Hundreds of Libyan Berbers flee Western Mountains and head to Tunisia

News Stories, 12 April 2011

© UNHCR/P.Moore
People at the Libya-Egypt border tell UNHCR staff of displacement in eastern Libya, such as these people in the desert outside the town of Ajdabiya.

GENEVA, April 12 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency reported Tuesday that more than 500 Libyans, mostly ethnic Berbers, have fled their homes in Libya's Western Mountains and sought shelter in the Dehiba area of south-east Tunisia over the past week.

"They have told us that mounting pressure on the cities of the Western Mountains by government forces, lack of basic medical supplies and shortages of food prompted their departure," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told journalists in Geneva.

He noted that Dehiba was located about 200 kilometres south of Ras Adjir, the border crossing where tens of thousands of people fleeing Libya since the conflict erupted in mid-February have entered Tunisia.

Mahecic said the new arrivals had very limited resources and "have significant humanitarian needs." The local authorities have allocated a sports field in Remada town, 45 kms inside Tunisia, where UNHCR has established a camp with 130 tents.

"Electricity and water have been connected and other services are being set up. UNHCR is working with a local partner Al Taáwon, and the Tunisian Red Crescent to rapidly provide support," the spokesman added.

The local community in Tunisia has offered considerable assistance, opening homes to hundreds of Libyan families. Youth hostels in Dehiba and the town of Tataouine further west are also being used to shelter families. A school near the camp in Remada has offered to take Libyan students.

Mahecic also said people crossing the Libyan-Egyptian border had given UNHCR field staff more details about displacement in eastern Libya between the towns of Ajdabiya and Tobruk, with thousands of families now in Benghazi and Tobruk. "While many are staying with local families, a small number are taking refuge in schools and empty buildings. People tell us they fear being trapped in Ajdabiya should government forces prevail," Mahecic said.

An estimated 1,200 displaced families are in Tobruk, where the Libyan Red Crescent is distributing aid supplied by UNHCR, mainly blankets and mattresses.

People also continue to flee Libya by sea to Italy and Malta. This morning, the Maltese armed forces came to the help of a boat carrying 116 people, including a dead woman, according to media reports. More than 1,100 people have arrived in Malta from Libya on five boats since March 26. In Italy, three boats carrying 1,008 people arrived on Lampedusa Island from Libya over the weekend, mainly Somalis and Nigerians. Since March 26, a total of 3,358 people have reached Italian territory from Libya.

Almost 500,000 people have fled Libya since mid-February, including some 200,000 to Egypt, 236,000 to Tunisia, more than 36,000 to Niger, about 14,000 to Algeria, 6,200 to Chad and 2,800 to Sudan.

Last Sunday, some 3,900 people crossed the Sallum border into Egypt, including 3,000 Libyans. "This is double the average number of Libyans that have crossed on a daily basis in the past few weeks," Mahecic noted, adding: "On the same day, 2,992 people crossed at Ras Adjir into Tunisia, including 2,173 Libyans." These numbers include some Libyans who are crossing for trade.

Migrants forced to fight for Gaddafi

'They said we must stay to fight when the Americans come,' a Ghanaian worker tells Al Jazeera from a refugee camp. Anna Branthwaite Last Modified: 09 Apr 2011 16:14

Many migrants from sub-Saharan Africa fled Libya when fighting began. Some say they were kidnapped and forced to fight alongside Muammar Gaddafi's forces [Anna Branthwaite/Al Jazeera]              Among the reports of atrocities occurring in Libya are claims from African migrants that they were abducted and forced to fight with Gaddafi's forces. Nearly all migrants from sub-Saharan Africa, who arrive at the desert refugee camp in Tunisia, have fled in fear of violent reprisals by Libyans who accuse them of being mercenaries. The extent to which Gaddafi's military has used foreign mercenaries, or press-ganged migrants into fighting, remains unclear. A former Nigerian police officer, who had worked in Libya for eight years as a technician, alleges he was abducted in mid-March at a military checkpoint in Tripoli, along with other men from Ghana, Mali and Niger, before being taken to a military centre. "There was up to 100 people in the courtyard and military trucks were arriving and leaving with more people. They started beating people, I saw them shoot one Ghanaian in front of me. The atmosphere was very intimidating," he explained. "They put us into a vehicle and we were driven into the desert. I saw an oil refinery, there was evidence of bomb strikes, burnt out vehicles and a strong smell. I think it was Ras Lanouf." A Ghanaian worker claimed to have been abducted by Libyan military when they stormed his house in Sirte. "They asked us why we were trying to leave the country and that we must stay to fight for when the Americans come," he explained. "We were taken to a police station and then to an underground hospital which they ordered us to clean." Importing mercenaries Reports of foreign mercenaries being shipped into Libya and shooting protesters emerged within the first weeks of the uprising. "There's certainly evidence that Algeria sent pilots in before the no-fly zone and provided military transporters to move people, possibly mercenaries, maybe even equipment… but it is difficult to get them into the country," explains Jeremy Keenan, a professor specialising in the Maghreb who suggests that between 5,000 and 10,000 mercenaries may have entered Libya during this uprising, but that there is no concrete evidence. "If you've got a million migrants milling around in Libya, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, all paperless with no ID, I suspect he's using them, not Libyans, as human shields… the key thing is he (Gaddafi) has got them over a barrel, they can't leave," said Keenan. "I think the opposition people, when they bump into anyone fighting against them who is speaking another language and looks black, irrespective of how they got into Gaddafi's hands, they are using the word mercenary. There is a lot of confusion there." Gaddafi has supported past Tuareg rebellions and allegedly backed candidates in recent elections in Niger, who may be beholden to support him. Local African media have recently reported the recruitment and movement of young men into Libya, but others indicate that Tuaregs were recruited by the Libyan military several years beforehand. What is certain in recent weeks is that more people are leaving Libya than entering. "Certainly Gaddafi uses mercenaries from abroad and from the foreign community in Libya. In Misurata, there are reports that the Africans are on the frontline, but the snipers are foreigners, mostly from Belarus, Eastern Europe," says Sliman Bouchuiguir, secretary-general of the Libyan League of Human Rights. "He has already used poor Africans as a political weapon against Europe saying he will let this African population go to Italy and Europe." Gaddafi has used the specture of refugess flooding out of Libya into Europe as a reason why the West should allow him to remain in power [Anna Branthwaite/Al Jazeera]    In an interview with French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, in February Gaddafi warned, "You will have the immigration of thousands of people who will invade Europe from Libya, and there will be nobody to stop them." One million sub Saharan migrants, among them political refugees, are estimated to live in Libya, but there is virtually no documentation of the population. Many make the treacherous journey through the desert into Libya, either en route to Europe or to settle in oil rich Libya. On entering Libya, thousands of migrants have been arrested and held in detention centres. Many of them are now escaping Libya and can speak openly about the appalling living conditions in the centres, torture resulting in scores of deaths, corruption, lack of legal and medical aid, all of which corroborates with earlier reports made by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Global Detention Project. Libya has never signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, and after allowing the UNHCR to provisionally re-open its office in Tripoli last year, the UNHCR has only ever been allowed to visit a few centres. "There are 27 centres known to us. We can't even find out where the detention centres are, there is so little information. I would have little confidence that the treatment of detainees would be to EU standards," explains Michael Flynn, a researcher at the Global Detention Project based in Geneva. Italy and other EU countries have made it policy to manage immigration from the source of its origins, and in recent years have collaborated with Gaddafi in stemming the flow of African migration – following the 2008 Friendship Pact, Italy has provided Libya with funding to build detention centres and surveillance equipment; the European Commission offered Libya up to 50 million Euros in aid last year to stop the flow of immigration. "I don't know to what extent there were benchmarks built into these agreements between EU countries and Gaddafi, many of these were verbal agreements," explains Flynn. "There may have been some sort of reporting requirements on conditions, but I would have very little confidence that these requirements would have been met in Libya." 'I need to start again' With the violence continuing in Libya, journalists and independent observers unable to access many parts of the country, the blight of Libyan and non-Libyans civilians remains largely unknown, but events inside Libya will have far reaching consequences beyond its borders. As thousands of migrant workers return to their respective countries, Mediterranean and Western countries wrangle over their obligations to the displaced and refugees, neighbouring African states may face the migration of armed mercenaries crossing their desert borders, if, or when, they are no longer required in Libya. Back in the desert camp in Tunisia, over 60,000 people have been evacuated by the UNHCR and the IOM to their respective countries, with on average of 2,000 flown out each day. Others nationalities - Somalians, Eritreans, Sudanese, Iraqis and now Ivorians - with no safe country to be returned to, know they will be here for weeks if not months and attempt to make their desert camp as bearable as possible whilst awaiting to told where they will be resettled. Nearly all the families with young children belong to this group. Waiting his turn to be told when he will be allocated a seat on a flight to Nigeria, the former police officer speaks of his future: "I left everything behind in Libya, all my clothes, savings, property and now I don’t even have one dinar with me. I need to start again. If I can go home I will start to look for a job." He currently shares a tent with five other men, all facing the same predicaments. "But even though I should be relieved to be going home, I’m still very worried about the people who are trapped inside Libya, the ones who can't get out and have been left behind. I have a bad feeling about what will happen to them." Anna Branthwaite worked at the Choucha transit camp in Tunisia, taking photographs and interviewing case studies as a freelancer for the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees UNHCR.

