Mixed fortunes for former Mubarak-era ministers

Two have been ordered released from custody because they have served the maximum two years in detention. But the former finance minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali has been given another 25-year sentence, on top of the 30-year sentence he is already serving, in absentia (he is living in London).

The Cairo Criminal Court acquitted the former housing minister Mohamed Ibrahim Soliman on charges of illegally allocating land for the Six of October Development and Investment Company (SODIC). He was ordered released from custody pending a re-trial. The former tourism minister Zuhair Garana has also been ordered released from custody.

 

The Cairo representative of the former Libyan regime, Ahmed Gaddafadam, has been charged with attempted murder while resisting arrest. The charges will delay any attempt by the current authorities in Tripoli to secure his extradition to face charges in Libya.

 

The authorities have ordered the detention of seven people for belonging to the Black Bloc, a group of street activists opposed to President Morsi who dress all in black and wear black masks. It is unclear how much support they enjoy.

 

For more news and expert analysis about Egypt, please see Egypt Politics & Security.

 

© 2013 Menas Associates

Mauritania becomes 'meeting ground' for Azawad fighters

 

There have been several, albeit mostly vague, reports and local chatter about how Mauritania is becoming a meeting place for most of the increasing number of groups and factions contesting the future of the Azawad region of Mali.

In addition to the almost 100,000 refugees from Mali still in Mauritania (see below), representatives of Tuareg and Arab communities and groups from Azawad, representatives and members of many of the terrorist/Islamist organisations and Azawadian political movements, as well as politically influential Malians, are using Mauritania as a safe haven in which to meet and discuss their strategies for the future of both Azawad and Mali as a whole.

For the moment, this situation has not yet threatened instability in Mauritania. But it certainly has the potential to do so, not simply because of the distinct possibility of renewed fighting or at least skirmishing between these many groups, but also because there are signs that many of the Islamists that have been driven out of Mali by the Franco-Chadian forces may seek a new haven in Mauritania.

This is a threat faced by many other countries in the region, notably Niger, Burkina Faso and Libya, but it is probably greatest in Mauritania because of its many sympathetic Salafist strands and the links that Mauritania already has with these Islamists groups (notably AQIM and MUJAO).

Two names which have been mentioned within some concern within this context are Henoune Ould Ali and Amar Ould Hamaha. Ould Ali, from a small Arab tribe linked to the Berabich, is a wealthy trader believed to be a significant financier of MUJAO. Ould Hamaha, generally known as “Red Beard” in the Malian press, was prominent in both AQIM and MUJAO, and believed to be responsible for many of the atrocities committed by the Islamists in Timbuktu before creating Ansar Shari'a.

For more news and expert analysis about Mauritania, please see Mauritania Politics & Security.

© 2013 Menas Associates

Algeria: Protests Continue in South

 

There are no signs that the protests by the jobless in Algeria's desert regions are abating. According to the National Committee for Protection of the Rights of the Unemployed (CNDDC), and reported in the press, some 1,000 people turned out for the demonstration of jobless youths held in Ghardaia last Saturday (April 13).

The protest, unlike the one the previous week which ran into heavy police violence, was peaceful from beginning to end, just as organisers wanted it to be.

CNDCC members were determined to distance themselves from the violence of the previous demonstration in Ghardaia and the violence that had also broken in Ouargla the previous day (April 12). One young man had been killed in Ouargla from tear gas asphyxiation.

Tahar Belabbes, the national co-ordinator for the CNDCC, expressed disapproval over the clashes that erupted in his hometown of Ouargla. He said: “We have criticised and warned against the risk of young people being manipulated into becoming violent. Our movement is a peaceful one and will remain so.”

The next demonstration is scheduled to take place in Djelfa.

Belabbes said that the protests would not stop until the authorities engaged in a frank and transparent discussion with representatives of the unemployed. He noted that the CNDDC had representatives in all 48 provinces.

He added: “If the authorities intend to play the violence card to discredit us, they will need a whole army across all 48 provinces of the country to manipulate young people and spur them to commit acts of violence and counter-violence."

The movement's leaders have made no secret of their ambition of positioning themselves as an alternative to the traditional system of local representation and have been targeting local elected representatives and prominent figures, who they say have no right to speak on behalf of young people.

For more news and expert analysis about Algeria, please see Algeria Focus and Algeria Politics & Security.

© 2013 Menas Associates

Libya: Amendment draws criticism

The amendment to the Constitutional Declaration which was finally approved by the Congress on 9 April by 144 votes and which allowed for the ring fencing of the Political Exclusion Law has prompted no small degree of controversy inside Libya. The amendment that was aimed at ensuring that the law could not be overturned by the country's judiciary at appeal given that so many judges would be directly affected by the legislation, has drawn severe criticism from human rights groups and the judiciary itself.

The reaction is hardly surprising. The amendment included a new paragraph that was added to Article 6 of the Constitutional Declaration (which states that “Libyans shall be equal before the law”), stipulating that it would not be considered a breach of the declaration to “prevent certain individuals from taking up sovereign positions and leadership jobs in the state for a temporary period of time according to a law that will be issued to that effect and that does not breach human rights.” A change was also made to Article 2 of the declaration ruling that the minimum number of votes required to pass the political exclusion law is 101.

The Libyan Observatory for Human Rights condemned the amendment immediately, describing it as "an unprecedented violation of the rights of citizens to appeal against laws that would affect their lives or violate their rights". Some Libyans pointed out that Libya has ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that such an amendment runs counter to this international treaty. The country's judges were also outraged by the move which directly undermines them.

However, such is the pressure on the congress to pass the law, that it clearly concluded it had no option but to prevent its being sabotaged by the judiciary.

For more news and expert analysis about Libya, please see Libya Focusand Libya Politics & Security.

© 2013 Menas Associates

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on official visit to Ghana

 

Information Minister Mahama Ayariga said in a statement, “President Ahmadinejad will arrive on Tuesday 16 April to hold discussions with President John Mahama on strengthening the NAM and also co-chair a bilateral meeting between the two countries.”

The visit is part of a three-nation tour of West Africa during which the Iranian premier is also visiting Benin and Niger, one of Africa's biggest uranium producers.

Former minister of trade and industry Alan Kyeremanteng has lost out in his bid to lead the WTO after failing to make it through the first round of the selection process.

Kenya's Amina Mohamed, the other African candidate, has also left the race. Jordan's Ahmed Hindawi, the first candidate from an Arab nation in the WTO's 18-year history was the third candidate not to make it through to the second round.

Five candidates remain in the running: Mexico's Herminio Blanco, Brazil's Roberto Azevedo, New Zealand's Tim Groser, South Korea's Taeho Bark and Indonesia's Mari Pangestu, the only woman still under consideration.

For more news and expert analysis about Ghana, please see Ghana Politics & Security.

© 2013 Menas Associates

Suriname: KPMG to set up social security system

The Surinamese government has brought in the Dutch consultancy bureau KPMG to develop a Surinamese social security system. Vice President Robert Ameerali has again promised in the National Assembly that he country will have a new social security system no later than 1 January 2014. Suriname Politics & Security has previously reported on the plans to set up a social security system.

 

Addressing parliament, Ameerali looked more deeply into the parameters of the system. New retirement provisions will be introduced (many pensions have not yet been adjusted to the price increases for decades); general health insurance; a minimum wage and labour legislation will also be incorporated into the new system.

The vice president says that the government and KPMG are already working on a draft of the system.

 

By mid-2013, the government wants to start introducing some elements of the system.

The opposition has tried to insinuate that the contract with KPMG for setting up the social security system was arranged by a so-called 'underhand agreement'. But Ameerali defended the granting of the contract to the Dutch firm by explaining that only two companies registered to participate in the public bidding. The government chose KPMG on quality terms.

For more news and expert analysis about Suriname, please see Suriname Politics & Security.

© 2013 Menas Associates

Iraq: Fighting in Ninevah

 

 

Clashes broke out this month between the Haraki, a prominent Kurdish tribe, and a group of Shabak in the troubled Ninevah area. The Shabak are a Shia sect, described by some as Kurds, who live mainly in the Sinjar district of Ninevah.

The trouble flared after the Shabak accused members of the Haraki tribe of taking land from them. This led to clashes that erupted in the village of Dhob Zawa, east of Mosul. As the general secretary of the Shabak Democratic Gathering, Khaneen Gadou, explained, “The crisis was prompted by attempts by the Haraki to take control of huge areas of land totalling almost 4,000 hectares that belong to the Shabak. We tried to stop them and as a result a commotion developed and there were clashes involving light weapons that lasted for four hours.” The violence was sufficiently bad for Kurdish forces within the Iraqi army to have to intervene.

Gadou also complained that the move by the Haraki tribe was supported by the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He told the Al-Hayat newspaper that the Kurds were from Akra and had migrated to the Hamam Al-Aleel area where they began trying to control land that belonged to the Shabak in an attempt to “force a demographic change with the support of the KDP”. He also alleged that the Haraki tribe had the support of a number of Kurdish intelligence personnel who were helping to impose their control over the area to bolster the Kurdish support base in advance of the local election.

For its part, the Kurdish government has tried to distance itself from the issue, insisting that the disturbances were the result of social rather than political problems.

For more news and expert analysis about Iraq, please see Iraq Focus.

© 2013 Menas Associates