Opinion:
Going overboard when under attack
CRAIG S. SMITH North African governments are using repression to combat the rise of conservative Islamist parties. This weakens moderates in society but strengthens militant opposition, writes CRAIG S. SMITH ISLAMIST bombs punched more holes in North Africa’s secular social veneer last week, this time in Algeria, where two blasts killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more. It was a depressing blow for a country still healing from the wounds of an Islamist-led civil war. That atrocity-spattered conflict, which cost Algeria as many as 200,000 lives, according to frequently cited estimates, was triggered in 1992 when the country’s military stopped elections that an Islamist party was poised to win. Outraged Islamists and their young, impoverished, uneducated supporters took up arms. Some are still fighting, as last Wednesday’s bombings made clear. But something else lingers from the war: A debate over whether the military rescued Algeria from the establishment of an Iranian-like theocracy or whether the repression only hardened an impulse that would have dissipated in democracy’s tempering bath. The debate can be heard all across North Africa, where secular governments of varying authoritarian degrees face a surge in conservative religiosity that supports an extreme form of political Islam. Every country on the continent’s northern rim, from Egypt to Morocco, has outlawed extreme Islamist parties that would be likely to win large parliamentary blocs, if not majorities, were they allowed to participate in free and fair national elections. (Libya bans political parties altogether.) Each of those countries (again with the exception of Libya, where the small society is tightly controlled) has suffered terrorist attacks from local groups that have emerged from the repressed extremists. What to do? Clearly, the rise of conservative Islam won’t be turned aside by simply banning the veil, as Tunisia tried unsuccessfully to do. Allowing carefully monitored, government-friendly Islamist parties into the political system hasn’t solved the problem either: Neither the Movement for the Society of Peace and the Islamic Renaissance Movement in Algeria, nor the Justice and Development Party in Morocco, have diffused the power of the underground movements. The governments counsel patience, arguing that fuller democracy will come as their economies improve and their societies mature. Meanwhile, as the threat has progressed, the leaders of Algeria and Tunisia have used constitutional amendments to tighten their grip. Morocco has swept thousands of Islamists into its jails. « We opened up too early and too wide, » a wartime prime minister, Ahmed Ouyahia, said in 2004. He was speaking of the period that led to the aborted 1992 elections. He and others in North Africa’s elite circles of power argue that, given the conservative religiosity sweeping the Muslim world, it is simply too dangerous to allow essentially non-democratic movements to participate in fully democratic elections because they can’t be trusted to respect democratic principles if they come to power. The leaders of those movements don’t instil much confidence: Last summer, Ali Benhadjar, a former Islamist leader who went to war in 1992 after being denied a seat in parliament, explained that an Islamist-led government would not suspend the democratic process, but that all decisions would rely on Islamic law. He cited Iran as a democratic model. Meanwhile, the circumscribed democracy that exists throughout the region doesn’t only squeeze out Islamists; it prevents more liberal elements of civil society from participating in politics as well. That leaves most people without a political voice, caught between a distant, elitist and often corrupt government and a militant opposition rooted in fundamentalist Islam. Despite the periodic violence, the Islamist movement appears to be gaining ground. « In the absence of debate, people turn to the simplest ideas, » Khadija Cherif, the head of the Tunisian Association for Women’s Rights, said in an interview in Tunis in January after government forces clashed with an Islamist terrorist cell, killing more than two dozen people. She argued that the repression of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali had left no political space for progressive moderates like herself who might otherwise help slow the drift among Tunisian youth towards fundamentalist political Islam. These countries can’t keep the volatile segment of their populations shut out of the political process forever. In Algeria, as in many Arab countries, nearly three-quarters of the population are younger than 30 and half of those under the age of 25 are unemployed. Economic development alone isn’t the answer, however. Many of the most active militants come from well-to-do families. Tunisia, for example, has a big, home-owning, mortgage-holding middle class but hasn’t escaped radicalism. In contrast to the Western-friendly face presented at North Africa’s tourist hotels, al-Qaeda finds many admirers in its capital’s narrow streets. What would happen if these governments let down their guard? John Entelis, a political scientist at Fordham University in New York, argues that the demands of working within a pluralistic system, or