Deadly Blast Hits Subway Station in Belarus

Image via Wikipedia

Aleksandr G. Lukashenko

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY and MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

MOSCOW — An explosion believed caused by a bomb ripped through a subway station next to the office of Belarus’s authoritarian president on Monday evening, killing at least 11 people, wounding more than 100 and worsening the already tense political situation there.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast in Minsk, the Belarus capital, but witnesses described being hit by a wave of shrapnel that they said was contained in a bomb. Several victims had limbs torn off by the force of the explosion, paramedics said.

The president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, indicated in comments late Monday night that he believed that the explosion was terrorism. Prosecutors said their inquiry was focusing on a bomb.

Investigators and witnesses said the explosion occurred on a platform, just as passengers were leaving a train in the Oktyabrskaya station at the height of rush hour, about 6 p.m. The station is located in the center of Minsk, very close to major government offices, including Mr. Lukashenko’s, as well as his official residence.

While Muslim separatists from southern Russia have carried out deadly suicide bombings in the Moscow subway system, including one last year, they have never done so in Minsk. Belarus, a former Soviet republic with a population of 10 million, does not have a Muslim insurgency, and Mr. Lukashenko, who has tightly controlled the country since 1994, has portrayed himself as a stabilizing force.

But Belarus has faced political turmoil since Mr. Lukashenko’s reelection in December, which was denounced by his rivals as rigged. When opposition parties conducted a large protest on election night, the security services responded with a far-reaching crackdown, sending riot police to break it up violently and arresting hundreds of people.

Several presidential candidates were detained for weeks.

Dozens of opposition activists, including at least one presidential candidate, are still in custody and have been threatened with up to 15 years in prison for organizing the post-election rally. Mr. Lukashenko has accused the opposition of plotting a coup with aid from Western governments — charges European and American officials have called absurd.

The powerful security services, still called the K.G.B. in Belarus, a vestige of the Soviet era, had been on heightened alert before the explosion because of the political strains. Independent journalists and opposition figures had continued to be detained and interrogated, rights groups say.

The opposition to Mr. Lukashenko was largely peaceful before and after the election, but there have been unexplained bombings in recent years. In 2008, a bomb exploded in a park in Minsk, wounding dozens of people during a festival to celebrate independence day. The authorities never determined a motive.

In the city of Vitebsk, near the northeastern Russian border, two blasts in 2005 left about four dozen wounded.

On Monday night, Mr. Lukashenko visited the subway station and then convened a meeting of top advisers. Mr. Lukashenko made clear that he believed that the explosion was caused by a bomb, referring to the attackers as “ugly monsters.”

“I don’t exclude the possibility that this present was brought from the outside,” he said sarcastically, in remarks broadcast on state television. “But we also should look at ourselves.”

He then spoke directly to the leaders of the security services. “I want to tell you guys that this is a very serious challenge, and an adequate response is necessary,” he said. “I warned you that they would not give us a peaceful life. Who are they? I want you to answer this question without delay.”

Opposition politicians said they feared that Mr. Lukashenko would use the explosion to justify a new crackdown.

Anatoly V. Lebedko, who was arrested after the election protest in December and only just released, said in a telephone interview that after previous bombings, the security services rounded up opposition figures, though there was no evidence of their involvement.

“Because of this unfortunate explosion, human rights could possibly be limited,” Mr. Lebedko said. “At the very least, it will lead to further restrictions on the opposition and civil society. This can be expected.”

Witnesses reported that just after the explosion, smoke poured from the station’s exits as bodies were carried out on stretchers.

Aleksandr Vasiliyev, a local journalist on the scene, said by telephone from Minsk that witnesses told him that the explosion was caused by a bomb that had been packed with nuts, bolts and other shrapnel. The authorities would not immediately confirm such information.

The explosion occurred inside the station itself, not in a subway car, the witnesses told Mr. Vasiliyev.

