resident said.

"The people who've escaped from jail will go after anyone who has money in their pocket. You have no idea what they'll do."

People are nervous to leave their homes and there have been gun battles between looters and vigilantes.

There is also unrest in the coastal city of Alexandria, where Amr Ramadan runs a computer software business.

"The great thing [is] the young people have taken security to be a part of their daily routine now," he said.

"In our block, for example, in the range of 200 or 300 metres, there is right now more than a 100 young people inspecting any car that comes, making sure the security of the neighbourhood is all right and this is the case in all neighbourhoods in Alexandria."

Cold night in Cairo

Overnight, around 1,000 die-hard activists defied a curfew to spend a cold night in the central Tahrir Square.

Sana Soueif is one who maintained the vigil. She says the demonstrations will not stop until Mr Mubarak steps down.

"Some of us are running around just to stay warm, but it is quite relaxed," she said.

"We're planning to continue. We know in the morning there'll be more people definitely. We're not going to leave unless Mubarak leaves."

Earlier, Egyptian state TV read out a letter Mr Mubarak has sent to his newly appointed prime minister.

It ordered the new cabinet to tackle corruption and deploy economic policies that give the highest concern to people's suffering and create new jobs.

The secretary of the governing National Democratic Party, Maged el Sherbini, says the government needs to be allowed to do its job.

"I believe we should give the new government, which will be sworn into office, a chance in order to see what will be fulfilled out of the promise to which president Mubarak attached great importance," he said.

"We need calm so work can resume. We need calm so Egypt can return to what it used to be."

Dialogue

The president's letter also spoke of the need for political reform and dialogue with other political parties.

That may involve the UN's former chief nuclear weapons inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, who addressed the protesters in Tahrir Square.

"We have only one demand: that the regime in Egypt should go and after that a new beginning will start for Egypt and everybody in Egypt should live in freedom," he said.

But some demonstrators insist Mr ElBaradei is not their leader.

He has the endorsement of a group of opposition parties to form a national unity government and make contact with the military.

Egypt's largest opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is happy to work with Mr ElBaradei.

"We are now discussing the matter with our colleagues in political sections and with the people themselves to join a committee," said Dr Essam el Erian, the leading figure in the Brotherhood.

"We have no objection about Mr Baradei to be in the committee, but such a committee must take the decision about who will negotiate personal or together with the authorities and mainly with the army."

The Muslim Brotherhood is officially banned in Egypt but is tolerated and Mr el Erian says it must play a role in the country's political future.

"Not only the United States, all the international community must respect the choice of the Egyptian people. It is too late now to interfere in the domestic affairs or to change the choice of Egyptians," he said.

Source: ABC News

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