Morocco: When Patronage Prevents Reform
May 7th, 2010 by Josh
Carnegie’s Arab Reform Bulletin has a new piece up on Morocco, discussing how the pernicious culture of corruption has diminished the political efficacy of Morocco’s previously pro-reform Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP). Maati Monjib, a professor and researcher at Mohammed V University in Rabat, recounts a recent episode of three top USFP leaders freezing their party membership after party leader Abdelwahed Radi gave a speech ceding all power for constitutional reforms to the monarchy — a concession that some thought flew in the face of USFP’s stated goal of seeking “political and constitutional reform to extricate the country from the crisis of its struggling democracy.” Many within the party believe Radi surrendered his principles in order to become speaker of the monarchy-controlled parliament.
Lamenting this betrayal of USFP’s “progressive, modernist roots,” Monjib contends that it’s simply “emblematic of problems inside other political parties as well, which struggle with how to pursue their principles in light of Morocco’s patronage based system and the centripetal force of the monarchy.”
Posted in Morocco, Political Parties, Reform | Comment »
Annual Report on International Religious Freedom
May 7th, 2010 by Josh
Last week, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its annual report [PDF] documenting the status of religious freedom in 28 countries from April 2009 until March 2010. Within the Middle East and North Africa, USCIRF cites Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan for their egregious “abuses and limitations” of religious freedom. Of those four, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan currently reside on the State Department’s list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC). While Iraq has been on the “Watch List” since 2007, the Commission requests for the third straight year that it be designated a CPC due to “violence, forced displacement, discrimination, marginalization, and neglect suffered by members of [vulnerable religious minorities] that threaten these ancient communities’ very existence.”
In addition to documenting violations and urging a stronger U.S. response, the report also highlights the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to “adequately address” serious flaws in U.S. immigration policy — identified in a 2005 USCIRF study — that place asylum seekers at risk of being returned countries where they may face persecution and abuse.
Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, US foreign policy | Comment »
Turkey: Constitutional Changes Are But a Referendum Away
May 7th, 2010 by Chanan
A politically charged and controversial package of constitutional amendments that would overhaul the judiciary was passed in a tightly-contested vote in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly last night, setting the stage for a national referendum. The Wall Street Journal reports that some of the most contentious changes would grant the parliament and president - both controlled by the Islamic-leaning AKP party - much power in appointing judges to an expanded Constitutional Court. Opponents from the secular Republican’s People Party allege that such changes are merely an attempt by Islamic parties to wield more power throughout the entire government. Many judges fear that it would negatively impact current separation of power.
In a Q&A on World Politics Review, the Council on Foreign Relation’s Steven A. Cook explains that although there is an across-the-board desire for a new constitution - which was drafted following a 1980 coup - there is no agreed-upon format for writing one. He also stated that the amendments passed last night will not alter the institutional balance of power, but “will provide an opportunity for the government to politicize the judiciary.”
Posted in Islam and Democracy, Judiciary, Legislation, Political Parties, Turkey, Uncategorized | Comment »
Is the U.S. Strategy Toward Iran Working (Part 2)?
May 7th, 2010 by Josh
Another evaluation comes in on the issue of U.S.-Iran relations. The Spring 2010 edition of the Journal of International Security Affairs offers a thoughtful, albeit critical, assessment [PDF] of the Obama administration’s Iran engagement strategy by Scott Carpenter, director of Project Fikra at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The administration’s fundamental miscalculation, he says, “has been to underestimate the paranoia of the regime regarding a U.S.-sponsored ‘velvet revolution.’” This, compounded by the Iran’s increased recalcitrance following last year’s election, leads Carpenter to believe that rapprochement is nearly impossible for the foreseeable future. Rather than continue to devote time and resources on what he views as a futile enterprise, Carpenter urges the administration to go on a “nuanced, if comprehensive, offensive to challenge the regime on human rights grounds.” Targeted sanctions can be a component part of this offensive, but they must be complemented by a public diplomacy campaign that uses an explicit human rights message to invert the traditional Iranian narrative that portrays Iran as a victim of the United States. And if this stronger show of solidarity and support can embolden oppositionists, it may lead to a regime change — an outcome Carpenter suspects is “the best safeguard against a nuclear Iran and may even usher in a period of U.S.-Iranian partnership.”
