Observer & Busness 3 Mar 2012 - Oman Daily Observer

CAIRO — Several Egyptian
lawmakers yesterday accused
the government of bowing
to United States pressure by
allowing a group of foreign
NGO workers on trial in Cairo
to leave the country as well as
the earlier resignation of the
judges hearing the case.
Egyptian newspapers angrily
accused the ruling military
yesterday of caving in
to US pressure to allow the
foreign workers, including a
number of Americans, to escape
trial on charges of illegal
funding.
One of them also accused
the Supreme Council of the
Armed Forces (SCAF) of
trashing the concept of an independent
judiciary, insinuating
that it had strong-armed
the courts into lifting a travel
ban on the suspects.
“What happened is a scandal
for Egypt,” lawmaker
Mustafa Bakri was quoted
as saying in the semi-official
newspaper Al Ahram.
The judges hearing the case
resigned earlier last week.
Bakri, the lawmaker, said
he had asked the government
to explain to parliament the
7 REGION
OMAN DAILY Observer
SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 2012
Aid reaches Homs as insurgents quit
BEIRUT — An aid convoy prepared
to enter Baba Amro district of Homs
yesterday after Syria declared the
area cleared of insurgents.
Government troops earlier surrounded
the area with tanks and forces
for weeks.
Insurgents withdrew on Thursday.
An official at Syria’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Expatriates said the
army had “cleansed Baba Amro from
the foreign-backed armed groups of
terrorists.”
Activists said Syria’s army had
begun hunting down insurgents although
the reports could not be verified.
It was not immediately clear
how many insurgents died in the operation
and how many had fled.
Protesters meanwhile came out on
the streets in some towns and cities
— Homs, Hama, Deir al-Zor, Deraa
and some districts in Damascus, television
footage showed. Insurgents’
video footage appeared to show
troops firing at demonstrators.
The London-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights
claimed 13 people in protests when
troops clashed with protesters in the
town of Rastan. Independent verification
of such reports is extremely
difficult.
In Geneva, the United Nations
human rights body called upon President
Bashar al Assad to honour in-
SANAA — Yemen’s newlyelected
President Abd Rabu
Mansour Hadi has sacked
Mahdi Maqula from his post
as chief of the country’s southern
military zone, local media
reported yesterday.
Hadi, who was inaugurated
this week, ordered that
Maqula be replaced by Salem
Ali, a prominent army general
from southern Yemen, the
TEHRAN — Iranians voted
yesterday in a parliamentary
election seen as a test between
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei and President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
Iranian leaders were looking
for a high turnout as the
country faces economic turmoil
compounded by Western
sanctions over a nuclear
programme that has prompted
threats of military action by
Israel, whose leader meets US
President Barack Obama in
the White House on Monday.
Leading groups are staying
out of the contest which is now
seen as between the Khamenei
and Ahmadinejad camps.
“Whenever there has been
more enmity towards Iran, the
importance of the elections
has been greater,” Khamenei,
72, said after casting his vote.
DAMAGED buildings covered in snow are seen in Baba Amro district of Homs in this still image
taken from video footage broadcast on Syria TV yesterday. — Reuters
ternational law. “We are alarmed at
reports coming out of the Baba Amro
district of Homs,” spokesman Rupert
Colville said.
A government figure said troops
had “broken the back” of the uprising
and the insurgents’ withdrawal
heralded impending end to Westernbacked
insurgency.
The ICRC said a convoy had
Yemen military sees changes
government-run Al Gomhoriah
newspaper reported.
Maqula’s opponents accuse
him of corruption and
sidelining qualified army officers,
mainly those belonging
to the south.
The move came amid increasing
public pressure on
Hadi to remove supporters and
relatives of former president
Ali Abdullah Saleh from key
“The arrogant powers are
bullying us to maintain their
prestige. A high turnout will
be better for our nation ... and
for preserving security.”
Iranians may be preoccupied
with sharply rising prices
and jobs, but it is Iran’s nuclear
programme that is disturbing
many. Western sanctions over
the nuclear programme have
hit imports, driving prices up
and squeezing ordinary Iranians.
The election took place
without the two main opposition
leaders. Mirhossein
Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi,
who ran for president in 2009,
have been under house arrest
for more than a year.
No independent observers
are on hand to monitor the
voting or check the turnout
figures that officials will an-
reached Homs and was preparing to
enter Baba Amro. The Free Syrian
Army (FSA) said on Thursday it was
leaving the district.
Conditions in the insurgencyhit
district are hellish. TV footage
showed heavy snow and freezing
weather, with residents lacking electricity
or fuel for heating. There is
also a shortage of food and medical
posts in the country’s military
and security agencies.
Thousands demonstrated
across Yemen yesterday to
demand that the new president
restructure the army in the first
such rally since he took office
less than a week ago.
“The people want the army
restructured,” they chanted in
northern Sanaa. “The people
want a new Yemen.”
