US Steps up Calls for Transition in Egypt
January 30, 2011/Michael Bowman | Washington
The United States is stepping up calls for change in Egypt after nearly a week of massive demonstrations, chaos and violence engulfing one of America’s closest allies in the Arab world.
For days, U.S. officials have reiterated America’s long-standing policy of encouraging political reform in Egypt. Appearing on U.S. television, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did so again in the most direct terms. "We want to see a transition to democracy. And we want to see the kind of steps taken that will bring that about," she said.
Clinton spoke on Fox News Sunday.
The secretary of state did not call for the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, but appeared to suggest that Egypt’s current political and economic structure is untenable.
"Real stability rests in democracy, participation, economic opportunity. How we get from where we are to where we know the Egyptian people want to be and deserve to be, is what this is about now," she said.
While stepping up calls for change, Secretary Clinton warned against anarchy and radicalism. "I do not think anyone wants to see instability, chaos, increasing violence. We also do not want to see some takeover that would lead not to democracy, but to oppression and the end to the aspirations of the Egyptian people," she said.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s ambassador to Washington, Sameh Shoukry, acknowledged his country is, in his words, "going through a difficult time" But speaking on ABC’s This Week program, he stressed Egypt was already on a path to reform before protests began. "Freedom of expression has been guaranteed. Egypt has been on the road of economic, political, democratic reform for the last 20 years or more, and it has achieved great strides in that regard," he said.
Analysts say the explosive and unpredictable situation in Egypt presents real challenges for American diplomacy. Reva Bhalla is with Stratfor, a U.S.-based geopolitical analysis firm.
"The United States has to play a very careful game here. This [Obama] administration in particular is very concerned about the U.S. image in the region," she said.
Bhalla says U.S. officials are pressing for change in Egypt and, at the same time, hoping for an outcome that does not destabilize Egypt or the Middle East as a whole.
She sees Egypt's military exerting greater control and influence in the days ahead, and thinks Hosni Mubarak’s days as president could be numbered.
"Mubarak’s name has become a liability, not only for Egypt’s allies right now, but for the military itself. I think it has become very clear that opposition to Mubarak is the lifeblood of these demonstrations. I think the military is giving Mubarak the time he is asking for to negotiate an exit. It does not seem like him staying there is going to be a very sustainable option," she said.
The United States is urging its citizens to leave the country, and many nations are recommending against travel to Egypt, amid growing lawlessness in the country.
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Clinton-Calls-for-Orderly-Transition-in-Egypt-114895739.html
Monday, January 31, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Clinton On U.S.- China Policy (Editorials )
Editorials
Clinton On U.S.- China Policy
Secretary Clinton said that the United States is pursuing a strategy for the U.S.-China relationship with three elements that reinforce one another.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently inaugurated the State Department’s Richard Holbrooke lecture series in honor of the departed diplomat, with a speech on the future of U.S. – China relations.
Secretary Clinton said that the United States is pursuing a strategy for the U.S.-China relationship with three elements that reinforce one another. The first is regional engagement. "We are firmly embedding our relationship with China within a broader regional framework because it is inseparable from the Asia-Pacific’s web of security alliances, economic networks, and social connections," she said. "America has renewed and strengthened our bonds with our allies – Japan, [the Republic of] Korea, Thailand, Australia, and the Philippines – and we have deepened our partnerships with India, and Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and New Zealand."
The second element is building on bilateral trust. "We need to form habits of cooperation and respect that help us work together more effectively. The most notable example ... is the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which brings together hundreds of experts from dozens of agencies ... across both of our governments," Secretary Clinton said. "[B]oth sides would [also] benefit from sustained and substantive military-to-military engagement that increases transparency. We need more high-level visits, more joint exercises, [and] more exchanges from our professional military organizations."
"[B]uilding trust is not ... just for our governments," Secretary Clinton continued. "Our peoples must continue to forge new and deeper bonds ... [i]n classrooms and laboratories, on sports fields and trading floors ... [to] make the everyday connections that build lasting trust and understanding. That is why we have launched a new bilateral dialogue on people-to-people exchanges and new initiatives such as the 100,000 Strong program that is sending ... more American students to China."
The third element important to strong U.S.-China ties is expanding the areas of shared challenges -- global recession, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, piracy on the high seas, and more. Secretary Clinton said, "[W]e continue to encourage China ... to work ... with us to solve these problems."
"Today, we have a positive relationship with China and the chance for a very positive future," Secretary Clinton concluded. "We look forward to a time when our future generations can look back and say of us: They made the right choices. ... [T]hey did leave us a better world. That is our vision and that is our commitment for this most important relationship."
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Clinton-On-US--China-Policy--114665129.html
Clinton On U.S.- China Policy
Secretary Clinton said that the United States is pursuing a strategy for the U.S.-China relationship with three elements that reinforce one another.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently inaugurated the State Department’s Richard Holbrooke lecture series in honor of the departed diplomat, with a speech on the future of U.S. – China relations.
Secretary Clinton said that the United States is pursuing a strategy for the U.S.-China relationship with three elements that reinforce one another. The first is regional engagement. "We are firmly embedding our relationship with China within a broader regional framework because it is inseparable from the Asia-Pacific’s web of security alliances, economic networks, and social connections," she said. "America has renewed and strengthened our bonds with our allies – Japan, [the Republic of] Korea, Thailand, Australia, and the Philippines – and we have deepened our partnerships with India, and Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and New Zealand."
The second element is building on bilateral trust. "We need to form habits of cooperation and respect that help us work together more effectively. The most notable example ... is the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which brings together hundreds of experts from dozens of agencies ... across both of our governments," Secretary Clinton said. "[B]oth sides would [also] benefit from sustained and substantive military-to-military engagement that increases transparency. We need more high-level visits, more joint exercises, [and] more exchanges from our professional military organizations."
"[B]uilding trust is not ... just for our governments," Secretary Clinton continued. "Our peoples must continue to forge new and deeper bonds ... [i]n classrooms and laboratories, on sports fields and trading floors ... [to] make the everyday connections that build lasting trust and understanding. That is why we have launched a new bilateral dialogue on people-to-people exchanges and new initiatives such as the 100,000 Strong program that is sending ... more American students to China."
The third element important to strong U.S.-China ties is expanding the areas of shared challenges -- global recession, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, piracy on the high seas, and more. Secretary Clinton said, "[W]e continue to encourage China ... to work ... with us to solve these problems."
"Today, we have a positive relationship with China and the chance for a very positive future," Secretary Clinton concluded. "We look forward to a time when our future generations can look back and say of us: They made the right choices. ... [T]hey did leave us a better world. That is our vision and that is our commitment for this most important relationship."
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/policy/editorials/Clinton-On-US--China-Policy--114665129.html
Opinion: Egypt's new political dawn
Opinion
Egypt's new political dawn
The emergence of Mohamed ElBaradei as a political player has led Egyptians to dream of a more democratic society.
Walter Armbrust Last Modified: 01 Oct 2010 08:45 GMT
An understated cartoon by Amr Okasha published in the online version of the opposition newspaper al-Dustour, aptly expressed the pessimism that many people have about the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Okasha’s cartoon shows the distinctive dome of the Maglis al-Sha‘b – the Peoples’ Assembly. A smirking general standing in front of it. The caption says “Businessman’s Assembly (formerly People’s Assembly).”
As the cartoon implies, no doubt seats in the parliament can be bought (as of course is also the case in the American Congress). But more importantly, whatever the percentage of opposition candidates allowed to take parliamentary seats by the ruling National Democratic Party, the neoliberal businessmen’s agenda will remain untouched.
Privatisation of public services will continue, inevitably pricing many out of “markets” for services they had formerly received from the state. Society will be more sharply polarised between the few who benefit spectacularly from free market fundamentalism and the many who are increasingly impoverished by it.
An effective minister of parliament can bring some public or private money to his or her district, but nobody has the slightest expectation that parliamentary elections will create momentum towards democracy. The protection of powerful economic interests at the expense of democracy is business as usual in the logic of a neoliberal regime.
Possibility of transition
But this does not mean that interest in Egypt’s November 2011 parliamentary election is low. The election itself is not the real story. It is rather the possibility of a transition from the Mubarak era to something else that has powerfully caught the public’s imagination.
In this wider context, interest in politics is intense. Jaded intellectuals who would otherwise consider this sort of politics a bit vulgar argue vociferously about the fortunes of ElBaradei and the intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). One sees such unfamiliar sights as men standing in the street having heated discussions about the latest headline in an opposition paper. An unfamiliar excitement is in the air.
The most important aspect of the parliamentary election is not how many seats are won on election day by opposition parties (or how many the NDP decides to let in the door). It is the decisions made by the major players to either participate in the NDP’s rigged game, or to boycott the elections altogether.
The players
The major players are not political parties. One is Mohamed ElBaradei, the retired head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He is admired as a native son who reached the highest levels of international diplomacy, and stood up to the Americans on the issue of nuclear weapons inspections in Iraq.
ElBaradei has skillfully built a network of local advisors, and until recently has blunted any accusations that he is out of touch with Egypt after a career spent abroad. The NDP is alleged to have begun an offensive against ElBaradei’s character by anonymously publishing photos on Facebook of his daughter in a bikini and the family swilling alcohol.
ElBaradei is thought to have presidential aspirations, though he has never said so unambiguously. He has, however, formed a non-partisan “National Association for Change” which aims to reform the constitution, most crucially an article that effectively prohibits independent candidates for running in presidential elections. Whether or not ElBaradei ever becomes president, he is immensely important as a symbol of alternatives to the continuation of the current regime.
Ayman Nur of the Ghad (tomorrow) party played something of the same role in the 2005 election, and he was able to ride the momentum of the Kefaya movement (kefaya means “enough,” i.e. of rule by Mubarak, his son Gamal who is being groomed to succeed his father in the presidency, and the NDP). But Nur was a former MP himself, and too much of a political insider to inspire the same hopes as ElBaradei. When Nur was incarcerated after the 2005 election on blatantly trumped up corruption charges there was no popular uprising in his defence.
Untouched but in touch
By contrast, ElBaradei is seen as both a genuine outsider untouched by the rampant corruption of the Mubarak era and, thus far, as genuinely in touch with the political frustrations of average Egyptians. It might not be as easy for the state to push ElBaradei off the political stage as it was to neutralize Ayman Nur.
ElBaradei has already declared publicly that individuals and political parties should boycott the parliamentary election.
This, he believes, will strip the NDP of all legitimacy and force a turn to true democracy. The country now awaits the decision on boycott of the other important non-party participant in the elections, namely the Muslim Brotherhood. The MB has not been allowed to form a political party (though some of its adherents spin this as a tacit arrangement whereby the MB stays formally out of politics in exchange for the government ceding “the people” to it).