Posted in Diplomacy, Freedom, Human Rights, Iran, Political Parties, Reform, US foreign policy, sanctions | Comment »
Iraq: The Coalition Tug-of-War Continues
May 7th, 2010 by Chanan
Concerns about sectarian tension caused by Iranian meddling in Iraq resurfaced this past week as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s coalition joined forces with two other leading Shia blocs, potentially marginalizing Ayad Allawi’s Sunni-backed and secular Iraqiya party. The alliance struck between Maliki’s State of Law bloc and the Shia-dominated Iraqi National Alliance grants the coalition 159 seats, three shy of a parliamentary majority.
In an interview with the AFP, Iraqiya spokeswoman Maysoon Damaluji described the alliance as a “sectarian merger” formed by Iran. ”The Iraqiya list and the national project have been targeted and we feel that this merger was designed by regional powers,” she said.
According to a report in Al-Hayat referenced by Juan Cole, Damaluji may be right about Iranian interference. “One of al-Hayat’s sources maintained that Iran had brokered the coalition in order to deny secular ex-Baathist Iyad Allawi, a known CIA asset, out of the prime ministership, and to stop any move to internationalize the process of forming an Iraqi government (as Allawi has called for),” which the U.S. supports. The blog, Musings on Iraq, arrives at a similar conclusion: “For now the main goal of the new Shiite coalition is to maintain their control of the state, and keep Iyad Allawi out of power. That doesn’t mean his National Movement won’t have a seat at the table of a new government, but Allawi will not be allowed to become prime minister again.”
Perhaps, for that reason, a visibly frustrated yet determined Allawi argued that he had the right - as the lead vote getter in the March 7 parliamentary elections - to get the first crack at forming a government. This might prove difficult, especially after Iraq’s predominant Kurdish bloc offered support on Thursday for Maliki’s growing faction.
Writing on ForeignPolicy.com about the burgeoning developments in Iraq, the Washington Institute’s Michael Knights sees the perfect storm of events weakening American influence and increasing Iranian clout. “If current trends persist, the next Iraqi government will sideline Iraq’s Sunni Arab population, lack the cohesion required to govern effectively, and will be the ideal environment for Iran to peddle its influence in the aftermath of the U.S. military withdrawal,” he argued. Though denying its likelihood, TIME columnist Joe Klein quipped, ”it would, of course, be rather ironic if Bush’s war of choice turned Iraq into an ally, or satellite, of Iran.”
Posted in Elections, Iran, Iraq, Kurds, Political Islam, Political Parties, Sectarianism, US foreign policy, Uncategorized | Comment »
Is the U.S. Strategy Toward Iran Working?
May 6th, 2010 by Josh
Ploughshares Fund President Joseph Cirincione thinks so, attributing Iran’s dearth of international partners — as demonstrated, he says, by the walkouts during President Ahmadinejad’s speech at the UN on Monday as well as Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s sharp diplomatic prod – in part to the reorientation of U.S. policy away from regime change and toward engagement and containment. “By not overtly threatening Iran,” he argues at FP’s Middle East Channel, “the United States has enlarged the political space for internal Iranian protests and weakened the desire of other states to defend Iran from Western pressure.” Cirincione also concurs with Vice-President Joe Biden’s assesment that the Iranian regime has become “more isolated domestically, regionally, and internationally than it has ever been.”
But Time’s Tony Karon is not as convinced that the “nuclear gamesmanship” on display at the UN’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conference will help President Obama, going so far as to predict that it may even adversely affect the administration’s efforts to consolidate international support for its agenda. “[Ahmadinejad’s] speech played to the majority of countries that position themselves somewhere between the U.S. and Iran … they insist that dialogue, rather than further sanctions or coercive measures, is the way to resolve the issue,” meaning that the visual of Western delegations walking away during Ahmadinejad’s address might raise questions about the Obama administration’s commitment to serious engagement.
