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Egyptians pack Tahrir Square
ElBaradei for top job?
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Tunisia enters new era of democracy
ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in Tripoli. — AFP
Chinese engineers escape attack in Pakistan
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Egyptians pack Tahrir Square
Cairo, November 22 In a stinging verdict on nine months of army control, London-based rights group Amnesty International accused the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) of brutality sometimes exceeding that of former President Hosni Mubarak. Thousands of people defied tear gas wafting across Cairo's Tahrir Square, the hub of protests swelling since Friday into the gravest challenge yet to the generals who replaced Mubarak and who seem reluctant to relinquish their power and privilege. Protesters in Tahrir carried an open coffin containing the white-shrouded body of one of the 36 people killed so far. The army council, headed by a 76-year-old field marshal who served as Mubarak's defence minister for two decades, held talks with politicians on the crisis, in which at least 36 people have been killed and more than 1,250 wounded, officials say. The US, which gives Egypt's military $1.3 billion a year in aid, has called for restraint on all sides and urged Egypt to proceed with elections despite the violence, a stance broadly echoed by many European leaders. Protesters waving flags and singing skirmished with security forces in and around Tahrir Square, where banners read "Save Egypt from thieves and the military". As pungent clouds of tear gas set off stampedes, activists chanted "Stay, stay, stay". — Reuters
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ElBaradei for top job?
Cairo, November 22 Egypt’s civilian government headed by Essam Sharaf resigned yesterday following three days of violent protests that claimed over 30 lives, but reports said the ruling military council was seeking agreement on a new prime minister before it would accept the resignations. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces
(SCAF) had invited all political and national forces for an emergency dialogue to look into the reasons behind the current crisis and ways to resolve it. Egypt’s Al Ahram daily said quoting a television report that SCAF is considering appointing ElBaradei as the new PM. — PTI
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Tunisia enters new era of democracy Tunis, November 22 The 217-member assembly, the first elected body produced by the Arab Spring, was expected to confirm a deal whereby the Islamist Ennahda party and two other parties split the country’s top three jobs between themselves. The lawmakers, who will be tasked with drafting a new constitution and paving the way to fresh elections, sang the national anthem as the session got under way in the Bardo palace. “I give thanks to God, to all those martyred and wounded and those who fought so we could witness this historic day,” Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi told AFP after the opening. After longtime dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali’s ouster in January and internationally acclaimed polls on October 23, the inauguration marked yet another landmark in the Arab Spring trailblazers’ democratic revolution. “This event is like a second independence for Tunisia,” said Ahmed Mestiri, an iconic figure in the struggle for Tunisia’s 1956 independence from France. Several hundred demonstrators, including relatives of some of the protesters killed in the uprising, nevertheless greeted the newly-elected lawmakers at the Bardo palace with a warning. “We’re here to remind the lawmakers of the demands of the Tunisian revolution, dignity and freedom, and to tell them the Tunisian people have not handed them a blank cheque,” said Rafik Boudjaria of the Civic Front for Democracy and Tunisia. Despite Ennahda’s assurances, some Tunisians have expressed concern that an Islamist-dominated Tunisia could roll back hard-earned rights such as the Code of Personal Status, seen notably as one of the Arab world’s most progressive sets of laws on women. — AFP
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Zintan, November 22 Saif al-Islam, wanted for prosecution by the International Criminal Court, was captured at the weekend in what one official in the country’s new government said was “the final chapter in Libya’s drama.” Yussef Saleh al-Hotmani said he contacted revolutionary fighters in Libya’s south to inform them when Saif’s two-car convoy would be passing through the area on the night of November 18. “I made Saif believe that I trusted him,” he said . On the night of Saif al-Islam’s capture, Hotmani said he was travelling with the younger Gaddafi’s personal guard in the first car of their convoy. “I had agreed with the fighters (who captured Saif al-Islam) that the best place for the ambush would be in a part of desert that was surrounded by high ground,” he said. Ten fighters from Zintan, in the Western mountains, and five from Hotmani’s own tribe, al-Hotman, were waiting. “When we arrived at the dark, deep hollow the gunfire was very precise, it only took about half a minute to capture the first car,” he said. — Reuters
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Libya can try Gaddafi’s son: ICC Tripoli, November 22 Luis Moreno-Ocampo was in Tripoli today for talks with Libya's new leaders about their plans try Saif al-Islam. Moreno-Ocampo says if Libya does so, "we will discuss with them how to inform the judges and they can do it, but our judges have to be involved." Meanwhile, a minister said Libya will not hand over Muammar Gaddafi's most prominent son to the International Criminal Court for trial. "In a nutshell, we are not going to hand him over," interim justice minister Mohammed al-Allagui said when asked about Saif, who was captured in Libya's far-flung Saharan south on Saturday after three months on the run. Trying Saif "is the special responsibility of the Libyan courts. It is the prerogative of the Libyan courts. It is a question of our sovereignty over our territory and our citizens," said Allagui. His comments came as the ICC's chief prosecutor was in Tripoli for talks on jurisdiction in the cases of Saif . Allagui said the prosecutor was very welcome to have a meeting with Saif al-Islam in custody to allay concerns that he might be subjected to ill-treatment after his father was killed when he was captured last month. "If he (Moreno-Ocampo) asked for one, he would be most welcome," the minister said. But asked by AFP whether he expected to meet Saif during his current visit, the ICC prosecutor said: "No." — Agencies
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Chinese engineers escape attack in Pakistan
Islamabad, November 22 The Chinese engineers escaped unhurt in the attack in which three security personnel were among those killed, officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels. The incident occurred in Dera Bugti district, which has sizeable gas reserves. But, there was no official word on the incident. Chinese nationals are involved in several projects in northwest and southwest Pakistan. In the past, two Chinese engineers were kidnapped by the Taliban. They were later freed by the security forces. Today’s attack came a day after 14 security personnel, including an army major, were killed in clashes between paramilitary troops and militants of the banned Baloch Liberation Army. The Pakistan Army today said it was not engaged in any secret negotiations with the Taliban or other militants groups and such parleys would have to be handled by the civilian government. The statement by a spokesman for the Inter-Services Public Relations came a day after Western news agencies quoted unnamed Taliban commanders as saying that they were holding exploratory peace talks with authorities. — PTI
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rustrated with military rule battled police in the streets again today as the generals scrambled to cope with the cabinet's proffered resignation after bloodshed that has jolted plans for Egypt's first free election in decades.
