Part of Al Jazeera’s The Arab Awakening series.
“The people want the fall of the regime” is the shared slogan of the Arab uprisings. In this episode an array of characters from across the region explain what they want and what they expect for the future.
I had missed this. Menobia Bouazizi, the mother of Mohamed Bouazizi, the 26-year-old martyr whose death triggered the Arab revolt, sent the following message to Libya’s freedom fighters.
The family of Mohamed Bouazizi, the young Tunisian from Sidi Bouzid whose act of self-immolation triggered the Tunisian Uprising, has a message for the families in Libya who have lost their loved ones to the violent repression of the protests.
Bouazizi, a 26-year-old street vendor, set himself on fire on December 17 after police abused and humiliated him. He died of his burns on January 4.
The protest movement that began in Sidi Bouzid swelled to become a nationwide phenomenon, and spread to other countries in North Africa and the Middle East. Most recently, it reached Libya.
Today another 29 Syrians, including a child, were slaughtered in their streets. Today Hugo Chavez referred to Syrian President Bashaar al-Asad as “my brother.” He claimed that Syria is “the victim of a fascist attack,” but he wasn’t referring to his fascistic brother, he was referring to the people.
Lance Selfa at Socialist Worker analyses Chavez’s perverse stand. It should be noted that Turkish PM Erdogan has regained his popularity since he took a strong line against Qaddafi and Asad.
WHEN THE revolution sweeping the Arab world struck Libya and Syria, the governments there chose to act in the same way that the Bahraini monarchy did against its internal opposition: Open fire on unarmed crowds, arrest large numbers of people and outlaw demonstrations.
These actions have rightly received widespread condemnation from supporters of the Arab revolutions. But they have received at least tacit support from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who is widely considered an important figure on the international left.
Part of Al Jazeera’s “Arab Awakening” series. Through the eyes of a Libyan-born filmmaker, we investigate the dark stories emerging from a country fast unravelling into civil war.
by Nafissa Assed
Today people and media all over the world are wondering about Qaddafi’s son, Saif-Al Arab, being targeted by NATO and perhaps killed. Do we really care? As for me, not really. Qaddafi and his family are welcome to surrender anytime, dead or alive. At the same time as Musa Ibrahim was claiming the death of Qaddafi’s son and his 3 grandchildren, we watched on the national Libyan TV Qaddafi’s thugs gathering in Bab Al-azziziya dancing and singing LIVE! Must be those pills again. If NATO is going to make any advance over Qaddafi, they must seriously consider shutting down Libyan state TV and its incitement. We all know that anything can be expected from Qaddafi and that he is sick enough to even fabricate the report of the death of his own son to stay in power (the al-Arabiya channel claims ‘inner circle’ witnesses say Saif al-Arab is dead, but not his children).
The war is raging in Libya and I am against NATO killing innocent children, even if they happen to be the grandchildren of Qaddafi – because this is not about him, it’s about who the decent Libyans are and the values they stand for. On the other hand, I believe it’s naïve if anyone thinks the rat Qaddafi and his family were really in that compound last night (30th May), and before anyone can damn NATO for the alleged deaths of Qaddafi’s grandchildren, wait for confirmation that they are his and not the bodies of kids he’s killed (remember the ‘daughter’ of Qaddafi killed by American bombing in 1986 was in fact posthumously adopted).
Nato is now engaged in open terrorism. Having failed in its ostensible mission to protect the civilians of Ben Ghazi and Misurata, it is now raining bombs on civilians in Tripoli, including a disabled childrens’ school, in a manner not dissimilar to Gaddafi’s. In a clear breach of the UN mandate, it has also tried to assassinate Gaddafi, instead killing his son and grandchildren.
Meanwhile, according to sources on the ground, Misurata’s Qasr Ahmed neighbourhood remains under intense assault from Gaddafi’s Grad rockets.
The Arab Spring is in full bloom. Peaceful uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt sparked a democratic tide that has swept across the region.
In Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, it is now a tale of two protests, with the situation deteriorating into widespread violence and outright war.
It seems some regimes will stop at nothing to resist change. So with no unified leadership or clear agenda, and with domestic complications in each and every country, is this truly a revolution? And if this is an Awakening — what path will it follow — that of Turkey? Of Iran? Or rather a third way, an Arab way. Empire finds out.
Xan Rice reports for the Guardian from besieged Misrata.
The resistance from the rebels – from all the people in Misrata – seems remarkable given their limited armoury and experience. That they have managed to keep Gaddafi’s forces to one side of the city seems a miracle, or at least a masterclass in guerrilla warfare.
At least a thousand have been killed in Misrata, 3000 are injured, and 300,000 huddle in a small section of the city away from the frontlines. Qaddafi’s forces are using sniper fire, heavy artillery and, Israel-style, illegal cluster bombs.
But there is some good news. This film shows the people of Misrata celebrating the recapture of a bank and insurance building. This film shows the people of revolutionary Nalut receiving news of the elimination of a Qaddafi commander. For those who tell us that Libya is split east-west, Nalut is in western Libya. According to the UN, 11,000 have fled Qaddafi’s attacks on Nalut for Tunisia in recent days. This film is from the western mountains. A revolutionary fighter announces the capture of ‘Libyan mercenaries’ – so-called because the regime bought them – and his plan to have them tried in Zawiya and Sabrata, the cities in which they committed their crimes, once freedom comes. Meanwhile, revolutionaries today captured the Wazin border crossing, forcing Qaddafi forces to surrender to Tunisian troops.
Two of the world’s best photojournalists, Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros, were killed Wednesday in Misurata. They were part of a group of six photographers reporting on the Libyan conflict in a particularly dangerous part of the besieged city.
The rebel army which John Pilger and other Western leftists tell us is a front for CIA.
Facing superior firepower on the battlefield, fighters seeking to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi are left renovating ageing, abandoned military hardware.
As the rebels refurbish old tanks and make launching systems from doorbells, they appeal for new weapons.
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Benghazi, has more from the rebels’ workshop.
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