the responsibilities of governing if an Islamist party came to power, would force those parties to change. Look at Turkey’s Justice and Development Party, he says, which was once banned but now governs responsibly, in a Nato-member country. Having an Islamist party in power has not spared the country from terrorist attacks, but neither has it turned the country into a theocratic state. It has, however, satisfied a democratic impulse and given the country the most popular government it has had in the three-quarters of a century since Ataturk secularised the state. Instead, the military response and subsequent repression undermined the moderates and emboldened the militants in the movement, he says. The result is the persistent Islamist terrorism that is facing Algeria today and that is morphing into a global threat, with logistic support from Europe to the north and recruitment extending southward into the African Sahel. Other experts, not to mention the governments in power, disagree. William Zartman, a North Africa expert at Johns Hopkins University specialising in conflict resolution, says Algeria and Morocco are doing the right thing by excluding extremists yet allowing moderate Islamic parties to operate under tight government control. — NYT (Source : « New Straits Times » (Quotidien – Malaisie), le 17 avril 2007) Lien : http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Monday/Columns/20070416081235/Article/index_html
Attacks likely first part of al Qaeda plot, officials say
By Andrew Borowiec NICOSIA, Cyprus — North African authorities say a wave of suicide attacks in Morocco and Algeria over the past week may be the first phase of an al Qaeda plot drafted in Sudan three years ago. The plan calls for a reign of terror, implantation of guerrilla units in mountain hideouts, a paralysis of Algerian oil supplies and of tourist resorts in Tunisia and Morocco, a senior North African official said. Other officials said last week’s bombings in Algiers, which killed 33 persons and wounded 22, and a series of suicide explosions in Casablanca, Morocco’s main port, may signal the start of the campaign. Algerian officials said the original plot called for the area known as the Maghreb, spanning Africa’s Mediterranean coast, to be plunged into a reign of terror reminiscent of the « decade of blood » waged by Islamic fanatics in Algeria in the 1990s, which claimed 100,000 victims. Although that revolt was crushed, its surviving perpetrators have remained in hiding, rejecting a reconciliation offer from Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Last year in March, the president renewed the offer « even to those with blood on their hands. » Since then, hard-line Armed Islamic Groups have been transformed into the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (known by the French acronym GSPC), which last fall was renamed as the al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb. The transformation was reportedly ordered by al Qaeda’s chief, Osama Bin Laden, the world’s most wanted terrorist. Bin Laden’s plan to destabilize three North African countries became known to Tunisian officials early in 2004, and Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali mentioned it to President Bush during a trip to Washington in February of that year. Mr. Ben Ali told The Washington Times that he had ordered the establishment of military outposts along Tunisia’s border with Algeria to prevent an influx of Islamic extremists. Muslim Tunisia has banned political Islam in all its forms and claims to have contained the threat by « vaccinating the country » with economic and educational reforms. Mr. Ben Ali told Mr. Bush that Algeria had been designated as the first target for the terrorist offensive because of the well-implanted guerrilla bases in the Kabylie and Aures mountains and stocks of explosives from the 1990s. Next was to be Morocco, deemed vulnerable because of its vast area, the division of the population into Arabs and Berbers and the mass of restive unemployed in the teeming cities. Tunisia, with more than 10 million inhabitants in a relative small area between Algeria and Libya, was the last target because of the presence of a vast police force that controls virtually every nook and cranny of the country. Ever since the Khartoum meeting, which terrorist chiefs from the Middle East and Europe attended, Mr. Ben Ali has been warning Tunisia’s friends of the extent of the threat of terrorism, « which transcends borders and requires diligent action. » The first signs that Islamists have not disarmed in Tunisia came in January when Tunisia announced it had killed 12 and captured 15 rebels in an armed clash with police. All had come from neighboring Algeria. In another security operation, an army unit hit a rebel hideout in the mountains on the Algerian border, arresting 13 suspects and killing a man identified as their leader. (Source: “THE WASHINGTON TIMES” (Quotidien – USA), le 17 avril 2007) Lien : http://washingtontimes.com/world/20070416-095744-6372r.htm
Circle Oil Farms into Two Concessions in Tunisia
