Beijing Blames Foreigners for Its Fears of Unrest

 

But that kind of theater seems more removed from events within China than at any time in recent years. In the past three months, some significant foreign groups have been subjected to intensifying pressure from the authorities, reflecting growing fears here about the influence of foreigners and Western liberal ideas.

Good will between the United States and China is scarce. At the meetings this week, the Americans are expected to talk bluntly about human rights, while the Chinese government has already increased its criticism of the West, with some officials telling foreign diplomats that they believe the United States is fomenting revolution.

At least 60 activities organized by the United States Embassy in Beijing — including cultural forums, school programs, ambassadorial visits — were canceled between February and April because of interference by the Chinese authorities, and some European missions have been similarly pressured. Several university conferences involving foreigners have been canceled, and the Ministry of Education is stepping up warnings to Chinese scholars heading abroad that they not take part in “anti-China” activities or engage with groups that promote democracy.

The scrutiny has applied to some nonprofit groups, too, with several — particularly those that receive financing from the United States government or the European Union — being visited more frequently by tax officials.

At the same time, China has waged its harshest crackdown on liberal speech in years: hundreds of Chinese have been detained, imprisoned, beaten, interrogated or put under house arrest.

The government had for years guarded against Western influences, including blocking sites like Twitter and Facebook, but those restrictions have intensified since revolts began sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.

The clampdown is concentrated on foreign groups or activities that have significant ties to foreign governments, run prominent outreach programs, encourage free speech or promote Internet freedom.

Senior Chinese officials appear to believe that the United States in particular helped set off and sustain the uprisings that toppled dictators in the Arab world. In mid-February, messages appeared on the Chinese Internet calling for people to hold similar protests across the nation. Some of the people spreading word of the so-called Jasmine Revolution are Chinese who live overseas.

One message called for Chinese to protest on Feb. 20 at a McDonald’s outlet on Wangfujing, a popular shopping street in Beijing, and the government became concerned when Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who was then the American ambassador to China, appeared that afternoon outside the restaurant.

Embassy officials said Mr. Huntsman, who left his job at the end of April, was not aware of the calls for a protest, but the Chinese government quickly began canceling outreach activities sponsored by the American Embassy. That included one-time appearances by Mr. Huntsman in Chinese cities and regularly scheduled education programs in which American officials meet with Chinese students, according to interviews with foreigners and Chinese.

“We have expressed our objections to these measures to senior Chinese officials on multiple occasions,” said Richard Buangan, an embassy spokesman.

Although some embassy programs have resumed, few people here expect the government’s attitude to thaw anytime soon.

“I think this is a new normal,” said Sara Davis, executive director of Asia Catalyst, a nonprofit group in New York that works with about a dozen grassroots Chinese organizations on issues concerning H.I.V. and AIDS. “I don’t think China has any reason to loosen restrictions. They geared up for a trial run and didn’t get any pushback.”

“They’re casting a broader net,” she added, “and targeting anyone willing to speak their minds.”

Ms. Davis said her group had not experienced difficulties because its Chinese partners worked quietly. But other foreign nonprofit groups and their employees say they are under a microscope, in an acceleration of a trend that took shape last year.

A Chinese worker for one group was recently interviewed by state security officers and told that officials were carefully assessing the effects of foreign nonprofit organizations in China, according to a foreigner who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation.

The Beijing office of one American nonprofit group was visited three times in three weeks by officials from local tax and commerce bureaus, after having been paid just one such call in the previous eight months, a representative of the group said. The officials characterized the inquiries as routine, but the timing and lines of questioning left little doubt that the visits were linked to the calls for a Jasmine Revolution. Tax and commerce officers asked the representative for details about the group’s source of financing as well as its activities, partners and means of promoting itself.

Other American groups have faced a similar increase in scrutiny, the representative said, particularly those that receive money from the State Department. One group had been forced to account for virtually every project it financed, he said. Groups that received money from the E.U. also faced new bureaucratic hassles, he said.

Meanwhile, several conferences involving foreigners have been canceled in recent weeks. One theory is that the cancellations were related to new rules posted on a central government Web site on Feb. 14 that were ostensibly aimed at controlling government expenses. But the rules impose severe restrictions on foreign participation: such meetings cannot exceed 100 people, international conferences must be approved by both provincial and central officials, and no “important” foreign guests can be invited without permission.

“The cynic in me believes that, given the likely timing of this decision and of the onset of the Egyptian protests, this is not really about money or the value of international conferences, but about minimizing extended face-to-face dialogues with foreigners who might share ideas that were ‘bu shufu,’?” said one American involved in cultural events, using the Chinese phrase for “discomforting.”

Foreign journalists have also faced unusually direct harassment from security officials. Starting in late February, scores of journalists were warned about their coverage and visited at their homes.

In meetings in February and March with one American journalist, security officers tried to make the case that American officials, together with foreign journalists and others with ties overseas, were conspiring to stir up chaos in China. They talked about the appearance of Mr. Huntsman at the McDonald’s on Feb. 20, and they mentioned a meeting that he held with foreign journalists at the embassy on March 10, citing them as proof of the United States’ hand in fanning the flames of revolution.

