EGYPT: Government resigns, protesters still in the street

Of army tanks positioned in the capital, paving stones littered with debris, the headquarters of the National Democratic Party (NDP) who is still smoking ... While traces of Friday's riots were still present in Cairo, thousands of protesters again gathered in the center of the Egyptian capital on Saturday morning. The speech by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has notably announced the sacking of the government, did not appear sufficient to calm the anger of the population.

A speech "meaningless"

The resignation of the cabinet must be formally confirmed in the coming hours this Saturday, and Hosni Mubarak should then appoint the new prime minister. The government could be formed in the day.Leaving his silence Friday night, Hosni Mubarak assured, in a short speech, had "fully aware of the legitimate aspirations of the people."He also said he is determined to ensure stability.

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, the opponent Mohamed el-Baradei, former Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), found the speech "meaningless" and called Hosni Mubarak from. "The Egyptian president has clearly not understood the message that emanated from the Egyptian people," he said. It was almost an insult to his intelligence. "

According to Egyptian expert Aklimandos Toufik, associate researcher at the contemporary history of the Arab world at the College de France, the speech contained no concrete announcement. "Hosni Mubarak gave a speech that is his for years," he explained to FRANCE 24.It was a good speech, except that it contained no new element, able to reassure the population. "

The attitude of the army, which is decisive

"If the day on Friday was decisive in mobilizing and this Saturday will be equally critical of his side says Gallagher Fenwick, a FRANCE 24 special correspondents in Cairo. The protesters are back on the streets after a night of riots, and they will be very attentive to the attitude of the army, positioned at strategic locations in the Egyptian capital.The question is whether the army is going to marry this movement, as was the case in Tunisia, or whether it will instead protect the regime ".

By late Friday, President Hosni Mubarak has indeed called in the army reinforcements to enforce security in the country.

Tens of thousands of people protested Friday in the country, demanding the departure of the Egyptian president, in power since 1981. Clashes have opposed the police who used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the procession.Long after nightfall, and despite the curfew introduced by the authorities, many protesters continued to press into the streets of major cities. The clashes killed at least 13 victims in Suez, east of Cairo, Alexandria and six to the north, and many more injured - more than a thousand in Cairo.

Besides the start of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian call for the lifting of the state of emergency in force for 30 years, more freedoms and better living conditions. While over 40% of Egyptians live on less than two dollars a day, they protest against rising prices of basic commodities and lack of jobs.

INTERNET: How Ben Ali was trying to identify users of Facebook

"We had never encountered a security problem of scale that took place in Tunisia." Facebook has detailed this weekend, he led the battle to counter attempts by the regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali to retrieve the identifiers of users of the famous Tunisian social network during the unrest that led to the leakage the former president. A communication operation that gives, of course, the handsome star at the role of Web 2.0, but also casts a harsh light on how the authority was trying to control access to the Net.

In an interview on Monday, the American cultural monthly "The Atlantic", Joe Sullivan, the head of security within Facebook, talks about the incident.It all began during the holiday season, says he. Many users complain Tunisian then seeing their Facebook account deleted.

Tunisian Internet by boiling following the immolation of young Mohamed Bouazizi, Sidi Bouzid, December 17, fear of censorship. At first, Facebook can not identify the problem.

Apolitical posture

Ultimately, it will take about ten days the team of Joe Sullivan to understand what's happening in the country. "The main service provider (ISP) [Tunisia] had established an unprecedented system for recovering logins and passwords for Tunisians registered on Facebook," said one.The social network accuses unnamed Tunisian Internet Agency (ATI) to have engaged the pleasure of hacker crime.

The organization, under the Ministry of Telecommunications, was injected on the login page to Facebook a cookie to save the email address and password that users wrote in logging.

Malicious code online

To circumvent the problem, Facebook has implemented a secure login page (one address "https" instead of "http") for all Tunisians. The user who wanted access to their account should also confirm his identity by answering a security question.Two steps, by Joe Sullivan, were sufficient to prevent the regime of Ben Ali can delete or edit their Facebook accounts.

The firm of Mark Zuckerberg has therefore been drawn into a major political event. "We decided to treat this as a mere technical problem and keep an apolitical stance," said Ted Sullivan, however. That is why the American group waited until the former president Ben Ali stepped down to reveal the story.

This episode confirms, in any event, the tight control on the Net Tunisian denounced for months by both Tunisian and by international organizations to defend freedom of expression.In July 2010, the Internet and Global Voices was moved to an attempt by authorities to retrieve the identifiers of the subscribers to Gmail, Google's e-mail.

January 3, malicious code intended to allow Tunisian government to control access to Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Facebook have even been published on the Internet.

ALGERIA: Algiers Violent clashes outside the headquarters of the RCD

The streets of Algiers were the scene of violent clashes on Saturday between riot police and protesters from defying the authority to call for an opposition party.

Outside the headquarters of the Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), some 300 people including recovered blocked by hundreds of policemen. According to Said Saadi, leader of the RCD, 42 of them were injured and transferred to city hospitals. Among them would be Amazouz Othman, the parliamentary leader of the RCD. Official sources have reported wounded seven policemen, including two in serious condition.The independent newspaper El Watan also reported that a dozen arrests were made.

The newspaper always, clashes also erupted on the outskirts of Algiers between security forces and protesters who tried to reach the capital. AFP reports that the local leader of the RCD, Reda Boudraa was beaten with sticks to Bejaia, 260 km east of the capital. The head was bleeding, he was evacuated by ambulance.

The police, present en masse in the Algerian capital, trying to prevent a planned rally by the RCD to demand democratization."The police prevented the protesters to meet, shows Tazir Ahmed, FRANCE 24's correspondent in Algiers. Any group of people over 10 is dispersed."

