Blogging the democratic revolution
I’m still sick, everyone. I will see if I can do some blogging today, but at the moment the doctor has me pumped up on anti-biotics. They don’t seem to know what it is (after a week!) so they’ve run some blood tests and will hopefully know soon. Until then, it’s back to bed with me…
The UN-Afghan joint commission, JAMB, has delayed the release results from parliamentary elections held in September. This is due to some 500 complaints filed related to possible electoral fraud committed at individual polling stations, all of which are being investigated before any final results are announced. The certification of final results from Afghanistan’s 18 September parliamentary elections has been delayed because of fraud complaints. A spokesman for the joint UN-Afghan election commission says about 500 complaints that are still being investigated could affect the outcome of some races. The allegations of fraud include the intimidation of voters, the stuffing of…
With the ruling party once again stealing the elections back in May and putting down an impending uprising, the people of Ethiopia aren’t ready to give up that quickly. The opposition has called for a boycott of companies and products controlled by the government. It has also called for popular protests. Of course, the government won’t be having any of that, and has continued its campaign of harassment, detention, and even murder of opposition supporters. ADDIS ABABA, 1 November (IRIN) – Ethiopia’s largest opposition party on Monday called for a consumer boycott of products controlled and sold by the ruling…
The United Nations Security Council, at the behest of the United Station, France, and Britain, adopted a resolution by unanimous consent against Syria in order to compel the rogue government to cooperate with the Mehlis investigation and turn over an officials involved. The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding Syria’s full cooperation with a United Nations investigation into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. The measure threatens “further action” against Syria in the event of noncompliance, which is weaker than initial language warning of sanctions. But sponsors of the measure say it shows Syria’s…
ForeignPolicy.com has a good and relevant article up about China’s crackdown on civil society following the colored revolutioned in Eastern Europe and Central Asia over the past few years. Georgia and Ukraine were bad enough, but when Kyrgyzstan — also a part of China’s growing sphere of influence — also joined suit, the Chinese government has become wary of a repeat scenario either nationwide or in renegade provinces. The article gives some background, and then talks about how mediums of communication and NGOs have become caught in the crosshairs more than usual of late. The recent democratic revolutions in Georgia,…
Zanzibar held presidential and parliamentary elections over the weekend. As with many elections in Africa that we have covered here at Publius the aftermath has been a violent one with protestors clashing with state police forces. The opposition is claiming victory although, as is suspected, fraud is likely to be committed on a wide scale. Results are starting to trickle in from semi-autonomous Zanzibar’s elections on Sunday. The islands’ main opposition group is alleging that serious irregularities have taken place, while the ruling party dismissed those allegations. As the vote-counting was under way, the two key contenders in the elections,…
Speaking at the “World Without Zionism” conference, the president of Iran said that he wanted Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Here is a picture of him at the conference: But that’s not the whole thing. Gary Metz over at Regime Change Iran has the exclusive picture that the media isn’t showing you. That’s the United States broken at the bottom of the glass, just before Israel falls down as well. Make sure to read the rest of Gary’s post, as he outlines the Islamic Republic’s war plans from its own mouth.
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the weather here in Boston. But anyway, I’m sick again and have been for the past three days. It seems to be climaxing today so that’s why I haven’t blogged. You know it’s bad when you can’t even swallow your own saliva! So have a nice weekend everyone.
The United Nations has issued another report regarding the situation between Lebanon and Syria, which takes notice of Syrian actions above and beyond that of the assassination of ex-PM Hariri as laid out in the Mehlis Report. The Larsen report, prepared by UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen for the purpose of measuring the success of implementing resolution 1559, warns about an increase of arms flow from Syria to Palestinian camps, as well as the continued presence of Syria-backed Hizb’allah and the economic pressures that Syria is trying to exert on Lebanon. The full text is here, and here are the relevant…
The big news in Azerbaijan is that, less than two weeks away from parliamentary elections scheduled for November 6, President Aliyev has ordered that NGOs be allowed to monitor the election and that indelible ink must be used to prevent double voting. All of these are measures requested by the OSCE in order to hold transparent elections. So I’ve titled my post to mock the headline used by ABC News, as you’ll come to find out, for good reason. Oct 25, 2005 ???????? BAKU (Reuters) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday ordered steps to ensure a November 6 parliamentary…
A parliamentarian was killed while touring a prison, protestors took to the streets to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Kulov, an extraordinary session of parliament was almost held to that end, and it’s coming out that the assassination might have political implications much more far ranging than at first glance. This also follows government plans to possibly illegalize protests. What’s going on in Kyrgyzstan? New Eurasia has a roundup. Saturday saw protests on the main square, Ploshchad Ala-Too, by supporters of the murdered deputy Tynchbek Akmatbaev, who called for Kulov’s resignation . Riots began earlier this week, as MosNews…
In its ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy reformists, the Uzbek government has arrested Sanjar Umarov, the leader of Sunshine Uzbekistan and a potential challenger to President Karimov. The New York Times has more, though a lot of the information seems to come from the Sunshine Uzbekistan website. MOSCOW, Oct. 23 ???????? The leader of an Uzbek opposition coalition that has criticized the nation????????s authoritarian government was arrested Saturday night and accused of corruption, his family and an international human rights organization said. The office of the coalition, Sunshine Uzbekistan, was raided, and records and at least one computer were seized. The…
