MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

In spite of reform promises and repression, Mid East and north Africans take to the streets

It’s not only Libya. Turmoil and unrest is escalating in the rest of the Middle East and North Africa with violent repression and promises of reform as people take to the streets in growing numbers. Such is the case in Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

But there’s also promising news: Egyptians turned out massively to vote a package of controversial constitutional amendments just weeks after the ousting of Hosni Mubarak.

Al Jazeera reports that long lines orderly queues and a mostly calm and jubilant atmosphere marked Egypt's first nationwide vote since a popular uprising forced Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's long-time president, to step down in February, leaving the country without a constitution and under the control of an unelected military council.

Observers reported an unprecedented turnout across the country, as thousands came out on Saturday to vote “yes” or “no” on a package of controversial constitutional amendments that may set the stage for parliamentary elections within months. The results are scheduled to be released on Sunday.

The country's most established political forces - Mubarak's National Democratic Party and the Muslim Brotherhood - are both pushing for approval, while most of the opposition parties and the youth movement want the amendments defeated..

But even those who feared the amendments would pass, paving the way for a fast election likely dominated by the NDP and the Brotherhood, seemed happy to cast a vote that, for the first time, they believed would actually be counted.

In Algeria President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised wide-ranging political reforms while security forces blocked planned protests in the capital Algiers.

In comments carried on state media on Saturday, Bouteflika said that the lifting of Algeria’s 19 year old state of emergency last month was the first step on the way to reform.

The end of the emergency “will be a new page opened on the path to comprehensive reforms ... which cannot be fruitful in the absence of political reforms,” the APS news agency quoted Bouteflika as saying, but gave no details about the reforms.

In Algiers security forces swamped the capital, hampering two rallies, one called by youths through the social networking website Facebook, due outside the main post office, and another at the nearby May 1 Square, called by the National Co-ordination for Change and Democracy (CNDC).

The planned protest was the seventh attempt since January by the CNDC to stage a weekly demonstration, along the lines of pro-democracy protests sweeping the Arab world, in defiance of a ban on protests in the capital imposed in 2001.

In Southern Yemen troops have stormed a protest camp where thousands are calling for the ouster of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the country's long-time president. Saturday's raid was the latest attempt by security forces to quell growing unrest.

Protesters say police fired tear gas and live rounds in the southern port city of Aden, wounding three anti-government protesters.

Meanwhile, two prominent members of Yemen's ruling party resigned on Saturday in protest against the killing of the anti-government protesters a day before.

“I find myself compelled to submit my resignation ... after the heinous massacre in Sanaa yesterday,” Nasr Taha Mustafa, head of the state news agency and a leading ruling party member, said.

While, Mohamed Saleh Qara'a, another party member, told Reuters he had quit because of the “completely unacceptable” violence.

Saleh declared on Friday a nationwide state of emergency after a violent crackdown on anti-government protests left at least 52 people dead and scores more wounded in the capital, Sanaa.

He said that the decision to impose the state of emergency was made by the country's National Security Council, but there was no immediate indication of how long it would last.

Syrian security forces on Saturday fired tear gas at mourners burying two protesters killed in the southern city of Daraa, wounding several people, an activist said, as a rights group reported dozens of arrests.

“Thousands of people at the funerals of Akram al-Jawabra and Hussam Abdelwali Ayash were surrounded by large numbers of security men who fired tear gas at the mourners to disperse them,” the activist said, quoting witnesses.

He said several people had inhaled tear gas or were injured when panicked mourners began to push their way through the crowd, which had been chanting “God, Syria, freedom.”

State-run news agency SANA, which on Friday reported “acts of violence and sabotage” in Daraa and on Saturday announced the country had formed a committee to investigate the “regrettable” events.

“A Syrian official said the committee would take the necessary measures to hold accountable anyone found responsible for these events during the investigation,” SANA reported.

Since Tuesday, Syria -- which is still under a 1963 emergency law which bans demonstrations -- has witnessed a string of small impromptu rallies.

Saudi Arabia has banned all protests and marches following recent anti-government protests in the kingdom’s east, reports say. State television on Saturday quoted the interior ministry as saying that security forces would use all measures to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order.

The ban on public demonstrations comes amid media reports of a huge mobilisation of Saudi troops in Shia-dominated provinces in order to quell any possible uprising.

According to The Independent, a British newspaper, 10,000 security personnel are being sent to the region by road, clogging highways into Dammam and other cities.

A restive Shia population has staged a series of protests in the kingdom’s east in the past weeks. Their grievances range from lack of equal economic and employment opportunities to detentions without trial.

On Saturday, small protests were held in the cities of Hofuf and Qatif.

The government of Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy without an elected parliament that usually does not tolerate public dissent, denies any discrimination against the Shia community. The authorities, however, are increasingly on edge following the anti-government protests sweeping across the Arab world.

Last week, King Abdullah returned to Riyadh after a three-month medical absence and unveiled 37bn US dollars in benefits for citizens in an apparent bid to insulate the kingdom from protests

Bahrain cut curfew hours on Saturday and urged residents to return to work after a crackdown on mainly Shi'ite Muslim protesters this week raised tensions in the world's largest oil-producing region.

The call came as a fourth protester died of wounds sustained when troops and police moved on Wednesday to end weeks of unrest that prompted the king to declare martial law and call in troops from Bahrain's Sunni-ruled neighbour, Saudi Arabia.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Bahrain had the sovereign right to summon security help from its Gulf neighbours but stressed that the solution to the country's crisis could only come through political dialogue.

“We have made clear that security alone cannot resolve the challenges facing Bahrain,” Clinton told reporters in Paris after meeting several Arab ministers. ”Violence is not the answer, a political process is.

Bahrain's largest Shi'ite Muslim group, Wefaq, said the latest death brought the number of protesters killed since the start of the unrest last month to 11. Four police have also been killed this week, some of them mown down by protesters in cars.

On Friday the Foreign Minister said Bahrain is committed to talks with the opposition but security is a priority and more Gulf troops will arrive in the kingdom to help restore order after weeks of unrest.

Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said four Gulf states were sending troops and the forces would remain for as long as it took to bring calm after protests by the Shi’ite majority slid into sectarian violence and crippled the economy.

“Their role would be limited to guarding strategic assets such as oil facilities, however, and they will not be involved in quelling protests,” he told a news conference in Manama. “We look with all confidence to the return of normal life in Bahrain,” Sheikh Khaled said. “We know dialogue is our path.”

But from Teheran the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iranian Parliament (Majlis) issued a statement in support of the Bahraini people and called on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to leave Bahrain's soil immediately, the Satellite Press TV reported on Saturday.

“The oppressed people of Bahrain are a part of the Islamic world and the Islamic Republic of Iran feels obligated to support them,” the statement was cited as saying on Saturday.

The United States is definitely responsible for the murder of Bahrainis by ordering its “regional mercenaries” to invade the country and repress peaceful protesters, the statement added.

The statement also called on the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to take serious actions on regional developments.

Bahrain has slammed Iran's “interference” in its internal affairs after the latter communicated with international organizations expressing concern about the situation in the Kingdom.