Blogging the democratic revolution
I put up a little contact form at the left side of the site. You can still contact me by email, though. Mainly what I’d like you to use it for is sending me tip-offs to news or blog entries that are relevant. This way I could definitely get to everything in a day. Strangely enough, most of my time goes to looking for the news than it does actually writing about it.
Previous statements have said that they would not contest the election results in court, as it would be futile given that it is controlled by Mugabe. Now, they have decided to do so in the districts where the most flagrant violations occured. Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, has reversed its earlier decision not to challenge the results of last week’s parliamentary election in court. The party is now taking cases of what it calls the most blatant irregularities to the Electoral Court. The Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC, will challenge one or two results from…
Let the race begin! (Kyodo) _ The Mongolian presidential election campaign officially kicked off Friday with speeches, music and rallies as four candidate began vying for the top spot in one of the world’s youngest democracies. Until May 20, the candidates will fly or drive around the landlocked East Asian nation to speak with some of the 1 million voters, including a rural nomadic population, about poverty alleviation and other key issues. The leading contender is Nambariin Enkhbayar, a former prime minister backed by the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party. His main rival is Mendsaikhani Enkhsaikhan of the Democratic Party. The…
Bizblogger reminds us that with the Pope’s passing, there are still those in China who are not free to worship as they wish. He also notes something unknown certainly to myself and probably many others. An unidentified secret cardinal. While there are 117 known cardinals preparing to select the next pope, the number could actually be 118. When John Paul II created new cardinals in 2003, he said he was keeping one name secret, or “in pectore,” meaning “in the heart.” The name remains secret until the pope announces it or leaves other instructions. This formula has been used when…
I don’t really like making a post to just one article at a time so I’m going to just put everything for Central Asia I’ve read today here. Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has suggested that his country may hold presidential elections in 2009. Let’s all take a deep breath so that our laughs can be longer. Nathan notes conflicting accounts of one of Niyazov’s quotes appearing in different stories. Which mean exactly the opposite if ???????succession??????? and ???????continuity??????? are used in their normal senses. I won????????t hold my breath either way because for all we know he could decide tomorrow…
We can expect to see Russia go under any day now! Here’s the rest of the pictures from the protest. Hat tip: Andy at Siberian Light for the email.
The government is still clamping down in Nepal, arresting over 500 protestors in light of planned pro-democracy rallies of several thousand. KATHMANDU (Reuters) – Nepali soldiers killed at least 50 Maoist rebels in a deadly overnight clash, the army said on Friday, as around 500 political activists were reported arrested by police during pro-democracy rallies in the kingdom. … The new violence came as police in Kathmandu arrested about 50 political activists, including some former ministers, who were demonstrating against King Gyanendra’s move on Feb. 1 to declare emergency, sack the multi-party government and seize power. “Down with the proclamation…
The new unicameral parliament in effect since the dissolution of the upper house has renounced the election date set by the previous parliament for June 26. A new date hasn’t been announced as the legislature is busy discussing what to do now that Akayev has resigned. Kyrgyzstan????????s unicameral parliament has repealed a resolution adopted by the former bicameral legislature that set June 26 as the date for the country????????s special presidential election. A new election date will be set only after legislators review the issue of former President Askar Akayev????????s resignation. Parliament on April 7 postponed debate on Akayev????????s resignation…
As accorded by the deal struck between the main Shiite coalition and the Kurdish Alliance, a Shiite has been elected Prime Minister. This is the post with the task of forming and managing the government, while the presidential role is mostly ceremonial. Iraq’s newly appointed presidential council yesterday chose Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shia, as prime minister, but the new leader indicated it might be some time before he can form a government. Iraq’s president, Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani who was himself elected by parliament only the day before, informed Mr Jaafari that he should form a government, only minutes after…
With Mugabe rigging himself a 2/3 majority, what exactly could the opposition do anyway? Members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Zimbabwe’s main opposition group, are hesitant about their political future when the new parliament reopens after last week’s general election which delivered President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF a large majority. The MDC is engaged in its most serious debate since it was formed five years ago. The first debate among MDC leaders after last week’s election is whether they should return to parliament. Several MDC analysts say the opposition’s experience in parliament has been “futile and agonizing” and that…
Tipping the hat to Gateway Pundit for letting me know about this. You may remember when about a week and a half ago ten thousand protestors in Bashkortostan gathered to demand their president’s resignation. Today, they took it on an airplane straight to Moscow. 7 April 2005 — Activists from the central Russian republic of Bashkortostan flew to Moscow today to call for the removal of Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov. Roughly 200 activists planned to deliver a petition to the Kremlin that they claim carries 100,000-plus signatures. Opponents accuse Rakhimov of human rights abuses and corruption. The group has official…
This article caught my eye just before I went to hit the bed. Very sneaky. Very smart. Observer teams from African countries and regional organisations have been unanimous in declaring the elections free and fair, but the US embassy said that although the Zimbabwe government had not invited it to send observer teams from abroad, it had sent 25 of its Harare-based diplomats to observe the process in almost half of the 120 constituencies. Their reports showed “several patterns of irregularities” – the exclusion of observers from four polling stations, the failure to publish the results of each polling station…
For what you need to know from the last week of news from Russia and its near-abroad, check out Andy’s — guess — weekly news roundup.