YEMENI protesters gather for a rally in Sanaa yesterday to demand the restructuring of the
army in the first such rally since a new president took office less than a week ago. — AFP
Aiming for military superiority
NEW YORK -- President
Barack Obama on Thursday
called US support for Israel
"sacrosanct," and said he
wanted the country to maintain
its "military superiority"
as he prepares to meet with
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
The two leaders are expected
to make discussions about
Iran's nuclear development
program a priority during their
planned meeting Monday at
the White House.
Obama spoke on Thursday
during a re-election campaign
fundraiser in New York,
where he discussed geopolitical
changes following the unrest
in some countries of the
region.
"One of our long-term
goals in that region is to make
sure that the sacrosanct commitment
that we make to Israel's
security is not only a matter
of providing them military
capabilities, not only providing
qualitative military edge,"
Obama said.
The United States also
should cooperate with Israel
"to try to bring about
peace in the region," Obama
said.
As he discussed foreign
policy, a woman yelled out,
"Use your leadership! No war
in Iran!"
Obama smiled and responded
by saying, "Nobody's
announced a war, young lady.
You're jumping the gun a little
bit."
At the moment, better relations
with Palestinians have
been put aside by Israel as
its leaders consider a strike
against Iran on its nuclear programme.
In his first public comments
on a North American
visit, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday
Israel reserved the right
to defend itself.
"As for Israel, like any sovereign
country, we reserve the
right to defend ourselves," he
told reporters in Ottawa at the
start of a meeting with Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen
Harper.
Netanyahu and other Israeli
officials say Iran's nuclear
program is designed to eventually
produce nuclear weapons
although the Iranians have
been maintaining that their
nuclear program is for entirely
peaceful purposes.
nounce.
Former president Hashemi
Rafsanjani said after voting in
Tehran, “If the election outcome
turns out to be what the
people cast in the ballot boxes,
God willing we will have a
good parliament.”
State media briefly showed
Ahmadinejad voting, apparently
making no comment afterward.
Polling stations opened at
8 am (0430 GMT) and were
due to close at 6 pm, but state
television said they would stay
open longer to cope with the
“extraordinary” turnout.
Ballots are counted manually
and Iranians may have to
wait three days for full results.
Voting was slow at first in
affluent northern Tehran but
picked up later. Voters queued
up in poorer parts of the capi-
supplies.
In a rare show of unity with Western
powers, Russia and China joined
other Security Council members at
the United Nations in appealing Syria
to allow the UN humanitarian aid
chief Valerie Amos to visit the country
immediately.
France announced it would shut
its Syrian embassy and was ready to
Cry of ‘scandal’ over release
Oil in Libya
2012 budget
TRIPOLI — Libya’s 2012
proposed budget draws
heavily on oil revenues,
forecast to reach about $54
billion or 41 billion euros,
to compensate for the loss
of corporate tax revenues in
last year’s conflict.
“Libyan state revenues
for this year will depend
heavily on oil revenues,” a
senior official was quoted as
saying late on Thursday.
The interim government
said in a report that the budget
was heavily reliant on the
oil sector to compensate for
losses in corporate tax revenues,
as both private and
public firms had suffered
financial losses in 2011 unrest.
Iranians vote in crucial elections
tal and in provincial cities,
witnesses said.
Khamenei has told Iranians
that their vote would be a “slap
in the face for arrogant powers”.
The two main groups competing
for parliament’s 290
seats are the United Front of
Principlists, which includes
Khamenei loyalists, and the
Resistance Front that backs
Ahmadinejad.
The president has long appealed
to Iran’s rural poor with
his humble image but spiralling
prices have dented his
popularity.
Prices of staple goods,
many of them imported, have
soared because the Iranian
rial’s value has sunk as US
and European Union sanctions
on the financial and oil sectors
begin to bite. — Reuters
reasons for lifting the travel
ban and to clarify whether the
judges had resigned as a result
of political interference in the
case.
Yusri Hamad, a lawmaker
from the Al Nour party, alleged
that a “dubious deal”
had been forged between
Egypt’s military rulers and the
US administration.
“This is an insult to the
Egyptians’ feelings and an infringement
of the judiciary’s
independence,” Hamad said.
The activists flew out of
Cairo on Thursday night, airport
officials said, a day after
the judiciary lifted the travel
ban.
Independent daily Al Tahrir
summed up the general mood
with its front-page headline:
“Scandal. Under orders from
the military, the judiciary
freed the Americans and let
them travel.”
“In only 24 hours, the
military council proved to the
world that any talk of judicial
independence in Egypt is no
more than an illusion,” the paper
said.
It accused the SCAF of
backing off under “pressure,
step up support of the insurgents if
the UN Security Council cleared the
way for such a move.
British Prime Minister David
Cameron said Syrian government
would be held to account. “We need
to start collecting the evidence now
so that there will be a day of reckoning”
for those responsible, Cameron
told reporters at a summit of EU leaders
in Brussels.
