A R A B I C A ???????
Syria: Controlling The Message
*A video clip is circulating of two funeral processions in the eastern Syrian desert town of Deir Azour one day after security forces fired on protesters and killed two people, a 16-year-old and 17-year-old boys. The group broke out into chants of “the people want the regime to fall” and “Syria: free, free, free and Bashar: leave, leave, leave.”
*Syrian state television, meanwhile, is claiming that 80 police officers were killed “at the hands of armed groups” in the northern town of Jisr al-Shughur. One of the main organizers of the uprising, the Syrian Revolution facebook group, responds: “The official Syrian media is spreading lies so they can go in and massacre unarmed civilians. We hold the regime responsible for every drop of blood spilled.”
Saudi Arabia: Controlling Behavior
*Police in the Saudi city of Mecca arrested 43 members of “the third sex,” an Arabic euphemism for transvestites, who were having a party in the Islamic holy city. The police, accompanied by the fundamentalist religious police, raided the underground party and will take “special measures” against those they arrested. Officials did not elaborate on the measures.
Egypt: Controlling Assets
*Egyptian officials investigating associates of ex-President Hosni Mubarak found $5 million in a European bank account belonging to former Housing Minister Mohammad Suleiman. Judicial officials also found an apartment in Paris in Suleiman’s name. The former minister admitted to possessing the assets, saying he forgot to mention them during an initial round of questioning with authorities.
Egypt: Curfew Lifted
*Egypt announced that on June 15th, it will lift a nighttime curfew that has been in place since January 28th. When the curfew was imposed at the beginning of the revolution, it was in effect from 3pm to 8am. As the security situation improved, the curfew hours were gradually reduced to the current 2am to 5am.
Tunisia: Anyone’s Charade
*Tunisia’s former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali says he is tired of being a scapegoat and that his upcoming trial is a “charade.”
June 6, 2011
photo credit: illustir