Latest Oilvoice Headlines Circle Oil plc (AIM:COP), the international oil and gas exploration and development company, is pleased to announce the signing of agreements with EXXOIL Tunisie allowing Circle Oil to farm-in to two separate concessions in Tunisia. These farm-in agreements are subject to final confirmation and acceptance of transfer of interests by DGE (Direction Générale de l’Energie) Ministère de l’Industrie, de l’Energie et des Petites et Moyennes Entreprise. The farm-in to the Grombalia Permit in northern Tunisia will give Circle a 36% working interest with the operator EXXOIL Tunisie and ETAP as partners. The work programme includes acquiring a small amount of 2-D seismic in late spring 2007 and the drilling of two mature prospects presently planned for the fourth quarter 2007 and first quarter 2008. The first well is planned to be drilled into a fault block targeting a level that is producing in an adjacent field. The second well is planned to be drilled in very shallow water close to shore. This well will test a larger structure with two way dip and two way fault closure within the same geological sequence that has seen a number of drilling successes within the Permit. The second farm-in, into the Ras Mamour Permit in southern Tunisia, will give Circle a 23% working interest and will include the drilling of one onshore well. This well is presently scheduled for fourth quarter 2007/early 2008 and will target a geologically similar sequence and structure close to the producing Ezzaouia Field. These farm-in agreements give Circle Oil the opportunity to participate in drilling wells with short lead times. The maturity of the prospects and the proximity to existing production in geologically related, adjacent and analogous situations were significant factors in Circle Oil’s decision when entering into these agreements. Each of the wells will be drilled with the possibility, if successful, to be put into early production. The initial capital expenditure under the two farm-in agreements will be met out of Circle’s existing working capital resources. A number of other potentially good prospects have been identified within the two permits which can be considered for future drilling. Commenting on the signing of these agreements David Hough CEO Circle Oil stated: “We are delighted to be working in Tunisia and look forward to a long-term relationship with our new partners. It is planned to drill three mature prospects in a proven oil province, two of which are adjacent to existing production and the third is in a geological setting which has seen previous successes. For Circle Oil, these farm-in agreements represent a further step in the company’s evolution towards becoming a balanced exploration and production company.’’ (Source: le site www.oilvoice.com , le 16 avril 2007) Lien : http://www.oilvoice.com/Circle_Oil_Farms_into_Two_Concessions_in_Tunisia/9334.htm
Monday , 16 Apr 2007 Maghreb Minerals Plc (« Maghreb » or « the Company »), the AIM-quoted exploration, company developing base metal and industrial mineral deposits in North Africa, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Chris Clayton and Dr Alastair Baird as Consulting Geologists to provide geological support to Maghreb’s expanding and accelerating exploration and development programmes in Tunisia. Dr Clayton and Dr Baird bring a wealth of experience to Maghreb, having worked together extensively in Tunisia for over 20 years. They are co-founders of Mejerda Exploration, which supplies geological and geochemical expertise to the mineral industry on sediment-hosted mineral deposits. Both have specialist knowledge of sedimentary structures and geochemistry as these relate to the deposition of sedimentary-hosted lead-zinc mineralisation in the region. Field mapping and the evaluation of structural and stratigraphic settings for lead-zinc mineralisation led to the formulation of the thrust-related geological model which is being followed for the exploration of the Company’s exploration permits in Tunisia. Maghreb’s exploration programme in Tunisia this year will include field mapping, geophysics, geochemistry and drilling to evaluate and extend known resources at three past producing mines and surrounding areas. The Company’s prime focus is the evaluation and expansion of the known resources at the three past producing mines of Fej Lahdoum, Bou Jabeur and Zriba/Guebli (Zaghouan). These programmes are focused on advancing these projects towards pre-feasibility studies in the near term. Extensions to the known resources will be sought in the near mine area and in the Company’s adjacent, 100% held, exploration permits. Further exploration programmes are planned at Lorbeus and Djebba Goraa. Dr Chris Clayton BSc, PhD, ARSM, FGS served as a geoscientist with BP Research before forming an international business in 1992 based in the UK working predominantly in petroleum exploration worldwide. He is also a director of Petroflux Ltd, a consultancy and project management service for the petroleum industry and is a former senior honorary research fellow at Kingston University. His research, which relates to the geochemistry of Cretaceous rocks and flow mechanisms of petroleum and water in fine-grained sediments, has particular relevance to the understanding of MVT type lead-zinc deposit formation in Tunisia. Dr Alastair Baird BSc, MSc, D.I.C., PhD, FGS, C.Geol (University of Kingston, UK) has consulted for both major and junior oil and mineral companies for over 20 years. His specialist expertise, which is of direct relevance to Maghreb’s exploration programme, includes the structural evolution, petroleum and mineral potential of Tunisia, the evolution of Alpine/Mediterranean petroliferous basins and orogenic belts, the evolution, geometry, uplift and maturation history of inverted basin margins and post-rift sedimentation, differential compaction and fault reactivation across basin bounding faults. Applying this knowledge Professor Baird has modelled the evolution of basins and the related controls to mineralisation pertinent to the mineralised areas of Tunisia. He gained further knowledge through the successful supervision of postgraduate students researching the structural evolution of northern Tunisia and the timing of oil migration in the Atlas thrust front of central Tunisia. Gordon Riddler, Executive Chairman commented: « I am very pleased to welcome Chris Clayton and Alastair Baird to the Company and for them to have a hands-on role in the exploration programme. The additional specialist geological support that they bring will be invaluable as we significantly expand and accelerate the Company’s exploration programme, following the successful conclusion of the two title agreements over the former mining concessions at Bou Jabeur and Fej Lahdoum. » The technical content of this press release has been reviewed by the Executive Chairman of Maghreb Minerals plc, Gordon Riddler, BSc, MBA, FIMMM, CEng, CSci who has 40 years of experience in the mining sector and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a recognised professional association. 16th April 2007 ENQUIRIES: Maghreb Minerals Plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7556 7038 Gordon Riddler, Executive Chairman Hanson Westhouse Limited Tel: +44 (0) 20 7601 6100 Tim Metcalfe / Anita Ghanekar Bankside Consultants Tel: +44 (0) 20 7367 8888 Michael Padley / Michael Spriggs (Source : le portail mineweb.net , le 17 avril 2007) Lien : http://www.mineweb.net/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page674?oid=19598&sn=Detail
Iran, Tunisia review expansion of mutual cooperation
Tehran, April 15, IRNA – Tunisian Ambassador to Tehran Hatam al-Sa’em conferred here on Sunday with Majlis Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel on expansion of cooperation between the two countries. According to Public Relations Department and Press Bureau of the Majlis, at the meeting, Haddad Adel described the current level of relations between the two Muslim countries as very good and said Iran considers Tunisia as a great civilization. Referring to identity of Islamic revolution, he said that consolidation of ties with other Islamic countries is high on Iran’s agenda and called for expansion of cooperation and relations between the two countries. He urged expansion of economic relations in line with the current level of political ties between the two sides. Given the role of parliaments in promoting mutual understanding between the two nations, he voiced the readiness of the Iranian Majlis to help expand political, economic and cultural ties between the two countries. It is vital for Islamic countries to forge unity among themselves, said Haddad Adel calling for further cooperation among Islamic Ummah to help foil the conspiracies of the enemies. On Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, he said, « It remains a mystery why no one questions the profilators of weapons of mass destruction but they constantly try to introduce Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities as a threat to the world. » The Tunisian ambassador, for his part, described relations between the two countries as deep rooted and amicable and highlighted the significant role of parliamentary cooperation in bolstering mutual ties. Referring to the efforts of the enemies to create rift between Shiite and Sunni in Iraq and other Islamic regions, he called on the world Muslims to exercise vigilance and forge unity to foil the enemies’ plots. Tunisia will spare no efforts to prevent any probable rift and differences among Muslims, he said.
(Source : l’agence de presse iranienne IRNA (officielle), le 15 avril 2007) Lien :
http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-234/0704150802191406.htm
Persian courses in Tunisia, Bosnia
Two courses in Persian language have commenced in Tunisia and Bosnia under the auspices of the Iranian Embassy’s Cultural Department. The Iranian Culture House in Tunisia is running the Persian and Iranology course taught by Mehdi Zarghamian. The classes are attended by several young enthusiasts in two different levels. Meanwhile, officials at Bahram Beygov High School in northwest Bosnia announced that a Persian course, primarily taught to 15 students, is being held at the elementary level. (Source: le site presstv (Iran), le 16 avril 2007) Lien: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=6270§ionid=351020105
Le général Jaruzelski accusé pour avoir instauré la loi martiale en Pologne
AFP, le 17 avril 2007 à 13h32 VARSOVIE, 17 avr 2007 (AFP) – L’ancien homme fort de la Pologne communiste, le général Wojciech Jaruzelski, 83 ans, a été officiellement accusé mardi de « crime communiste » pour avoir instauré en 1981 la loi martiale afin de contrer le syndicat indépendant Solidarité, a annoncé le parquet chargé du dossier. Le général Jaruzelski est accusé d’avoir « dirigé une association armée à caractère délictueux », selon le département d’enquêtes de l’Institut de la mémoire nationale (IPN) qui instruit les affaires concernant les crimes nazis et communistes commis contre la nation polonaise. L’acte d’accusation a été transmis à un tribunal de Varsovie. Le général Jaruzelski, qui a dirigé entre 1981 et 1989 le gouvernement et le parti communiste polonais, encourt à ce titre une peine de 10 ans de prison. Huit autres anciens dirigeants communistes ont été cités dans le même acte d’accusation, dont notamment les généraux Czeslaw Kiszczak et Florian Siwicki, et l’ancien premier secrétaire du Parti ouvrier polonais Stanislaw Kania. « Il s’agit de remplir une sorte d’engagement à l’égard de la nation et de l’Etat polonais ainsi qu’à l’égard de tous ceux qui ont connu injustices et humiliations à l’époque de la loi martiale », a indiqué aux journalistes le directeur d’IPN de Katowice, Andrzej Drogon. Le général Jaruzelski est déjà jugé dans un procès interminable pour sa responsabilité présumée dans la sanglante répression de la révolte ouvrière sur le littoral de la Baltique en 1970, lorsqu’il était ministre de la Défense. En revanche, le parlement polonais avait disculpé en 1996 le général Jaruzelski de toute responsabilité constitutionnelle pour l’instauration de la loi martiale. En février dernier, le président conservateur polonais Lechb Kaczynski a déjà annoncé qu’il comptait dégrader et rétrograder au rang de simple soldat, le général Jaruzelski et les membres du Conseil militaire du salut national WRON qui a pris le pouvoir en Pologne le 13 décembre 1981. La personnalité du général reste controversée en Pologne, certains voyant en lui celui qui leur a épargné une invasion de l’URSS en 1981 et les autres l’accusant d’avoir maté le mouvement Solidarité et ainsi retardé de sept ans la chute du communisme à l’Est. La loi martiale, instaurée le 13 décembre 1981, a rejeté dans l’illégalité le syndicat de Lech Walesa, première organisation indépendante du bloc communiste, née des grandes grèves sur la Baltique en Pologne en août 1980. Des milliers de militants de Solidarité se sont retrouvés en prison pour plusieurs mois, voire plusieurs années. Selon diverses estimations, le coup de force du général Jaruzelski a fait plusieurs dizaines de morts. Le syndicat Solidarité est toutefois resté actif dans la clandestinité, alors que plusieurs facteurs politiques, comme la pérestroïka de Mikhaïl Gorbatchev en Russie, la ferme politique anticommuniste du président américain Ronald Reagan, ainsi que la crise économique et sociale du bloc soviétique ont progressivement conduit à la chute du communiste à l’Est en 1989. Avant même la chute du mur de Berlin (9 novembre 1989), le général Jaruzelski a choisi, dès le début 1989, une solution négociée pour partager le pouvoir avec Solidarité, ouvrant la voie au retour de la Pologne à la démocratie et à l’indépendance vis-à-vis de Moscou. AFP
Esclaves sexuelles: des historiens japonais exigent l’indemnisation des victimes
AFP, le 17 avril 2007 à 12h30 TOKYO, 17 avr 2007 (AFP) – Des historiens japonais ont exhorté mardi leur gouvernement à faire passer une loi pour compenser les femmes asiatiques contraintes de se prostituer pendant la Seconde guerre mondiale pour le compte des soldats de l’armée impériale japonaise. Jusqu’à présent, le gouvernement japonais s’est toujours refusé à compenser individuellement les victimes de l’esclavage sexuel estimant que la question devait être traitée au niveau international. Tokyo n’a contribué qu’à un seul fonds de compensation récemment fermé, qui était en partie alimenté par des particuliers, preuve aux yeux des victimes de l’esclavage sexuel que le Japon refuse d’assumer ses responsabilités. « L’armée japonaise est responsable d’une large partie des graves violations des droits de l’Homme, et de ce fait le gouvernement japonais devrait l’être aussi », a souligné l’historien Yoshiaki Yoshimi, de l’université Chuo, lors d’une conférence de presse. « Le gouvernement est donc responsable aux yeux de la loi », a-t-il ajouté. « Le gouvernement doit reconnaître sa responsabilité, et mieux encore, faire en sorte que soit entériné officiellement cette position », a-t-il ajouté. L’historien a exhorté Tokyo à faire passer un projet de loi plusieurs fois soumis en vain au Parlement pour compenser les victimes de l’esclavage sexuel. M. Yoshimi s’exprimait aux côtés de son confrère, Hirofumi Hayashi, de l’université Kanto Gakuin. Ce dernier vient d’annoncer la découverte d’archives juridiques prouvant, selon lui, que les autorités nippones ont contraint des femmes asiatiques à se prostituer pendant la Seconde guerre mondiale, malgré les dénégations du gouvernement conservateur de Shinzo Abe. Le Premier ministre nippon a récemment déclenché un tollé en Asie en affirmant qu’il n’existait « aucun témoignage fiable » prouvant que l’armée nippone avait eu recours à la « coercition » pour recruter des femmes comme chair à soldats. Mais M. Abe a depuis affirmé s’en tenir aux « excuses et regrets sincères » officiels exprimés par Tokyo en 1993. Les autorités avaient alors reconnu que l’armée impériale avait été impliquée « directement ou indirectement » dans l’esclavage sexuel. AFP