However MB candidates ran as independents in the 2005 election, and currently occupy 20% of the seats in parliament. It would cause a political earthquake if they joined the boycott, but it is unlikely that they will do so. Nor is it likely that secular opposition parties such as the liberal Wafd or the socialist Tagammu' parties will stay on the sidelines.
Hereditary succession?
Hovering over the entire parliamentary election process is the spectre of taurith – of Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal Mubarak inheriting the presidency. Gamal Mubarak has no natural constituency. He would be the first post-independence president to have attended a private university (the American University in Cairo) rather than a state institution. He never had to work his way up through the vast political patronage system of the Egyptian state, and he has never held a meaningful ministerial post.
No doubt there are sincere Gamal Mubarak supporters somewhere, and a somewhat larger number of Egyptian citizens who support him as “the devil we know.” However it would be fair to say that most of the country loathes the prospect of a Gamal Mubarak presidency. Hence the real issue in this election is not how many seats opposition parties might win, but how the political players position themselves through the election for the upcoming challenge of ElBaradei.
Dreaming of real democracy
It is still unclear whether the elder Mubarak is ready to retire. The presidential election is scheduled for 2012, and it is not inconceivable that Hosni Mubarak will announce that he is game for another term in office.
However even if he does defer the expected attempt to handoff to Gamal, ElBaradei’s constitutional challenge will not disappear, and it ultimately implies a rejection of the endlessly extended “State of Emergency” law that has been in place since Anwar al-Sadat’s assassination in 1981. It is the State of Emergency that underpins the Mubarak regime and the rule of the NDP.
Hence one might be able to posit a scenario in which the state is left with no choice but to throw the political system – both the parliament and the presidency – open to true competition. The emergency law would be abolished, state torture and police brutality would be curbed, and corruption would be tamed.
However one can just as easily see this scenario leading full circle back to Amr Okasha’s cartoon. Would a freely elected government follow the businessmen’s neoliberal agenda? If not, would the businessmen and the army allow it to stay in power? Probably not. It is almost impossible to imagine the NDP allowing enough MB candidates into parliament to govern, but if the unthinkable happened, how would the United States react?
Brutal sanctions imposed on the democratically elected Islamist government in Gaza perhaps give a hint as to how the US would deal with a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt. A similar policy applied to Egypt would cause immense suffering, but the US has shown itself capable of such actions.
If Gaza is not enough of a warning, one recalls the time when former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked to comment on allegations that American-led sanctions against Iraq had caused the deaths of up to half a million children, she did not dispute either the claim or the numbers. Instead she replied that, “we think the price is worth it.”
Hopefully no such price will ever be levied on the Egyptian public for daring to dream of real democracy, but it cannot be denied that the coming cycle of elections will be both exhilarating and perilous.
Dr. Walter Armbrust is Hourani Fellow and University Lecturer in Modern Middle East Studies at Oxford University. He is the author of Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Source:Al Jazeera
Ref:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/09/201093011464564228.html
Egypt's new political dawn
The emergence of Mohamed ElBaradei as a political player has led Egyptians to dream of a more democratic society.
Walter Armbrust Last Modified: 01 Oct 2010 08:45 GMT
An understated cartoon by Amr Okasha published in the online version of the opposition newspaper al-Dustour, aptly expressed the pessimism that many people have about the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Okasha’s cartoon shows the distinctive dome of the Maglis al-Sha‘b – the Peoples’ Assembly. A smirking general standing in front of it. The caption says “Businessman’s Assembly (formerly People’s Assembly).”
As the cartoon implies, no doubt seats in the parliament can be bought (as of course is also the case in the American Congress). But more importantly, whatever the percentage of opposition candidates allowed to take parliamentary seats by the ruling National Democratic Party, the neoliberal businessmen’s agenda will remain untouched.
Privatisation of public services will continue, inevitably pricing many out of “markets” for services they had formerly received from the state. Society will be more sharply polarised between the few who benefit spectacularly from free market fundamentalism and the many who are increasingly impoverished by it.
An effective minister of parliament can bring some public or private money to his or her district, but nobody has the slightest expectation that parliamentary elections will create momentum towards democracy. The protection of powerful economic interests at the expense of democracy is business as usual in the logic of a neoliberal regime.
Possibility of transition
But this does not mean that interest in Egypt’s November 2011 parliamentary election is low. The election itself is not the real story. It is rather the possibility of a transition from the Mubarak era to something else that has powerfully caught the public’s imagination.
In this wider context, interest in politics is intense. Jaded intellectuals who would otherwise consider this sort of politics a bit vulgar argue vociferously about the fortunes of ElBaradei and the intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). One sees such unfamiliar sights as men standing in the street having heated discussions about the latest headline in an opposition paper. An unfamiliar excitement is in the air.
The most important aspect of the parliamentary election is not how many seats are won on election day by opposition parties (or how many the NDP decides to let in the door). It is the decisions made by the major players to either participate in the NDP’s rigged game, or to boycott the elections altogether.
The players
The major players are not political parties. One is Mohamed ElBaradei, the retired head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He is admired as a native son who reached the highest levels of international diplomacy, and stood up to the Americans on the issue of nuclear weapons inspections in Iraq.
ElBaradei has skillfully built a network of local advisors, and until recently has blunted any accusations that he is out of touch with Egypt after a career spent abroad. The NDP is alleged to have begun an offensive against ElBaradei’s character by anonymously publishing photos on Facebook of his daughter in a bikini and the family swilling alcohol.
ElBaradei is thought to have presidential aspirations, though he has never said so unambiguously. He has, however, formed a non-partisan “National Association for Change” which aims to reform the constitution, most crucially an article that effectively prohibits independent candidates for running in presidential elections. Whether or not ElBaradei ever becomes president, he is immensely important as a symbol of alternatives to the continuation of the current regime.
Ayman Nur of the Ghad (tomorrow) party played something of the same role in the 2005 election, and he was able to ride the momentum of the Kefaya movement (kefaya means “enough,” i.e. of rule by Mubarak, his son Gamal who is being groomed to succeed his father in the presidency, and the NDP). But Nur was a former MP himself, and too much of a political insider to inspire the same hopes as ElBaradei. When Nur was incarcerated after the 2005 election on blatantly trumped up corruption charges there was no popular uprising in his defence.
Untouched but in touch
By contrast, ElBaradei is seen as both a genuine outsider untouched by the rampant corruption of the Mubarak era and, thus far, as genuinely in touch with the political frustrations of average Egyptians. It might not be as easy for the state to push ElBaradei off the political stage as it was to neutralize Ayman Nur.
ElBaradei has already declared publicly that individuals and political parties should boycott the parliamentary election.
This, he believes, will strip the NDP of all legitimacy and force a turn to true democracy. The country now awaits the decision on boycott of the other important non-party participant in the elections, namely the Muslim Brotherhood. The MB has not been allowed to form a political party (though some of its adherents spin this as a tacit arrangement whereby the MB stays formally out of politics in exchange for the government ceding “the people” to it).
However MB candidates ran as independents in the 2005 election, and currently occupy 20% of the seats in parliament. It would cause a political earthquake if they joined the boycott, but it is unlikely that they will do so. Nor is it likely that secular opposition parties such as the liberal Wafd or the socialist Tagammu' parties will stay on the sidelines.
Hereditary succession?
Hovering over the entire parliamentary election process is the spectre of taurith – of Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal Mubarak inheriting the presidency. Gamal Mubarak has no natural constituency. He would be the first post-independence president to have attended a private university (the American University in Cairo) rather than a state institution. He never had to work his way up through the vast political patronage system of the Egyptian state, and he has never held a meaningful ministerial post.
No doubt there are sincere Gamal Mubarak supporters somewhere, and a somewhat larger number of Egyptian citizens who support him as “the devil we know.” However it would be fair to say that most of the country loathes the prospect of a Gamal Mubarak presidency. Hence the real issue in this election is not how many seats opposition parties might win, but how the political players position themselves through the election for the upcoming challenge of ElBaradei.
Dreaming of real democracy
It is still unclear whether the elder Mubarak is ready to retire. The presidential election is scheduled for 2012, and it is not inconceivable that Hosni Mubarak will announce that he is game for another term in office.
However even if he does defer the expected attempt to handoff to Gamal, ElBaradei’s constitutional challenge will not disappear, and it ultimately implies a rejection of the endlessly extended “State of Emergency” law that has been in place since Anwar al-Sadat’s assassination in 1981. It is the State of Emergency that underpins the Mubarak regime and the rule of the NDP.
Hence one might be able to posit a scenario in which the state is left with no choice but to throw the political system – both the parliament and the presidency – open to true competition. The emergency law would be abolished, state torture and police brutality would be curbed, and corruption would be tamed.
However one can just as easily see this scenario leading full circle back to Amr Okasha’s cartoon. Would a freely elected government follow the businessmen’s neoliberal agenda? If not, would the businessmen and the army allow it to stay in power? Probably not. It is almost impossible to imagine the NDP allowing enough MB candidates into parliament to govern, but if the unthinkable happened, how would the United States react?
Brutal sanctions imposed on the democratically elected Islamist government in Gaza perhaps give a hint as to how the US would deal with a Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt. A similar policy applied to Egypt would cause immense suffering, but the US has shown itself capable of such actions.
If Gaza is not enough of a warning, one recalls the time when former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was asked to comment on allegations that American-led sanctions against Iraq had caused the deaths of up to half a million children, she did not dispute either the claim or the numbers. Instead she replied that, “we think the price is worth it.”
Hopefully no such price will ever be levied on the Egyptian public for daring to dream of real democracy, but it cannot be denied that the coming cycle of elections will be both exhilarating and perilous.
Dr. Walter Armbrust is Hourani Fellow and University Lecturer in Modern Middle East Studies at Oxford University. He is the author of Mass Culture and Modernism in Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Source:Al Jazeera
Ref:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/09/201093011464564228.html
US, China Diplomats Meet in Beijing
US, China Diplomats Meet in Beijing
January 28, 2011/VOA News
A team of U.S. officials including Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg met Friday with China's top foreign policy-maker, Dai Bingguo, for talks on a wide range of issues concerning the two countries.
The U.S. Embassy said in a short statement that talks in Beijing between the U.S. team Chinese officials included developments on the Korean peninsula.
The embassy said Steinberg had productive consultations on next step to achieve U.S. President Barack Obama's and Chinese President Hu Jintao's shared vision and commitment to building a positive U.S.-China relationship.
Steinberg was accompanied by Jeffrey Bader, a top White House aide on Asia policy and Sung Kim, the ambassador to the suspended six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/US-China-Diplomats-Meet-in-Beijing-114786949.html
January 28, 2011/VOA News
A team of U.S. officials including Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg met Friday with China's top foreign policy-maker, Dai Bingguo, for talks on a wide range of issues concerning the two countries.
The U.S. Embassy said in a short statement that talks in Beijing between the U.S. team Chinese officials included developments on the Korean peninsula.
