International TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2020 Ghana set for close election in ‘beacon of democracy’ Abiy says Ethiopia working to restore order in Tigray Page 6 Page 7 TUNIS: In this file photo taken on Jan 14, 2011, soldiers on an armored vehicle deploy to disperse demonstrators on Mohamed V Avenue. — AFP Decade after Arab Spring, thousands in jail Families often spend years searching for missing sons and daughters BEIRUT: Ten years ago, millions dared to dream “The Syrian government has used torture and and families often spend years searching for before being returned to their cells on new that political change could sweep across Arab enforced disappearance as a means to crush dis- missing sons and daughters. It was only in 2018 charges. Among them is Egyptian activist Alaa capitals, but in most places such hopes have been sent for decades,” said Amnesty in a different 2017 that many in Syria learnt that their loved ones had Abdel Fattah, 39, a prominent figure in 2011, who crushed as thousands languish in jail. From Cairo report. “Since 2011... the Syrian government’s vio- died years ago when authorities updated the was freed in March 2019, only to be re-imprisoned to Damascus, regimes have cracked down on the lations against detainees have increased drastically death records. “That’s it? You’re sure he’s dead?” in September that year after rare, small-scale anti- dissent which flourished in the early, heady days of in magnitude and severity.” Salwa had said, in shock. After seven years with government protests. In June, his sister, Sanaa, 26, the Arab Spring uprisings, with many protesters A report from the Human Rights Data Analysis no news, Salwa could hardly believe her nephew, was also arrested for allegedly inciting protests especially in Syria and Egypt now silenced Group said at least 17,723 people were killed in a Syrian activist arrested in 2011, had been dead and posting “fake” information about the spread of through torture and imprisonment. Or even death. government custody between March 2011 and Dec the last five. “Even in mourning, we’re afraid and coronavirus in prisons. Today, some 60,000 Egyptian political 2015, roughly equating to about 300 deaths a hide our grief,” Salwa had told AFP in 2018, using Their mother Laila Soueif, 64, a mathematics detainees have been rounded up since then auto- month. While the Syrian Observatory for Human a pseudonym. professor at Cairo University, told AFP of the cratic president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in early Rights has estimated that 100,000 people have The 2011 uprising against Egypt’s longtime immense “personal pain” she feels at the absence 2011, according to a grim toll by human rights died in Syrian prisons since 2011. president Mubarak initially saw the release of of her son and daughter. She says she has no idea groups. A 2018 Amnesty International report In response, both Cairo and Damascus have thousands of prisoners, especially Islamists. But when her children will be freed again. Egyptian alleged that Egypt, a country with 100 million peo- categorically denied the accusations and accused the following chaotic years - first under an Islamist authorities recently placed her son on the coun- ple, had become “an open-air prison for critics”. “biased” rights groups of interfering in domestic president and then after the army moved in to take try’s terror list, a designation which bans him from Just last week, Amnesty denounced a “horrifying affairs. And amid an international fight against control - led to a renewed heavy crackdown, espe- travel even if he were released. execution spree” in Egypt, saying at least 57 men attacks by radical Islamists, the governments have cially on the now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. But Soueif has never regretted that they took and women had been put to death in the past two also justified the wave of arrests as part of the Activists say authorities often level new charges part in the 2011 protests, even though she months, which was almost double all of last year. global battle against such “terror groups”. against those who have exceeded the two-year acknowledges that “if it wasn’t for the revolution, And in Syria, where a brutal civil war is still rag- limit in pre-trial detention, a procedure known as Alaa and Sanaa wouldn’t have been in prison”. ing in which more than 380,000 people have died, Broken dreams “rotational pre-trial detention” The uprisings “woke people up to their rights,” detainees continue to meet their deaths in prisons. Information on prisoners is scarce however, And some prisoners only briefly taste freedom, she said. —AFP morning of Dec 17, 2010, the police Arab uprisings ‘Keep up the seized Mohamed’s handcart - which served as a