Mr. Vasiliyev said that shortly after the blast, blood had pooled on the sidewalk outside the station where victims had been evacuated.

“Two dead bodies were brought out,” he said.

Anton Motolko, a photojournalist who lives near the station, ran to the scene after reading about the explosion on Twitter.

“I see blood, about 10 people, men and women, because at this time, it’s peak,” Mr. Motolko said in a telephone interview. “It’s the two biggest lines of our subway.”

Police cordoned off subway entrances. Crowds gathered around the main entrance, he said, as passengers emerged bloody and crying.

One of Russia’s main television stations, Channel One, broadcast interviews with witnesses who were in the station.

“We saw a bright light and everything started to shake,” one man said. “People were lying all over.” Another man said, “We were suffocating — there was so much smoke. We could barely see anything.”

A woman recalled that, “The glass crackled and everyone just fell. And then there was a deathly silence.”

Pavel Slobodyan said by telephone from Minsk that he arrived at the station about five minutes after the explosion. He said he saw about 20 people with wounds that seemed to be caused by shrapnel.

“Many people had wounds in their legs — not very large ones, but very many,” he said. One person, he said, was missing a hand. ..

J. David Goodman contributed reporting from New York.

Adoption increasingly crosses racial, ethnic lines

By Sharon Jayson, USA TODAY

CHICAGO – With 130,000 children adopted each year in the USA, researchers find growing numbers involve kids whose race is different from their parents'.



By Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP/Getty Images

Angelina Jolie with four of her six children with Brad Pitt: Maddox, left, Zahara, Pax and Shiloh. Maddox is from Cambodia, Zahara from Ethiopia and Pax from Vietnam.
Enlarge


By Yoshikazu Tsuno, AFP/Getty Images

Angelina Jolie with four of her six children with Brad Pitt: Maddox, left, Zahara, Pax and Shiloh. Maddox is from Cambodia, Zahara from Ethiopia and Pax from Vietnam.

The latest data show that about 40% of adoptions in America involve such families. Among children from other countries adopted by American parents, 84% are trans-racial or trans-ethnic, says Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, a non-profit research, policy and education organization.

Pertman shared the statistics as part of a panel on multiracial identities at a weekend meeting here of the Council on Contemporary Families, a non- profit group of family researchers, mental health practitioners and clinicians.

"When you form a family with kids of a different race or ethnicity, you become a multiracial, multiethnic family," says Pertman, a father of two adopted teens.

The most common type of adoption in the USA is from foster care, which makes up 68% of adoptions, compared with 17% for infants adopted domestically and 15% from international adoption, Pertman says.

"The whole gamut of family issues is being influenced in a profound way by adoption," says Pertman, who lives in New York. "There are Chinese cultural festivals in synagogues and African-American kids with Irish last names at St. Patrick's Day parades."

Pertman is the author of the newly revised Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution Is Transforming Our Families — and America. He says the revision was prompted by major developments in adoption since the first edition was published in 2000.

"An immense amount has changed in the last decade — intercountry adoption is plummeting, foster-care adoptions are soaring, a kid was 'returned' to Russia, the Haiti earthquake was an object lesson in how not to do adoptions, openness in infant adoptions really took hold, and on and on," say Pertman, whose work focuses on the overall adoptive family.

Gina Samuels, an associate professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, has focused her research on identity development among trans-racial adoptees.

A multiracial adoptee who has worked in child welfare, Samuels has found the goal of being "colorblind," which white parents often espouse, may not be the best approach for them to take with their kids of other races.

"Colorblindness actually creates discordance," Samuels says, because parents set their children up to believe that race doesn't matter — until the children find that often race is an issue in the real world and they aren't prepared for it.

Her study of multiracial adoptees, "Being Raised by White People: Navigating Racial Difference Among Multiracial Adopted Adults," was published in 2009 in the Journal of Family and Marriage. She found that "colorblind" parenting might actually be more harmful than helpful to children.

"Adapting and understanding of equality doesn't require sameness, so for family members to be able to relate to one another, we don't have to be the same," says Samuels, who is part black; her adoptive mother was white. "We can be racially different and we can see the world and experience the world differently."

Lee Kuan Yew can preserve his legacy by stepping down

April 11th, 2011

As Singapore gears up for a General Election, believed to be just weeks away, many of the ruling PAP’s veteran campaigners have announced that they will be retiring from politics to make way for younger candidates – who will make up the core of Singapore’s “fourth generation leadership”. PAP Chairman and long-serving Cabinet Minister Lim Boon Heng is the latest to step down in the name of renewal, joining Senior Minister S Jayakumar, Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi and former Transport Minister Yeo Cheow Tong, amongst others.

However, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew – who is 88 years old – has made no such announcement. He is expected to run for yet another term in Tanjong Pagar, which he has held since 1955. When Lee was first elected to what was then known as the Legislative Assembly, Singapore was still a British colony, and Anthony Eden was the British Prime Minister. The UK has seen 12 Prime Ministers assume office since then.

It is well-known that Lee’s health is starting to become an issue. He had to undergo surgery for a heart condition in 2008, and was admitted to hospital again last year, making him unable to attend the funeral of PAP MP Balaji Sadasivan.

By his own admission, he no longer takes part in the day-to-day running of the country, and his role in the Cabinet has been reduced merely to ‘forecasting’ and ‘giving advice’.

The question is, why does a statesman of Lee’s stature – he was recently called one of Asia’s “legendary figures” by US President Barack Obama – need to remain in the Cabinet in order to do ‘forecasting’ and give advice?

Deng Xiaoping, who was a similarly revered figure in China prior to his death, stepped down from his posts as Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the CPC Central Advisory Commission in 1987.

That didn’t stop him from exercising considerable influence in Chinese politics, including playing a key role in ordering the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. He continued to play the role of an advisor and ‘forecaster’ until his death in 1997, even though by then he was merely an ordinary civilian.

Considering that Lee Kuan Yew was Singapore’s first Prime Minister and the founder of the ruling PAP, it is inconceivable that he would not be able to provide guidance and ‘mentorship’ to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet without the need for an official title. Especially when the current Prime Minister is his son.

Lee Hsien Loong recently said that his father was ‘unique’, and he was right. There is only one Lee Kuan Yew, and people recognise that whether they like the man or not. Lee Kuan Yew does not need any official title in order to be Lee Kuan Yew.

The fact that Lee continues to occupy a position in the Cabinet and continues to draw an annual salary of over $3 million despite no longer being active in the day-to-day affairs of Government is ludicrous, and quite frankly, makes a mockery of the institution of Government and the office of Prime Minister.

