Author Topic: Violence Erupts at Jordan Protest  (Read 2500 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Henny

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1075
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Violence Erupts at Jordan Protest
« on: February 19, 2011, 03:15:49 AM »
You have the NYT article below, but they missed something that we all watched on the news last night: the group of thugs that disrupted the protests yesterday were videotaped climbing into POLICE VANS to leave the scene. The police stood aside and let all of this happen in addition. I can't wrap my head around this; does the King want to make things worse? Things have been pretty calm here - just a few hundred protesting yesterday. Wanna bet after that was shown all over the news the protests might get bigger?

Violence Erupts at Jordan Protest

AMMAN, Jordan ? A protest turned violent here in the Jordanian capital on Friday as government supporters clashed with demonstrators calling for political change, injuring several, witnesses said.

Antigovernment protests, though rare for Jordan, have become routine on Fridays in the weeks since popular uprisings swept over Tunisia, Egypt and other parts of the region, but this was the first time that one ended in confrontation.

Jordanians expressed surprise over the turn of events, saying that this Friday?s antigovernment gathering was actually smaller than previous ones, with only a few hundred participants, as opposed to earlier demonstrations that had attracted several thousand.

The protest started out peacefully outside the King Hussein mosque in downtown Amman, according to participants, with the demonstrators calling for an end to corruption and constitutional monarchy and for the lowering of prices.

?Then,? recounted Firas Mahadin, 30, a movie director who took part in the protest, ?more than a hundred young thugs surrounded us from in front and behind and started attacking us.?

Mr. Mahadin was speaking by telephone from the hospital, where he had gone with a suspected concussion after being hit on the head with a metal club, he said. He said that the attackers were shouting slogans in favor of King Abdullah II and against Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite station that has been accused by parts of the Middle East establishment of fomenting the recent upheavals and unrest.

Mr. Mahadin and others described the pro-government supporters as young men in civilian clothing armed with metal bars and wooden clubs.

Witnesses said that the police at the scene did not intervene.

A police spokesman, Mohamed Khatib, described the clashes as the result of a ?quarrel? that broke out ?between a pro-government rally and another demonstration staged in the same location,? Agence France-Presse reported.

Most of the rallies for change have been led by the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, joined by leftist groups, students and trade unions.

Another antigovernment protester, Sufian al-Tell, an engineer and a member of the Jordan National Party, said that the Muslim Brotherhood did not participate in this Friday?s demonstration.

During previous Friday protests, Mr. Tell said, there were fewer police officers and the atmosphere was relaxed, with the police offering protesters juice and water. This Friday there was a stronger police presence, he said, ?and although we asked for help, they walked away.?

The demonstrations in Jordan have represented the first serious challenge to the decade-old rule of King Abdullah II, a critical American ally in the region. The king enjoys absolute powers, and appoints the prime minister and the cabinet. But he is contending with the country?s worst economic crisis in years.

King Abdullah has already taken some measures to try to calm the atmosphere. Responding to the protesters? demands, he dismissed the prime minister, Samir Rifai, on Feb. 1 and replaced him with Marouf al-Bakhit, a former general who has served before in the post and is widely viewed as clean of corruption. The royal palace said in a statement that Mr. Bakhit was asked to take ?practical, swift and tangible steps? toward comprehensive political change.

A week later, several dozen Jordanian tribesmen, historically core loyalists to the monarchy, issued a rare statement calling for urgent and far-reaching political reform and an end to corruption. They said that without a more open and responsive political system, the country was headed down the path taken by Tunisia and Egypt. The statement, signed by 36 members of tribes, mostly Bedouins, was published on Jordan?s most popular news Web site.

Despite the growing undercurrent of unease, there was little sign before Friday?s clashes that things could turn violent. Opposition forces had said that they would keep up their symbolic protests but that they did not intend to escalate the situation.

Few consider either the monarchy or the country at imminent risk of serious turmoil, not least because the population is divided between groups with differing grievances and interests. Jordan is a country of six million, more than half of them Palestinian, and 40 percent members of tribes, also known as East Bankers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/world/middleeast/19jordan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Religious Dick

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1153
  • Drunk, drunk, drunk in the gardens and the graves
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
I speak of civil, social man under law, and no other.
-Sir Edmund Burke

Xavier_Onassis

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 27916
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Violence Erupts at Jordan Protest
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2011, 04:39:56 PM »
Henny,

Very interesting. Jordan does have an elected bicameral National Assembly, doesn't it? What is their role? Wikipedia says that it can override the king with a 2/3rds majority, but has this ever happened?
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Henny

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1075
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Violence Erupts at Jordan Protest
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2011, 12:49:58 AM »
Henny,

Very interesting. Jordan does have an elected bicameral National Assembly, doesn't it? What is their role? Wikipedia says that it can override the king with a 2/3rds majority, but has this ever happened?

XO, the elected parliament isn't taken seriously. Parliament is dissolved so often by the King and election laws get mangled every few years, so there is no credibility to it in the eyes of the people; everyone knows their existence is simply for appeasement. Based on that, I am certain that no one has ever even voted differently than as expected, thus no need for majority overrides.

BT

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16141
    • View Profile
    • DebateGate
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 3
Re: Violence Erupts at Jordan Protest
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2011, 12:53:44 AM »
Not to be flippant about it: But is this song going through your head?
The Clash - Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Henny

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1075
    • View Profile
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Violence Erupts at Jordan Protest
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2011, 01:26:53 AM »
Ha! Good one BT.

But actually... when you lay down your roots somewhere it's really hard to just pack up and leave. I know, because I did it once coming here. The hardest part is being madly in love with my job, and I would never have a chance to do the same thing in the U.S. or in the West in general. Then there are also finances to consider; getting out costs a lot of money, unless we run with just the clothes on our backs.

So we are discussing temporary solutions; if things get really bad, would we leave for the short term? If so, where? If Egypt settles down that's my top choice - I could stretch a little bit of money a long way in Cairo and the majority of my customer base is there, so I could keep working. UAE is another option, and a good one. My husband has family there, and I have friends there, so we would have people around us.

Another option is to stay put. We leave outside of Amman in a more rural area, so I feel that we would be OK here during a revolution. But my bigger concern for Jordan is not living through a revolution, but what happens after that. I don't think the outcome would be good... and we would need to make some serious decisions.

BT

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 16141
    • View Profile
    • DebateGate
  • Liked:
  • Likes Given: 3
Re: Violence Erupts at Jordan Protest
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2011, 01:34:39 AM »
Keep safe