An impressive police presence was deployed in the early hours of the day, crisscrossing the entire town. "The atmosphere is tense currently in Algiers," said Faisal Métaoui by phone, a political reporter for the independent daily El Watan. " "There are police everywhere, the main entrances of the city are blocked, rail traffic is stopped, the buses are controlled.Some are forced to turn back, mainly those from Kabylie [region traditionally opposed the regime of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Ed], "he says.

"Historical Impasse"

RCD called for the release of political prisoners, lifting the state of emergency in force since 1992, respect for individual and collective freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the dissolution of elected assemblies, "the source of all the political instability since they were imposed by electoral fraud, according to Said Saadi. It is a catchword very consensual, "says the leader of the RCD.

"We're not just in a state of political crisis, we are in a historical dead end, says the latter.There is no longer any bridge between the authorities and society.If we fail to initiate a process towards a peaceful transition, violence will be much more devastating in Algeria than it was in Tunisia. "

Friday, local authorities have, meanwhile, called on residents of Algiers to ignore calls to the event scheduled for Saturday before the Parliament at 11am.

"He asked citizens to exercise wisdom and vigilance, and not respond to any provocation intended to undermine their peace, their peace and their serenity," said a statement from the prefecture Algiers.

Demonstrations are banned in Algeria since 1992, when the state of emergency was declared.

For now, popular protest has not led to a shift of the Algerian government. "It is too early to tell whether this movement has the same consequences as that which takes place in Tunisia, said Faisal Métaoui. The Algerian police are more experienced in Tunisia concerning the riots, said the journalist. But indeed, if nothing changes, if the government does not give a little ground, things may get tougher. "

NORTH AFRICA: The immolation, an act of desperation to high political office

A father of six children, dealer on the run, was doused with petrol before lighting a lighter in the open market on Wednesday, El-Oued, Algeria. Dozens of people were quickly intervened to try to save him. The day before, a lawyer of forty years has tried to set themselves on fire outside the government headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Monday is a contractor for 43 years Mauritania has poured a flammable liquid into his car before setting it on fire. He meant by this act, denouncing "the country's political situation and the regime."

Since the immolation, December 17, the young unemployed Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi, became the symbol of the revolution of Tunisia, a dozen people at least have replicated this gesture in the Arab world.One person died of his injuries in Algeria. "These events seem, a priori, bound to each other, tells Michael France24.com Ayari, associate researcher at the Research Institute for the Study of Arab and Muslim world (IREMAM). These countries are in any case face similar problems, such as rising prices "of basic commodities.

"The fire destroyed and regenerates"

For many observers, these sacrifices reflect the desperation of some of the Arab population. By their violence and the fact that they are held in public and not anonymous, they are also political.The immolation "contains a message for power that is: 'I protest', explained to AFP Hefny Kedra, professor of political psychology at Ain Shams University, Cairo.

"This series of sacrifices is a sign of political deadlock, an ideological vacuum, confirms Michael Ayari. It reveals that many things are not in the office of the underbody Arab world. Symbolically, the Fire destroys but also regenerates, like the phoenix rising from the ashes.These gestures can be a political regeneration: in sacrifice, we destroy what destroys us. "

An analysis shared Nacéra Sadou, clinical psychologist and consultant to the Algerian Society of psychological research, quoted by the Algerian daily El Watan. " Immolate is somehow "reclaiming the right to appear, a way to exist, to say 'I'm here,' she says. In the destruction of the relationship between inside and The outside skin is seen as the only means of expression since access to speech is impossible. "

Psycho-sociologist in Beirut, Lebanon, Raja Makki believes, too, that these desperate acts are a means "to exist"."It seems to me that people in the Arab world, is seeking a new identity, says she France24.com. People are fragmented between two models, West and East. They have many problems to exist; citizenship does not exist in the true sense of the term, diets do not protect the individual as a human being, as a citizen. It is a sentiment that has simmered in an indirect and invisible, expressed today. "

Nor religious, nor specificity Arabic

Symptom of a socio-economic, political and ideological self-immolation has, according to Michael Ayari, no religious connotation. "This is currently the social, not religious, which is dominant" in the protest movements of the Arab street, "he says.On Tuesday, the highest institution in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar, however, stressed that Islam forbids any form of suicide. "Islam does not separate from her body to express discomfort, anger or protest," said the spokesperson of the institution, Mohamed al-Tahtawi Rifa'a, while stating that individuals who committed these acts could be "in a state of mental instability."

Should this be seen, however, specificity of the Arab world? Ayari for Michael, the answer is clearly no. Tibetan Buddhist monks, for example, have repeatedly sacrificed by fire. Russia, China, South Korea or Burma, such events have already occurred.Between 1998 and 2003, hundreds of people have also attempted suicide by immolation in north-western Iran.

If the media today identify with extreme attention to each case immolation in the Arab world because of the Tunisian revolution, it is however clear that the phenomenon is not completely unprecedented in the region. "We have witnessed in recent years all sorts of suicide beyond the traditional, Gaci said Ali, a specialist in social psychology, the Algerian daily" L'Expression ".Young people have committed suicide by self-mutilating to challenge their release lists of homes, while others were thrown overboard, preferring to drown rather than be rescued by the coastguard, "said there.

In Morocco, in 2005, a group of unemployed youth himself had organized a march "from the hiring or death" with a destination of the seat of the Prime Minister's Office, Rabat, threatening to immolate themselves.In Tunisia, a few farmers had also threatened suicide in the late 1960s to protest against the nationalization of agriculture.

In sacrificing himself in his little town of Sidi Bouzid, Mohamed Bouazizi himself has crystallized the challenges and frustrations social and economic policies in a large part of the Arab world, causing a shockwave that was certainly not imagine ...