- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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RonaldResin posted:
This feels like it takes a slice from the Bosnian war. Were there not claims of "ethnic cleansing" (does not feel like the right term but Genocide is a word I shy away from) very early in the conflict from a western Libyan city that started with Z? (Couldn't find anything on google) I'm not saying that the "ethnic cleansing" in Sirte is or was justified. But if it is justified to the rebels that's all they need. Is it more human to take the high road or get even? I can understand why this would happen in Sirte. With Misrata looking like it would have certainly held the same fate as the western city I mentioned earlier (if the reports are true, this was several months ago and I haven't heard anything since), I can blame them, but I can't tell you I wouldn't have reacted the exact same way they have. But that's just me.
Maybe you're thing of Zintan or Zawiya? I'm not sure about ethnic cleansing, but in Zawiya there was definitely a lot of fighting, and reports make it sound like ordinary people were being shot in the street.
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Oct 25, 2011 16:01
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May 22, 2024 03:01
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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Yemen's opposition has agreed to a ceasefire with Saleh, hopefully he makes good on his promise to step down soon.
quote:
Saleh and Yemen opposition agree ceasefire
State news announces deal with breakaway general after more than a week of escalating violence.
Yemen's government and dissident general Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, whose forces have been engaged in bloody battles for weeks, have reached a ceasefire agreement, an official statement said.
Tribal forces led by the powerful Sheikh Sadeq al-Ahmar, who backs the general and who has thrown his support behind the pro-democracy movement that has rocked Yemen, also agreed to the ceasefire, sources in his office said on Tuesday.
The statement on the state news agency website said a committee which had been assigned to negotiate with the opposition forces "declared a ceasefire in the capital Sanaa that will go into effect at 3:00pm".
The truce, it added, had the "goal of ... bringing calm ... and ensuring the safety of the capital, its people and their properties".
The statement added that the government and rival forces would remove checkpoints and barricades set up throughout the capital as deadly clashes and battles intensified between the feuding parties.
Yemeni troops loyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh have fired on crowds of protesters calling for his removal multiple times in the past week, killing at least 20 people, medics have said.
Another demonstration formed in the early morning hours in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday, with protesters marching through the streets surrounding Change Square, the epicentre of the nationwide movement calling for Saleh's resignation.
The protesters were marching towards Sanaa's al-Qaa district, an area controlled by pro-Saleh troops, when they were fired upon with live ammunition, witnesses told the AFP news agency.
Three of the dead reportedly reached a field hospital run by the revolutionary doctors, while three other bodies were taken to the state-run al-Jumhuri hospital in the capital, sources told Al Jazeera.
'Listen to your people'
"The people want to prosecute the butcher," the Associated Press news agency quoted the protesters as chanting. They were demanding a trial for Saleh.
Some also held up posters saying that after the death of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, it was time for Saleh to "listen to your people".
Amid the shooting, the marchers were forced to retreat from the surrounding streets towards Change Square, AP said.
Saleh's forces in Sanaa have exchanged gunfire with troops from renegade army units lead by Major-General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected to the opposition early on in the uprising and whose forces now escort and protect the protesters.
Mohammed al-Qubati, who runs a field hospital at the protesters' camp site, said at least 40 people were wounded by Saleh's forces during Tuesday's shooting.
He said dozens also suffered breathing difficulties because of tear gas fired by the troops and several passed out.
Violence in Sanaa has escalated in the wake of a non-binding UN Security Council resolution urging Saleh to sign a Gulf states-brokered deal that paves the way for his resignation.
Saleh welcomed the resolution on Monday, but has so far refused to sign the agreement, despite increased regional and international pressure to do so.
Meanwhile, in Yemen's second largest city Taiz, seven civilians died and at least 30 others were wounded in shelling and in clashes between armed tribesmen who back the anti-government protesters and pro-Saleh troops, medics and sources told Al Jazeera.
Witnesses there described scenes of fear and chaos as mortar shells fell randomly on city neighbourhoods overnight and early on Tuesday, damaging dozens of houses and forcing schools to shut down.
Brown Moses posted:
Hanibal Gaddafi, Saadi Gaddafi, Aisha Gaddafi, and Saif al Islam Gaddafi are left alive. Moatissim Gaddafi is confirmed dead, Khamis Gaddafi and Saif al Arab are assumed to be dead.
Out of the remaining surviving children the only one who is any real threat is Saif al Islam, the others were too busy benifiting from the spoils of their fathers greed, and Khamis and Moatissim were the only real military minds. Even then, without massive amounts of money they are going to find it difficult to get backing for any revenge plans that are of any significant military scale.
The NTC has said that Saif is still alive and trying to flee to Niger. Whether or not this is true or just speculation remains to be seen.
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Oct 25, 2011 17:41
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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That really is a meaningless death. To be honest though, I'd be surprised if this is the first case of someone getting hit from celebratory gunfire, just the first time it's been caught on film.
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Oct 26, 2011 16:50
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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Worth noting that Egypt has convicted two cops for the death of Khaled Saed
AJE posted:
An Egyptian court has convicted two policemen of beating an Egyptian man to death and sentenced them to seven years in prison, according to the lawyer of the man whose killing inspired the country's uprising.
Hafiz Abu-Saada, the lawyer, said the court convicted the two on Wednesday of manslaughter over Khaled Said's death in June 2010, rejecting the more serious charge of murder.
Said's family and witnesses have accused police of torturing and beating Said to death after an argument at an Alexandria internet cafe. Photos showed his body badly disfigured and his face bloodied.
Police claimed the 28-year-old choked on a packet of drugs he swallowed as they approached him, a finding contested in recent forensic reports that showed the packet was forced into his mouth.
Said's death became a rallying cry for activists behind the January 25 uprising that culminated with the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's decades-long president, on February 11.
Al Jazeera's Sherine Tadros, reporting from Cairo, said some people were angry at the verdict, which they considered to be too lenient. Lawyers for Said had expected the judge would charge the accused with murder, our correspondent said.
"The seven-year verdict means that the judge in the case has decide not to up the charge, and yet has given the maximum sentence for the current charges that the police officers were facing, which was physical torture and unlawful arrest."
She said Said's family had 60 days to appeal the verdict.
'The verdict will be on the street'
In the courtroom, families of the two policemen shouted angrily at the judge over the guilty verdict, while activists and Said's family complained the two police had gotten off lightly.
"Inside the court, the military police locked the doors of the court and the families of the two defendants literally beat up four lawyers in protest. Justice has not been done to Khaled Said and we will not budge," Said's uncle Ali Qassem told Reuters.
"The response to the verdict will be on the street and not inside the court," he added.
Activists also criticised the verdict.
"This verdict allows for this sort of thing to happen again because it is not a deterrent, and it is not acceptable to us and to the entire Egyptian society," Mahmoud Afifi, a spokesman for the April 6 Youth movement which helped lead the uprising, said.
US-based Human Rights Watch said there was evidence that two plainclothes policemen killed Said and the state had failed to explain signs of beatings on his body. Before he died, Said posted an internet video purportedly showing two policemen sharing the spoils of a drug bust.
A Facebook site was set up named "We are all Khaled Said". It led calls for demonstrations on January 25 and had organised silent protests demanding an end to police corruption and brutality in the months before.
Seven years seems like a fairly light sentence for beating a man to death to such an extent as Khaled was, and noone seems happy with the verdict. Still, I suppose it's more than they would've gotten post-revolution (if they would've gotten anything at all).
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Oct 27, 2011 04:16
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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Any word on how the NTC/new government plans to reign in vigilante mobs? That article Brown Moses linked earlier is pretty damning. I can understand (without condoning) how the guys who fought Gaddafi's men feel they have a right to continue rounding up people they view as enemies, but they need to stop that kind of stuff ASAP before they decide they're some kind of secret/state security police.
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Nov 1, 2011 16:49
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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You got your link a bit messed up there. Try this one.
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Nov 1, 2011 17:52
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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Realistically, if Syria was enriching plutonium, what could anyone doÉ Follow the Iran path of sanctions? Another Israeli air raid? Anything they do seems like it would be counter-productive to the protesters goals right now.
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Nov 1, 2011 17:58
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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suboptimal posted:
A fight between Turkey and Syria would be something without precedent. I'd imagine there's a good parity of arms between the two countries, with Turkey maybe having a slight edge in terms of combat readiness (since they're already on a war footing due to their incursion into Kurdistan). I really have no idea how that would pan out.
It would depend who instigates it, wouldn't it? Turkey's a NATO country, so all the other NATO countries have to back them up if Syria attacks them. As for Turkey attacking Syria, they're still dealing with the aftermath from that earthquake, so that would take some of the wind out of an attack by them.
At the moment at least, itès in the best interest of both sides not to start anything, though with the stance Turkey has been taking recently who knows what could happen.
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Nov 1, 2011 19:48
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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el samayo grande posted:
On the topic of Turkey, I think they're trying to get ahead of the Syrian revolution early, like Qatar in Libya. How dependent on Black Sea shipping is Russia? Does that leverage protect Turkey? (beyond being a NATO member)
How would Turkey get ahead here? Do you mean in terms of regional influence, or just being on really good terms if the protesters come out on top?
Narmi fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Nov 18, 2011
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Nov 18, 2011 01:51
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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Brown Moses posted:
Apparently his lost some fingers in a NATO airstrike, probably the one which some people claimed he lost an arm in, and when he was captured asked to be executed with a bullet to the head or taken to Zintan directly, not Misrata.
They're taking him to Misrata? After what happened to his dad, unless they plan on killing him there I can't see that ending well.
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Nov 19, 2011 23:34
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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Lascivious Sloth posted:
Isn't Iran under weapons sanctions (including outgoing)?
There is an arms embargo in place for arms sales to Iran, though I doubt Hezbollah or Iran cares about it that much. I mean, if they're supplying a group that's classified as a terrorist organization by most of the world they probably don't really care about a UNSC resolution.
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Nov 22, 2011 05:46
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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Brown Moses posted:
Hakim Bilhaj stuff
That really is a surprise. I expected him to play some role in the new government seeing as how he had a very high profile in Libya. It's better overall if the new government stays as far away from the Taliban as possible, and him being in government would be a pretty big liability, I just hope he sees it that way and doesn't start anything over it.
AJE is reporting that SCAF has asked El Baradei to be the next PM and from a new government.
AJE posted:
ElBaradei approached for Egypt PM post
The ruling military council has asked opposition presidential hopeful to form new government, sources say.
Egypt's ruling military council on Tuesday discussed the possibility of appointing presidential hopeful and opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei to head a new government after the cabinet's resignation, a military source told AFP.
The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had invited the country's political forces to crisis talks in a bid to contain deadly clashes raging for the fourth day between police and protesters demanding democratic reforms.
The council reportedly asked ElBaradei on Monday to take on the role of prime minister, but the ex-UN nuclear watchdog chief is said to be hesitating over assurances on his authority to choose ministers.
The military source, who attended the talks, said discussions centred on the resignation of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's cabinet which was tendered on Sunday but has yet to be accepted.
The interim cabinet, that had been appointed by the SCAF, resigned en masse on Sunday, saying that it will stay on until a new government is formed.
The meeting also discussed the idea of forming a new government headed by ElBaradei or Abdelmoneim Abul Futuh, a presidential hopeful and former member of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, the source said.
The SCAF is facing its worst crisis yet since it took power when a popular uprising toppled veteran president Hosni Mubarak in February.
Thousands of protesters descended on Cairo's Tahrir Square - the symbolic heart of the uprising - ahead of a mass rally called for 1400 GMT to demand the military cede power to a civilian authority.
He seems like a good guy for the job, though whether the military is serious about this is still up in the air. Personally, it looks like a ploy to control things from behind the scenes and set someone up as the fall guy. It's good that he's not jumping on it right away and making sure he'll actually have authority in the new government since it'll delegitimize him later on otherwise. The articles doesn't actually say what power he'll have/will be handed over, so we'll have to wait and see if they actually mean this.
Narmi fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Nov 22, 2011
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Nov 22, 2011 14:38
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May 22, 2024 03:01
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- Narmi
- Feb 26, 2008
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Jut posted:
I really don't get it...the SCAF held a referendum, they were planning on having elections in a few days time, and further elections in June/July. They haven't been sitting on their arse saying "la la la no elections for you!".
They've also been holding some 16,000 protesters for trial in military courts, and have refused to hand over power to a civilian council (they were supposed to have done this within six months of Mubarak steping down).
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Nov 23, 2011 00:02
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Oct 25, 2011 16:01
