Blogging the democratic revolution
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in April called on the IRA to lose its arms after getting totally snubbed by the usual supporters in Irish America. Yes, even Ted Kennedy gave him the cold shoulder. This announcement seems several months in the making, though hardly anyone believed the organization would seriously embrace the message. They are saying that it will only work through peaceful, democratic means to achieve independence from British rule, though questions of their current political legitimacy still exist in my mind, given that they achieved their status through the “armed struggle.” But most importantly right now, if…
On Tuesday I discussed how pressure from the ASEAN countries forced Burma to forgo the chairmanship, a notable break from a general policy of nonintervention with regards to any particular country’s internal affairs. The move was cheered by the United States, the EU, and pro-democracy activists everywhere. Representatives from both bodies had threatened to boycott the meeting if Burma was to take the 2006 chair, which would have dealt a severe diplomatic blow as such a thing had never been done before. Speaking of other boycotts, though, President Bush just signed into law another year of sanctions against the Burmese…
Only a few days after the United Nations issued its “damning” report about the genocide in Zimbabwe, Mugabe figured it might be a good idea continue demolishing homes. Shows how much he takes the dreaded UN seriously, huh? The United States and Britain, however, have been stepping up the pressure on South Africa to do something about the problem; namely, to force Zimbabwe to undergo reform as a condition to any financial aid. But why would Mbeki do that when he is ideologically sympathetic, and why would Mugabe accept such an offer when China is dishing out bargain basement prices?…
A few weeks ago when the Shanghai Cooperation Organization met in Kazakhstan, it called for the quick pullout of U.S. forces from its bases in Central Asia. The U.S. has bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, with special flight rights in Tajikistan, which are members of the SCO. Even Kyrgyzstan at the time was making statements about a timely deadline for U.S. withdrawal. It has to be remembered, however, that this was most likely due to a large amount of pressure exerted from the SCO’s larger members, China and Russia. For a little while it looked like they would succeed in…
The G8 summit is over, aging hipsters have finished playing concerts the nostalgic world over, and experience as old as their songs has been cast out the window in favor of some feel-good debt relief lovin’. Dictators from the Middle East to Asia are outraged and harping on endlessly; not because they’re being forced into reform by democratic crusaders, but because they aren’t getting it as good as their brethren in the sub-Sahara. You see, for twenty years the West has made the disastrous mistake of attempting to correct the genocides, famines, and poverty of Africa by fueling unchecked billions…
It looks like a couple of things are going down in Iran. Jim Hoft is rounding up news on a protest in front of Tehran University calling for the release of Akbar Ganji. But there is other unrest throughout the country. I’ve reported over the past week about the state of emergency and mass unrest in the Kurdish Iranian city of Mahabad among others. Here is an update on that.
Foreign ministers from an arc of ten Asian countries of various degrees of political openness are meeting in Laos to drink wine, joke, and maybe sign a few important cooperative agreements at the annual ASEAN summit. Underscoring the whole event, however, is that Burma is next in line to take over the leadership position in 2006. And western governments aren’t happy about it, so after a a lot of discussion, the ASEAN countries asked Burma to step down next year. Under pressure from both its neighbors and its critics in the West, the military regime in Myanmar agreed with obvious…
Well, this almost totally slipped under the radar! If it weren’t for certain services that focus specifically on this kind of stuff, the world may never know that Bush was following up on his promise to support the democratic opposition in Belarus. They met at the White House. George W. Bush declared support to Belarusian democratic forces President of the United States of America George W. Bush supports process of uniting Belarusian democratic forces. American President told it in informal meeting with vice-chairman of BNF party Aliaksey Yanukevich in the White House. ???????It was a meeting of party leaders of…
Don’t miss it, soapgun is hosting this week’s carnival of revolutions! And might I say, he did a very good job. Regime Change Iran has up it’s Iran week in review, filled with very important news and information. The second edition of Azerbaijan election monitor is up. Very in-depth. The Eurasia Daily Monitor also has up a bunch of stuff, as does Eurasianet. Transitions Online, an e-zine covering the progress of democracy in the former USSR, has up a new articles as well. Mark Steyn, lastly but not leastly, has his column up about the London tube tragedy here. Check…
It’s time for another hard hitting report by Amnesty International, and this time the Iraqi “insurgents” have found themselves in their, er, verbal crosshairs. They’re still recovering from the whole “Guantanamo = Gulag” controversy, so this is the perfect time to wise up and release a real report on real human rights abuses. It’s the perfect way to both get their credibility back and do the work they were started to do. The press release starts off really well too; with a real bang, if you’ll excuse the pun. Armed groups opposed to the US-led multinational force and Iraq’s government…
Earlier in the week I wrote about martial law being declared in Mahabad, a city in the north-western Kurdish area of Iran. According to Kurdish Media, protestors are defying the crackdown. And now, the protests are spreading throughout Kurdish cities in Iran. Since the killing of Shuana Kardi, a Kurdish activist, on Saturday July the 13th by the Pastaram in the city of Mahabad, Iranian Kurdistan, the people of this city have come every day to the streets in order to protest against the Iranian state????????s oppressive policy towards the Kurds. They expressed their demands for democracy, their national and…
After suffering through terrible years under a populist madman who suspended the national legislature when free parliamentary threatened his rule, and following three years of a bloodless military coup, the people of Guinea-Bissau are ready to return to multi-party democracy. Indications are showing that, indeed, today will be a good day for the otherwise turbulent nation.
