Category: Politics

{Tobruk-based parliament votes against unity government with rivals in Tripoli, and demands cabinet reshuffle.}

Libya’s internationally recognised parliament based in Tobruk has voted against the UN-backed unity government with rival authorities based in Tripoli, Libyan news agencies reported.

House of Representatives member Abu Bakr Beira said 89 out of 104 members who attended Monday’s session rejected the cabinet formed by the UN-sponsored unity Presidential Council (PC).

He said the council would be dissolved if it failed to meet a 10-day deadline to form a new, smaller cabinet.

The unity government, which was announced on January 19, aimed at bridging a political divide that has undermined the fight against armed groups.

Libya currently has two rival administrations and parliaments; the internationally recognised authorities based in Tobruk and a rebel-backed authority holding power in the capital, Tripoli.

The Tobruk parliament also approved the Skhirat agreement as a political deal provided that article number 8 – related to sovereign posts in the government, including military occupations – is deleted, giving the presidential council ten days to reshuffle the cabinet or replace the PC with another.

The Skhirat agreement was signed on December 17, 2015 in Skhirat, Morocco. The agreement was meant to lead to the establishment of a single Government of National Accord (GNA) and national institutions that will ensure broad representation.

The agreement calls for a 17-member cabinet, headed by businessman Fayez el-Sarraj as prime minister, based in the Libyan capital.

Under the agreement, a nine-member PC was named and tasked with selecting the national unity government.

However, the Tobruk parliament called for the boycotting of two PC members, Ali al-Gotrani and Omar al-Aswad. It suggests that they resume their positions once article 8 is deleted.

Al-Gotrani and al-Aswad suspended their membership from the PC of the UN-imposed government over demands and selection of cabinet members.

Many members of Libya’s competing parliaments did not back the agreement, and critics say that the plan does not evenly represent all the country’s groups and factions.

Some critics cite reports that the UN representative who helped broker the agreement, Bernardino Leon, was secretly negotiating a high-paying job with the United Arab Emirates, which backs the Tobruk parliament.

Since the 2011 overthrow and killing of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has slid into chaos.

Source:BBC:[Libya parliament rejects UN-backed unity government->http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/libya-parliament-rejects-backed-unity-government-160125160858643.html]

{Veteran African National Congress (ANC) activist Denis Goldberg has called for leaders of the party to be replaced.}

In a BBC interview, he alleged that the ANC leadership, locally and nationally, was riddled with corruption.

Mr Goldberg said that leaders’ focus on personal enrichment was threatening freedom in South Africa.

As a member of the ANC’s military wing, he was convicted of armed resistance to apartheid and sentenced to four life terms in 1964.

Mr Goldberg was the only white man to be convicted among 10 people on trial for their lives alongside Nelson Mandela.

Huge steps had been made in education, health care and the development of the civil service since the end of apartheid, Mr Goldberg said.

“We have undoubtedly made huge progress, [but] we have more progress to make,” he told John Pienaar. in an exclusive interview on BBC Radio 5 live.

The economy is three times larger than it was when apartheid came to an end in 1994, he said.

“Corruption is a problem. I personally believe, and I will say it publicly as I do in South Africa, the members of the ANC need to renew the leadership from top to bottom.
“I’m not going to name names, because it’s a problem throughout, from national, provincial and local government level.”

The ANC veteran told the Pienaar’s Politics programme that “a definite attempt” was now required by ANC members to say “enough is enough” and instigate a leadership clearout.

“Let us focus on the needs of our people, not on your needs as new political leaders with access to power, and therefore wealth and personal enrichment, which robs us, in a way, of our freedom,” he said.
{{
Denis Goldberg}}

Served 22 years in Pretoria’s whites-only Central Prison

“Being black and involved [in the struggle] meant you had the support of many people and it meant you got to be part of a community. Being white and involved meant being isolated,” he once said

Strongly critical of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and its warm relations with
the apartheid government despite Israel interceding on his behalf

Worked for the ANC’s London office from 1985 to 1994

Widowed twice, he now lives in Cape Town

Sopurce:BBC:South Africa: [Nelson Mandela’s friend Goldberg seeks ANC clearout->http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35394540]

{The post-election violence case against Deputy President William Ruto will once again feature prominently at the 26th African Union Summit, as Kenya prepares to push for the adoption of the outcome of the ICC’s 14th Assembly of State Parties.}

Mr Ruto’s legal adviser Dr Korir Sing’oei told the Nation that Kenya wants the AU to “adopt and affirm” its position on the use of the Rule 68 of the ICC’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence on the use of recanted testimony.

“Kenya is going to ask the African Union to reaffirm that Rule 68 should never have been applied against the Deputy President. This is one of the major things we will be seeking,” Dr Sing’oei said.

