The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views
The Malaysian Insider :: Breaking Views |
| Tunisians set fire to police station, cars in border town protest Posted: 11 Jan 2013 08:21 AM PST  Protesters shout slogans and wave flags during a demonstration by the conservatives against the new Constitution in Tunis January 11, 2013. — Reuters pic Protesters in Ben Guerdane want the Ras Jedir crossing reopened so that trade with Libya, on which most of the population depend, can start again. Tunisian and Libyan authorities opened the crossing briefly yesterday but shut it because of the security threat. Four days of protests in Ben Guerdane turned violent yesterday. "Protesters burned police stations overnight ... now police are chasing them and firing teargas and shots into the air to disperse them," a Reuters photographer in Ben Guerdane said. Tunisia's Islamist-led government has sought to revive the economy hit by a decline in trade with Europe and by disputes between secularists and hardline Salafi Islamists over policy in the North African state, the cradle of the Arab Spring. Two years after the revolution that toppled Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, increasing numbers of Tunisians are staging street protests to demand jobs and economic development. Last month clashes between protesters and police in the northwest town of Siliana wounded more than 220 people. Two years ago, street peddler Mohamend Bouazizi burned himself to death two years ago in despair at the confiscation of his fruit cart in Sidi Bouzid, sparking an uprising in Tunisia that spread to Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain. — Reuters |
| US, Russia talks on Syria end without breakthrough Posted: 11 Jan 2013 08:17 AM PST  International mediator Lakhdar Brahimi. — Reuters pic Brahimi urged world powers to "create an opening" diplomatically to help stem the bloodshed and alleviate the Syrian people's suffering. He said that he would brief the U.N. Security Council later this month on his latest consultations. "We stressed again that in our view there was no military solution to this conflict. We underscored the necessity to reach a political solution based on the Geneva communique of 30 June 2012," Brahimi said in a joint statement read out after his closed-door talks with US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. Brahimi, in answer to a question on any concrete progress, told reporters: "If you are asking whether there is a solution around the corner, I'm not sure that is the case." Russia and the United States back opposing sides in Syria's 21-month-old conflict between President Bashar al-Assad's government forces and rebels fighting to topple him. Syria denounced Brahimi as "flagrantly biased" yesterday, casting doubt on how long the U.N.-Arab League mediator can pursue his peace mission. Brahimi, speaking to Reuters in Cairo a day earlier, said that Assad could have no place in a transitional government to end the civil war, the closest he has come to calling directly for the embattled president to quit. Asked today whether the Russians shared his views on Assad, he replied: "I am absolutely certain that the Russians are as preoccupied as I am, as preoccupied as the Americans are, by the bad situation that exists in Syria and its continuing deterioration. "I am absolutely certain they would like to contribute to its solution," he added. But pressed on whether Bogdanov had come with new proposals to pave the way for a political transition, he said: "We discussed a lot of things. They had ideas, others also had ideas." Earlier, a US official said the talks would focus on creating the conditions for a political solution, specifically a transitional governing body agreed at Geneva talks in June. That ministerial accord left open the fate of Assad. "The US position is clear: Assad has lost all legitimacy and must step aside to enable a political solution and a democratic transition that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people," the US official said, asking not to be named. Before the meeting, Bogdanov gave no indication Russia would abandon its insistence that Assad must not be forced out by external powers and that his exit cannot be a precondition for a Syrian political dialogue. Russia is "eagerly awaiting bringing the agreements reached in Geneva to life without damaging the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and without violating the right of the Syrian people to choose their own leaders," Bogdanov was quoted as telling Russia Today television. Before the talks, a Geneva-based Arab diplomat said he expected Moscow to bring some new ideas to the negotiating table. "The Russians asked for this meeting, so they must be coming with something," he said. "At the same time, they don't want to let Bashar go." — Reuters |
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