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Syrian Opposition Leader Says he Doesn’t Know Bishops’ Whereabouts

The leader of the Syrian opposition coalition is backing away from previous reports that he is certain of the location and condition of two Syrian Orthodox bishops kidnapped April 22.

George Sabra, president of the Syrian National Coalition, told World Watch Monitor on May 21 he is not informed of the movement of the bishops from day to day, or of the identity of the captors. This is a change from May 7 statements attributed to Sabra during a meeting of Middle East leaders in Beirut.

Sabra also told World Watch Monitor the coalition is “doing our best” to expel the handful of Muslims who have come from Europe at the urging of jihadist groups with al-Qaeda links who count themselves among the broader Syrian opposition movement.

Yohanna Ibrahim, head of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Aleppo, was kidnapped alongside his counterpart from the Greek Orthodox Church, Boulos Yaziji, after travelling to the Turkish border in an attempt to secure the release of two priests kidnapped in February. Their driver, Fathallah Kaboud, later was killed.

Apart from an early flurry of erroneous reports that the clerics had been released, little was heard about their whereabouts, who snatched them, or why.

That changed May 7 when Amin Gemayel, former president of Lebanon and current leader of its Kataeb Party, held a meeting in his Beirut office.

“The bishops are in good health and are being held by a small group in a town called Bshaqtin, 20 kilometers northwest of Aleppo,” Sabra told Gemayel by phone during the meeing, according to the Lebanon Star.

Attending the meeting were Deputy Bishop of Aleppo Joseph Shabo, Mount Lebanon’s Syriac Orthodox Bishop George Saliba, Beirut’s Bishop Daniel Koriyeh and Syriac League President Habib Afram.

Afram told World Watch Monitor the group had sought the meeting with Gemayel to seek his help securing the bishops’ release. Instead, he said, they heard Sabra tell them he was powerless to help.

“During our meeting, Syrian opposition leader George Sabra spoke with both Cheikh Gemayel and Bishop Saliba over the phone. Sabra claimed that he knows where the abducted bishops are and who the kidnappers are. I find it outrageous that one of the most powerful leaders of the Syrian opposition says he knows where they are but can’t do anything to release them.”

Afram, Secretary General of the Union of Lebanese Christian Leagues and a prominent defender of the fate of Christians in the Middle East, said Sabra’s inability to secure the release of the bishops has troubling implications for the future of Christians in Syria.

“Sabra said things like: ‘This is not giving a good impression of our revolution and we promise to take all possible actions to get them released’. But that is only words,” Afram said. “We emphasized that if he can’t control his own area — the place where the bishops were kidnapped — then how can he claim that he can change Syria for the better? And how will he be able to make Christians remain in Syria?”

Contacted May 21 by World Watch Monitor, Sabra gave a less certain accounting of the bishops than he was reported to give May 7.

“You know that the bishops are moved always day by day or from week to week. So therefore we don’t know the place exactly,” he said.

He also said the coalition isn’t sure who is behind the kidnappings.

“About this we have different information, we have new news that we will check. We have news that they are in Aleppo. We can’t say that this information is real; we have to check.”

When asked how he knows the bishops are moved, if anyone has spoken to them, and if there is any evidence they are alive, he replied: “you know, by our people inside Syria that interrogated the groups.”

“Really we believe that they are alive,” he said. “But there is no clear picture of that. We are doing our best, but right now we didn’t succeed.”

Thousands of Christians have fled the violence in Syria, and church leaders say the abductions have accelerated the exodus. Sabra said he wants Syrian Christians to remain courageous.

“We are aware of the impression this gives to our revolution,” he said. “But we are doing our best. Syrian Christians have been living in the country for thousands of years. And they should be courageous enough to stay in their homeland.”

Sabra, himself a Christian, insisted there is no evidence Syrian Christians are under pressure because of their religion, despite testimony to the contrary from Christians inside Syria and those that have fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

“Maybe there are some small events here and there,” he said, “but we have not the right to exaggerate with these events to tell it as a fact, as a truth, of the life in Syria. Really it is not true. And the only way to protect Christians, as to protect other Syrians, is to push Bashar al-Assad’s regime out of power and start a new era in Syria with a civil state, a democratic state, with elections, constitution, a law. This is the only thing which will help all people in Syria to be protected in their country.”

Sabra also rejected any comparisons of the impact of Syria’s drawn-out civil war on Christian nationals to the flight of Christians from neighboring Iraq.

“We have two major principal differences here in Syria,” he said. “Iraq was occupied by foreign troops, and also they have a neighbour considered an enemy to Iraqis for many years: I mean Iran. So the effect of the occupation and the effect of Iranians inside Iraq caused the situation. In Syria we have something different. I’m sure that Christians will stay and live in Syria as they did for hundreds of years. It’s their country. In Syria we have thousands of churches and nobody can prove or give one example of a church being persecuted by Muslims.”

Still, when pressed, Sabra acknowledged one similarity to Iraq of grave concern to resident Christians: the presence of imported Islamist militants, some of them aligned with al-Qaeda. An April report by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, at London’s King’s College, estimates that somewhat less than 10 percent of the opposition fighters are from outside Syria, and that between 7 percent and 10 percent of that fraction come from Europe.

“We are sorry to hear about that,” Sabra said. “We were informed about two young people from Belgium. Believe me, we are doing our best to contact these people and to operate with the European community and the European governments to save their lives and send them back home to their countries safely.”

Meanwhile, Afram said he meets with Christians that have fled Syria every day in his office in Lebanon. “People are kidnapped on a daily basis for ransom or just to scare them to leave,” he said. “Christians are systematically targeted by kidnappings.”

He said if the bishops are alive, Sabra should employ the power of his position to win their release.

“George Sabra should act and he should show leadership capability, or leave,” Afram said. “He should exercise direct involvement, even take risks to go himself with the army of the opposition to negotiate the release of the bishops; make a clear statement regarding his [objection] that bishops were treated like this.”

By Nuri Kino
http://www.worldwatchmonitor.org

Nuri Kino, of Assyrian (Syriac Orthodox) background, is an award-winning TV/radio journalist now living in Sweden. In January 2013 he wrote a report, ‘Between the Wire’, in which he conducted more than 100 interviews with Syria’s minority Christian community. He is co-author of the independently published political thriller, ‘The Line in the Sand.’

Assyrian International News Agency

Tajik Opposition Leader Ordered Held In Pretrial Detention

DUSHANBE — A leading Tajik opposition figure and businessman has been been ordered held in pretrial detention for up to two months.

Zayd Saidov’s lawyer told RFE/RL that a court in Dushanbe ruled on May 22 that Saidov cannot be released on bail.

Saidov, a lawmaker and the leader of Tajikistan’s unregistered New Tajikistan party, was detained on May 19 on charges of corruption.

He has been stripped of his parliamentary immunity.

Saidov denies any wrongdoing and says his case is politically motivated.

He said during the court hearing on May 22 that he is being persecuted for his decision last month to set up his new political party.

Presenting his party’s program in April, Saidov harshly criticized the government for “inefficient reforms, pressure on small- and medium-sized businesses, exorbitant prices, and widespread corruption.”

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Syrian opposition continues talks in Madrid

Syrian opposition groups are meeting in Madrid to compile a draft political solution to the conflict.

The talks, which entered a second day on Tuesday, include Moaz al-Khatib, who resigned last week as leader of the Syrian National Coalition.

Khatib cited the failure of the international community to stop the conflict as the reason he stepped down.

The Spanish foreign ministry said “various movements” of the opposition to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad were involved in the talks, in addition to the coalition, which is the main opposition bloc.

Pressed back by army advances, Syria’s opposition is under international pressure to enter into dialogue with Assad’s government.

More than 80,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN, and 1.5 million people have fled the country since the uprising began in March, 2011.

Among the Madrid meeting’s aims is “to facilitate dialogue between the various movements in the Syrian opposition, thereby aiding its cohesion and its future capacity to ensure unity, stability and democracy in Syria,” the Spanish foreign ministry said.

“The international effort currently under way to this end requires the forming a strong, unified and diverse opposition capable of representing a common front.”

Unity government

Spain in November recognised the coalition as the Syrian people’s legitimate representative, along with several Western and Arab powers.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said last month that Madrid backed the formation of a national unity government in Syria as a way out of the two-year conflict.

The participants made no declarations following Monday’s talks but the ministry said Khatib was scheduled to meet Garcia-Margallo on Tuesday.

The two would review the situation in Syria and international efforts to settle the conflict, it said.

Before resigning, Khatib had faced criticism of his perceived overly moderate position towards the Assad government.

He was pressured to step down after leading members of the coalition berated him for offering Assad a deal, and after the
bloc went ahead with steps to form a provisional government against Khatib’s explicit wishes.

The US and Russia have called an international conference, expected in June, to push for a political solution.

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Kurdish Opposition Party Meets With Assyrian Member of Dutch Parliament

Amsterdam (AINA) — On Friday two members of the Goran Party, a Kurdish opposition party in North Iraq, met with Ms. Attiya Gamri, an Assyrian member of the Provincial Parliament in North Holland, to discuss cooperation between Assyrians and Kurdish opposition groups in North Iraq. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in North Iraq is dominated by two parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), with a number of smaller opposition parties. The Goran Party holds 25 of the 111 seats in the KRG.

Mr. Kawa Hassan and Mr. Rawaz Halkawt represented the Goran Party, which is dedicated to advancing democratic reforms and human rights in North Iraq. The Goran Party delegates met with Ms. Gamri because of her extensive work in human rights in North Iraq. Ms. Gamri stressed the need for equal treatment of Assyrians in the Kurdish region and emphasized the upcoming provincial elections in September, which are critical to Assyrians. Goran Party members expressed their support for Assyrians and their maltreatment under the KRG.

According to Hassan and Halkawt, Assyrians, Kurdish opposition groups and other minorities are routinely discriminated against by the KDP, and there is fear of speaking out against the KDP. Journalists are afraid of criticizing the KDP for fear of losing their jobs and being blacklisted. Some journalists have been jailed or have disappeared. Civil workers are hesitant to voice their opinions for fear of losing their jobs.

“There is no freedom of speech and writing in the KRG region,” says Mr. Halkawt, “and no democracy under PUK and KDP rule. The minorities have members in the KRG parliament but fear the PUK and KDP — they never ask anything for their communities.”

According to Ms. Gamri, Assyrian members of the KRG are afraid to speak for the rights of Assyrians in the face of institutional intimidation. For example, the issue of an Assyrian administrative area in the Nineveh Plain has been effectively prevented from being discussed in the KRG.

“Kurds and Assyrians should have the same rights in the KRG region,” says Ms. Gamri, “but unfortunatly They do not. If this does not change the national minorities and the intellectuals among the Kurds will leave the KRG region.”

Both sides agreed that pressure from the EU countries is needed to change this situation.