 

Beijing Blames Foreigners for Its Fears of Unrest

But that kind of theater seems more removed from events within China than at any time in recent years. In the past three months, some significant foreign groups have been subjected to intensifying pressure from the authorities, reflecting growing fears here about the influence of foreigners and Western liberal ideas.

Good will between the United States and China is scarce. At the meetings this week, the Americans are expected to talk bluntly about human rights, while the Chinese government has already increased its criticism of the West, with some officials telling foreign diplomats that they believe the United States is fomenting revolution.

At least 60 activities organized by the United States Embassy in Beijing — including cultural forums, school programs, ambassadorial visits — were canceled between February and April because of interference by the Chinese authorities, and some European missions have been similarly pressured. Several university conferences involving foreigners have been canceled, and the Ministry of Education is stepping up warnings to Chinese scholars heading abroad that they not take part in “anti-China” activities or engage with groups that promote democracy.

The scrutiny has applied to some nonprofit groups, too, with several — particularly those that receive financing from the United States government or the European Union — being visited more frequently by tax officials.

At the same time, China has waged its harshest crackdown on liberal speech in years: hundreds of Chinese have been detained, imprisoned, beaten, interrogated or put under house arrest.

The government had for years guarded against Western influences, including blocking sites like Twitter and Facebook, but those restrictions have intensified since revolts began sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.

The clampdown is concentrated on foreign groups or activities that have significant ties to foreign governments, run prominent outreach programs, encourage free speech or promote Internet freedom.

Senior Chinese officials appear to believe that the United States in particular helped set off and sustain the uprisings that toppled dictators in the Arab world. In mid-February, messages appeared on the Chinese Internet calling for people to hold similar protests across the nation. Some of the people spreading word of the so-called Jasmine Revolution are Chinese who live overseas.

One message called for Chinese to protest on Feb. 20 at a McDonald’s outlet on Wangfujing, a popular shopping street in Beijing, and the government became concerned when Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who was then the American ambassador to China, appeared that afternoon outside the restaurant.

Embassy officials said Mr. Huntsman, who left his job at the end of April, was not aware of the calls for a protest, but the Chinese government quickly began canceling outreach activities sponsored by the American Embassy. That included one-time appearances by Mr. Huntsman in Chinese cities and regularly scheduled education programs in which American officials meet with Chinese students, according to interviews with foreigners and Chinese.

“We have expressed our objections to these measures to senior Chinese officials on multiple occasions,” said Richard Buangan, an embassy spokesman.

Although some embassy programs have resumed, few people here expect the government’s attitude to thaw anytime soon.

“I think this is a new normal,” said Sara Davis, executive director of Asia Catalyst, a nonprofit group in New York that works with about a dozen grassroots Chinese organizations on issues concerning H.I.V. and AIDS. “I don’t think China has any reason to loosen restrictions. They geared up for a trial run and didn’t get any pushback.”

“They’re casting a broader net,” she added, “and targeting anyone willing to speak their minds.”

Ms. Davis said her group had not experienced difficulties because its Chinese partners worked quietly. But other foreign nonprofit groups and their employees say they are under a microscope, in an acceleration of a trend that took shape last year.

A Chinese worker for one group was recently interviewed by state security officers and told that officials were carefully assessing the effects of foreign nonprofit organizations in China, according to a foreigner who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation.

The Beijing office of one American nonprofit group was visited three times in three weeks by officials from local tax and commerce bureaus, after having been paid just one such call in the previous eight months, a representative of the group said. The officials characterized the inquiries as routine, but the timing and lines of questioning left little doubt that the visits were linked to the calls for a Jasmine Revolution. Tax and commerce officers asked the representative for details about the group’s source of financing as well as its activities, partners and means of promoting itself.

Other American groups have faced a similar increase in scrutiny, the representative said, particularly those that receive money from the State Department. One group had been forced to account for virtually every project it financed, he said. Groups that received money from the E.U. also faced new bureaucratic hassles, he said.

Meanwhile, several conferences involving foreigners have been canceled in recent weeks. One theory is that the cancellations were related to new rules posted on a central government Web site on Feb. 14 that were ostensibly aimed at controlling government expenses. But the rules impose severe restrictions on foreign participation: such meetings cannot exceed 100 people, international conferences must be approved by both provincial and central officials, and no “important” foreign guests can be invited without permission.

“The cynic in me believes that, given the likely timing of this decision and of the onset of the Egyptian protests, this is not really about money or the value of international conferences, but about minimizing extended face-to-face dialogues with foreigners who might share ideas that were ‘bu shufu,’?” said one American involved in cultural events, using the Chinese phrase for “discomforting.”

Foreign journalists have also faced unusually direct harassment from security officials. Starting in late February, scores of journalists were warned about their coverage and visited at their homes.

In meetings in February and March with one American journalist, security officers tried to make the case that American officials, together with foreign journalists and others with ties overseas, were conspiring to stir up chaos in China. They talked about the appearance of Mr. Huntsman at the McDonald’s on Feb. 20, and they mentioned a meeting that he held with foreign journalists at the embassy on March 10, citing them as proof of the United States’ hand in fanning the flames of revolution.

 

As Syria Steps Up Efforts to Crush Unrest, Dissidents Report Attack on a City

The military’s move against Baniyas, a predominantly Sunni Muslim city that witnessed some of the largest protests in nationwide demonstrations a day earlier, was another signal that the Syrian government was determined to crush by force dissent that has posed a sweeping challenge to President Bashar al-Assad’s 11-year rule.

