SYRIA: Opposition figures meet openly to discuss future.
Scores of opposition figures met publicly Monday in Damascus for the first time since Syria’s anti-government uprising began. The officially sanctioned gathering underlined the changes the rebellion has wrought in Syria as well as the challenges ahead in breaking a cycle of protests and crackdowns that have left hundreds dead.
The gathering was remarkable foremost for its rarity — a public show of dissent in a country that has long linked opposition with treason. But it also cut across some of the most pressing questions in Syria today: whether a venerable but weak opposition can bridge its long-standing divides, whether the government is willing to engage it in real dialogue and whether it can eventually pose an alternative to President Bashar Assad.
The meeting offered no answers, but in speech after speech, participants insisted the three-month revolt could only end with Assad’s surrender of absolute power.
One organizer, Louay Hussein, said the 190 opposition leaders would explore a vision for “ending tyranny and ensuring a peaceful and safe transition to a desired state, one of freedom, democracy and equality.”
The meeting was in the works for weeks, and though government officials had signaled that they would not oppose it, the leaders themselves spent days trying to find a locale in the capital that would set aside fears of government retaliation and host them. In the end, Syrian state television, long a tool of propaganda, covered the meeting.
EGYPT: Military rulers admit “virginity tests” on protesters.
Amnesty International said Egypt’s military rulers have acknow ledged carrying out “virginity tests” on female protesters — the first time the army has admitted to the much criticized practice.
Amnesty said in a report that Maj. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a member of the military council ruling Egypt, justified the tests as a way to protect the army from rape allegations. But Amnesty said al-Sisi vowed the military would stop such tests.
The “virginity test” allegations first surfaced after a March 9 rally in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that turned violent when men in plainclothes attacked protesters and the army intervened to clear the square.
Meanwhile, the first police officer sentenced to death for killing protesters remained at large Monday.
Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Monem was sentenced in absentia late Sunday for the Jan. 28 shootings of 23 protesters rioting outside a Cairo police station. Monem told Egyptian TV over the weekend that he had killed no one while he was following orders to protect the police barracks. He said he would seek a new trial and blamed the Interior Ministry for not standing by him. He has yet to explain why he has not appeared in court or why authorities have not apprehended him.
TUNISIA: Top Islamist party leaves panel preparing for elections.
The leading Islamist party announced it is pulling out of a commission that is preparing the country for its first elections after the ouster of its longtime dictator.
The pullout is the latest sign of tension among emerging political forces.
The commission was asked to prepare elections for the constitutional assembly, which were postponed from July to October — a move angering the Islamist Ennahda Party.
Party leader Rachid Ghannouchi says the commission has “deviated” from its task and is trying to impose an agenda “without consultation or consensus” that could once again delay elections.
The head of the commission, respected jurist Yadh Ben Achour, says it will continue its work regardless of Ennahda’s actions, but “we respect its opinion.”