The embassy said Steinberg had productive consultations on next step to achieve U.S. President Barack Obama's and Chinese President Hu Jintao's shared vision and commitment to building a positive U.S.-China relationship.
Steinberg was accompanied by Jeffrey Bader, a top White House aide on Asia policy and Sung Kim, the ambassador to the suspended six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/US-China-Diplomats-Meet-in-Beijing-114786949.html
Egyptian President Mubarak Dismisses Cabinet Following Massive Protests
Egyptian President Mubarak Dismisses Cabinet Following Massive Protests
January 28, 2011/VOA News
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has appeared on national television for the first time since protesters took to the streets demanding his ouster. In a televised speech late Friday, Mr. Mubarak promised to implement political and economic reforms.
The 82-year-old Egyptian ruler ordered his Cabinet to step down and promised to appoint a new Cabinet Saturday. He also said the days of protests this week were a plot to destabilize Egypt.
In Washington, President Barack Obama, in an address from the White House Friday evening, asked the Egyptian government to refrain from violence against peaceful protesters and restore Internet and communication services that have been cut off.
Mr. Obama said he spoke to Mr. Mubarak and asked him to take "concrete steps" to fulfill his promises of reform made to the Egyptian people.
Buildings continued to burn in in Cairo and tanks patrolled the streets, capping the most violent and chaotic day in Egypt since mass demonstrations began Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of protesters defied the nighttime curfew and continued to demand Mr. Mubarak end his 30-year rule.
Medical officials say at least 13 people were killed in Friday's unrest in Suez. There are reports that more than 100 people have been injured across the country.
Earlier in Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also said the U.S. would be reviewing its assistance program to Egypt, which tops $1 billion.
Protesters in Cairo surrounded some vehicles belonging to security forces, and at one point rocked an empty troop carrier back and forth before burning it. Demonstrators have also attempted to storm the state television building.
Large fires are visible at several spots in the city, including at the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party. Witnesses have reported hearing gunfire in the streets.
Convoys of military vehicles carrying troops poured into Cairo about the time a dusk-to-dawn curfew began.
Soldiers have been patrolling Suez, where police used tear gas, water cannons and clubs to push back demonstrators. Military vehicles also moved into Alexandria.
Related video report of protests by Henry Ridgwell:
News reports said the national carrier Egypt Air suspended flights into Cairo.
Meanwhile, police briefly detained Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei at a mosque in suburban Cairo, Friday. The former U.N. atomic energy chief who returned to Egypt from Austria Thursday, has said he is willing to lead an opposition movement.
Internet service, a key tool for activists, was shut down across the country shortly after midnight. Cell phone text messaging and data plans were also disabled. Telecom company Vodafone says the Egyptian government ordered all mobile telephone operators to suspend service in parts of the country.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Key Players in Egypt's Crisis
* President Hosni Mubarak: The 82-year-old has ruled Egypt for 30 years as leader of the National Democratic Party. With no named successor and in poor health, analysts say the president is grooming his son, Gamal, to succeed him. Egypt's longest-serving president came to power after the assassination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat.
* Mohamed ElBaradei: The Nobel Peace laureate and former Egyptian diplomat has gained international attention as a vocal critic of Mr. Mubarak and his government. Until recently he headed the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, and he has lived outside Egypt for years. ElBaradei founded the nonpartisan movement National Association for Change, and has offered to lead a transitional administration in Egypt if Mr. Mubarak steps down.
* Minister Omar Suleiman: The head of Egyptian intelligence and a close ally of President Mubarak, Suleiman is seen by some analysts as a possible successor to the president. He earned international respect for his role as a mediator in Middle East affairs and for curbing Islamic extremism.
* Ayman Nour: The political dissident founded the Al Ghad or "tomorrow" party. Nour ran against Mr. Mubarak in the 2005 election and was later jailed on corruption charges. The government released him in 2009 under pressure from the United States and other members of the international community.
* Muslim Brotherhood: The Islamic fundamentalist organization is outlawed in Egypt, but remains the largest opposition group. Its members previously held 20 percent of the seats in parliament, but lost them after a disputed election in late 2010. The group leads a peaceful political and social movement aimed at forming an Islamic state.
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Internet-Shut-Down-as-Egypt-Braces-for-Huge-Protests-114786364.html
January 28, 2011/VOA News
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has appeared on national television for the first time since protesters took to the streets demanding his ouster. In a televised speech late Friday, Mr. Mubarak promised to implement political and economic reforms.
The 82-year-old Egyptian ruler ordered his Cabinet to step down and promised to appoint a new Cabinet Saturday. He also said the days of protests this week were a plot to destabilize Egypt.
In Washington, President Barack Obama, in an address from the White House Friday evening, asked the Egyptian government to refrain from violence against peaceful protesters and restore Internet and communication services that have been cut off.
Mr. Obama said he spoke to Mr. Mubarak and asked him to take "concrete steps" to fulfill his promises of reform made to the Egyptian people.
Buildings continued to burn in in Cairo and tanks patrolled the streets, capping the most violent and chaotic day in Egypt since mass demonstrations began Tuesday.
Tens of thousands of protesters defied the nighttime curfew and continued to demand Mr. Mubarak end his 30-year rule.
Medical officials say at least 13 people were killed in Friday's unrest in Suez. There are reports that more than 100 people have been injured across the country.
Earlier in Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also said the U.S. would be reviewing its assistance program to Egypt, which tops $1 billion.
Protesters in Cairo surrounded some vehicles belonging to security forces, and at one point rocked an empty troop carrier back and forth before burning it. Demonstrators have also attempted to storm the state television building.
Large fires are visible at several spots in the city, including at the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party. Witnesses have reported hearing gunfire in the streets.
Convoys of military vehicles carrying troops poured into Cairo about the time a dusk-to-dawn curfew began.
Soldiers have been patrolling Suez, where police used tear gas, water cannons and clubs to push back demonstrators. Military vehicles also moved into Alexandria.
Related video report of protests by Henry Ridgwell:
News reports said the national carrier Egypt Air suspended flights into Cairo.
Meanwhile, police briefly detained Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei at a mosque in suburban Cairo, Friday. The former U.N. atomic energy chief who returned to Egypt from Austria Thursday, has said he is willing to lead an opposition movement.
Internet service, a key tool for activists, was shut down across the country shortly after midnight. Cell phone text messaging and data plans were also disabled. Telecom company Vodafone says the Egyptian government ordered all mobile telephone operators to suspend service in parts of the country.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
Key Players in Egypt's Crisis
* President Hosni Mubarak: The 82-year-old has ruled Egypt for 30 years as leader of the National Democratic Party. With no named successor and in poor health, analysts say the president is grooming his son, Gamal, to succeed him. Egypt's longest-serving president came to power after the assassination of his predecessor, Anwar Sadat.
* Mohamed ElBaradei: The Nobel Peace laureate and former Egyptian diplomat has gained international attention as a vocal critic of Mr. Mubarak and his government. Until recently he headed the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, and he has lived outside Egypt for years. ElBaradei founded the nonpartisan movement National Association for Change, and has offered to lead a transitional administration in Egypt if Mr. Mubarak steps down.
* Minister Omar Suleiman: The head of Egyptian intelligence and a close ally of President Mubarak, Suleiman is seen by some analysts as a possible successor to the president. He earned international respect for his role as a mediator in Middle East affairs and for curbing Islamic extremism.
* Ayman Nour: The political dissident founded the Al Ghad or "tomorrow" party. Nour ran against Mr. Mubarak in the 2005 election and was later jailed on corruption charges. The government released him in 2009 under pressure from the United States and other members of the international community.
* Muslim Brotherhood: The Islamic fundamentalist organization is outlawed in Egypt, but remains the largest opposition group. Its members previously held 20 percent of the seats in parliament, but lost them after a disputed election in late 2010. The group leads a peaceful political and social movement aimed at forming an Islamic state.
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Internet-Shut-Down-as-Egypt-Braces-for-Huge-Protests-114786364.html
Friday, January 28, 2011
ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈမ်ား ဖယ္ရွားရန္ ေစ့စပ္ေဆြးေႏြးေရး လိုအပ္ေၾကာင္း အေမရိကန္ေျပာၾကား
ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈမ်ား ဖယ္ရွားရန္ ေစ့စပ္ေဆြးေႏြးေရး လိုအပ္ေၾကာင္း အေမရိကန္ေျပာၾကား
2011-01-26
အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုက စီးပြားေရး ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈ ဖယ္ရွားေရးကို စဥ္းစားႏုိင္ဖို႔ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရဖက္က ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္နဲ႔ ေစ့စပ္ေဆြးေႏြးဖို႔၊ ႏုိင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားေတြ လႊတ္ေပးဖို႔နဲ႔ အမ်ိဳးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ (NLD) ကို အသိအမွတ္ျပဳဖို႔ လိုေၾကာင္း အေမရိကန္အစိုးရ အႀကီးတန္း အရာရွိ Joseph Yun က ေျပာလိုက္ပါတယ္။
Photo: AFP
အေရွ႕အာရွႏွင့္ ပစိဖိတ္ေရးရာ အေမရိကန္ ဒု-လက္ေထာက္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီး ဂ်ဳိးဇက္ယြန္း (ဝဲ) ႏွင့္ ျမန္မာ စစ္အစိုးရ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီး ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္း (ယာ) တို႔ ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၉ ရက္ေန႔က ေနျပည္ေတာ္တြင္ ေတြ႕ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးစဥ္ မွတ္တမ္းပံု ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ (Photo: AFP)
အင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏုိင္ငံထုတ္ Jakarta Post သတင္းစာနဲ႔ ဇန္နဝါရီ ၂၅ ရက္ မေန႔က ေတြ႕ဆံုေမးျမန္းရာမွာ Mr. Yun က အခုလို ေျပာလိုက္တာ ျဖစ္ၿပီး အာဆီယံအဖြဲ႕က ကိုရီးယားနဲ႔ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေရးအေပၚ တက္တက္ႂကြႂကြ ပါဝင္ ေဆာင္႐ြက္လာတာကိုလည္း အေလးအနက္ထား ေျပာခဲ့တယ္လုိ႔ ဒီကေန႔ထုတ္ Jakarta Post သတင္းစာက ေရးပါတယ္။
အင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏုိင္ငံ လုမ္ဘုတ္ကၽြန္းမွာ ၿပီးခဲ့တဲ့အပတ္က က်င္းပတဲ့ အာဆီယံႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီးမ်ား အစည္းအေဝးမွာ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံအေပၚ စီးပြားေရးပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈ ဖယ္ရွားေရးကို အာဆီယံ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီးေတြက တသံတည္း ေတာင္းဆိုခဲ့ၾကေၾကာင္း၊ ဒီေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္ေတြဟာ အလြန္ေကာင္းမြန္ၿပီး ျမန္မာအာဏာပိုင္ေတြအေနနဲ႔ အေလးအနက္ ထားၿပီး လက္ေတြ႕ ေဆာင္႐ြက္ေပးဖို႔ လိုေၾကာင္းလည္း အေမရိကန္ လက္ေထာက္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး Joseph Yun က ေျပာပါတယ္။
ျမန္မာအစိုးရဖက္က အျပဳသေဘာ တုံ႔ျပန္လာရင္ ႏုိင္ငံတကာက အျပဳသေဘာ ေဆာင္႐ြက္တာ ေတြျမင္ရမွာ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း၊ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံမွာ အမ်ိဳးသား ျပန္လည္သင့္ျမတ္ေရး ေကာင္းမြန္တိုးတက္ လာတာနဲ႔ အမွ် ႏိုင္ငံတကာ အသိုင္းအဝုိင္းက တံု႔ျပန္ေဆာင္႐ြက္မႈမ်ိဳး ရွိရမွာျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းလည္း Joseph Yun က သတင္းစာႀကီးကို ေျဖၾကားခဲ့ပါတယ္။
Joseph Yun ဟာ ၿပီးခဲ့တဲ့လက ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ခရီးစဥ္ကို လာေရာက္ခဲ့သူ ျဖစ္ၿပီး ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္နဲ႔အတူ NLD အပါအဝင္ အတိုက္အခံ ႏုိင္ငံေရးပါတီေတြ၊ ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရ အဆင့္ျမင့္ အရာရွိေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႕ဆံုခဲ့သူ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
အာဆီယံ အလွည့္က်ဥကၠ႒ အင္ဒိုနီးရွား ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး Marty Nataliegawa ကေတာ့ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံမွာ ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈ ဖယ္ရွားေရးနဲ႔ အမ်ိဳးသား ျပန္လည္ သင့္ျမတ္ေရးလုပ္ငန္းဟာ အျပန္အလွန္ ေဆာင္႐ြက္သင့္တယ္လို႔ အာဆီယံ အစည္းအေဝးအၿပီး ေျပာၾကားခဲ့ပါတယ္။
Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.