The attack mirrored other assaults since Friday on Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, and a restive town on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital. It comes nearly two weeks after the military stormed and effectively occupied Dara’a, a poor town in a drought-stricken region near the border with Jordan where protests have galvanized demonstrations across the country.

Reports were scant, as the military succeeded in blocking communication with most people in Baniyas. Opposition groups, relying on their networks there, said that the military entered the city from three directions under the cover of night and that civilians were trying to block their deployment. There were no immediate reports of fatalities, but opposition groups reported hearing intense gunfire over the phone lines.

Gunboats were also spotted off the coast.

“Land lines and cellphones have been out since dawn, and power outages are spreading,” one activist said on the condition of anonymity, citing reports from Baniyas.

Soon after entering the town, security forces began making arrests, though there were no precise numbers, said Wissam Tarif, the executive director of Insan, a human rights group.

“Basically, we don’t know what’s happening in Baniyas,” he said, adding that he had been talking with someone by phone and “heard firing, bullets, shooting and screaming, and then we lost contact.”

For days, residents had braced for an attack on Baniyas, as the Syrian military deployed scores of tanks and armored vehicles to the city’s southern outskirts. Paramilitary groups were said to have massed at its northern edge, populated by members of the minority Alawite sect, from which Mr. Assad’s government draws much of its support.

“They are preparing a scenario to justify raiding the city,” a resident said by phone on Friday. “They don’t have one yet, and that is why they haven’t entered yet. When they do, they will make Baniyas a lesson to all the Syrians, and it is going to be ugly.”

On Friday, security forces fired on demonstrators in six towns and cities in a day of protests that activists declared a “Friday of Defiance,” killing at least 41 people. But a crackdown that has escalated over the past two weeks managed to subdue Dara’a and prevented many protesters from gathering in larger demonstrations, particularly on the outskirts of Damascus, activists and human rights groups said.

The worst violence was reported in Homs, where activists described a chaotic, bloody day, as tanks entered the town and areas around it. The government said 10 soldiers were killed there by what it described as “terrorists,” while activists said at least nine soldiers had defected to their side. Seventeen protesters were killed, they said.

Only in Baniyas and Jassem, a town near Dara’a, were demonstrators able to mass in larger protests. The resident in Baniyas said that protesters there had carried olive branches and red and white roses to hand to soldiers if the troops entered the city. They did, but only in the early hours of Saturday morning when many were sleeping.

The resident estimated that the crowd on Friday numbered at least 7,000, many of whom chanted for freedom, for the government’s fall and for the military to lift its siege of Dara’a.

The authorities have described Baniyas as a center of militant Islamists, and even some activists acknowledge that militants have a presence there, though by no means a majority. Civic leaders in Baniyas have insisted that the charge is a government ploy to stoke tensions between Sunni Muslims and Alawites, one of the fault lines in a country troubled by smoldering sectarian tensions between the Sunni Muslim majority and minorities of Christians and heterodox Muslim sects. Eastern Syria is populated by an ethnic minority, Kurds, who appeared to turn out in greater numbers in the streets on Friday.

Security forces, with the help of the military, also moved against the town of Zabadani, on the edge of Damascus. Mr. Tarif said that electricity and communications were cut to the town from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, and checkpoints remained across the town. His group documented at least 80 arrests over that period, he said.

Mr. Tarif suggested that the assaults on Baniyas, Homs and Zabadani borrowed a page from the military’s attack on Dara’a and signaled the government’s intent to methodically move against centers of protest in the country with overwhelming force.

“They are doing it city by city,” he said. “The regime is willing to take it to the maximum, and they are willing to increase the brutality to the maximum.”

Mr. Assad, who inherited power from his father, Hafez, in 2000, initially claimed that Syria was immune to the tumult sweeping the Arab world. When the uprising erupted in Dara’a, he responded with a mix of crackdowns and concessions that proved largely cosmetic. For the past two weeks, the government has almost entirely relied on force, and there appears to be a sense in official circles that the government has the upper hand.

So far, hundreds have been killed, and Mr. Tarif’s group estimated that as many as 4,000 have been detained, often for a few days, since the crackdown escalated.

But administration officials have suggested that the government is worried about growing condemnation abroad; the European Union on Friday banned travel for and froze the assets of 14 Syrian officials, though not Mr. Assad.

The crackdown’s severity has also angered Turkey, Syria’s neighbor and one of its closest allies, though there appears to be disagreement in the Turkish government over whether Mr. Assad is unable or unwilling to carry out broader reform in a country that remains one of the region’s most authoritarian.

View the original article here

Unrest Around the Arab World Endangers Turkey’s Newfound Influence

 

In a few short years, Turkey has emerged as the Middle East’s most dynamic power. But weeks of Turkish diplomacy in Libya collapsed Monday, and Turkey’s prime minister bluntly called for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to step down. A similar situation may await in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad has personally promised Turkish leaders to undertake reform while persisting with his crackdown.

In neighboring Iraq, Turkey fears the inability of the government there to keep the country stable as the United States completes its military withdrawal. And Lebanon, where Turkey enjoys access to both Hezbollah and its foes, is now entering a fourth month without a government.

Before the so-called Arab Spring unleashed by revolution in Egypt and Tunisia, Turkey was a catalyst in an emerging realignment of the Middle East, charting a foreign policy often independent of the United States in a region bereft of any country that matched its political stature. Now the unrest on its borders is undermining years of diplomatic and economic investment, forcing Turkey to take a more assertive role as its vision of economic integration runs up against the threat of growing instability.

“In the face of this unpredictable change around the Arab world, Turkish foreign policy is facing a major setback,” said Sami Kohen, a columnist for Milliyet, a daily newspaper in Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “has started losing the leaderships in the Arab world that he trusted and considered important, one after the other.”

Syria, beset by a six-week uprising, may prove his greatest challenge, as it broadly echoes the experience of its Arab neighbors over the past four months. In Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya and Yemen, governments have resisted surrendering some power to stay in office, only to eventually face the prospect of losing all power. Syria’s leader, too, is rebuffing calls for change.

“Outside actors possess little leverage,” the International Crisis Group said Tuesday in a statement on Syria. “Even countries that have developed close ties to Damascus, such as Turkey, are viewed with growing suspicion by officials who are increasingly paranoid and consider anything short of outright support an act of betrayal.”

In past weeks, Turkish diplomacy has been especially intense with Syria, which it considers its most immediate concern as a linchpin in its regional strategy of greater economic integration. Mr. Assad and Mr. Erdogan have spoken on the phone at least three times, and the Turkish intelligence chief, an official with deep knowledge of Syrian affairs, has visited Damascus twice since the uprising began in March. Their message, officials say, was that time was running out for reform.

In language that echoed Mr. Erdogan’s statement to Colonel Qaddafi, he warned Syria’s government against a repetition of Hama, where the Syrian military crushed an Islamist revolt in 1982, killing at least 10,000 people and perhaps far more.

“Turkey needs Syria more than it needs the Syrian regime,” said a Damascus-based analyst who requested anonymity, given the delicacy of the subject.

From Iraq to North Africa, Turkey’s growing profile in the Arab world has emerged as one of the region’s most remarkable dynamics. Trade with Iraq was about $6 billion in 2010, almost double what it was in 2008. There, and in Syria, visa restrictions were removed, facilitating trade across booming border regions that helped reconnect cities like Aleppo, Syria, to their historic hinterlands. About 25,000 Turkish workers flocked to Libya for sprawling construction jobs. Turkish pop culture is everywhere: the star of one action series, “Valley of the Wolves,” is so famous that he lends his name to Iraqi cafes.

Since January, Turkey has sought to protect those gains, while negotiating the tumult in the region. Though Turkey’s ties with Egypt lacked the depth of those with other Arab countries, Mr. Erdogan called on President Hosni Mubarak to step down while an American envoy was still insisting that Mr. Mubarak be allowed to serve out his term.

But Turkey has suffered setbacks elsewhere. In Iraq, a coalition it helped create — Iraqiya, led by Ayad Allawi — lost to the coalition led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, despite winning the single largest bloc of Parliament seats in March 2010 elections. (Mr. Allawi himself was almost completely marginalized in the negotiations that ensued.) There remains skepticism in Turkey over Mr. Maliki’s ability to hold the country together and defuse sectarian tensions after the American military withdraws by a deadline of year’s end.

Turkish diplomats sought to reach a negotiated solution in Libya, but complain that Libyan officials lied to them about their willingness to impose a cease-fire. Turkish officials said they would court the Libyan opposition more aggressively and publicly in coming weeks.

They have stopped short of that call in Syria, with which Turkey almost went to war in 1998 over Syrian support for Kurdish guerrillas. Since then, Turkey has promoted its relationship with Syria as a model for its ties with other Arab countries. The two have held joint cabinet meetings and even military exercises. Trade has tripled in three years, and Mr. Assad and Mr. Erdogan are said to be fond of each other.

“The two countries have intimate relations, and Turkey is immersed in the Syrian political game,” said Burhan Ghalioun, director of the Center for Contemporary Oriental Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. But, he added: “Turkey is warning Syria. Turkey is saying that it has strategic interests in Syria, and it cannot afford to let Syria explode.”

Turkey has sought to hedge its bets, hosting leaders of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and allowing a meeting of the opposition in Istanbul. That has angered Syrian officials, who insist that the uprising is being plotted abroad. In a possible sign of tension, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said no more delegations were planned to Damascus.

“The Syrian government is furious at Turkish officials whom they considered friends only yesterday,” said a Syrian analyst in Damascus who asked not to be named.

So far, Turkish officials have pushed Syria for far broader reforms, including an attempt at national reconciliation and dialogue that would ostensibly bring in the banned Brotherhood. Officials say there is a sense in Ankara that Mr. Assad wants reform but is stymied by more obstinate forces in the ruling elite, a point echoed by Mr. Erdogan.

“He says, ‘I will do it,’?” he said in a television interview. “But I am having a hard time understanding if he is being prevented from doing it or if he is hesitating.”

Reporting was contributed by Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul, Hwaida Saad and Nada Bakri from Beirut, and an employee of The New York Times from Damascus, Syria.

 

Unrest Around the Arab World Endangers Turkey’s Newfound Influence

 

In a few short years, Turkey has emerged as the Middle East’s most dynamic power. But weeks of Turkish diplomacy in Libya collapsed Monday, and Turkey’s prime minister bluntly called for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to step down. A similar situation may await in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad has personally promised Turkish leaders to undertake reform while persisting with his crackdown.