The Goran Party delegates asked Ms. Gamri to be a bridge between Assyrians in Holland and the Goran Party in North Iraq. Goran asked that Assyrians work with Kurdish opposition groups toward a free and democratic KRG for Assyrians and Kurds.

Attiya Gamri was recently reelected in the provincial parliament in North Holland, and appointed to the Central Women’s Council of the Social Democratic Party (Partij van de Arbeid) in the Netherlands.

Assyrian International News Agency

Turkey ‘Softens Opposition’ to Syria Conference

NKARA (AFP) — Turkey has softened its opposition toward a Russia-US brokered international conference on Syria following Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s trip to the United States, local media said Saturday.

“Erdogan has appeared to soften his stance about Geneva after meeting with President Obama,” commentator Asli Aydintasbas wrote in the liberal Milliyet newspaper.

Ankara agreed to an international gathering “in return for some guarantees” from Washington including an assurance that the process would not be “open-ended” and the parties would not allow months-long delaying tactics in the name of “diplomacy,” according to the columnist.

Obama and Erdogan met in Washington Thursday amid a flurry of shuttle diplomacy between world and regional powers ahead of the planned conference, which is known in Ankara as “Geneva II” — a follow-up to a 2012 accord among world powers in Geneva aimed at solving the Syrian conflict.

Ankara has so far opposed such an international gathering, arguing that it would buy Syrian President Bashar al-Assad time.

Erdogan, who spoke to Turkish reporters in Washington Friday, said he would visit Russia for further talks on a solution to the Syrian crisis.

“Our policy is not to buy time to Assad but to stop the deaths,” he was quoted as saying by the Vatan newspaper.

Erdogan’s trip to the United States followed twin car bombings in a Turkish town near the Syrian border that killed at least 51 people, in an apparent sign that the two-year conflict in Syria is dragging in neighbouring countries.

The Turkish premier had hoped to receive strong support from Washington after the deadly attacks but newspaper columnists said he was left empty handed.

“Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was welcomed in the United States with flamboyance. Military ceremony, Blair House, tête a tête dinner but beyond that one cannot talk of a concrete result,” Nazli Ilicak wrote in the pro-government Sabah daily.

“We are again on our own in the face of problems emanating from Syria. Obama has not drawn closer to a no-fly zone,” she wrote.

Turkey has called for a no-fly zone over Syria to establish safe havens to protect civilians but the United States resists the idea, saying it would be complicated to set up and difficult to enforce.

Turkey, a one-time Syria ally that has split from Assad over the conflict, is currently home to some 400,000 refugees and is increasingly frustrated by what it says the international community’s inaction over the war.

Assyrian International News Agency

Video Shows A Member Of The Syrian Opposition Cutting Flesh Of A Corpse, And Apparently Eating It

Video Shows A Member Of The Syrian Opposition Cutting Flesh Of A Corpse, And Apparently Eating It

Frequently during the Syrian conflict there’s been videos that claim to show either side committing some sort of war crimes or atrocity. As a general rule I avoid writing about these videos because there’s always claims about fakery, a lack of detail beyond what’s shown in the video, and so on.

However, a video has been posted today on pro-Assad channels which presents a rare occasion where it’s possible gather much more information about the person involved.

The following video shows a man cutting a chuck of flesh, possible an organ, from a corpse, then biting down onto the chunk of flesh at the end of the video (GRAPHIC)


I’ve had the audio translated (thanks to @Syrian_scenes), rather than relying on the subtitles attached to the video

I swear by God, we will eat your hearts and your livers, you soldiers of Bashar the dog! Takbeer! Heroes of Baba ‘Amr, [inaudible] cut out their hearts to eat them!

As I said before, generally I can’t do much with these videos, but in this example I instantly recognised the man wearing that distinctive jacket as appearing in other videos produced by the Independent Omar Farouk Brigades, based around Homs


In the first video he gives a short speech, which I’ve translated, and also allows us to match the voices in both videos to the same person

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate: The Umar al-Faruq Battalion is striking the strongholds of the Shabbiha and the Assadist Army in the village of Abel. Takbeer!

Peter N. Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch has been able to confirm the name of the man in the videos as Abu Sakkar of Baba Amro, Homs, also known as Khaled Al Hamad, a former senior figure in Al Farouq Brigade.

It’s unclear how the Independent Omar Farouk Brigades is related to the Free Syrian Army, whether or not it works inside the command structure (as it is), or considers itself independent, but it does raise the question that when people are identified in videos like this what can anyone actually do about it during the conflict?

By Brown Moses
http://brown-moses.blogspot.co.uk

Assyrian International News Agency

Tajik Opposition Figure Accused Of Theft, Polygamy

DUSHANBE — Authorities in Tajikistan have opened two criminal cases against a former industry minister who recently announced he would create an opposition political party.

Prosecutors have accused Zaid Saidov of theft and polygamy.

The Tajik Anticorruption Agency says Toj Sokhtmon International — a firm partly owned by Saidov — forged documents and stole about $ 400,000 from Dushanbe municipal funds while constructing the city’s tallest tower, the 20-storey Dushanbe Plaza.

Meanwhile, on May 11, prosecutors searched Saidov’s home and questioned his sons over polygamy allegations.

Saidov and several Tajik businessmen and academics announced in April that they were creating a “New Tajikistan” party.

Saidov says the allegations are part of growing pressure against him by authorities since he announced his political intentions.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Opposition To Rally For ‘Bolotnaya’ Prisoners

Russia’s opposition is gearing up for a rally later today to call for the release of over two dozen anti-Kremlin protesters.

Those activists face jail terms on charges related to a demonstration on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square exactly one year ago that ended in clashes with police and hundreds of arrests. Two have already been convicted on charges of provoking mass disorders.

Moscow City Hall has granted the opposition’s Coordinating Council permission to hold a demonstration with up to 30,000 people on the square.  A request for permission to march across the city was rejected.

On the eve of the sanctioned rally, several hundred activists turned out in central Moscow to commemorate the protest, in what some obsersers say is a sign of the factures inside Russia’s opposition movement.

Opposition activists say that on May 6, 2012, police intentionally blocked the protesters’ path and sent provocateurs into the crowd to spark the violence that broke out on the square. The case, known in Russia as the “Bolotnaya Affair,” has become emblematic of the crackdown on the opposition.

Activist Nadezhda Mityushkina told RFE/RL’s Russian Service that the opposition hopes to use the anniversary to raise awareness of the case.

“This is not a normal protest with different speeches. [The protest] has to tell a story: the story of what is happening so that as many people as possible hear about [the Bolotnaya Affair]. I think this protest is crucial. This time we are coming out not for ourselves, but for the Bolotnaya political prisoners, for their freedom, and for freedom of all political prisoners.”

In the month ahead of the anniversary, celebrity opposition figures such as socialite Ksenia Sobchak, have posted videos online telling the individual stories of those charged in the case. The campaign is called “One Day, One Name.”

Boris Akunin, a famous novelist and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, called on people to join the demonstration, arguing that a large number of participants could affect verdicts in Russia’s politicized courts.

“After the initial period [of protests], interest in demonstrations went down. It seemed to me that this form was losing its sense as a driver for the opposition movement. Now, however, this May 6 we are in a situation that is black and white in its simplicity. Put simply, the number of people that come or do not come to Bolotnaya on May 6 will be the decider about whether people get jail terms or not. Because if few people turn out, then the regime will understand its line works: it doesn’t have to worry about jailing everyone. If very many turn out, they will back down.”

Charges against the activists range from inciting mass disorder to using violence against authorities.

Based on RFE/RL reporting

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Syria opposition slams village ‘massacre’

The Syrian opposition has denounced the “large-scale massacre” by troops and militiamen in the village of al-Baida after an activist group said at least 50 people were killed. 

The Syrian National Coalition called for international action, citing witness reports of civilians being stabbed to death in al-Baida, a village outside the port of Baniyas.

“The Coalition calls on the Arab League and the United Nations to act rapidly to save the civilians of al-Baida, Baniyas and other villages across Syria,” a statement said on Friday, accusing the regime of “war crimes and genocide.”

“It is time for the world to intervene and put an end to the grievous crimes of the Assad regime.”

Opposition activists said at least 28 people died on Friday as violence in al-Baida continued into its second day.

Syrian troops were still in the Sunni village on Friday, conducting house-to-house searches, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) director, Rami Abdul Rahman.

He added that phone and internet service to the village had been cut, making it impossible to verify the final death toll in Thursday’s violence.

Government forces and militia members loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stormed the coastal village on Thursday, killing between 50 and 100 people including women and children, according to opposition activists.

The UK-based SOHR said the death toll would increase and could reach more than 100, with many of those killed appearing to have been “summarily executed” by shooting or stabbing.

Airport attacked

There were reports that the raid came in response to rebels attacking a busload of pro-Assad fighters, known as shabiha, earlier in the day, killing at least six and wounding up to 20 more.

Due to reporting restrictions in Syria, Al Jazeera cannot independently verify reports of violence.

Syria’s official SANA news agency said troops killed “terrorists”, the regime term for the rebel fighters, and seized arms.

Elsewhere in Syria, SANA reported that rebels had fired two rockets at Damascus International Airport on Friday, hitting an aircraft and a fuel dump sparking a massive fire.

This was the first time state media reported an attack on the airport, despite regular claims by the rebels that they have fired on the transport hub.

The area, about 30km southeast of the capital, has been the site of sporadic fighting since the start of the conflict which has, at times, interrupted air traffic.

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Opposition Activist Lebedev Sentenced To Prison Term

Russian civil rights activist Konstantin Lebedev has been convicted of organizing mass disorders in Moscow last year.

On April 25, the Moscow City Court sentenced Lebedev to two and a half years in prison.

At the start of his trial on April 22, Lebedev pleaded guilty and expressed remorse for his actions.

Investigators charged that Lebedev — along with opposition Left Front coordinator Sergei Udaltsov, activist Leonid Razvozzhayev, and Georgian politician Givi Targamadze — organized violent demonstrations on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square in May, 2012.

Last October, a pro-Kremlin television channel aired a documentary claiming Targamadze met with Udaltsov to plan riots.

Udaltsov, Lebedev and Razvozzhayev, were later charged with organizing mass disorder.

Razvozzhayev was arrested in October. Udaltsov is under house arrest. In February, Russia issued an international arrest warrant for Targamadze.

Prosecutors say Lebedev will testify against the others.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Syrian Opposition Calls on Hezbollah to Withdraw Fighters

(AP) — The Syrian opposition has called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from the country, as activists said regime troops supported by gunmen linked to the Lebanese Shia militant group battled rebels yesterday for control of a string of villages near the Lebanon-Syria border.

Outside the Syrian capital Damascus, activists said they had documented the names of 80 people killed in a government assault on the area over the past five days.

The Syrian National Coalition – the main Western-backed opposition group – warned that Hezbollah involvement in Syria’s civil war could lead to greater risks in the area, and urged the Lebanese government to “adopt the necessary measures to stop the aggression of Hezbollah” and to control the border to “protect civilians in the area”.

The statement, posted on the Coalition’s Facebook page, coincided with a surge in fighting around the contested town of Qusair in Homs near the frontier with Lebanon.

Over the past two weeks, the Syrian military, supported by a Hezbollah-backed militia, has pushed to regain control of the border area. The region is strategic because it links Damascus with the Mediterranean coastal enclave that is the heartland of Bashar al-Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

The fighting also points to the sectarian nature of the Syrian conflict, which pits a government dominated by the President’s Alawite minority against a primarily Sunni Muslim rebellion, and underscores widely held fears that the civil war could drag in neighbouring states.

One amateur video posted online showed seven bodies, some shot in the face, placed in black body bags on the ground.

Assyrian International News Agency

Syria opposition names interim leader

The Syrian National Coalition has named veteran dissident George Sabra as caretaker leader of the main opposition grouping, following the resignation of Moaz al-Khatib.

Sabra “was assigned today to carry out the functions of the head of the Coalition until elections for a new president,” one of the Coalition’s main constituent groups, the Syrian National Council, said in a statement on Monday.

Sabra is a leftist, secular opposition figure and a leading member of the Syrian Democratic People’s party, a former communist party.

He was a co-founder of the Damascus Declaration opposition coalition in 2005.

Sabra has lived in Syria for most of his life and has been jailed many times for dissent.

In October 2011, he fled to Paris to help form the post-uprising opposition.

‘Crime against humanity’

At a press conference in Istanbul following his designation as interim opposition leader, Sabra denounced President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for what the opposition has called a recent “massacre” outside of Damascus.

“It is beyond description and more barbarian than horror movies,” Sabra said, referring to the alleged killing of at least 80 people, including women and children, in the town of Jdeydet al-Fadel.

“What’s taking place in Damascus are crimes against humanity,” Sabra said. “It is nothing short of genocide, and the international community must act”.

Sabra also described Lebanese group Hezbollah’s role in fighting in the central Syrian province of Homs as a declaration of war against the Syrian people.

“What is happening in Homs is a declaration of war against the Syrian people and the Arab League should deal with it on this basis,”  said.

“The Lebanese president and the Lebanese government should realise the danger that it poses to the lives of Syrians and the future relations between the two peoples and countries,” he added.

Sabra’s condemnation of the role of the Lebanese group follows reports that elite fighters from the organisation were taking the lead in the Syrian regime’s battle against rebel fighters in the Qusayr area of Homs.

The area, near the Lebanese border, has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent days, with regime troops capturing a string of strategic villages and raising rebel concerns that the town of Qusayr, an opposition stronghold, could also fall.

“It’s Hezbollah that is leading the battle in Qusayr, with its elite forces,” Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP news agency.

The area is considered strategically important because it lies near the Lebanese border and the highway connecting Damascus to the coast.

Assad reportedly told a group of visiting Lebanese politicians at the weekend that the fighting in the area was the “main battle” his forces were waging.

“We want to finish it at any cost,” a Lebanese politician at the meeting quoted him as saying.

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Montenegrin Opposition Protests Vote Results

Opposition supporters have rallied in Montenegro’s capital over alleged fraud in this month’s presidential election.

Montenegro’s electoral body has declared incumbent President Filip Vujanovic the winner of the April 7 vote.

His challenger, Miodrag Lekic, has cried foul over alleged vote-rigging.

Organizers said 10,000 people took part in the April 20 protest in Podgorica, while police put the number at 5,000.

Chanting “Thieves!” and carrying placards reading “Time for Change,” the protesters said they would not accept a third term for Vujanovic.

They demanded that parliament annul the vote within 10 days and call a new election.

Observers have said that the election for the largely ceremonial post “generally met OSCE commitments.”

Based on reporting by AFP, AP, and dpa

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Tajik Opposition Leader Beaten In Capital

A leader of Tajikistan’s largest opposition party has been attacked in the capital, Dushanbe.

A colleague said Mukhamadal Khayit of the Islamic Revival Party (IRP) was kicked and beaten by several unidentified attackers outside his home on the evening of April 19.

Khayit was taken to hospital with moderate and more serious injuries, according to the colleague, Khikmatullo Saifullozoda.

NEW U.S. RIGHTS REPORT calls Tajikistan ‘an authoritarian state’

The IRP is the only opposition party in the parliament of mainly Muslim Tajikistan.

The Central Asian country of 8 million has been ruled for 20 years by President Imomali Rakhmon.

Tajikistan is scheduled to hold presidential elections in November in which the 60-year-old Rakhmon is expected to seek another term.

The IRP, which is campaigning for a bigger role for Islam in public life, has not yet named its candidate for the November ballot.

Based on reporting by Reuters and Interfax

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Dubai Court Orders Extradition Of Tajik Opposition Figure

DUBAI — A court in Dubai has ruled that a Tajik opposition figure wanted by Dushanbe for an alleged $ 1.2 million fraud can be extradited to Tajikistan.

Relatives of Umarali Quvatov told RFE/RL’s Tajik Service on April 15 that Quvatov will appeal the April 14 ruling to a higher court in the United Arab Emirates.

Quvatov was arrested at Tajikistan’s request in December.

Quvatov, a successful businessman, once had close ties to the family of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

Last year, Quvatov left Dushanbe and established a political group opposing Rahmon.

Tajik authorities have denied the case is politically motivated.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Syrian opposition ‘captures’ soldiers

Syrian opposition fighters say they have captured more than 200 prisoners in the province of Idlib.

The prisoners are all said to be members of the government’s armed forces. Video has emerged showing what the rebels claim are 256 captured Syrian soldiers are displayed for the cameras. 

“All we know is that these prisoners are from Az Zainiyeh,” Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught reported from Antakya. “Az zainiyeh was where the Syrian army forces had withdrawn to after opposition fighters had driven them out of the villages in that part of Idlib.”

The rebels took Az Zainiyeh three days ago and the the prisoners may have been captured during that fighting, but Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the identity of the prisoners or where it was shot.

Strong explosions have been reported in the Syrian capital and the city of Aleppo, according to a Syrian opposition group.

The Local Co-ordination Committees (LC) in Syria told Al Jazeera a large explosion struck near the Air Force Intelligence Branch in the neighborhood of Jamiah Al-Zahra’a in Aleppo on Saturday morning. Heavy gunfire and armed clashes were also reported in the area.

The LCC also reported a large blast in Damascus.

Opposition fighters told a correspondent for the AFP news agency in Aleppo that their forces had captured a government military site near the city early on Friday. Massive clouds of grey smoke could be seen rising from the site in Al-Taana.

The head of the university hospital in Aleppo, who was accused by the opposition of backing the regime and kidnapped in July, was murdered and his body found on Friday, a friend of the doctor told AFP.

Opposition fighters also attacked a large air force post on the highway connecting Aleppo to Raqa province, further to the east, near Kweris military airport, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Friday demonstrations

Anti-government demonstrations were held across Syria after the weekly Muslim prayers.

Government forces fired on protesters in the Halab al-Jadida district, wounding a number of demonstrators, the Observatory said.

Syrian activists uploaded amateur video online on Friday of what appeared to be attacks by government forces over Syria’s largest city, Aleppo.

In one video, an attack plane appears to be strafing areas near the city, while in another local residents run for cover amid smoke and dust in what appears to be the immediate aftermath of shelling.

Aleppo has been the scene of intense fighting, particularly since rebels launched a new offensive two weeks ago to try to dislodge regime troops.

The fighting has devastated large areas of the city of three million, Syria’s former business capital.

According to the Observatory, the rebels took 256 soldiers prisoner in capturing the town of Khirbat al-Joz and nearby areas in Idlib province along the border with Turkey since last week.

After seizing a stretch of highway near Maaret al-Numan, the rebels were able to cut the route linking Damascus to embattled commercial hub Aleppo on Thursday, choking the flow of troops to the north, according to a reporter for AFP.

The United States denounced Russia’s policy of aiding the Syrian government as “morally bankrupt” on Friday, as tensions between Damascus and Ankara escalate over cargo seized from a Syrian passenger plane.

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Former Armenian Foreign Minister, Opposition Lawmaker Charged With Money Laundering

YEREVAN — Armenian authorities have charged a prominent opposition lawmaker and former foreign minister, Vartan Oskanian, with embezzlement and money laundering in a case widely seen as politically motivated.

Oskanian was summoned to the National Security Service (NSS) on October 8 and formally charged with misappropriating $ 1.4 million donated by a U.S. philanthropist to his Yerevan-based Civilitas Foundation in late 2010.

Armenia’s parliament stripped Oskanian of his immunity last week.

He faces up to five years in prison if found guilty.

Oskanian denies wrongdoing, saying that he did not break any law by keeping the donation on his personal bank account before transferring it to the foundation.

He describes the charges against him as “political persecution” aimed at damaging him and his Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) ahead of a presidential election scheduled for February 2013.

Oskanian, who represents the BHK party in parliament, has been widely tipped as a possible challenger to President Serzh Sarkisian in the poll.

The BHK party is led by Gagik Tsarukian, an arm-wrestler-turned-millionaire.

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharian issued a statement last week in defense of Oskanian, who served as foreign minister during his tenure.

A number of prominent figures from the Armenian Diaspora have also voiced their support for the beleaguered lawmaker.

Civilitas Foundation Director Salpi Ghazarian says signatures are being collected in support of Oskanian.

The U.S. Embassy in Yerevan has also expressed concern, saying Washington hoped the case “does not represent a politically motivated and selective enforcement of Armenian law.”

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Rally In Jalal-Abad Demands Release Of Kyrgyz Opposition Leaders

JALAL-ABAD, Kyrgyzstan — At least 1,500 protesters have gathered in Kyrgyzstan’s southern city of Jalal-Abad to demand the release of three opposition members of parliament.

Last week, Kamchybek Tashiev, Sadyr Japarov, and Talant Mamytov — who are leaders of the opposition Ata-Jurt (Homeland) party — were detained and charged with stirring public unrest for their role in violent protests by about 1,000 demonstrators in Bishkek on October 3.

Protesters were demanding the nationalization of the largest gold-mining operation in Kyrgyzstan, the Kumtor mine, which is owned by a Canada-based company.

Tashiev joined the crowd and called on protesters to overthrow the government.

Some protesters broke into the fenced perimeter around the parliament building.

Police subsequently dispersed the demonstrators.

On October 5, the trio’s preliminary arrest was extended to two months.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Kyrgyz Opposition Leaders Charged With Attempt To Grab Power

Kyrgyz opposition leaders Kamchybek Tashiev, Sadyr Japarov, and Talant Mamytov have been charged with stirring public unrest in an unsuccessful attempt to seize power.

Some 700 opposition supporters gathered in the southern city of Jalal-Abad on October 5 to demand the immediate release of the three lawmakers from the Ata-Jurt (Homeland) party.

They were detained on October 3 for their role in violent protests by about 1,000 demonstrators in the capital, Bishkek.

Protesters were demanding the nationalization of the largest gold-mining operation in Kyrgyzstan, the Kumtor mine, which is owned by a Canada-based company.

Tashiev joined the crowd and called on protesters to overthrow the government.

Some protesters broke into the fenced perimeter around the parliament building. Police subsequently dispersed the demonstrators.

Based on reporting by AP and akipress.org

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Georgian Ruling Party, Opposition Negotiate Power Handover

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s government has started negotiations on handing over power to the opposition coalition that won this week’s parliamentary elections.

The talks, which began on October 5, are widely expected to result in billionaire-turned-politician Bidzina Ivanishvili being appointed prime minister.

Saakashvili’s second and final presidential term ends in October 2013.

Under a constitutional reform that goes into effect after he leaves office, many of the president’s powers will be transferred to the prime minister, who is chosen by Parliament.

The Georgian Dream coalition led by Ivanishvili won a comfortable majority in the 150-member parliament in the October 1 vote but appears to have fallen short of the 100 seats needed to amend the constitution.

Based on reporting by AP and RFE/RL’s Georgian Service

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Georgian opposition wins parliamentary polls

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has conceded a shock defeat to a billionaire tycoon in parliamentary polls, ending nine years of dominance that antagonised Russia and brought Tbilisi closer to the West.

Although Saakashvili remains president, the defeat of his United National Movement by Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition in Monday’s elections means he will lose control of parliament and the government.

His apparently graceful acceptance of the unexpected defeat on Tuesday marks one of the first times Georgia has seen a peaceful transfer of power since the fall of the Soviet Union.

“It is clear that the [opposition] Georgian Dream has won a majority,” Saakashvili said in a dramatic televised speech after elections hailed as an “important step” for democracy by international observers.

“We, as an opposition force, will fight for the future of our country,” he said.

Saakashvili will remain as the leader of Georgia until his second and last term ends in October 2013. Under a constitutional reform that goes into effect after he leaves office, many of the president’s powers will be transferred to the prime minister.

Ivanishvili appears the favourite to replace Saakashvili’s close ally Vano Merabishvili as prime minister although under current rules he will still have to be nominated by the president and approved by parliament.

Calls for resignation

At his first post-election news conference, a triumphant Ivanishvili called on Saakashvili to quit: “The only right decision now for Saakashvili would be to resign,” he said.

He declared that most of the president’s widely praised reforms were a joke and said Saakashvili had deceived the Americans into believing he was a democrat.

“I have always blamed Saakashvili for what has gone wrong in Georgia, and I can repeat that today: This man’s ideology has established a climate of lies, violence and torture“

- Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of Georgian Dream coalition

“I have always blamed Saakashvili for what has gone wrong in Georgia, and I can repeat that today: This man’s ideology has established a climate of lies, violence and torture,” he said.

Georgian Dream was leading Saakashvili’s United National Movement by 54.02 to 41.23 per cent after 72.84 per cent of electoral precincts declared results in the proportional ballot that will decide just over half of the parliamentary seats.

In the opposition stronghold Tbilisi, Georgian Dream candidates were leading in nine of the capital’s 10 first-past-the-post constituencies.

Such votes in 73 constituencies nationwide will make up the remainder of the parliament.

By conceding defeat even before the results of the election were released, Saakashvili defied the opposition’s expectations that he would cling to power at all costs and preserved his legacy as a pro-Western leader who brought democracy to the former Soviet republic.

He also prevented potential violence on the emotionally charged streets of Tbilisi. Opposition supporters began celebrating there as soon as the polls closed, and the mood could have turned ugly very quickly if they thought they were being deprived of a victory.

Democratic ‘milestone’

In Washington, the White House welcomed the vote as “the achievement of another milestone in Georgia’s democratic development” and urged Saakashvili and Ivanishvili to “work together in the spirit of national unity”.

In neighbouring Russia, the government welcomed Saakashvili’s defeat, for he and President Vladimir Putin have had a deep enmity since a brief 2008 war between their nations.

During his nearly nine years in power, Saakashvili has pushed through economic and political reforms and attracted international investment that has led to dramatic economic growth. Poverty and unemployment, however, remain painfully high.

Still, many Georgians have turned against Saakashvili in recent years. Many accuse his UNM party – which has controlled not only the government and Parliament but also the courts and prosecutor’s office – of exercising authoritarian powers.

Saakashvili’s campaign was also hit hard by the release two weeks ago of shocking videos showing prisoners in a Tbilisi jail being beaten and sodomised.

The government moved quickly to stem the anger, replacing Cabinet ministers blamed for the abuse and arresting prison staff, but many saw the videos as illustrating the excesses of his government.

In his televised concession speech, the president said there were deep differences between his party and the diverse opposition coalition.

“We think their views are completely wrong,” he said. “But democracy works through the majority of the Georgian people making a decision, and we respect this very much.”

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Thousands Turn Out For Opposition Rally In Tbilisi

Tens of thousands of people have attended an opposition rally in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to show their support for Bidzina Ivanishvili and his Georgian Dream coalition in ahead of parliamentary elections on October 1.

Ivanishvili addressed the crowd saying the current Georgian government has “led the country to a dead-end under the pretext of democracy and care.”

Ivanishvili claimed not only had the government failed to fulfill promises to solve the country’s problems but “they also multiplied them.”

The opposition rally on September 29 comes after the ruling United National Movement staged a rally the previous evening which drew some 70,000 people.

German news agency dpa and Russian news agency ITAR-TASS estimated the crowd for the pro-Ivanishvili rally was up to 200,000 people.

Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and ITAR-TASS

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Opposition meets in Syria amid fresh violence

Syrian opposition figures who reject foreign intervention in the country’s 18-month conflict have called for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad at a rare meeting in the nation’s capital.

Sunday’s opposition conference was attended by diplomats from Iran, Russia and China, Assad’s main international allies.

The loose network of Syrian rebel groups and the political opposition outside Syria believe Assad will not carry out reforms or a peaceful transfer of power, and some have called for foreign military intervention to break the stalemate in the conflict.

The United States and its allies have refrained from such action, partly because of international divisions over Syria and fears of a wider conflict.

The opposition figures who met in Damascus said they are open to the idea of a political settlement, even though the conflict so far has eluded all attempts at mediation.

Tight security around Damascus

Assad’s government tightly restricts criticism in areas it controls, and security was tight for Sunday’s one-day conference at a Damascus hotel, attended by dozens of people. Streets leading to the hotel were blocked off, plainclothes security agents patrolled the perimeter and participants passed through security checks.

A bomb hidden in a black bag exploded on a footbridge in downtown Damascus, close to the Four Seasons hotel, about a kilometre from where Sunday’s opposition conference was held.

Two people suffered slight injuries, witnesses said.

Sunday’s meeting was organised by the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, or NCB, an umbrella for 16 opposition groups.

On Thursday, two senior NCB leaders disappeared after landing at Damascus International Airport, along with a friend who was to pick them up, and the NCB has blamed the government for the disappearance.

The government claimed the three were kidnapped by “terrorist groups”, a phrase it uses to describe rebels.

Despite the incident, the group said participants agreed on the idea of “overthrowing the regime with all its symbols” while emphasising the need for “peaceful struggle to achieve the goals of the revolution”.

“It’s our right to meet here in the capital to express our views without being subject to dictates and pressures or to be forced to make concessions,” said the NCB’s head, Hassan Abdul-Azim, who spent years in Syrian prisons for his role as an opposition leader.

The strong language may be aimed at gaining credibility among Syrians who do not support the government, but are also weary of a conflict that has descended into civil war in many areas.

NCB leaders, most of them traditional leftists, accuse the rebels and the Syrian National Council, a political opposition group based outside Syria, of being beholden to Turkey, which shelters defected Syrian generals and opposition figures, as well as Gulf Arab countries that support the rebels.

The rebels, in turn, accuse the NCB of being cut off from grassroots opposition fighters on the ground. Many rebels look askance at any political plan short of Assad’s immediate ouster, seeing it as a play for time.

The statement emerging from Sunday’s conference called for an immediate ceasefire accompanied by the full withdrawal of the Syrian army from towns and cities and the release of all political detainees and kidnapped people.

This would be followed by the start of negotiations between the opposition and representatives of the Syrian government on a peaceful transition of power, it added.

The scenario outlined by the participants is similar to a six-point peace plan proposed by Kofi Annan, the former international peace envoy to Syria. 

The Russian ambassador in Damascus, Azmat Allah Kolmahmedov, praised the conference, calling it a “direct implementation of the process of reforms launched by the Syrian government, including the freedom of expression.”

Opposition bases hit

Meanwhile, government aircraft hammered opposition bastions nationwide on Sunday as rebels said they now control most of the country and have moved their command centre from Turkey to “liberated areas” inside Syria.

At least 40 people were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, as aircraft carried out strikes in central Homs province, Deir Ezzor in the east and areas of Damascus.

Apartment blocks in Albu Kamal, a town in oil-rich Deir Ezzor province, were targeted as rebels and soldiers battled on the ground in several districts of the town on the Iraqi border.

“The insurgents are trying to wrest control of this strategic town,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman. Losing Albu Kamal would be “a deadly blow for the regime”, he added.

Helicopter gunships opened fire on the Damascus neighbourhoods of Barzeh and Qaboon as well as the suburb of Harasta, while troops pounded rebel areas in Aleppo in the north and neighbouring Idlib and Deraa in the south, the Observatory reported.

As the fighting continued unabated, Colonel Ahmad Abdul Wahab of the Free Syrian Army said the regime’s aerial superiority was the only thing preventing the FSA from taking control of the capital.

“We control most of the country. In most regions, the soldiers are prisoners of their barracks. They go out very little and we can move freely everywhere, except Damascus,” Abdul Wahab said.

“With or without outside help, the fall of the regime is a question of months, not years,” he said.

“If we had anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles, we could quickly gain the advantage. But if foreign countries don’t give us these, we will still win. It will take longer, that’s all.”

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Belarus Holds General Elections Amid Opposition Boycott

Belarus is holding parliamentary elections on September 23 that are being boycotted by the main opposition parties.

Election authorities said nearly 20 percent of registered voters had already cast their ballots in early voting by September 22 afternoon.

The vote is expected to elect a rubber-stamp parliament, with most powers remaining in the hands of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who has ruled Belarus since 1994.

On September 21, six opposition groups called on voters to shun the vote, saying it would be a vote of no-confidence in Lukashenka’s regime.

The country’s two main opposition parties, United Civic and the Belarusian People’s Front, have pulled out of the race, denouncing it as a farce marred by the detention of political activists.

Two other opposition parties, Just World and the Belarusian Social Democratic Party, are still in the race, while members of unregistered opposition movements are listed as unaffiliated candidates.

Speaking at a harvest festival in Gorki on September 21, Lukashenka said opposition leaders were “afraid of going to the people.”

“They have shown that they are nothing. They will lose even those dozen people who still support them — they will lose them totally,” Lukashenka said.

Amnesty International says the run-up to the elections had been marred by arrests and detention of opposition members.

The vote comes two years after President Lukashenka won a fourth term.

The results of the presidential vote sparked confrontations in the capital, Minsk, between security forces and opposition activists who claimed the vote had been rigged.

Rights groups say some 15 political prisoners remain jailed out of the dozens arrested during a crackdown on the protests.
 

Based on reporting by AFP, Reuters, and AP

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Islamic Extremists Infiltrate Syrian Opposition

Posted GMT 9-22-2012 6:55:42

WASHINGTON (VOA) — As the conflict rages in Syria, regional analysts say Islamic extremist groups increasingly are infiltrating the opposition forces fighting the government. This could radicalize Syrian rebels, causing significant problems for efforts to end the conflict and stabilize the country.

An amateur video shows fighters with Ahar al-Sham, an Islamic jihadist group, that appear to be attacking a Syrian military personnel carrier.

A fierce gun battle erupts.

Another video by the group shows an explosion under a Syrian tank.

Evidence, regional political analysts say, that groups linked to al-Qaida are involved in the Syrian conflict. “We have seen videos come from the opposition forces of rebels with the black banner of al-Qaida,” said Malou Innocent of the Cato Institute. “We have heard Iraqi officials say that al-Qaida elements have been pouring over their border into Syria.”

Damascus long supported terrorist organizations within Syria, and they have now turned on the government.

Syria was a transit point for al-Qaida militants fighting coalition forces during the Iraq war. Regional analyst Elizabeth O’Bagy said there is a small, but growing, jihadist presence.

“The logistical networks that were facilitated by the Syrian regime in the past are now working in the reverse direction, funneling al-Qaida in Iraq and Islamic State of Iraq operatives into Syria,” she said.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used the threat of jihadists to build support among the minority Alawite and Christian communities.

Daniel Newman, who heads the Arabic Department at Britain’s Durham University, said the arrival of extremists plays into that narrative.

“And so ironically this is, to this day, being used by the regime, particularly in their dealings with the Christian minority. ‘You see this is what will happen. You see, it is what we said all along – these are Islamists and you will suffer under the yoke of the Islamists.’”

The U.S. says it will not arm the rebels because weapons could fall into the wrong hands.

Analysts say predominantly Sunni Muslim countries in the region, however, are providing money and munitions. And the increase in radical Islamists could have serious implications.

“It also poses significant problems for Syria’s future stability in a post-Assad future,” said O’Bagy. “If there are radical elements that are able to gain a foothold, they could seriously hurt any form of a democratic vision for what comes next.”

As the Syrian government increases its use of warplanes and heavy weapons against rebels and civilians, there are fears the opposition will become more radical and that is likely to prolong the conflict.

By Meredith Buel

Assyrian International News Agency

U.S. Says Ukraine Relations ‘On Hold’ Due To Prosecutions Of Opposition

Washington says relations with Ukraine are “on hold” due to Kyiv’s prosecution of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other leaders of the Orange Revolution.

Philip Gordon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, made the statement at the Center for European Policy Analysis’ U.S.-Central Europe Strategy Forum on September 20 in Washington.

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 19 unanimously passed a resolution urging the State Department to impose a visa ban on Ukrainian officials “responsible for the imprisonment and mistreatment of Ms. Tymoshenko.”

Gordon told RFE/RL that the U.S. administration “shares the concerns of Congress,” but added, “It is not our policy at present to cut off ties with the Ukrainian government as part of an effort to [make them] do the right thing on elections or prosecutions. We don’t believe that that would be effective.”

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Belarus Opposition Activists Jailed Until After Elections

MINSK — A court in Minsk has sentenced three opposition activists from the Tell the Truth movement to jail for attempting to organize a rally calling for a boycott of the September 23 parliamentary elections.

The jail sentences of seven, 10, and 12 days will keep the three in prison until after the September 23 vote.

A fourth activist was fined 2 million rubles, or about $ 240, in the case.

The activists were arrested on September 18 along with Belarusian and international journalists.

The journalists have been released.

The Tell the Truth movement encourages Belarusians to speak out about social problems in the country.

It was launched in 2010 by opposition politician and former Belarusian presidential candidate Uladzimer Nyaklyaeu.

Two major opposition parties in Belarus announced earlier this month that they will boycott the legislative elections.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Belarus Opposition Urges Election Boycott, Says ‘Go Fishing’ Instead

Two main opposition parties in Belarus are calling for a boycott of upcoming parliamentary elections on September 23, denouncing the vote as a farce and urging people to “go fishing or visit your parents” instead.

The opposition United Civic Union and the Belarusian National Front also withdrew their candidates, saying the elections cannot be democratic as long as opposition activists remain jailed.

Human rights groups say about 15 political prisoners remain jailed out of scores who were imprisoned after the December 2010 presidential election.

Mikalay Lozovik, of Belarus’s Central Election Commission, criticized the boycott, saying on September 17 that the decision shows “disrespect for voters” and represents a “travesty of law.”

Belarus’s political system is strictly controlled by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

International monitors routinely condemn the country’s elections as unfair.

Based on reporting by Reuters, ITAR-TASS, Interfax, and AP

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Bahrain Court Upholds Jail Sentences For Opposition Activists

A civilian court in Bahrain has upheld the prison sentences given to 20 opposition activists charged with plotting to overthrow the Gulf Arab monarchy.

The verdicts, originally issued by a military court, include eight life sentences.

The defendants were all prominent figures in last year’s Bahraini uprising led by the country’s majority Shi’ite Muslims.

Seven of the 20 men were tried in absentia.

Bahrain, where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is based, was rocked by a months-long protest movement against the ruling Sunni dynasty.

The protests came during a wave of revolts against authoritarian governments across Arab nations.

Those sentenced to life in prison included rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, who went on a 110-day hunger strike to protest his detention.

After the original sentences were upheld on September 4, defense lawyers said they plan to appeal.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and the BBC

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Putin Spokesman Brands Opposition Report ‘Pseudo-Revelations’

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, has dismissed a report regarding property presumably at the disposal of Putin that was published recently by opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

Talking to journalists on August 31, Peskov said he regretted “that such attempts at pseudo-revelations are associated with opposition.”

According to Peskov, there was no constructiveness in Nemtsov’s report.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Nemtsov, who is currently a leading member of the opposition Other Russia movement, issued a report on August 28 saying that Putin is spending billions of taxpayer rubles on 20 luxurious residences, 43 jets, and four yachts.

Based on reporting by Interfax and ITAR-TASS

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Opposition frets as Angolans head to polls

Angolans are heading to the polls in the second election since the end of their 27-year civil war, with the opposition complaining about the authenticity of the voter roll.

Nine million voters in Africa’s second-largest oil producer are registered to vote in Friday’s election which is likely to extend President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s grip on power despite a revitalised opposition.

Voting begins at 7am (0600 GMT), with polls set to close 11 hours later.

Friday was declared a national holiday and the election commission has opened more than 10,000 polling stations.

Initial results are expected within a day, with final returns some time next week.

Angolans will cast votes for parliamentarians, with the leader of the winning party becoming president.

The ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in power since independence from Portugal in 1975, took more than 80 percent of the vote in the last elections four years ago and is expected to win comfortably again.

For the main opposition Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which won only 10 per cent of the vote in 2008, the elections are a chance to prove that the former rebellion is still relevant to national
politics.

Isaias Samakuva, the leader of UNITA, has already raised concerns about irregularities, mainly about the voter roll, in a campaign that has centred on calls for greater democracy and transparency in government.

Missing names

Speaking on Thursday, Samakuva said: “Many Angolans’ names don’t appear on the voter roll, and in many places the voter roll has not been released.

“We have come to the conclusion that the National Electoral Commission is not ready.

“The conditions don’t exist to ensure the minimum of an organised, transparent process.”

Samakuva unsuccessfully sought to meet Dos Santos to discuss his party’s long-held concerns about the electoral roll and the accreditation of 2,000 of its activists to monitor the balloting.

UNITA splintered earlier this year, with the charismatic Abel Chivukuvuku forming the Casa party in April, along with a top-level defector from the MPLA, smaller opposition groups and prominent members of civil society.

He has made inroads by actively courting the youth vote with promises of better jobs and housing, seeking to harness the frustrations of the youth in a country where more than half the population is under 18.

In the decade since Angola’s war ended, the oil-powered economy has become one of the fastest-growing in the world, showering the elite with fabulous riches while 55 per cent of the population live in abject poverty, according to UN data.

The elections come a day after police arrested several members of  Salvation-Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE) party after they tried to enter the national electoral commission (CNE) building to demand credentials to observe the vote at polling stations, a party official and police said.

William Tonet, a candidate for CASA-CE), told the Reuters news agency that police guarding the CNE in Luanda, the capital, fired shots to keep back dozens of young party members who approached the building.

 ’Disappointing’ campaign

About a dozen party members were taken away by police, Tonet said.

A police officer at the Quarta Esquadra police station near the electoral commission told Reuters that several CASA-CE members were arrested but he could not confirm shots were fired.

No one was hurt in the incident, which followed a month of generally peaceful campaigning, said Tonet.

Tonet said that out of the 6,850 credentials requested by CASA-CE, the electoral commission had issued only 3,000. UNITA has made similar complaints about credentials not being issued.

However, the CNE said earlier that more than 97,000 observers from the nine parties contesting the election had been accredited to watch over the vote..

Luis Ngimbi, head of a local team of observers, said while no major incidents were reported in the run-up to the polls, “the campaign has been disappointing” because the parties’ promises lacked content of their promised policy programmes.

National police commander general Ambrosio de Lemos said that his forces would ensure that all the electoral laws were obeyed.

“We will not tolerate nor allow these elections to be derailed,” he told a news conference.

“Citizens must be able to access the polling stations, in accordance with their civil rights, without any problems.”

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Syrian Opposition Warns Of Catastrophe In Homs

Syria’s main opposition group has urged the United Nations and Arab League to intervene in order to prevent a “catastrophe” in central Homs province.

Syrian National Council member Naji Tayyra said on August 25 that Homs residents have now been besieged for more than 80 days by regime forces and all supply routes had been cut off. 

Homs, a flashpoint of the revolt that started against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, has seen some of the fiercest battles between troops and opposition forces in recent months.

The call for intervention comes as the new U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria prepares to take up renewed international efforts to mediate peace in the country.

Brahimi met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations headquarters in New York on August 24.

The visit by the veteran Algerian diplomat was Brahimi’s first public appearance there since he accepted the task of trying to negotiate an end to Syria’s civil war.

Brahimi said he was “honored, flattered, humbled and scared” when contacted by Ban about the job, but that he would give it his “very best” effort. 

Brahimi said his predecessor, Kofi Annan, had failed in the mission because “the international community was not as supportive as he needed them to be.”

Ban said Brahimi had the backing of the international community to help resolve the Syrian crisis.