makeshift stall - and his breathe life fight’, urges merchandise. After a series of petty harassments, it was the last straw. Mohamed doused himself in petrol and into old flags vendor’s sister set himself alight. KHARTOUM: In Syria, Libya and more “It was an accumulation of things MONTREAL: Tunisians should keep that made him explode,” said Leila, recently Sudan, Arab revolutionaries up the fight for their rights, believes This combination of pictures shows (from left) the independence flag of Libya, the independ- now aged 34. At the time, she was have begun brandishing old independ- the sister of a street vendor who set ence flag of Syria, and the independence flag of Sudan. — AFP studying in another town, but she ence-era flags, attacking newer ones as himself alight a decade ago, triggering symbols of the dictatorships they want recalled hearing that her brother had a string of protests around the Arab been slapped by a policewoman dur- to topple. “In Syria and Libya, the (cur- independence fighters in 1932 that was Symbol of freedom world. But Leila Bouazizi admitted the ing an altercation, although this was rent) flags were more marks of the adopted by the opposition from June 2011 Despite the changes in Libya and revolt which flared in late 2010 has never confirmed. When Mohamed regime than national symbols, which is onwards. It also comprised three bands of Syria, one country at the heart of the done little to solve the economic prob- asked local authorities to investigate, why they became targets,” said Gilbert color: Green for the early years of Muslim Arab uprisings has kept its 1952 flag. lems that pushed her brother, “he didn’t get a response”, she said. Achcar, a professor at London’s School rule, white for the Ummayid dynasty and Egypt’s red, white and black standard, Mohamed, over the edge. “Everyone “He was really annoyed... That’s why he of Oriental and African Studies. black for the Abbasids, an Arabic dynasty with the golden eagle of 12th-century thought the government would do took petrol and did what he did.” The When Libyans rose up against that ruled over the Islamic empire from ruler Saladin in the middle representing something,” she told AFP in Quebec, young man succumbed to his wounds in Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, they rejected around 750 A.D until the mid-13th centu- strength and power, has remained. where she moved to study in 2013 and the all-green flag the dictator had adopt- ry. The three red stars across the middle “Despite its authoritarian leanings, the early 2011. But his act had sparked has lived ever since. unprecedented mass demonstrations ed in 1977. The 2011 protesters burned represent the districts of Damascus, Nasserite regime that took power in the “Unfortunately, it did nothing,” she Gaddafi’s flag in the street and sponta- Aleppo and Deir Ezzor. July 1952 revolution continues to be seen across Tunisia, super-charged by social added, saying she was “very disap- media, which then ignited a series of neously adopted that of Libya’s monar- The Assad regime, by contrast, clung by many Egyptians as a legitimate revolt pointed” in the outcome of the upris- chy, which had ruled after independence to its red, white and black standard with against a corrupt monarchy and colonial revolts across the Middle East. ing, even though it brought down the “When my brother did that act, in 1951 until King Idris I was toppled by two green stars, introduced in 1980 by interference,” said Bitar. north African country’s long-time ruler Gaddafi in 1969. late president Hafez al-Assad. He was the Neighboring Sudan was bypassed by everyone exploded and protested Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and installed a against the system,” Leila said. But the return to the flag used by the father of President Bashar Al-Assad, who the first wave of Arab revolts. But the fragile system of democracy. monarchy “was nothing to do with nostal- remains in power despite a devastating country experienced an uprising in 2019 “Everyone wanted the situation to Mohamed Bouazizi and his family lived gia for the monarchy”, said Achcar. “It decade-long civil war. “In Syria and that forced veteran strongman Omar Al- change,” she added, saying her brother in modest circumstances in the run- had been in “the same situation” as was more a rejection of Gaddafi.” Most Libya, two factors were at play,” said Bashir from power, and has revived inter- down central rural town of Sidi Bouzid. most young people. In the wake of his Libyans had never lived under any regime Karim Emile Bitar, a political science pro- est in the country’s independence-era flag. Like many young, unemployed death, the Bouazizi family received but that of the veteran dictator. But they fessor at Beirut’s Saint-Joseph University.