Syria refuses Arab League monitors, sanctions loom

Syria refused to allow Arab League monitors, designed to tamp down regime attacks on protesters, into the country. Sanctions could follow.

Sanctions on Syria may be about to get a little tighter.

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On Thursday, the Arab League gave Syria a 24 hour deadline to allow observers into the country as a hopeful check on President Bashar al-Assad's bloody crackdown on anti-regime demonstrators. That deadline came and went today, and now the Arab League is scheduled to consider further sanctions on Syria -- a founding member of the group -- tomorrow.

Syria has remained defiant as the Arab League, powerful neighbor Turkey, much of Europe, and the US have moved to isolate the regime. The AP reports that Syrian government news agency SANA called the Arab League a "tool for foreign interference."

Turkey, which appears to be tolerating camps of armed defectors from Assad's regime on the border, warned the country today that the clock is ticking.

CNN reports that Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said "Syria has to make a decision... It will either continue this crackdown policy against its people and become isolated more and more, or it will say yes to this well-intentioned Arab League proposal, sign this protocol and observers will monitor the situation on the ground by going to all Syrian cities."

Arab League action against a member state is rare. But with the Arab democracy uprisings of the past year, the regional context has shifted immensely. What's more, evidence is mounting of a horrific toll from state violence in Syria.

Reuters reports the UN Committee against Torture is finding evidence of widespread, systematic abuse in Syria.

"More than 3,500 people have been killed since March, according to the United Nations, and activists say that more than 30,000 have been arrested, including families of dissidents.

?The U.N. committee said reports of children suffering torture and mutilation during detention were of particular concern, and that Syrian authorities had been acting with total impunity in what it called "gross and pervasive" human rights violations."

To be sure, there isn't a great deal of urgency in that committee; it asked Syria to send a report in March detailing the country's efforts to end torture.

Turkey is taking the situation a little more seriously. Beirut's Daily Star reports the country is considering tougher action:

"Turkey has ratcheted up the its criticism of Assad since its diplomatic missions came under attack by pro-government demonstrators in several Syrian cities earlier this month. Tensions were heightened further on Monday when two busloads of Turkish pilgrims travelling through Syria on their way back from the hajj in Mecca were attacked by Syrian gunmen.

Turkey, which is already sheltering about 7,000 Syrian opposition activists who fled their home, is however mulling plans for a buffer or no-fly zone on its border with Syria. Among those on Syrian soil is Riyadh al-Asaad, who defected from the Syrian army and is now leading a group of deserters in the rebel Free Syrian Army."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/qXDQ3HadnNA/Syria-refuses-Arab-League-monitors-sanctions-loom

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Egypt vote tests troubled political transition (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters) ? Egyptians vote on Monday in the first big test of a transition born in popular revolutionary euphoria that soured into distrust of the generals who replaced their master, Hosni Mubarak.

In the nine months since a revolt ended the ex-president's 30-year rule, political change in Egypt has faltered, with the military apparently more focused on preserving its power and privilege than on fostering any democratic transformation.

Frustration erupted last week into bloody protests that cost 42 lives and forced the army council to promise civilian rule by July after the parliamentary vote and a presidential poll, now expected in June, much sooner than previously envisaged.

Oppressed under Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties stood aloof from those challenging army rule, unwilling to let anything obstruct elections that may open a route to political power previously beyond their reach.

It is not clear whether voters will punish them for that or whether the Brotherhood's disciplined organization will enable its newly formed Freedom and Justice Party to triumph over the welter of lesser-known parties and individuals in the race.

Free elections are an intriguing novelty in a nation where the authorities and security forces rigged polls for decades in favor of Mubarak's now-dissolved National Democratic Party.

A high turnout among Egypt's 50 million eligible voters could throw up surprises, perhaps revealing whether a silent majority favours stability or the radical overhaul demanded by the youthful protesters who overthrew Mubarak.

BENCHMARK OF PROGRESS

Shadi Hamid, research director at the Doha Brookings Center, said the parliamentary vote phased over weeks until January 10 was the first real benchmark of progress in Egypt's transition.

"It will also tell us how much Egyptians are invested in this political process. If turnout is low, it will mean there is widespread disaffection among Egyptians and they don't believe that real change is possible through the electoral process."

Parliament's lower house will be Egypt's first nationally elected body since Mubarak's fall, and those credentials alone may enable it to dilute the military's monopoly of power.

Yet army council member General Mamdouh Shahin said the new assembly would have no right to remove a government appointed by the council using its "presidential" powers -- a stance the new parliament may try to challenge.

On Friday, the army named Kamal Ganzouri to form a new cabinet, a choice rejected by protesters in Tahrir Square demanding that generals step aside immediately in favor of a civilian body to oversee a transition to democracy.

Ganzouri said on Sunday that any parliamentary majority that emerged from the elections may move to install a new government.

The military had envisaged that once upper house polls are completed in March, parliament would pick a constituent assembly to write a constitution to be approved by a referendum before a presidential election. That would have let the generals stay in power until late 2012 or early 2013.

The faster timetable agreed under pressure from the street has thrown up many questions about how the process will unfold and how much influence the army will retain behind the scenes.

The United States and its European allies, which have long valued Egypt's peace treaty with Israel, have urged the generals to step aside swiftly, apparently seeing them as causing, not curing instability in the most populous Arab nation.

(Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111127/wl_nm/us_egypt_election

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