Posted in Diplomacy, Iran, US foreign policy, United Nations | Comment »
UN Renews Peacekeeping Mission in Western Sahara
May 6th, 2010 by Josh
After a rather heated UN Security Council debate, a majority of the 15-member council voted to extend the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for one year under the terms of the UN-brokered 1991 ceasefire agreement between Morocco and the Western Saharan-based Polisario Front independence movement. However, the resolution did not include provisions to monitor human rights — sought by some on the council — prompting a Polisario spokesman to condemn the action as grossly inadequate and a “scandal for the credibility of the United Nations and the Security Council.”
In the context of ongoing negotiations over the occupied territory, Moroccan Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi praised the UN for producing a resolution that is consistent with Morocco’s approach and affirms the vision of graduated autonomy, not full independence.
Prior to MINURSO’s extension, human rights advocates had implored UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to push for the establishment of a “UN mechanism that would monitor and report on human rights.” Polisario did the same during a meeting with top UN officials last month, after which Ban expressed his desire to find a solution “that provides for the self-determination for the people of Western Sahara.”
Posted in Human Rights, Morocco, United Nations, Western Sahara | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Town Hall Meeting with Dr. Rajiv Shah”
May 5th, 2010 by Chanan
At a town hall meeting hosted by the U.S. Global Leadership Council, Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator, announced the creation of a new plan to revitalize the organization, including the formation of a new policy bureau, the rollout of procurement reforms, and the formation of new systems to increase its transparency, monitoring and evaluation.
Click here for POMED’s notes in PDF, or continue reading below the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Afghanistan, DC Event Notes, Foreign Aid, Iraq, Uncategorized | Comment »
A Belated Happy Birthday to Hosni Mubarak
May 5th, 2010 by Chanan
Yesterday, long-serving Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak celebrated his 82nd birthday in a secluded resort in Sharm el Sheik as concerns continued to mount, in quiet, about the state of his health and potential government succession plans. The New York Times‘ Michael Slackman offers an intriguing look into the Egyptian public’s reaction in an article entitled, “President’s Quiet Birthday Leaves Egyptians Anxious.” He quotes Wahid Abdel Meguid, deputy director of the state-financed Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies: “The issue is not about his health today… It is about the ambiguity of the future with regards to the transfer of power, be it in the near or far future. There is increasing anxiety, which used to be prevalent among limited circles of intellectuals and elites, but now it has spread throughout society.”
Earlier this week, 150 pro-democracy and anti-government protestors clashed with police forces in Cairo as they demonstrated against the country’s 30-year Emergency Law, which forbids basic civil liberties. Shadi Hamid, former director of research for POMED, was on the ground at the protest and made two insightful observations about the relatively low turnout: 1) “The Egyptian regime is nothing short of masterful at protest containment. Nobody does it better.” 2) “One couldn’t help but notice the conspicuous absence of Muslim Brotherhood members,” which he explains is really the only opposition group capable of organizing a mass protest.
Meanwhile, the Middle East Institute’s Michael Collins Dunn cites the compelling rumor that Mubarak might name Omar Suleiman, director of Egypt’s national intelligence agency, as his Vice President. Even though these “reports are somewhere between just-made-up and, possibly, faint trial balloons,” the current factors on the ground - Mubarak’s recent surgery, old age, long break from politics, and the fact that presidential elections are scheduled for next year - ” is going to have to happen fairly soon.”
Posted in Egypt, Elections, Muslim Brotherhood, Protests, Uncategorized | Comment »
POMED Notes: “Previewing Egypt’s Upcoming Elections”
May 3rd, 2010 by Chanan
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace hosted a panel discussion featuring Amr Hamzawy, senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, and Jeremy Sharp, a specialist in Middle East Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, to discuss the political landscape in Egypt as it prepares for the upcoming parliamentary elections and next year’s presidential elections. Michele Dunne, a senior associate at Carnegie, moderated the event.
Click here for POMED’s notes in PDF, or continue reading below the fold.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in DC Event Notes, Democracy Promotion, Diplomacy, Egypt, Elections, Human Rights, Mideast Peace Plan, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Islam, Political Parties, Protests, Technology, US foreign policy, Uncategorized | Comment »
Entrepreneurship Summit Explores Mutually Beneficial Partnerships
April 30th, 2010 by Josh
Fulfilling a promise first made in last year’s landmark Cairo address, the Obama administration hosted a two-day Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship earlier this week to “identify how we can deepen ties between business leaders, foundations, and entrepreneurs in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.”
