webmaster
© Copyright DEHAI-Eritrea OnLine, 1993-2011
All rights reserved
From: B-Haile (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat Feb 19 2011 - 17:56:36 EST
'One self-exiled presidential challenger, Abdourahman Boreh, who plans to boycott April's election if Guelleh stands, said the US was backing Djibouti's leader for strategic reasons. But that strategy had backfired, he said.'
Gulf Times
Latest Update: Sunday 20/2/2011 February, 2011, 12:54
AM Doha Time
Protests hit Djibouti, opposition leaders held
Reuters/Djibouti
Djibouti detained three leading opposition politicians yesterday, its chief prosecutor said, in a move to quash opposition protests triggered by a wave of political unrest sweeping through the Middle East.
Earlier, anti-government demonstrators clashed for a second day with riot police who used teargas to disperse the crowds demanding the tiny Horn of Africa state's president step down, buoyed by events in Egypt and Tunisia.
State Prosecutor Djama Souleiman said Aden Robleh, Mohamed Daoud and Ismail Guedi had been placed under police custody. Military police patrolled the city's suburbs in heavy numbers.
"These men are not friends of democracy. It is they who are killing democracy," Souleiman said.
Witnesses said the demonstrations in Djibouti's Balala suburb failed to match the intensity of Friday's when at least two people were killed after security forces moved in at dusk to end an authorised demonstration in the city centre.
Interior Minister Yacin Elmi Bouh said one policeman was killed in the fighting and one demonstrator died after being hit by a speeding police car.
The opposition put the number of demonstrators on Friday in their thousands, in a rare outpouring of anger as opposition to President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, grows.
Guelleh, an ally of the US which has established its only military base in Africa in Djibouti, oversaw a change to the constitution last year that allows him to seek a third term in elections this April.
Djibouti is ranked by the UN as one of the world's poorest nations, and unemployment runs at about 60%.
The former French colony, whose port is used by foreign navies patrolling busy shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden to fight piracy, counts Somalia and Eritrea among others as neighbours.
One self-exiled presidential challenger, Abdourahman Boreh, who plans to boycott April's election if Guelleh stands, said the US was backing Djibouti's leader for strategic reasons. But that strategy had backfired, he said.
"He (Guelleh) is ruling by the barrel of the gun. A third term would not be legitimate and the population does not want him," he said by telephone from London.
"The US must listen to the people."
Sixty three-year old Guelleh's People's Rally for Progress party has ruled since independence from France in 1977.
"The people don't want this dictatorial regime," said opposition supporter Hawa Abille. "Our freedom is in our hands."
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=417147&version=1&template_id=39&parent_id=21
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 9.0.872 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3453 - Release Date: 02/19/11 08:34:00
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----