26개의 게시물을 찾았습니다.
Today is the 6th day of the
UPRISING IN EGYPT
Since the early morning: Thousands of anti-government protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square are standing their ground, despite troops firing into the air in a bid to disperse them.
The protestors are complete unsatisfied with the moves "promised" by Mubarak. They're also protesting against the appointment of Intelligence Minister Omar Suleiman as Mubarak's deputy. The demonstrators calling on the two leaders to resign. "Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, you are both American agents", "Mubarak, Mubarak, your plane awaits you!" they're chanting.
And the death toll rises. Al-Jazeera reports 150 protesters killed since Friday in Egypt's demonstrations and more than 2000 people were injured until now...
Here you can follow today's developments:
☞ Egypt protests - live updates (Guardian)
☞ Live blog 30/1 - Egypt protests (al-Jazeera)
The Egypt uprising in pictures:
☞ The Egypt Protests (Totally.Cool.Pix, 1.28)
☞ Cairo Protests Escalate (Spiegel.Online, 1.28)
Today's "Day of Rage and Freedom" in Egypt
Here you can follow the latest updated news:
☞ Protests in Egypt - live updates (Guardian)
☞ Friday protests liveblog (al-Jazeera)
☞ Liveticker zum Aufstand in Ägypten (Spiegel Online)
"REVOLUTION IN TUNIS, AS WELL IN EGYPT"
Egypt mass protests against the dictatorial Mubarak regime continue into third day despite ban and STATE TERROR!
Today's latest news:
Angry demonstrators in Egypt have torched a police post in the eastern city of Suez as unrest continues to spill over onto the streets of several cities despite a security crackdown. Witnesses told the Reuters news agency that police fled the post before the protesters burned it using petrol bombs on Thursday morning.
Dozens more gathered in front of a second police post later in the morning demanding the release of their relatives who were detained in unprecedented protests that authorities have failed to quell since Tuesday.
Meanwhile, activists are clashing with thousands of riot cops in the capital, Cairo, since the early hours of Thursday.
2:30pm (local time/9:30pm KST): Right now at least 500 protesters clash with riot cops in demonstrations in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia...
Here a summary of yesterday's/last night's "events":
The Interior Ministry warned Wednesday that police would not tolerate any gatherings, and thousands of security forces were out on the streets poised to move quickly against any unrest. Many were plainclothes officers whose leather jackets and casual sweat shirts allowed them to blend in easily with protesters.
Thousands of policemen in riot gear and backed by armored vehicles also took up posts in Cairo, on bridges across the Nile, at major intersections and squares, as well as outside key installations, including the state TV building and the headquarters of Mubarak’s ruling National Democratic Party.
Hussein Megawer, head of the Egyptian Trade Union Federation (ETUF), requested heads of syndicates to thwart any labor demonstrations at this stage.
But despite the official ban by the government on protests and gatherings, running battles between police and anti-government protesters continued.
Activists trying to oust the Egyptian regime played cat-and-mouse with cops on the streets into the early hours of Thursday, as unprecedented protests against Mubarak's 30-year rule entered a third day.
Prominent reform campaigner Mohamed El-Baradei, who lives in Vienna, was expected to return to Egypt on Thursday, an arrival that could galvanize protests that so far have lacked a leader.
At least six protetesters have died in clashes since they erupted on Tuesday. The protests, inspired by a popular revolt in Tunisia and unprecedented during Mubarak's strong-handed rule, have seen police fire rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators throwing rocks and petrol bombs.
In central Cairo on Wednesday demonstrators burned tires and hurled stones at police.
In Suez, protesters torched a government building. There, short before, a peaceful gathering turned violent at sunset when protesters threw rocks at a morgue where they were waiting for the body of a man killed a day earlier. Police broke up the crowd with tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition fired into the air.
Demonstrations continued well into the night. By the early hours of Thursday, smaller groups of protesters were still assembling in both cities and being chased off by police.
Protesters are promising to hold the biggest demonstrations yet on Friday after weekly prayers.