In neighboring Iraq, Turkey fears the inability of the government there to keep the country stable as the United States completes its military withdrawal. And Lebanon, where Turkey enjoys access to both Hezbollah and its foes, is now entering a fourth month without a government.

Before the so-called Arab Spring unleashed by revolution in Egypt and Tunisia, Turkey was a catalyst in an emerging realignment of the Middle East, charting a foreign policy often independent of the United States in a region bereft of any country that matched its political stature. Now the unrest on its borders is undermining years of diplomatic and economic investment, forcing Turkey to take a more assertive role as its vision of economic integration runs up against the threat of growing instability.

“In the face of this unpredictable change around the Arab world, Turkish foreign policy is facing a major setback,” said Sami Kohen, a columnist for Milliyet, a daily newspaper in Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan “has started losing the leaderships in the Arab world that he trusted and considered important, one after the other.”

Syria, beset by a six-week uprising, may prove his greatest challenge, as it broadly echoes the experience of its Arab neighbors over the past four months. In Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya and Yemen, governments have resisted surrendering some power to stay in office, only to eventually face the prospect of losing all power. Syria’s leader, too, is rebuffing calls for change.

“Outside actors possess little leverage,” the International Crisis Group said Tuesday in a statement on Syria. “Even countries that have developed close ties to Damascus, such as Turkey, are viewed with growing suspicion by officials who are increasingly paranoid and consider anything short of outright support an act of betrayal.”

In past weeks, Turkish diplomacy has been especially intense with Syria, which it considers its most immediate concern as a linchpin in its regional strategy of greater economic integration. Mr. Assad and Mr. Erdogan have spoken on the phone at least three times, and the Turkish intelligence chief, an official with deep knowledge of Syrian affairs, has visited Damascus twice since the uprising began in March. Their message, officials say, was that time was running out for reform.

In language that echoed Mr. Erdogan’s statement to Colonel Qaddafi, he warned Syria’s government against a repetition of Hama, where the Syrian military crushed an Islamist revolt in 1982, killing at least 10,000 people and perhaps far more.

“Turkey needs Syria more than it needs the Syrian regime,” said a Damascus-based analyst who requested anonymity, given the delicacy of the subject.

From Iraq to North Africa, Turkey’s growing profile in the Arab world has emerged as one of the region’s most remarkable dynamics. Trade with Iraq was about $6 billion in 2010, almost double what it was in 2008. There, and in Syria, visa restrictions were removed, facilitating trade across booming border regions that helped reconnect cities like Aleppo, Syria, to their historic hinterlands. About 25,000 Turkish workers flocked to Libya for sprawling construction jobs. Turkish pop culture is everywhere: the star of one action series, “Valley of the Wolves,” is so famous that he lends his name to Iraqi cafes.

Since January, Turkey has sought to protect those gains, while negotiating the tumult in the region. Though Turkey’s ties with Egypt lacked the depth of those with other Arab countries, Mr. Erdogan called on President Hosni Mubarak to step down while an American envoy was still insisting that Mr. Mubarak be allowed to serve out his term.

But Turkey has suffered setbacks elsewhere. In Iraq, a coalition it helped create — Iraqiya, led by Ayad Allawi — lost to the coalition led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, despite winning the single largest bloc of Parliament seats in March 2010 elections. (Mr. Allawi himself was almost completely marginalized in the negotiations that ensued.) There remains skepticism in Turkey over Mr. Maliki’s ability to hold the country together and defuse sectarian tensions after the American military withdraws by a deadline of year’s end.

Turkish diplomats sought to reach a negotiated solution in Libya, but complain that Libyan officials lied to them about their willingness to impose a cease-fire. Turkish officials said they would court the Libyan opposition more aggressively and publicly in coming weeks.

They have stopped short of that call in Syria, with which Turkey almost went to war in 1998 over Syrian support for Kurdish guerrillas. Since then, Turkey has promoted its relationship with Syria as a model for its ties with other Arab countries. The two have held joint cabinet meetings and even military exercises. Trade has tripled in three years, and Mr. Assad and Mr. Erdogan are said to be fond of each other.

“The two countries have intimate relations, and Turkey is immersed in the Syrian political game,” said Burhan Ghalioun, director of the Center for Contemporary Oriental Studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. But, he added: “Turkey is warning Syria. Turkey is saying that it has strategic interests in Syria, and it cannot afford to let Syria explode.”

Turkey has sought to hedge its bets, hosting leaders of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and allowing a meeting of the opposition in Istanbul. That has angered Syrian officials, who insist that the uprising is being plotted abroad. In a possible sign of tension, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said no more delegations were planned to Damascus.

“The Syrian government is furious at Turkish officials whom they considered friends only yesterday,” said a Syrian analyst in Damascus who asked not to be named.

So far, Turkish officials have pushed Syria for far broader reforms, including an attempt at national reconciliation and dialogue that would ostensibly bring in the banned Brotherhood. Officials say there is a sense in Ankara that Mr. Assad wants reform but is stymied by more obstinate forces in the ruling elite, a point echoed by Mr. Erdogan.

