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| Tunisian Islamists show strength at chief's return Posted: 30 Jan 2011 07:27 AM PST TUNIS (Reuters) - Thousands of Tunisians turned out on Sunday to welcome home an Islamist leader whose return from 22 years of exile indicated that his party would emerge as a major force in Tunisia after the ousting of its president.
The reception for Sheikh Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the Ennahda party, at Tunis airport was the biggest showing by the Islamists in two decades, during which thousands of them were jailed or exiled by President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Ghannouchi was exiled in 1989 by Ben Ali, who was toppled on Jan. 14 by popular protests that have sent tremors through an Arab world where similarly autocratic leaders have long sought to suppress Islamist groups. Protesters in Egypt demanding an end to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule have been inspired by the example of Tunisia. Ennahda is expected to contest future legislative but not presidential elections, dates for which have yet to be set. The Islamists were Tunisia's strongest opposition force at the time Ben Ali cracked down on them in 1989 but are thought not to have played a leading role in the popular revolt. But at Tunis airport on Sunday, they were out in force. Up to 10,000 young men and veiled women packed the arrival hall and car park. Some climbed trees and electricity pylons to catch a glimpse of the 69-year-old Ghannouchi, who says he has no ambition to run for state office. "Oh great people who called for this blessed revolution, continue your revolution, preserve it and translate it into democracy, justice and equality," Ghannouchi told the crowd, to chants of "Allahu Akbar". Ennahda supporters embraced each other in joy. A group of men performed prayers on a grass verge, a scene unthinkable in Tunisia just a few weeks ago. Ennahda likens its ideology to that of Turkey's ruling AK Party, saying it is committed to democracy. Experts on political Islam say its ideas are some of the most moderate among Islamist groups. SECULAR ORDER IMPOSED Tunisia has imposed a secular order since independence from France in 1956. Habib Bourguiba, the independence leader and long-time president, considered Islam a threat to the state. Ben Ali eased restrictions on the Islamists when he seized power in 1987, before cracking down on them two years later. The protests which dislodged Ben Ali and electrified the Arab world have largely dried up in the last few days following the announcement on Thursday of a new interim government purged of most of the remnants of Ben Ali's regime. The security forces have tried to restore order to the capital, where confrontations between shopkeepers and protesters have indicated dwindling support for demonstrators on the part of Tunisians who want life to return to normal. Ghannouchi told the crowd the path to democracy was "still long". "Unite and consolidate, democracy cannot happen without national consensus and development can only happen with justice and democracy," he said. Ennahda activists wearing white baseball caps tried to marshal the crowds. Asked how they had managed to organise so quickly, one activist said: "Our activities were stopped, but you can't disperse an ideology." Some Ennahda activists were among the political prisoners released under an amnesty granted by the interim government. A handful of secularists turned up at the airport to demonstrate against the party, holding up a placard reading: "No Islamism, no theocracy, no Sharia and no stupidity!" Ennahda and its supporters say they do not seek an Islamic state and want only the right to participate in politics. "We don't want an Islamic state, we want a democratic state," said Mohammed Habasi, an Ennahda supporter who said he had been jailed four times since 1991 for "belonging to a banned group". "We suffered the most from a lack of democracy," he said. Abdel Bassat al-Riyaahi, another Ennahda activist who returned from exile, said: "We were banned for 21 years ... but we came back with our heads held high. "Thank God for the great Tunisian people." (Additional reporting by Hamuda Hassan, Abdelaziz Boumzar, Musab Kheirallah; Writing by Tom Perry; editing by Tim Pearce) Copyright © 2011 Reuters | ||
| Syrians silently gripped by Arab upheaval Posted: 30 Jan 2011 07:27 AM PST DAMASCUS (Reuters) - On the surface all is calm in Syria, tightly ruled by the same authoritarian party for half a century, despite the upheaval in several of its Arab neighbours. Below, ordinary Syrians are quietly captivated by the tumult.
The government has barely commented on the six days of unprecedented protests against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and its control over the media has stifled public reaction in a country struggling with similar poverty and unemployment. "People are afraid to express an opinion, but between themselves they're saying: 'Mubarak be damned'," said a man waiting for a haircut at a Damascus barber. "What are the authorities waiting for? Are they waiting for instability to hit Syria before they act? Open the country up," another man said. But there is no sign that the upheaval in Egypt will spark reform in Syria. Syria's ruling hierarchy has moved swiftly to neutralise dissent since Tunisia's uprising earlier this month which overthrew strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and inspired Egyptian protests against Mubarak's 30-year rule. The government raised a key fuel subsidy and tightened Internet controls, while a special security court jailed a 69-year-old leftist for seven years this month for discussing alternatives to the Baath Party's monopoly on power. Although Syria and Egypt have been at odds politically, backing different Palestinian and Lebanese factions, the two countries are ruled through emergency law and suffer an acute gap between rich and poor, widespread corruption and 10 percent unemployment estimated independently at least double that. CRISIS IN THE EAST They have similar Gross Domestic Product per capita at around $2,500 and two great rivers -- Egypt the Nile and Syria the Euphrates. But water mismanagement has turned Syria's eastern region that borders Iraq and Turkey into a dustbowl. The water crisis in the east, Syria's agricultural heartland, has displaced hundreds of thousands of people over the past five years. Violent demonstrations by the ethnic Kurdish minority swept the east in 2004, resulting in scores of deaths. A United Nations report last year said 800,000 people in the region were severely affected by lack of water and living in extreme poverty and "should be benefiting from much higher level of support than is now provided by the Syrian government". In a stark reminder of Syria's wealth gap, the region produces all of the country's output of 380,000 barrels of oil per day, down from a peak of 590,000 bpd in 2006. "You have a lot of discontent, and many people of the east have found themselves dispossessed refugees and are now around major Syrian cities," an unemployed Syrian engineer said. A lawyer educated in Europe said the upheaval in Tunisia and Egypt shows that corruption is a difficult habit to stop, although "the billions of dollars officials and their cronies amass will not help them one single iota when their end comes". "Stop the corruption. Stop the thefts. When is enough enough? There seems never to be a limit," he said. But change is not favoured by all, with ordinary Syrians living in a complex society of myriad sects and ethnicities. Members of the professional class worry that shattering the current system could result in mob rule, due to low education standards and the erosion of the middle class in recent decades. "At least we know who is ruling Syria now. If change comes it may not be the middle classes and people with Facebook accounts leading it," a Syrian doctor with a practice in an upscale area of Damascus said. "Our rulers have to rebuild the education system and clean up the judiciary, fast," he said. "Syria is running out of time." Copyright © 2011 Reuters |
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