"Egypt's Muslims and Christians will go out to fight against corruption, unemployment and oppression and absence of freedom," wrote an activist on a Facebook page.
Protesters say they have seen demonstrators dragged away, beaten and shoved into police vans. The Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that 500 had been arrested. Since last night the number indreased to at least 850 people, according to the police. An independent coalition of lawyers said at least 1,500 were detained.
Here some impressions from last night's mass protests - almost sucessfully finalizing yesterday's "Day of Revolution" - on Cairo's Tahrir Square:
Some more pics about yesterday's "events" in Egypt you can see here:
☞ Egyptian anti-government protests (Guardian, 1.26)
☞ Pictures: 'Day of anger' (al-Jazeera, 1.26)
☞ Protests in Egypt (Tagesspiegel, 1.26)
Related report:
☞ Cairo protesters in violent clashes with police (Guardian, 1.26)
Jan. 25, in Egypt:
"DAY OF REVOLUTION"
Yesterday's Guardian (UK) reported the following:
Egypt's authoritarian government is bracing itself for one of the biggest opposition demonstrations in recent years tomorrow, as thousands of protesters prepare to take to the streets demanding political reform...
An unlikely alliance of youth activists, political Islamists, industrial workers and hardcore football fans have pledged to join a nationwide "Day of Revolution (against torture, corruption, poverty and unemployment)" on a national holiday to celebrate the achievements of the police force...
Tomorrow's events were initiated by two dissident movements, both based online. One is dedicated to the memory of Khaled Said, an Alexandrian man beaten to death by police last year, while the other, "6 April", is a youth group named after the date of an uprising two years ago in the Nile delta town of El-Mahalla El-Kubra, in which three people were killed by police...
Today's reality on the Egyptian streets
At noon (local time/8pm KST) Reuters reported:
Hundreds of anti-government protesters are marching in the Egyptian capital chanting against President Hosni Mubarak and calling for an end to poverty. The demonstrators are singing the national anthem, carrying banners denouncing Mubarak and saying Egyptian elections are fraudulent. The protesters are heavily outnumbered by back-clad riot police, as security forces deployed in a massive operation across Cairo ahead of the first Tunisia-inspired rally in Egypt. No violence was immediately reported.
About one hour later J. Shenker, reporting for The Guardian, wrote the following:
Remarkable scenes in Cairo as thousands and thousands are marching with apparent freedom on the streets after years of seeing every anti-government protest immediately shut down by police. Riot troops are following close behind but seem uncertain as to what to do - three major demonstrations are now ongoing in different parts of the Egyptian capital, all of whom have broken through police cordons, but there seems to be little coordination between protest leaders about what to do next.
I'm downtown outside the offices of the government newspapers where hundreds are chanting 'Mubarak, your plane is waiting' and appealing for passers-by to join them, many of whom are taking up the offer.
Ahmed Ashraf, a 26 year old bank analyst, told me this was his first protest, and that he had been inspired by events in Tunisia. "We are the ones controlling the streets today, not the regime," he said. "I feel so free - things can't stay the same after this."
A half hour later Al-Masry al-Youm (Egypt intependend news organisation) reported the following:
After a short period of non-interference, Egyptian police have started to crack down on several protests in downtown Cairo.
On the Kasr al-Aini street, security forces cordoned off around 400 activists and started to beat those who tried to break in siege.
To the north, eyewitnesses said that the police have beaten several demonstrators who gathered in front of Cairo’s judicial complex.
And once again J. Shenker, just few minutes later:
Reports spreading of protesters attacking the council of ministers building downtown, while several thousands are marching towards Mubarak's presidential palace in Heliopolis. In Dar El Salaam, a densely-populated neighbourhood in southern Cairo, demonstrators claim they have taken over the police station...
Related (updated) reports:
☞ Egypt protesters clash with police (al-Jazeera)
☞ Live updates: Opposition groups protest... (al-Ahram)
PS: Two days ago an activist, involved in the preparation of today's "Revolution Day" vowed: ""It will be the start of something big!!"
TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
Latest news:
Since today's afternoon (local time) police is attacking (incl. tear gas) anti-gov't protesters in the capital Tunis, after hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the prime minister's office to pressure the interim 'national unity' government to step down.
Protesters had begun gathering at gov't buildings since last night, in contravention of a curfew. When they surged through a police picket, tensions spiked and the police fired tear gas to clear the crowd.
Angry resisting protesters threw stones and smashed police vehicles during the clash.
Reuters also reported that several windows of the finance ministry building had been broken.
Before the skirmish, protesters said the situation outside the buildings was "very, very tense as they spent the night outside... They were told by security forces to leave the area, and tension mounted for some time", al-Jazeera reported in the morning from the site of the protest.
The protesters announced: "We'll continue our sit-in struggle for as long as it takes, until we topple the government!"
More tension is expected in the capital, as members of the national unity government cabinet, which includes members from both the RCD (ousted President Zine El Abedine Ben Ali's party) and the opposition, are expected to hold a meeting at the government buildings being surrounded by the protesters.
"Thousands, we've been told, will gather ... in this area to prevent the government of national unity, particularly the ministers... [from] starting their business," al-Jazeera correspondent reported before the clashes.
Since Y'day morning more than thousand activists, but also "ordinary" people (many are from Sidi Bouzid, a bleak city in central Tunisia where the so-called "Jasmine revolution" over poverty, corruption and political repression was sparked a five weeks ago) who had been driven to the capital in a "Freedom Caravan" surrounded the PM's building in central Tunis.
For more (updated) news please check out LabourStart!
A call for (int'l) solidarity:
For more info please check out:
☞ Rage Against the Machine Supports Guitar-makers Strike (Clash, 1.12)
☞ 콜트콜텍 + 문화행동
Related article:
Since the start of the year, North Korea has been mounting a kind of peace offensive. But despite Pyongyang's (ongoing) "charm offensive", A. Lankov (one of the most prestigious experts on N. Korea) is very pessimistic about a coming inter-Korean "peace process" in 2011, as you can learn from his following article (published in Asia Times, 1.11):
Push could soon turn to shove
2010 was a hard and dangerous year in Korea. Alas, 2011 might become even worse.
At first glance, this statement might appear excessively pessimistic. After all, in the last weeks the tensions on the Korean Peninsula were decreasing, North Korea suggested negotiations, and South Korea also said that talks might be a good idea.
However, the appearances are misleading. If one has a better look at the recent crisis, as well as at the current mood in Seoul and Pyongyang, there is little ground for optimism. It seems that both
North Korean strategic calculations and South Korean assumptions about ways to handle its uneasy neighbor will bring the crisis back - and with a vengeance.
What we have seen throughout the last year was another exercise in the habitual North Korean brinkmanship – yet another attempt to apply tactics which have been used many times and usually with great success.
When North Korean strategists want to squeeze some aid or political concessions from other side, they follow a simple but efficient routine. First, Pyongyang manufactures a crisis, and does everything to drive tensions high. The missiles are launched, islands are shelled or nukes are tested, while the usual verbal bellicosity of the North Korean media reaches almost comical heights. Sooner or later both the "target audience" and international community begin to feel uneasy, and when this point is reached Pyongyang suggests negotiations. Its neighbors and adversaries alike feel relief and start talks, which usually end with Pyongyang getting what it wants - in exchange for restoring the status quo.
In the past, this tactic has worked well (for example, this is how in 2007 North Koreans managed to push the George W Bush administration to switch to a soft line and resume aid). However, this time things are different. So far, North Korea is not getting what it wants.
But what does the North want to achieve with this seemingly dangerous (but actually very calculated) military/political theater? As usually is the case with Pyongyang's foreign policy, it is about money. In 2008 South Korea and United States dramatically reduced the amount of unilateral and unconditional aid to the North.
It had to turn to China instead. China obliged, and it seems that the North Korean economy - while still very poor by current East Asian standards - is in better shape than at any time since the early 1990s (albeit this modest recovery seems to be, first and foremost, brought about by domestic transformation rather than by Chinese aid). However, this made North Korean leaders excessively dependent on China, whom they do not like and whom they do not trust (this seems to be a mutual feeling).
So, they want the US and South Korean aid back. First, it will increase the size of the entire aid pie, controlled and distributed by the regime. Second, it will provide Pyongyang with ample opportunities to distance itself from dangerous China, and acquire a number of sponsors whose contradictions can be used to North Korea's advantage. The North Korean diplomats are very good at this game, which they learned in the 1960s when they exploited the Sino-Soviet schism with remarkable success.
The North decided that this was a time to exercise pressure on both Seoul and Washington (actually, this is what it has been doing since 2008). It is not often noticed that North Korea actually conducts two separate, if related, blackmail programs - one aimed at the US and another aimed at South Korea. The ways of exercising pressure should be different, because the concerns of these two countries are dissimilar.
In the case of South Korea, the North decided to take advantage of Seoul's dependence on the international markets. Foreign investors and trade partners of South Korean firms are not going to be amused by the newspaper headlines which talk a war "which is going to erupt on the Korean Peninsula".
These tensions are likely to have a negative impact on the South Korean economy, making the South Korean voter worse off. On top of that, the average South Korean voter does not usually care too much about North Korea, but still expects its government to be capable at handling the North, in order to avoid major confrontations. Therefore, the North Korean leadership expects that sooner or later South Korean voters will penalize an excessively stubborn government by supporting the opposition.
To the US, the North's selling point is its ability to proliferate. Since for the Americans the major (almost only) reason they care about North Korea is its potential for nuclear and missile proliferation, the North Korean regime demonstrated to Washington that even without aid and in spite of the international sanctions, North Korean engineers and scientists managed to make considerable progress in areas of military significance.
In mid-November, just before the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, a group of American nuclear scientists led by Dr Siegfried Hecker from Stanford, was shown a state-of-the-art uranium-enrichment facility whose scale and sophistication exceeded what the US experts believed to be possible. This is a major step towards a full-scale military uranium program, which is, incidentally, more difficult to control than the old plutonium program.
Now, after a few months of tension building, the North Koreans decided to test the ground and check whether the adversaries (and potential donors) are ready to give in. Frankly, Pyongyang's decision seems to be surprising, since the answer is obvious: neither Washington nor Seoul is ready to make concessions.
Why didn't the old tactics succeed this time? In short, because the attitudes in both Washington and Seoul changed in recent years.
Talking about the US side, the main reason why Washington was in past willing to give concessions and unilateral aid, was the once widespread (albeit unfounded and na๏ve) belief that this was a way to facilitate the denuclearization of North Korea. It was assumed that Pyongyang could be persuaded/bribed/pressed into surrendering its nuclear program. This belief evaporated in 2008, after the second nuclear test.
American policymakers have finally realized that North Korea is not going to surrender its nukes under any circumstances. North Korean leaders are ready to talk about arms control, not about disarmament. In other words, North Korean leaders hope to get paid (generously) for freezing their nuclear program while still keeping the existent nuclear devices. The US is not ready to discuss this yet.
With South Korea, the situation is more complicated. The Lee Myung-bak government was in favor of a hard line from the very beginning. After the Cheonan sinking and Yeonpyeong shelling, the South Korean public, usually cautious when it comes to matters of peace and war, switched to support of the hard line.
In a poll in late November, some 80% of participants said they were in favor of a massive military retaliation in the case of the next North Korean attack (and a considerable minority even said that they did not mind a war). This unusual bellicosity of the public, reinforced by the even harder position of the military, puts additional pressure on the government.
Paradoxically, the events (or rather non-events) of early December contributed towards Seoul's shift to a hard line. Then, soon after the Yeonpyeong shelling of November 23, the South Korean military staged large drills in the disputed waters near the North Korean coast. Before the exercises, the North Koreans threatened a mighty counterstrike, but when Seoul decided to go ahead on December 20, nothing happened.
North Korea's decision not to execute its threats was seen as a sign of weakness. A triumphant South Korean official said in a private conversation: "They are with their tail between their legs now. This is what we should have done from the very beginning."
Therefore, the dominant view in Seoul now is that if North Korean leaders know that their new strikes will be met with a mighty response, Pyongyang will not dare to stage another attack. So, Seoul politicians believe that harshness is the best option, since North Korean leaders will surely duck a fight.
This seems to be an illusion - and, perhaps, a dangerous one. Like it or not, there is no valid reason why Pyongyang strategists should be afraid of a Southern counterstrike. It is true that North Korea does not want a full-scale war, but due to the peculiarities of its political system North Korea can sustain a minor military confrontation far more easily than its southern counterpart - or, to be more precise, in the case of such a confrontation the domestic consequences for the North Korean government will be far less serious.
Needless to say, even if a South Korean counterstrike kills many hundreds of North Korean soldiers or sailors, the leaders will not feel too sorry of them (and children of the leaders do not serve in the North Korean military). The loss of a few pieces of rusty military equipment of 1960s vintage will not upset them too much, either.
It is sometimes stated that an efficient counterstrike will at least lead to a loss of face for the North Korean leadership, and that fear of such humiliation could serve as a deterrent against future attacks. Unfortunately this seems to be wishful thinking as well. The North Korean government is in full control of the media, so such a defeat will remain unknown to almost everyone outside the military elite.
If this is the case, why did the North avoid a fight in December, after so many threats and bellicose statements? Because there is no reason why it should agree to fight at the time and place chosen by its adversaries, when these adversaries were ready to strike back. It makes much more sense to wait for a while and then deliver a sudden and powerful strike when the North Korean political leadership decides that the time is ripe.
It seems that we are not going to wait for long. Recent events leave little doubt that the North Korean charm offensive will be ignored by Seoul (and, perhaps, by Washington as well, even though signals are slightly mixed). The first sign of this position became visible on January 6 when the US and South Korea rejected North Korea's call for unconditional talks with South Korea as "insincere" and repeated their usual set of demands, which are, alas, clearly unacceptable for the North Koreans.
The North Korean leaders will probably do what they did before in similar situations: they will stage a provocation or two in order to increase pressure on the stubborn Americans and South Koreans, in hope that sooner or later they will give in. After all, contrary to what Seoul wants to believe, the associated political risks for the North Korean elite are small and rewards in case of eventual success are significant.
This coming round of military/diplomatic might be more dangerous than usual, largely because of Seoul's newly acquired belief in the power of counterstrikes. Now it seems likely that in case of another North Korean strike the South will retaliate mightily. This counterstrike is likely to trigger a counter-counterstrike, and there is even a probability (albeit very minor) that such an exchange will escalate into a real war or at least some intense fighting.
Far more likely, though, is that the situation will remain under control. In this case, the excessive reaction by the South Koreans is likely to amplify the message their North Korean adversaries want to deliver.
North Korean strategists want to damage the South Korean economy as well as create domestic tension, which will eventually turn the South Korean public against the current South Korean government and its North Korean policy. However, if such an exchange of fire happens we can be certain that the international media will not be merely writing about a "war that is about to start in Korea" but rather will declare that a "war started in Korea". The impact of such reports on the world markets and, eventually, on the South Korean economy is easy to predict.
The South Korean government should not be misled by the current bellicose mood of the voters. This mood is not likely survive a major confrontation, and once the situation becomes really tough, the same people who now cry for revenge are likely to start blaming the government for its inability to maintain a stable and secure situation on the peninsula.
Alas, not much can be done now. The North is likely to follow the usual line of a professional (and usually successful) blackmailer: since pressure has not worked, even greater pressure should be applied. The South, confident in the power of deterrence, is likely to over-react, thus further aggravating the situation and increasing the scale of the next crisis.
Well, it seems that the year 2011 will not be especially tranquil in Korea. And the subsequent few years might be even worse.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/MA12Dg02.html
Related articles:
☞ Seoul to push for Pyongyang's apology (K. Times, 1.21)
☞ North Korea set on third nuclear test (A. Times, 1.21)
Last Saturday's (1.15) Statement by the Communist Workers' Party of Tunisia (full text version):
For freedom, democracy and social justice
Tunisia has lived since December 17, 2010, the day when the current popular revolt against unemployment, exclusion, poverty, cost of living, the shameless exploitation, corruption, injustice and tyranny began. These popular protests started in the city of Sidi Bouzid and have since extended to all parts of the country. Poverty and tyranny, endured in the city, are a general phenomenon that affects all the Tunisian people. The rage and indignation is the same throughout the country. The police and dictatorial regime of President Ben Ali attempted to crush the people’s uprising using misinformation, deception, lies and the brutal repression of the police who fired on the people, killing unarmed demonstrators. This was done with the intention of suppressing the protests quickly and preventing their spread to the rest of the country. These methods failed. Instead they have fueled protests that have extended their range, and drove the demonstrators to turn what began as simple social demands to political demands on the issue of freedom and power. Even when Ben Ali delivered his speech on the twelfth day of the revolt to promise that he would allow elections, nobody believed him and the masses responded that the protests would continue.The placards and slogans put forward by the masses in revolt, from south to north, are clear evidence of the long process of political awareness which has taken place in the minds of Tunisians over the last twenty years of the reign of Ben Ali.
Slogans such as: “Work is a right, band of thieves,” “Hands off the country corrupt band,” Work, freedom, dignity, ” Liberty, freedom and non-life presidency “,” Down with the party of thieves, down with the torturers of the people “,” Ben Ali loose, the people do not let it go “… Finally, the masses have realized that they are being ruled but not represented and that the system represents “a band of thieves”, a handful of families who have plundered the resources of the country, sold its resources and its people to foreign capital, which deprives people of their liberty and their rights, using the brute force of the state apparatus, which has been transformed into a “state of families,” to humiliate, subdue and intimidate the people and discourage them from fighting . Tunisia has been turned into a national prison in which torture and repression was used to terrorise the people. The people demand change in the belief that the aspirations to freedom, democracy and social justice can not be achieved under Ben Ali. The masses involved in the struggle, in the intifada, no longer want dictatorship, and have embarked on a new process in Tunisia.Tunisia needs a new democratic government which represents the national and popular will of the people and represents its own interests. And a system of this type cannot emerge from the current system and its institutions or its constitution and its laws, but only on its ruins by a constituent assembly elected by the people in conditions of freedom and transparency, after ending the tyranny.
The task of a People’s Council is to draft a new constitution that lays the foundations of democratic republic, with its institutions and its laws. The popular protests are still ongoing. No one can predict either their duration or their development. Tunisia has entered a new phase in its history characterized by the rise of its people and their desire to recover their freedom, rights and dignity.This raises the responsibilities of the opposition, especially its most radical wing, to find new policy solutions that place as an immediate priority the requirements of the Tunisian people for a program providing a plan for overall change in Tunisia.The opposition, consisting of all the forces involved in the intifada, has been invited to close ranks for Democratic Change and to form an alternative to tyranny and dictatorship.
The Communist Workers' Party renews its invitation to convene a national assembly of the Tunisian opposition in order to confront the issue as quickly as possible.Also renewed has been an invitation to come together to coordinate at national and local level support for the popular movements, and to work towards a set of concrete demands so that the movement does not run out of steam. Among these demands the most immediate are:
1. An immediate end to the dictatorship’s campaign of repression against the people.
2. The release of all prisoners.
3. The arrest and prosecution of all those responsible for repression, the plunder of property, and murder.
4. The repeal of all restrictions on civil liberties, free expression, organization and assembly.
The adoption of immediate economic measures to alleviate unemployment and poverty. We demand income security, health care and the immediate recognition of trade unions.
The Communist Workers’ Party will remain, as it has always been, on the side of the workers, the poor and all those at the forefront of a new order in Tunisia.
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=7544
최근 덧글 목록