“He says, ‘I will do it,’?” he said in a television interview. “But I am having a hard time understanding if he is being prevented from doing it or if he is hesitating.”

Reporting was contributed by Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul, Hwaida Saad and Nada Bakri from Beirut, and an employee of The New York Times from Damascus, Syria.

 

Chevron Profit Rises as Unrest Lifts Oil Prices

 

The Chevron Corporation said Friday that its first-quarter profit rose 36 percent as economic growth and supply disruptions drove crude prices above $100 a barrel.

Net income rose to $6.21 billion, or $3.09 a share, from $4.55 billion, or $2.27, a year earlier, Chevron said. Sales rose 25 percent, to $60.3 billion.

Global demand for petroleum-derived fuels rose 2.9 percent during the first quarter, led by growth in China, Brazil and India, according to the International Energy Agency. Oil futures traded in New York climbed 20 percent to average $94.60 a barrel, driven in part by the civil unrest in North Africa and the Middle East that has imperiled crude supplies.

Stock in Chevron, which is based in San Ramon, Calif., rose 63 cents, to $109.44 a share.

Profit from the company’s oil and natural gas business increased 27 percent to $5.98 billion as higher commodity prices offset an output decline of less than 1 percent. Chevron said it pumped the equivalent of 2.76 million barrels of crude during the period, down from 2.78 million a year earlier.

Chevron’s refineries earned $622 million, more than three times the profit of the first quarter of 2010.

 

Burkina Faso Police Join in Popular Unrest

 

DAKAR, Senegal — Police officers in Burkina Faso joined a growing wave of popular unrest on Thursday, firing their weapons in the air and shooting tear gas as discontent over high prices, low wages and the 24-year-rule of President Blaise Compaoré spread in the landlocked West African nation.

Officers poured into the streets in the central district of the capital, Ouagadougou, on Thursday morning, according to a local journalist, Paul Miki Rouamba, who witnessed the scene. He said they had fired off shots around the central police station and roared through the capital on motorcycles to express their discontent over low salaries and some of the force’s commanders.

The police in other cities of the impoverished, Colorado-size nation of 16 million also fired into the air in a show of anger at economic conditions, according to news organizations in Burkina Faso, including in the country’s second largest city, Bobo-Dioulasso. The day before, merchants in the city of Koudougou burned down several buildings associated with the local government to protest a crackdown on unpaid rent in the municipal market.

The police are the latest group to exhibit frustration in Burkina Faso, joining students, soldiers and merchants in the tightly controlled, one-party state run by Mr. Compaoré ever since a coup d’état that saw the demise of his former army comrade, in the late 1980s.

Mr. Compaoré was re-elected with over 80 percent of the vote last fall, amid opposition complaints of an unfair election, and his rule has mostly gone unchallenged in a country where 80 percent of the population relies on subsistence agriculture and three quarters are illiterate. That dynamic, analysts suggest — low educational levels in one of the world’s poorest countries — makes a North African-style revolt against a long-ruling autocrat unlikely.

But with the political crisis this year in a neighboring state, Ivory Coast, on which Burkina Faso is economically dependent — thousands migrate there for work, and most goods pass through the port in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s main city — the country’s economy has suffered and social discontent has mushroomed.

In February, students demonstrated after the death of a colleague in police custody, and five were killed. In April, soldiers rioted in the capital, looting businesses, hotels and the homes of government officials because they were unhappy over the prosecution of army comrades. Mr. Compaoré, a former army captain, dissolved his government and named the former editor of the state newspaper as prime minister. He did not, though, name any opposition figures to the new cabinet, and the unrest has continued.

Analysts say there is no obvious link between the various protesting groups in the country except general discontent. “They seem to be somewhat separate strands,” said one Western expert on the country, who asked not to be named so as not to jeopardize his current position. Everybody is angry at high prices, the expert said, “and almost nobody has confidence in the government. If the military stuff isn’t settled, everything else is up for grabs.”

The opposition has called for a large-scale demonstration in the capital on Saturday.

 

Gadhafi Forces Shell Misrata; Further Unrest in Yemen, Syria

。 Edward Yeranian | Cairo ?April 24, 2011

Libyan rebels are seen walking down a street close to a building where forces loyal to Col. Moammar Kadhafi are reportedly held up in Misrata on April 24, 2011

Libyan government forces are keeping pressure on the rebel-held city of Misrata after abandoning most of the positions they held in the city.

Libyan government forces shelled the besieged rebel-held port of Misrata Sunday, a day after officials signaled a change in tactics.? Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim claimed the army was suspending operations in Misrata and would hand over positions to pro-Gadhafi tribesmen.

"The situation in Misrata will be eased, will be dealt with by the tribes around Misrata and the rest of Misrata’s people, not by the Libyan army, and you will see how they will be swift and quick and fast and the Libyan army will be out of the question, out of the situation in Misrata," said Kaim.

A Libyan opposition leader told Libyan rebel TV, however, that he did not think that tribes around Misrata would fight their countrymen inside the city.? "Some local tribesmen,"? he said, "have personal ties with the Gadhafi regime, but the majority oppose him and won’t fight."

In the capital Tripoli, Gadhafi loyalists fired anti-aircraft guns into the air sporadically, amid reports of NATO airstrikes. The U.S. Defense Department announced an airstrike by a U.S. Predator drone in Libya Saturday. NATO said the unmanned aircraft destroyed a multiple rocket launcher used by pro-Gadhafi forces near Misrata.

