Tens of thousands took to the streets Feb. 25 in Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain to demand political reforms. In Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, and the southern port of Aden, thousands marched to demand that President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down. Daily clashes have killed 15 people and wounded scores in Yemen this month. In Tunis, protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi’s transitional government in the biggest march since last month’s ouster of president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. In Bahrain’s capital, Manama, the anti-regime campaign entered its 12th day with a rally to honor seven victims of a deadly police crackdown last week. Thousands also rallied in Jordan’s capital, Amman, urging greater political freedoms, and to denounce violence in which eight were injured at a rally last week. (RFE/RL, Feb. 25)
In Egypt, thousands again filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square to celebrate the success of their revolution and call for a new government purged of old regime remnants. Protesters demanded the replacement of the government of Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq, which even after a reshuffle earlier this week still has a number of key postsāincluding the foreign and defense ministriesāin the hands of veterans of the Hosni Mubarak regime. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ordered Shafiq’s government to “run the affairs of the country on a temporary basis for six months or until the end of parliamentary and presidential elections.” (AFP, Feb. 25)
See our last post on the new Arab revolutions.
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