No other Prime Minister in the world requires a ‘mentor’ to instruct him in the ways of government, especially when he has been Prime Minister for more than six years.

While Lee Kuan Yew is a respected name in international circles, the office of ‘Minister Mentor’ is a laughing stock. Lee could have cemented his legacy by relinquishing all of his official titles and enjoying his retirement, while at the same time providing advice to his son and his Ministers, who would undoubtedly be receptive and even deferential towards the elder statesman regardless.

Instead, he has attracted criticism because perceptions have been formed that Lee is desperate to cling on to power and unwilling to stand aside, even at 88 years of age. The longer he goes on, the greater the risk that he will damage his legacy and come to be remembered as the man who outstayed his welcome.

Lee Kuan Yew should just go back to being Lee Kuan Yew. He does not need any official titles to be Lee Kuan Yew. And there is no reason why he should jeopardise his position in the annals of greatness by insisting that he is anything or anyone but Lee Kuan Yew. .
Dr George Lim
–
The author is a Singaporean who has been based in Beijing for the past seven years. He is a lecturer at a reputable university there. He returns to Singapore at least three times a year and writes for The Satay Club.

Ivory Coast strongman arrested after French forces intervene

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Laurent Gbagbo

By Colum Lynch and William Branigin, Monday, April 11, 10:53 AM

UNITED NATIONS — Ivory Coast strongman Laurent Gbagbo was arrested Monday by French-backed forces of president-elect Alassane Ouattara, raising hopes for an imminent end to the strife that has wracked the West African country since Gbagbo refused to acknowledge his defeat in a November presidential election.

Following an attack on Gbagbo’s residence in the capital, Abidjan, by French forces earlier Monday, troops loyal to Ouattara went in and seized Gbagbo, according to U.N., French and Ivorian officials.

Gbagbo “has been arrested,” said Youssoufou Bamba, the U.N. envoy of president-elect Ouattara. “He is alive” and will be “brought to justice,” he said in a telephone interview.

Initial reports indicated that French troops had captured Gbagbo and turned him over to Ouattara’s forces. But Bamba subsequently told reporters that the arrest operation had been carried out by forces loyal to Ouattara.

“I am clear about that,” he told reporters outside the U.N. Security Council. “That’s the Republican Forces of Cote d’Ivoire who have conducted the operation. Gbagbo is arrested. He is under our custody. . . . Right now, he is being brought to a safe location for the next course of action.”

Bamba said he was confident that as “the news will spread” of Gbagbo’s arrest, his forces “will stop fighting and they will lay down their weapons.” He added: “Those fighting are fighting for nothing, because this man is over, this era is over. We will address the serious problem of the humanitarian situation and the security situation . . . and restore public order.”

A spokesman for the U.N. mission in Ivory Coast said it has “confirmed that former president Laurent Gbagbo has surrendered to the forces of Alassane Ouattara and is currently in their custody.” The spokesman, Farhan Haq, said the U.N. mission was “providing protection and security in accordance with its mandate,” Reuters news agency reported.

For their part, Gbagbo’s supporters dismissed claims that the operation was carried out by Ouattara’s forces, noting that French and U.N. attack helicopters pounded the presidential palace and Gbagbo’s residence.

“It’s absolutely untrue,” said Zakaria Fellah, a Gbagbo loyalist and adviser, who claimed that French ground troops were deployed around the presidential residence. Fellah, who is in the United States, said he has been in constant telephone contact with Gbagbo loyalists in the vicinity of the fighting.

“The so-called regime of Ouattara’s forces were completely absent,” he said.

Any Ouattara loyalists who may have played any role in the arrest, he said, were merely “auxiliaries” of the U.N. and French troops. “This operation, the final assault, was carried out by the French troops,” he said.

Fellah said the manner in which Gbagbo was deposed will leave a legacy of deep resentment among his supporters, who will view this as another example of the former colonial power, France, using superior firepower to decide who will rule the country.

In London, British Foreign Minister William Hague urged Gbagbo’s captors to give him a fair trial.

“Mr. Gbagbo has acted against any democratic principles in the way he has behaved in recent months, and of course there have been many many breaches of any rule of law as well,” Hague told a news conference. “At the same time, we would say that he must be treated with respect, and any judicial process that follows should be a fair and properly organized judicial process.”

The arrest came after French armored vehicles closed in on the compound where Gbagbo had been holed up in a bunker while trying to remain in power despite Ouattara’s victory in the November election, the results of which were certified by the United Nations.

The column of more than two dozen armored vehicles advanced on the compound from a French base in Ivory Coast, a former French colony, a day after U.N. and French helicopters attacked Gbagbo’s forces, destroying its heavy weapons and damaging the presidential residence.

A U.N. Security Council resolution approved in March authorized the use of force in Ivory Coast. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Gbagbo of using heavy weapons against civilians in his effort to cling to power.

Branigin reported from Washington.

lynchc@washpost.com

braniginw@washpost.com

Prosecution Makes Its Case in Indonesian Cleric's Terrorism Trial

Brian Padden | Jakarta April 11, 2011

Abu Bakar Bashir

Photo: AP

Radical Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was arrested in August 2010 for allegedly helping set up and fund a new terror cell that was plotting high-profile assassinations and deadly attacks on foreigners, (File)

Prosecutors in Jakarta are expected to finish presenting their case this week in the trial of accused Indonesian terrorist Abu Bakar Bashir. The trial is seen by many as a test of Indonesia's judicial system to strongly deal with violent extremism.

The prosecution has filed seven charges against Abu Bakar Bashir under Indonesia’s Anti-Terror Law of 2002, including "inciting a terrorist act" and "trafficking in weapons and explosives for the purpose of conducting terrorism." If convicted, the radical Muslim cleric could face the death penalty.  He is also charged with supplying funds for terrorism, which carries a jail term of between three and 15 years.

The charges surround Bashir's alleged role in al-Qaida in Aceh, a terrorist group that was discovered operating a militant training camp in the northern Indonesian province on the island of Sumatra in 2009. According to Indonesian police, the group was planning attacks on foreign embassies and assassinations of Indonesian government officials, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Harkristuti Harkrisnowo is a criminal law professor at the University of Indonesia and is the director general of human rights at the Ministry of Law.

She says Bashir helped the government's case by defiantly admitting his support for violent Jihad, or holy war, to impose Sharia law in Indonesia.  She says the prosecution succeeded in showing Bashir's role inciting, funding and planning terrorist attacks.

"Bashir has confessed that Jihad is part of a deed of being an Islamic leader. He did confess that he generated money from different sources in order to fund this activity and I think several of the witness already provided testimony that they did support, they did give money for Jihad," she said.