President Obama delivered the keynote on Monday, stressing the critical importance of entrepreneurship as a means to:
- Create space “where we can learn from each other; where America can share our experience as a society that empowers the inventor and the innovator.”
- Lift people out of povery by creating opportunity.
- Promote mutually beneficial trade partnerships between the United States and Muslim countries.
- Leverage real, meaningful change “from the bottom up, from the grassroots, starting with the dreams and passions of single individuals serving their communities.”
Expounding upon how these principles will manifest in the form of policy, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in her closing remarks that the U.S. is launching the Global Entrepreneur Program — an initiative that will help create successful entrepreneurial environments in Muslim-majority countries by enlisting the support of U.S. private sector partners and civil society groups. The initiative’s pilot program will take place in Egypt, coordinated by a “team of Entrepreneurs in Residence from USAID,” the secretary said.
Over at the Washington Note, Ben Katcher calls the summit an “excellent initiative,” one which has “the potential to broaden the United States’ relationships with Muslim-majority countries with which we have traditionally enjoyed narrowly-focused bilateral relations focused primarily on security and energy.”
Yet despite the focus on well-defined areas of particular importance, the “conspicuous absence of youth voices” somewhat marred the event for Nathaniel Whittemore of Change.org. “If … the focus on entrepreneurship is about building the long term capacity of partner countries to thrive economically,” he says, “then it is a huge problem that the event is neglecting the voices of those who are by necessity building that long-term capacity.”
Posted in Egypt, Events, NGOs, US foreign policy | Comment »
Iraq: Maliki Criticizes Allawi’s Call for Outside Intervention
April 30th, 2010 by Chanan
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki blasted his chief rival, Ayad Allawi, for advocating for an internationally-monitored caretaker government earlier this week. ”This makes it clear that there is a regional and international project that wanted to stage a coup through the ballot box,” Maliki said today. “Why else would there be all this complaining and weeping in the world over the recount issue?” Maliki was referencing Allawi’s budding concerns about the future of his Iraqiya coalition following a manual recount of 2.5 million votes cast in Baghdad earlier this month as well a court-imposed disqualification of 52 candidates for alleged ties to Saddaam Hussein’s Ba’th party.
Frederick Kagan and Kimberly Kagan argued in today’s Washington Post against these disqualifications, stating that a failure to confront this situation by the U.S. government would be a missed opportunity for success in Iraq. “Washington must act swiftly to defend the integrity of the electoral process and support Iraqi leaders’ tentative efforts to rein in the “de-Baathification” commission that threatens to undermine the entire democratic process,” they write.
In a Q&A on the Council on Foreign Relations website, CFR’s Rachel Schneller says that these two issues - the de-Ba’athification action and the recount - are emblematic of how long the government-formation process will take. Regardless of what happens or how long it takes, Schneller thinks we must decouple the issue of elections from the beginning of the planned U.S. withdrawal in August. While she does not predict what will happen in the elections or what specifically will happen once the U.S. withdraws, she does admit that “this is going to be messy and is not going to look the way the United States wants it to look.”
Posted in Elections, Iraq, US foreign policy, Uncategorized | Comment »
Sen. Conrad Receives Ire of Foreign Policy Community
April 30th, 2010 by Chanan
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, has not been in good stead with the foreign policy community since announcing last week his decision to slash some $4 billion from the Obama administration’s $58.5 billion budget request for State and USAID for fiscal 2011.
The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) recently expressed their “deep disappointment” in Sen. Conrad’s proposal and also organized a letter signed by all eight living former Secretaries of State encouraging Congress to express their support for the full international affairs budget. The same argument has been made over the last week by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), and even U2 front-man, Bono. ”Development gets even less if Senator Conrad gets his way,” Bono said in a speech at the Atlantic Council’s annual awards dinner on Wednesday night. “So you peaceniks in fatigues have a job to do over the next few weeks.”
