Merkel: Mideast awakens memories of communist fall

By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press – Sat Feb 5

MUNICH – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that protests in the Middle East awaken memories of the events that ended communism in eastern Europe, and declared that "there will be change in Egypt."

However, Merkel — who grew up in East Germany and entered politics as communism crumbled amid protests in 1989 — said any transition needs to be orderly, and cautioned against assuming that the West's democratic model can simply be exported elsewhere.

"We are seeing pictures awaken memories of what we experienced in Europe ... people who are shaking off their fear, people who are saying what they don't like, who name injustices by name," Merkel said at an annual gathering of global security officials.

"Who would we be if we did not say we stand on the side of these people who are expressing what bothers them?"

Merkel called for Egyptian authorities to guarantee "freedoms that we consider universal — freedom of the press, freedom of opinion."

"There will be change in Egypt," she said, adding that it must be peaceful. Still, drawing on her own memories of starting out with a new pro-democracy party that failed to make much of a mark in elections a few months after the Berlin Wall fell, she cautioned against moving too fast.

"If you're in this kind of process of upheaval, things just can't go fast enough," Merkel said. But, she added, it doesn't make sense to hold elections very quickly "as the beginning of a process of democratization — you have to give people a chance to create structures."

She also recalled that East Germans didn't appreciate being given too much advice even by West Germans, and noted that the West has seen that "the simple export of what we call Westminster democracy ... to all the regions of this world won't work."

Change in other regions has to take account of local cultures, but respect for human rights is "the red line where we cannot make compromises," she added.

Merkel spoke alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron. Neither leader would say what should happen to President Hosni Mubarak, whose immediate departure is a key demand of Egyptian protesters.

"I don't think we in the West should be the ones to point fingers and say it's this leader or that leader who must go now or start now," Cameron said. However, "to those who say what we need is to stick to the regime (in the interest of) stability, there is no stability in Egypt today," he added.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged leaders across the Middle East to embrace democratic reforms. She said change is a "strategic necessity" that will make Arab nations stronger and their people more prosperous and less susceptible to extremist ideologies.

"The status quo is simply not sustainable," she said.

"The region is being battered by a perfect storm of powerful trends," Clinton added. "Leaders in the region may be able to hold back the tide for a little while, but not for long."

EU President Herman Van Rompuy said that while the Mideast needs to embark on reform, there is no "copy-paste (solution) that we can have in each country."

"Speed is not the most important thing," he said. "Direction is the most important thing."

The Munich conference also features U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and high-powered delegations from around the world.

Ban said recent events in the Middle East "are driven at bottom by human insecurity, poverty, diminished or disappointed expectations, the lack of good governance, corruption."

"It is important to remember: the problems and grievances causing unrest in the Arab world represent a microcosm in too many ways of the broader world," he added. "Despite progress in many places, insecurity is everywhere on the rise."

US-Russia nuclear arms treaty takes effect

By DAVID RISING, Associated Press

MUNICH – A U.S.-Russia nuclear arms treaty that limits the number of atomic warheads the former Cold War foes can possess and allows them to inspect each other's arsenals — securing a key foreign policy goal of President Barack Obama — went into effect Saturday.

The New START treaty was approved by the U.S. Senate in December after Obama pressed strongly for its passage. Russia ratified the deal last month.

The 10-year treaty, which can be extended by another five years, went into effect when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton exchanged the ratification papers with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of an international security conference in Munich.

New START is a cornerstone of Obama's efforts to "reset" U.S. relations with Russia, and Clinton called it a "milestone in our strategic partnership."

"When it comes to the button that has worried us the most over the years — the one that would unleash nuclear destruction — today we take another step to ensure it will never be pushed," Clinton told reporters after the treaty went into effect.

Lavrov said that the treaty is in the national interests of both Russia and the United States.

"Both Russia and the U.S. share responsibility for security in the whole world," he said through a translator.

New START, negotiated last year, limits each side to 1,550 strategic warheads, down from 2,200. It limits the number of deployed strategic launchers and heavy bombers to 700.

The pact also re-establishes a monitoring system that ended in December 2009 with the expiration of an earlier arms deal. Russia and the U.S. have the right to conduct onsite inspections beginning 60 days from the agreement going into effect Saturday.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the treaty's entering into force as "a historical, political milestone on the road to our ultimate goal: achieving a world free of nuclear weapons."

Looking ahead, Clinton said the U.S. is in talks with Russia about how the two countries can further work together to address issues that affect their common security, while maintaining strategic stability.

Suggestions include joint analysis, joint exercises, and sharing of early warning data that could form the basis for a cooperative missile defense system, Clinton said.

She said she would also talk with Lavrov about "further arms control issues, including non-strategic and non-deployed nuclear weapons and our ongoing work to revive, strengthen and modernize the regime on conventional forces."

Lavrov called New START "a product of the understanding that unilateral approaches to security are counterproductive."

"The principles of equality, parity, equal and indivisible security ... form a solid basis for today's Russian-American interaction in a range of areas," Lavrov said.

"The treaty that enters into force today will enhance international stability."

_____

Geir Moulson contributed to this story.

Iraqi prime minister won't run for third term

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press

BAGHDAD – Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not run for a third term in 2014, an adviser said Saturday, limiting himself in the name of democracy and with an eye on the popular anger directed at governments across the Middle East.

Al-Maliki narrowly held on to a second four-year term after his political bloc fell two seats short of its main rival in national elections last year. He will step down at a fragile time in Iraq's history — his successor will be the first Iraqi leader to run the nation without U.S. military help since Saddam Hussein.

Al-Maliki adviser Ali al-Moussawi said the premier also wants to change the Iraqi constitution before he leaves to limit all future prime ministers to two terms.

"Eight years is enough for him, in order to not convert to a dictatorship," al-Moussawi told The Associated Press, as state TV announced al-Maliki's decision. "This is the principle and the concept of democracy."

Saturday's stunning announcement follows al-Maliki's decision a day earlier to return half of his annual salary to the government — a move he said aimed to narrow the wide gap between rich and poor Iraqis.

Al-Maliki is not required to publicly report his pay, but he is believed to earn at least $360,000 annually.

The salary cut appeared calculated to insulate al-Maliki from the anti-government unrest spreading across the Middle East, as clerics and protesters warned him not to ignore public bitterness over Iraq's sagging economy and electricity shortages. The U.S. government estimates that as many as 30 percent of Iraqis are unemployed.

Al-Maliki's decision to announce he will step down after two terms — a deadline more than three years away — appeared fueled by the same desire to shield Iraq from uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

But it is particularly surprising, given his drawn-out fight last year to keep his job after his party failed to win the most seats in parliamentary elections last March.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, remained prime minister only after pulling enough support from allies in closed-door negations and promising to share power with his rival Sunni-based political alliance.

Nobel laureate, Arab League chief might run

Reuters/AFP
February 5, 2011

Nobel Peace Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said yesterday he could run in Egypt's presidential elections if the Egyptian people asked him to, denying a report in an Austrian newspaper that he would not run.

"This is not true," ElBaradei told the Al Jazeera news channel. "If the Egyptian people want me to continue the change process, I will not disappoint the Egyptian people."

ElBaradei has tended to answer the question of whether he wants to run for president by saying he was ready for a role in helping Egypt achieve political change. He has also said he would consider running if there was a prospect of a free and fair election.

"Naturally I want to play a part in the future, but who stands in the election, that's really not so important at the moment," he said. "But if the people want it, of course I would be available."

Also yesterday, charismatic Arab League chief Amr Mussa -whose second term as head of the 22-member league ends in two months -said he might run for the presidency.

"Why say no?" Mussa said. "I am of course at the service of my country. ... I am ready to serve as a citizen who has the right to be a candidate," he told France's Europe 1 radio before making an appearance at Tahrir Square, the focal point of the anti-Mubarak protests.

Mussa, 74, a former foreign minister, is a dynamic figure with a quick sense of humor and charisma that often eclipsed that of his former boss Mubarak. His popularity stems from his strong stands against Israel and language that appeals to the Arab street.

Days after a popular uprising in Tunisia, Mussa warned during an Arab summit in Egypt of the "unprecedented anger" in the region, sealing his legacy as an Arab public figure in touch with the people.

European and Arab diplomats believe he is a candidate who could appeal to both the people and international figures.

"There is an avenue for Amr Mussa. He is compatible with the current establishment. He was part of the system before being sidelined," a senior European diplomat told AFP.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Source: The Montreal Gazette.
Link: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Nobel+laureate+Arab+League+chief+might/4228463/story.html.

Malaysian government paying for everything

Sat, Feb 05, 2011
New Straits Times

CAIRO: All expenses for the evacuation of Malaysian students from Egypt, including airport taxes, are being borne by the government, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom said. He urged all parties to stop spreading rumors that the government would charge students who were flown to Malaysia via Jeddah.

"Please do not politicize the evacuation process as we are paying all the expenses, including the US$100 (S$127) airport tax for each student," he said at the Malaysian embassy here yesterday.

Rumors circulating on the Internet have also claimed that the government was only transferring government-sponsored students to Jeddah, while others were left on their own to leave Cairo and Alexandria.

Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister A. Kohilan Pillay, who is also here, said all students in Egypt, whether they were government-sponsored or not, were being transferred to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, under the evacuation exercise that started on Thursday.

He said the government was forking out millions of ringgit for this mammoth task.

"We pay for everything, from airport tax, landing rights to air tickets. We have also arranged coaches to pick students up from their hostels and their given addresses.

"They are all Malaysians. It does not matter if they are government-sponsored or not. Their safety is our main concern."

Kohilan, who flew to Cairo on Tuesday night, said all 11,700 students registered with the Malaysian embassy in Egypt were in the process of being transferred through air, land and sea in stages.

He said the MV Bunga Mas 5 ship could transfer some 520 people at one go to Jeddah, while the Charlie 3 aircraft had begun evacuating students since yesterday.

He said some had bought air tickets to other countries before flying back to Malaysia. "Some have up to five tickets and will fly on any plane they get first."

- New Straits Times

Source: New Straits Times.
Link: http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20110205-262014.html.

Seven arrested in anti-Mubarak demo

Saturday February 5, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR: The chaos in Egypt “trickled down” to Malaysia during an anti-Hosni Mubarak rally here.

The rally in Malaysia saw at least seven demonstrators arrested and several others injured as police took swift action to control the situation.

The mass rally started after the Friday prayer to present a memorandum to the American Embassy here.

Thousands of people gathered at Tabung Haji and KLCC mosque after Friday prayers and marched to the American Embassy to urge its government to stop supporting Mubarak and to stop interfering in Egypt’s internal affairs.

Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Zulkarnain Abdul Rahman confirmed at least seven people were detained for questioning. He said those detained had acted aggressively.

“We had to take stern action to keep the situation under control,” he said, adding one of the detainees did not bring his MyKad.

He also confirmed that all those arrested were Malaysians.

PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin said the police should not have resorted to physical force to disperse the crowd.

“I too sustained bruises on my neck when a policeman hit me with a blunt object.

“Some protesters complained of being kicked and sprayed with pepper spray,” he said.

Shamsul said the chaos started because those who took part had overstayed by five minutes.

“We were only allowed to hold the rally from 2pm to 3.05pm.

“But we had to take extra five minutes as the crowd was larger than anticipated and we needed time to disperse after reciting the Quran,” he said.

Source: The Star.
Link: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/2/5/nation/7976307.

France suspends arms sale to Egypt

Sat, 05/02/2011

AFP - Paris--France said on Saturday it had suspended sales of arms and riot police equipment to Egypt amid mass protests pressing for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

The decision was taken by the prime minister’s office at an extraordinary meeting on January 27, and was conveyed to those concerned the following day, an aide to Prime Minister Francois Fillon told AFP, confirming a report on the website of the daily Le Monde.

With regard to equipment used to maintain public order, “export permits for explosive materiel, mostly tear gas grenades, are the responsibility of customs. These were suspended on January 25,” the aide said. Egypt has been rocked by a popular uprising since January 25 seeking to topple Mubarak, in power for nearly 30 years.

The French government was recently challenged by the Socialist opposition as to why it had continued to allow exports of such products to Tunisia after the uprising which eventually forced long-time president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee.

Fillon acknowledged that France had authorized the exports to Tunisia in November last year and January, until just before the departure of Ben Ali, but said the exports had not taken place.

In December and January, there had been “no deliveries of war materiel” to the Tunisian authorities,” Fillon said, insisting that they needed the rubber stamp of a committee answerable to the prime minister. The permits had been granted by the defense, interior and foreign ministries, “but none of them resulted in exports,” he said.

Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie caused a storm last month when she suggested France could train Tunisian police to maintain order better, amid reports that they had shot dead dozens of unarmed protesters. It later emerged that France had approved the export of police equipment to Tunisia at the height of the violence.

Source: al-Masry al-Youm.
Link: http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/news/france-suspends-arms-sale-egypt.