Elsewhere in the region, tens of thousands of Yemenis continued to protest against President Ali Abdallah Saleh, a day after he accepted a Gulf Arab initiative that would eventually have him leave office.

Speaking at Yemen’s War College Sunday, President Saleh accused the opposition of trying to create chaos:

He says that the behavior of the opposition has put a stop to economic development in Yemen. He claims the opposition wants to spill blood, create a civil war, and overthrow the legal order, while he opposes violence.

Yemeni politicians and negotiators from the Gulf Cooperation Council say President Saleh has agreed to a GCC proposal for him to step down within 30 days of an accord being signed with the opposition. Saleh ally and deputy information minister Abdou Jundi says the president accepts the plan, but has some conditions:

He says President Saleh accepted the GCC plan in principle, and that this will be in accordance with the constitution, which allows the president to resign to parliament. He insists that starting a dialogue with the opposition is part of the plan.

Many protesters refuse any dialogue with the president and insist on his immediate resignation. They also object to giving the president and his family any immunity from prosecution.

Meanwhile in Syria, thousands of mourners laid to rest protesters shot dead Saturday near the southern city of Deraa. They chanted slogans against the government and against President Bashar al-Assad. Protests were reported in at least six other towns and cities, despite widespread arrests of opposition activists by the government.

 

Truckers Protest, Adding to Chinese Fears of Unrest

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a container-handling facility at the city’s Baoshan port, news reports stated, monitored by dozens of police officers. On Thursday, thousands of drivers staged a noisy protest at the huge Waigaoqiao port, smashing truck windows of drivers who had refused to join them, and officers arrested several drivers who tried to overturn a police car.

The protests threatened to snarl operations at the world’s busiest harbor, but analysts said that any impact was likely to be small. China’s state-controlled newspapers ignored the strike, and censors removed reports on the disturbance from Web sites.

Online reports quoted by the Chinese newspaper Economic Observer said that the truckers intended the blockage of the Shanghai ports to last three days.

The drivers were protesting low wages, increased fuel prices — the government recently raised diesel prices by five percent — and higher fees imposed by port operators. “The various fees they have to pay leave them no profit,” said Liu Cheng, a law professor and labor specialist at Shanghai Normal University. “This kind of conflict is hard to resolve because it’s the government that is collecting those fees.”

The complaints mirror general unhappiness with inflation here. Prices rose 5.4 percent last month compared with the preceding March, the largest increase since 2008, but a worrisome rise in month-to-month prices suggests to some analysts that the annual inflation rate could approach the double-digit range.

The increase in food prices — 11.7 percent in the first quarter of this year — is a crucial factor in a nation where food is the major expense in some household budgets.

Other protests so far have been scant. But the government, mindful that soaring inflation played a crucial role in the 1989 protests that climaxed in the bloody suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, has taken pains to show concern.

Premier Wen Jiabao has said that he checks prices of staples daily, and has frequently said that inflation and corruption are the greatest dangers to national stability.

But the government has other worries as well. For months, it has been vigorously squelching civil dissent by political activists, a campaign that has included the arrests and disappearances of prominent human rights lawyers and social critics like Ai Weiwei, the artist.

The government appears determined to crush even isolated protests lest they merge into a larger uprising that might threaten the Communist Party’s hold on power.

China was hit with a spate of worker protests last year, also fueled by complaints about low wages and high prices, which led to wage increases in some key industries. But inflation now appears to be eroding those gains.

On Friday, in what appeared to be a government bid to assuage some of the current economic unhappiness, Shanghai newspapers reported that the government would reduce the monthly fees that independent taxi drivers must pay the companies that employ them, to $1,260 from $1,305.

In 2008, China was hit with a wave of strikes by taxi and bus drivers unhappy with the erosion in their take-home pay.

Many experts say that China’s own monetary policies fuel inflation, and that the global rise in food and oil prices has only worsened the situation here.

 

Truckers Protest, Adding to Chinese Fears of Unrest

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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a container-handling facility at the city’s Baoshan port, news reports stated, monitored by dozens of police officers. On Thursday, thousands of drivers staged a noisy protest at the huge Waigaoqiao port, smashing truck windows of drivers who had refused to join them, and officers arrested several drivers who tried to overturn a police car.

The protests threatened to snarl operations at the world’s busiest harbor, but analysts said that any impact was likely to be small. China’s state-controlled newspapers ignored the strike, and censors removed reports on the disturbance from Web sites.

Online reports quoted by the Chinese newspaper Economic Observer said that the truckers intended the blockage of the Shanghai ports to last three days.

The drivers were protesting low wages, increased fuel prices — the government recently raised diesel prices by five percent — and higher fees imposed by port operators. “The various fees they have to pay leave them no profit,” said Liu Cheng, a law professor and labor specialist at Shanghai Normal University. “This kind of conflict is hard to resolve because it’s the government that is collecting those fees.”

The complaints mirror general unhappiness with inflation here. Prices rose 5.4 percent last month compared with the preceding March, the largest increase since 2008, but a worrisome rise in month-to-month prices suggests to some analysts that the annual inflation rate could approach the double-digit range.