Posted in Congress, Legislation, US foreign policy, US politics, Uncategorized | Comment »
Arab Reform Bulletin: Lebanese Municipal Elections On Time, But Reform Delayed
April 28th, 2010 by Chanan
As Lebanon prepares for municipal elections in the first of a multi-staged process this upcoming weekend, Karam Karam, the program director at the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, offers a frustrating account of the missed opportunities to enact much-needed reform of the electoral process. “The issue of reform has been raised before and after each of the elections held since 1990 without ever being translated into concrete measures, and the same is true this time around,” he writes.
A bill put forward late last year by the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities that would have changed the current majoritarian system into a system of proportional representation replete with expanded municipal powers, greater opportunities for female legislators and a more fair balloting system was stunted by political parties concerned about its impact on “the patronage networks and favoritism that have dominated politics since the establishment of the Lebanese Republic.” Even though these parties are aware of the benefits to a revised electoral system, “the inertia of the present system is too great to overcome.”
Posted in Elections, Lebanon, Political Parties, Reform, Uncategorized, Women | Comment »
Mounting Pressure to Fully Fund Administration’s Foreign Affairs Request
April 28th, 2010 by Josh
Via Laura Rozen, the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition has coordinated an effort [PDF] by all eight living U.S. Secretaries of State to urge members of Congress not to cut the international affairs budget. This joint letter is part of a larger USGLC campaign that has enlisted the support of Secretary Clinton, Secretary Gates, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, 31 senators, as well as various congressional coalitions and caucuses [all in PDF].
You can read more about the Middle East-related components of the Obama administration’s FY2011 budget request in POMED’s recently released report.
Posted in Congress, Legislation, US foreign policy, US politics | 1 Comment »
Sudan’s Elections: “Imperfect but Important” or a Complete “Farce”?
April 28th, 2010 by Josh
Former President Jimmy Carter penned an op-ed in today’s Los Angeles Times relaying the findings of his Carter Center monitors who observed the Sudan election in each of the country’s 25 states. “Two major problems on the ground involved voters lists and the location of polling stations,” Carter writes. There were also some observer reports of “intimidation, especially in the south, and of serious irregularities and a lack of transparency in the vote tabulation process.” However, the former president argues that these electoral deficiencies should not detract from the overall positive power of Sudan’s first multiparty vote in 24 years — an event he believes will “permit this war-torn nation to move toward a permanent peace and strengthen its quest for true democracy.”
But for Louise Roland-Gosselin, director of Waging Peace, framing the elections as a “staging post” on a much longer journey “sadly lacks any basis in reality.” She reports that for people like herself, who have worked extensively in Sudan, Bashir’s conduct was not only unsurprising, but entirely predictable. And by “permitting Bashir to openly commit electoral fraud without repercussions, the international community is damaging its own credibility, setting a very concerning precedent for democratic transitions across the world and legitimising the use of violence and intimidation.” The ultimate victims of this “farcical process” will be the Sudanese people, she says, who “are left to wonder once again what it might take for the international community to stand up to Bashir and to protect them.”
Posted in Elections, Freedom, Human Rights, Political Parties, Sudan | Comment »
Tunisia: One Journalist Released, Another One Beaten
April 28th, 2010 by Josh
Coming on the heels of Rasha Moumneh’s Foreign Policy article decrying the human rights situation in Tunisia, Reuters is reporting that the Tunisian government has released journalist Taoufik Ben Brik after a six-month stint in prison on charges described by Reporters Without Borders as “made up from start to finish.”
Just prior to Brik’s release, however, human rights activist and online journalist Zouhaïer Makhlouf received a “severe beating” from police officers who arrested him at his home. Makhlouf had previously served 3 months in prison after being convicted for publishing an online video about an industrial area without obtaining an official permit or the consent of the people he filmed.
Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Tunisia | Comment »
West Bank: Fayyad Sets Date for Local Elections, Receives Call for Internal Reshuffle
April 28th, 2010 by Josh
In spite of strong push-back from Hamas and other Islamists in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s government recently signed off on local council elections in the West Bank, scheduled to take place on July 17. This will be the first attempt at elections on any level since the cancellation of presidential and parliamentary elections last January — and, if successful, will mark the first local council vote since 2005.