Ref:
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/american_high_diplomat_stresses_dialogue_in_burma-01262011115320.html
2011-01-26
အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုက စီးပြားေရး ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈ ဖယ္ရွားေရးကို စဥ္းစားႏုိင္ဖို႔ ျမန္မာ အစိုးရဖက္က ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္နဲ႔ ေစ့စပ္ေဆြးေႏြးဖို႔၊ ႏုိင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားေတြ လႊတ္ေပးဖို႔နဲ႔ အမ်ိဳးသား ဒီမိုကေရစီ အဖြဲ႕ခ်ဳပ္ (NLD) ကို အသိအမွတ္ျပဳဖို႔ လိုေၾကာင္း အေမရိကန္အစိုးရ အႀကီးတန္း အရာရွိ Joseph Yun က ေျပာလိုက္ပါတယ္။
Photo: AFP
အေရွ႕အာရွႏွင့္ ပစိဖိတ္ေရးရာ အေမရိကန္ ဒု-လက္ေထာက္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီး ဂ်ဳိးဇက္ယြန္း (ဝဲ) ႏွင့္ ျမန္မာ စစ္အစိုးရ ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီး ဦးဉာဏ္ဝင္း (ယာ) တို႔ ဒီဇင္ဘာ ၉ ရက္ေန႔က ေနျပည္ေတာ္တြင္ ေတြ႕ဆံုေဆြးေႏြးစဥ္ မွတ္တမ္းပံု ျဖစ္ပါသည္။ (Photo: AFP)
အင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏုိင္ငံထုတ္ Jakarta Post သတင္းစာနဲ႔ ဇန္နဝါရီ ၂၅ ရက္ မေန႔က ေတြ႕ဆံုေမးျမန္းရာမွာ Mr. Yun က အခုလို ေျပာလိုက္တာ ျဖစ္ၿပီး အာဆီယံအဖြဲ႕က ကိုရီးယားနဲ႔ ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေရးအေပၚ တက္တက္ႂကြႂကြ ပါဝင္ ေဆာင္႐ြက္လာတာကိုလည္း အေလးအနက္ထား ေျပာခဲ့တယ္လုိ႔ ဒီကေန႔ထုတ္ Jakarta Post သတင္းစာက ေရးပါတယ္။
အင္ဒိုနီးရွားႏုိင္ငံ လုမ္ဘုတ္ကၽြန္းမွာ ၿပီးခဲ့တဲ့အပတ္က က်င္းပတဲ့ အာဆီယံႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီးမ်ား အစည္းအေဝးမွာ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံအေပၚ စီးပြားေရးပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈ ဖယ္ရွားေရးကို အာဆီယံ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ဝန္ႀကီးေတြက တသံတည္း ေတာင္းဆိုခဲ့ၾကေၾကာင္း၊ ဒီေတာင္းဆိုခ်က္ေတြဟာ အလြန္ေကာင္းမြန္ၿပီး ျမန္မာအာဏာပိုင္ေတြအေနနဲ႔ အေလးအနက္ ထားၿပီး လက္ေတြ႕ ေဆာင္႐ြက္ေပးဖို႔ လိုေၾကာင္းလည္း အေမရိကန္ လက္ေထာက္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး Joseph Yun က ေျပာပါတယ္။
ျမန္မာအစိုးရဖက္က အျပဳသေဘာ တုံ႔ျပန္လာရင္ ႏုိင္ငံတကာက အျပဳသေဘာ ေဆာင္႐ြက္တာ ေတြျမင္ရမွာ ျဖစ္ေၾကာင္း၊ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံမွာ အမ်ိဳးသား ျပန္လည္သင့္ျမတ္ေရး ေကာင္းမြန္တိုးတက္ လာတာနဲ႔ အမွ် ႏိုင္ငံတကာ အသိုင္းအဝုိင္းက တံု႔ျပန္ေဆာင္႐ြက္မႈမ်ိဳး ရွိရမွာျဖစ္ေၾကာင္းလည္း Joseph Yun က သတင္းစာႀကီးကို ေျဖၾကားခဲ့ပါတယ္။
Joseph Yun ဟာ ၿပီးခဲ့တဲ့လက ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံ ခရီးစဥ္ကို လာေရာက္ခဲ့သူ ျဖစ္ၿပီး ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္နဲ႔အတူ NLD အပါအဝင္ အတိုက္အခံ ႏုိင္ငံေရးပါတီေတြ၊ ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရ အဆင့္ျမင့္ အရာရွိေတြနဲ႔ ေတြ႕ဆံုခဲ့သူ ျဖစ္ပါတယ္။
အာဆီယံ အလွည့္က်ဥကၠ႒ အင္ဒိုနီးရွား ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရးဝန္ႀကီး Marty Nataliegawa ကေတာ့ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံမွာ ပိတ္ဆို႔အေရးယူမႈ ဖယ္ရွားေရးနဲ႔ အမ်ိဳးသား ျပန္လည္ သင့္ျမတ္ေရးလုပ္ငန္းဟာ အျပန္အလွန္ ေဆာင္႐ြက္သင့္တယ္လို႔ အာဆီယံ အစည္းအေဝးအၿပီး ေျပာၾကားခဲ့ပါတယ္။
Copyright © 1998-2011 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved.
Ref:
http://www.rfa.org/burmese/news/american_high_diplomat_stresses_dialogue_in_burma-01262011115320.html
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Egypt protests: Anti-Mubarak demonstrators arrested
26 January 2011 Last updated at 18:03 ET
BBC news
The BBC's Jon Leyne: "Anybody gathering here in Cairo, the police have swooped on them"
About 700 people have been arrested throughout Egypt in a crackdown against anti-government protests, security officials say.
The arrests came as police clashed with protesters in two cities following Tuesday's unprecedented protests.
One protester and one policeman were killed as police broke up rallies in Cairo, and in Suez a government building was reportedly set on fire.
Public gatherings would no longer be tolerated, the interior ministry said.
Anyone taking to the streets against the government would be prosecuted, it added.
The BBC's John Leyne in Cairo says the authorities are responding in familiar fashion, treating a political crisis as a security threat.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif was quoted as saying the government was committed to "freedom of expression by legitimate means", state news agency Mena reported. Police had acted with restraint, he said.
However, Washington has called on the Egyptian government to lift its ban on demonstrations.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
I want to see an end to this dictatorship, 30 years of Mubarak is enough - we've had enough of the state of emergency, prices are going up and up”
End Quote Mostapha al-Shafey Protester
Protesters have been inspired by the recent uprising in Tunisia, vowing to stay on the streets until the government falls.
They have been using social networking sites to call for fresh demonstrations, but both Facebook and microblogging site Twitter appear to have been periodically blocked inside Egypt.
The government denied it was blocking the sites.
Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said it respected freedom of expression and "would not resort to such methods", Reuters news agency reported.
In other developments:
* Egyptian Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid cancels his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
* Activists have called on protesters to observe "Anger Friday", by going to rallies after praying in mosques and churches
* In the northern city of Machala, police have cordoned off the headquarters of the Democratic Front opposition party, which is threatening a hunger strike
* Hundreds have been arrested in Alexandria, activists say, as police prevent organised rallies
Stone-throwing
Following a "day of revolt" across Egypt on Tuesday, in which four people died, protesters attempted to stage new demonstrations in Cairo on Wednesday.
Police arrest protester in Cairo Police moved to break up demonstrations as they happened
There were scuffles outside the journalists' union building in central Cairo as hundreds of people gathered to protest.
Police beat some with batons and fired tear gas when they tried to break through a cordon.
Protesters burned tyres and threw stones at police.
Reuters news agency reported more clashes outside a central court complex in the city.
Witnesses said riot police had been charging demonstrators throughout the day wherever in Cairo they happened to gather.
Doctors said a policeman and a protester were killed in the clashes, apparently during stone-throwing in a poor neighbourhood of the city.
However, security officials said the deaths were unrelated to the protests.
Meanwhile, in the eastern city of Suez, protesters threw petrol bombs at a government building, setting parts of it on fire, witnesses said.
The headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party in the city was also attacked.
Earlier, protests were held outside the morgue where the body of a victim of Tuesday's protests was being kept. At least 55 people were injured in the city.
One of Tuesday's demonstrators, Mostapha al-Shafey, told the BBC he planned to join protests again on Wednesday.
"I want to see an end to this dictatorship. Thirty years of Mubarak is enough. We've had enough of the state of emergency. Prices are going up and up," he said.
Demonstrations are illegal in Egypt, which has been ruled by President Mubarak since 1981. The government tolerates little dissent and opposition demonstrations are routinely outlawed.
Social media's role
Tuesday's protests were co-ordinated through a Facebook page, where organisers say they are taking a stand against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment. One page called for protesters all over Egypt to gather after prayers on Friday.