The theme of the AU Summit that started in Addis Ababa on January 21 is African Year of Human Rights with a particular focus on the rights of women. The biannual summit ends on January 31.

President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to travel to Addis Ababa for the heads of state and government summit proper which takes place on January 30 and 31.

But lawyer Haroun Ndubi termed Kenya’s proposed AU agenda as “a political statement equivalent to a roadside declaration.”

“It is meaningless and wasteful because the matter of Rule 68 is a judicial matter in the hands of the ICC’s Appeals Chamber,” said Mr Ndubi.

ICC CASES

The AU at its last summit in South Africa directed the AU Commission to ensure that the AU is added as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) in on-going cases of African leaders at the ICC.

As a result, the ICC received submissions from the AU on the appeal by Mr Ruto against the application of the Rule 68 on the use of recanted testimony.

The ICC Appeals Chamber however rejected the submissions of Namibia and Uganda who also wanted to be included as amicus curiae in the case.

The appeal decision on whether ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda can rely on the recanted testimony is one of the two major decisions that Mr Ruto and his legal team are looking out for. The other one is Trial Chamber decision on the no case to answer motion.

“The Assembly is expected to hear progress on implementation of previous decisions on ICC and adopt a declaration on the same,” head of Oxfam International Liaison Office to the AU Mr Désiré Assogbavi.

Besides the Rule 68 agenda, Dr Sing’oei also revealed that Kenya will also be pushing ahead with its agenda for the rapid expansion of the criminal jurisdiction of the African court to handle international crimes, otherwise known as the Malabo Protocol.

“It is something Kenya will be pursuing and the president (Uhuru Kenyatta) will also be talking about to his colleagues,” said Dr Sing’oei.

This has been Kenya’s agenda for quite some time as the Jubilee lobbies African governments to sign the Malabo Protocol so as to operationalise the African court and bypass the ICC.

During the 24th AU Summit in Addis Ababa, President Uhuru Kenyatta even pledged Kenya’s donation of $1 million (Sh102 million at current rates) to set up the court.

Despite Kenya’s push, its continental peers have been hesitant to sign the Malabo Protocol.

Kenya will also feature when the AU leaders review the state of peace and security on the continent and likely to adopt an omnibus decision on each situation.

Source:Daily Nation:[Ruto’s case to feature at African Union forum->http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Ruto-seeks-AU-backing-in-Hague-case/-/1056/3047790/-/o0madv/-/index.html]

{Five years after the Arab Spring, analysts say the conditions are in place for another uprising in Egypt.}

In a speech marking the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday last month, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi warned critics not to hold protests on January 25, the fifth anniversary on the 2011 popular uprising, saying a new revolt could destroy the country.

“Why am I hearing calls for another revolution? Why do you want to ruin [Egypt]? I came by your will and your choice, and not despite it,” Sisi told the hand-picked audience of politicians, media pundits and members of Egypt’s newly elected parliament.

Sisi’s words, greeted by a roar of applause, revealed the regime’s fears that another popular uprising may be brewing.

As Egypt nears the fifth anniversary of the uprising that ended three decades of Hosni Mubarak’s rule, analysts and activists say the regime is imposing a “reign of terror” to deter people from marking the day. Security forces have stepped up their crackdown on activists: On January 7, police arrested three administrators of Facebook pages allegedly promoting anti-government protests on January 25. Four journalists, along with members of the April 6 Youth Movement, have also been arrested.

In addition, earlier this week, security forces conducted mass searches of flats, primarily in downtown Cairo near Tahrir Square, the heart of the 2011 protests. Hundreds of Egyptian revolutionaries and regime opponents are already behind bars, and the religious establishment has described those calling for a new round of January 25 protests as “weak believers who carry extremist ideas”.

“The spirit of the January uprising continues to pose a threat to the regime, despite the fact that none of the known revolutionary forces actually called for protests, to my knowledge,” Khalil al-Anani, a political science professor at the Doha Institute, told Al Jazeera.

While it is difficult to predict when uprisings will take place and in what form, the regime’s concerns do not seem entirely imaginary, analysts say.

“There is likely just as much support today for an uprising as there was on January 25, 2011,” Wael Haddara, a former adviser to Egypt’s deposed President Mohamed Morsi, told Al Jazeera. The social and economic grievances that led to the 2011 uprising are present in ways quite similar to 2010, Haddara added.

Other analysts concurred, citing a raft or problems in Egypt today: a worse dictatorship than before the 2011 uprising, brutal police practices, the targeting of activists and journalists by security forces, a deteriorating economic situation, and a newly elected parliament that is dominated by pro-government figures.

“While the Egyptian state of 2010 was brutal in some ways, that of 2015 is far more so,” said Michele Dunn, the director and a senior associate with the Middle East programme at the Carnegie Endowment. The government has succeeded to some extent in rebuilding “the wall of fear between citizens and the state”, Dunn told Al Jazeera.