Following is an article regarding the Elim Mission Massacre, one of the most infamous acts of bloodshed commited by Mugabe’s gang, but unknown to many of us in the west. Andrew sends this to me again, and I believe it helps put Mugabe’s current regime in context with the past in terms of his terror, and the west’s disillusionment with the actuality of the situation. On the night of June 23, 1978, Elim Mission in the Rhodesian Eastern Highlands was subjected to the worst massacre of missionaries yet experienced. Terry Blocksidge reported in the Sunday Mail (Salisbury): Eight British missionaries…
I just wanted to throw out an announcement that Nathan and the crew over at Registan.net are up for the Reports Without Borders Freedom Blog Award. If you are grateful at all for his coverage of Central Asia (and you know you’ve been there) then pop on by and vote for him!
I was just reading the joint statement by the two for the strategic goals both the U.S. and Ukraine want to work on. Among these were promoting democracy in Cuba and Belarus, among resolving separatist conflicts in Georgia and Moldova. We also commit to work together to back reform, democracy, tolerance and respect for all communities, and peaceful resolution of conflicts in Georgia and Moldova, and to support the advance of freedom in countries such as Belarus and Cuba. Citizens in our open societies value the freedom to practice their faiths, and we are committed to promoting religious tolerance globally.…
Last month, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was campaigning in the U.S. for money as he does every year. Except this year, he wasn’t invited to the White House, and was even snubbed by Ted Kennedy. In his place were invited the sisters and fiance of Robert McCartney, who was killed by the IRA. Now Adams is calling on the IRA to lose its weapons. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams today called on the IRA to abandon armed struggle and embrace “purely political and democratic” activity. He admitted that “such truly historic” decisions would take time and a long process…
I’ve been talking to a 37 year old man named Andrew (last name withheld) over email, who was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and moved to the United States, joined the navy, and is now a citizen. He notes to me that while we in the blogosphere have talked a lot about the election there and what Mugabe does now, no historical context has been provided for his rule. With his permission, I’m posting Andrew’s email here about Mugabe coming to power. You know, Africa is a pretty simple place…really. But there is a great tendency for the West to…
The Sokwanele democracy blog in Zimbabwe has released its full report on how Mugabe’s Zanu-PF rigged the elections. Say it with me, “Fraud.”
The first edition of the Carnival of Revolutions is up. It’s basically a run down of everything going on revolution wise over the past week. Hopefully it can get a lot bigger, so save any links you go to and make sure to send them his way so that he can put together a huge, comprehensive carnival.
Daniel noted earlier the blatantly warped and somewhat arbitrary questions, but Mike Connor all the way out in Yushchenko’s Ukraine noticed it as well. They better watch out, or they might develop the same bad international reputation they’ve acquired at home!
April 4th is the day Moldova’s Parliament holds elections for President. Up for re-election is Communist Party leader Voronin, who won 56 of the 101 votes, of which he only needed 61 to win. In other words, his party needed to pursuade some of the opposition his way. If a president is not elected after two times, then parliament dissolves and a new election is held. Well, five votes isn’t much, so it was a pretty easy battle for Voronin to win. But before the election, the pro-Moscow Democratic Moldova bloc presented a list of 22 demands for its participation.…
Even though their leadership failed to mobilize and call for protests, there are some brave souls in Zimbabwe’s youth who realize that fighting and dying for freedom is a more worthy cause for their lives than complacent slavery. Despite threats of death, a few hundred have taken to the streets to defy Mugabe’s fraudulent victory. JOHANNESBURG, April 4 – Hundreds of supporters of Zimbabwe’s political opposition marched in Harare today to protest what they called the fraudulent victory of President Robert G. Mugabe’s ruling party in Thursday’s parliamentary elections. There were conflicting reports on whether the police broke up the…
President Yushchenko of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution has arrived in Washington today and will be staying through April 7th. Time to roll out the red carpet! WASHINGTON, DC — The United States is getting ready to roll out the red carpet for Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, the man behind a democratic movement that Washington would like to see spread to other parts of the former Soviet Union and elsewhere in the world. Yushchenko is to arrive in the United States Sunday and will be welcomed by President George W. Bush to the White House the following day. The trip, through Thursday,…
Through two months of bold and sometimes bitter negotiations, pluralism wins through and Iraq has a speaker for parliament. BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraqi politicians chose a Sunni Arab tobe the speaker of parliament on Sunday, ending a politicalimpasse and taking a decisive step toward forming a governmentnine weeks after historic elections. In a ballot, the members of the 275-seat National Assemblyvoted overwhelmingly to elect Hajem al-Hassani, the industryminister, as speaker. Hassani, a religious Sunni, is an ally ofinterim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. “We passed the first hurdle,” Hassani told reporters. “TheIraqi people have proven that they can overcome the politicalcrisis…