06_CAR

Texte d’analyse : La liberté de pensée contre la liberté de penser (décembre 2007)

Les musulmans du monde entier ont continué à se mobiliser contre la publication, dans la presse européenne, de caricatures de Mahomet, en dépit d'appels au calme et à la réconciliation. Le président iranien a ordonné la rupture des liens économiques.

[ats] - A Damas, plusieurs milliers de manifestants ont lapidé, incendié et saccagé les ambassades du Danemark et de la Norvège pour protester contre la publication des caricatures dans un journal danois en septembre. Les dessins avaient ensuite été repris par un journal norvégien en janvier, suivi de plusieurs autres en Europe.

Les forces anti-émeutes syriennes ont lancé des gaz lacrymogènes contre les manifestants. Une dizaine d'entre eux ont été hospitalisés. Peu après l'incendie de sa représentation, le gouvernement danois a appelé ses ressortissants à quitter immédiatement la Syrie.

Toujours au Moyen-Orient, le président ultraconservateur iranien Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a ordonné la rupture des contrats économiques de l'Iran avec le Danemark et les autres pays où ont été publiées les caricatures.

A Nazareth, dans le nord d'Israël, plusieurs milliers de manifestants se sont rassemblés dans la vieille ville à l'appel du Mouvement islamiste des arabes israéliens pour scander des slogans tels que: "S'attaquer au Prophète, c'est s'attaquer à tous les Musulmans du monde!"

Des douzaines de jeunes palestiniens ont jeté des pierres contre le quartier général de l'Union européenne à Gaza, blessant deux policiers palestiniens. Une manifestation a également eu lieu à Hébron, en Cisjordanie, devant le siège d'une ONG d'observateurs internationaux. Des drapeaux danois ont été brûlés.

Au Danemark, quelques centaines de personnes de l'extrême droite et de l'extrême gauche, la seconde qualifiant la première de raciste, ont manifesté à Hilleroed, au nord-ouest de Copenhague, à quelques heures d'intervalle. La police s'est mobilisée pour éviter des heurts entre les deux cortèges.

Face à cette effervescence, les autorités morales, religieuses et politiques ont multiplié les appels au calme et au dialogue, sans pour l'instant sembler parvenir à désamorcer la situation. Le Vatican s'est ainsi exprimé pour la première fois, estimant que la liberté d'expression n'autorisait pas les offenses aux convictions religieuses.

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Hardline Muslims barged into a high-rise building housing the Danish Embassy on Friday to protest the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, and then tore down and burned the country's white and red flag.

The rowdy protest by about 70 people was one of the first in the world's most populous Muslim country against the 12 cartoons, which first appeared in September in a Danish newspaper. They were reprinted in several other European newspapers this week in a gesture of press freedom.

"We are not terrorists, we are not anarchists but we are against those people who blaspheme Islam," one of the protesters shouted outside the building, which also houses several other foreign missions in Jakarta.

They pelted the building with eggs, pushed their way past security guards and milled around in the lobby before leaving of their own accord after five minutes. They then tore the embassy's flag down from outside the building and lit it on fire on the pavement.

The demonstrators also stopped outside an Indonesian newspaper which briefly ran one of the cartoons on its website Thursday to illustrate its story on the uproar generated by them elsewhere in the Muslim world.

Editors of Rakyat Merdeka met some of the protesters, but it was not known what they told them.

Islamic tradition bars any depiction of the prophet, favourable or otherwise, to prevent idolatry. The drawings have prompted boycotts of Danish goods, bomb threats and demonstrations against Danish facilities in Muslim countries.

Indonesia's government reiterated earlier criticism of the paper's decision to publish.

"This is about insensitivity and a trend toward Islamaphobia," said foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin. "As a democratic country we are very aware of press freedom, but we also believe it should not be used to slander, or defame sacred religious symbols."

GAZA CITY (AP) - Hundreds of Palestinians marched through the streets of Gaza City on Saturday, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags to protest cartoons deemed insulting to the Prophet Muhammad.

The cartoons have caused a furor across the Muslim world, in part because Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of Islam's holiest figure. Aggravating the affront was one caricature of Muhammad wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse.

The cartoons were first published in Denmark, and then in newspapers elsewhere in Europe in a show of solidarity with press freedoms.

About two dozen protesters stormed the German cultural centre Saturday morning, smashing windows, breaking doors and burning the German flag. Down the street, about 30 Palestinians threw stones at the European Commission building, and replaced the EU flag with a Palestinian flag, before police brought them under control.

About 50 schoolchildren and teenagers gathered at one corner of the street shortly after to try to resume the attacks on the two buildings, but Palestinian riot police, armed with batons, pushed them back. The youths threw stones at the police, then fled.

Later in the day, about 400 protesters marched to the European Commission building, accompanied by a loudspeaker car that blared, "Insulting the prophet means insulting every Muslim," and urged merchants to boycott Danish products: "With our blood and souls we defend you, O Prophet." Protesters also set fire to a Danish flag.

Police set up a cordon at the building to prevent stone-throwing, but protesters heeded organizers' appeals and didn't attack the building. Most of the demonstrators were merchants who called for a boycott of European goods, and many carried small books of the Quran, the Islamic holy book.

In Brussels on Saturday, the European Union called on the Palestinian Authority to protect EU buildings from attack.

"The Commission expects the Palestinian authorities to ensure that European premises are properly protected," the EU said. "The Commission deeply regrets that Europeans who are working to bring a better life to Palestinians should be the subject of such attacks."

Embassies set ablaze over caricature

Protests over editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad turned violent in the Syrian capital on Saturday as demonstrators set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies.

Some of the thousands of people who had rallied outside the buildings stormed inside, angry over the satirical depictions of the Prophet that appeared in a Danish newspaper.

Later, protesters also tried to storm the French Embassy in Damascus, but riot police held them back by spraying them with water.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators at the other sites, but they managed to break through the barriers.

Islamic law, based on clerics' interpretation of the Qur'an, forbids any depictions of Islam's holiest figure to prevent idolatry.

The cartoons were originally published in Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in September, but publications in Norway, France and Germany have since reprinted some of them to show solidarity over freedom of speech issues.

The Danish newspaper published an apology for the cartoons on Jan. 30. The drawings "were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish law, but they have indisputably offended many Muslims for which we apologize," the daily said.

Three of the 12 drawings were reprinted in a Jordanian newspaper on Thursday, alongside an editorial questioning whether the angry reaction to them in the Muslim world was justified.

The editor who wrote the editorial, Jihad Momani, was fired on Friday and, despite a letter of apology, arrested Saturday on charges of blasphemy, according to Jordan's state prosecutor.

The cartoons, including one depicting Muhammad with a turban-shaped bomb on his head, have sparked protests across the Middle East.

In Gaza City, some 400 demonstrators hurled stones at a European Commission building and stormed a German cultural centre, smashing windows and doors. Riot police were brought in to disperse the crowds.

European media publish anti-Muslim cartoons: An ugly and calculated provocation

The World Socialist Web Site unequivocally condemns the publication by a series of European newspapers of defamatory cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist and killer. These crude caricatures, intended to insult and incite Muslim sensibilities, are a political provocation. Their publication, initially by a right-wing Danish newspaper with historical ties to German and Italian fascism, was calculated to fuel anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment.

The decision of the right-wing Danish government to defend the newspaper that initially published the cartoons, and of newspapers in Norway, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Iceland and Hungary, both conservative and liberal, to reprint them has nothing to do with freedom of the press or the defense of secularism. Such claims make a mockery of these democratic principles.

The promulgation of such bigoted filth is, rather, bound up with a shift by the European ruling elites to line up more squarely behind the neo-colonial interventions of US imperialism in the Middle East and Central Asia. It is no accident that it occurs in the midst of the ongoing slaughter in Iraq, new threats against the Palestinian masses, and the preparations to launch sanctions, and eventual military aggression, against Iran.

It is, moreover, a continuation and escalation of a deliberate policy in Europe, spearheaded by the political right and aided and abetted by the nominal “left” parties, to demonize the growing Muslim population, isolate it, and use it as a scapegoat for the growing social misery affecting broad layers of the working class.

In the name of the fight against terrorism, governments throughout Europe are implementing repressive measures that target, in the first instance, Muslim and other immigrant populations, while preparing the ground for the destruction of the democratic rights of the working class as a whole. These police state preparations go hand in hand with an offensive against the jobs, wages and living standards of working people and an ever-greater concentration of wealth in the coffers of a wealthy and privileged minority at the top.

One does not have to uphold Islam, or any other religion, to sympathize with the indignation of Muslims around the world who have expressed their outrage at the racist drawings flung in their face by media outlets that claim to be defending Western secularist values against the dark hordes from the East.

On Friday, protests against the publication of the cartoons spread across the Middle East, northern Africa and Asia, with thousands demonstrating in Iraq, tens of thousands in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and some 50,000 filling a square in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Muslims also protested in Britain and Turkey.

The events that have led up to the present confrontation make it clear that the publication of the cartoons was a political provocation. The Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, which first published twelve caricatures of Mohammad on September 30, supports the right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen—a government that includes in its coalition a rabidly anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim party.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Jyllands-Posten was infamous for its affinity for Italian fascism and the German Nazi dictatorship. In 1933, it argued for the introduction of a dictatorship in Denmark.

Last September, the newspaper asked forty cartoonists to draw images of the Prophet Muhammad, something that is proscribed by Islamic law as blasphemous. Spelling out the provocative and inflammatory aim of this exercise, the chief editor said its purpose was “to examine whether people would succumb to self-censorship, as we have seen in other cases when it comes to Muslim issues.”

The newspaper proceeded to publish twelve drawings. These included a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban in the shape of a smoking bomb, another with Muhammad on a cloud in heaven telling an approaching line of suicide bombers that he had run out of virgins with which to reward them, and a third depicting the prophet grinning wildly, with a knife in his hand and flanked by heavily-veiled women.

In October, Prime Minister Rasmussen refused to meet with the ambassadors of eleven predominantly Muslim countries who had requested a meeting to discuss their objections to the cartoons. Setting the tone for the ensuing developments, Rasmussen declared that the cartoons were a legitimate exercise in press freedom, and implied that there was nothing to discuss.

The affront was stepped up when a Norwegian magazine published the drawings in January. Denmark continued to ignore protests by Danish Muslim groups and other Muslim organizations until the end of January, when Saudi Arabia and Syria recalled their ambassadors from Denmark and the Saudi regime initiated a consumer boycott of Danish goods.

Only when the boycott spread and the Danish company Arla Foods, the second largest dairy producer in Europe, announced that its Middle Eastern sales had completely dried up, did the Danish government and Jyllands-Posten issue statements of regret, while defending the decision to publish the cartoons.

This week the simmering controversy exploded when the French newspaper France Soir republished the cartoons. Defending its printing of the drawings in an editorial on Thursday, the newspaper’s editor wrote: “Enough lessons from these reactionary bigots.”

Other newspapers in France, including the liberal Libération, followed suit, printing some or all of the ugly cartoons. Le Monde, for its part, ran a sketch of a man, presumably Mohammad, made up of sentences reading, “I must not draw Muhammad.”

The German newspapers Die Welt, Die Tageszeitung, Tagesspiegel and Berliner Zeitung, the Dutch papers Volksrant, NRC Handelsblad and Elsevier, Italy’s La Stampa and Corriere della Sera, Spain’s El Periodico and two Dutch-language newspapers in Belgium were among those that published some or all of the cartoons over the past several days.

In Britain, the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 all showed some of the cartoons on television news broadcasts.

An indication of the political forces and motives behind the deluge of racist caricatures was the decision of Geert Wilders, a member of the Dutch parliament who has proposed a law that would ban women from wearing burqas, to post the cartoons on his web site “as a token of support to the Danish cartoonists and to stand up for free speech.”

Among those European politicians and government officials who have sprung to the defense of the Danish government and the media outlets that published the images is French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. With quintessential cynicism, the man who helped incite last year’s anti-police riots in the largely Muslim immigrant suburbs of France by referring to their inhabitants as “scum” and “gangrene” has now adopted the mantle of press freedom to support yet another attack on Muslims.

The absurd attempt to give this anti-democratic assault a democratic veneer is exemplified by Sarkozy, who authored the current state of emergency that has gutted civil liberties in France. The French government of Sarkozy and President Jacques Chirac set the precedent for such anti-Muslim attacks by imposing—with the support of the Socialist and Communist parties and the “far left” Lutte Ouvrière (Workers Struggle)—a ban on Muslim girls wearing head scarves in the public schools. This overt attack on religious freedom in general and the rights of Muslims in particular was likewise passed off as a defense of secularism and the “enlightened” values of the French Republic.

The real content of the supposed crusade for secularism and press freedom was shown in the first wave of mass deportations of French Muslims under a law championed by Sarkozy in the aftermath of last year’s riots. The law provides for the summary deportation of all foreigners who are indicted—not convicted—of crimes. Hundreds of youth were arrested by Sarkozy’s riot police during the disturbances, and these are now threatened with being shipped out of the country.

The new Grand Coalition government headed by Angela Merkel has likewise called for stronger measures to evict foreigners from German soil.

The foreign policy interests behind the anti-Muslim attack were indicated by the Netherlands’ announcement of plans to send additional troops to help police Afghanistan for US imperialism.

On Friday, the US State Department issued a statement opposing the publication of the cartoons. “These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims,” said a department spokesman, adding, “We fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression, but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable.”

This intervention is entirely hypocritical, coming from a government that has sought repeatedly to muzzle the American press and has waged a brutal attack on Muslims within the US. The Bush administration has, in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, spearheaded the assault on Muslims around the world, using the so-called “war on terrorism” as the pretext.

Washington’s “respect” for the beliefs of Muslims was exposed before the eyes of the world in the pictures of sadistic abuse of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where military and intelligence officials employed tactics designed to exploit Muslim beliefs and sensibilities.

The official US response to the publication of the cartoons is largely motivated by immediate concerns over the impact the provocation could have on Washington’s imperialist operations in Iraq, Iran and elsewhere.

Some who defend the publication of the cartoons claim they are examples of satire—as though crude appeals to the basest and most bigoted impulses can be equated with genuine social or cultural criticism. In fact, the images plastered on the pages of European newspapers and broadcast on television news programs have far more in common with the type of anti-Semitic caricatures made infamous by the Nazis than they do with satire.

That such outpourings can have anything to do with a struggle for secularism in opposition to religious belief is absurd. A genuine critique of religion can be conducted only on the highest intellectual level, appealing to science and reason—not ignorance and fear.

The current episode reveals the enormous dangers facing the working class from the visible decomposition of democracy in all of the capitalist countries. The promotion of anti-Muslim chauvinism, and all forms of communalist and nationalist poison, is the expression of a social system that is mired in insoluble crisis and incapable of meeting the most basic needs of the broad masses of the people.

The only antidote to such backward and reactionary politics is the development of a united movement of workers of all countries, religions and nationalities in opposition to war and in defense of democratic rights against the capitalist ruling elites and the system they uphold. The program upon which such a struggle must be based is socialist internationalism.

BEYROUTH - Le ministre libanais de l'intérieur Hassan Sabeh a présenté sa démission à la suite des émeutes qui se sont déroulées à Beyrouth contre les caricatures de Mahomet. Le consulat danois a été incendié au cours de ces incidents, qui ont coûté la vie à une personne.

"A la suite des critiques et au vu de la situation, j'ai présenté ma démission du gouvernement", a déclaré M. Sabeh à la presse après avoir quitté le Conseil des ministres en réunion extraordinaire. Il a précisé avoir refusé de donner l'ordre d'ouvrir le feu sur les manifestants "car il refuse d'être responsable d'un carnage".

"Malgré l'intervention de plus d'un millier de membres des forces de l'ordre, nous n'avons pas pu imposer l'ordre en raison de la détermination des manifestants qui étaient plusieurs milliers", a-t-il indiqué.

Des membres de la coalition gouvernementale, notamment le parti chrétien des Forces Libanaises (FL), avait appelé à la démission de M. Sabeh. L'opposition parlementaire, notamment le courant du chef chrétien Michel Aoun, avait également appelé à la démission du ministre de l'intérieur.

Une manifestation organisée pour protester contre la publication en Europe de caricatures du prophète Mahomet a tourné à l'émeute dimanche à Beyrouth, où le consulat de Danemark a été incendié. Un manifestant, prisonnier des flammes, s'est tué en se jetant du troisième étage du consulat.