Criminal lawyer Frans Winarta is a member of the National Law Commission of Indonesia and chairman of Peradi, the oldest lawyer association in the country.

He says the defense attorneys so far have not tried to directly to confront the evidence presented. Instead, he says, they have charged bias on the part of the judges and focused on procedural issues like allowing testimony from witnesses in other locations using a live televised video. Winarta says it was done for security reasons and has been used in other trials.

"It is unusual to do that but there is a precedent in the past that even in corruption cases you can do that, you see. But there is no regulation on that, unlike the law on terrorism. There was a provision that allows cross examination to let's say a distant cross examination, not in the court," Winarta explains.

The other line of defense, Winarta says, has been to claim that the Indonesian government has no jurisdiction in Aceh province, the area were al-Qaida in Aceh was operating. As part of a negotiated settlement to end a decades-long insurgency, Aceh province was granted a degree of autonomy in 2006 and has implemented a number of Sharia based laws. But these legal scholars say Aceh's autonomy does not apply in this case.

The defense will soon get the opportunity to make its case. The panel of three judges will then decide if they have heard enough to render a verdict.

Both legal experts say a conviction is likely, but Winarta does not expect Bashir to get the death penalty or even a life sentence. "The problem is, does the government have the courage to give a heavy sentence because if you look into other cases in the past. His sentence was, can you remember, two years or four years, right?" Winarta said.

In 2003 Bashir, a founder of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah movement, spent 20 months in prison for immigration violations. In 2005 he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years for his role in the 2002 Bali terrorist attacks. This sentence was eventually reduced and the conviction overturned by Indonesia's Supreme Court.

Harkrisnowo says the judges will take into account both the 72-year-old Bashir's age and the degree of his involvement in terrorist activities if he is found guilty. "I think this is also related to the charges that were brought against him, which is not under the terrorism itself but in aiding and abetting. And secondly I think that the age of Bashir that is 70 something might be one of the issues that will be considered by judges as well," Harkrisnowo stated.

While a short sentence may frustrate some of Indonesia's allies in the war on terror, a guilty verdict of any kind could draw violent responses from Bashir's supporters. But Harkrisnowo and Winarta say the judicial system must not allow political ramifications to influence the proceedings, so that the verdict will be seen as independent and legitimate by most Indonesians.

ICG - Thailand: The Calm Before Another Storm?

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Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva

Full PDF report Media release

Asia Briefing N°121 11 Apr 2011

OVERVIEW

Nearly a year after the crackdown on anti-establishment demonstrations, Thailand is preparing for a general election. Despite government efforts to suppress the Red Shirt movement, support remains strong and the deep political divide has not gone away. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s roadmap for reconciliation has led almost nowhere. Although there have been amateurish bomb attacks carried out by angry Red Shirts since the crackdown, fears of an underground battle have not materialised. On the other side, the Yellow Shirts have stepped up their nationalist campaigns against the Democrat Party-led government that their earlier rallies had helped bring to power. They are now claiming elections are useless in “dirty” politics and urging Thais to refuse to vote for any of the political parties. Even if the elections are free, fair and peaceful, it will still be a challenge for all sides to accept the results. If another coalition is pushed together under pressure from the royalist establishment, it will be a rallying cry for renewed mass protests by the Red Shirts that could plunge Thailand into more violent confrontation.

The Red Shirt demonstrations in March-May 2010 sparked the most deadly clashes between protestors and the state in modern Thai history and killed 92 people. The use of force by the government may have weakened the Red Shirts but the movement has not been dismantled and is still supported by millions of people, particularly in the North and North East. Arresting their leaders as well as shutting down their media and channels of communication has only reinforced their sense of injustice. Some in the movement’s hardline fringe have chosen to retaliate with violence but the leadership has reaffirmed its commitment to peaceful political struggle. The next battle will be waged through ballot boxes and the Red Shirts will throw their weight behind their electoral wing, the Pheu Thai Party.

The protracted struggle between supporters of the elite establishment – the monarchy, the military and the judiciary – and those allied with ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra began with the formation of the “yellow-shirted” People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) in 2006. The September 2006 coup removed Thaksin from power but prompted the emergence of a counter movement: the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) or Red Shirts. The PAD’s campaigns to close down Bangkok airports in 2008 created deadlock that was resolved by a court ruling that removed Thaksin’s “proxy” party – People Power Party – from power. This led to the formation of the Democrat-led coalition government, backed by the military. Two years later, the ultra-nationalist Yellow Shirts have apparently split from their former allies and are protesting outside Government House against Abhisit’s alleged failure to defend “Thai territory” in the Preah Vihear border dispute with Cambodia. The PAD’s call for a “virtuous” leader to replace the prime minister has raised concerns that it is inviting the military to stage a coup.

Abhisit has stated he will dissolve parliament in the first week of May after expediting the enactment of legislation to revise key electoral rules. He is moving quickly towards the elections amid rumours of a coup. With the new rules and pre-poll largesse, the Democrat Party hopes to secure more seats and position itself to lead another coalition. Thaksin is still popular with much of the electorate and there is a strong possibility that his de facto Pheu Thai Party could emerge as the largest party. The formation of the government is likely to be contentious. The UDD has threatened to return to the streets if Pheu Thai wins a plurality but does not form the government. Obvious arm bending by the royalist establishment to this end is a recipe for renewed protests and violence. Should the opposite occur, and Pheu Thai has the numbers to lead a new government, the Yellow Shirts might regain momentum; they are unlikely to tolerate a “proxy” Thaksin government.

While elections will not resolve the political divide and the post-election scenarios look gloomy, Thailand nevertheless should proceed with the polls. A well-publicised electoral code of conduct and independent monitoring by local and international observers could help enhance their credibility and minimise violence during the campaign. If installed successfully, the new government with a fresh mandate will have greater credibility to lead any longer term effort to bring about genuine political reconciliation.

Bangkok/Brussels, 11 April 2011

US report cites worrying trend of governments increasingly trying to control the Internet

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Geeks

By Associated Press, Friday, April , 2:02 PM

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration warned Friday that governments around the world are extending their repression to the Internet, seeking to cut off their citizens’ access to websites and other means of communication to stave off the types of revolutions that have wracked the Middle East.

The State Department’s annual human rights report paints a worrying picture of countries “spending more time, money and attention in efforts to curtail access to these new communications outlets.” More than 40 governments are now blocking their citizens’ access to the Internet, and the firewalls, regulatory restrictions and technologies are all “designed to repress speech and infringe on the personal privacy of those who use these rapidly evolving technologies.”

Presenting the mammoth, 7,000-page report, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said curtailing Internet freedom meant violating the fundamental rights of expression, assembly and association.