But with a spate of industrial actions picking up steam in recent weeks, coupled with an increase in “the mass of unemployed” and simmering popular discontent over the widening gap between what Egyptians were promised and what has been delivered to them, analysts say the regime has reason to worry.

“The conditions are certainly in place for another wave of popular uprising,” Haddara said. “The very fact that there is widespread speculation about the likelihood of a popular uprising tells us how unstable Egypt is.”

Although street protests have all but dried up in Egypt since an anti-protest law was passed in November 2013, popular unrest has not completely burned out.

Last August, thousands of public sector workers took to the streets in one of the biggest street actions since July 2013, when a military coup led by Sisi deposed Morsi. The workers were protesting against the civil service law issued last March, which they say negatively affects up to seven million civil servants by decreasing their income, increasing the managerial powers of administrators and introducing regulations that threaten basic workers’ rights.

Gilbert Achqar, author of the book The People Want, noted that Egypt’s 2011 uprising came after five years of significant developments in the struggle of Egyptian workers. “The wave of labour strikes was instrumental in precipitating Mubarak’s downfall. Whether Sisi will face the same fate is a big question,” Achqar told Al Jazeera.

On January 9, Democracy Meter, an NGO that monitors the Egyptian labour movement, issued its annual report on Egyptian industrial actions, citing 1,117 labour protests throughout 2015 – an average of around three each day.

Another cause of concern for the regime is the wave of public anger that has followed a number of recent deaths in police stations. Over the past two months, thousands of citizens have taken to the streets in Luxor and Ismailia governorates to protest against the killings of Talaat Shabib and Afify Hosny, reportedly tortured to death by police. Incidents of police brutality and the ensuing lack of accountability were among the driving forces behind the 2011 uprising.

The simmering unrest in Egypt today indicates that the public sphere has yet to be brought completely under military and police control, analysts say.

“Securing popular support, or at least ending widespread discontent, is necessary for the construction of a military-backed regime under Sisi,” said Amr Adly, a senior researcher at the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center.

Some observers, however, prescribe caution, suggesting that fears of a repeat of 2011 are overblown. While the anniversary of the uprising remains an open wound in the view of many Egyptians, the fissures and schisms that divide the disparate factions, whose unity once made history in Tahrir Square, appear beyond mending, as they still suffer from a lack of leadership and vision.

“It is unlikely that the generals’ dominance will be met with the kind of unified challenge that toppled Mubarak,” one analyst told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

Still, there are continuing calls for another revolution.

Late last year, an unknown group of activists issued a call for demonstrations on the revolution’s anniversary through a Facebook event, to which at least 50,000 people registered their attendance. Another group advocating an uprising against the Sisi regime initiated the hashtag #WeAreBackToTheSquare, while others have used the hashtag #IParticipatedInTheJanuary25Revolution.

An organiser of the Facebook event told a local news website that “reclaiming the revolution” was among the group’s goals. But other activists were sceptical, saying they did not expect this anniversary to be any different from the last one, and predicting that it would be mainly characterised by demonstrations of small numbers of people and random arrests.

The problem with calls for another revolution is that they are abstract and not based on any political organisation, Khaled Abdel Hamid, a leftist activist who participated in January 25 uprising, told the local website Mada Masr.

“Revolutionary groups need to organise themselves, learn lessons from previous years, and reach a consensus on the form, methods and the slogans necessary to face the counter-revolution, which is a difficult matter and needs time,” he said.

Egypt’s shift from a full revolution to the nearly complete restitution of the pre-revolutionary regime is “Mubarakism without Mubarak”, Adly noted.

“The old state-dominated system with the same socioeconomic biases and autocratic leaning has been reborn under the guise of a new military-supported dictatorship,” Adly said in a study of the economics of Egypt’s rising authoritarian order. “How successful that is will depend in large part on the economic policies that Sisi’s government enacts.”

While the economic situation in Egypt today is crucial, there are other factors at play. The reconstitution of Mubarak-style rule is unlikely to be durable for many years, considering Egypt’s restive youthful population and the dim economic outlook, Dunn said.

“If public opinion turns against Sisi after two years of his rule without economic improvements, more turmoil in the form of another popular uprising and another military coup could well be in the cards,” Dunn said.

According to Haddara, the two barriers that fell during the 2011 uprising were fear and expectations of violent repression.

“In 2015, those same elements [fear and violent repression] will determine whether an uprising happens,” he said. “Will a critical mass of Egyptians overcome the psychological fear of brutalisation, and if so, will the army respond with mass violence?”

Source:Al Jazeera:[Is another revolution brewing in Egypt?->http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/160122114637805.html]

{Habib Essid’s plea comes after an emergency cabinet meeting following a wave of violent protests over unemployment.}

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid has pleaded for “patience” following a wave of violent demonstrations against poverty and unemployment, the worst social unrest since the 2011 revolution.

