Just Foreign Policy News
March 2, 2011
*Action: Lee bill for military withdrawal from Afghanistan
"H.R.780 – To provide that funds for operations of the Armed Forces in Afghanistan shall be obligated and expended only for purposes of providing for the safe and orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan of all members of the Armed Forces and Department of Defense contractor personnel who are in Afghanistan."
Check to see if your Rep. has co-sponsored; ask them to co-sponsor if they haven’t. You can reach your Rep. through the Congressional switchboard: 202-225-3121.
You can view the cosponsors here:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h780/show
You can ask your Rep. to co-sponsor here:
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/hr780
Churches for Middle East Peace: Tell Congress Israeli-Palestinian peace is a priority
CMEP urges folks to meet with their representatives March 21 – 25.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=6qpmlpPk8UXfnEmwrS0SOADHlgY0vp9j
Anti-War message at the Wisconsin protest
"Support Workers’ Rights: Bring Our War Dollars Home!"
Pictured: Milwaukee’s 3rd district alderman Nik Kovac is second from right. Erik Sperling of Wisconsin Peace Action is at far right.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44933821@N04/5483532187/in/set-72157626036850845/
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) Defense Secretary Gates played down the possibility of US military intervention in Libya, saying there was no UN Security Council authorization, no agreement within NATO about the use of force and now was not the time for the US to be entering into another war in the Middle East, the New York Times reports. Gates said US ships would be in the region for humanitarian relief and potential emergency evacuations from Libya. Both Gates and Mullen pulled back from Secretary of State Clinton’s comments that imposing a no-flight zone over Libya was under "active consideration."
2) The UK Foreign Affairs committee has said military efforts in Afghanistan aren’t working and criticized Prime Minister Cameron’s justification for continued UK involvement in the war, the Wall Street Journal reports. Coalition arguments that negotiations with the Taliban can take place only after military victory are flawed because the prerequisites for a victory don’t currently exist, the report says. It says the U.S. should push harder for negotiations with the Taliban, with the UK influence with Washington to make it happen. Britain’s justification for continued presence in Afghanistan – that it is necessary in the interests of U.K. national security – may have been achieved some time ago, given the apparently limited strength of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the report argues.
3) Human rights activists said Saudi authorities detained a Shi’ite cleric after he called for a constitutional monarchy and an end to corruption and discrimination, Reuters reports. "The Saudi government should listen to the demands of its citizens, not seek to stifle them," said Christoph Wilcke of Human Rights Watch. "Calling for equal rights for an oppressed religious minority should not be a reason for harassment and arrest," he said.
4) Federal officials said a military-style handgun used in the attack that killed a US federal agent in Mexico was purchased in the Dallas area, the Houston Chronicle reports. Mexican officials have long complained that the majority of guns in the hands of the country’s criminal gangs are flowing across the border from Texas and other states.
5) Pete Seeger officially joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, Haaretz reports. Seeger withdrew his support of a project associated with the Jewish National Fund’s American branch, after Israeli and Palestinian activists told him of the JNF’s role in driving the Bedouins out of their Negev areas. Seeger contributes half of the royalties from "Turn, Turn Turn" to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
Afghanistan
6) NATO acknowledged that nine boys collecting firewood to heat their homes in the eastern Afghanistan mountains were killed by NATO helicopter gunners, the New York Times reports. A shopkeeper whose 14 year old nephew was killed said the boy was the sole breadwinner for his family. Gen. Petraeus apologized and pledged to investigate the attack and to take disciplinary action if appropriate. More than 200 people gathered in Nanglam to protest the boys’ deaths, witnesses said. They shouted "Death, death to America!" and "Death to Obama and his colleagues and associates!"
Israel/Palestine
7) Jerusalem officials approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem, AP reports. "For the residents of Ras al-Amud, this will be very bad," said the head of the Palestinian Jerusalem Center for Socio-Economic Rights. "They (the Jewish settlers) will expand. They attack residents, trying to create anger and anxiety and to push people to leave."
Libya
8) Some 150,000 migrant workers, mainly Egyptians, have fled Libya, and more than half have sought refuge in Tunisia, the New York Times reports. Some said forces loyal to Qaddafi had targeted Egyptians and Palestinians after state media blamed unrest on foreigners; others said rebel forces had targeted black Africans in the belief that they are mercenaries. UN Secretary General Ban appealed for international assistance for the migrants, many of whom are sleeping on pavement at the border crossing for nights on end.
Yemen
9) Tens of thousands of people turned out in cities across Yemen on Tuesday as opposition parties joined demonstrators in rejecting President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Washington Post reports. Some key tribal leaders openly sided with the demonstrators over the weekend, while others announced support for Saleh.
Jordan
10) Many Jordanians say that if the 2006 National Agenda for reform had been carried out, with changes in the electoral laws, more civil rights and better economic policies, Jordan would not be faced with the difficult challenges of today, the New York Times reports. This has made Jordanians skeptical of new promises by the government for reforms. Meanwhile, school and university teachers have announced plans to form unions.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Gates Plays Down Idea of U.S. Force in Libya
Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, March 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/africa/03military.html
Washington – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Tuesday played down the possibility of American military intervention in Libya, saying that there was no agreement within NATO about the use of force and that now was not the time for the United States to be entering into another war in the Middle East.
Nonetheless, in a Pentagon news conference with Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mr. Gates said he had ordered an amphibious assault ship, the Kearsarge, and an amphibious transport dock ship, the Ponce, to the Mediterranean. He said about 400 Marines were en route to the Mediterranean "in support of the Kearsarge," although it was unclear whether they would be aboard the ship or stationed elsewhere in the region.
The two American warships entered the southern end of the Suez Canal on Wednesday, Egyptian officials said, and arrived a few hours later in the Mediterranean. Mr. Gates said the vessels would be in the region for humanitarian relief and potential emergency evacuations from Libya. Helicopters, including Cobra gunships, can take off from and land on the Kearsarge, which is called a "small deck" ship. "We’re obviously looking at a lot of options and contingencies," Mr. Gates said.
But both Mr. Gates and Admiral Mullen appeared to pull back from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s blunt comments on Monday and Tuesday that imposing a no-flight zone over Libya was under "active consideration" among the United States and its allies. Such a zone – in which Libyan air force aircraft would be denied permission to operate, or be shot down – would effectively keep the government led by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from strafing and dropping bombs on protesters seeking to overthrow his rule.
Admiral Mullen said that a no-flight zone was "an extraordinarily complex operation to set up," an assessment shared by Gen. James N. Mattis, who oversees American military operations in the Middle East as the head of United States Central Command. General Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that setting up a no-flight zone would be "challenging" and would first require disabling Libya’s air defense system, presumably with airstrikes.
"So no illusions here," General Mattis told the committee. "It would be a military operation. It wouldn’t be just telling people not to fly airplanes."
Mr. Gates noted that there was no authorization for military force in a United Nations Security Council resolution, passed Saturday, which imposes sanctions and an arms embargo against Libya. He also said that there was "no unanimity within NATO for the use of armed force."
[…]
2) U.K. Faults Coalition’s Afghan Effort
Alistair Macdonald, Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2011
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703409904576174671077188488.html
A U.K. Parliament committee has said the U.S.-led coalition’s military efforts in Afghanistan aren’t working and the U.S. and Britain have failed to gain essential leverage in Pakistan, in a report that criticizes Prime Minister David Cameron’s justification for continued U.K. involvement in the war.
After the U.S., Britain contributes the most troops and money in Afghanistan, with around 10,000 troops stationed there.
The Foreign Affairs Committee concludes in a report to be released Wednesday that security in Afghanistan remains precarious despite tactical gains in some provinces that may obscure challenges elsewhere in the country.
Coalition arguments that negotiations with the Taliban can take place only after military victory are flawed because the prerequisites for a victory don’t currently exist, the report says. It concludes that the U.S. should push harder for negotiations with the Taliban, with the U.K. exerting whatever influence it has with Washington to make it happen.
"We question the fundamental assumption that success in Afghanistan can be ‘bought’ through a strategy of ‘clear, hold and build,’ " said Richard Ottaway, the committee’s chairman, of the coalition’s surge strategy.
Mr. Ottaway said the U.K. and U.S. have little leverage over Pakistan, where the continued existence of insurgent havens make it "extremely difficult" for the counterinsurgency campaign to succeed. The international committee has also failed to bolster the influence of the Afghan state or improve its governance, a key aim of their efforts.
Britain’s core foreign-policy justification for continued presence in Afghanistan-that it is necessary in the interests of U.K. national security-may have been achieved some time ago, given the apparently limited strength of al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the report argues.
[…]
3) Saudi authorities detain Shi’ite cleric over sermon
Asma Alsharif and Tim Pearce, Reuters, March 1, 2011, 10:05 pm
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/8934138/saudi-authorities-detain-shiite-cleric-over-sermon/
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – Saudi authorities detained a Shi’ite cleric in the Eastern Province after he called for a constitutional monarchy and an end to corruption and discrimination, human rights activists said on Tuesday.
The top oil exporter and U.S. ally is an absolute monarchy that applies an austere version of Sunni Islam and does not tolerate public dissent.
Its Shi’ite minority, believed to be 10-15 percent of the 18 million Saudi population, has long complained of discrimination, a charged denied by the authorities.
Tawfiq al-Amir, who has been detained before for speaking out about religious freedom, made his call in a Friday sermon in the eastern town of Hafouf. Security police detained him on Sunday, said Mohammad Gabran, a local rights activist. "Previously his sole care was religious freedoms but in his last sermon he changed his direction and started demanding a constitutional monarchy," Gabran said.
"He called me when they came to take him. They informed him they were state security and they came to take him."
[…] Activists set up Facebook pages calling for protests on March 11 and 20 but many locals doubt that those protests will take place as the government closely monitors social media and would stop any attempt to protest.
"The Saudi government should listen to the demands of its citizens, not seek to stifle them," said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher in a Human Rights Watch report. "Calling for equal rights for an oppressed religious minority should not be a reason for harassment and arrest," he said.
4) Gun that killed agent traced back to a man in Texas
It was bought by a trafficking ring in the Dallas area, feds say
Dane Schiller and Dudley Althaus, Houston Chronicle, Feb. 28, 2011, 10:31PM http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7450617.html
A powerful military-style handgun used in the attack that killed an American federal agent in Mexico and wounded his partner earlier this month had been purchased by a weapons-trafficking ring in the Dallas area, federal officials said Monday.
The fierce-looking gun, which fires 7.62 mm rounds, similar to the type of bullets used an AK-47 rifle, was reportedly recovered at the scene of the Feb. 15 shooting and traced back to a man in the city of Lancaster, just outside of Dallas, according two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
[…] News that the gun came from Texas was not a surprise to agents who have been tracking and arresting weapons rings working for Mexican cartels that thrive just across the Rio Grande. Several weapons traffickers tied to Mexico’s drug cartels have been prosecuted in recent years.
"Texas is a major source state for weapons going to Mexico – it is the size of our border and the amount of (firearms dealers)," said Tom Crowley, a spokesman for the Dallas division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
[…] President Felipe Calderon and other Mexican officials have long complained that the majority of guns in the hands of the country’s vicious criminal gangs are flowing across the border from Texas and other states.
[…]
5) Pete Seeger officially joins anti-Israel boycott
Seeger, 92, one of the fathers of American folk music, is a veteran political and peace activist.
Nir Hasson, Haaretz, 02:19 01.03.11
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/pete-seeger-officially-joins-anti-israel-boycott-1.346342
American folk music legend Pete Seeger on Monday officially joined the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign – an international movement to pressure and sanction Israel through economic means.
Seeger, 92, one of the fathers of American folk music, is a veteran political and peace activist. In the 1950s he was interrogated by the McCarthyist House Unamerican Activities Committee and two years ago performed for U.S. President Barack Obama’s inauguration concert.
His songs "We Shall Overcome," "Turn, Turn, Turn," "If I Had a Hammer" and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" have all become anthems for peace movements and civil rights.
Seeger contributes half of the royalties from "Turn, Turn Turn" to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
On Monday, Seeger withdrew his support of a project associated with the Jewish National Fund’s American branch, after Israeli and Palestinian activists told him of the JNF’s role in driving the Bedouins out of their Negev areas.
After a meeting with ICAHD coordinator Jeff Halper, Seeger reportedly said his participation in the JNF project had been misunderstood and announced his support for BDS.
Afghanistan
6) Gathering Firewood, 9 Afghan Boys Killed by NATO Helicopters
Alissa J. Rubin and Sangar Rahimi, New York Times, March 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/asia/03afghan.html
Kabul, Afghanistan – Nine boys collecting firewood to heat their homes in the eastern Afghanistan mountains were killed by NATO helicopter gunners who mistook them for insurgents, according to a statement on Wednesday by NATO, which apologized for the mistake.
The boys, who were 9 to 15 years old, were attacked on Tuesday in what amounted to one of the war’s worst cases of mistaken killings by foreign-led forces. The victims included two sets of brothers. A 10th boy survived.
The NATO statement, which included an unusual personal apology by the commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, said the boys had been misidentified as the attackers of a NATO base earlier in the day. News of the attack enraged Afghans and led to an anti-American demonstration on Wednesday in the village of Nanglam, where the boys were from. The only survivor, Hemad, 11, said his mother had told him to go out with other boys to collect firewood because "the weather is very cold now."
"We were almost done collecting the wood when suddenly we saw the helicopters come," said Hemad, who, like many Afghans, has only one name. "There were two of them. The helicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a green flash from the helicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in a second round they hovered over us and started shooting. They fired a rocket which landed on a tree. The tree branches fell over me and shrapnel hit my right hand and my side."
The tree, Hemad said, saved his life by covering him so that he could not be seen by the helicopters, which, he said, "shot the boys one after another."
General Petraeus pledged to investigate the attack and to take disciplinary action if appropriate.
[…] It was the third instance in two weeks in which the Afghan government has accused NATO of killing civilians. NATO strongly disputes one of those reports, but another – the killing of an Afghan Army soldier and his family in Nangarhar Province on Feb. 20 – was also described as an accident.
The attack on the boys occurred high in the mountains outside Nanglam in the Pech Valley of Kunar Province. American troops are preparing to close their bases in the valley in the next several weeks, in part because their presence has vexed the villagers, who would prefer to be left alone. The area is poor, and the only major road was built to service Forward Operating Base Blessing, according to local residents.
A rocket attack on the base on Tuesday led to a helicopter search for the insurgents responsible, the NATO statement said. The base is surrounded by mountains and is the frequent target of Taliban fighters, who shoot down on it from the rocky heights.
The helicopters "returned fire at the assessed point of origin with indirect and aerial fire," the NATO statement said. "Regrettably there appears to have been an error in the handoff between identifying the location of the insurgents and the attack helicopters that carried out subsequent operations."
[…] "As soon as we heard about the attack on the village’s children, all the village men rushed to the mountains to find out what really happened," said Ashabuddin, a shopkeeper from Manogai, a nearby village, whose nephew Khalid was among those killed.
[…] Khalid, 14, was the only male in the family, Ashabuddin said. "He was studying in sixth grade of the orphanage school and working because his father died four years ago due to a long-term sickness. His father was a day laborer. He has 13 sisters and two mothers. He was the sole breadwinner of the family. I don’t know what would happen to his family to his sisters and mothers. They are all female and poor."
[…] More than 200 people gathered in Nanglam on Wednesday to protest the boys’ deaths, witnesses said. Waving white flags, they shouted "Death, death to America!" and "Death to Obama and his colleagues and associates!"
Israel/Palestine
7) Housing for Jews approved in east Jerusalem
Amy Teibel, Associated Press, Wednesday, March 2, 2011; 5:54 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/02/AR2011030200886.html
Jerusalem – Jerusalem officials approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood, officials said Wednesday, infuriating Palestinians who see the growing Jewish presence in the city’s war-won eastern sector as undermining their aspirations to statehood.
[…] The municipality said the plan to build 14 apartments in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood met all the necessary conditions for approval.
Palestinians deplore any expansion of the Jewish presence in east Jerusalem because they hope to establish their future capital there.
The construction in Ras al-Amud will be another link in the chain of Jewish settlements around east Jerusalem’s Old City, said Ziad Hamouri, head of the Palestinian Jerusalem Center for Socio-Economic Rights. He predicted it would create a new point of friction between settlers and longtime Arab residents of east Jerusalem.
"For the residents of Ras al-Amud, this will be very bad," Hamouri said. "They (the Jewish settlers) will expand. They attack residents, trying to create anger and anxiety and to push people to leave."
[…] Palestinians, like the rest of the international community, do not recognize Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem after capturing it from Jordan in 1967.
[…]
Libya
8) Fleeing Migrant Workers Pile Up at Libya’s Borders
Sharon Otterman and Alan Cowell, New York Times, March 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/africa/03refugee.html
Salum, Egypt – International assistance began trickling though the Egyptian border into Libya on Wednesday, with medical supplies and assessment teams gathering at the border checkpoint here before heading into rebel controlled areas of eastern Libya to see what needs exist there.
But far to the west, on Libya’s border with Tunisia, relief officials on Wednesday described an unfolding crisis. Tens of thousands of migrant workers, mainly Egyptians, are fleeing from Libya’s turmoil, some saying that they feared for their lives, the officials said. As the refugees cross the border into Tunisia with only limited means of traveling onward, "there is an absolutely mammoth task that is absolutely imperative" to ease pressure on the border area, said Sybella Wilkes, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency in Geneva. "The capacity of the border area is bursting," Ms. Wilkes said in a telephone interview.
In the past 10 days, some 150,000 people have fled from Libya to the east and west, and more than half have sought refuge in Tunisia. Some have reported to relief officials that Egyptians were being singled out in Libya, Ms. Wilkes said. She quoted reports by two unidentified Syrian travelers that Egyptians traveling with them had been hauled out of their car by loyalist forces in Libya and killed.
Appealing for international help for the migrants, many of whom are sleeping on pavement at the border crossing for nights on end, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared: "We need concrete action on the ground to provide humanitarian and medical assistance. Time is of the essence. Thousands of lives are at risk."
[…] Six professional basketball players from sub-Saharan Africa who were playing for teams in Benghazi arrived at the border on Wednesday, saying they feared being killed by Libyans who were assuming that any black Africans they encountered were mercenaries. Even though the basketball players were well known in Benghazi, they said, it didn’t help.
"All Africans are in trouble now, they will arrest you," said Sunny Daykins, 19, a Liberian who played for a team called Al Hillal. "They don’t even give you time to speak." Mr. Daykins wore his red practice pants and carried a basketball in a plastic bag, along with a small duffel bag of clothes. His phone had been stolen, but he clutched his SIM card. "I only took the important things," he said.
Several African women waited among the crowds of men. "There are more women inside Libya, but they are afraid to come out," said Laura Seulu, 29, from Cameroon, who had been a maid for a family in Benghazi. Rebels, she said, had broken into her house, and she had left as soon as she felt there was a sufficient lull in violence.
A family of Palestinian fishermen sat separately from the crowd after Egyptian authorities tried three times to return them to Libya on Tuesday, along with 30 other Palestinians. "They wanted us to return to Benghazi and get a stamp on our passport," said Mohammed Abdel Hussein, 32. "I told him, it is destroyed there – there is no one to talk to." He said he repeatedly refused to go back, saying the family would rather wait at the border point indefinitely than return to Libya.
The family is from the front lines, a town called Ben Jouad halfway between rebel-controlled Ras Maoof and Sert, Colonel Qaddafi’s home town. Half of the people in Ben Jouad support the opposition, and half support the government, Mr. Hussein said, and young men from both sides patrol the streets carrying guns. After Colonel Qaddafi claimed that foreigners were to blame for inciting the rebellion, the family became targets, and their landlord told them he would burn their house down if they did not leave immediately, they said. "They accused us of starting the riot there," said Mohammed Abdel Hussein, 32. "They asked if we had weapons."
Sobhia Abdel Rahman, Mohammed’s mother, who is 60, said she had heart trouble and had fainted twice during the two-day journey to the border.
International officials were now assessing how to help them to return home. "We want to go back to Gaza," she said, leaning on her 21-year-old daughter, Heba, for support. "We just left behind everything and came."
Ayman Gharaibeh, a United Nations refugee agency official at Libya’s border with Tunisia, said on Tuesday: "We can see acres of people waiting to cross the border. Many have been waiting for three to four days in the freezing cold, with no shelter or food."
[…]
Yemen
9) Yemeni parties join demonstrators on streets as Saleh blames West for unrest
Portia Walker, Washington Post, Wednesday, March 2, 2011; A09
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030105136.html
Sanaa, Yemen – Tens of thousands of people, including a controversial preacher, turned out in cities across Yemen on Tuesday as opposition parties joined demonstrators in rejecting embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s offer to form a unity government.
Saleh, in a speech to the faculty and others at Sanaa University, accused the United States and Israel of orchestrating the unrest sweeping through the region. "There is an operation room in Tel Aviv with the aim of destabilizing the Arab world," the longtime ruler said. "It is all run by the White House."
The allegation, presented without evidence, appeared to reflect growing desperation on the part of a leader who has long enjoyed U.S. support, and it drew a swift rebuttal from the Obama administration. "The protests in Yemen are not the product of external conspiracies," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a message on Twitter. "President Saleh knows better."
