Blogging the democratic revolution
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 Kyrgyzstan????????s unicameral parliament has repealed a resolution adopted by the former bicameral legislature that set June 26 as the date for the country????????s special presidential election.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…
This isn’t getting much attention at all in the English media, but the Yemeni government seems to be in the middle of a serious smackdown on the Yemeni press. I was first alerted to this earlier today after watching a brief news report on Al-Jazeera, but even that outlet doesn’t have anything on it either on the English or the Arabic version of its website. (A note for those who depend on Al-Jazeera’s English site: the two are almost entirely different; only the main Arab world-related stories make it into the English version, which is clearly designed for a global…
Miguel Octavio reports a wave of purges in Venezuela for workers who had the temerity to sign the Recall Referendum petition last August. Dictator Hugo Chavez’s vengeful party apparatus is hunting them down, one by one, and either denying them employment or firing them from their jobs. It’s all very redolent of the days of Stalin’s henchmen during the dark days of the Soviet Union or the Castro regime of Cuba over the years, and quite chilling. It heralds the complete politicization of society so characteristic of communist regimes and it will get a lot worse. Read the whole story…
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…
Venezuela is the only country I know of whose Embassy employees in Washington are regularly commissioned to harass bloggers. Honestly, I don’t understand how this can be legal. We all get emails from them. They are worse than that, though – their crazed leftist “press” minions on the Internet, who have some sort of relationship with them, post bloggers’ home addresses, work places, phone numbers and e-mails on their sites. They also have called bloggers’ employers and attempted to get them fired. And of course they try desperately to find out who some of us are. This is all perfectly…
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…
One more: A former Yukos bigwig says that Russia will have a revolution once Belarus gets its act together. Meanwhile, government elites a trumping up such a possibility so as to portay Putin as a strongman and the only person capable of holding the country together. Indeed, it does seem as if the Russian rudder has fallen off. Bush looks as if he will push his advantage while in Europe, visiting with presidents from various ex-Soviet client states. Putin’s not happy, but there isn’t much he can do about it.
Over at Bloggledygook, I have a post on the trouble the EU constitution is having getting past the new French Resistance. The most delicious part of the story is that it looks as if Chirac might be hoisted on his own pitard. The constitution must be unanimously approved by the member states. In a hilarious twist, it looks like France may ultimately kill the United States of Europe.
Thousands of Egyptian students have demonstrated against the government in what is being called the largest protest in Egypt to date. The students – mostly from the Muslim Brotherhood movement – marched at five campuses in Cairo and the Nile Delta. Hundreds of police prevented them from taking their protests outside university gates onto the streets. Islamists, liberals and nationalists want an end to Egypt’s 24-year-old state of emergency. They also called for an end to the presidency of Hosni Mubarak. Mr Mubarak has been the country’s leader since 1981. He is hoping to win a fifth term in office…
Over at IEDs I have a post reporting the Jalal Talabani has finally been chosen Iraq’s new interim president after weeks of negotitations. With all that has been going on around the world, it’s a good idea to stop and remember how all of this revolution got started. There may still be some who don’t buy the democratic domino theory, but if one actually listens to what people in the Middle East are saying, little doubt can be left that the free election in Iraq has proven more powerful that any bomb. The parliament now sets about installing Ibrahim al-Jaafai…
The Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat is reporting today that Syria’s ruling party, the Baath Party, is planning to amend its charter, ditch the socialist tenets, and perhaps even change its name. The article, The Syrian Baath Plans to Dissolve its National Leadership and Bring Down its Socialist Motto (it is the third article from the top, for Arabic readers): Informed Syrian sources have said that the national conference of the Arab Socialist Baath Party, which will be held most likely the seventh or the eighth of the coming month, with make a decision to dissolve the party’s national leadership. The…
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.”
Michael Totten and Jim Hake are on the ground in Lebanon, raising money for the Cedar Revolutionaries. I got this email from Jim just a while ago: I’m in Beirut, Lebanon to kick off a project to support the pro-democracy demonstrators at the "tent city" in Martyrs’ Square. Their goals are independence (i.e., Syria out of Lebanon) and free and fair elections. The tent city demonstrators are the center of gravity for Lebanon’s pro-democracy movement. They are leading the charge. They put together the massive demonstrations 3 weeks ago. As they go, so goes Lebanon’s independence. And so goes a…
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.
How’s we miss this? Here’s a tremendously good news source for Zimbabwewatchers called ZWNEWS.com, one of the best I’ve seen. Hat Tip: Dave