Essid spoke on Saturday after chairing an emergency cabinet meeting, as authorities said a night-time nation-wide curfew would be indefinite.

Tunisia “is in danger despite the positive things which we have accomplished, particularly the transition towards democracy”, Essid said, urging people to “understand that there are difficulties”.

“Solutions exist, but some patience and optimism are needed,” Essid added.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Tunis, said that thousands of dissatisfied people have taken to the streets in recent days, demanding immediate action against unemployment and poor economic conditions.

“They say we voted for this government because we had hopes that this government would tackle corruption, poverty and offer job opportunities for almost a million unemployed Tunisians,” he said.

“The government is saying that it does not have a quick fix and that it will take some time before it can meet the people’s demands. It is quite a delicate situation for a government that just a few years ago was promising a better future.” Ahelbarra said.

International backing

Protests over unemployment in Tunisia, which started in the western Kasserine province, intensified and spread to other parts of the country on Thursday.

On Friday, President Beji Caid Essebsi said in a televised address that the government would put a programme in place to try to ease the unemployment rate.

He also warned that members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in neighbouring Libya may use the unrest in Tunisia to sneak into the country.

France will provide $1.1bn over five years to help Tunisia deal with its transition to democracy, French President Francois Hollande said on Friday.

Ahelbarra said the only option for the Tunisian government at the moment is to ask for more international support to prevent a further descent towards more instability

“This is exactly why President Essebsi yesterday was stressing the fact that groups like ISIL are seizing the opportunity to try to further destabilise Tunisia,” he said.

“But the problem that you have here in the country is that people are waiting for immediate decisions to be taken by the government.”

Meanwhile, the country’s interior ministry said on Saturday that 423 people have been arrested across the country for being involved in acts of violence.

Source:Al Jazeera:[Tunisia PM appeals for ‘patience’ after street protests->http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/tunisia-holds-emergency-cabinet-meeting-curfew-160123120336632.html]

{Tunisia’s president says he understands frustration that has led to protests over unemployment, but instability could be exploited by extremists.}

A curfew began on Friday evening after “attacks against public and private property”, the interior ministry said.

Protests over youth unemployment have spread from the northern region of Kasserine to towns and cities.

In a televised speech, President Beji Caid Essebsi said the country would “get out of this ordeal”.

How Tunisia is keeping Arab Spring ideals alive

“Arab Spring” pioneer under threat

In his first address since protests began almost a week ago, Mr Essebsi said on Friday night: “There is no dignity without work. You can’t tell someone who has nothing to eat to stay patient.”

He said there was a risk that the Islamic State group in neighbouring Libya “finds that the moment is opportune to infiltrate into Tunisia”.

Mr Essebsi said on Wednesday that more than 6,000 jobs would be given to people from the town of Kasserine.

The government also promised an investigation into allegations of corruption.

Unemployment has worsened since the 2011 revolution, when President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted. More than a third of young people in Tunisia are without work.

Tunisia’s uprising was the first of the Arab Spring, and often hailed as the most successful.

But correspondents say the authorities have failed to resolve the problems of social exclusion and poverty, and face a growing jihadist threat.

The curfew, which runs from 20:00 to 05:00 local time (19:00 to 04:00 GMT), was put in place because of the “danger to the security of the state and it citizens”, the interior ministry said in a statement.

Only night-shift workers and people needing urgent medical care are exempt.
The authorities called for calm after protests descended into vandalism, looting and violence in several areas.

The demonstrations started on Sunday in the central-western town of Kasserine, after a man was electrocuted while protesting over his rejection for a government job.
In the nearby town of Feriana, a policeman died after his car was overturned on Thursday.

Ridha Yahyaoui died on Sunday after climbing a utility pole in protest over a public sector job prospect that he was rejected for.

His brother, Mehrez, told the BBC’s Rana Jawad in Kasserine that the 28-year-old had been fighting for a job for two years.

“His dream was to work, he didn’t like taking money from people,” he said.
“I’m his brother and when I would try to give him five dinars (£1.70; €2.50), he would not take it.

“This government has forgotten us… [Ridha] climbed a pole to tell them, ‘give me my rights’. He was electrocuted and he died.”

Prime Minister Habib Essid, who cut short a visit to Europe to deal with the protests, has said his government has no “magic wand” with which to tackle unemployment.
After meeting French President Francois Hollande in Paris, Mr Essid was due to return to Tunisia and visit Kasserine on Saturday.

Meanwhile the French presidency announced that the country would provide €1bn (£767m) $1.1bn) to Tunisia over the next five years as part of an economic support package.

Source:BBC:Tunisia protests:[ President vows to end ‘ordeal’ of unemployed->http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35384181]