For those of you who have been here with Publius since the beginning, you may remember that I used to do daily roundups of the news in Lebanon during the Cedar Revolution. It’s been quite a while since then, but with the dissemination of the Mehlis investigation report (read my post on that here), a spark has been set anew in the country. The Lebanese blogosphere is quite active right now, so it’s important to highlight the awesome work and insight that’s being put out there. I’ve been watching From Beirut to the Beltway quite a bit, as it has…
The Mehlis report was released today, and it was the historic bombshell that everyone knew it would be. It implicated Syrian and Lebanese intelligence chiefs and military generals, all the way up to members of Assad’s family. The commission was also extended up until December in order to allow for further investigations into more recent developments and leads. And, speaking of those leads, Mehlis deleted the names of some of those suspected of conspiring in Hariri’s murder for reasons not yet known, though I can imagine it has to due with following up with evidence by December. Here’s what happened:…
As parliamentary elections on November 6 near, hardliners within the Azeri government are feeling the heat and are cracking down on reformers within their midst. This has culminated in the firing and arrest of Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev and his brother Rafiq Aliyev, who is the owner of Azpetrol, the biggest privately owned oil company in Azerbaijan. In a surprise move, President Ilham Aliyev has fired Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev from his post. Law enforcement agencies sources have told EurasiaNet that both Aliyev and his brother, president of the Azpetrol oil company, have been arrested under suspicion of…
There’s been some buzz created with regards to the auditing of votes in Iraq due to ‘unusually high turnout.’ In fact, it was the top story on Google News the other day, though I’m not really sure why, given that the biggest effect it will have is delaying the results only a couple of days. Here’s the basic rundown: Iraqi election officials say it is too early to suspect problems during Saturday’s constitutional referendum, as workers continue to review ballots. Officials say workers are still auditing results for about 12 Shi’ite and Kurdish areas which reported unusually high totals of…
The day of solidarity with Belarus on Oct. 16 that I talk about was an outstanding success, even moreso than I thought it would be. Over 100,000 people lit candles in their windows all around Belarus on Sunday in a form of protest yet unseen in this country, where protestors are roundly beaten and arrested. More than 100,000 citizens of Belarus have taken part in the Day of Solidarity on October 16. The action has been supported in many Belarusian towns and in many countries of the world. In this connection representatives of the civil society of Belarus proposed continuing…
You may have all noticed that I haven’t posted a nice, long entry on Iraq since the referendum. Well, that’s because I’ve been holding my breath. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, so there will be something much much bigger when some more indicative preliminary figures come in. One thing is for sure though. The January election and the October referendum were incredibly different emotional experiences for Americans who supported the war. Back then, we had no idea what would happen. It was one fell swoop of an emotional event, and when we saw Iraqis waving around…
Today is the anniversary of the day when President Lukashenko held an illegal referendum to secure his limitless rule in Belarus. With parliamentary elections scheduled within the year, it is more important than ever for the people of Belarus to stand with each other and to know that others stand with them. This is why students from around the world walked for democracy on October 15. Knowing that you have support in your actions against a force as seemingly unstoppable as a dictatorial government will help you have the moral fortitude to stand up against what is blatantly wrong and…
Students for Global Democracy has more of the photos from the worldwide Walk For Democracy In Belarus. Here is the press release, accompanied by a sampling of the pictures. Remember, here are the pictures from our own walk in Boston. ******* October 17, 2005 – Ann Arbor, MI; Bloomington, IN; Istanbul, Turkey; London, Canada; London, United Kingdom; Santa Cruz, CA; Boston, MA; Washington, DC????????For hundreds of Students around the world, October 15th was not just another Saturday: it was a day to commemorate the courage of democracy advocates in the Eastern European nation of Belarus. Held in the iron grip…
This doesn’t look very good. Baku, 17 October 2005 (RFE/RL) — Azeri opposition leader Rasul Quliyev has been stopped by Ukrainian police in the Crimean capital of Simferopol en route to Baku, where he was returning after nearly 10 years in exile, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reported. Former parliamentary speaker and Democratic Party of Azerbaijan Chairman Quliyev planned to return to Baku today to participate in the country’s legislative elections next month. He has lived in exile in the United States since 1996. When Quliyev’s charter plane stopped in the Ukrainian city of Simferopol en route to Baku, the Ukrainian authorities…
It was cold and rainy. People were tired and hung over from Friday night festivities. Some cancelled at the last minute and some just kept sleeping. However, despite all that, we still came through and marched out with our signs, deteriorating and wet as they were. There were about a dozen of us total, a mix of students from Bentley College and Brandeis University. We stood out in major intersections shouting slogans like “Free Belarus!” Some people asked us what we were protesting and we told them about it. Others slowed down and honked. It was cool. Here are the…
I’m preparing for the Walk for Democracy in Belarus all day today. Posters, people, all that. Should be pretty cool, and we’ll have pictures and video up for viewing. If you’d like to get involved, just go to the link. I hope to see you all there!
Condoleezza Rice, during her trip to Kazakhstan, chased down President Nazarbaev after he left his podium and forced him to answer questions from reporters. She also called on the country to be a leader for democratic reforms in the region. Jim Hoft has a roundup. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stops the Kazakh leader in his tracks and gestures to reporters during their press conference in Astana, October 13, 2005. Condoleezza chased down Nazarbayev after their opening remarks. She stopped him in his tracks and brought him back to the stage to answer questions!… Not exactly the sort of…
Hey everyone, I’d like to thank you all for expressing your interest in participating in the Walk for Democracy in Belarus. It is an event that will be held worldwide in places as far-ranging as Nepal, Taiwan, Ghana, England, and right here in Boston in order to raise money for pro-democracy organizations that oppose the current dictatorship. I’m emailing you all to let you know the final plans and instructions for participating in the walk. Please, do not hesitate to forward this info on to anyone you know so that they can participate. The more people coming, the better. You…