“Democracy and human rights activists and independent bloggers found their emails hacked or their computers infected with spyware that reported back on their every keystroke,” Clinton said. “Digital activists have been tortured so they would reveal their passwords and implicate their colleagues.”

Clinton singled out Myanmar and Cuba for government policies that seek to preempt any online dissent by keeping almost their entire populations off the Internet.

But they are far from alone.

The report criticizes Saudi Arabia, a vital U.S. ally but one opposing the Obama administration’s push for democratic reforms in the Arab world, for spying on e-mail and chat rooms, and blocking sites about religions such as Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity. The conservative Sunni kingdom also prevented people from reaching webpages about forms of Islam deemed incompatible with Sharia law and national regulations, according to the report.

During its election, the Sudanese government blocked access to a website monitoring votes.

Vietnamese authorities orchestrated attacks against important sites and spied on dissident bloggers, arresting 25 last year and forcibly entering the homes of others to confiscate computers and cell phones.

And the Chinese government, among the world’s most sensitive to any sign of dissent, tightly controlled content on the Internet and detained people for expressing critical views of the government or its policies.

Clinton noted that the report is being released during a wave of unrest across the Arab world. She said the U.S. has been “inspired by the courage and determination of the activists in the Middle East and North Africa and in other repressive societies, who have demanded peaceful democratic change and respect for their universal human rights.”

In Egypt and Tunisia, activists aided by Twitter and similar websites were able to mobilize massive demonstrations that brought down their long-time leaders. The Internet and mobile phone technologies have helped give voice to similar protest movements in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and elsewhere. And violence continues in Libya, where strongman Moammar Gadhafi is refusing to heed the call of many nations to leave power.

The unrest has led many governments to reassess how open they want to be, fearful of seeing their authority challenged by individuals determined to gain a greater say in governance.

Michael Posner, U.S. assistant secretary of state for human rights, said the Obama administration is spending a lot of time trying to figure out what governments around the world are doing to control the Internet. He said two main methods are being employed.

“Some governments — the Chinese would be an example, the Iranians — put up a firewall,” Posner told reporters. But, “most governments aren’t going to shut down the Internet. They are simply going to go after the people who use it that are dissenters. So they hack into their computers, they take their cell phones when they are arrested and they grab the list of names that are in their address book. They use every technical capacity they have to invade privacy, to monitor what these dissenters are doing.”

To aid people seeking to speak out, the U.S. government is helping to finance circumvention technologies to avoid firewalls, he said. To deal with governments hacking computers or intimidating dissenters, the U.S. government has trained 5,000 people from around the world on how to leave less of a trace on the Internet.

“It’s one of the most innovative things we’re doing,” Posner said. “In a lot of cases, people who are using the Internet in these societies aren’t sufficiently mindful either of what their possibilities are technically to protect themselves, or what the risks are.”

Clinton highlighted a couple of other worrying trends in human rights around the world.

She said there has been a “widespread crackdown” on civil society activists, whose work is vital so that governments understand the needs of their people. Venezuela’s government has intimidated such groups through the courts and new restrictions on independent media. And in Russia, there have been violent crackdowns on campaigners and numerous attacks and murders of journalists and activists, she said.

In other places, the most pressing problem was the repression of vulnerable racial, ethnic and religious minorities, as well as gays and lesbians, Clinton said. She cited Pakistan as a problem country because blasphemy remains a crime punishable by death, and two government officials who sought to change the law were assassinated. Other extremist attacks have killed dozens of people just for practicing their religion in Iraq, Egypt and Nigeria, while Iranian authorities executed more than 300 people last year.

Among the countries which improved their respect for human rights, Clinton cited Colombia, Guinea and Indonesia.

She said the U.S. “will stand with those who exercise their fundamental freedoms of expression and assembly in a peaceful way, whether in person, in print or in pixels on the Internet.”

Internet firms wake up to federal privacy scrutiny

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By Cecilia Kang, Friday, April , 11:10 AM

As LinkedIn prepares to sell its stock to the public, the social network for professionals is warning of a potential threat to its business: Internet privacy laws.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this month, the start-up said a push by federal regulators to create privacy rules “could deter or prevent us from providing our current products and solutions to our members and customers, thereby harming our business.”

Silicon Valley is on alert. As federal officials move closer to creating Internet privacy laws, companies that have enjoyed the freewheeling nature of the Internet find themselves under increased scrutiny.

Google, Facebook and marketer Epsilon are among the world’s biggest repositories of digital information, and the giants have long lobbied against privacy laws that would curb their ability to collect and share data. To do so would limit their business prospects, they say, and they argue that consumers want advertisers to slice and dice data to serve up more relevant ads.

Now those concerns are rippling across the entire Internet industry.

“No matter what size the company, they are seeing how a government inquiry can shut down a business or affect the future of others,” said Hemanshu Nigam, founder of the privacy consulting firm SSP Blue and former privacy head for MySpace. “Privacy is now a line item in business plans.”

That’s a change of pace for Web entrepreneurs, who are typically given a long leash by regulators to plug away at new technologies without the distraction of politics and policy in Washington.

But in the past year, Silicon Valley firms have seen a bevy of Web companies swept into federal investigations of alleged consumer protection violations and fraud.

This week, Internet radio site Pandora revealed that it was called into a broad federal grand jury investigation into the alleged illegal sharing of user data by a number of firms that create apps for the iPhone and Android devices. Days earlier, Google settled with the Federal Trade Commission on charges it exposed data through its Buzz social networking application without the permission of users. Last year, Twitter settled with the agency after an investigation found the micro-blogging site’s loose security allowed hackers to access user information.

The damage from those investigations comes in the form of legal costs and, in the case of Google, the mandate of regular privacy audits. But the bigger worry is how those inquiries hurt reputation, said venture capital investor Raj Kapoor of the $2.8 billion Mayfield Fund.

These days, he said, privacy policies have become integral to his decisions about new tech investments. He’s seeing start-ups with just a handful of employees appoint a privacy officer to ensure new products and services are designed with data protection in mind.

Google said last June it had appointed a director of privacy. Yahoo and Microsoft also have chief privacy officers.

“It’s just good business because it engenders customer loyalty,” Kapoor said. “If we don’t make these efforts. the government will enforce regulation, and as much as the private sector can do on our own, the better.”

The FTC wants to create a “Do Not Track” requirement for Web sites. That would allow users to block advertisers from following their movements online.

The idea “could significantly hinder our ability to collect and use data relating to listeners,” Pandora warned in its filing with the SEC.

But companies fighting new rules face a difficult battle as more privacy breaches are found.