“The longer this fighting goes on the more people will be killed [and] the more people will suffer,” Ban said, adding that Brahimi’s “contribution” and “leadership” would be “very important.”

Meanwhile, in related news, the UN refugee agency says more than 200,000 Syrians have fled to neighboring countries during the conflict, surpassing their earlier estimates. 

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Turkish Opposition Says Government Ignoring Presence of Al-Qaida

Posted GMT 8-24-2012 23:41:4

ISTANBUL (VOA) — Turkish political opposition members are claiming that Turkish authorities are turning a blind eye to Islamic militants based in Turkey who are crossing over the border to join the opposition fighting the Assad government in Syria.

Mehmet Ali Edipoglu is parliamentary deputy for the main opposition Peoples Republic Party, for Hatay — the main city in the Antakya province that borders Syria.

While he says he has no complaints about the Syrian rebels operating from the region, the past few months there has been a worrying change in the influx of new fighters.

Edipoglu says militants who are coming from Libya, Chechnya, Afghanistan, and from various countries in Africa are placed in Hatay and they say they are here to fight for Syria, to make a Jihad and bring Sharia, he says. He says they all openly say that they are al-Qaida and there have been incidents of small fights between these people and Hatay locals. Edipoglu says many are now getting to guns to protect themselves and he says he spoke to the governor and police many times and they tell him they are keeping these people under control.

The population of the Antakya region is a complex mix of Sunnis , Christians and Alawites. The region also has a strong secular population.

During a visit to Istanbul earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced concern over the presence of radical islamic elements amongst the Syrian rebels. and in particular potential links to al-Qaida.

“We worry about terrorists, PKK and Al-Qaida and others taking advantage of the legitimate fight of the Syrian people,” Clinton said.

Despite that concern being discussed during meetings this week between Turkish and U.S. officials in Ankara, Edipoglu says Turkish authorities are turning a blind eye to radical Islamic groups within the Syrian rebels who are basing themselves in Turkey.

Edipoglu says the recent big clashes are taking place around the Turkish border with Syria and he says every day, what he calls al-Qaida militants are picked up from their homes and put on the buses in Antakya. He says every day and night, 40 or 50 mini buses leave for Syria and they fight there and come back and this happens every day and he says state authorities are providing the buses, even escorting them.

But the Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Selcuk Unal denies that any such support is being given to any of the Syrian rebel groups. He says there is concern about the threat of al-Qaida elements entering Syria, but says there is not too much Turkey can do.

“We don’t have any hard evidence about any kind of passage from Turkey or any other countries, otherwise we would of course be willing to take the necessary steps to avoid any kind of escalation. But its a 900 kilometer border, of course our border authorities are doing their best,” Unal said.

Turkey has had a bitter experience with al-Qaida in the past.

In 2003, an al-Qaida faction set off four van bombs across the city of Istanbul targeting synagogues, the British consulate and the headquarters of a bank. 67 people were killed and more than 700 injured.

Experts point out that many of these al-Qaida members had fled to Turkish border cities after being defeated in battle against U.S.-led forces in !raq.

International relations expert Soli Ozel of Kadir Has University fears a repeat of the events in Iraq, for both Syria and Turkey.

“We don’t know if we are going to have a repeat of Iraq in terms of al-Qaida involvement in Syria. But given the fact that things are reverting back to a civil war conditions again in Iraq between Sunni and Shia and al-Qaida appears to be back. To have this radical elements on two of our southern borders, I don’t think it bodes well for Turkey — a country which has a serious ethnic problem and a sectarian one,” Ozel said.

For now observers say Ankara’s priority appears to be the growing Syrian refugee crisis its facing in the east and the bringing down of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. But over the past few years, with Turkish security forces having detained scores of al-Qaida suspects, concerns are growing in Turkey that another crisis is brewing that will cause even bigger problems.

By Dorian Jones

Assyrian International News Agency

Iranian Opposition Leader Musavi Back Home After Heart Scare

Iranian opposition leader and former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Musavi has reportedly been transferred back to his Tehran home following hospitalization one day earlier.

An adviser, Ardeshir Arjomand, told Radio Farda that Musavi’s health has improved since he underwent an angiography on August 22 in a Tehran hospital.

The adviser confirmed that the Green Movement leader is now being held at home, where he and his wife have been forced to remain for the past 17 months.

Musavi, an unsuccessful challenger in the fiercely disputed presidential race awarded to Mahmud Ahmadinejad in 2009, has been confined to his home since February 2011.

Musavi, his wife Zahra Rahnavard, and reformist cleric Mehdi Karrubi were put under house arrest after making a call for a rally in support of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Musavi and Karrubi have accused the Iranian establishment of rigging the 2009 vote and committing human rights abuses in the crackdown that followed massive street protests and other forms of dissent.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Iran’s Opposition Leader Musavi Transferred to Hospital

Iranian opposition websites are reporting that leading Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi, who has been under house arrest since February 2011, has been taken to hospital.

The reports quote unnamed sources as saying that Musavi was treated at the coronary care unit of a Tehran hospital that specializes in cardiology for a heart condition.

The reports say he was taken to the hospital on August 23 under tight security.

The opposition website IranGreenVoice reported that the night before Musavi was admitted to the hospital, security forces arrived and installed surveillance cameras inside the building.

Ardeshir Arjomand, who is Musavi’s advisor and a spokesman for the opposition Coordinating Council for the Green Path of Hope, confirmed in an interview with RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that Musavi was taken to a Tehran hospital, where he remains.

“We haven’t been able the confirm the details yet,” he said. “We are waiting for confirmation but the news that [Musavi] has been transferred to hospital and went through an angiography is correct.”

Arjomand, who is based in Paris, blamed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for Musavi’s ailing health.

“Musavi was in perfect physical health [before] being put under arrest,” he said. “Direct responsibility for anything that happens to Musavi lies with Ayatollah Khamenei.”

Musavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, is said to be with her husband at the unnamed hospital in Tehran.

Away From The Public Gaze

Musavi, his wife, and opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi were put under house arrest in February 2011 by the government after their call for street demonstrations in solidarity with the Arab Spring uprisings brought out tens of thousands of protesters.

Since their arrest, the authorities have cut off all their contact with the outside world, leaving the three isolated. On rare occasions, family members have been allowed to meet with them under the close watch of security forces. 

Earlier this week, Arjomand called on United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki- Moon to use his upcoming attendance at the Nonaligned Movement summit in Tehran to meet with Musavi, Rahnavard, and Karrubi and express his concern over the ongoing human rights abuses.

By keeping the opposition figures under house arrest, Iranian officials appear to be trying to make the public forget them, but opposition members and their supporters have done anything but.

Today, as the news broke about Musavi’s transfer to hospital, Iranians quickly shared the reports and posted pictures of him and his past statements on Facebook. 

And last year, a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez that Musavi reportedly recommended during a meeting with his daughters became a national bestseller in Iran.

Radio Farda broadcaster Hossein Ghavimi contributed to this report

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Belarus Refuses To Register Top Opposition Candidate

Election officials in Belarus have refused to register a leading opposition politician as a candidate in the September 23 parliamentary elections.

A district election commission said Alyaksandr Milinkevich was denied regsitration because too many of the signatures he gathered from supporters were invalid.

Election officials also declared that Milinkevich — leader of the opposition Movement For Freedom — did not provide correct information about his income or the property he owns.

Milinkevich told the French news agency AFP that the ruling “is a political decision” and that he will appeal.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa and charter97.org

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Former Tajik Opposition Field Commander Killed In Badakhshan

Reports say former United Tajik Opposition field commander Imomnazar Imomnazarov, who led fighters in the 1992-97 Tajik civil war, has been killed in Tajikistan’s eastern Badakhshan region.

The reports said Imomnazarov was killed early on August 22 in his home, and his brother and several other people were wounded.

According to the reports, it was not immediately clear who was responsible for the killing.

Imomnazarov had been wanted by authorities in connection with the death of a top security official who was killed in Badakhshan in July.

The death led to fighting between Tajik government troops and militants that left some 70 people dead.

Hostilities ended after a truce was agreed and illegally armed groups pledged to hand in weapons.

Tajikistan’s Asia-Plus news agency reported Imomnazarov suffered from diabetes and recently had difficulties walking.

Based on reporting by Asia-Plus and fergananews.com

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Ukraine’s Ruling Party Gets Catty, Opposition Bares Its Claws

For the second week in a row, Ukrainian social networks have been awash with cats.

As cute little kitties tend to abound everywhere on the Internet, you might think this is hardly unusual.

But these felines are at the heart of an intriguing political row ahead of Ukraine’s parliamentary elections in just over two months.

The story made headlines when antigovernment billboards that took a humorous swipe at the ruling Party of Regions were pasted over in the eastern city of Dniprodzerzhynsk in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

One of the billboards depicted a cat with an elderly woman who says: “I found out my grandson voted for the Party of Regions, so I rewrote [my will] to give my house to the cat.”

Photographs of the old lady and her kitty soon appeared on social media and have been making the rounds ever since.

Rumors quickly circulated that the billboards were removed because local officials wanted to put a halt to such negative campaigning, an accusation that they deny.

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Opposition politician Maksym Holosnyy

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The owner of the billboard space has also denied that there was any pressure from the authorities to get rid of the posters.

In a video address published on YouTube on August 18, Olena Dzarasova said that a decision was taken to remove the billboard with the cat because of “an obscene word.”

She neglected to mention which word had caused such offense.

Dzarasova also accused the man behind the ad campaign, Maksym Holosnyy, of falsely claiming that she had ended up in the emergency room at a hospital after being contacted by a high-ranking official.

Man On The Run

Holosnyy, 30, is running for parliament in the elections, which are scheduled for October 28.

He is also running away from the police.

The former regional village head went into hiding after the authorities launched a criminal investigation against him over theft allegations.

He claims that the charges are politically motivated because of his oppositionist stance, but police insist the probe has nothing to do with the antigovernment billboard campaign he created.

Adaptations of Ukraine’s “Granny and Cat” meme have now gone viral.

​​Writing to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Holosnyy said he had not expected the cat billboard to achieve such notoriety.

He believes it was the local authorities’ heavy-handed response that made his campaign so popular.

“[Without them] the most people we could have hoped to reach would have been a small percentage of residents on the left bank of Dniprodzerzhynsk,” he said.

“The main motive [for the advertising campaign] was to protest,” he added. “It was a protest against monotonous and dull political advertising, a protest against false ‘improvements,’ against the blatant PR of the authorities, the one-sided presentation of information by corrupt media, the repression of political dissent and, ultimately, against elections without choice.”

Although Holosnyy is no longer affiliated with any party, he himself used to be a member of the Party of Regions. He told RFE/RL that he became a member in 2004 when he was still an architecture student “partly as a result of his opposition” to the Orange Revolution.

Nonetheless, Holosnyy maintains he was not active in the party and did not pay membership fees, even though he decided to renew his membership in 2010 in order to be elected as a village head.