The increase in food prices — 11.7 percent in the first quarter of this year — is a crucial factor in a nation where food is the major expense in some household budgets.

Other protests so far have been scant. But the government, mindful that soaring inflation played a crucial role in the 1989 protests that climaxed in the bloody suppression of demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, has taken pains to show concern.

Premier Wen Jiabao has said that he checks prices of staples daily, and has frequently said that inflation and corruption are the greatest dangers to national stability.

But the government has other worries as well. For months, it has been vigorously squelching civil dissent by political activists, a campaign that has included the arrests and disappearances of prominent human rights lawyers and social critics like Ai Weiwei, the artist.

The government appears determined to crush even isolated protests lest they merge into a larger uprising that might threaten the Communist Party’s hold on power.

China was hit with a spate of worker protests last year, also fueled by complaints about low wages and high prices, which led to wage increases in some key industries. But inflation now appears to be eroding those gains.

On Friday, in what appeared to be a government bid to assuage some of the current economic unhappiness, Shanghai newspapers reported that the government would reduce the monthly fees that independent taxi drivers must pay the companies that employ them, to $1,260 from $1,305.

In 2008, China was hit with a wave of strikes by taxi and bus drivers unhappy with the erosion in their take-home pay.

Many experts say that China’s own monetary policies fuel inflation, and that the global rise in food and oil prices has only worsened the situation here.

View the original article here

Unrest Engulfs Parts of Middle East After Friday Prayers

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April 16, 2011 Latest News: Select Your LanguageAfan OromoAlbanianAmharicArmenianAzerbaijaniAzeriBanglaBosnianBurmeseCantoneseChineseCreoleCroatianDariEnglish WorldwideFrenchGeorgianGreekHausaIndonesianKhmerKhmer (English)KinyarwandaKirundiKoreanKurdiKurdishLaoLearning EnglishMacedonianMandarinNdebelePashtoPashto - DeewaPersian PortugueseRussian SerbianShonaSomaliSpanishSwahiliThaiTibetanTibetan (English)TigrignaTurkishUkrainian UrduUzbekVietnameseZimbabwe - EnglishNewsProgramsVideoLearning EnglishLive Streams:Latest Newscast|Africa Live|Global LiveNews USA Africa Americas Asia EuropeMiddle EastIsrael - PalestiniansIranIraqHuman RightsMiddle East In TransitionEconomy and Business Arts and Entertainment EconomyMore TopicsEducationEnvironmentHealthNews AnalysisReligionScience and TechnologySports Web FeaturesSpecial ReportsPhoto GalleriesGoing Green Money In MotionNow You KnowOff the Beaten PathThe LinkInteractive YouTubeFacebookTwitter Web ServicesPodcastsRSSMobileNewsletterWebcastsLinks About the USEditorialsRFE/RLRFAPronunciation Guide News|Middle EastMiddle EastRSS FeedUnrest Engulfs Parts of Middle East After Friday Prayers Edward Yeranian|Cairo?April 15, 2011

Photo: APA Syrian pro-government protester shouts slogans during a protest following Friday prayers outside the Omayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria, April 15, 2011

Share ThisFacebookYahoo! BuzzRelated ArticlesSyria Opposition Groups Rally Despite ConcessionsYemen Tribal Leaders Back ProtestersLibya Conflict Spotlights Qatar's Growing InfluenceSyrian President Frees Detainees, Announces New CabinetSupporters of Yemen's President Rally; Protests Continue

Large demonstrations were reported in over half a dozen Syrian cities Friday, as opponents of the government demanded more freedom and called on the government to release political prisoners.? Large protests also swept at least a dozen cities in Yemen, as President Ali Abdullah Saleh addressed supporters in the capital Sana'a.

Syrian protesters march in Damascus

Thousands of Syrian protesters marched in the streets of a Damascus suburb Friday, shouting and chanting against the government. Witnesses say security forces used tear gas against the protesters who were marching towards the capital after Friday prayers.

A Facebook website supporting change in Syria showed videos of protesters marching in the streets of nearly a dozen Syrian cities.

In the mostly Sunni Muslim city of Homs, witnesses say protesters dispersed as security forces fired automatic rifles.

In the flashpoint port city of Banias, scores of protesters marched towards the city center to demonstrate against the government, despite the presence of army troops. In a move to appease protesters, the government announced the release Friday of some prisoners arrested during recent sectarian strife.

A video released by the opposition Sham TV showed dozens of protesters in Banias being beaten by what appeared to be Syrian secret police.

Media figures and academics sympathetic to the government tried to downplay the violence and alleged government brutality in interviews with two pan-Arab television networks.

Yemeni protesters march in Sana'a

Hundreds of thousands of pro and anti-government demonstrators also rallied in dozens of cities across Yemen Friday. The largest demonstrations engulfed the capital Sana'a and the flashpoint city of Taiz.

Friday, a group of influential religious and tribal leaders abandoned embattled Yemeni President Saleh, calling on him to step down. President Saleh, however, remained defiant.

In Sana'a, he told a crowd that millions of Yemenis support the country’s constitutional order and that they continue to support him as president.

In Bahrain, the country’s foreign minister said Friday that the government was not trying to dissolve the Shi’ite opposition Wefaq Party, despite moves towards that effect a day earlier. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner had expressed concern Thursday about the possible attempt towards silencing opposition.

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