This week, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to investigate a data leak by Epsilon, an e-mail marketing firm, that exposed information about millions of consumers. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating Google for vacuuming up Wi-Fi user data by cars used to take photos for its Street Views mapping application.

The incidents, privacy advocates say, underscore the need for basic Internet privacy rules. They want the FTC to take a stronger hand in enforcement and are seeking to prevent companies from tracking users online, particularly through location-based services. They want companies to purge the information they collect within months and not share that data with advertisers and apps developers.

But the buying habits, music preferences, demographics and location of users are the kinds of rich details advertisers hunger for as they seek to increase the likelihood an ad for Weight Watchers or Mercedes-Benz will reach the right demographic and turn into real purchases.

Naveen Selvadurai, a founder of Foursquare, said he’s concerned new rules would not take into consideration technologies being developed to help solve security and privacy concerns.

He said keys have been developed in place of passwords for added security. Browser companies such as Mozilla and Microsoft have implemented their own “Do Not Track” technologies that block Web sites from following user activity.

On Foursquare, users’ locations are identified only when a user actively “checks in” to a location, unlike other services that constantly follow users through global positioning services.

“My main concern is that I don’t want people to misunderstand what they are applying rules to,” said Selvadurai. “Many interesting things can be done without over-reaching laws that aren’t fully thought out on the technology side.”

kangc@washpost.com

Related articles

• Pandora Issued a Subpoena for Possibly Violating Internet Privacy Laws (techland.time.com)
• Quick Hits: Feds Investigate Third-Party Mobile Applications (michaelfertik.com)
• Google Privacy Settlement Unlikely to Lead to Big Change (dailyfinance.com)
• Common Issues and Concerns About Internet Data and Network Security (brighthub.com)

Mistaken targets, poor intelligence: NATO’s handling of Libya campaign increasingly criticized

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NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

By Associated Press, Friday, April , 8:12 PM

BRUSSELS — NATO holds its fire as Moammar Gadhafi’s forces advance 100 miles (160 kilometers) into rebel territory. It then blasts a rebel tank, saying it didn’t know the rebels had any — even though footage of rebels with tanks had been on YouTube for weeks.

NATO’s leadership of the Libya campaign is coming under increasing criticism for mistakes and ineffectiveness. Nine difficult days of leading the air war have brought into sharp relief the confusion, ambiguity and constraints of the alliance’s mission.

“This is something new. We haven’t had a significant military operation in which the Americans have taken a back seat for quite some time,” Malcolm Chalmers, a professor of defense at London’s Kings College, said Friday. “It really is unclear whether the Europeans can rise to that challenge.”

The NATO bombing of a rebel convoy on Thursday, in which five people died and at least one rebel tank was destroyed, appears to have crystalized the perception — to outsiders, at least — that the alliance is running a bumbling campaign.

Misfires are not uncommon during air operations. And in NATO’s defense, poor visibility from thick clouds and sandstorms whipped up by brisk sea breezes has limited the targets — particularly during the lightning counterattack by Gadhafi forces early last week. Government forces pushed about 100 miles (160 kilometers) eastward from Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte past rebel forward positions at Bin Jawwad, pushing the rebels back to Ras Lanuf and later to Brega, where the front is now.

Further complicating the military campaign has been a lack of human spotters on the ground — CIA agents in Libya are said to be gathering intelligence on the organizational structure of the rebel movement rather than coordinating airstrikes — and no established network for NATO and the ragtag group of rebels to communicate.

But as the rebels angrily accused the alliance of mistakes and neglect, NATO’s frustrated leaders refused to apologize Friday for the bombing of the tanks. And NATO commanders, in turn, are frustrated that the rebels see NATO as their proxy air force, rather than a force to protect civilians in Libya.

There is significant ambiguity about the scope and objective of the mission. The U.N. resolution under which the alliance operates requires it to protect civilians from Gadhafi’s forces while remaining impartial.

“There’s a very difficult trade-off for NATO here,” Chalmers said. “If they wait until they’re absolutely certain that they’ve got the targets right and that there are no civilians, Gadhafi’s forces will have vanished in the confusion by then.”

Adding to NATO’s woes, the U.S., which handed off its leadership role March 31, halted its combat role this week. That move is depriving NATO of certain kinds of aircraft that could prove useful in some of the close urban warfare battles between forces loyal to Gadhafi and rebels bent on his ouster.

NATO acknowledged Friday that its airstrikes had hit rebels using tanks to fight government forces in eastern Libya, saying it thought only Gadhafi regime forces had used heavy armored vehicles.

Yet if NATO did not know, that seems extraordinary: Video and photos from the start of the uprising against Gadhafi’s rule a month ago showed that some Libyan armored units had changed sides in the early stages of the rebellion, bringing their equipment with them.

On Friday, British Rear Adm. Russell Harding, deputy commander of the NATO operation, said it was difficult for allied pilots to distinguish between rebels and regime troops engaged in a series of advances and retreats between the eastern coastal towns of Brega and Ajdabiya.

“I am not apologizing (for the bombing),” Harding told reporters in Naples, Italy, where the alliance’s operational center is located. “The situation on the ground was and remains extremely fluid, and until yesterday we did not have information that (rebel) forces are using tanks.”

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed regret over the rebels’ loss of life, but he too offered no apology.

Complicating matters further for NATO, ground fire over the Libyan battlefields remains a serious threat to any jet making low-level passes — a must for pilots trying to identify enemy forces in a fast-changing situation.

A U.S.-led coalition initially launched the air war on March 19. Although the first such strikes on Libyan targets quickly destroyed most of Gadhafi’s fixed surface-to-air missile emplacements and the radars that control them, Gadhafi’s forces are believed to have hundreds of automatic cannon and shoulder-launched rockets — including sophisticated Russian-built Iglas — that can easily down planes like A-10 Thunderbolts or AC-130 gunships at low altitudes.

NATO learned this the hard way during the 1999 war in Kosovo, where a number of its attack jets were struck by ground fire and had to make emergency landings at nearby alliance-held airports. Commanders then ordered the pilots not to descend lower than 5,000 meters (15,000 feet), keeping them outside the killing range of guns but drastically reducing the effectiveness of their bombing attacks on Serbian ground forces.

Now, NATO jets are again operating mainly at higher altitudes, where Iglas and Gadhafi’s pickup-mounted 37mm and 20mm guns cannot reach them.

Harding said Friday that NATO jets had conducted 318 sorties and struck 23 targets across Libya in the past 48 hours. They have flown over 1,500 sorties since assuming overall command.

The jets have destroyed Gadhafi’s anti-aircraft missile defenses, T-72 tanks and ammunition dumps, Harding said. The NATO attacks have also targeted Gadhafi’s loyalist forces in the besieged city of Misrata, where rebels continue to hold out.

But critics have questioned NATO’s limited mandate of only protecting civilians directly threatened by Gadhafi’s troops, rather than trying to eliminate the threat completely by destroying the strongman’s regime.

“By not striking at the regime from the outset, Gadhafi was granted the initiative to embed his forces in urban settings hiding behind human shields in a form of guerrilla warfare,” said Barack Seneer, a Middle East expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a British military think tank.

“A no-fly zone is not equipped to contend with guerrilla warfare or with a stalemate that places rebels and loyalists at close proximity with one another,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said NATO is flying about the same number of combat missions in Libya as when the U.S. was part of the strike mission — so it should be no surprise that they provide only limited help to the Libyan rebels.

“With not having our own people on the ground, without having forward air controllers and observers and so on, and with the pilots trying to go out of their way to avoid civilian casualties, obviously it becomes more difficult to support ground operation,” Gates told reporters in Mosul, in northern Iraq.

Gates also said Gadhafi’s forces are using more civilian vehicles and clothing to blend in with rebel forces, making it even more complicated for NATO’s combat pilots to distinguish friend from foe.

Analysts suggest that neither side in Libya can deliver a decisive blow against the other anymore, and say the war has turned into a stalemate that could last for many months.

“The initial military operation achieved its objective of preventing a massacre of rebels and civilians in Benghazi,” Chalmers said. “But NATO inherited a much messier situation, and we are now entering a period in which politics and not the military will have to play a leading role.”

___

Don Melvin in Brussels, Robert Burns in Mosul, Iraq, and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this report.

In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood’s charitable works may drive political support

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Muslim Brotherhood logo

By Fredrick Kunkle, Friday, April , 12:44 PM

AWSEEM, Egypt — For needy families in this dusty village outside Cairo, Mohamad el-Seesy is a useful man to know.

A devout member of the Muslim Brotherhood, Seesy, 45, leads an Islamic charity that has burrowed deeply into the community by providing an array of religious and social services.

The organization has given a widow an oven for baking bread, bought uniforms for a girls school and even arranged marriages. For the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, Seesy has handed out meat from a camel that he and his volunteers butchered themselves.

Theirs is the face of the Muslim Brotherhood, a powerful Islamist force that had been officially outlawed under President Hosni Mubarak. Now, as the Brotherhood maneuvers in the hectic run-up to September elections, Seesy’s work offers a glimpse at the Brotherhood’s extensive roots in this society, which could give the controversial group an enormous advantage in shaping post-revolutionary Egypt.

“They are active all year round, active and working,” said Taha Haroum, 37, who runs a stationary supply shop here and knows Seesy and his charity. “They have the ability to knock on every door.”

Although the Brotherhood was a latecomer to the Jan. 25 uprising that eventually ousted Mubarak after nearly three decades in power, the organization has already emerged as one of the most formidable contenders in Egypt’s new political landscape, largely because of its well-disciplined and well-funded organization.

“They know where to get large numbers of votes,” said Mustapha Kamel al-Sayyid, a political science professor at Cairo University. “They could be the only organized group in the assembly.”

The Brotherhood, whose members have previously won elective office as independents because the organization was banned as a political entity, recently announced plans to form the Freedom and Justice Party. Last weekend, the leadership unveiled a platform that included frequent references to sharia, or Islamic law.

Unlike the platform the Brotherhood had promoted in an unsuccessful bid to establish a party four years ago, however, the group has disavowed positions banning women and Christians from the presidency. It has also backed away from a 2007 proposal to create a committee of clergy to vet new legislation, Sayyid said.

To allay fears of a power grab, the Brotherhood has said it will not offer candidates for president or for more than 35 percent of the new parliament’s seats.

Yet many Egyptians believe that the pledge might not mean much if candidates who are sympathetic to the Brotherhood decide to run for office as independents or on other party tickets.

A senior Muslim Brotherhood leader, Abdul Moneim Abul Fotouh, has already told a local newspaper that he is considering running for the presidency as an independent.

“I would run independently because I would represent Egypt and not the Brotherhood,” Fotouh told the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. “But I will always feel fondly for the group.”

Regaining its footing

There are other signs that after some initial stumbles, the Brotherhood has found its stride in the fast-changing post-revolutionary period.

On the eve of the March 20 vote to amend Egypt’s constitution, Brotherhood members walked Awseem’s streets with bullhorns urging everyone to vote. They also reminded people of the importance of a 1980 constitutional provision that enshrines Islam as the sole origin of ethical authority, said Haroum, the shopkeeper.

Sayyid said the Brotherhood has emphasized its commitment to social justice for the poor, promising to build schools and hospitals — a populist message that resonates in a country where per capita gross domestic product is $6,200 a year.

Yet some Egyptians are wary of the Islamist movement and its potential to hijack a shift toward democracy that was achieved principally by others.

“I don’t like them ideologically because religion is peaceful, and they are extremists,” said Mustafa Abdel Hamid, 37, a butcher who said he intends to vote for more moderate and secular candidates.

But others discount those fears. If anything, these Egyptians say, the Muslim Brotherhood might become more pragmatic if actually forced to govern.

Playing down Washington’s worries

Seesy, in an interview, sought to dispel worries about the Brotherhood, which have been especially pronounced among policymakers in Washington.

Seesy, who grew up in Awseem before studying law at Cairo University, joined the Brotherhood in 1985. Detention and torture by Mubarak’s security forces only intensified his resolve to fight back by handling the cases of people targeted by the regime.

Seesy’s charity serves people regardless of their religion and has no formal affiliation with the Brotherhood, he said. But Brotherhood members hold the charity’s top leadership positions and fill its ranks of volunteers.

Seesy also took pains to say that his organization’s efforts on behalf of the poor flow from the heart and from the Koran, not from ulterior political motives.

But Seesy — who allows that he would not mind representing his village on a Muslim Brotherhood ticket if party leaders approved — acknowledged that good works make for smart politics: He knows that lending a hand or a prayer can build the kind of loyalty that is useful at the polls.

“It’s a normal choice that people feel about what is provided to them unconditionally,” Seesy said. “To that end, they get behind him to support him in any election, whether it’s local or parliamentary.”

That’s okay with Haroum, the shopkeeper, who said he does not believe the Muslim Brotherhood would remake Egypt into a theocratic autocracy like Iran. If given the chance, Haroum said, the Brotherhood could, over time, steer Egypt toward a society infused with religion, not dominated by it.

“Their strategy is that they will go step by step,” Haroum said.


kunklef@washpost.com

Special correspondents Muhammad Monsour and Sherine Bayoumi contributed to this report.