“I was told in private that it would be difficult for me to get elected without being on the Party of Regions’ ticket, and I wanted to give it a try,” he said.

However, Holosnyy was expelled from the ruling party in 2011. He believes this happened because of his independent views.

Grassroots Campaign

Now it seems his billboard attack on the party has sparked a grassroots opposition campaign.

On August 19, a small group of “Grandmother and Cat” supporters gathered for their first public meeting on the other side of the country in the western town of Ternopil.

Two participants, including a regional council deputy, even brought cats to the meeting.

A “Grandmother and Cat” Facebook group has also been set up and currently has nearly 3,000 members. There are several other Internet groups dedicated to the same theme.

In fact, it has become such a ubiquitous meme that some Ukrainian social-network users have already started to complain that they have had their fill of cats.

But, as prominent blogger Yuri Lukanov has pointed out, this spontaneous outburst of creativity is unlikely to be silenced until it runs out of steam by itself.

Funnily enough, one of the last people to find out about the whole billboard brouhaha is the grandmother in the picture.

Local media have reported — and Holosnyy has since admitted — that the photograph of the old lady on the placard was filched from the Internet.

Apparently, she is a woman who lives in Russia and knew nothing about her new role in Ukraine until she became a web sensation.

– Maryana Drach

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

I Can Has Political Advertising: Cat-Themed Opposition Billboards Taken Down In Ukraine

DNIPROPETROVSK — With Ukraine’s parliamentary elections just over two months away, opposition campaigners in eastern Ukraine say their voices are being muffled — in one case by taking down political billboards featuring gigantic cats.

In the eastern city of Dniprodzerzhinsk, local council deputy Vitaly Kuprij is crying foul after 15 election billboards he ordered were simultaneously removed from city streets. Kuprij is running for parliament for the opposition Svoboda Party and his billboards had criticized Ukraine’s ruling Party of Regions with slogans like “Are you tired of abuses by the authorities?”

On August 16, it emerged that eight of the 15 missing billboards were discovered near an asphalt plant in the Petrykiv district.

The removal of the billboards comes after other antigovernment billboards created by Kuprij’s friend Maksym Holosnyj were also torn down.

One of Holosnyj’s humorous political advertisements — which was removed early last week from a site in Dniprodzerzhinsk — depicted a cat with an elderly woman who says: “I found out my grandson voted for the Party of Regions, so I rewrote [my will] to give my house to the cat.”

Holosnyj, head of a village in the region, has gone into hiding after authorities launched a criminal investigation against him over allegations of theft.

Holosynj maintains that those charges are politically motivated. But police say the probe had nothing to do with the antigovernment billboard campaign he created.

Police Investigation

Kuprij maintains that his billboards were removed on the orders of local officials from the Party of Regions in Dniprodzerzhinsk.

“I think they, the government, just decided to go in with full force so that there is no criticism. The authorities just gave the order to destroy [the billboards]. The police knew about this but they did not give any warning,” Kuprij said.

But Andrej Mikhejchenko, a local press secretary for the Party of Regions, says his party had nothing to do with the removal of the 15 billboards.

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Cat images have proliferated on image boards and social networks in support of the opposition.

​​Dnipropetrovsk regional police spokesman Oleksi Scherbatov has told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that authorities have not yet decided whether the disappearance of the political campaign advertisements constitutes a crime.

Scherbatov noted that a local court has been hearing a case over who owns the structures that hold up the billboards. He said police must confirm whether the court has issued any order for the removal of the billboards before deciding if a criminal case will be opened.

That court case was raised by Halyna Kuropiatnykova, a deputy in the Dniprodzerzhynsk city council from the Party of Regions who also heads of a local communal company called M.I.S.

Elena Kondratyuk, a member of parliament from the opposition “Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc,” has appealed to Ukraine’s prosecutor-general to find whoever took down the billboards.

Meanwhile, photos of the elderly woman’s cat are proliferating on social networks used by Ukrainians — apparently in sympathy with opposition forces who contest the parliamentary elections on October 28.  

Written by Ron Synovitz based on reporting by Maryanna Drach in Prague and Yulia Ratsybarska in Dnipropetrovsk.

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Trial Of Kazakh Opposition Leaders Opens

AQTAU, Kazakhstan — The trial of opposition leaders Vladimir Kozlov and Serik Saparghali and activist Akzhanat Aminov has begun in a regional court in Kazakhstan’s western city of Aqtau.

Kozlov, who is the leader of the unregistered Algha (Forward) opposition party, and the others face charges of forming and leading an illegal group, inciting social hatred, and calling for the violent overthrow of the constitutional structure of Kazakhstan.

The charges are connected to last year’s mass strike by oil workers in the western part of the country that ended in violence in December 2011 when 17 people were killed, most of them in the town of Zhanaozen.

Kozlov and the others claim the charges against them are politically motivated.

Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake said in Almaty on August 15 that the United States will closely follow the Kozlov’s fate.
 
Blake expressed hope that the trial is conducted fairly and does not set back democratic reforms in Kazakhstan.

With reporting by Interfax

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

U.S. Diplomat Urges Fair Trial For Kazakh Opposition Leader

Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake has said in Almaty that the United States will closely follow the fate of a Kazakh opposition leader whose trial starts August 16.

The U.S. diplomat expressed his hope that the upcoming trial of Vladimir Kozlov is conducted fairly and does not set back democratic reforms in Kazakhstan.

The leader of the unregistered opposition Algha (Forward) party, Kozlov was arrested in January and charged with fomenting unrest in the town of Zhanaozen, where police shot 16 people dead during clashes between law enforcement officers and striking oil workers in mid-December.

Kozlov and his supporters deny the charges, saying the case is politically motivated.

Based on reporting by AP and Interfax

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Syrian opposition calls for no-fly zone

A Syrian opposition official has asked for no-fly zones across Syria and safe havens patrolled by foreign forces near the borders with Jordan and Turkey.

Abdel basset Sida, head of the Syrian National Council, said the United States had realised that the absence of a no-fly zone to counter President Basher al-Assad’s air superiority has hindered rebel movements in the country.

“There are areas that are being liberated,” Sida told Reuters by telephone from Istanbul on Sunday. “But the problem is the aircraft, in addition to the artillery bombardment, causing killing, destruction.”

He said the establishment of secure areas on the borders with Jordan and Turkey “was an essential thing that would confirm to the regime that its power is diminishing bit by bit”.

He was speaking a day after the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her country and Turkey would study a range of possible measures to help Assad’s foes, including a no-fly zone, although she indicated no decisions were necessarily imminent.

“It is one thing to talk about all kinds of potential actions, but you cannot make reasoned decisions without doing intense analysis and operational planning,” she said after meeting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul.

A no-fly zone imposed by NATO and Arab allies helped Libyan rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi last year. The West has shown little appetite for repeating any Libya-style action in Syria, and Russia and China strongly oppose any such intervention.

On Sunday Syrian troops stepped up their attacks on rebel-held areas across the country, as state media reported the death of one of its reporters, blaming “terrorists”.

Assad’s forces reportedly shelled the districts of al-Shaar and Hananu in the east of the city of Aleppo, while clashes were reported in the northern city’s Salaheddin neighbourhood.

Syrian civilians desperate to check on their homes pushed into fluid front lines around Salaheddine, even as sniper fire cracked out and rebels warned them to stay away.

Elsewhere in the province, machine gun fire was heard on Sunday in the town of al-Tel, where 15 civilians were killed in shelling and clashes a day earlier as troops tried to regain control from rebels.

Journalist killed

Among those killed in government shelling in al-Tel is Yusuf al-Bushi, a Syrian army defector and a citizen journalist who worked with several international news organisations.

Journalists have suffered a number of casualties in the 17-month-old uprising against Assad, and in recent months there have been several attacks on pro-government media.

Rebels who seized swathes of the city three weeks ago have been fighting to hold their ground against troops backed by warplanes, helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery.

Assad has suffered some painful, but not yet fatal, setbacks away from the battlefield, losing four of his closest aides in a bomb explosion on July 18 and suffering the embarrassment of seeing his prime minister defect and flee to Jordan last week.

The Arab League on Saturday said it had postponed a meeting of Arab foreign ministers scheduled for Sunday to discuss the Syria crisis and to select a replacement for Kofi Annan, the United Nations-Arab League envoy, and would set a new date.

Deputy Arab League chief Ahmed Ben Helli told Reuters the meeting was delayed because of a minor operation undergone by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are the leading regional supporters of the Syrian opposition. Assad’s main backers are Iran and Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah movement.

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Kazakh Opposition Journalist Attacked, Hospitalized

ASTANA — The independent Kazakh media-rights organization Adil Soz says an opposition Kazakh journalist has been severely beaten by unknown assailants in Astana.

The group said Ularbek Baitailaq was attacked near his house early on August 8.

It said Baitailaq sustained severe injuries and was currently being treated in a hospital.

Baitailaq, who is a Kazakh National Archive employee, has contributed articles to the opposition “Dat” weekly, the “Chetvyortaya vlast” newspaper, and the “Altyn Tamyr” magazine.

The city police department has so far been unavailable for comment.

Opposition and independent journalists are often targeted by unknown attackers in Kazakhstan.

Four months ago, Lukpan Akhmedyarov, a journalist in the western city of Oral, survived an attack by unknown assailants who stabbed him and shot him with a pneumatic pistol.

With reporting by Interfax

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Syrian prime minister joins opposition

Riad Farid Hijab, the Syrian prime minister, has joined the opposition, he has announced, after state television reported that he was sacked this morning.

The former prime minister arrived in Jordan after being smuggled across the border, Jordanian authorities confirmed to Al Jazeera on Monday.

“I announce today my defection from the killing and terrorist regime and I announce that I have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution. I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution,” Hijab said in a statement read in his name by spokesman Muhammad el-Etri.

Etri also denied that Hijab had been sacked, saying that the government had made the announcement of his dismissal after officials realised that the prime minister had fled the country.

Etri said that the defection was planned “for months”, and was executed in conjunction with the Free Syrian Army.

The former prime minister encouraged other Syrian officials to defect in the wake of his announcement, Etri said, adding that with his departure other, less senior, officials “have no excuse not to defect”.

Heading to Qatar

He cautioned, however, that the Syrian government was likely to “react haphazardly, in a hysterical manner. It will perpetrate more killings [and] any official willing to defect must act wisely. He must take care of himself and his family”.

“The regime speaks only one language: the language of blood,” Etri told Al Jazeera.

Hijab is to leave Jordan for Qatar within days, following the example of other high-profile defectors, Etri told AFP news agency.

“Hijab will go to Doha, where international media are based. He will leave for Qatar tomorrow, the day after or after a few days,” he said in the Jordanian capital.

A member of the Syrian opposition in Jordan said Hijab will travel to Qatar “in the coming few hours”.

“We are currently co-ordinating to facilitate the departure of Hijab to Doha in the coming few hours, most probably at 2200 GMT. Seven of his brothers will stay in Jordan,” he told AFP, saying he had helped Hijab defect.