However, Wednesday brought reports that Facebook was being blocked inside Egypt.
Twitter also played a key part, with supporters inside and outside Egypt using the search term #jan25 to post news on Tuesday, but it was blocked later in the day.
BBC technology correspondent Mark Gregory said that while this clampdown had undoubtedly restricted access to information, technically minded protesters had found ways of evading the restrictions.
Many have stayed in touch by routing their messages through proxy servers - web facilities based in other countries.
The government blamed the violence on the banned Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood, although this group was reported to have been ambivalent about the protests.
One opposition leader, Mohamed ElBaradei, had called on Egyptians to take part in the protests.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We urge the Egyptian authorities not to prevent peaceful protests or block communications including on social media sites.
"We believe strongly that the Egyptian government has an important opportunity at this moment in time to implement political, economic and social reforms to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people."
Tunisia's President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted from power and fled the country earlier this month, after weeks of protests in which dozens of people were killed.
Egypt has many of the same social and political problems that brought about the unrest in Tunisia - rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption.
However, the population of Egypt has a much lower level of education than Tunisia. Illiteracy is high and internet penetration is low.
There are deep frustrations in Egyptian society, our Cairo correspondent says, adding that Egypt is widely seen to have lost power, status and prestige in the three decades of President Mubarak's rule.
Ref:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12289475
BBC news
The BBC's Jon Leyne: "Anybody gathering here in Cairo, the police have swooped on them"
About 700 people have been arrested throughout Egypt in a crackdown against anti-government protests, security officials say.
The arrests came as police clashed with protesters in two cities following Tuesday's unprecedented protests.
One protester and one policeman were killed as police broke up rallies in Cairo, and in Suez a government building was reportedly set on fire.
Public gatherings would no longer be tolerated, the interior ministry said.
Anyone taking to the streets against the government would be prosecuted, it added.
The BBC's John Leyne in Cairo says the authorities are responding in familiar fashion, treating a political crisis as a security threat.
Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif was quoted as saying the government was committed to "freedom of expression by legitimate means", state news agency Mena reported. Police had acted with restraint, he said.
However, Washington has called on the Egyptian government to lift its ban on demonstrations.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
I want to see an end to this dictatorship, 30 years of Mubarak is enough - we've had enough of the state of emergency, prices are going up and up”
End Quote Mostapha al-Shafey Protester
Protesters have been inspired by the recent uprising in Tunisia, vowing to stay on the streets until the government falls.
They have been using social networking sites to call for fresh demonstrations, but both Facebook and microblogging site Twitter appear to have been periodically blocked inside Egypt.
The government denied it was blocking the sites.
Cabinet spokesman Magdy Rady said it respected freedom of expression and "would not resort to such methods", Reuters news agency reported.
In other developments:
* Egyptian Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid cancels his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
* Activists have called on protesters to observe "Anger Friday", by going to rallies after praying in mosques and churches
* In the northern city of Machala, police have cordoned off the headquarters of the Democratic Front opposition party, which is threatening a hunger strike
* Hundreds have been arrested in Alexandria, activists say, as police prevent organised rallies
Stone-throwing
Following a "day of revolt" across Egypt on Tuesday, in which four people died, protesters attempted to stage new demonstrations in Cairo on Wednesday.
Police arrest protester in Cairo Police moved to break up demonstrations as they happened
There were scuffles outside the journalists' union building in central Cairo as hundreds of people gathered to protest.
Police beat some with batons and fired tear gas when they tried to break through a cordon.
Protesters burned tyres and threw stones at police.
Reuters news agency reported more clashes outside a central court complex in the city.
Witnesses said riot police had been charging demonstrators throughout the day wherever in Cairo they happened to gather.
Doctors said a policeman and a protester were killed in the clashes, apparently during stone-throwing in a poor neighbourhood of the city.
However, security officials said the deaths were unrelated to the protests.
Meanwhile, in the eastern city of Suez, protesters threw petrol bombs at a government building, setting parts of it on fire, witnesses said.
The headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party in the city was also attacked.
Earlier, protests were held outside the morgue where the body of a victim of Tuesday's protests was being kept. At least 55 people were injured in the city.
One of Tuesday's demonstrators, Mostapha al-Shafey, told the BBC he planned to join protests again on Wednesday.
"I want to see an end to this dictatorship. Thirty years of Mubarak is enough. We've had enough of the state of emergency. Prices are going up and up," he said.
Demonstrations are illegal in Egypt, which has been ruled by President Mubarak since 1981. The government tolerates little dissent and opposition demonstrations are routinely outlawed.
Social media's role
Tuesday's protests were co-ordinated through a Facebook page, where organisers say they are taking a stand against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment. One page called for protesters all over Egypt to gather after prayers on Friday.
However, Wednesday brought reports that Facebook was being blocked inside Egypt.
Twitter also played a key part, with supporters inside and outside Egypt using the search term #jan25 to post news on Tuesday, but it was blocked later in the day.
BBC technology correspondent Mark Gregory said that while this clampdown had undoubtedly restricted access to information, technically minded protesters had found ways of evading the restrictions.
Many have stayed in touch by routing their messages through proxy servers - web facilities based in other countries.
The government blamed the violence on the banned Islamist movement the Muslim Brotherhood, although this group was reported to have been ambivalent about the protests.
One opposition leader, Mohamed ElBaradei, had called on Egyptians to take part in the protests.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said: "We urge the Egyptian authorities not to prevent peaceful protests or block communications including on social media sites.
"We believe strongly that the Egyptian government has an important opportunity at this moment in time to implement political, economic and social reforms to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people."
Tunisia's President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted from power and fled the country earlier this month, after weeks of protests in which dozens of people were killed.
Egypt has many of the same social and political problems that brought about the unrest in Tunisia - rising food prices, high unemployment and anger at official corruption.
However, the population of Egypt has a much lower level of education than Tunisia. Illiteracy is high and internet penetration is low.
There are deep frustrations in Egyptian society, our Cairo correspondent says, adding that Egypt is widely seen to have lost power, status and prestige in the three decades of President Mubarak's rule.
Ref:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12289475
Anti-Government Protests Continue to Rock Egypt
January 26, 2011
VOA News
Egyptian riot police clashed with thousands of anti-government activists for a second day Wednesday, firing rubber bullets and using tear gas and batons on protesters who defied a government ban on demonstrations.
At least four people have died in two days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old rule. Another two people were killed Wednesday as the protests unfolded, but officials gave contradictory accounts of their deaths.
In the city of Suez, east of Cairo, protesters set a government building on fire late Wednesday. Others attempted to firebomb the ruling National Democratic Party's local headquarters before police pushed them back with teargas. At least 55 people were hurt in the clashes.
After nightfall, more than 2,000 people continued their protests in various parts of Cairo. Demonstrators in the Egyptian capital set tires on fire and threw rocks at security officials, who drove back the crowds with armored vehicles and water cannons.
The government says at least 700 people have been arrested in the waves of unrest across the country. The anti-government rallies are the largest demonstrations that Egypt has seen in years.
In Washington, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Egypt remains "a close ally," while stressing the importance of universal rights for the Egyptian people. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Egyptian government to allow peaceful protests instead of cracking down.
During an appearance with Jordan's foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, Clinton also called on Egypt to refrain from blocking social media websites. Egyptians complained that Twitter andFacebook accounts have been down for the last two days, but many accessed them via proxies. Twitter confirmed its site was blocked on Tuesday.
The April 6th Youth movement, which has organized the protests through Facebook along with other groups, said it was planning a large demonstration after Friday prayers. The organizations say they speak for young Egyptians frustrated with the kind of poverty and oppression that triggered Tunisia's unrest.
Wednesday's clashes took place in spite of a warning from the Interior Ministry that no new demonstrations would be allowed and protesters would be prosecuted.
The protests, which have rolled through in Cairo and other major cities, saw thousands of people calling for an end to Mr. Mubarak's regime. Egypt's government said at least 85 police officers have been wounded in the clashes.
Such a coordinated wave of anti-government action has not been seen in Egypt since Mr. Mubarak assumed power in 1981 after Islamists assassinated President Anwar Sadat.
Since Tunisia's anti-government protests, at least five Egyptians have attempted suicide by self-immolation, imitating the young Tunisian whose burning death in December first galvanized protesters there.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Anti-Government-Protests-Continue-to-Rock-Egypt-114688954.html
VOA News
Egyptian riot police clashed with thousands of anti-government activists for a second day Wednesday, firing rubber bullets and using tear gas and batons on protesters who defied a government ban on demonstrations.
At least four people have died in two days of demonstrations against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year-old rule. Another two people were killed Wednesday as the protests unfolded, but officials gave contradictory accounts of their deaths.
In the city of Suez, east of Cairo, protesters set a government building on fire late Wednesday. Others attempted to firebomb the ruling National Democratic Party's local headquarters before police pushed them back with teargas. At least 55 people were hurt in the clashes.
After nightfall, more than 2,000 people continued their protests in various parts of Cairo. Demonstrators in the Egyptian capital set tires on fire and threw rocks at security officials, who drove back the crowds with armored vehicles and water cannons.
The government says at least 700 people have been arrested in the waves of unrest across the country. The anti-government rallies are the largest demonstrations that Egypt has seen in years.
In Washington, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said Egypt remains "a close ally," while stressing the importance of universal rights for the Egyptian people. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Egyptian government to allow peaceful protests instead of cracking down.
During an appearance with Jordan's foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, Clinton also called on Egypt to refrain from blocking social media websites. Egyptians complained that Twitter andFacebook accounts have been down for the last two days, but many accessed them via proxies. Twitter confirmed its site was blocked on Tuesday.
The April 6th Youth movement, which has organized the protests through Facebook along with other groups, said it was planning a large demonstration after Friday prayers. The organizations say they speak for young Egyptians frustrated with the kind of poverty and oppression that triggered Tunisia's unrest.
Wednesday's clashes took place in spite of a warning from the Interior Ministry that no new demonstrations would be allowed and protesters would be prosecuted.
The protests, which have rolled through in Cairo and other major cities, saw thousands of people calling for an end to Mr. Mubarak's regime. Egypt's government said at least 85 police officers have been wounded in the clashes.
Such a coordinated wave of anti-government action has not been seen in Egypt since Mr. Mubarak assumed power in 1981 after Islamists assassinated President Anwar Sadat.
Since Tunisia's anti-government protests, at least five Egyptians have attempted suicide by self-immolation, imitating the young Tunisian whose burning death in December first galvanized protesters there.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Anti-Government-Protests-Continue-to-Rock-Egypt-114688954.html
How Tunisia's revolution began : by Yasmine Ryan (Aljazeera )
How Tunisia's revolution began
From day one, the people of Sidi Bouzid broke through the media blackout to spread word of their uprising.
Yasmine Ryan Last Modified: 26 Jan 2011 14:39 GMT
Sidi Bouazid, Tunisia - The people of Sidi Bouzid overcame heavy censorship and police repression to ensure that their uprising did not go unnoticed in silence.
Protesters took to the streets with "a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other," according to Rochdi Horchani - a relative of Mohamed Bouazizi - who helped break through the media blackout.
Since the same day of the self-immolation of the 26-year-old street vendor that triggered riots causing the Tunisian leadership to flee the country, family members and friends used social media to share the news of what was happening in Sidi Bouzid with international media.
Breaking through the media blackout
Mohamed Bouazizi was not the first Tunisian to set himself alight in an act of public protest.
Abdesslem Trimech, to name one of many cases occurred without any significant media attention, set himself ablaze in the town of Monastir on March 3 after facing bureaucratic hindrance in his own work as a street vendor.
Neither was it evident that the protests that begin in Sidi Bouzid would spread to other towns. There had been similar clashes between police and protesters in the town of Ben Guerdane, near the border with Libya, in August.
The key difference in Sidi Bouzid was that locals fought to get news of what was happening out, and succeeded.
"We could protest for two years here, but without videos no one would take any notice of us," Horchani said.
On December 17, he and Ali Bouazizi, a cousin of Mohamed Bouazizi, posted a video of a peaceful protest led by the young man's mother outside the municipality building.
That evening, the video was aired on Al Jazeera's Mubasher channel. Al Jazeera's new media team, which trawls the web looking for video from across the Arab world, had picked up the footage via Facebook.
Tunisian media, in contrast, ignored the growing uprising until Nessma TV broke the silence on December 29.
And aside from a solid core of activists, most Tunisians did not dare repost the videos on Facebook or even to "like" them, until president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's final hours.
Yet even if a muted majority did not actively share news of the protests online until mid-January, Tunisia's 3.6 million internet users - a third of the population, one of the highest penetration rates on the African continent, according to Internet World Stats - were able to follow news of the uprising on social media thanks to a solid core of activists.
Throughout the uprising, Tunisian protesters relied on Facebook to communicate with each other. Facebook, unlike most video sharing sites, was not included in Tunisia's online censorship.
Non-internet users kept abreast of the protests via satellite news channels including Al Jazeera, France 24 and, playing catch-up on its competitors, Al Arabiya.
The hashtags on Twitter tell the tale of how the uprising went from being local to national in scope: #bouazizi became #sidibouzid, then #tunisia.
Media wars get physical
The Tunisian authorities in the region tried every means possible to thwart the flow of videos. There were internet and power outages in Sidi Bouzid and neighbouring towns.
On January 3, a string of web activists were struck by a systematic, government-organised "phishing" operation aimed at wiping out their online dissent.
Bloggers, web activists and a rapper who had published a song criticising the government on YouTube were arrested on January 7.
In spite of the attempts to silence them, people went to extreme lengths to make sure their videos were posted on the web.
Ali Bouazizi still has a black eye where police struck him in retaliation for his videos.
From the courtroom to Facebook
Dhafer Salhi, a local lawyer who witnessed Mohamed Bouazizi's act of self-immolation, said he asked the head of police to meet with the young man's family that day to try to defuse the anger on the street.
"I told [the head of police] that if you don't get [the Bouazizi family] in, the country will be burned," Salhi said. "He refused, by arrogance and ignorance."
Frustrated by the lack of accountability by officials, Salhi became an active participant in the protests.
The lawyer used Facebook to organise protests, sending out invites to his friends.
He was one of the web activists targeted by the Tunisian authorities in the phishing operation. They managed to hijack his Facebook account, but Salhi simply created a new account.
Protesters get organised
The protests that erupted in Sidi Bouzid were indeed spontaneous, yet they were marked by a level of organisation and sophistication that appears grounded in the sheer determination of those who participated in them.
The Sidi Bouzid branch of the UGTT was engaged in the uprising from day one.
While the national leadership of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) is generally viewed as lacking political independence from the ruling class, its regional representatives have a reputation for gutsy engagement.
"The major driving force behind these protesters is the Sidi Bouzid union, which is very strong," said Affi Fethi, who teaches physics at a local high school.
For Fethi, it was when police killed protesters in nearby towns including Menzel Bouziane and Regueb that the regional protests became a nationwide uprising.
"The person who helped this revolt the most is Ben Ali himself," he said. "Why didn't he make [the police] use rubber bullets?"
Everyone interviewed for this article agreed that no opposition party - to the extent that independent parties existed under Ben Ali's rule - was involved in co-ordinating the early protests, or even in offering moral support.
Grassroots members of some opposition movements did, however, play an active role as individual activists (Ali Bouazizi, for instance, is a member of the Progressive Democratic Party).
Watching the political theatre from afar
Students, teachers, the unemployed and lawyers joined forces in Sidi Bouzid and neighbouring towns, braving torture and arrest.
Nacer Beyaou, a student, said the uprising was about freedom and employment.
The people of Sidi Bouzid feel their region is neglected, he said, and suffer from "abject destitution".
Yet now that the political momentum has moved to the capital, many locals fear that their region is once again being sidelined.
"They've forgotten about us completely. There's not a single minister from Sidi Bouzid," the student said.
Summing up the combination of poverty and humiliation that many people in Sidi Bouzid say pushed them to rise up in protest, another man put it this way:
"Every day I ask my father to give me one dinar [70 cents], and I'm thirty years old."
A sign of the uncertainty that many are feeling here, the man was forthright in his political views, but said he preferred not to give his name "in case Ben Ali comes back".
Now that the politicians in Tunis have taken over, he said it was like sitting back and watching the theatre.
With the initial euphoria that came when Ben Ali fled the country fast fading, the question here is whether or not there will be any tangible political and economic gains for Sidi Bouzid in the "new" Tunisia.
The conclusion of a two-part series.
Follow Yasmine Ryan on Twitter @yasmineryan.
Ref:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/2011126121815985483.html
From day one, the people of Sidi Bouzid broke through the media blackout to spread word of their uprising.
Yasmine Ryan Last Modified: 26 Jan 2011 14:39 GMT
Sidi Bouazid, Tunisia - The people of Sidi Bouzid overcame heavy censorship and police repression to ensure that their uprising did not go unnoticed in silence.
Protesters took to the streets with "a rock in one hand, a cell phone in the other," according to Rochdi Horchani - a relative of Mohamed Bouazizi - who helped break through the media blackout.
Since the same day of the self-immolation of the 26-year-old street vendor that triggered riots causing the Tunisian leadership to flee the country, family members and friends used social media to share the news of what was happening in Sidi Bouzid with international media.
Breaking through the media blackout
Mohamed Bouazizi was not the first Tunisian to set himself alight in an act of public protest.
Abdesslem Trimech, to name one of many cases occurred without any significant media attention, set himself ablaze in the town of Monastir on March 3 after facing bureaucratic hindrance in his own work as a street vendor.
Neither was it evident that the protests that begin in Sidi Bouzid would spread to other towns. There had been similar clashes between police and protesters in the town of Ben Guerdane, near the border with Libya, in August.
The key difference in Sidi Bouzid was that locals fought to get news of what was happening out, and succeeded.
"We could protest for two years here, but without videos no one would take any notice of us," Horchani said.
On December 17, he and Ali Bouazizi, a cousin of Mohamed Bouazizi, posted a video of a peaceful protest led by the young man's mother outside the municipality building.
That evening, the video was aired on Al Jazeera's Mubasher channel. Al Jazeera's new media team, which trawls the web looking for video from across the Arab world, had picked up the footage via Facebook.
Tunisian media, in contrast, ignored the growing uprising until Nessma TV broke the silence on December 29.
And aside from a solid core of activists, most Tunisians did not dare repost the videos on Facebook or even to "like" them, until president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's final hours.
Yet even if a muted majority did not actively share news of the protests online until mid-January, Tunisia's 3.6 million internet users - a third of the population, one of the highest penetration rates on the African continent, according to Internet World Stats - were able to follow news of the uprising on social media thanks to a solid core of activists.
Throughout the uprising, Tunisian protesters relied on Facebook to communicate with each other. Facebook, unlike most video sharing sites, was not included in Tunisia's online censorship.
Non-internet users kept abreast of the protests via satellite news channels including Al Jazeera, France 24 and, playing catch-up on its competitors, Al Arabiya.
The hashtags on Twitter tell the tale of how the uprising went from being local to national in scope: #bouazizi became #sidibouzid, then #tunisia.
Media wars get physical
The Tunisian authorities in the region tried every means possible to thwart the flow of videos. There were internet and power outages in Sidi Bouzid and neighbouring towns.
On January 3, a string of web activists were struck by a systematic, government-organised "phishing" operation aimed at wiping out their online dissent.
Bloggers, web activists and a rapper who had published a song criticising the government on YouTube were arrested on January 7.
In spite of the attempts to silence them, people went to extreme lengths to make sure their videos were posted on the web.
Ali Bouazizi still has a black eye where police struck him in retaliation for his videos.
From the courtroom to Facebook
Dhafer Salhi, a local lawyer who witnessed Mohamed Bouazizi's act of self-immolation, said he asked the head of police to meet with the young man's family that day to try to defuse the anger on the street.
"I told [the head of police] that if you don't get [the Bouazizi family] in, the country will be burned," Salhi said. "He refused, by arrogance and ignorance."
Frustrated by the lack of accountability by officials, Salhi became an active participant in the protests.
The lawyer used Facebook to organise protests, sending out invites to his friends.
He was one of the web activists targeted by the Tunisian authorities in the phishing operation. They managed to hijack his Facebook account, but Salhi simply created a new account.
Protesters get organised
The protests that erupted in Sidi Bouzid were indeed spontaneous, yet they were marked by a level of organisation and sophistication that appears grounded in the sheer determination of those who participated in them.
The Sidi Bouzid branch of the UGTT was engaged in the uprising from day one.
While the national leadership of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) is generally viewed as lacking political independence from the ruling class, its regional representatives have a reputation for gutsy engagement.
"The major driving force behind these protesters is the Sidi Bouzid union, which is very strong," said Affi Fethi, who teaches physics at a local high school.
For Fethi, it was when police killed protesters in nearby towns including Menzel Bouziane and Regueb that the regional protests became a nationwide uprising.
"The person who helped this revolt the most is Ben Ali himself," he said. "Why didn't he make [the police] use rubber bullets?"
Everyone interviewed for this article agreed that no opposition party - to the extent that independent parties existed under Ben Ali's rule - was involved in co-ordinating the early protests, or even in offering moral support.
Grassroots members of some opposition movements did, however, play an active role as individual activists (Ali Bouazizi, for instance, is a member of the Progressive Democratic Party).