Protestors demonstrated for the Prime Minister of Nepal who was removed from office following the King’s constitutional coup nearly half a year ago. When to police rushed in to break it up with batons, the protestors fought back with bricks. Not what I’d call a healthy situation. KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) – Police used batons to break up a protest by supporters of this Himalayan country’s detained former prime minister on Sunday, leaving about 15 demonstrators and 10 police injured. About 400 supporters of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba were rallying outside the Royal Commission for Corruption Control, waving flags and…
Gateway Pundit rounds up the news on pro-democracy dissidents imprisoned in Cuba for protesting the regime. One of these dissidents is a woman named Martha Beatriz Roque, an organizer of the first ever Assembly for Civil Society in May. Now, at least five of the 20 dissidents have been freed. Cuban authorities have released some of the group of 20 dissidents detained shortly before a planned protest in Havana on Friday. According to the independent Cuban Commission for Human Rights, at least five people have been released. Among those who have been allowed home after being questioned overnight, is a…
Soapgun is hosting this week’s carnival of revolutions. Please submit your democracy-related posts to him by sometime on Sunday: soapgun99Éyahoo.com. Thanks!
Kofi Annan is mad. That’s right, Robert Mugabe is still plundering the entire country of Zimbabwe, and Kofi has to take time away from shredding Oil-for-Food documents to read a 100 page report about it. Hey, if I were the head of an ineffective international institution and I had to read about something I couldn’t do anything about, I’d be mad too. UNITED NATIONS, July 22 – The United Nations today condemned the mass destruction of urban slums and shantytowns in Zimbabwe by the government of Robert G. Mugabe as a “disastrous venture,” saying it had left 700,000 people homeless…
I have already discussed thoroughly the ongoing trade embargo that Syria is imposing on Lebanon. By closing off the border, Syria is effectively shutting out Lebanon’s only means by which to transport their goods to the rest of the Arab world. This in the middle of an enormous fiscal crisis worth upwords of $30 billion. Effectively, Syria is waging a trade war against Lebanon to throw it into crisis while saying that the Lebanese “can’t govern themselves.” One of Syria’s other tactics at sowing discord has been the targeted assassination of politicians in Lebanon. Today, another bomb went off in…
Kurds in western Iran, on the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, have been engaging in massive unrest following the election. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty has superb background on the story as usual. Unrest among Kurds living in western Iran, which has been continuing for several weeks, has prompted a government investigation that began on 20 July. This comes on the heels of low levels of Kurdish participation in the June presidential election, which may be indicative of their sense of exclusion from the country’s politics. The Kurds are not promoting separatism, and the central government may find that meeting…
On July 19th I posted on a leak of the draft Iraqi bill of rights, which was published in Arabic on June 30 and translated to English on July 6. After I posted about that draft, a new one was released on July 20 and subsequently translated by Nathan Brown at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Given the three weeks of separation between these two drafts, significant and progressive changes can be seen since June 30. You can read the full text of the new draft, accompanied by the old one, here. One of the smallest yet significant changes…
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice decided to pay a surprise visit to Beirut, Lebanon this fine Friday. The purpose of the visit is to give support to the new government after the withdrawal of Syria. Here are the details: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beirut on Friday for a surprise visit, the first by Washington’s top envoy to Lebanon since Syria’s April troops withdrawal from this country under U.S.-led international pressure. Rice arrived on a private plane that landed at 1 p.m. (1000 GMT) and she is expected to meet President Lahoud, according to presidential spokesman Rafik…
Andy “Now that’s what I call inflation!” Young has come across a few gems detailing the incredible rate that corruption and bribe payments are growing in Russia since just after Putin took the presidency. In fact, sincev2001, the average bribe has grown 10-fold. INDEM’s “Corruption in Russia: Dynamics and Perspectives” report claims the average bribe in 2001 was $10,200 and has increased to $135,000 in 2005. The report claims bribes increased 10-fold since 2001 and equal to two and a half times the current federal budget. The Moscow Times report he links to also that businesses and individuals are “forking…
I just wrote an article about trade as the needed force for democratization in Africa. I think it’s really good and would like to try to get it published. Not to mention I have tuition to pay, so getting a little bit of cash would be cool too. Can anyone here get me in touch with someone who might consider my article? It’s just over 800 words, a reasonable length. Any help would be great!
Last week I noted a leaked memo from the Kremlin discussing its fear of the collapse of the republic of Dagestan, located in the North Caucasus. In essense, their ultra repressive tactics against separatist Chechnya has led to an endless cycle of repression, which breeds extremism, which earns an even more repressive repsonse from Moscow. This extremism against the Russian state is being exported throughout the entire North Caucasus. Essentially, what once were separatist rebels are transformd into terrorists working alongside Islamic militants. Putin is now up against an entire region of his country that wants to break away violently.…
People in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi demonstrated for the second day against proposed constitutional changes that will leave the country with a watered down premiership and an ultimately authoritative presidency. The government has banned the demonstrations, but protestors say they will take to the streets for a third day. Clashes are also being reported in cities elsewhere. NAIROBI, July 21 (Reuters) – Kenyan riot police guarded the rubble-strewn streets of Nairobi on Thursday as protest leaders promised a third day of demonstrations against President Mwai Kibaki’s handling of a constitution reform. The protests — which have turned central Nairobi into…
It looks like there is a mass mobilization against the self-serving and corrupt government. Check it out: SANA????????A ???????? Violence spread through a number of cities in Yemen on Wednesday, July 20, resulting in a number of deaths and numerous injuries, as protestors displayed their anger at price increases imposed on fuel and gas. The protests turned violent when crowds in the capital????????s areas of neighborhoods of Tahrir, Al-Hasaba, Hayl, and Taiz Street began to smash advertising hoardings and block roads with uprooted trees and bushes, and burnt tires. Dozens of security force units were dispatched to the scenes and…