Meanwhile, leaders of Fatah, the dominant West Bank party, are calling upon Fayyad to “reshuffle” his cabinet and in order to give Fatah members greater power over interior affairs, finance, and foreign affairs. One senior Fatah official claimed that Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, “also wants a reshuffle” and does not object to the ministerial demands of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council.
But Fayyad’s singular focus is still on building the institutional architecture for Palestinian statehood, write Karin Laub and Mohammed Daraghmeh at the Huffington Post. “He is moving ahead with an ambitious plan,” they say, referring to Fayyad’s efforts to pave roads, reform the judiciary, and plan new cities. However, his active, hands-on approach that often circumvents the traditional “power structures of the Fatah movement” may be one of the reasons for Fatah’s demand for greater cabinet-level representation, which could begin to cause additional internal rifts. And according to Robert Blecher of the International Crisis Group — quoted by Laub and Daraghmeh — Fayyad’s biggest challenge will be walking a “tightrope between the coordination with Israel that his statebuilding plan requires and the defiance of Israel that Palestinians demand and toward which they are gravitating.”
Posted in Elections, Hamas, Israel, Judiciary, Palestine, Political Parties | Comment »
Why Aren’t Democracy Dissidents as Famous as Their Predecessors?
April 28th, 2010 by Chanan
That is the question posed by Boston Globe columnist, Jeff Jacoby, in an op-ed today following last week’s Conference on Cyber Dissidents at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas, Texas. With vastly superior modes of communications and digital technology, Jacoby wonders why today’s democracy dissidents in Syria or China are not as well-known as their Soviet counterparts in the 1970s and 80s.
David Keyes, the director of CyberDissidents.org, whose self-declared “mission is to make the Middle East’s pro-democracy Internet activists famous and beloved in the West” highlighted this very paradox at the event: “The Internet enables them [the dissidents] to reach the world… They push the ‘send’ button and thousands of people can instantly read their words. Yet not a single American in a million knows their names.’’
Another participant at the conference - Jeffrey Gedmin, president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty - provided an answer last week in a USA Today piece entitled, “Democracy Isn’t Just a Tweet Away.” Gedmin argued that although the proliferation of social media has empowered political protests and dissent, it has also empowered authoritarian governments to respond and react in kind. “Tyrants, it turns out, like Twitter too,” he remarked. And even if these tools are helpful in coordinating demonstrations and other forms of activism, it ”won’t tell the opposition how to govern, how to develop democratic institutions or how to inculcate and defend the values, habits and behaviors that belong to democracy.”
Nonetheless, this did not prevent some attendees at the conference - many of whom are cyber dissidents - from expressing a sense of abandonment from the Obama administration and an apparent longing for Bush’s freedom agenda. One such dissident, Ahed Al-Hendi, was not hesitant from articulating his frustration: ”In Syria, when a single dissident was arrested during the administration of George W. Bush, at the very least the White House spokesman would condemn it. Under the Obama administration: nothing.” This is unfortunate, laments the Wall Street Journal’s Bari Weiss: “The peaceful promotion of human rights and democracy—in part by supporting the individuals risking their lives for liberty—are consonant with America’s most basic values. Standing up for them should not be a partisan issue.”
Posted in Freedom, Human Rights, Syria, Technology, US foreign policy, Uncategorized | Comment »
Tunisia: Thinly Veiled Dictatorship?
April 27th, 2010 by Josh
Over at Foreign Policy, Rasha Moumneh — a Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch — attempts to peel back the superficial layers of Tunisian liberalism to reveal what he believes are fairly egregious human rights violations. “Under President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali,” Moumneh writes, “even the most minor dissent is treated as a serious threat.” His research indicates that the government tracks, and periodically punishes, journalists, human rights advocates, and anyone else who voices concern over government activity. “Despite Ben Ali’s best efforts to conceal his government’s dishonest methods to silence and quash dissent, the carefully crafted façade of ‘modern, democratic, and moderate’ Tunisia is coming apart at the seams.” Check out the entire piece here.
Posted in Human Rights, Tunisia | 1 Comment »