Watching the political theatre from afar
Students, teachers, the unemployed and lawyers joined forces in Sidi Bouzid and neighbouring towns, braving torture and arrest.
Nacer Beyaou, a student, said the uprising was about freedom and employment.
The people of Sidi Bouzid feel their region is neglected, he said, and suffer from "abject destitution".
Yet now that the political momentum has moved to the capital, many locals fear that their region is once again being sidelined.
"They've forgotten about us completely. There's not a single minister from Sidi Bouzid," the student said.
Summing up the combination of poverty and humiliation that many people in Sidi Bouzid say pushed them to rise up in protest, another man put it this way:
"Every day I ask my father to give me one dinar [70 cents], and I'm thirty years old."
A sign of the uncertainty that many are feeling here, the man was forthright in his political views, but said he preferred not to give his name "in case Ben Ali comes back".
Now that the politicians in Tunis have taken over, he said it was like sitting back and watching the theatre.
With the initial euphoria that came when Ben Ali fled the country fast fading, the question here is whether or not there will be any tangible political and economic gains for Sidi Bouzid in the "new" Tunisia.
The conclusion of a two-part series.
Follow Yasmine Ryan on Twitter @yasmineryan.
Ref:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/2011126121815985483.html
Sunday, January 23, 2011
ILO Welcomes Burma's Proposed New Labor Laws
ILO Welcomes Burma's Proposed New Labor Laws
Ron Corben | Bangkok 18 January 2011
The International Labor Organization (ILO) says it is encouraged by proposed legislation in Burma to allow greater freedom for labor unions, but remains concerned about the use of forced child labor in the military and private sector.
The ILO representative in Burma, Steve Marshall, speaking to reporters Tuesday, said Burma’s military is preparing legislation that will allow for legal trade unions, with rights to strike. Marshall said this is a further step in signs of economic reform.
The legislation is set to be presented before a new parliament elected last November and due to hold its first session in late January. Marshall said the legislation marks a major step in the country’s labor rights.
"Obviously, the issue of freedom of association, which is effectively the right of workers and people to be represented which includes the issues of, for example, collective bargaining, it would include the issues of the right to strike ... they are critical and if passed into law make a big change in terms of the way in which the society is able to develop," said Marshall.
The military government in Burma, also known as Myanmar, already has ratified the internationally recognized Freedom of Association Convention, which is the standard set by the ILO.
Marshall says, though, that while the introduction of the legislation is a step towards an improved labor market in Burma, the overall reform program remains in its early days.
Human rights groups say while unions and associations have been a feature of Burma’s economic and political life, they have been tightly regulated by the military.
Trade unionists also have been jailed for activities "not sanctioned’ by the military." Thailand-based rights group, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), says of the more than 2,100 political prisoners currently detained, 44 are labor activists.
The ILO’s chief goal in Burma has been to assist in ending forced labor and it has an agreement with the military government that enables complaints to be lodged with the organization’s country offices. Last year the ILO received 370 complaints, marking a sharp increase over recent years.
Marshall said the ILO remains concerned over ongoing issues of child labor and recruitment of child soldiers into Burma’s armed forces. He said there have been signs of progress in dealings with the armed forces.
"In the area of child soldiers - yes - there is a general positive move," said Marshall. "In the last year, for example, 73 children - as a result of complaints made to the ILO - were released and discharged from the military."
The military government recently announced a program of national military service for both men and women that may come into effect beginning in 2012.
Burma’s army, faced with problems of recruitment and desertion, has looked to underage recruitment using labor brokers. Marshall said the proposed national service is expected to have a direct impact on child recruits.
Marshall added that many children often are lured into forced labor due to poverty when families are unable to pay for the child’s education.
But forced labor remains a major problem across Burma, with rights groups citing villages forced to construct roads and other work for the military, while jailed prisoners also are recruited for local industries.
A further assessment of Burma’s labor practices is expected to take place in February, when an ILO mission, including labor specialists, will appraise the reforms and new labor legislation.
Related Articles
* ASEAN Meeting Urges Lifting of Burma Economic Sanctions
* Burma’s New Parliament Set to Meet
* Indonesia Puts the Spotlight on Human Rights as ASEAN Chair
* Burma Urges Vigilance Against Foreign Interference on 63rd Anniversary
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/southeast/ILO-Welcomes-Burmas-Proposed-New-Labor-Laws-114145209.html
Ron Corben | Bangkok 18 January 2011
The International Labor Organization (ILO) says it is encouraged by proposed legislation in Burma to allow greater freedom for labor unions, but remains concerned about the use of forced child labor in the military and private sector.
The ILO representative in Burma, Steve Marshall, speaking to reporters Tuesday, said Burma’s military is preparing legislation that will allow for legal trade unions, with rights to strike. Marshall said this is a further step in signs of economic reform.
The legislation is set to be presented before a new parliament elected last November and due to hold its first session in late January. Marshall said the legislation marks a major step in the country’s labor rights.
"Obviously, the issue of freedom of association, which is effectively the right of workers and people to be represented which includes the issues of, for example, collective bargaining, it would include the issues of the right to strike ... they are critical and if passed into law make a big change in terms of the way in which the society is able to develop," said Marshall.
The military government in Burma, also known as Myanmar, already has ratified the internationally recognized Freedom of Association Convention, which is the standard set by the ILO.
Marshall says, though, that while the introduction of the legislation is a step towards an improved labor market in Burma, the overall reform program remains in its early days.
Human rights groups say while unions and associations have been a feature of Burma’s economic and political life, they have been tightly regulated by the military.
Trade unionists also have been jailed for activities "not sanctioned’ by the military." Thailand-based rights group, Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), says of the more than 2,100 political prisoners currently detained, 44 are labor activists.
The ILO’s chief goal in Burma has been to assist in ending forced labor and it has an agreement with the military government that enables complaints to be lodged with the organization’s country offices. Last year the ILO received 370 complaints, marking a sharp increase over recent years.
Marshall said the ILO remains concerned over ongoing issues of child labor and recruitment of child soldiers into Burma’s armed forces. He said there have been signs of progress in dealings with the armed forces.
"In the area of child soldiers - yes - there is a general positive move," said Marshall. "In the last year, for example, 73 children - as a result of complaints made to the ILO - were released and discharged from the military."
The military government recently announced a program of national military service for both men and women that may come into effect beginning in 2012.
Burma’s army, faced with problems of recruitment and desertion, has looked to underage recruitment using labor brokers. Marshall said the proposed national service is expected to have a direct impact on child recruits.
Marshall added that many children often are lured into forced labor due to poverty when families are unable to pay for the child’s education.
But forced labor remains a major problem across Burma, with rights groups citing villages forced to construct roads and other work for the military, while jailed prisoners also are recruited for local industries.
A further assessment of Burma’s labor practices is expected to take place in February, when an ILO mission, including labor specialists, will appraise the reforms and new labor legislation.
Related Articles
* ASEAN Meeting Urges Lifting of Burma Economic Sanctions
* Burma’s New Parliament Set to Meet
* Indonesia Puts the Spotlight on Human Rights as ASEAN Chair
* Burma Urges Vigilance Against Foreign Interference on 63rd Anniversary
Ref:
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/southeast/ILO-Welcomes-Burmas-Proposed-New-Labor-Laws-114145209.html
Saturday, January 22, 2011
US Warns China on North Korea Policy
VOA News 21 January 2011
U.S. President Barack Obama is warning the United States may have to redeploy American forces in Asia unless China toughens its stance on North Korea.
A senior Obama administration official told The New York Times that Mr. Obama delivered that warning to Chinese President Hu Jintao this week during the two leaders' private dinner at the White House on Tuesday, just hours after Mr. Hu arrived in the United States.
According to the unidentified U.S. official, Mr. Obama said, if Beijing does not help curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the United States will have to realign its forces to protect against a possible North Korean strike on American soil.
U.S. officials have increasingly been warning that North Korea poses a direct threat to the United States. Mr. Obama is said to have raised the issue with Mr. Hu twice in recent weeks - first during a telephone conversation last month, then again at their private White House meeting.
American officials told U.S. news outlets Friday that China appears to be taking the warning seriously. They credit renewed pressure from Beijing for the quick agreement on new high-level military talks between North and South Korea, announced Thursday.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
Related Articles
* South Korea Hails US-China Stance on North Korea Nuclear Issue
* China Continues Strong Economic Growth
* China Declares Hu, Obama Meetings Successful
Ref :
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/US-Warns-China-on-North-Korea-Policy-114369884.html
U.S. President Barack Obama is warning the United States may have to redeploy American forces in Asia unless China toughens its stance on North Korea.
A senior Obama administration official told The New York Times that Mr. Obama delivered that warning to Chinese President Hu Jintao this week during the two leaders' private dinner at the White House on Tuesday, just hours after Mr. Hu arrived in the United States.
According to the unidentified U.S. official, Mr. Obama said, if Beijing does not help curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the United States will have to realign its forces to protect against a possible North Korean strike on American soil.
U.S. officials have increasingly been warning that North Korea poses a direct threat to the United States. Mr. Obama is said to have raised the issue with Mr. Hu twice in recent weeks - first during a telephone conversation last month, then again at their private White House meeting.
