Unrest in the Middle East – Monday 14 February

Live updates as the events in Tunisia and Egypt continue to inspire protesters throughout the Middle East and North Africa 9.09am: The 19-year-old state of emergency in Algeria will end within days, foreign minister Mourad Medelci said. There were running battles between police officers and about 2,000 demonstrators in Algiers on Saturday . Officials said that 400 were arrested by police – who vastly outnumbered them. Most were then released. Reuters reports: A state of emergency has been in force in Algeria since 1992 and the government has come under pressure to ditch emergency laws following uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. “In the coming days, we will talk about it as if it was a thing of the past,” Medelci told the French radio station Europe 1 in an interview. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said earlier this month the state of emergency would be lifted in the very near future. 8.57am: At least 14 people have been injured in clashes on Bahrain’s “Day of Rage” Reuters reports: Police clashed late on Sunday with residents in Karzakan village, where security forces regularly skirmish with Shia youths, and one protester was injured, witnesses said. Police said three officers were hurt. In the village of Nuweidrat, police used teargas and rubber bullets on Monday to disperse a crowd demanding the release of Shia detainees, witnesses said, adding that 10 people were slightly injured. “There were 2,000 sitting in the street voicing their demands when police started firing,” 24-year-old Kamel told Reuters, declining to give his full name. Nearby, streets were littered with teargas canisters and rubber bullets. The scene was different in Manama, where government supporters honked car horns and waved Bahraini flags to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a national charter introduced after unrest in the 1990s. 8.53am: After scuffles yesterday, when soldiers tried to clear demonstrators out of Tahrir Square , the military has delivered an ultimatum to protesters today to leave the central plaza that formed the heart of the revolution or face arrest: We have half an hour left, we are cordoned by military police,” protester Yahya Saqr told Reuters. “We are discussing what to do now,” he said, adding that a senior officer “told us we have one hour to empty the square or we will be arrested.” 8.49am: The wave of protests inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt show no signs of dissipating. Activists in Iran are planning to go ahead with a banned rally in central Tehran today in defiance of warnings by the regime. Iranian leaders have vowed to deal with protesters from the opposition Green movement severely, even though Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government welcomed the ousting of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. There have been clashes in Bahrain as protesters stage their own “day of rage” . Shia citizens ruled by a Sunni minority are unhappy about their lack of representation. In a bid to stave off protests King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, trying to defuse the tension, said he would give 1,000 dinars (£1,650) to each local family, and the government has indicated that it may free minors arrested under a security crackdown last year. There have been demonstrations in Yemen for the past three days . Witnesses in the capital, Sana’a, said several protesters were injured and 23 were detained by police in clashes yesterday. Despite the ousting of Mubarak, tensions continue in Egypt over the military’s plan to rule by martial law until elections are held . While the military’s move has been welcomed by some, other pro-democracy protesters are alarmed by the failure to agree to a civilian-led interim government. The army is expected to issue a communique today cracking down on those creating “chaos and disorder” as well as effectively banning strikes. Middle East Egypt Tunisia Iran Yemen Bahrain Algeria Sudan Haroon Siddique guardian.co.uk

Posted by on February 14, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry