RTC Director

Egypt rejoices at Mubarak departure

Fireworks lit the skies of Cairo and protesters shed tears of joy in Egypt as they celebrated the end of President Hosni Mubarak's 30 years of power.

Mr Mubarak stepped down as leader on Friday, after 18 days of widespread anti-government demonstrations.

The country is now is the hands of the high command of the armed forces, headed by the defence minister.

US President Barack Obama called Egypt an inspiration, but said it must now move to civilian and democratic rule.

Demonstrators in central Cairo continued to celebrate the departure of Mr Mubarak into the night, dancing, chanting slogans and singing songs.

In Cairo's Tahrir Square - the heart of the demonstrations - the news was greeted with jubilation by a crowd of tens of thousands.

A huge poster hanging in the square read, "Breaking news: The people have brought down the regime."

Free drinks

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo said the announcement caught everyone by surprise: all over the city, drivers honked their horns and people fired guns into the air.

"Egypt is free," Mahmoud Elhetta, a protester, shouted.

"We are a great people and we did something great. This is the expected end for every dictator."

The celebrations continued in other cities, with hundreds of protesters in Alexandria waving flags, whistling and dancing.

In the southern city of Assiut, people fired guns in the air and roamed the streets on motorcycles or pick-up trucks, while coffee houses handed out free drinks.

Eygpt's state television, a bastion of support for Mr Mubarak's government, started reporting the celebrations across the country.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei described it as "the greatest day of my life."

Announcing Mr Mubarak's resignation on Friday, Vice-President Omar Suleiman said the president had handed power to the army.

Mr Suleiman said on state TV that the high command of the armed forces had taken over, a body composed of high-ranking generals and headed by Defence Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

"During these very difficult circumstances Egypt is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of president of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country," he said.

"May God help everybody."

After Mubarak's resignation, a military spokesman appeared on state TV and promised the army would not act as a substitute to a "legitimate government acceptable to the people."

He said the military was preparing the next steps needed to achieve the ambitions of "our great nation" and would announce them soon.

US diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks described Field Marshal Tantawi as "aged and change-resistant", but committed to avoiding another war with Israel.

China warning

There was jubilation throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including in Tunisia, where people overthrew their own president last month.

President Obama described the Egyptian people as an inspiration to the world for carrying out a non-violent revolution, adding: "Egypt will never be the same again."

The BBC's Mark Mardell in Washington says that Egypt is a vital ally of America in the region and some are nervous about what change will mean.

But the message from the White House is that demonstrators represented a broad range of people not dominated by a single ideology, and that there is nothing to fear from democracy, our correspondent says.

A senior Israeli official expressed the hope that Mr Mubarak's departure would "bring no change to its peaceful relations with Cairo".

An official Chinese newspaper however has warned in an editorial that the situation could become "nightmarish" if stability is not restored.

"Social stability should be of overriding importance. Any political changes will be meaningless if the country falls prey to chaos in the end," the China Daily newspaper said.

Mr Mubarak has already left Cairo and is in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where he has a residence, officials say.

The anti-government protests that began on 25 January were triggered by widespread unrest in Egypt over unemployment, poverty and corruption.

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by RTC Director

Algeria police deployed ahead of banned democracy rally

Riot police have been deployed in the centre of the Algerian capital, Algiers, ahead of a planned anti-government rally.

The government has banned the protest, but opposition and rights groups say they intend to go ahead with the march.

Algeria - like other countries in the region - has recently witnessed demonstrations for greater freedoms.

On Friday, police stopped people from gathering to celebrate the fall of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.

The BBC's Chloe Arnold in Algiers say the authorities want to avert any popular uprising similar to those in Tunisia and Egypt.

"We are ready for the march," Mohsen Belabes, a spokesman for the small Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD) opposition party, said.

"It's going to be a great day for democracy in Algeria," he told Reuters news agency.

'Armoured vehicles'

Demonstrations are banned in Algeria because of a state of emergency which has been in place since 1992.

A heavy police presence is normal in Algeria but far more officers than usual were in place hours before the start of the protest at 1100 local time (1000 GMT), Reuters reports.

At least 15 police vans, jeeps and buses were lined up at 1 May Square, where the march is due to start, and about the same number on a nearby side-street outside the city's Mustapha hospital.

Small military-style armoured vehicles were also parked at junctions around the city.

Earlier this month, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika reportedly said the country's state of emergency would be lifted in the "very near future".

Mr Bouteflika made the announcement at a meeting with government ministers in the capital Algiers, according to the country's state-run media.

He said protests would be allowed everywhere in the country except in the capital.

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by RTC Director

Will Iran change heavy-handed tactics against pro-reform protests?

In a few breathtaking weeks, the winds of change whipped from Tunisia east to Egypt and Jordan, bringing down two regimes and putting the third on notice that it must make democratic changes.

Now analysts, and a world suddenly focused on the region, are wondering whether those winds will continue blowing east into Iran and bring real democratic change or, instead, amount to only a whisper.

A year and a half after the Iranian regime brutally suppressed the so-called Green Movement, a new test of its openness to reform and patience may come Monday.

The government -- which Friday said the toppling of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt "joyfully" coincided with the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution -- has rounded up activists after Iran's two leading opposition figures called for a rally Monday in support of the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East.

From all appearances, the regime is not about to loosen its grip.

And, unlike Mubarak, it won't be caught off-guard by the zeal of protesters.

The Obama White House and some observers say Iran may not be as confident as it appears about demonstrations.

"They are scared," press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday hours after Mubarak stepped down. "That's why they threatened to kill anybody that tries to do this. That's why they have shut off all measure of communication."

Iranian authorities on Wednesday warned against any attempt by the opposition movement to hold the rally, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. It was unclear whether people will take to the streets, anyway.

"We definitely see them as enemies of the revolution and spies, and we will confront them with force," Revolutionary Guard Cmdr. Hossein Hamedani told IRNA.

The Iranian regime on Friday celebrated the 1979 revolution that dethroned the shah.

Opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Moussavi asked that the rally take place in Tehran's Azadi Square, the site of mass protests by Iran's opposition movement after the disputed 2009 presidential elections.

The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, based in the United States, called Friday for an end to restrictions on the movements of Karroubi and Moussavi.

"The [Iranian] government is doing all it can to intimidate Iranians and deny their right to peaceful assembly," the U.S.-based group said in a statement. "With recent events in Egypt, we see another round of repression in Iran aimed at silencing a people frustrated and dissatisfied by the denial of their human rights."

Observers point to an interesting synergy between protests in Iran and Egypt. They are waiting to see if what's transpired in Egypt will ignite a substantial renewal of protests in Iran.

"I think that's a very substantial possibility," Joshua Muravchik, a fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told CNN Friday. "I think that the Green Movement in part inspired what has happened in Egypt. Obviously, Tunisia is the most recent inspiration."

"In June 2009, when the Green Movement emerged, the internet was full of chatter by Egyptians sort of beating their breast saying, 'Why are we so lame? Look at that: a million Iranians out on the street standing up to their government. Why can't we do that?' "

"And that sort of stuck with them [Egyptians], I believe," said Muravchik. "They kept having these small demonstrations and somehow it finally started to gather momentum and the snowball turned quickly into an avalanche."

"There's no guarantee though that it will work in the reverse direction," he said, referring to Iran.

The disputed 2009 presidential election sparked widespread outrage within the Islamic republic, thrusting the depths of Iranian society into the global spotlight and inciting violence that hadn't been seen in decades.

Iran quelled the demonstrations with a brutal crackdown against the peaceful street protests and the arrests of hundreds of activists, reformists and opposition figures. A diverse opposition movement -- headed by reform candidates Moussavi and Karroubi -- grew into today's Green Movement, protesting for social justice, freedom and democracy.

Experts interviewed by CNN said they believe Jordan, Bahrain and Yemen will likely see significant democratic changes before Iran, and each face different circumstances.

The United States on Friday slammed Iran's "hypocrisy" for arresting opposition figures and the blocking of world media outlets and websites.

"For all of its empty talk about Egypt, the government of Iran should allow the Iranian people the same universal right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate and communicate in Tehran that the people are exercising in Cairo," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Iranian leaders praised the Egyptian and Tunisian uprisings and said they were reminiscent of the 1979 Iranian revolution that toppled the shah and ushered in a hard-line and theocratic Islamic republic.

Abbas Milani, director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University, said the Middle East is at a "crucial tipping point."

If democratic voices and a government prevail in Egypt, he told CNN, Iran will feel an uptick in internal pressure to reform.

But, he and others said, there is a singular difference between Egypt and Iran.

The Egyptian military, while key to power in the country, did not clash with its citizens.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was established after the Islamic Revolution to defend the regime against all threats. The IRGC and its "thugs" have repressed Iranians, Milani said.

The Iranian military is not as well equipped and as politically oriented as the IRGC and played little, if any, part in the 2009 crackdown.

"I think they knew the military could not be depended upon" because they might side with protesters, Milani said of the Iranian government.

The IRGC has "expanded far beyond its original mandate," according to the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. foreign policy research center.

"Today the guard has evolved into a socio-military-political-economic force with influence reaching deep into Iran's power structure," the CFR says, noting that several current and former IRGC members have been appointed to positions as ambassadors, mayors, undersecretaries, provincial governors and cabinet ministers.

Mohamad Bazzi, adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the IRGC will stand behind President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who helped consolidate their influence.

And Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has shown no signs of abandoning Ahmadinejad, Bazzi said.

Milani doesn't expect the Iranian regime to allow large protests, but he believes "major changes" and an "unstoppable democratic wind" eventually will come to the republic. Iran also must address significant economic problems, he added.

"The Iranian society has profoundly changed,"he said. "The regime has not."

Ali Alfoneh, a resident fellow at the conservative but non-partisan American Enterprise Institute, said he doesn't expect to see major reforms in Iran, at least in the short term, but he believes dissidents were heartened by the Egyptian revolution.

"The Green Movement was almost dead and it has become energized," he told CNN Friday.

The reform efforts will succeed if some principal players in the regime become sympathetic, he said. In Egypt, armed forces helped bring about Mubarak's downfall. That won't likely happen in Iran, Alfoneh said.

"Revolutions take defections," Alfoneh said.

Rapid changes in Egypt and the region make it difficult to predict what might happen in Iran, Bazzi said.

"Surviving the last round [of protests] strengthened the regime's hand," he said. The suppression "put fear in the protesters," he said.

To succeed, the Green Movement will have to reach out to opponents and "to the millions who are silent," said Bazzi, a member of the faculty at New York University.

Real change may not occur until the next presidential election, he said.

Still, the Iranian regime is probably somewhat concerned after what happened in Egypt.

"They are crushing anything that moves," Bazzi said.

Isobel Coleman, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council for Foreign Relations, said one big difference between Iran and Egypt are their economies. Iran has a lot of oil, and it can afford to be "more reactionary and revolutionary."

Meanwhile, the Obama administration will continue to pressure Iran over its nuclear program, human rights and influence with militant organizations that threaten Israel, among other governments.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Friday questioned the White House's handling of Iran.

"Media: ask "Will Obama Admin exert as much 'constructive' pressure on Iranian govt to change & allow freedom -- as they just did for Egypt?," she wrote on her Twitter account.

As the world turns its attention to Iran, especially in the coming days, questions remain on whether governments can change and still hold on to power.

Milani offered his opinion.

"The experience of the last days shows it is almost impossible to ask for democracy and not ask for a regime change," he said.

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by RTC Director

Rights groups: prominent Chinese activist and wife beaten

One of China's most prominent activists and his wife are under house arrest and have been beaten by authorities, two human rights groups, China Aid and Chinese Human Rights Defenders said Friday.

In a home video released Wednesday by U.S.-based rights group China Aid, Chen Guangcheng described the dire and frustrating conditions of his house arrest, since he was released from jail in September. He said police have threatened to throw him back in jail without recourse.

"I've come out of a small jail and entered a bigger one (house arrest)," Chen, 39, said in the video, wearing sunglasses and a black jacket. "Those people stand at the four corners of my house and spy on my family and monitor what we do ... floodlights have been installed around my house and surveillance cameras."

Vehicles surround his home, and his land line and mobile phone have been cut off. Chen said anyone in the community who attempts to help him is threatened by the authorities.

"My house is basically under surveillance 24 hours a day and we can't get out of the house and the same thing happens to my wife," described Chen. "Only my mother can go out to get something for us to eat and stay alive."

On Friday, the Hong Kong-based China Human Rights Defenders reported Chen and his wife Yuan Weijin were severely beaten after the public release of the video showing Chen discussing his house arrest at home.

"According to our source, the beating was not light but also was not life threatening," Wang Songlian of China Human Rights Defenders told CNN in a phone interview.

Calls to local authorities went unanswered.

Chen and his wife have not been allowed to visit a hospital or see a doctor, the organization said. Cheng has been ill for several months now with an intestinal infection and he has not been able to seek medical attention, according to CHRD.

"What they do now is is what I call thuggery," Chen said in the video. "First they provoke you through various means and stir up trouble. After all, no matter how they beat me, the judicial organs will turn a deaf ear since it is done on the order of the Party Committee."

Chen is a well-known activist in China.

In 1998, he led farmers in Yinan County, where his hometown is located, to protest against a river-polluting paper factory and persuaded an international donor to fund a deep well for drinking water as alternative to the polluted river water.

He later set up a center for rights of the handicapped and filed a case against a public transport company in Beijing for refusing to honor the law providing free rides to them.

Chen brought class-action lawsuits on behalf of families impacted by China's enforcement of family-planning laws, which limit couples to one child.

After his years of activism, the People's Court of Yinan County sentenced Chen to four years and three months in prison in August 2006 on charges of "willfully damaging property" and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic."

Chen's supporters called the charges preposterous.

Last month, in the lead up to Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the release of Chen, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, along with other political prisoners who are "enduring enforced disappearances."

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by RTC Director