American officials told U.S. news outlets Friday that China appears to be taking the warning seriously. They credit renewed pressure from Beijing for the quick agreement on new high-level military talks between North and South Korea, announced Thursday.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
Related Articles
* South Korea Hails US-China Stance on North Korea Nuclear Issue
* China Continues Strong Economic Growth
* China Declares Hu, Obama Meetings Successful
Ref :
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/US-Warns-China-on-North-Korea-Policy-114369884.html
Friday, January 21, 2011
စစ္အစိုးရကိုဒဏ္ခတ္မႈ အေမရိကန္ရုပ္သိမ္းမွာမဟုတ္
စစ္အစိုးရကိုဒဏ္ခတ္မႈ အေမရိကန္ရုပ္သိမ္းမွာမဟုတ္
By ေဒၚခင္စိုး၀င္း ေသာၾကာ, 21 ဇန္နဝါရီ 2011
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေပၚ တားဆီးပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြ ဒဏ္ခတ္ထားတာကို ေလာေလာဆယ္ ရုပ္သိမ္းေပးဖို႔ အစီအစဥ္မရွိဘူးလို႔ အေမရိကန္ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ၀န္ႀကီးဌာနက ေသာၾကာေန႔ကေျပာဆိုလိုက္ပါတယ္။ ဒီအေၾကာင္းနဲ႔ပတ္သက္ၿပီး အျပည့္စံုကို ေဒၚခင္စိုး၀င္းက တင္ျပထားပါတယ္။
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေပၚမွာ တားဆီးပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြနဲ႔ ဒဏ္ခတ္ထားတာကို ရုပ္သိမ္းေပးေရးအတြက္ အာဆီယံႏုိင္ငံေတြကေရာ၊ ျပည္တြင္းက ႏုိင္ငံေရးပါတီေတြကပါ ေတာင္းဆိုသံေတြ ဆူဆူညံညံ ထြက္ေပၚလာတဲ့အခ်ိန္မွာ အေမရိကန္ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနက အခုလို ေျပာဆိုလိုက္တာပါ။ အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုက ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရအေပၚ စီးပြားေရး ပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြနဲ႔ပတ္သက္ၿပီး သက္ဆိုင္သူေတြနဲ႔ ပံုမွန္ေဆြးေႏြးမႈေတြ ရွိေနၿပီး ထိေရာက္မႈနဲ႔ အက်ိဳးသက္ေရာက္မႈ အတိုင္းအတာေတြကိုလည္း မ်က္ေျခမပ်က္ အကဲခတ္သံုးသပ္ေနတဲ့အေၾကာင္းကို အေမရိကန္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္ ပီေဂ်ခေရာ္လီ (P.J Crowley) က ေသာၾကာေန႔ ပံုမွန္သတင္းစာ ရွင္းလင္းပြဲမွာ အခုလို ေျပာဆိုလိုက္ပါတယ္။
“ျမန္မာျပည္သူလူထုရဲ႕ အက်ပ္အတည္းေတြကို စာနာစိတ္နဲ႔ စိုးရိမ္မကင္းျဖစ္ရေပမဲ့ ဒီမိုကေရစီေရးကို လုံး၀ပစ္ပယ္ၿပီး လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ေလးစားလိုက္နာမႈမရွိတဲ့ တာ၀န္အရွိဆံုးလူေတြ အေပၚကို အထူးပစ္မွတ္ထားၿပီး အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုက ပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြနဲ႔ ဒဏ္ခတ္ေနတာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံရဲ႕ စီးပြားေရး ခၽြတ္ၿခံဳက်ရတာဟာ စစ္အစိုးရမွာ လံုး၀တာ၀န္ရွိပါတယ္။ အဂတိလုိက္စားမႈေတြကို ေခါင္းေဆာင္ပိုင္းကေန စနစ္တက် က်ယ္က်ယ္ျပန္႔ျပန္႔ က်ဴးလြန္ေနၿပီး သဘာ၀သယံဇာတ အရင္းအျမစ္ေတြကိုလည္း လူထုကို အသိမေပးဘဲ ကိုယ့္သေဘာနဲ႔ကုိယ္ အလ်ဥ္းသင့္ အလြမ္းသင့္သလို ေရာင္းခ်ေနၾကတာပါပဲ။”
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွာ ဒီမိုကေရစီေရးျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈေတြ ျဖစ္ထြန္းေအာင္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားေတြ အားလံုး လႊတ္ေပးေရး၊ ဒီမိုကေရစီ အတိုက္အခံေတြ၊ တိုင္းရင္းသားေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ စစ္မွန္တဲ့ အႏွစ္သာရရွိတဲ့ ေဆြးေႏြးမႈေတြ စတင္ဖို႔အတြက္ ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရအေနနဲ႔ ေရရာေသခ်ာတဲ့ ခိုင္မာတဲ့ေျခလွမ္းေတြ လွမ္းႏိုင္ေအာင္လို႔ ဒီပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြကို ထိန္းထားရမွာျဖစ္တယ္လို႔လည္း ေျပာပါတယ္။ ဒါ့ေၾကာင့္ ဒီအခ်ိန္မွာ တားဆီးပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြကို ရုပ္သိမ္းဖို႔ အစီအစဥ္မရွိဘူးလို႔ အေမရိကန္ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး ၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္ ပီေဂ်ခေရာ္လီ က မေန႔က ပံုမွန္သတင္းစာရွင္းလင္းပြဲမွာ ေျပာဆိုသြားပါတယ္။
Ref :
http://www.voanews.com/burmese/news/US-Burma-sanctions-01-21-11-114393944.html
By ေဒၚခင္စိုး၀င္း ေသာၾကာ, 21 ဇန္နဝါရီ 2011
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေပၚ တားဆီးပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြ ဒဏ္ခတ္ထားတာကို ေလာေလာဆယ္ ရုပ္သိမ္းေပးဖို႔ အစီအစဥ္မရွိဘူးလို႔ အေမရိကန္ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး ၀န္ႀကီးဌာနက ေသာၾကာေန႔ကေျပာဆိုလိုက္ပါတယ္။ ဒီအေၾကာင္းနဲ႔ပတ္သက္ၿပီး အျပည့္စံုကို ေဒၚခင္စိုး၀င္းက တင္ျပထားပါတယ္။
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံအေပၚမွာ တားဆီးပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြနဲ႔ ဒဏ္ခတ္ထားတာကို ရုပ္သိမ္းေပးေရးအတြက္ အာဆီယံႏုိင္ငံေတြကေရာ၊ ျပည္တြင္းက ႏုိင္ငံေရးပါတီေတြကပါ ေတာင္းဆိုသံေတြ ဆူဆူညံညံ ထြက္ေပၚလာတဲ့အခ်ိန္မွာ အေမရိကန္ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာနက အခုလို ေျပာဆိုလိုက္တာပါ။ အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုက ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရအေပၚ စီးပြားေရး ပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြနဲ႔ပတ္သက္ၿပီး သက္ဆိုင္သူေတြနဲ႔ ပံုမွန္ေဆြးေႏြးမႈေတြ ရွိေနၿပီး ထိေရာက္မႈနဲ႔ အက်ိဳးသက္ေရာက္မႈ အတိုင္းအတာေတြကိုလည္း မ်က္ေျခမပ်က္ အကဲခတ္သံုးသပ္ေနတဲ့အေၾကာင္းကို အေမရိကန္ ႏုိင္ငံျခားေရး၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္ ပီေဂ်ခေရာ္လီ (P.J Crowley) က ေသာၾကာေန႔ ပံုမွန္သတင္းစာ ရွင္းလင္းပြဲမွာ အခုလို ေျပာဆိုလိုက္ပါတယ္။
“ျမန္မာျပည္သူလူထုရဲ႕ အက်ပ္အတည္းေတြကို စာနာစိတ္နဲ႔ စိုးရိမ္မကင္းျဖစ္ရေပမဲ့ ဒီမိုကေရစီေရးကို လုံး၀ပစ္ပယ္ၿပီး လူ႔အခြင့္အေရး ေလးစားလိုက္နာမႈမရွိတဲ့ တာ၀န္အရွိဆံုးလူေတြ အေပၚကို အထူးပစ္မွတ္ထားၿပီး အေမရိကန္ျပည္ေထာင္စုက ပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြနဲ႔ ဒဏ္ခတ္ေနတာျဖစ္ပါတယ္။ ျမန္မာႏုိင္ငံရဲ႕ စီးပြားေရး ခၽြတ္ၿခံဳက်ရတာဟာ စစ္အစိုးရမွာ လံုး၀တာ၀န္ရွိပါတယ္။ အဂတိလုိက္စားမႈေတြကို ေခါင္းေဆာင္ပိုင္းကေန စနစ္တက် က်ယ္က်ယ္ျပန္႔ျပန္႔ က်ဴးလြန္ေနၿပီး သဘာ၀သယံဇာတ အရင္းအျမစ္ေတြကိုလည္း လူထုကို အသိမေပးဘဲ ကိုယ့္သေဘာနဲ႔ကုိယ္ အလ်ဥ္းသင့္ အလြမ္းသင့္သလို ေရာင္းခ်ေနၾကတာပါပဲ။”
ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံမွာ ဒီမိုကေရစီေရးျပဳျပင္ေျပာင္းလဲမႈေတြ ျဖစ္ထြန္းေအာင္ ႏိုင္ငံေရးအက်ဥ္းသားေတြ အားလံုး လႊတ္ေပးေရး၊ ဒီမိုကေရစီ အတိုက္အခံေတြ၊ တိုင္းရင္းသားေခါင္းေဆာင္ေတြနဲ႔ စစ္မွန္တဲ့ အႏွစ္သာရရွိတဲ့ ေဆြးေႏြးမႈေတြ စတင္ဖို႔အတြက္ ျမန္မာစစ္အစိုးရအေနနဲ႔ ေရရာေသခ်ာတဲ့ ခိုင္မာတဲ့ေျခလွမ္းေတြ လွမ္းႏိုင္ေအာင္လို႔ ဒီပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြကို ထိန္းထားရမွာျဖစ္တယ္လို႔လည္း ေျပာပါတယ္။ ဒါ့ေၾကာင့္ ဒီအခ်ိန္မွာ တားဆီးပိတ္ဆို႔မႈေတြကို ရုပ္သိမ္းဖို႔ အစီအစဥ္မရွိဘူးလို႔ အေမရိကန္ႏိုင္ငံျခားေရး ၀န္ႀကီးဌာန ေျပာခြင့္ရပုဂၢိဳလ္ ပီေဂ်ခေရာ္လီ က မေန႔က ပံုမွန္သတင္းစာရွင္းလင္းပြဲမွာ ေျပာဆိုသြားပါတယ္။
Ref :
http://www.voanews.com/burmese/news/US-Burma-sanctions-01-21-11-114393944.html
Saturday, January 1, 2011
HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ( 2011)
Hello Dear !
Wishing you a happy new year ! This 2011 A.D. will be hoped to be the very first year of making the political ideology of General Reformation instead of any kind of revolution to the Burmese Society though there has been still existed plenty of unsolved issues in almost all fields.
The bigger issues might be named as democratic reform and internal peace to be concluded by means of cooperation, not subordination,between military organization and political forces.We do strongly believe that there shall be no way of success without cooperation between military and civilians.
No personality cult, no sectionalism ,no vandalism and no vendetta would be favored by us to achieve Democracy, Peace and Prosperous Society for future Burma (Myanmar).
This blog will be pushed toward "The True Reform for Burma by means of co-operation" in the coming new Hluttaw and the new government.
Thank you so much for reading this.
Saturday, January 01, 2011.
Yangon
Myanmar ( Burma )
Wishing you a happy new year ! This 2011 A.D. will be hoped to be the very first year of making the political ideology of General Reformation instead of any kind of revolution to the Burmese Society though there has been still existed plenty of unsolved issues in almost all fields.
The bigger issues might be named as democratic reform and internal peace to be concluded by means of cooperation, not subordination,between military organization and political forces.We do strongly believe that there shall be no way of success without cooperation between military and civilians.
No personality cult, no sectionalism ,no vandalism and no vendetta would be favored by us to achieve Democracy, Peace and Prosperous Society for future Burma (Myanmar).
This blog will be pushed toward "The True Reform for Burma by means of co-operation" in the coming new Hluttaw and the new government.
Thank you so much for reading this.
Saturday, January 01, 2011.
Yangon
Myanmar ( Burma )
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