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Geopolitics

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing

ARABICA - A Daily Shot Of What the Arab World is Saying/Hearing/Sharing

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad finally addressed the nation in a televised speech. As with recent pronouncements from Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Bahrain's King Hamad Al Khalifa, Assad's performance contained all the classic elements of the time-tested Arab strongman's harangue

A R A B I C A ارابيكا

By Kristen Gillespie

SYRIAN STRONGMAN

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad finally addressed the nation in a televised speech. As with recent pronouncements from Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Bahrain's King Hamad Al Khalifa, Assad's performance contained all the classic elements of the time-tested Arab strongman's harangue:

*Blaming unnamed, external enemies who are conspiring to destroy your country.Assad: "Syria is the target of a major, external plot, the timing of which has been accelerated."

*Trumpeting the dignity of a great people. Assad: "I belong to the Syrian people, and whoever belongs to the Syrian people will always keep his head held high."

*Pledging reforms that all know he has no intention of implementing. Assad: "There are no hurdles to reforms, but there are delays."

*Blaming unarmed civilians holding peaceful protests for their own deaths. Assad: It is "conspirators' who are behind the protests that have ended in the deaths of scores, if not hundreds, of citizens.

*The government is busy "studying" the demands of protesters.Assad: "The emergency law and political parties law have been under study for a year…We want to speed it up, but not be too hasty."

But though the script from on high is still the same, the context – post-Tunis, post-Cairo – has changed. The twittersphere was panning the speech in realtime:

*@shamnews: "If people stay quiet after a farce like this, they will have no peace until Judgment Day…this is a mockery of the Syrian people and its martyrs."

*@MohamadMS adds, "I am still in shock even though I have learned not to expect much from an Arab leader… but this is the worst speech I have ever heard."

TUNISIAN PRIDE

Yadh Ben Ashour, a member of Tunisia's Committee to Implement the Revolution's Objectives, says the country "will never accept" international observers monitoring upcoming elections on July 24. "No respectable country accepts international observers… the electoral process is completely transparent," Ben Ashour said.

March 30, 2011


photo credit: illustir

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Report: After Wagner Group, Now Russia's Official Military Is Recruiting Prisoners For War

Desperate to supply depleting forces in Ukraine, Russia's defense ministry has taken up the dubious recruiting method of offering prisoners freedom in exchange for going off to war. The same technique was begun but then halted in February by the Wagner Group mercenaries. It's Putin's latest attempt to avoid a nationwide mobilization.

Photo of the boots of the conscripts lining up at an assembly station of St Petersburg's army recruitment office before departing for service with the Russian Armed Forces

Conscripts line up at an assembly station of St Petersburg's army recruitment office before departing for service with the Russian Armed Forces

Anna Akage

Russia's notorious mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group, had shocked many last summer when it began recruiting soldiers from prisons to fight in Ukraine. After dubious results and high death counts among the ranks, that practice was halted in February. But now, sources say the Russian state military has started up its own prison recruitment campaign in a last-ditch effort to send more men to the front and delay a nationwide draft.

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With the personal approval of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Wagner had offered prisoners pardons and payment in exchange for six months of service. As many as 50,000 prisoners took the offer – and by early 2023, three out of four of them had been killed, the Ukrainian military estimates.

By February , Wagner called an end to the prison recruitment campaign. Some observers believe the effort ended because the Wagner group and its owner Yevgeny Prigozhin fell out of favor with Putin after failing to make much progress at the front.

But Putin hasn’t given up the idea of turning to prisoners to supply manpower to the frontline, even if untrained and unmotivated. According to Russian NGO Gulagu.net, which investigates corruption and torture in Russian prisons, the Russia's defense ministry is now recruiting directly from prisons – and their standards are reportedly even looser than Wagner’s.

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