As news of the insurgents’ pull-out
from Baba Amro spread, video footage
released on the Internet appeared
to show the bodies of American journalist
Marie Colvin and French photographer
Remi Ochlik being buried
in Homs, where they were killed in
shelling eight days ago.
French journalists Edith Bouvier,
who was wounded in the same bombardment,
and William Daniels flew
to Paris yesterday from Lebanon,
Sarkozy said, the last of a handful of
reporters trapped in the city.
Armed insurgents and defecting
soldiers have been spearheading
the unrest in the country that
began with largely peaceful protests
inspired by incidents in the neighbourhood,
but somehow escalated
later on.
A Lebanese official said the defeat
for the attackers in Homs would
leave the opposition without any major
stronghold in Syria. — Reuters
negotiations and visits from
American officials to Cairo.”
On Tuesday, US Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton had
said there were “very intensive
discussions with the Egyptian
government”.
“But I don’t want to discuss
it in great detail because
it’s important that they know
that we are continuing to push
them but that we don’t necessarily
put it out into the public
arena yet,” she added.
The activists working for
four American and a German
NGO are also accused of operating
without licenses.
The Americans include
Sam LaHood, the son of US
Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood and head of the International
Republican Institute
(IRI) in Egypt.
Earlier, the three judges
handling the case recused
themselves under mysterious
circumstances.
State news agency MENA
said chief judge Mohammed
Shukry wrote to the head of
the appeals court, which designates
trial judges, saying
they could not continue the
trial. — Agencies
New charges sought in
assassination indictment
THE HAGUE — The prosecution
at the UN-backed court
probing the assassination of
Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq
Hariri is seeking to add a new
charge of criminal association
to the indictment, the tribunal
said yesterday.
“The prosecution is seeking
to add a new count to the
indictment of ‘criminal association’,
which is an offence
under the Lebanese penal
code,” the Special Tribunal
for Lebanon said in a statement.
The Hague-based court
said the request was made by
the prosecutor on February
8 but that the contents of the
amended indictment remain
confidential.
Early last month, the court
said it would put four Hizbullah
members on trial in absentia
over the February 14, 2005
car bombing in Beirut that
killed Hariri and 22 others,
including a suicide bomber.
Arrest warrants have been
issued for the four — Salim
Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine,
Hussein Anaissi and Assad
Sabra — but they remain at
large.
Lebanese Prime Minister
BAGHDAD — Violence
killed 151 Iraqi civilians and
members of the security forces
in February, according to
official figures, showing that
daily bombings and shootings
remain a persistent fact of life
despite the withdrawal of US
forces in December.
The overall level of violence
was down slightly from
the previous month. A spate
of attacks on February 23 that
killed more than 60 people
was a reminder that bloodshed
is still very much prevalent.
According to Iraqi government
figures, 91 civilians, 39
police and 21 soldiers were
killed in February. The previous
month, the death toll was
177 — 99 civilians, 37 police
and 41 soldiers.
At the height of violence
in 2006-07, monthly civilian
death tolls were regularly
around 3,000.
The government released
figures this week giving an
official death toll of nearly
70,000 for the years of the US
presence. Other sources, such
as Iraq Body Count, a group
Najib Mikati had said last
month that the tribunal’s prosecutor
Daniel Bellamare, who
ended his mandate at the end
of February, would be submitting
a revised indictment before
he left office.
He said Bellemare informed
him that the new
charge sheet concerns information
on attacks against
three veteran Lebanese politicians
linked to Hariri’s assassination
in a massive seaside
car bomb blast in Beirut in
February 2005.
The officials were named
as George Hawi, ex-leader
of the Lebanese Communist
Party who was killed by a car
bomb in June 2005, former
defence minister Michel
Murr, who survived a car
bomb in July 2005, and Druze
MP and ex-minister Marwan
Hamadeh, who escaped an attempt
on his life in 2004.
UN leader Ban Ki-Moon
on Wednesday named ICC
deputy prosecutor Norman
Farrell of Canada as Bellamare’s
successor. Hizbullah,
blacklisted as a terrorist
organisation by Washington,
has denied involvement in the
Hariri murder. — AFP
Iraq death toll stands
at 151 in February
which compiles data from
media reports, give higher
figures.
While Iraq is much safer
than a few years ago, it still
has not reached the point
where most of the country is
considered safe enough for
outsiders to visit without special
security measures.
Meanwhile. Iraq has started
a probe into bribery allegations
linked to Australian construction
contractor Leighton
Holdings Ltd, the oil ministry’s
inspector general said
yesterday.
“We are conducting an
investigation into allegations
of violations in Leighton’s
contracts in the south. Until
now we have not received any
signs of involvement of Iraqi
officials in corruption,” Hilal
Ismael said.
Australian police launched
an investigation last month
after Leighton alerted the
Australian Federal Police to
possible bribery by a subsidiary
bidding for work to
expand Iraq’s oil export facilities.
— Agencies