Saleh, whose country received $300 million in U.S. aid last year, is seen by Washington as a key ally against the Arabian Peninsula’s ambitious branch of al-Qaeda. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton went to Yemen in January, the first visit by an incumbent in the post since 1990.
[…] Some key tribal leaders openly sided with the demonstrators over the weekend, while others announced support for Saleh.
The president has made several concessions, including pledges to step down when his current term ends in 2013 and not transfer power to his son. But the offer to form a unity government within 24 hours – a gesture he has made and reneged on in the past – did little to placate the demonstrators. "The people are fed up with dialogue," said Najrabi, 24, a teacher who gave just one name. "We just don’t trust him anymore."
Opposition parties had designated Tuesday a "day of rage" and urged their members to join the youth-led demonstrations. The crowds were reportedly among the largest since the unrest began Feb. 11, and participants appeared jubilant.
[…] Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University, said that although Saleh has survived numerous crises in more than three decades of rule, "he doesn’t appear to realize that the ground has shifted significantly beneath his feet."
Last week, 10 members of parliament from the ruling General People’s Congress party resigned, and a key tribal leader, Hussein al-Ahmar, pledged support for the anti-government demonstrators. The lawmakers say they were angered by the violence directed against the demonstrators, which Amnesty International estimates has killed 27 people.
[…]
Jordan
10) In Jordan, Some Regret a Missed Opportunity
Rana F. Sweis, New York Times, March 2, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/middleeast/03iht-m03-jordan.html
Amman – Two weeks ago, Manal, 27, dressed in a black robe, walked slowly in a crowd of several hundred demonstrators – mostly men – carrying children, waving Jordanian flags or holding up homemade protest signs near the prime minister’s office.
This was her first public protest, said Manal, who declined to give her last name for fear of angering conservative members of her family. "I’m here to demand reforms," she said. "I’m here to say enough. Enough corruption. Enough with the high prices. Enough of being silent."
In the past month, the government has offered various promises and initiatives to stem the wave of popular discontent sweeping the country and the region, but the impact of these gestures has been blunted by the fact that a comprehensive 10-year National Agenda for reform has existed, in theory, since 2006.
The agenda includes strategies and initiatives for social, economic and political development. It also calls for the evaluation and monitoring of progress.
"Under this plan, Jordanian laws were to change in ways that would open up elections, improve freedom of the press and reduce bias against women – in other words, creating meritocracies," wrote Marwan Muasher, a former deputy prime minister, who led the introduction of the 10-year plan.
Many intellectuals, former politicians and ordinary citizens say that if the National Agenda had been carried out – with changes in the electoral laws, more civil rights and better economic policies – in the past five years, Jordan would not be faced with the difficult challenges of today.
"We have been speaking about this National Agenda and reform for so long," said Audeh Quawas, a former member of Parliament. "We heard about several political reforms – but the truth is we were going backwards, including in terms of civil rights."
Amid continuing protests across the region, several thousand demonstrators took to the streets of Jordan this week to press for real political, judicial and economic change. Newspapers, too, have been campaigning for comprehensive, rapid political change. A cartoon published in Al Ghad, an independent newspaper, featured a map of Jordan covered with protest banners.
[…] Steps by the government in recent weeks have included scrapping an article in the Public Assembly Law that required government consent to hold rallies and protests. But final approval is still pending in Parliament.
"We have a crisis and the people of Jordan will continue protesting because obviously policies have failed in the past," said Mohammed Sweidan, the managing editor of Al Ghad. "I am not confident this new government has the political will for serious reform because they are saying it can take three or six months. There is no need to wait that long to start the implementation process."
School teachers in Jordan had started protesting even before the Tunisian uprising, calling for better working conditions and higher salaries. This week they demanded fundamental changes in the education system and announced plans to form a union.
[…] This week a group of university professors, including Towfic Shomar, an associate professor at Philadelphia University in Amman, opened a campaign for a university teachers’ union. "We think this is a very good time to establish a union because of the democratic changes in the region and we hope to have the union established in the next two or three months," Mr. Shomar said.
The government has, meanwhile, set up a committee to overhaul the electoral system, a persistent demand by demonstrators and the public. Hamzah Mansur, chief of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, told protesters last week: "We want immediate constitutional change to help create productive governments and a truly representative Parliament."
[…]
–
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