“We understand the sensitivity of this issue for Jordan. We do not want to create problems for the kingdom, which already has tense relations with the Syrian regime,” he said, on condition of anonymity.

Given ‘no choice’

President Bashar al-Assad appointed Hijab, a former agriculture minister, on June 23, following a parliamentary election in May.

Etri claimed that the former PM had not been given a choice, however, when appointed to the post.

“This defection has been being planned for more than two months. He was given two options: to either take the office of prime minister or be killed. He had a third option in mind: to plan his own defection in order to direct a blow to the regime from within and today he is declaring his defection,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I believe he is the highest ranking official in Syria [to defect]… it is one of a kind and it will have grave repercussions on the regime and significant implication after the departure of the regime and [for] the success of the revolution.”

Omar Ghaliwanji, Syria’s deputy prime minister, has been chosen to lead a caretaker government, state media reported on Monday.

Authorities hailed the May poll as being a major step towards political reform, but the opposition movement against Assad’s government dismissed them as a sham.

Hijab had been a part of the Baath party command since 1998, and was appointed as the head of the Latakia governorate when anti-government protests first broke out there last year.

Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said that while Hijab was not a key member of Assad’s inner circle, were he to join the opposition he would be the most high-profile official to have rejected Assad’s authority.

George Jabbour, a past adviser to former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, told Al Jazeera that the development was “certainly significant”.

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Russian Opposition Leader Says Office ‘Bugged’

Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny says listening devices and even a video camera were found in his office in Moscow.

The opposition blogger said after finding the “bug” in his office he telephoned police who found two microphones, a radio transmitter, a camera, and a battery to run the equipment.

Navalny posted a video of what he claimed were some of the devices found in his office.

Navalny is currently under investigation after allegations surfaced that he committed crimes while serving as an adviser to the Kirov region’s governor in 2009.

His supporters say the charges are politically motivated and designed to pressure Navalny into stopping his political activities.

Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS and Interfax

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Syrian prime minister joins opposition

Riad Farid Hijab, the Syrian prime minister, has joined the opposition, he has announced, after state television reported that he was sacked this morning.

The former prime minister arrived in Jordan after being smuggled across the border, Jordanian authorities confirmed to Al Jazeera on Monday.

“I announce today my defection from the killing and terrorist regime and I announce that I have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution. I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution,” Hijab said in a statement read in his name by spokesman Muhammad el-Etri. 

Etri also denied that Hijab had been sacked, saying that the government had made the announcement of his dismissal after officials realised that the prime minister had fled the country.

Etri said that the defection was planned “for months”, and was executed in conjunction with the Free Syrian Army.

President Bashar al-Assad appointed Hijab, a former agriculture minister, on June 23, following a parliamentary election in May.

Omar Ghaliwanji, Syria’s deputy prime minister, has been chosen to lead a caretaker government, state media reported on Monday.

Authorities hailed the May poll as being a major step towards political reform, but the opposition movement against Assad’s government dismissed them as a sham.

Hijab had been a part of the Baath party command since 1998, and was appointed as the head of the Latakia governate when anti-government protests first broke out there last year.

Such sackings are a common way for state television to react when an official has defected.

Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said that while Hijab was not a key member of Assad’s inner circle, were he to join the opposition he would be the most high-profile official to have rejected Assad’s authority.

George Jabbour, a past advisor to former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, told Al Jazeera that the development was “certainly significant”.

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October 1 Is ‘Dream’ Election Date For Georgian Opposition

The opposition Georgian Dream coalition couldn’t be more delighted with the date of this year’s parliamentary election, which will be held on October 1.

What’s so special about October 1? Well, on the Georgian Orthodox Church calendar, that’s St. Bidzina’s Day. And the leader of Georgian Dream is none other than Bidzina Ivanishvili.

For those producing Georgian Dream’s campaign ads, it’s a match made in heaven. And the opposition group is already looking to exploit it in key elections, which will set the stage for a presidential vote next year to choose a successor to President Mikheil Saakashvili.

“We are very glad that elections will be held on October 1. It seems that Saakashvili is looking forward to losing elections and we are looking forward to winning elections,” Maia Panjikidze, a spokesperson for Georgian Dream, told the news website Civil Georgia.

Bidzina Cholokashvili was a leading figure in the 17th century Bakhtrioni Uprising against the Persian army. He was killed in 1660 and was later canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Saakashvili, whose ruling United National Movement party has been in power since 2004, has gone out of his way to stress the importance of saints in Georgian culture.

He named May 6 — which is St. George’s Day, celebrating the country’s patron saint — a national holiday honoring the police.

So why did Saakashvili and the ruling party, which dominates Georgia’s parliament, hand this gift to a bitter foe? The choice of the day is odder still since October 1 falls on a Monday, while elections in Georgia are traditionally held on Sundays.

It’s all very unclear. What is clear is that Georgian law stipulates that parliamentary elections had to be held sometime in October. It is also widely believed in Georgia that the authorities wanted to hold the elections as soon as possible, since shorter campaign seasons tend to favor the ruling party.

For these reasons, it was widely expected that the vote would be scheduled for Sunday, October 7. But there was just one problem with that. Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition holds the seventh position on the ballot, and will be clearly marked by the numeral 7.

This would have presented the opposition with an irresistible marketing opportunity: “On October 7, circle number 7 for Georgian Dream.”

RFE/RL’s Georgian Service contributed to this report

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Kurdish Parties Unanimous in Opposition to Iraqi Army Deployment

Posted GMT 7-31-2012 5:39:53

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish political factions appear united in their opposition to the advance of the Iraqi Army in Nineveh province.

The standoff between the Iraqi Army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces shows no signs of abating. On Friday, the Iraqi government sent thousands of troops to the Zumar district where they attempted to cross Kurdish lines and control the Rabia border with neighboring Syria.

Najib Abdullah, a senior official from the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), said that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had no excuse for deploying troops to the area.

“What Maliki is doing is playing with fire because this political dispute could be resolved through dialogue, but when it gets to a military point, it will be dangerous,” he said.

Abdullah linked Maliki’s actions to the recent failed attempt to unseat him through a non-confidence motion. He said, “Maliki now sees himself as very strong … we should expect more such actions from Maliki.”

Kurdish Peshmerga forces in and around Zumar have not allowed Iraqi soldiers to enter areas under their control and have threatened to respond with force to any attempts to do so. Two Peshmerga battalions have been deployed in the area in addition to a backup artillery unit.

Gen. Izzadin Saado, commander of the 414th infantry battalion of the Kurdish forces, said the Iraqi Army was planning to reach Sihela village near the border with Syria. If they managed to do that, they would be able to control strategic areas such as Zumar, Sinjar and Mira that have been under Kurdish control since the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003.

These areas in Nineveh province are part of the “disputed” territories that both the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iraqi government lay claim to. They were “Arabized” under Saddam Hussein when a large number of Arab settlers were brought into the areas and Kurdish residents were expelled.

The refusal to allow Iraqi Army units to reach the Rabia border infuriated Maliki who issued a statement accusing Kurds of “violating the constitution.” The statement said there would be “no good ending” if Peshmerga forces threatened or prevented the Iraqi Army’s movement.

In response, the KRG Ministry of Peshmerga said that their forces abide by the constitution, alleging that Maliki himself was in breach of the charter because he appointed army division commanders unilaterally. Iraq’s constitution demands senior military commanders be approved by parliament, but Maliki has circumvented this by appointing many senior-ranking military staff.

Saado said that the Iraqi Army has now dispatched eight helicopter gunships and an artillery unit to the back up the troops that are there.

Ali Musawi, an advisor to Maliki, told Rudaw that Iraqi troops would not withdraw from the area.

“The Iraqi Army has been dispatched to the area by the government because the situation in Syria is not good and the troops want to protect the Iraqi border,” said Musawi.

He added that the Iraqi government has the constitutional right to deploy troops to those areas and that “those areas need the Iraqi Army and we are there to meet that need.”

The deployment of Iraqi troops came a few days after Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani told Al Jazeera that soldiers defecting from the Syrian army were being trained in the Kurdistan Region and would be sent back to Syria to fill any emerging “security vacuum.”

For his part, Musawi says the Iraqi army units had been moved before Barzani’s statements and were not a reaction to his remarks.

But Jabbar Yawar, secretary general of the Ministry of Peshmerga, said, “Let the Iraqi government protect its 300-kilometer border with Syria where terrorists infiltrate into Iraq and not try to control the 15 kilometers controlled by the Peshmergas.”

Latif Sheikh Mustafa, a Gorran MP in Iraqi Parliament, said that since authorities in Baghdad have failed to implement a constitutional provision regarding the fate of disputed territories, Kurds have the right to consider those areas as theirs.

However, Mustafa added that any deployment of forces in those areas should be coordinated by both sides.

Fatih Daraghayi, a lawmaker from the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), said the recent deployment of Iraqi troops in northwestern Nineveh is proof “that there is an autocratic authority in Iraq.”

“The Kurdistan Region and its Peshmerga forces acted legally by blocking the advancement of Iraqi troops,” said Daraghayi.

Azad Jundiyani, a senior official of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), expressed concern over the efforts of the Iraqi Army to control the border areas with Syria currently administered by Kurdish forces.

“Because there are Peshmerga forces in those areas, dispatching Iraqi troops is a mistake and a violation of agreements,” said Jundiyani.

By Hevidar Ahmed
www.rudaw.net

Assyrian International News Agency

Ukraine Opposition Includes Tymoshenko On Election List

Ukraine’s united opposition has included jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on its list of candidates for parliament in the elections scheduled for October 28.

Tymoshenko was added to the list during the opposition congress held July 30 in Kyiv.

Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year sentence after being convicted of abuse of power while she was prime minister.

She is also facing a second trial involving allegations that she evaded millions of U.S. dollars in taxes in connection with a private energy company she headed in the 1990s.

Tymoshenko’s supporters say the cases against her are politically motivated by her political rivals in power.

The United States and the European Union have condemned her prosecution.

Based on reporting by UNIAN and Interfax

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty

Opposition Rally Begins in Moscow

MOSCOW — Opposition activists have been staging a rally in Novopushkinsk Square in downtown Moscow amid tightened security measures. 

The sanctioned demonstration on July 26 has been described by its organizers as a rally against “repression and police lawlessness.” 

Protesters are expected to demand that authorities stop persecutions against participants of the May 6 mass opposition rally on Moscow’s Bolotnaya Square. 

Earlier on July 26, Russian police arrested two more activists in connection with the May 6 protests.

Fourteen other activists are already facing charges for their alleged role in that demonstration.

The May 6 protest — on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for a third term as president — included clashes between police and protesters and more than 400 people were detained. 

With reporting by Interfax

WATCH: Russian opposition activists have been staging a rally in Novopushkinsk Square in downtown Moscow (live stream in Russian)

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Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty