Artiklar • december 2, 2011
The Arab Spring – Morrocco, Libya, Yemen – One Year on
By Mohamad Zakaria
Part 2 of 3.
Morocco
In Morocco, the King of Morocco has introduced some successful reforms after the demonstrations of the Moroccans have demanded so earlier this year. There was recently a parliamentary election which was judged as fair, free, and transparent by the national and international observers watching the election’s process. The Islamist party, Justice and Development Party, which is said to be moderate Islamic political party, and received the highest votes (27%) among the other political parties, of the eligible Moroccan citizens whose turn out for this election was 45%. The King of Morocco has nonetheless still the main power, including commanding the army and dealing with religious affairs. Nevertheless, this is a good example where positive change can be made with minimum casualties, when the ruling authority and the people are able to reach a compromise agreement and avoid bloodshed. Most of the Arab rulers are autocrats and they unfortunately refuse to do so as they want absolute power mostly against the will of their citizens.
Libya
In Libya, the revolution initially started in a peaceful way and the first demonstration was in Benghazi. They protested and called for the release of the lawyer that was representing the case of the families whose relatives were killed by the prison guards in one of the Libyan prisons in the 1990′s under mysterious circumstances. The Gaddafi regime brutally confronted the peaceful demonstrations using live bullets. As the news had spread, people in other parts of Libya went out in demonstrations, mostly peaceful. After a month-long crack down on the opposition and after Gaddafi troops wanted to re-enter Benghazi, the second largest city in Libya, the UN took a resolution of no-fly-zone in Libya (United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973) to protect civilians from potential massacre had the Gaddafi troops managed successfully to re-enter the city. The armed struggle intensified and the demonstrations turned into more armed revolution. With the help of Coalition forces (NATO in addition to some other European and Arab countries), it has managed, after a bloody war in which over 50,000 Libyans were killed and hundreds of thousands were injured, to topple the Gaddafi regime and has eventually led to the killing of Muammar Gaddafi that governed Libya for 42 years. Recently, the National Transitional Council of Libya has agreed to form a transition government in Libya whose one of the main tasks is to prepare for the elections that are planned to take place in an eight months period. One of major immediate challenges for this transition government of Libya is to disarm the many armed Libyan militias that took place in the revolution against the Gaddafi and to form a political agenda that satisfies all the parties involved. This will be a rather difficult task for any Libyan government to do.
Yemen
In Yemen, peaceful demonstrations began in early January 2011 with demands of economic and political reforms. However, after the Yemen presidential guards use excessive force killing hundreds of the demonstrators, the demonstrators now call for the resignation of the Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh. President Saleh has been in power as a president since 1978, first as the president of Yemen Arab Republic (also known as “North Yemen” before unification with the “South Yemen”) and since the 1990’s as the first President of the Republic of Yemen after the unification. There has been defection within the army from the brigades that did not agree with the brutality of the Yemen Presidential Guards against the demonstrators.
There was an assassination attempt against Saleh and his government officials. He was seriously injured but has survived after receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia regime has been supporting Ali Abdullah Saleh because of the fear that Al-Qaida operators, that are active in Yemen, might use Yemen more extensively to plan further violence in Saudi Arabia and beyond if the regime falls. The other reason is Iran which is supporting a minority group in Yemen, the Houthis in northern part of Yemen in Saadah, which have been fighting against the Yemeni troops. The Gulf Cooperation Council has attempted many times to reach a deal between the opposition and the Yemeni president in which he voluntarily resign and hand in power to a transition government that the different political parties agree upon. After allegedly agreeing to sign the deal several times to reduce the international pressure against his regime, he later usually backed away.
Some days ago, however, President Saleh signed the agreement, with some of the opposition parties’ representatives, and under heavy pressure from major international and regional powers, such a deal that would give him and his family and officials the immunity against any law suits against them by the Yemenis for the crimes and corruption that have been committed during his time in power. The revolutionists on the ground are not happy with the agreement, the violence and the reality on the ground have not changed much even though presidential elections are announced to take place in February 2012. He has wanted to hand in power only to his Presidential Guards that his son is leading or to support a person from within his current regime. The coming few months will show if this agreement will result in any sustainable peace in the country where the army has split between the supporters and opponents of Saleh’s regime.
Photo: Creative Commons license, khalid Albaih
(The opinions presented in this article represent those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of UF in any way, nor are they intended to represent the views of any organisation or company which the author represents. UF is a politically and religiously independent organisation.)