Des affrontements entre la police et des manifestants ont en outre fait une trentaine de blessés. La majorité parlementaire antisyrienne au Liban a montré du doigt la Syrie et le premier ministre libanais Fouad Siniora a indiqué qu'une centaine de ressortissants syriens et palestiniens avaient été arrêtés à la suite des émeutes

BEYROUTH (Reuters) - Le monde arabo-musulman a manifesté ce week-end, de manière parfois violente, son indignation dans l'affaire des caricatures de Mahomet publiées dans la presse danoise, puis reprises par solidarité dans plusieurs journaux occidentaux, essentiellement européens.
Dimanche, une foule en colère a incendié le consulat du Danemark à Beyrouth. Les ambassades danoise et norvégienne avaient subi le même sort la veille à Damas.
Le ministre libanais de l'Intérieur, Hassan al Sabaa, a présenté sa démission à l'occasion d'un Conseil des ministres extraordinaire, convoqué après les incidents de la journée.
En Syrie, les autorités ont renforcé la sécurité dimanche autour des chancelleries occidentales, les manifestants de la veille ayant également endommagé l'ambassade de Suède et tenté de prendre d'assaut la mission diplomatique française, défendue par un cordon de policiers anti-émeutes.
Accusant Damas d'avoir failli à son devoir de protection de la mission norvégienne, Oslo a annoncé dimanche son intention de porter plainte auprès des Nations unies.
Le Danemark est dans l'oeil du cyclone depuis la publication en septembre, dans l'un de ses quotidiens à gros tirage, de 12 dessins représentant le prophète des musulmans. Les caricatures ont depuis été reprises dans les presses bulgare, française, allemande, italienne, jordanienne, espagnole, suisse, hongroise, néo-zélandaise, norvégienne et polonaise.
"Le gouvernement danois exhorte tous les dirigeants, politiques et religieux, dans tous les pays concernés, à appeler leurs populations à conserver leur calme et à s'abstenir de toute violence", a déclaré le ministre danois des Affaires étrangères, Per Stig Moeller.
Ses services ont invité instamment les Danois à quitter ou à éviter le Liban, où la police a fait usage de grenades lacrymogènes et de canons à eau pour disperser une foule d'environ 20.000 personnes qui marchaient sur le consulat du Danemark, dont le personnel avait été évacué la veille.
Un manifestant, prisonnier des flammes, s'est tué en se jetant du troisième étage du consulat, a annoncé à Reuters un responsable des services de sécurité. Trois véhicules de pompiers qui tentaient d'éteindre les flammes ont été attaqués. Les forces de l'ordre ont procédé à 174 arrestations. Il s'agit de 76 Syriens, 38 Libanais, 35 Palestiniens et 25 bédouins apatrides, a précisé un agent.
Des manifestations se sont en outre déroulées sans incidents à Paris, Bruxelles et New York.
L'OCI CONDAMNE LES VIOLENCES
"La violence, en particulier l'incendie des représentations danoises à l'étranger, est absolument scandaleuse", a déclaré Jack Straw, chef de la diplomatie Britannique. La France a quant à elle renforcé le niveau d'alerte de ses ambassades en Syrie et au Liban et réitéré ses consignes de prudence auprès de ses ressortissants.
Le Premier ministre libanais, Fouad Siniora, a lancé un appel au calme en faisant valoir que ces violences risquaient de ternir l'image de l'islam dans le monde.
"Cela n'a rien à voir du tout avec l'islam", a-t-il dit sur la chaîne de télévision privée Future. "La déstabilisation de la sécurité et le vandalisme donnent une mauvaise image de l'islam. On ne peut pas défendre ainsi le prophète Mahomet."
En Irak où des activistes ont juré de s'attaquer au contingent danois, le ministère des Transports a décidé de geler tous les contrats passés avec le Danemark et la Norvège. Une patrouille danoise a été prise pour cible, dimanche dans le pays, et l'armée estime que l'incident n'est peut-être pas étranger à la polémique sur les caricatures.
L'Iran a décidé de revoir ses relations commerciales avec les pays dont la presse a publié les caricatures incriminées et a rappelé son ambassadeur à Copenhague.
Mais des organisations musulmanes modérées sont sorties de leur silence pour souligner le risque de voir des extrémistes "prendre en otage" cette affaire.
Au Liban, la principale autorité religieuse de l'islam sunnite, Mohamed Rachid Kabani, a estimé qu'il fallait faire preuve de prudence en la matière. "Cela a valeur de test pour nous. Que la manifestation de notre condamnation soit conforme aux valeurs de l'islam", a-t-il dit.
L'Organisation de la conférence islamique, qui regroupe 57 pays musulmans, a condamné l'action des islamistes qui brûlent les locaux diplomatiques de pays dont la presse a reproduit des caricatures de Mahomet.
"Les réactions excessives allant au-delà des actes démocratiques pacifiques sont dangereuses et portent atteinte aux efforts visant à défendre la cause légitime du monde musulman", a fait savoir l'OCI, dont le siège est à Djeddah.
L'Union européenne a estimé qu'elle n'avait pas à présenter d'excuses, tandis que la ministre suédoise des Affaires étrangères, Laila Freivalds, évoquait d'autres motifs que les caricatures pour expliquer les débordements.
"Tous les pays impliqués ont des problèmes domestiques. La plupart d'entre eux sont des dictatures qui subissent les pressions de la communauté internationale (...) Dans cette situation, il peut être bon pour eux de détourner l'attention de certains problèmes et de la diriger vers autre chose", a-t-elle déclaré.

GAZA, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Palestinian demonstrators hurled stones at European Union offices in the Gaza Strip on Monday and pulled down the EU flag in protest over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad first printed in European newspapers.
Thrusting their fists into the air, the crowd chanted: "Down with Denmark. Down with Norway. With our blood we will redeem our Prophet."
Palestinian riot police surrounded the EU building to prevent the crowd of several dozen students from entering.
Security forces fired into the air as one protester pulled the EU flag down. Some demonstrators threw stones at the building.
A wave of anger has swept the Muslim world over the publication of the cartoons, one of which shows the Prophet Mohammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.
The cartoons were first printed in Denmark. The cartoons have since been reprinted in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and the United States.
On Sunday, Muslim protesters set ablaze the Danish consulate in Beirut. Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday.

Mahomet: des manifestants incendient le consulat danois à Beyrouth

BEYROUTH - Les protestations de musulmans contre la publication en Europe de caricatures de Mahomet se sont étendues au Liban, où des manifestants ont incendié le consulat du Danemark. Prisonnier des flammes, un des manifestants s'est tué en se jetant du troisième étage du bâtiment.

Vivement mis en cause à la suite de ces émeutes, le ministre libanais de l'intérieur Hassan Sabeh a présenté sa démission. Il a précisé avoir refusé de donner l'ordre d'ouvrir le feu sur les manifestants "car il refuse d'être responsable d'un carnage".

Des manifestants brandissant des drapeaux noirs et verts ont incendié le consulat, lapidé des églises et des commerces dans le quartier chrétien d'Achrafiyé, à Beyrouth. Quelques milliers de personnes ont également incendié des voitures de police et de pompiers dans ce quartier. Vingt-huit personnes ont été blessées.

Selon le premier ministre libanais, Fouad Siniora, une centaine de Palestiniens et de Syriens ont été arrêtés.

Samedi, les bâtiments des ambassades du Danemark et de la Norvège à Damas ont été incendiés. Le Danemark a appelé ses ressortissants à quitter le Liban, alors que Danois et Norvégiens s'apprêtaient à faire de même en Syrie, conformément à l'appel lancé la veille par leurs gouvernements.

Face à cette flambée de violences, des autorités morales, religieuses et politiques ont multiplié les appels au calme et au dialogue de par le monde.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Muslim rage over caricatures of the prophet Muhammad grew increasingly violent Sunday as thousands of rampaging protesters - undaunted by tear gas and water cannons - torched the Danish mission and ransacked a Christian neighborhood. At least one person reportedly died and about 200 were detained, officials said.

Muslim clerics denounced the violence, with some wading into the mobs trying to stop them. Copenhagen ordered Danes to leave the country or stay indoors in the second day of attacks on its diplomatic outposts in the Middle East.

In Beirut, a day after violent protests in neighboring Syria, the crowd broke through a cordon of troops and police that had encircled the embassy. Security forces fired tear gas and loosed their weapons into the air to stop the onslaught.

The protesters, armed with stones and sticks, damaged police and fire vehicles and threw stones at a Maronite Catholic church in the wealthy Ashrafieh area - a Christian neighborhood where the Danish Embassy is located.

Flames and smoke billowed from the 10-story building, which also houses the Austrian Embassy and the residence of Slovakia's consul. Protesters waved green and black Islamic flags from broken windows and tossed papers and filing cabinets outside.

Witnesses said one protester, apparently overcome by smoke, jumped from a window and was rushed to the hospital. Security officials said he died.

Thirty people were injured, half of them members of the security forces, officials said, making it the most violent in a string of demonstrations across the Muslim world. All the injuries were from beatings and stones.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said before meeting with top Islamic leaders that about 200 people were detained, and police said they included 76 Syrians, 35 Palestinians and 38 Lebanese.

The first apparent victim of the political fallout from the violence was Interior Minister Hassan Sabei, who submitted his resignation. It was not immediately clear if the resignation was accepted.

``Things got out of hand when elements that had infiltrated into the ranks of the demonstrators broke through security shields,'' he said. ``The one remaining option was an order to shoot, but I was not prepared to order the troops to shoot Lebanese citizens.''

Sabei, like other Lebanese politicians and Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, suggested Islamic radicals had fanned the anger.

Kabbani said outsiders among the protesters were trying to ``distort the image of Islam.''

The United States accused the Syrian government of backing the protests in Lebanon and Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement that the resentment over the caricatures ``cannot justify violence, least of all when directed at people who have no responsibility for, or control over, the publications in question.''

The Danish Foreign Ministry urged Danes to leave Lebanon. The violence Saturday in Damascus prompted a similar warning.

``The government has no intention to insult Muslims,'' Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said on public radio in Copenhagen. ``We are trying to explain to everyone that enough is enough.''

The Syrian state-run daily newspaper Al-Thawra said Denmark was to blame because its government had not apologized for the September publication of the caricatures in Jyllands-Posten.

The drawings - including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb with a burning fuse - have since been republished in several European and New Zealand newspapers as a statement on behalf of a free press.

In Malaysia, an editor at a small newspaper on remote Borneo Island resigned for reprinting the caricatures and, in a statement Monday, the newspaper apologized and expressed ``profound regret over the unauthorized publication.'' The Sunday Tribune was the only newspaper in mainly Muslim Malaysia to reprint any of the caricatures, and a government official warned that the newspaper may lose its license if it fails to give a satisfactory explanation.

Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he disapproves of the caricatures, but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country's independent press.

Thousands also took to the streets elsewhere in the Muslim world and parts of Europe, including some 3,000 Afghans who burned a Danish flag and demanding that the editors at Jyllands-Posten be prosecuted for blasphemy.

``God instructs us to forgive. Therefore, we - as much as we condemn it strongly - must stay above this dispute and not bring ourselves ... to equating ourselves to those who have published the cartoons,'' he said on CNN's ``Late Edition.''

In Indonesia, about 300 protesters demonstrated outside the Danish Embassy on Monday, far fewer than the thousands expected. It was the second protest in the world's most populous Muslim nation against the cartoons.

About 300 Muslims also demonstrated peacefully outside the Danish Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand.

Stepping up the pressure, the Islamic Army in Iraq, a key group in the insurgency fighting U.S.-led and Iraqi forces, posted a second Internet statement Sunday calling for violence against citizens of countries where the caricatures have been published.

A Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak to the press, said Danish diplomats had evacuated the mission in Beirut two days earlier, anticipating the protests.

The protesters, who came in buses from all over Lebanon, waved flags and banners.

``There is no god but God and Muhammad is the messenger of God!'' they shouted as they pushed against riot police.

``Regretfully, the march did more harm to the prophet than it did good,'' said Sunni Sheik Ibrahim Ibrahim, who was in the crowd. He said he and others tried to stop the mob, but ``we got stones and insults.''

European leaders also urged calm and respect - both for religion and freedom of the press.

``The violence now, particularly the burning of Danish missions abroad, is absolutely outrageous and totally unjustified, and what we want to see is this matter being calmed down,'' British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in London, adding that the media must exercise its free speech privilege responsibly.

Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, issued an edict banning violence, saying it ``harms Islam and Prophet Muhammad the same as the others (the publishers of the cartoons) did.''

But Iran's Foreign Ministry announced Tehran had recalled its ambassador to Denmark, joining Syria, Saudi Arabia and Libya in pulling diplomatic representatives.

Iraqi Transport Minister Salam al-Maliki also said his country would cancel its contracts with Danish firms and reject reconstruction money from Copenhagen.

Deux autres personnes ont été tuées aujourd'hui près de Kaboul, portant à trois morts le bilan des manifestations qui ont eu lieu en Afghanistan pour protester contre la publication en Europe de caricatures du prophète musulman Mahomet.

Hier, une personne est morte et au moins cinq personnes ont été blessées par balles lors d'une manifestation à Mihtarlam, capitale de la province de Laghman, où un millier de personnes ont réclamé la fermeture de l'ambassade du Danemark, où les dessins ont été publiés pour la première fois en septembre.

Par ailleurs, un nouveau bilan a été établi après les émeutes survenues hier dans un quartier chrétien de Beyrouth (Liban) lors d'une manifestation. Une personne est morte et une cinquantaine de blessés ont été comptabilisés. Un des manifestants qui ont mis le feu à l'immeuble qui abrite le consulat danois, dans le quartier d'Achrafiyé, Khodr Hajj, a en effet été trouvé mort par asphyxie dans la cage d'escalier de l'immeuble.

Manifestations meurtrières contre les caricatures

Les manifestations continuent après la publication de caricatures de Mahomet [Keystone]

Le vent de colère lié à la publication de caricatures du prophète Mahomet continue de souffler dans le monde malgré les appels au calme. En Afghanistan où quatre manifestants ont été tués.

Un groupe de manifestants a brièvement pénétré lundi soir dans l'enceinte de l'ambassade du Danemark à Téhéran alors que la police a tiré des gaz lacrymogènes.

La liste des pays musulmans touchés par ces manifestations de colère s'est allongée: Afghanistan, Iran, Inde, Thaïlande, Indonésie, Irak, Territoires palestiniens, et même Somalie ont rejoint la Syrie et le Liban.

Les protestations les plus violentes ont eu lieu lundi en Afghanistan avec un bilan total de quatre morts et une vingtaine de blessés, domment en Europe.

Protestations en Asie

En Indonésie, premier pays musulman du monde, la police a tiré des coups de semonce à Surabaya, deuxième ville du pays, pour disperser des manifestants qui ont jeté des pierres sur le consulat du Danemark avant de se diriger vers celui des Etats-Unis. D'autres manifestations ont eu lieu à Djakarta, et dans deux villes où des drapeaux danois ont été brûlés.

En Inde, la police anti-émeute a fait usage de gaz lacrymogène et canons à eau à New Delhi en direction des centaines d'étudiants qui mettaient le feu à des drapeaux danois. Et à Srinagar (Jammu-et-Cachemire), l'appel à un jour de grève générale a entraîné la fermeture de commerces et d'écoles.

Quelque 400 membres de la minorité musulmane de Thaïlande se sont par ailleurs rassemblés devant l'ambassade du Danemark à Bangkok.

Des manifestations aussi en Irak

En Irak, plusieurs milliers de personnes ont réclamé la rupture des liens diplomatiques et économiques avec les pays où les dessins ont été publiés. A Kout (160km au sud-est de Bagdad), les protestataires ont demandé la mort de quiconque insulte Mahomet et le retrait des 530 militaires danois opérant sous contrôle britannique.

A Gaza, la police palestinienne a dispersé à la matraque des manifestants qui jetaient des pierres devant le bâtiment de la Commission européenne, tandis qu'au Caire, plusieurs milliers d'étudiants se sont rassemblés dans le calme sur le campus de l'université Al-Azhar.

Et en Somalie, pays d'Afrique orientale, des heurts entre manifestants et forces de l'ordre dans la ville portuaire de Bossaso (nord) ont provoqué une vaste bousculade au cours de laquelle un adolescent a péri.

Appels au calme

Lundi, le Liban a présenté ses excuses au Danemark au lendemain de la mise à sac et l'incendie de la mission diplomatique danoise à Beyrouth lors de violentes manifestations qui ont fait un mort et une trentaine de blessés.

Face à la poursuite de ce mouvement de colère, les appels au calme se multiplient. Dans un texte commun publié dans l'"International Herald Tribune", le Premier ministre turc Recep Tayyip Erdogan et le chef du gouvernement espagnol José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero ont appelé au "respect" et au "calme". "Nous serons tous perdants si nous ne réussissons pas immédiatement à désamorcer la situation."

Le président français Jacques Chirac a aussi "encouragé tous les gestes qui peuvent contribuer à l'apaisement" et condamné "tous les actes de violence dirigés contre les Danois et des représentations étrangères".

Presse britannique insurgée

La presse britannique s'insurgeait lundi contre l'absence de réaction de la police et des autorités britanniques contre les manifestants qui ont appelé au meurtre vendredi à Londres pour protester contre la publication de caricatures de Mahomet dans des journaux européens.

Le quotidien populaire The Sun, vendu à plus de 3 millions d'exemplaires, a appelé ses lecteurs à lui communiquer l'identité des manifestants dont il publie les photos. En "une" notamment, on voit un jeune homme déguisé en kamikaze.

Même si aucun journal britannique n'a publié les caricatures de Mahomet, des manifestants devant l'ambassade du Danemark à Londres ont appelé vendredi à "massacrer ceux qui insultent l'islam" ou averti l'Europe que son 11 septembre allait venir.

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Afghan troops shot and killed four protesters, some as they tried to storm a U.S. military base outside Bagram - the first time a protest over the issue has targeted the United States. A teenage boy was killed when protesters stampeded in Somalia.

The EU issued stern reminders to 18 Arab and other Muslim countries that they are under treaty obligations to protect foreign embassies.

Lebanon apologized to Denmark - where the cartoons were first published - a day after protesters set fire to a building housing the Danish mission in Beirut. The attack "harmed Lebanon's reputation and its civilized image," Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said.

In the Iranian capital, police encircled the Danish Embassy but were unable to hold back 400 demonstrators as they tossed stones and Molotov cocktails at the walled brick villa. At least nine protesters were hurt, police said.

About an hour into the protest, police fired tear gas, driving the demonstrators into a nearby park. Later, about 20 people returned and tried to break through police lines to enter the embassy compound but were blocked by security forces.

As the tear gas dissipated, most of the crowd filtered back to the embassy, where they burned Danish flags and chanted anti-Danish slogans and "God is great."

Two trees inside the embassy compound were set on fire by the gasoline bombs. The embassy gate was burned, as was a police booth along the wall protecting the building.

The Danish Foreign Ministry said it was not aware of any staff inside the building, which closed for the day before the demonstration.

Ambassador Claus Juul Nielsen told DR public television in Denmark that the protesters vandalized the ground floor of the embassy, which included the trade and the visa departments.

The crowd, which included about 100 women, ignored police orders to disperse and kept hurling fire bombs until being hit by tear gas. The crowd dispersed by midnight.

Also Monday, 200 members of Iran's parliament issued a statement warning that those who published the cartoons should remember the case of Salman Rushdie - the British author against whom the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a death warrant for his novel "The Satanic Verses."

The angry demonstrations in Iran recall the Nov. 4, 1979, seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran after the Islamic revolution that overthrew U.S. ally Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The students who held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days faced little or no police resistance in the post-revolutionary turmoil that had brought Shiite theologian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and an Islamic government to power.

There has been a wave of protests across the Islamic world over caricatures first published in September by a Danish paper. They have since been reprinted by other media, mostly in Europe.

The drawings - including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb - have touched a raw nerve in part because Islamic law forbids any illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

In a meeting with local authors, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the cartoons and addressed the West: "Insulting the Prophet Muhammad would not promote your position," the official Iranian news agency quoted him as saying.

The Bush administration urged Saudi Arabia to help stem protests. "Certainly the leaders of the Saudi government might be individuals who might fulfill that role," spokesman Sean McCormack said. "There are others in the region who also might fulfill that role as well."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan issued a broad appeal to "all governments to take steps to lower tensions and prevent violence."

The worst of the violence in Afghanistan was outside Bagram, the main U.S. base, with Afghan police firing on some 2,000 protesters as they tried to break into the heavily guarded facility, said Kabir Ahmed, the local government chief.

Two demonstrators were killed and 13 people, including eight police, were wounded, he said. No U.S. troops were involved, the military said.

Afghan police also fired on protesters in the central city of Mihtarlam after a man in the crowd shot at them and others threw stones and knives, Interior Ministry spokesman Dad Mohammed Rasa said. Two protesters were killed and three people were wounded,

Police should come down "heavily" on anti-cartoon protesters who broke the law, a Cabinet Minister demanded today as an extremist cleric called for the artist to face execution.

The Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said the actions of some Muslims in London at the weekend had been "completely unacceptable and intolerable".

Placards threatened a repeat of the 11 September and 7 July atrocities following the publication of cartoons in Denmark depicting the prophet Mohammed, sparking calls for action.

Amid violence in cities across the world - which has seen one death in Afghanistan and embassies torched - UK-based Muslim groups condemned extreme aspects of the demonstrations here.

But radical cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed insisted on the BBC this morning that anyone who "insults a prophet" must be punished and executed.

That did not mean a vigilante murder, he insisted, but warned that any country which refused to put people on trial for such insults would have to "face the consequences".

Reacting to the protests, Mr Hain said on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "Demonstrators on the streets over the weekend were doing things and saying things that are completely unacceptable and intolerable.

"The police need to bear down on them very heavily and chase down those who have committed offences and prosecute them where they can get the evidence, because there is freedom of speech on the one hand - that is sacrosanct.

"But on the other hand, incitement to terror, incitement to suicide bombing - all of those are clear infringements of the law.

"And where there is evidence to back that up, then prosecutions will obviously follow and the police are investigating that now."

The demonstration was condemned by a range of Muslim organisations, from the moderate Muslim Council of Britain to the more radical Hizb-ut-Tahrir, which Prime Minister Tony Blair is seeking to outlaw because of claims it backs terrorism.

Hizb-ut-Tahrir organised a less incendiary protest in London on Saturday, which passed off without incident.

The Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has called for a "no tolerance" approach from the police to banners whose slogans consisted of incitement to murder.

Specialist police officers who attended the demo were understood to have taken film and photographic evidence, but no protesters were arrested.

The Metropolitan Police spokeswoman has said any arrests would be made "at the appropriate time".

Lord Harris, a board member of the Metropolitan Police Authority, backed the policing of the demonstrations, saying immediate public safety had to be the first consideration.

"It is much more important to deal with that and to make sure that people in the immediate environment are physically safe and then to assess whether other offences have been committed.

"That, I think, seems to have been the approach in this case, but we will need to look at it in some detail."

Bakri Mohammed, who left the UK for Lebanon in August amid suggestions he might be charged with treason for allegedly praising the July 7 bombers, said on the programme: "The insult has been established now by everybody, Muslim and non-Muslim, and everybody condemns the cartoonist and condemns the cartoon.

"However, in Islam, God said, and the messenger Mohammed said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed.

Muslims around the world must not kill anyone who insulted Mohammed "by their own personal, individual initiative", he added.

"We are not saying ourselves to go there and start to look to him and kill him, we are not talking about that. We are talking about Islamic rules. If anybody insults the prophet, he will have to take a punishment."

One man who was pictured dressed up a suicide bomber at the protest has defended his actions and said he wanted to expose "double standards".

Building student Omar Khayam, 22, of Bedford, said: "I would do it again to make a point. I could have gone and held up banners or something, but this made the point better.

"If certain people have the right to do what they want and other people don't, then that is double standards."

* Hundreds of Afghans clashed with police and soldiers today during a demonstration against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. One person was killed and four were wounded. Police fired on the demonstrators after a man in the crowd shot at them and others threw stones and knives during the rally in the central Afghan city of Mihtarlam, said a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

* Riot police in New Delhi fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of students protesting against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers. The protesters chanted slogans and burned a Danish flag before riot police broke up the demonstration.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Thousands of Muslim protesters, enraged over the publication of caricatures of Islam's prophet Muhammad, set ablaze the Danish Embassy on Sunday and rampaged through a predominantly Christian neighborhood, escalating sectarian tensions in a country whose melange of faiths can sometimes serve as a microcosm of the world's religious divide.
The unrest was some of the worst in Lebanon in years, and leaders from across both political and religious spectra appealed for calm. In vain, some Muslim clerics tried to step into the hours-long fray to end the clashes, which news agencies said left at least one demonstrator dead and 30 wounded. In the streets, fistfights broke out between Christian and Muslim Lebanese after protesters threw rocks at a Maronite Catholic Church, broke windows at the Lebanese Red Cross office and shattered windshields of cars. Bands of Christian youths congregated with sticks and iron bars, promising to defend their neighborhoods.
''Those who are committing these acts have nothing to do with Islam or with Lebanon,'' Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora told Lebanon's Future Television before the protests ended. ''This is absolutely not the way we express our opinions.''
The unrest in Lebanon, mired in its own political uncertainty, was the latest turn in a controversy that has spread worldwide following publication of the cartoons in Denmark and other Western countries and showed no signs of ebbing Sunday. Demonstrators took to the streets in Afghanistan, Iraq, the West Bank and New Zealand. A day earlier, protesters burned the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria after charging past security barriers.
In Iraq, the Islamic Army in Iraq, a Sunni Arab insurgent group, issued an Internet statement calling for attacks on Danish companies and nationals. The group asked followers to ''catch some Danish people and cut them into pieces.'' There are about 500 Danish soldiers in Iraq, most based in the southern part of the country.
In their scope and vitriol, the protests say much about the state of relations between the West and the Muslim world in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The anger was ignited by 12 caricatures of the prophet Muhammad that were commissioned in September by a Danish newspaper to challenge Islam's ban on depicting the prophet. Along with picturing him, some lampooned him, with one artist rendering his turban as a bomb with a burning fuse. After protests began, other European papers reprinted the cartoons.
They declared it an issue of freedom of expression, a cornerstone of democratic values; many Muslims cast it as another insult in a growing conflict that is most often reflected here through the lens of a religious struggle with an American-led West.
''What are you going to do?'' asked a leaflet circulated in Beirut that called for Sunday's protest.
''Bush and his group have invaded and are fighting war by all means available,'' it added. ''The goal: destroying the Islamic nation ideologically, economically and existentially, and stealing and looting its resources.''
The protest in Lebanon drew as many as 20,000 people answering calls from mosques Friday and similar leaflets circulated in Beirut and other cities. Most of them stayed peaceful. But bands broke through police lines at the Danish Embassy, and hundreds of protesters surged through nearby streets, waving green religious flags and shouting, ''God is greatest.'' Police shot into the air and fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters who threw stones, set ablaze fire trucks and overturned police vehicles. Dozens were arrested.
The Danish Embassy was gutted, and its granite facade scorched. Acrid black smoke spilled out of its windows hours later, as fire trucks tried to contain the blaze. Workers swept up glass that littered the narrow streets of the neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh.
The Danish Foreign Ministry urged Danes on Sunday to leave Lebanon and instructed its citizens not to travel there. The embassy, bracing for the expected protests, had been evacuated Saturday. The building also housed the Austrian consulate.
''The situation in Beirut is not under control,'' the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
European and Muslim leaders appealed for calm. Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said the solution ''lies in diplomacy, not in guns,'' while Lebanon's senior Sunni Muslim cleric warned that violence could portray ''a distorted image of Islam.''
The Associated Press

A demonstrator uses a tool to damage the wall of the building housing the Danish mission as another demonstrator waves a green Islamic flag during a protest Sunday in Beirut, Lebanon, against the publication of caricatures of Islam's revered prophet in European newspapers.

Lebanon apologized Monday to Denmark after thousands of rampaging Muslim demonstrators set fire to its diplomatic mission in Beirut in the most violent of escalating worldwide protests over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Western newspapers.

In Afghanistan, hundreds of demonstrators clashed with police and soldiers during a protest in the central city of Mihtarlam, killing one person and wounding four. Police fired on the crowd after a protester shot at them and others threw stones and knives, said Dad Mohammed Rasa, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

Elsewhere, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir came to a standstill as shops, businesses and schools shut down for a day to protest the drawings. Dozens of protesters torched Danish flags, burned tires and shouted slogans across Srinagar.

The Lebanese Cabinet apologized to Denmark following a late Sunday emergency meeting. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said the government had unanimously "rejected and condemned the acts of riots ... that harmed Lebanon's reputation and its civilized image and the noble aim of the demonstration."

At least one person died, 30 were injured and about 200 were detained in the violence Sunday, officials said. Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said the arrested included 76 Syrians, 35 Palestinians and 38 Lebanese.

The protesters set the building housing the Danish Embassy ablaze and threw stones at a Maronite Catholic church _ the first attack on Christians since the protests began. Muslim clerics also denounced the violence Sunday, with some wading into the mobs to try to stop the attacks.

The day before protesters in neighboring Syria burned the Danish and Norwegian embassies, a fire that also damaged the Chilean and Swedish missions, which share the building. The United States accused the Syrian government of backing the protests in Lebanon and Syria, an accusation also made by anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians.

The Middle East has for months been a powder keg of anti-Western rage over the war in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But some observers say the furor over the drawings may have been exploited or intensified by some Muslim countries in the region to settle scores with Western powers.

Syria and Iran face growing pressure from the Americans and the Europeans on the issues of foreign extremists infiltrating Iraq's borders and on Tehran's nuclear program. And Egypt, one of the first to publicly criticize the series of cartoons, has been critical of the Danish government for funding critics of human rights abuses.

"This is an organized attempt to take advantage of Muslim anger for purposes that do not serve the interests of Muslims and Lebanon, but those of others beyond the border," Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Nayla Mouawad, a Christian, said Sunday after riots in Beirut.

But Syria blamed Denmark, criticizing the Scandinavian nation for refusing to apologize after the caricatures were first published in September in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he disapproves of the caricatures and any attacks on religion, but insisted he cannot apologize on behalf of his country's independent press.

The caricatures were republished recently in several European, Australian and New Zealand newspapers as a statement on behalf of a free press. One caricature showed the revered prophet wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse.

Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depictions of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Thousands took to the streets Sunday elsewhere in the Muslim world and parts of Europe, including some 4,000 Afghans who burned a Danish flag and demanding that the editors at Jyllands-Posten be prosecuted for blasphemy.

The Islamic Army in Iraq, a key group in the insurgency fighting U.S.-led and Iraqi forces, posted a second Internet statement Sunday calling for violence against citizens of countries where the caricatures have been published.

In Lebanon, Interior Minister Hassan Sabei submitted his resignation at the late Sunday cabinet session following widespread criticism of the failure of the Lebanese security forces, which appeared to lose control of the streets for about three hours.

"Things got out of hand when elements that had infiltrated into the ranks of the demonstrators broke through security shields," he told reporters. "The one remaining option was an order to shoot, but I was not prepared to order the troops to shoot Lebanese citizens."

Sabei, like other Lebanese politicians and Grand Mufti Mohammed Rashid Kabbani, spiritual leader of Lebanon's Sunni Muslims, suggested that Islamic radicals had fanned the anger.

Legislator Michel Aoun, leader of an opposition coalition, referring to reports that Syrians were among the protesters, insisted the government should have quelled the riot, and called for its resignation.

"We know that there were military units ready to intervene, but they were not ordered to intervene," he told reporters.

Gaza crowd throws stones at EU office in cartoon row

GAZA - Palestinian demonstrators hurled stones at European Union offices in the Gaza Strip on Monday and pulled down the EU flag in protest over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad first printed in European newspapers.

Thrusting their fists into the air, the crowd chanted: "Down with Denmark. Down with Norway. With our blood we will redeem our Prophet."

Palestinian riot police surrounded the EU building to prevent the crowd of several dozen students from entering.

Security forces fired into the air as one protester pulled the EU flag down. Some demonstrators threw stones at the building.

A wave of anger has swept the Muslim world over the publication of the cartoons, one of which shows the Prophet Mohammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb.

The cartoons were first printed in Denmark. The cartoons have since been reprinted in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and the United States.

On Sunday, Muslim protesters set ablaze the Danish consulate in Beirut. Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday.

PARIS (Reuters) - World leaders called for calm on Monday after weekend attacks in which Danish diplomatic missions were set ablaze and Lebanon and Syria promised inquiries into how protests about cartoons of the Prophet turned violent.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed alarm about the riots and urged restraint but oil giant Iran, which is reviewing trade ties with countries that published the cartoons, vowed to respond to "an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current."

Denmark is the focus of Muslim rage because the images, one showing the Prophet Mohammad with a turban resembling a bomb, first appeared in a Danish daily and the ensuing furor has become a clash between press freedom and religious respect.

"I call on all Arab countries to talk with moderation about what is happening," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said, in a view echoed by other leaders after the riots in Beirut and Damascus. "Let's keep it calm."

Ukraine on Monday became the latest country where newspapers have published the cartoons, joining Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Poland and the United States.

There were fresh protests about the cartoons outside the European Union offices in Gaza on Monday.

Waving fists, protesters chanted: "Down with Denmark. Down with Norway. With our blood we will redeem our Prophet." The presidential guard fired in the air to disperse the demonstrators and anti-riot police secured the area.

For Muslims, depicting the Prophet Mohammad is prohibited by Islam and protests have raged from Lahore to Gaza, but moderate Muslim groups have expressed their fears about radicals and militants hijacking the affair.

Speaking from Beirut, Omar Bakri Mohammad, leader of the Islamist group al Muhajiroon which is banned in Britain, called for the execution of those involved with the cartoons.

"In Islam, God said, and the messenger Mohammad said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed," he told BBC radio by telephone.

"With growing concern, we are witnessing the escalation in disturbing tensions provoked by the publication, in European newspapers, of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that Muslims consider deeply offensive," the prime ministers of Turkey and Spain said in the International Herald Tribune.

"We shall all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this situation, which can only leave a trail of mistrust and misunderstanding between both sides in its wake," Tayyip Erdogan and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in the joint article.

Lebanese Interior Minister Hassan al-Sabaa resigned after police used tear gas and water cannon in Beirut to disperse thousands of protesters, some of whom ransacked and burned the Danish consulate and hurled rocks at police.

One protester, among those who set the consulate alight, was encircled by flames and died after jumping from the third floor.

Syrians set fire to the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday. They damaged the Swedish embassy and tried to storm the French mission but were held off by riot police.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, one of the few U.S. newspapers to publish a cartoon of the Prophet, defended the action on Sunday by saying it was just doing its job.

Editor Amanda Bennett said "when a use of religious imagery that many find offensive becomes a major news story, we believe it is important for readers to be able to judge the content of the image for themselves."

The Danish Foreign Ministry urged Danes on Sunday to leave Lebanon and advised its citizens not to travel there.

Up to 4,000 people marched in Brussels on Sunday to protest against the cartoons, police said. In Paris, about 1,000 people protested peacefully against the caricatures, police said.

In New York, hundreds of Muslims and supporters gathered for a rally at the Danish mission to the United Nations, seeking an apology from Denmark.

Demonstrators held signs with slogans such as: "Hate speech is not free speech," "Denmark must apologize" and "Europe must show civility."

Syria stepped up security at Western embassies on Sunday after being criticized for failing to protect the Danish and Norwegian missions. Fearing for their safety, scores of Danish and Norwegian citizens flew out of Damascus on Sunday.

Norway said it would complain to the United Nations about Syria's failure to protect its embassy.

JAKARTA.– Muslims across parts of Asia staged noisy but largely peaceful protests on Monday against cartoons published in European newspapers depicting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.

While the region escaped much of the violence and arson that accompanied protests in the Middle East, Asian leaders were quick to condemn the cartoons while also calling for calm.

The cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper in September, but other European newspapers – saying press freedom was more important than religious taboos – began reprinting them last week.

The worst violence on Monday came in Afghanistan, where one man was shot dead and two others injured in clashes between protesters and police.

Officials in Mehtarlam, Laghman province, said the crowd had been incited by Taliban and al Qaeda operatives and had called for the expulsion of Danish troops from the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

In the capital Kabul, hundreds of young men, many wielding sticks, marched through the city and eventually found the Danish embassy which they attacked with stones, smashing several windows.

Some of the protesters burned a Danish flag while others tried to smash down the embassy's gate before they moved off to a main U.S military base, where they again threw stones, breaking windows in a guard house.

Police beat protesters with clubs and eventually dispersed them, a witness said.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, protesters in four cities demanded that Denmark apologize for the controversial caricatures.

Police fired warning shots to disperse 300 hardline Muslims when they threw rocks at police during a protest outside the Danish consulate in Indonesia's second largest city Surabaya.

District police chief Anang Iskandar said two policemen were hurt in the clash. Three protesters had been detained, he said, adding the situation was now calm.

In India, shops and businesses were shut and traffic was light in Srinagar, summer capital of the country's only Muslim-majority state, following a strike called by lawyers.

About 300 protesters rallied peacefully in front of the Danish embassy in Thailand's capital as dozens of riot police put up barricades to prevent the crowd getting close to the gate.

Despite protests and boycotts across the Muslim world, the cartoons have now appeared in papers in Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Australia, Norway and Poland.

A Malaysian newspaper editor quit after he embarrassed his Muslim boss by reprinting the controversial cartoons in a bid to illustrate a story about the controversy.

The Sarawak Tribune reprinted the cartoons in its Saturday edition after its editor-on-duty made an "oversight" in looking to illustrate the story, Polit Hamzah, executive director of the paper's publisher, said on Monday.

Malaysia is mainly Muslim and Islam the official religion, but Muslims are a minority in Sarawak – part of Borneo island, where the biggest single ethnic group is the Iban, a tribal people known as head-hunters over a century ago.

NEW DELHI: Several leaders of the Jamia Milia Islamia University were detained after students, protesting against cartoons portraying Prophet Mohammad in bad light, clashed with the police on Monday afternoon.
The caricatures originally appeared in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten last year and recent reprinting elsewhere, sparked death threats, kidnappings, boycotts of Norwegian products and, at the weekend, attacks on the Danish embassies in Beirut and Damascus.

The cartoons have been reprinted in Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and the United States.

Some student leaders were detained after they clashed with the police when stopped while they tried to move towards the Danish Embassy, said a senior police official.

''Police intervened after the mob became unruly when stopped from proceeding towards the embassy at about 2.30 pm. As they did not have permission to move in that area we had to stop them.''

At this they started pelting stones following which water cannons had to be used to disperse them, he said.

The students wanted to protest outside the Embassy of Denmark, demanding action against cartoons published in a Danish publication recently, allegedly portraying the Prophet in a derogatory manner.

TEHRAN: Hundreds of Iranian demonstrators pelted the Austrian embassy here on Monday with stones, firecrackers and eggs, smashing windows in protest against the cartoons.

The 300-strong crowd, mainly members of the hardline Basij militia, burned flags of several European nations and demanded that the embassies of countries where the media have printed the cartoons be shut down.

SURABAYA (Indonesia): Police fired warning shots outside the United States consulate in Indonesia's second city of Surabaya on Monday to disperse protesters who earlier smashed windows at the Danish consulate.

About 200 members of the hardline Front of the Defenders of Islam protested against the cartoons, at the building that houses the Danish consulate before the group moved to the US mission.

JALALABAD (Afghanistan): Fresh protests against the cartoons erupted across Afghanistan on Monday, with one demonstrator killed and up to four wounded in clashes, officials said.

Protestors also threw stones at the Danish, British and French embassies in the capital Kabul as well as the main base for the US-led coalition in Afghanistan and the head United Nations office.

SYDNEY: Australia was drawn on Monday into the widespread anger over the cartoons after a weekend newspaper printed an image.

The president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Ameer Ali, urged newspapers not to print the cartoons, which Muslims say are blasphemous and contrary to Islamic tradition prohibiting depictions of the prophet.

Brisbane's Courier Mail printed one of the 12 cartoons at the weekend, prompting calls for an apology from Queensland's state Islamic Council.

GAZA: Palestinian demonstrators hurled stones at European Union offices in the Gaza Strip on Monday and pulled down the EU flag in protest against the caricatures.

Palestinian riot police surrounded the EU building to prevent the crowd of several dozen students from entering.

Security forces fired into the air as one protester pulled the EU flag down. Some demonstrators threw stones at the building.

LONDON: Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, banned from Britain for his radical views, called on Monday for capital punishment for cartoonists who dare depict the Prophet Mohammed.

Speaking to BBC radio from Lebanon, where he now lives, Bakri claimed "everybody" now acknowledged that cartoons of the prophet were insulting.

"In Islam, God said, and the messenger Mohammed said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed," he added. "This man (the cartoonist) should be put on trial and... executed" if proven guilty.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed alarm about the riots and urged restraint but oil giant Iran, which is reviewing trade ties with countries that published the cartoons, vowed to respond to “an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current”.

“I call on all Arab countries to talk with moderation about what is happening,” French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said, in a view echoed by other leaders after the riots in Beirut and Damascus.

COPENHAGEN: Denmark told its nationals on Monday to avoid Muslim countries even as it pursued diplomatic efforts to defuse worldwide tension surrounding the publication of the cartoons.

The foreign ministry warning, which affects thousands of holiday-makers and business executives, lists 14 Muslim countries travellers should avoid following violent protests against the cartoons: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

An Iranian man holds a copy of the Koran during a demonstration in front of the Austrian embassy in Tehran February 6, 2006. A crowd of about 200 people pelted the Austrian Embassy in Tehran with petrol bombs and stones on Monday in a protest over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
REUTERS/RAHEB HOMAVANDI

Iranian men burn flags and shout slogans during a demonstration in front of the Austrian embassy in Tehran February 6, 2006. A crowd of about 200 people pelted the Austrian Embassy in Tehran with petrol bombs and stones on Monday in a protest over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
REUTERS/RAHEB HOMAVANDI

Iranian men shout slogans during a demonstration in front of the Austrian embassy in Tehran February 6, 2006. A crowd of about 200 people pelted the Austrian Embassy in Tehran with petrol bombs and stones on Monday in a protest over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.
REUTERS/RAHEB HOMAVANDI

TEHRAN, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A crowd of about 200 people pelted the Austrian Embassy in Tehran with petrol bombs and stones on Monday to protest against the publication of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in European newspapers.

The protesters, chanting "God is Greatest" and "Europe, Europe, shame on you", smashed all the diplomatic mission's windows with stones and then tried to hurl petrol bombs inside.

Austria currently holds the presidency of the European Union. Protesters also waved placards and shouted slogans against the EU's stance on Iran's nuclear programme.

The bombs exploded in flames against metal grilles guarding the windows. But the building did not catch fire and the flames were quickly put out by police with fire extinguishers.

Iran has withdrawn its ambassador to Denmark and Iranian Commerce Minister Massoud Mirkazemi said on Monday that all trade with Denmark had been severed because of the cartoons, first published in September in a Danish newspaper.

"All trade ties with Denmark were cut," he was quoted by the Iranian student news agency ISNA as telling a news conference.

Mirkazemi said from Tuesday Iran would stop any Danish goods from entering its customs' areas. Iran imports some $280 million worth of goods a year from Denmark.

Trade ties were under review with all countries where the cartoons were published, he said. Islam prohibits any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad.

Further demonstrations were planned for later on Monday outside the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Tehran.

Danish diplomatic missions in Syria and Lebanon were set ablaze and ransacked over the weekend because of the cartoons.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry said the Austrian cultural centre building was also damaged but no injuries resulted.

The demonstration was announced in advance and organised by members of the official Basij militia, a volunteer force affiliated to the hardline Revolutionary Guards.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called for an emergency meeting of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference to discuss Islamophobia in the West.

"Insult to Islamic values and Muslims' sanctity in the West has become a main challenge facing Islamic nations now. It is vital to seriously confront this challenge," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticised the argument of freedom of speech employed by European newspapers to justify publication of the cartoons.

"If your newspapers are free why do not they publish anything about the innocence of the Palestinians and protest against the crimes committed by the Zionists?" the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted him as saying.

More than 200 lawmakers from Iran's 290-seat parliament also denounced the cartoons. "Apparently, they have not learned their lesson from the miserable author of the Satanic Verses," they said in a statement carried on the official IRNA news agency.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual father of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa in 1989 ordering the killing of British writer Salman Rushdie for his book "The Satanic Verses" which many Muslims deemed blasphemous.

Although the Iranian government promised Britain in 1998 that it would not send an assassin to kill Rushdie, Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards pledge on every anniversary of the fatwa that Muslims will one day carry it out.

Muslim demonstrators clashed with security forces who fired live rounds and tear gas to break up violent protests in several Asian countries on Monday against the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Two demonstrators were shot to death and three other people, including two police officials, were injured in the central Afghan city of Mihtarlam, when police reportedly fired on hundreds of demonstrators.

Police opened fire after a man in the crowd shot at them while others threw stones and knives. The protesters burned tires and threw stones at the offices of the police and the provincial governor.

In Kabul, police using batons and rifle butts broke up a protest by about 200 youths in front of the presidential palace in the Afghan capital.
"Long live Islam! We are Muslims! We don't let anyone insult our prophet!" chanted the demonstrators. They also chanted, "Down with America!" and displayed slogans against the Afghan and US presidents.

Earlier, the protesters tried and failed to break down the gate of the Danish government's diplomatic mission. Police reported that protesters beat some of the police on guard there and security guards at a nearby house used by Belgian diplomats received similar treatment.

The protesters also threw stones, smashing windows of a guardhouse at the main US military base in Kabul. Police standing amid the protesters watched but did not intervene.

The demonstrators also stoned three vehicles belonging to NATO-led peacekeepers in the city.

Some 3,000 people demonstrated peacefully in three other Afghan cities. The spreading unrest came a day after some 4,000 Afghans took to the streets across the country.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, police fired warning shots to stop protesters from ripping a plaque from the wall of the US consulate in Surabaya, the country's second largest city, witnesses said.

Hundreds of demonstrators threw rocks at the Danish consulate in the city before moving on to the US consulate.

In New Delhi, riot police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of student protesters who burned Danish flags and chanted slogans. No injuries were reported.

The main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir came to a standstill as shops, businesses and schools shut down in a one-day general strike in protest of the caricatures.

Dozens of protesters torched Danish flags, burned tires and shouted slogans in several parts of Srinagar, police officer Ali Mohammad said.

In the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, about 300 people protested outside the office building housing the Danish Embassy, which was guarded by a cordon of security forces.

"The cartoons were meant to insult us," said Hendri Novrizal, one of the demonstrators. "We wouldn't insult Jesus or the Buddha because such an act would cause tension among believers."

In Bangkok, about 400 members of Thailand's Muslim minority shouted, "God is Great", outside Denmark's embassy, and some demonstrators stomped on a Danish flag.

In Malaysia, it was reported that an editor of a newspaper that ran one of the drawings resigned.
The Sunday Tribune, in the country's remote Sarawak state, also apologized for printing the picture.

Caricaturas de Mahoma

Seis muertos en las protestas en Afganistán, Líbano y Somalia

Noruega ha denunciado a Siria ante la ONU y solicitará una indemnización. El Gobierno danés cree que ya ha pasado el peor momento de la crisis.

Miles de manifestantes musulmanes libaneses arremeten contra el consulado danés en Beirut

Seis personas han muerto hasta ahora en los actos de protesta contra la publicación de caricaturas de Mahoma en varios medios de comunicación europeos. Cuatro de los fallecimientos se han producido en Afganistán, uno en Somalia y otro en El Líbano. Además, grupos de manifestantes han quemado las banderas de Dinamarca, Noruega, Alemania, España e Israel en la ciudad iraquí de Kut (sureste del país).

En Beirut, al menos 300 personas han sido detenidas y se sigue buscando a las personas implicadas en los actos vandálicos ocurridos durante el fin de semana, en el transcurso de los cuales fueron atacados el consulado de Dinamarca, así como varias iglesias, propiedades privadas, comercios, bancos y vehículos. Una persona murió y otras 50 resultaron heridas durante los disturbios.

En Afganistán son cuatro las víctimas mortales y numerosos los heridos en las violentas manifestaciones registradas en diferentes puntos del país, que han sido reprimidas por las fuerzas de seguridad. Varios miles de personas han tratado de forzar las puertas de la principal base estadounidense, en Bagram. Dos de los manifestantes han muerto en los enfrentamientos los enfrentamientos con la Policía.

Otros dos afganos han muerto en la provincia de Laghman (este de Afganistán) en un enfrentamiento en las calles de la ciudad. La sexta víctima mortal se ha registrado en Somalia, cuando la Policía ha reprimido a cientos de musulmanes que, según la versión oficial, han apedreado las sedes de agencias humanitarias extranjeras y de Naciones Unidas.

En Asia, cientos de personas se han echado a la calle en Tailandia, a pesar de que los musulmanes sólo suponen el 8% de la población. Los manifestantes, observados de cerca por la policía, que ha establecido un cordón de seguridad en torno a la misión diplomática danesa, han gritado consignas a favor de un boicot a las importaciones de productos daneses.

Por otro lado, miembros de la organización radical Frente de Defensores Islámicos (FPI) han pedido en la ciudad indonesia de Bandung la muerte de los responsables de la publicación de las caricaturas de Mahoma, a quienes han calificado de "difamadores".

Además, miles de personas se manifestaron el domingo en París, Bruselas y Nueva York para protestar por la publicación de las caricaturas del profeta Mahoma. Unas 1.000 personas que gritaban 'Dios es grande' marcharon por las calles de París. "Atacar al profeta es atacarnos a nosotros", decía un cartel que portaban los manifestantes. La Policía aseguró que ignoraba qué grupo organizó la manifestación, que transcurrió en calma.

La crisis está teniendo, además, consecuencias políticas. Así, la Unión Europea ha destacado la importancia de profundizar el diálogo con el mundo árabe para ponerfin a los ataques. El secretario general de la ONU, Kofi Annan, ha pedido que se ponga fin a la ola de violencia, y ha expresado su alarma por las amenazas y lasacciones de violencia ocurridas en los últimos días.

Esa declaración se ha producido después de que el primer ministro noruego, Jens Stoltenberg, hablara por teléfono con el propio Annan para expresar su condena por la quema de su embajada Siria, país al que exigirá una indemnización. Por su parte

Además, el ministro libanés de Interior, Hassan Sabei, dimitió el domingo después de los incidentes violentos de la mañana, cuando miles de manifestantes enfurecidos por la publicación de unas caricaturas de Mahoma atacaron y quemaron el consulado danés en Beirut. Las fuerzas de seguridad tuvieron que recurrir a gases lacrimógenos y cañones de agua para dispersar a los más violentos. Por su parte, el gobierno danés cree que ya ha pasado la peor parte de la crisis, después de 48 horas de graves incidentes.

Sabei hizo el anuncio después de salir de un Consejo de emergencia convocado por el presidente de Líbano, Emile Lahoud, en el Palacio presidencial. "Presento mi dimisión al primer ministro, Fuad Saniora, y dejo la reunión inmediatamente", aseguró.

Por su parte, ell ministro danés de Asuntos Exteriores, Per Stig Moeller, hizo un llamamiento a los manifestantes que han protestado en los últimos días de manera violenta por la publicación en Dinamarca de unas caricaturas sobre el Profeta del Islam, Mahoma, y les pidió que guarden la calma. "Es una situación crítica, y es muy seria", reconoció Moeller a la radio pública danesa, después de que manifestantes atacaran e incendiaran la representación diplomática de su país en Beirut.

De todos modos, el gobierno danés intentó rebajar la tensión en la crisis por las caricaturas de Mahoma con un llamamiento al diálogo como único medio para una solución y oponiéndose a sanciones contra Siria y el Líbano tras los ataques contra sus sedes diplomáticas.

Tehran, Feb 07: Protests in Iran over cartoons portraying the Prophet Mohammed intensified today, with hundreds of demonstrators attacking two European embassies and the regime halting trade with Denmark.

After first smashing and torching the facade of the Austrian embassy, a group of some 400 student members of the Islamic Hardline Basij Militia moved on to Denmark's leafy diplomatic compound and attempted a full-scale assault.

The mission was pelted with petrol bombs and rocks, before a small group managed to scale the Danish embassy's main gate. They managed to ransack the interior and torch paperwork, before being removed by police.

Some 100 anti-riot police and a crew of firefighters were on hand to prevent the embassy from falling into the hands of the mob and stop several fires from engulfing the entire compound. Tear gas was also fired at the protestors as they smashed at the main gate with iron bars.

Spelling out Iran's anger over the cartoons, Hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the offending newspapers were "prisoners of a bunch of blood-sucking Zionists".

Commerce Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi also announced a total ban on Danish imports as well as any other business dealings with the country "until further notice", adding that Danish-registered ships entering Iranian ports would also be charged "very heavy" fees.

He said annual trade between the two countries amounted to 280 million dollars, but added that "since the balance is extremely negative, Iran will not be harmed by this decision".

Bureau Report

KABUL (AP) - NATO peacekeepers exchanged fire with protesters who attacked their base Tuesday in a second straight day of deadly demonstrations in Afghanistan over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, officials said. Three demonstrators were killed and dozens wounded.

In neighbouring Pakistan, 5,000 people chanting "Hang the man who insulted the Prophet" burned effigies of one cartoonist and Denmark's prime minister. Citizens from Denmark - where the images were first published - were advised to leave Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic nation, because of safety fears.

A prominent Iranian newspaper said it would hold a competition for cartoons on the Holocaust in reaction to European newspapers publishing the Prophet drawings, and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the publication of the cartoons was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over the victory of the militant Hamas group in the Palestinian elections last month.

The European Union, in turn, warned Iran that attempts to boycott Danish goods or cancel trade contracts with European countries would lead to a further deterioration in relations.

The drawings - including one depicting the Prophet wearing a bomb-shaped turban - have touched a raw nerve, in part because Islam forbids any illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

The most violent demonstrations were in Afghanistan, where thousands of rioters clashed with police and NATO peacekeepers across the country.

About 250 protesters armed with assault rifles and grenades attacked the NATO base in the northwestern town of Maymana, burning an armoured vehicle, a UN car and guard posts, said a doctor at Maymana Hospital.

Some in the crowd fired light weapons and threw stones and hand grenades, and Norwegian troops responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and warning shots, said Sverre Diesen, commander of Norwegian forces.

Three protesters were shot to death and 25 were wounded. It wasn't clear who killed the protesters.

Two Norwegian and two Finnish soldiers were slightly hurt, Diesen told reporters in Oslo.

The United Nations pulled its staff out of Maymana, near Afghanistan's border with Turkmenistan, and NATO peacekeepers rushed reinforcements to the remote town.

In the capital, Kabul, police used batons to beat protesters outside the Danish diplomatic mission office and near the offices of the World Bank.

More than 3,000 protesters threw stones at government buildings and an Italian peacekeeping base in the western city of Herat.

About 5,000 people clashed with police in the town of Pulikhumri, north of Kabul, and the windows of several buildings and cars were smashed.

Muslim anger has been directed at Denmark, where the cartoons were first printed in a newspaper in September. Danish missions have been attacked and boycotts of Danish products launched in many Muslim countries.

The cartoons have since been reprinted by media outlets in other European countries, the United States and elsewhere - sometimes to illustrate stories about the controversy but also by some who say they were supporting free speech.

In India's portion of the disputed region of Kashmir, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters. At least six protesters and two police were injured in the clash.

The protest in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar was the largest to date in that Muslim country against the prophet drawings. There were no reports of violence.

Chief Minister Akram Durrani, the province's top elected official who led the rally, demanded the cartoonists "be punished like a terrorist."

"Islam is a religion of peace. It insists that all other religions and faiths should be respected," he told the crowd. "Nobody has the right to insult Islam and hurt the feelings of Muslims."

Danish citizens were also advised to leave Indonesia, where rowdy protests were held in at least four cities Tuesday. Danish missions, which have been repeatedly targeted by protesters, have been shut because of security concerns, said Niels Erik Anderson, the country's ambassador to Indonesia.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government had temporarily closed diplomatic missions in Palestinian territories - where it shares a building with the Danish mission. He warned his citizens to be wary if travelling to the Middle East.

The Iranian newspaper Hamshahri invited foreign cartoonists to enter its Holocaust cartoon competition, which it said would be launched Monday. The newspaper is owned by the Tehran Municipality, which is dominated by allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is well known for his opposition to Israel.

Avec un temps de retard sur de nombreux autres pays musulmans, l'Iran s'est joint, lundi 6 février, à la vague de protestation contre les caricatures du prophète Mahomet publiées au Danemark et reproduites dans plusieurs pays européens. En y ajoutant une sorte de marque de fabrique : outre le Danemark, viser l'ensemble de l'Union européenne (UE) par le biais de l'Autriche qui en assure la présidence, et faire de la provocation concernant la Shoah.

Les ambassades d'Autriche et du Danemark à Téhéran ont été la cible de jets de pierres et de projectiles incendiaires de la part d'une poignée de manifestants (quelques centaines dans les deux cas) que la police a dispersés à coups de gaz lacrymogènes. Les dégâts sont mineurs et, hormis quelques manifestants blessés lors des heurts avec la police, il n'y a pas eu de victimes. L'importation de produits danois est désormais interdite. Dans la nuit de dimanche à lundi, le centre culturel autrichien avait déjà été visé par un explosif.

L'Autriche est doublement symbolique. Outre la présidence en exercice de l'Union européenne, Vienne abrite le siège de l'Agence internationale de l'énergie atomique (AIEA), qui vient de saisir, à la demande de l'UE, le Conseil de sécurité de l'ONU du cas iranien. Le même jour, Téhéran annonçait au demeurant la restriction des inspections de son programme nucléaire, la levée de la suspension, volontairement consentie à la demande de l'UE, de l'enrichissement de l'uranium, et le renoncement à l'application du protocole additionnel au traité de non-prolifération nucléaire, elle aussi librement consentie.

C'est comme si, note Farhad Khosrokhavar, spécialiste de l'Iran et de l'islam, "l'affaire des caricatures tombait à point pour le pouvoir iranien, qui en tire argument pour affirmer que l'opposition de l'Occident au nucléaire iranien tient à son hostilité à l'islam et aux musulmans."

La "manipulation", poursuit M. Khosrokhavar, ici comme dans d'autres pays —pour des objectifs différents —, surfe néanmoins sur "un mouvement immense de constitution, dans les esprits des musulmans à travers le monde, d'une néo-oumma communauté des croyants mythique, rendue possible par les images et les moyens d'information ; une néo-oumma qui se perçoit comme une force planétaire, mais en même temps écrasée par les pouvoirs en place, vivant dans des sociétés en crise et tenue dans le mépris total par l'Occident. En Iran, l'image d'Epinal d'une société islamique idéale, qui est encore vive dans d'autres pays musulmans, s'est usée pour l'écrasante majorité de la population, les résultats n'étant pas à la hauteur de l'expérience de vingt-six années de République islamique. Mais une minorité demeure sensible à la radicalisation", ajoute M. Khosrokhavar.

Le parallèle entre l'interdit qui frappe en Europe toute remise en question de la Shoah et la tolérance à l'endroit des caricatures du prophète étant un argument récurent dans le monde musulman depuis l'affaire danoise, le quotidien Hamshahri a décidé de jouer sur cette corde. Il vient de lancer un concours "international" de caricatures sur le thème de la Shoah, en mettant au défi la presse européenne de les reproduire. Les douze caricaturistes lauréats — un nombre égal à celui du concours lancé par le quotidien danois Jyllands Posten — recevront chacun une pièce d'or.

Hamshahri est publié par la municipalité de Téhéran, dont Mahmoud Ahmadinejad était maire jusqu'à son accession à la présidence de la République, en août 2005. Et pour M. Ahmadinejad, la Shoah est "un mythe".

La Syrie accusée d'avoir infiltré des agents pour créer des troubles au Liban

Le comité de coordination des forces et partis libanais antisyriens, majoritaires au Parlement et au gouvernement, a accusé, lundi 6 février, la Syrie d'être à l'origine des émeutes qui ont eu lieu la veille à Beyrouth, à l'occasion d'une manifestation de protestation contre les caricatures jugées blasphématoires pour le prophète Mahomet.

Ils fondent leurs accusations sur des informations selon eux avérées : quarante-huit heures avant les émeutes, affirment-ils, des fondamentalistes jordaniens ont été infiltrés en territoire libanais à partir de la frontière syrienne dans la région du Akkar (nord). Un grand nombre de membres des forces spéciales syriennes en tenue civile, ainsi que des Palestiniens membres du FPLP-Commandement général (prosyrien), se seraient également, selon eux, introduits au Liban à partir de cette région.

Des organisations prosyriennes ont par ailleurs tenu une réunion de coordination sous la présidence du chef des services de renseignement militaires syriens, Assef Chawkat, a ajouté le comité, qui exige du gouvernement libanais qu'il porte plainte contre la Syrie — pays qu'il tient pour responsable de tous les attentats qui ont eu lieu au Liban depuis plus d'un an — auprès du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies et de la Ligue arabe. — (Corresp.)

Afghan men look at a truck set on fire by protesters outside a U.S. military base in Qalat, northeast of Kandahar, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2006.

QALAT, Afghanistan -- Police killed four people Wednesday as Afghans enraged over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad marched on a U.S. military base in a volatile southern province, directing their anger not against Europe but America.

The U.S. base was targeted because the United States "is the leader of Europe and the leading infidel in the world," said Sher Mohammed, a 40-year-old farmer who suffered a gunshot wound while taking part in the demonstration in the city of Qalat.

"They are all the enemy of Islam. They are occupiers in our country and must be driven out," Mohammed said.

Wednesday's violence began when hundreds of protesters tried to storm the U.S. base, said Ghulam Nabi Malakhail, a provincial police chief. When warning shots failed to deter them, police shot into the crowd, killing four and wounding 11, he said.

Two Pakistanis arrested for allegedly firing at police were being questioned to see whether they were linked to al-Qaida, Malakhail said. Some officials accuse al-Qaida of inciting three days of bloody riots across Afghanistan that have left 11 dead.

Protesters also burned three fuel tankers waiting to deliver gasoline to the base, said Malakhail. He said U.S. troops fired warning shots into the air.

U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said the American forces fired flares above the crowd, but he said it was not clear whether they fired their weapons.

Muslims around the world have demonstrated over the images — including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb — printed in Western media. Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of the prophet.

In Baghdad, Iraq's top Shiite political leader criticized attacks on foreign embassies by Muslims.

"We value and appreciate peaceful Islamic protests," said Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. "But we are against the idea of attacking embassies and other official sites."

In the West Bank, about 300 Palestinians overpowered a Palestinian police detail and attacked an international observer mission in the city of Hebron.

Sixty members of the mission were inside, said Gunhild Forselv, spokeswoman for the Temporary International Presence in Hebron. A few protesters forced their way in, where unarmed observers waved clubs in an attempt to drive them off. Police reinforcements eventually restored order.

Muslims also demonstrated in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in Turkey.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran and Syria of instigating protests in their countries, and President Bush called upon governments to stop the violence and protect the lives of diplomats overseas.

The United States and other countries were looking into whether extremist groups may be inciting protesters to riot, said Yonts, the U.S. spokesman in Afghanistan.

Zahor Afghan, editor for Erada, Afghanistan's most respected newspaper, said the riots in his country have surprised him.

"No media in Afghanistan has published or broadcast pictures of these cartoons. The radio has been reporting on it, but there are definitely people using this to incite violence against the presence of foreigners in Afghanistan," he said.

Afghans who rioted Wednesday said they heard about the cartoons on the radio but none questioned had seen printed versions.

"The radio is talking about them all the time. Everybody heard about them this way," said 28-year-old shopkeeper Ramatullah, who uses only name.

Wednesday's riot erupted despite an appeal from Afghanistan's top Islamic organization, the Ulama Council, for an end to the violence.

"Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence. This must stop," senior cleric Mohammed Usman told The Associated Press. "We condemn the cartoons but this does not justify violence. These rioters are defaming the name of Islam."

In France, President Jacques Chirac asked media to avoid offending religious beliefs as another French newspaper reprinted the caricatures. The satirical French weekly Charlie-Hebdo also printed a new drawing under the headline "Muhammad Overwhelmed by the Fundamentalists" that showed the prophet with his head in his hands, remarking, "It's hard to be loved by idiots."

February 08, 2006

Caricatures: Clash of Civilizations, Clash of Ignorance

If one were to look for an example of the popular "clash of civilizations" paradigm, one would do no better than the controversy over the caricatures of Muhammad that appeared in the Danish conservative newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. It's easy to see how right-wing parties in the West can capitalize on the affair, with the argument that Muslims, as a group, simply cannot understand the West's notions of free speech. Similarly, it's not hard to imagine how right-wing parties in the East can make the most of this story, telling Muslim youth that the West hates them and has no respect for their beliefs. The demagogues on either side will quickly find an attentive ear.

However, the "clash of civilization" concept doesn't fully explain this situation, for several reasons. First, the illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad, although arguably blasphemous, are not unique. The Danish cartoonists are in the company of many other artists who have crossed the no-icon line, among them Muslims themselves. There are drawings of the Prophet in medieval Persian miniatures, for instance, showing him on the Night Journey known as the Mi'raj.

Second, there have been other depictions in modern times that did not lead to this kind of controversy. A few years ago, an episode of South Park showed the Prophet Muhammad, along with Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Joseph Smith, Lao Tsu, and Moses as members of a superhero team, the "Super Best Friends," who are called upon to defeat the Blaintologists, a new cult started by the magician David Blaine. As far as I know, there were no reactions to the South Park episode. It could be that the imams don't watch Comedy Central. Or maybe, just maybe, they didn't mind that the Prophet was depicted, so long as he got to be a superhero, equal to all the other prophet-heroes.

Third, the reactions on each side have been far from uniform. In the Arab press, for instance, editorials in Al-Safir and Al-Ittihad chided the protestors for focusing on the cartoons rather than on the more immediate harm done to the Prophet in the name of Islam by terrorists like Bin Laden. Annahar Al-Maghribiya and Shihane, which are published out of Morocco and Jordan, reprinted the cartoons, in one case in order to denounce them, and in the other in order to debunk the idea that there had been any offense. In the West, editorials in the Guardian and the Boston Globe called for greater respect toward other people's beliefs. With the exception of the Philadelphia Inquirer, most American newspapers have so far abstained from reprinting the cartoons.

Let's face it: The virulent reaction to the cartoons isn't just because of blasphemy; it's because the drawings are utterly offensive to Muslims, suggesting that the Prophet is a terrorist, and because they were specifically commissioned by a conservative newspaper with the intent to provoke. (Those who still doubt that intent would do well to read this article.) Ironically, the few protestors who have resorted to violence have confirmed the very stereotype they were trying to dispel.

What's interesting is that everyone, from all sides of the spectrum, wants to defend rights--the right to free speech, the right to protest, or the right to boycott. So, let's talk about rights. Yes, the artists had a right to draw the cartoons, and Jyllands-Posten had a right to print them. And yes, the cartoons are offensive and hateful, and Muslims have a right to speak up against them.

But what about responsibilities? Several newspapers in Europe, among them Die Welt, La Stampa, El Mundo, and France-Soir, chose to defend Jyllands-Posten by reprinting the cartoons. Yet there is a difference between defending free speech, and promoting hate speech. Reprinting the cartoons does the latter, without doing much for the former. Imagine for a moment if the cartoons had depicted a greedy rabbi counting his bags of gold coins. Would the European press be so keen on reprinting such an abhorrent characterization? Reprinting the cartoons sends a message to Muslims that the editors approve of the hate. It also smacks of condescension; perhaps the newspapers wanted to teach Muslims a lesson about free speech. Instead, they have ignited anger, and played right into the hands of those who are seeking recruits for their fanatical ideologies.

Meanwhile, several factions in the Muslim world have been quick to call for a boycott of Danish products, as if Danish manufacturers were in cahoots with cartoonists. But, of all people, Muslims should know better than to condemn an entire group of people for the sins of the few. The threats against citizens of Denmark and Norway and the burning of their embassies are completely despicable. And the appeals to the Danish government display a lack of understanding of the function of the press in democratic societies. The cartoonists' work is their own, and any grievances should be addressed to them, not misdirected at the Danish government, Danish products, or the Danish people.

The case of the Muhammad cartoons will long be remembered as a test of freedom of expression, in both East and West. When the few Syrian readers who never get a chance to protest their government are allowed to express their feelings about a perceived offense, the results are bound to be extreme. And when the few people in Europe who feel threatened by their immigrant communities find an issue to rally around, they're likely to turn freedom of expression into an excuse to inflame rather than inform. That may well lead to a clash of civilizations, in which the rest of us will be collateral damage.

At least 3 dead in Afghan cartoon riot
RALLIES TAKEN OVER BY PEOPLE WITH OWN AGENDA TO PUSH

KABUL, Afghanistan - Like tens of thousands of protesters this week, the crowd that gathered yesterday in the southern Afghan town of Qalat came to speak out against cartoons in European newspapers mocking the prophet Mohammad.

But the protest soon took a much different direction. Afghan demonstrators began chanting against the hiring of Pakistanis to do reconstruction work. Pakistanis in the crowd began chanting against the United States, and tried to force their way into the local U.S. military base.

When the crowd encountered Afghan security forces, a suspected Taliban member took a shot. Then Afghan police returned fire. By the time the smoke cleared, at least three protesters were dead and more than a dozen people were injured.

"They forgot all about the cartoons," said Gulab Shah Alikheil, the regional governor's spokesman.

Furor over the caricatures of Islam's most revered figure may have triggered the wave of demonstrations among Muslims worldwide during the past week. But as the protests escalate, they are morphing into an opportunity for individuals, groups and governments to push agendas that often have little or nothing to do with defending Islam. Rallies ostensibly held for religious reasons have become chances to vent economic frustrations, settle local scores or gain political leverage.

"We have condemned the cartoons and said those responsible should be brought to justice," said Mulwi Sayed Imam Mutawali, deputy head of a religious council in the Afghan city of Kandahar. "But there are some enemies of Afghanistan that want to take advantage of this issue. They just want to advance their own aims."

Mutawali said his council initially supported the protests but has decided to demand they be stopped because they have been hijacked by people with ulterior motives. At least 10 people have been killed in Afghan protests over the past three days.

"There's a sincere feeling of being wounded" by the cartoons, said Paul Fishstein, director of the nonprofit Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit. "But there's also the chance for certain forces to make mischief, to take advantage of a situation where people are upset."

The autocratic Syrian government was widely thought to be behind protests over the weekend that resulted in the burning of the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus. In Lebanon, where the Danish Embassy burned a day later, local media reported that Syrian agents had protesters bussed in to help stir up trouble.

Sarkis Naoum, a columnist for the Lebanese newspaper An Nahar, said interest groups in Lebanon also had incentive to see the cartoon protests spiral out of control.

In Pakistan, too, conservative Muslim groups appeared to be using the uproar over the cartoons to gain leverage.

BEIRUT, Feb 9 (Reuters) - More than 250,000 Shi'ite Muslims transformed a religious ceremony in the Lebanese capital on Thursday into a protest against cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad.

Unlike a protest on Sunday that turned into a riot in which the building housing the Danish consulate was torched, there were no signs of violence in the march in Beirut's southern suburb, a stronghold of the Hizbollah guerrilla group.

"At your service, oh Mohammad, at your service, oh Prophet of God," the crowds chanted with fists raised. "Death to America, Death to Israel," they also shouted.

"No dignity to a nation whose prophet is insulted," a placard read; "What comes after insulting sacred values?" another asked.

Turnout, put by security sources at over 250,000, was high despite wind and rain. The march is an annual event to mark Ashura when Shi'ites mourn the death of the Prophet's grandson, Imam Hussein, in Kerbala in Iraq 1,300 ago.

Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah urged the faithful this year to take a stand against the cartoons. He was expected to address the crowds later.

Angry Muslims have demonstrated around the world over the cartoons, first published in Denmark, then Norway and several other countries in Europe and elsewhere.

The caricatures, including one showing the Prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, have unleashed fury among many Muslims who consider any portrayal of their Prophet as blasphemous, let alone one showing him as a terrorist.

Protesters burnt the Danish and Norwegian missions in Damascus on Saturday. Protesters torched the Danish consulate in Beirut a day later and vandalised a church and property in a Christian neighbourhood.

Lebanon has charged 203 people, mostly Lebanese but including Syrians and Palestinians, with taking part in the riots and promised swift trials.

Ashura is the 10th day of the lunar month of Muharram, when Imam Hussein was killed in AD 680 in a battle with the army of Caliph Yazid. He was decapitated and his head taken to Damascus, the seat of Yazid's Ummayad dynasty.

Kuala Lumpur, Feb. 9 (AP): Malaysia's Government on Thursday shut down a newspaper that printed one of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons that have triggered outrage among Muslims, while police used batons to disperse stone-throwing protesters in Kashmir.

The clash in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir was the only violence reported from scattered demonstrations in Asia on Thursday following days of rioting against the publication, mostly in Western media, of caricatures of the prophet.

Indonesia canceled badminton games against Denmark because it could not guarantee the safety of the visiting athletes, and a top Iranian government official angrily dismissed as unfounded Washington's claim that his government was fanning the unrest.

In mostly-Muslim Malaysia, the Bernama national news agency reported that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had ordered the immediate suspension of the printing license of the Sarawak Tribune, a small daily in a Borneo island territory that printed one of the cartoons last Saturday.

The paper's publishers, the Sarawak Press group, have faced relentless public criticism despite apologizing for what it says was an editorial oversight in publishing the cartoon, and the resignation of the editor held responsible.

Police questioned the editor who resigned, Lester Melanyi, for two hours on Thursday and were examining whether the paper's management broke any laws, the national news agency, Bernama, cited Sarawak's police chief Talib Jamal as saying.

The group's Executive Director Polit Hamzah, said earlier on Thursday that he expected the paper's license to be suspended at any time.

Malaysia's newspapers operate under government licenses that must be renewed yearly and restrict them from publishing potentially provocative material on religion and race and other topics.

Violent demonstrations in Muslim countries _ directed mostly at the foreign missions of Denmark, where the cartoons were first published _ turned deadly this week in Afghanistan, where nine rioters have been fatally shot by security forces.

In Kashmir, police beat back about 200 protesters who hurled stones at them and yelled ``Down with Denmark'' and Down with Israel'' as they tried to break through barricades, police superintendent Muneer Khan said.

In Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, about 60 people rallied peacefully outside the office building housing the Danish Embassy, which was pelted with eggs and stormed by a mob almost a week ago.

Smaller demonstrations were held in at least three other Indonesian towns, witnesses and media reports said.

Indonesian badminton officials announced Thursday they had called off matches planned for March 14 against Danish players because of safety fears. Denmark's government this week warned its citizens to leave the country after violent demonstrations outside its embassy.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said in Washington that ``Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments'' that have produced the violence.

``That is 100 percent a lie,'' Isfandiar Rahim Mashaee, one of several Iranian vice presidents, told reporters during a visit to Indonesia.

In his first comments on the row, U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday condemned the rioting in Afghanistan and urged foreign leaders to halt the violence and protect diplomats.

U.S. officials say they are looking into whether extremist groups may have incited the Afghan protesters to riot.

Zahor Afghan, Editor for Erada, Afghanistan's most respected newspaper, said the riots in his country have surprised him.

``No media in Afghanistan has published or broadcast pictures of these cartoons. The radio has been reporting on it, but there are definitely people using this to incite violence against the presence of foreigners in Afghanistan,'' he said.

Afghanistan's top Islamic organization, the Ulama Council, urged an end to the violence.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police shot at hundreds of Muslims protesting against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Friday, wounding at least one person, witnesses said.

Riot police fired live rounds and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators after stones were thrown when the protest was blocked from reaching the Danish embassy. Nineteen-year-old Shabaan Kariuki was shot in the thigh, one witness told Reuters.

In what appeared to be a freak accident, one person was killed when the car carrying Kariuki crashed into another, a passenger travelling with the injured man said.

Police chased protesters who escaped into the grounds of a mosque before lobbing two canisters of tear gas at the crowd, which retaliated with stone-throwing.

Tens of thousands of Muslims have protested in the Middle East, Asia and Africa over the caricatures first published in Denmark, then other countries in Europe and beyond.

Malaysia Protest Draws Thousands

(CBS/AP) Malaysia's leader on Friday warned of a "huge chasm" between Muslims and the West, as thousands of people took to the streets for the largest demonstrations yet in Asia against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons.

It was the second week of demonstrations. But last week's protest attracted less than 100 people, indicating that anger is growing in Malaysia, viewed as a model of a tolerant, modern Islamic state.

The protest came a day after the government ordered a nationwide ban on possessing or distributing the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad first published in a Danish newspaper that have outraged the Islamic world, saying they could trigger public tensions.

Thousands of Muslims also rallied in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India and Sri Lanka, while smaller demonstrations were held in Indonesia and the Philippines. Protesters shouted anti-American and other slogans and burned, stomped and spat on Danish flags. There were no immediate reports of violence.

The demonstrations grew out of traditional Friday prayers. Some were held outside mosques while others involved crowds marching on the diplomatic missions of Denmark, the main target of Muslim ire because a newspaper there was the first to publish the cartoons.

In Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur, about 3,000 protesters marched from a mosque to the high rise building housing the Danish Embassy shouting: "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy George Bush. Destroy America!"

Opening a conference at a nearby venue, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi talked of a "huge chasm that has emerged between the West and Islam," particularly because of Muslim frustrations at Western policies toward Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinians.

"They think Osama bin Laden speaks for the religion and its followers," Abdullah said in his speech. "The demonization of Islam and the vilification of Muslims, there is no denying, is widespread within mainstream Western society."

Islam is interpreted as banning any depiction of the prophet as a guard against idolatry. Proponents say publication of the cartoons is a free speech issue.

In an interview with CBS News Up to the Minute Contributor Frank Ucciardo, international political cartoonist Ranan Lurie said he didn't believe he would draw a cartoon that "hurts a God."

"[The cartoonist] had a right to publish it and readers had the right to say it's in poor taste," Lurie explained.

In Pakistan, about 5,000 supporters of radical Islamic groups demonstrated in the capital, Islamabad, the biggest turnout since protests against the cartoons began about a week ago. Protesters burned Danish cheese, broke windows and briefly clashed with police Friday.

In a fiery speech, Mian Aslam, a leader of a coalition of Islamic groups, urged Pakistan to sever ties with any country where the drawings were published.

In Bangladesh, more than 5,000 Muslims watched by hundreds of riot police marched on Denmark's embassy in the capital, Dhaka, burning the country's flag and shouting, "Death to those who degrade our beloved prophet!"

In India, thousands of angry Muslims kicked, spat on and tore Danish flags and burned effigies in the capital, New Delhi, and in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.

Thousands of Egyptians protested in cities across the country after Muslim prayers, and clashes erupted with police who tried to disperse the demonstrators with water canons and tear gas.

In the Philippines, hundreds of Muslims burned a mock Danish flag and demanded the Danish newspaper that first published the caricatures be punished.

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police opened fire at hundreds of people demonstrating against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad on Friday, wounding at least one, as protests across the Muslim world showed no sign of abating.

Police in Bangladesh beat back about 10,000 people marching on the Danish embassy in Dhaka and demonstrators took to the streets in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and, for the first time, Latin America.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which has carried out several suicide bombings in Israel, threatened more violence and a leading Saudi Muslim cleric called for no mercy in punishing anyone mocking the Prophet.

"So far we have demanded an apology from the governments. But if they continue their assault on our dear Prophet Mohammad, we will burn the ground underneath their feet," Islamic Jihad leader Khader Habib told supporters after Friday prayers.

Riot police in Kenya, where about six percent of the population are Muslim, fired live rounds and tear gas to prevent hundreds of stone-throwing protesters from reaching the Danish embassy. One man was shot in the thigh, a witness said.

In Morocco a government-sponsored march attracted tens of thousands of people while around 200 people burned Danish and American flags in the Venezuelan capital.

At least 11 people have been killed this year in protests over the cartoons, one of which showed the Prophet Mohammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. They were first published in Denmark and then in other European countries and elsewhere.

Muslims consider any portrayal of the Prophet blasphemous, let alone one showing him as a terrorist.

"We demand stiff penalties without leniency against those who deride the Prophet Mohammad," Abdel-Rahman al-Sudeis, a prominent Saudi Arabian cleric in Islam's holiest city of Mecca, told worshippers. "With one voice, millions of Muslims around the world are defending the Prophet of God."

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said both religious sensitivities and freedom of speech needed to be respected and the violent reaction was not justified.

"I do think that, unfortunately, these cartoons have been used as a pretext for violence and for showing that some Arabic countries could be manipulated or at least the radical parts there could be manipulated," she told journalists in London.

With tensions running high and copies of the cartoons cropping up in newspapers around the world, some tried to calm believers as authorities moved to clamp down on the media.

The imam at the heart of the row appeared to backtrack, saying Denmark was a tolerant country after helping organize a delegation to the Middle East last year which presented a dossier of alleged Danish insults to Muslims.

"As a Muslim I am heavily indebted to this country," Imam Abu Laban told worshippers at his Copenhagen mosque.

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, police were questioning an editor after his tabloid, Peta, published a caricature of the Prophet and Malaysia slapped a ban on circulating or possessing cartoons of the Prophet.

The Danish newspaper editor who commissioned the cartoons was sent on holiday after suggesting he would print Iranian cartoons on the Holocaust.

And a source from France's Muslim Council said it would take legal action against a French satirical weekly that reprinted cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad and ran one of its own.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia demanded an apology from the Danish government, but urged protesters to refrain from violence.

In Tehran, where protesters threw petrol bombs at the French embassy and stones at the Danish and British missions, a senior cleric said Iran's arch enemy the United States was responsible.

"The anger shown by Muslims is a holy anger," Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Friday prayers, while also urging worshippers not to attack embassies.

The Danish government has expressed regret over the publication of the cartoons, but has refused to apologize saying that is a matter for the newspaper.

As well as worldwide protests, the cartoons have ignited a debate over the limits of freedom of speech and exposed a gulf of misunderstanding between the Western and Islamic worlds.

"We're dealing with two types of ignorance, about Islam and about the freedom of speech," said Sohaib Bencheikh, a prominent Islamic theologian in France.

"We're paying the bill for September 11 and all the tension and misunderstanding that arose after it," complained Mohammad Bechari, head of the National Federation of French Muslims.

He criticized protesters who demanded the Danish government apologize for the cartoons. "Frankly, that shows that the idea of genuine free speech has not taken root in Muslim countries."

Thousands demonstrate in Africa over drawings
published: Saturday | February 11, 2006

POLICE SHOT and wounded one person yesterday as they sought to keep hundreds of demonstrators from marching to the residence of Denmark's ambassador to protest cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad first published in a Danish newspaper.

The Kenyan protest was the most unruly of demonstrations across Africa yesterday in response to the cartoons, some of which were satiric and all of which clashed with Muslim tradition prohibiting any depiction of Muhammad.

Police and organisers had said marchers would not be allowed near any embassy. At least 200 demonstrators tried to go to the home of the Danish envoy, triggering clashes with anti-riot police near a major highway.

The demonstrators shouted anti-Denmark slogans as they threw stones at vehicles carrying foreigners in Westlands, an upscale neighbourhood in Kenya's capital of Nairobi. The violence subsided after the protesters fled into a nearby mosque.

Elsewhere, thousands of demonstrators, shouting "God is Great and Muhammad is his Prophet!" and "Down with Denmark!" marched from the largest mosque in downtown Nairobi to Kenya's Foreign Ministry, where they were expected to deliver a protest note.

Other demonstrators walked out of the Sar Ali Mosque, outside downtown Nairobi, and burned Danish flags and shouted anti-Denmark slogans there. About 300 protesters began a march to the city centre.

Protests also erupted after Friday prayers in Mombasa, an Indian Ocean port city where Muslims are the majority. Thousands gathered at the Tononoka Grounds, where they burned the U.S. and Denmark's flags.

In neighbouring Somalia, hundreds condemned the publication of the cartoons by the Western media during peaceful protests in Marka, a town in the Lower Shabelle Region.

In Dhusamareb, capital of the central Galgudud Region, dozens of protesters marched peacefully.

In Uganda, Muslim leaders condemned the publication of the cartoons in Friday sermons, and said they may hold protest marches next week.

In West Africa, thousands of Muslims marched after Friday prayers in northern Nigeria's Kano state.

Earlier this week, Kano lawmakers burned Danish and Norwegian flags inside the regional Parliament and cancelled a US$25 million (¤20 million) contract to buy 70 Danish buses. They also said Danish companies would not be allowed to bid on construction of a planned power plant.

Nigeria's 130 million people are about roughly split between Christians and Muslims, giving the vast, restive country one of the largest Muslim communities in Africa.

Beirut, Lebanon- This article by Lee Smith deals with the recent riots in Beirut and Damascus in response to the publishing of the cartoons and analyzes the role of Syria's authorities in these riots.

MUSLIMS all over the world are so angry about a series of cartoons poking fun at the Messenger of God that by now pretty much every Danish and Norwegian flag in the Muslim world has met its fiery end. And yet only in Damascus and Beirut have institutions--embassies or consulates--representing Denmark and Norway been attacked. Are Lebanese and Syrian Muslims angrier than other Muslims? Or, what's going on here?
First of all, it's important to remember that Syria is an authoritarian state where nothing happens on the street unless the regime permits it to happen. Actually, that's something of an understatement--the government almost always determines and drives public actions. So, many of the Damascus protestors venting their pious outrage likely either work for Syrian security services or are rent-a-mobs being paid to riot.

In Lebanon, it is only slightly different. It appears that the Internal Security Forces were incapable or unwilling to protect the Danish consulate from protestors, many of whom were apparently shipped in from Syria and Lebanese Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon (where Syrian influence and arms are extensive). Indeed, Damascus' Lebanese intelligence networks are still active, even after Syrian troops left the country last April in compliance with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559. And of course Syria has lots of Lebanese allies, including Islamist groups such as the Al-Ahbash and Hezbollah, whose General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah asked--maybe not so rhetorically--if someone blowing themselves up in the middle of Denmark constituted "an expression of freedom."

IT WOULD BE INTERESTING to know precisely the level of involvement of the Syrian mukhabarat, but President Bashar al-Asad does not want to be held accountable for what is practically an act of war. For that matter, neither Denmark nor Norway would want to know the answer and then be forced with having to respond as such. Americans might enjoy some schadenfreude in watching flags other than theirs getting torched, but why is Syria so hostile to a Europe that is by comparison much more accommodating? There are at least three possible reasons: (1) To prevent the international community from bringing down Syria's ruling regime; (2) To raise money for Hamas; (3) To warn against interfering with the Iranian nuclear program.

(1) Syria has been under the international spotlight now for nearly a year, following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri. In a remarkable show of multilateral concord, the United States and European Union have been working together to put pressure on the regime in Damascus. In fact, it is France that has led the way.

Even before the murder of Hariri, Jacques Chirac suggested to George Bush at the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion that this was a project they might work on together. The White House was cross with Syria for supporting the insurgency in Iraq and Chirac was angry because, among many other reasons, Syria had handed out oil contracts to non-French firms and squandered money the French president had raised at the Paris II talks in November 2002 earmarked for political and economic reform in Lebanon.

Bush and Chirac used Lebanon as a platform to fight Syria, and the regime in Damascus has been fighting back in every way possible, including the continued destabilization of Lebanon and attempts to block the U.N. investigation into the Hariri murder. The Muhammad cartoons provided yet another opportunity for Syria to scare away meddlers. After the Danish consulate was burned, protestors started to stone a Maronite church, a gesture that comports nicely with a series of bombings in Christian areas and assassinations of Christian figures designed to incite sectarian violence in Lebanon.

(2) For years, Syria has served as center of operations for a number of Palestinian rejectionist groups, including Hamas. For instance, Hamas political and military chief Khaled Mashaal makes his home just a quick cab ride away from the presidential palace in Damascus. The United States and the European Union have explained that they are not going to give any more money to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority until it recognizes Israel's right to exist and disowns violence. However, like many political bodies in the Arab world, Hamas only knows how to express itself through violence. But Hamas has a problem: the battleground that they typically availed themselves of in the past is much less accessible now that Israel has built a fence and has stopped an overwhelming percentage of suicide bombers. So, what are Hamas' options?

In the '70s and '80s Yasser Arafat's PLO found an especially attractive venue in Europe. The continent was light on security and fat in the wallet. Recall the most spectacular act of Palestinian terrorism, commemorated now in Steven Spielberg's Munich, when the Black September group kidnapped and killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympiad? Arafat said he had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with radicals such as Black September. But, he said, the only way for him to gain control in the political arena was to build his prestige. The best way to do that, he argued, was by helping him enhance his patronage networks, i.e. by giving him more money so he could put more armed gunmen on salary who would, of course, eventually run operations, like those in Europe, which Arafat disclaimed.

Europeans would be wise to remember what Arafat's shell game cost them because right now, leaders all over Europe are being reminded of what can happen when you try to de-fund Palestinian terrorists. The argument will look something like this: The "moderate" and responsible wing of Hamas that wants to "fix potholes" needs to be empowered to take on its radical members who only want to kill nice Europeans. It's a protection racket. Damascus and Beirut are serving as rehearsal spaces for what might happen if the European Union stops signing checks.

(3) Iran is Syria's only ally in the world, but Tehran has a price for siding with a virtual pariah state. They want a nuclear program and Syria can help. The United States was frustrated when Europe decided it wanted to negotiate with Iran: After all, the good-cop bad-cop routine only goes so far when what's really called for is joint action. The United States initially believed that even after the Europeans had failed at negotiations their pride would never allow them to admit they were wrong. In fact, the opposite happened. It was only once the Europeans started to deal with the Iranians in depth that they really saw how bad the Iranians were. Now, the Europeans and the United States see eye to eye: It is doubtful that anyone in the international community, except Syria and Hezbollah, is willing to accept an Iranian nuclear bomb. Syria is lobbying for the program and, again, making its case to Europe. Remember that Damascus burned the very same day Iran was reported to the U.N. Security Council.

The Muhammad cartoon conflict, as silly as it sounds, is about our war for freedom and liberty and our way of life. Unlike the peoples who live under authoritarian regimes, the citizens of liberal democracies don't have to observe redlines, subjects that are too controversial to touch, whether they're about the state or religion. We can talk about anything, pursue ideas anywhere they take us, even into blasphemy. But the response to the cartoons is also about the real war, the one that involves, among others, Syria, Iran and Palestinian terrorist organizations.

(AGI) - Islamabad, Feb. 14 - After clashes and numerous arrests yesterday in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the North West Frontier, in northern Pakistan, hundreds of protestors are also demonstrating today in Islamabad against the cartoons of Muhammad published in various western newspapers, starting out with Danish ones. It is no coincidence that the slogan chanted with the most insistence by demonstrators, for the most part students, was "Death to Denmark! Death to America!". The furious crowd tried to march to the heavily guarded area where there are many foreign embassies. Pakistani police were forced to use tear gas to protect the area. Hundreds of students attempted to reach, in particular, the diplomatic missions of India and Great Britain, but they were held back by police in riot gear. Before withdrawing, demonstrators managed to break the windows of numerous parked cars and the casings of a bank.(AGI) -
141114 FEB 06

Islamabad - Two people were killed Tuesday in anti-cartoons rallies in Pakistan\'s eastern Lahore city after which protestors turned violent and set fire to an American food outlet, commercial buildings and parts of regional legislature building, officials and witnesses said.

Several thousand demonstrators went on a rampage when a security guard stationed outside a metropolitan bank allegedly fired and killed two people when they charged towards the building.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao confirmed the fatalities but said no one has so far been arrested.

After the shooting incident, enraged protesters set fire to the American food outlet KFC and three commercial buildings and also burned a few rooms of the Punjab Assembly building.

Witnesses said the protesters, breaking into small groups, also burned some 60 motorbikes and a number of vehicles, parked outside the commercial buildings.

\'The employees of various offices located in a building had to run for their lives after people broke into the four-story structure and started ransacking and setting stuff on fire,\' Azeem Ahmed told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Riot police fired tear gas and also carried out a baton charge to disperse the violent mob chanting \'Punish the blasphemers,\' \'Down with Denmark\' and \'Down with America\' slogans.

\'We have allowed protest rallies after being assured (by various organizations and traders\' bodies) that these will remain peaceful but unfortunately it did not happen,\' Sherpao said.

The law minister of Punjab, of which Lahore is the capital, condemned the violent protest and warned of strict action against the \'miscreants.\'

The violence \'has sent a wrong message abroad. This is not the way to protest,\' Raja Basharat told reporters in Lahore.

Rallies were also held in Islamabad, Peshawar, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura and Hyderabad to protest the publication of satirical images of the Prophet Mohammed. Business also came to a standstill as shops were closed in Islamabad and Lahore.

In the national capital, Islamabad, up to 6,000 mostly students broke through riot police barricades in a march to Parliament to protest the printing and reprinting of blasphemous caricatures by the European media.

Police fired tear gas and carried out baton charges to disperse the procession when the students marched in to the diplomatic enclave where most of the foreign missions in Islamabad are located.

On their way to Parliament, the stick-carrying protesters threw stones at Standard Chartered Bank and damaged signs and billboards of foreign telecommunications companies.

The cartoons, which were first published in a Danish newspaper before being reprinted in several other countries, have prompted worldwide protests from Muslims, who consider depictions of Mohammed blasphemous.

In a separate demonstration in Islamabad, members of Parliament from both ruling and opposition parties marched from Parliament House to foreign office buildings to condemn the satirical sketches.

They carried placards demanding an apology from the governments of those countries where the cartoons were published.

The Pakistani lawmakers \'wanted to demonstrate to the world that it (the publication of the cartoons) hurt our entire nation and it is a condemnable act,\' said Aitzaz Ahsan, a legislator from former premier Benazir Bhutto\'s People\'s Party.

A shutter-down strike was also observed in the capital city and over 3,000 traders held a protest demonstration in front of the country\'s parliament.

Protest demonstrations were also held in northern Peshawar city where people desecrated a 45-meter-long Danish flag laid on the road and chanted slogans against European countries where the Prophet\'s images were published.

The caricatures first appeared in Denmark\'s Jyllands-Posten on September 30, but the furore against the cartoons began after a Norwegian Christian magazine reprinted them in late January.

Since then, other publications in Europe and such countries as Australia, Jordan and Malaysia have also printed the cartoons in a show of support for freedom of the press.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, however, said press freedom did not mean hurting the feelings of followers of other faiths.

\'I don\'t understand how any civilized person can take the excuse of freedom of the press in hurting the feelings of over 1 billion Muslims,\' he told a group of visiting Pakistani-American scholars Monday.

Indian mission stoned in Islamabad, two die in Lahore protest

By Muhammad Najeeb, Islamabad: Four diplomatic missions here, including that of India, were stoned Tuesday by students protesting the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed while two people were killed during a demonstration in Lahore.

The missions of India, Japan, Britain and Canada were stoned when a group of about 200 students forced their entry into the high-security diplomatic enclave here and attacked a branch of the Standard Chartered Bank.

No members of the staff of the Indian high commission were injured, an Indian official told IANS.

The students from different colleges and universities in Islamabad - who broke through riot police barricades - chanted slogans against western countries as they entered the bank and broke windows at its entrance.

"The students came in small groups and gathered outside the bank," a police official said.

Soon after they attacked the bank, policemen used tear gas and batons to beat back the students. Several of them were overpowered and arrested.

The police official said only a few students threw stones at the walls of the foreign missions and no damage was reported.

However, the Indian official said stones were thrown inside the high commission's compound.

"No staff member was hurt, but people were panicked by the attack...the local security authorities were informed and the protestors were dispersed," the official said.

Some of the stones hit the windowpanes at the high commission's reception but there was no damage, he said.

Student leader Abdul Basit said some of the protestors mistook the Indian mission for the British High Commission, which is located next to it. "When the West has no respect for our prophet and our sentiments, why should we respect their buildings?" Basit said.

Later Tuesday evening, about 6,000 students gathered near the diplomatic enclave but were not allowed to enter the area. Police used teargas and water cannons to disperse them.

However, the students set on fire three cars and threw stones at about 20 more vehicles. The police said there were no reports of anyone being injured.

Meanwhile, reports from Lahore said two people were killed and several injured when private security guards of a branch of the Bank of America opened fire on a mob as it tried to set the bank on fire.

Protestors also torched a part of the Punjab Assembly building and normal life in the provincial capital was paralysed by a strike called by the business community. Trade representatives said the entire business community was taking part in the shutdown.

Groups in many other cities have called protest strikes Wednesday.

Parliamentarians also marched on roads in Islamabad Tuesday to protest the caricatures, which have sparked violent protests by Muslims across the globe.

Islamabad's main markets remained closed.

The rally by the MPs, led by National Assembly Deputy Speaker Sardar Muhammad Yaqub, passed off peacefully as they marched from the parliament building to the diplomatic enclave.

The MPs carried placards inscribed with slogans like "Wicked face of so-called enlightened West" and "Extremism of the West".

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said the protests against the caricatures were quite natural but he asserted nobody would be allowed to take the law into their own hands.

Talking to a private TV channel about the violent protest by students in Islamabad, Sherpao said such protests were the religious obligation of everyone but people should refrain from creating disturbances.

An official vehicle of the Indian High Commission was damaged here today while two people were killed in Lahore as Pakistanis staged violent demonstrations against the publication of drawings caricaturing Prophet Mohammad.

A large number of protestors broke through riot police barricades in Islamabad in a march to Parliament. Police had to fire teargas after they tried to march on to the diplomatic enclave where some 26 foreign missions are located.

Reports said an official vehicle of the Indian High Commission was also damaged by the protestors. However, no one from the High Commission was injured.

Violent mob torched a Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) restaurant, commercial buildings as well as private vehicles and motorbikes in Lahore.

Two people were killed as security guards deployed outside a commercial bank opened fire after protestors went on a rampage.

Confirming two deaths, interior minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao said the government would deal sternly with all those taking the law into their hands, adding that contrary to the assurance given by organisers, the protestors became violent and caused damage to public property.

Enraged by security guards’ firing, the mob torched KFC restaurant and parts of the Punjab provincial assembly.

Riot police fired tear gas and also resorted to baton charge to disperse the violent mob chanting "Punish the blasphemers," "Down with Denmark" and "Down with America," slogans.

Irked by violence, Punjab government officials including the law minister

Raja Basharat said this has sent a wrong message abroad.

Rallies were also held in Islamabad, Peshawar, Faisalabad and other cities to protest publication and reprinting of blasphemous cartoons in at least ten European newspapers.

Some 100 members of Parliament, mostly from the opposition also went up to the main entrance of diplomatic enclave to register their protest over the cartoons.

They carried placards demanding an apology from the governments of those countries where the cartoons were published.

Normal business activities in these cities were also adversely affected due to a bandh by the local traders.

Pakistani government has already lodged strong protest with the governments where the caricatures were published and reprinted, saying that freedom of press does not mean to hurt feelings of others.

Protest demonstrations were also held in northern Peshawar city where people burnt a 45-meter-long Danish flag laid on the road and chanted slogans against European countries where the Prophet‘s images were published.

LAHORE: Enraged protests against publication of sacrilegious cartoons in the European newspapers have turned more violent.

At least two protesters were killed when firing was opened on the protestors, while a portion of the Punjab Assembly caught fire when the protestors hurled firecrackers on the building during protest outside the building.

Two more buildings and a foreign restaurant were put on fire.

The angry protestors also threw stones on the buildings and caused massive smashes and set ablaze different vehicle and motorcycles as they were marching on the main roads of the city. The furious protestors also caused harm to passersby during the protest march and did firing at different places, triggering panic in the city.

Over 400 markets and business centers observing total strike called by business community. Trade representatives said that the entire business community taking part in the strike regardless of their differences. People belonged to Muslim League (Q), Muslim League (N), Peoples Party and Jaamat-i-Islami and other political parties join hands in the strike to convey the world that no comprise being possible on Thafuz Namoos-i-Risaalat.

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said the men died when guards at the Metropolitan bank in Lahore opened fire. "It is a serious development. We are grieved over the loss of precious life," he told private GEO television.

More than 100 people were also injured, none seriously, Lahore Mayor Mian Aamir Mahmood told media. "People have a right to protest but they must desist from attacking public and private property," he said.

Paramilitary troops were deployed to crack down on mobs still running riot in central Lahore and were sent to stand guard outside the US Consulate, officials said.

Some 600 demonstrators stormed a foreign diplomatic enclave in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad on Feb. 14 in protest of cartoons printed in Western Europe that satirize the Prophet Mohammed. On the same day, protesters in the eastern city of Lahore vandalized Western businesses, burning some and breaking windows in others. Although certain security measures can be taken to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks against multinational corporations abroad -- or the severity of such attacks -- little can be done to defend property against a violent mob.

Protests over the cartoons of Mohammed have been occurring every few days in Pakistan and other Muslim countries since early February. In general, most of the protests have been loud but nonviolent, with flag- and effigy-burning being the extent of the destruction. In recent days, however, protests in Pakistan have grown angrier.

On Feb. 13 in Peshawar, Pakistani police fired tear gas into a crowd of about 5,000 protesting students who damaged storefronts and smashed windows in local businesses, apparently focusing on businesses that displayed Western products. In the Feb. 14 Islamabad protest, a handful of police stood by as the crowd forced its way into the fenced-in diplomatic enclave and marched toward the British, French and Indian embassies. The protesters threw stones at the embassies and a bank until police reinforcements arrived and expelled them with tear gas and water cannons.

The worst violence occurred in Lahore, about 180 miles southeast of Islamabad, where a rampaging mob burned down four buildings housing the four-star Ambassador Hotel, two banks, a KFC restaurant franchise and the regional office of Telenor, a Norwegian cell phone company. The protesters also damaged about 200 cars and several storefronts, and threw stones through the windows of a McDonald's restaurant, a Pizza Hut and the Holiday Inn hotel. At the Holiday Inn, the crowd raged outside for three hours, but did not enter the hotel, the staff said. Guests were able to go about their business in conference rooms, but they did not venture outside.

Physical security measures such as concrete barriers, stand-off distances and security cameras can add to a facility's defenses against a terrorist attack, but they can do little to prevent an angry mob from overrunning a property. The protesters can scale barriers, while their overwhelming numbers can render most security details helpless. If they set fire to the building, as happened at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad in 1979, a safe-room can become a death trap. If a mob storms a hotel, the local staff might be unable to protect the guests, and conceivably could leave them to fend for themselves in the confusion and chaos of a riot.

Once a mob attacks, there often is little that can be done. At that point, the focus should be on preventing injuries and saving lives -- without regard to the physical property. In most cases, when a mob attacks a multinational, it is attacking a symbol of the West. KFC restaurants, for example, have been frequent targets of attacks in Pakistan because of the company's association with the United States.

Telenor, which has offices in Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore, likely was targeted because it is from Norway, one of the countries where the offensive cartoons were printed. During the riot in Peshawar, a Telenor outlet store was ransacked and looted. The company has 11 Norwegian employees in Pakistan, and said it has no current plan to take them out of the country.

Multinational franchises such as KFC and Telenor usually are owned by locals. When a franchise is burned down, it is the local owner and not the multinational that suffers the loss. In some cases -- Syria, for example -- governments have not tried to stop protesters from attacking a Western embassy for fear the protesters would turn their wrath on their home government. Furthermore, local security agencies sometimes are not motivated to protect small, locally owned businesses during a spree of violence.

When a seemingly innocuous issue such as cartoons spirals into violent protests, the only precaution that many companies can take is to escape. This works best when the protest is confined to one area -- as opposed to a major citywide riot -- and appears that it will die out in several hours. The best defense is to utilize good intelligence so as to know about the protests in advance. Only in this way can facilities be secured and employees evacuated in time. Once a protest begins, it should be tracked so that contingency plans can be enacted if the angry mob begins to move toward the facility.

La France accuse Téhéran de ne pas avoir suffisamment protégé son ambassade

PARIS, 13 février(XINHUANET) -- La France a accusé lundi l'Iran de ne pas avoir "assuré une protection suffisante" de son ambassade à Téhéran lors d'une manifestation vendredi, et annoncé qu'elle convoquait le chargé d'affaires iranien à Paris.

"Nous condamnons les violences et les débordements auxquels a donné lieu la manifestation qui s'est déroulée le vendredi 10 février aux abords de l'ambassade de France à Téhéran", a déclaré le porte-parole du ministère français des Affaires étrangères, Jean-Baptiste Mattéi.

"Alors que la Convention de Vienne leur en fait l'obligation, les autorités iraniennes n'ont pas assuré une protection suffisante de notre mission diplomatique", a-t-il poursuivi.

"Les mesures mises en place tardivement n'ont pas empêché les manifestants de se livrer à des déprédations de nos locaux", a-t- il dit à la presse.

La France attend "des autorités iraniennes qu'elles prennent toutes les mesures nécessaires afin d'empêcher la répétition de tels actes inadmissibles", a souligné M. Mattéi.

Il a précisé que le chargé d'affaires iranien était "convoqué au ministère des Affaires étrangères pour rappeler aux autorités iraniennes leurs obligations aux termes de la Convention de Vienne dont l'Iran est signataire".

Une centaine de manifestants iraniens, protestant contre la publication de caricatures de Mahomet dans la presse française, avaient réussi à franchir les cordons de la police anti-émeutes et avaient lancé des cocktails Molotov et des pierres contre l'ambassade de France à Téhéran. Fin

ISLAMABAD, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Security guards shot dead two men, police used teargas on students in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave and protesters attacked Western businesses on Tuesday in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet.

In Iran, scores of demonstrators hurled petrol bombs at the British embassy in renewed protests against the cartoons and Western opposition to Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the dispute should not be allowed to divide Europe and the Muslim world, while a senior U.S. state department official said it showed moderate Muslims needed a stronger voice.

Solana is touring Muslim states to try to calm anger over the cartoons, published by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September and reprinted in many European countries in a debate about the rights and restrictions of free speech.

Pakistan's Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao said guards at a bank that was attacked by protesters in the eastern city of Lahore shot dead two men.

Police fired into the air and baton-charged protesters who set vehicles alight and ransacked outlets of international fast food companies, including McDonald's, KFC and Pizza Hut, and the Norwegian mobile phone firm Telenor, witnesses said.

Protesters also hurled stones at a Holiday Inn hotel and Western-owned filling stations. About 2,000 people staged a sit-in near the provincial assembly.

In Islamabad, police fired tear gas to drive out about 400 students who stormed the heavily-guarded diplomatic enclave. The protesters reached the Indian High Commission, which is next to the British High Commission, before being driven back.

Demonstrators smashed windows of cars and a branch of British bank Standard Chartered and shouted "Death to Denmark" and "Expel European ambassadors".

The protests were the most serious in Pakistan, the second-most populous Muslim nation and a key U.S. ally, since the cartoons row erupted.

The diplomatic enclave is home to many European embassies and that of the United States, but not that of Denmark. It is barricaded and guarded by armed police. Extra police have been posted on roads around embassies and diplomatic residences.

Protesters tore down portraits of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and about 3,000 people shouted anti-American slogans outside parliament.

In Iran, the protesters, mostly religious seminary students, chanted "Death to Tony Blair", "Death to Britain" and Death to America" while hurling stones at the British embassy buildings, smashing many windows.

The Danish cartoons have been reproduced by only a handful of British media outlets and most major U.S. publications have also refrained from publishing them.

Violent protests have also taken place outside the Tehran embassies of Denmark, Norway, Austria, France and Germany.

"Insulting the Prophet disgusts us and nuclear energy gives us dignity," about 200 people at the British embassy shouted. The West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons.

Cheers erupted when a petrol bomb was thrown over the high wall surrounding the embassy compound in central Tehran. Several other petrol bombs struck the wall and the main gate.

Scuffles broke out between the protesters and dozens of riot police. Stones and firecrackers were thrown at the nearby German embassy by a smaller crowd of protesters earlier on Tuesday.

Wolfgang Schuessel, chancellor of Austria which holds the EU presidency, said the violence was "simply not acceptable".

"I am urgently calling upon Iran to fulfil its obligations under the Vienna Convention (on the protection of diplomatic facilities)," he told a news conference in Vienna.

The U.S. state department praised Pakistan's efforts to protect diplomats, contrasting this with Iran and Syria.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Europe Dan Fried, in Europe to consult with governments on how to ease tensions sparked by the cartoons, said Europe and the United States needed to do more to support democracy, reform and reformers.

Solana arrived in Egypt from Saudi Arabia where he met the head of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which is lobbying for the United Nations to include language against blasphemy in the tenets of a new human rights body.

"I cannot be very precise, but we are working on some ideas that maybe it is possible to get through," Solana said in Cairo, when asked about such proposals.

(Additional reporting by Ali Reza Ronaghi in Tehran, Edmund Blair and Jonathan Wright in Cairo)

Arson, violence on day of mob rule in Lahore: Two rioters dead; slow police response alleged

LAHORE, Feb 14: Two young men were killed and 20 suffered injuries when angry mobs, protesting against publication of sacrilegious caricatures of the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) in a number of European newspapers turned violent.

The protesters ransacked and set on fire a number of buildings, including the Punjab Assembly, and hundreds of cars and motorcycles in the city on Tuesday.

The shooting, which claimed the two lives, occurred on Egerton Road where a bank security guard opened fire on approaching rioters. Three youngsters suffered bullet injuries and they were rushed to the Mayo Hospital.

One of the injured youngsters died on way to the hospital and another died after first aid dressing, said Dr Tariq at the emergency ward of the hospital. The deceased were identified as Muhammad Qaisar, 22, and Muhammad Rafiq, 25. He added that 13 injured people had been taken to the hospital. Of them, five suffered bullet injuries, he said, adding that three of them were in a critical condition.

Eyewitnesses and police said the establishments ransacked and set on fire by groups of rioters included a number of local and foreign banks, four restaurants of two American fast food chains, a Norwegian cellphone company’s office, a five-star hotel, a cinema, a theatre, a number of petrol pumps and various shops.

Around 500 vehicles, mainly cars, were ransacked while at least 75 motorcycles and 10 cars were burnt by the protesters. All traffic signals on The Mall, Egerton Road, Hall Road, Laxmi Chowk, Bhati Chowk and some on Ferozpur Road and Multan Road were broken completely by the angry youths. Looting also took place when rioters broke into some offices and buildings, especially that of the cellphone company.

The shutdown, which was observed in other parts of the province, saw violent scenes in Faisalabad and Sargodha. Nearly three dozen people were arrested in Sargodha for trying to block traffic on the Motorway.

In Lahore, thousands of people, including men from various religious parties and seminary students, had taken to the street on a strike call given by the Tahaffuz Namoos-i-Risalat Mahaz, a group of small Sunni parties. A seminary, Jamia Naeemia, in Garhi Shahu had been a centre of activities for the past week to make the strike a success.

By the time the authorities called in Pakistan Rangers it was too late as the situation in the street had turned ugly. Eyewitnesses say the police deputed along the route of the rally acted just as onlookers. Yelling helplessly to calm down the protesters, a constable at the shooting scene where the two youngsters got bullet injuries was heard saying: “I am nobody. I do not have any of my officers around. I do not even have a wireless set to convey the situation. I am helpless.”

Later, the riot police fired teargas shells and also baton-charged the protesters at a number of places, but there was a complete lack of coordination on the part of the law-enforcement agencies and the Punjab government. The rioting continued for about six hours on various roads, while the police kept pushing the groups of rioters back, sending them in various directions. No action was taken to round up the rioters.

“They (the organizers of the protest rallies) have not honoured their commitment. They had given us the assurance that they would remain peaceful,” city police chief DIG Khwaja Khalid Farooq told Dawn, during the rioting at the Charing Cross on The Mall. “It was not possible to depute force at each and every building,” he said.

Asked why had the police not stopped the rioters initially from rampaging on, and what was the strategy given to the police by the government, he replied: “We will talk about that later.” Lahore operations police chief Aamir Zulfikar Khan, who was present there, was not in a good shape after being held hostage for 15 minutes by the rioters. He was later shifted to the Services Hospital for treatment.

Responding to the strike call, thousands of people had gathered near the shrine of the Data Ganj Bukhsh. They turned violent soon after the rally began. Lower Mall police station was the first spot that fell prey to the protesters’ anger; it was pelted with stones.

The police blocked the protesters when they attempted to storm into the district courts building. They damaged a hoarding depicting a message and a photo of President Pervez Musharraf.

The protesters then marched on to The Mall, where they ransacked an American fast food chain restaurant, a bank and burnt two vehicles. On reaching the GPO Chowk, the protesters split into groups of 20 to 50 each and began vandalising shops.

One of the groups put a hotel and a car showroom with four new cars inside on fire at the Dyal Singh Mansion near the Regal Chowk. Not far away from this scene, another group first ransacked another American fast food restaurant, two banks and the office of a Norwegian cellular phone company; later, they torched the buildings. Having three floors each, all the four buildings were reduced to ashes long before fire tenders got to the scene.

The rioters broke glasses of shops on both sides of The Mall and on reaching the Charing Cross, they vandalised the building of another bank and burnt two more vehicles.

The police resorted to teargas shelling, but the protesters attacked the Punjab Assembly building. Police deployed inside the assembly building first tried to block the rioters, but then took to their heels. The protesters entered the building and broke all windowpanes before setting a portion of the assembly building on fire. The damage caused to the building was not extensive.

The rioters damaged the glass-fitted facade of the main PIA town office.

At the next intersection on Egerton Road, the protesters broke all traffic signals and windscreens and windows of every car parked on both sides of the road. A group marched towards the Lahore Stock Exchange and threw stones and bricks on the building. The pelting also damaged around 10 cars parked inside the building.

Yet another American fast food restaurant became their next target. They vandalised the outlet and a bank on the first floor in the LDA Plaza. Nineteen motorcycles parked outside the food outlet were set on fire. At least 40 cars parked nearby were completely damaged by the rioters.

Another group of protesters attacked another bank near the food chain where the guard opened fire. The rioters put on fire the bank, four cars and around 21 motorcycles parked on the premises were reduced to ashes.

The vehicles of the Edhi Foundation made announcements through mega-phones, asking the people inside the commercial buildings to remain calm and start evacuating the damaged buildings. Scores of people, including women, ran down the stairs from the bank’s building, which also housed some multi-nationals’ offices.

The police and Pakistan Rangers later rushed to the spot, but they only pushed the rioters out in other directions without making any effort to round them up. The protesters put an office of a travel agency on fire before dispersing.

Some of the rioters reached Laxmi Chowk and vandalised over 20 shops and food outlets there. They also torched a traffic police kiosk. At the Bhati Chowk, another group of rioters torched a cinema house and ransacked a theatre besides damaging several vehicles.

Reports from other parts of the city said rioters damaged two petrol pumps and a bakery in Nawankot besides attacking vehicles on various roads.

When it was all over, District Nazim Mian Amer Mahmood and the Lahore DCO Mian Ejaz reached The Mall and inspected the damage. The police present there again baton-charged smaller groups of protesters, who had gathered there.

Till the time of the filing of this report, the police and Pakistan Rangers had been deployed in and around all important buildings in the city, mainly along The Mall and its surroundings. The police claimed having made 106 arrests.

Late at night, the Punjab IGP was presiding over a meeting to evolve a line of action. Registration of cases against the rioters was in progress.

PESHAWAR: Three people, including a child, were killed and dozens injured in Pakistan on Wednesday, officials said, bringing the country's death toll from protests against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed to five.

An eight-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man died as thousands of people demonstrated in the northwestern city of Peshawar, while a youth was killed by gunfire during a second day of protests in eastern Lahore.

"We have received the bodies of two people, an eight-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man," Yousuf Pervez, deputy medical superintendent at Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, told reporters.

"The 28-year-old, named Feroz, fell on an electric wire that is said to have snapped in police firing," he said. "The eight-year-old boy, who was identified only as Mohammed, died when a bullet hit his head during aerial firing."

He did not say whether police or protesters had fired the bullet that killed the boy.

"There are 30 people wounded. The injured include people hit by teargas shells," added Pervez. "Four or five are in a serious condition. Their wounds are deep and we are worried about them."

Meanwhile, a youth died in crossfire between police and protesters in the New Campus area of Lahore's Punjab University, police said, a day after two demonstrators were shot dead during mass riots in the same city.

The exchange of fire happened when mostly student protesters started hurling stones at security forces and passing vehicles the official said, requesting anonymity.

Protesters also torched a KFC outlet and other western businesses in Peshawar Wednesday, a day after two demonstrators were shot dead during mass riots in the eastern city of Lahore.

Third day of violent protests in Pakistan: 3 killed, dozens injured

Gunfire and rioting erupted Wednesday as more than 70,000 people joined Pakistan's biggest protest yet against Prophet Muhammad cartoons, burning movie theaters, a KFC restaurant and a South Korean-run bus station.

Three people died and dozens were injured in two cities, police and witnesses said.

The massive crowd went on a rampage in the northwestern city of Peshawar, torching businesses and fighting police, who struck back with tear gas and batons. It was the third straight day of violent demonstrations in the Islamic nation.

The rioters ransacked the offices of the Norwegian mobile phone company Telenor, three cinemas and offices of Mobilink, the main mobile phone operator in the country, witnesses said. They also burned a bus terminal operated by the South Korean company Daewoo. Flames were shooting out of some of the buses, private TV station Geo reported.

Paramilitary forces were deployed, and the government announced that schools and colleges would be closed in northwestern Pakistan for one week to protect students from violence. Authorities also announced a ban on rallies in eastern Pakistan for an indefinite period.

Demonstrations around Asia and the Middle East over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been reprinted by other newspapers, mostly in the West, have subsided in recent days, including in Afghanistan, where 11 people died in riots last week.

But the protests have gathered momentum in Pakistan this week. Islamic groups and traders' associations have organized shutdowns and street rallies that have descended into violence, reports the AP.

By Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad
Published: February 15 2006 16:55 | Last updated: February 15 2006 16:55

Riots in Pakistan over the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed on Wednesday spread to the country’s conservative North West Frontier Province as they continued for the third day.

At least two people were killed and hundreds injured when police clashed with protesters armed with sticks and stones in Peshawar, capital of the province.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse crowds in several towns in the NWFP, the only one of Pakistan’s four provinces to have an Islamic government. In Peshawar, protesters ransacked two franchises of Telenor, the Norwegian cellular phone company, a KFC fast food outlet, as well as banks and cinemas.

Demonstrations also continued in Punjab, withat least one death in crossfire between policemen and protesters in Lahore, the provincial capital. Two people died in the city on Tuesday.

“It’s a grim and volatile situation,” said a senior police officer. “There are reports that the demonstrators are organised enough to maintain their protests in coming days.”

Senior officials in Islamabad admitted that the protests were causing concerns in government circles.

“If these demonstrations are sustained, there is a great danger of panic and violence spreading fast,” said a government official.

He said if the violence continued through the weekend “this could become the toughest phase for General Musharraf”.

General Pervez Musharraf, who supports the US-led coalition against terrorism, has vowed to remove the roots of extremism from Pakistan.

But critics say he has failed to tackle fundamentalism – his tenure has seen groups such as the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a coalition of Islamic political parties that includes pro-Taliban groups, increase their political clout.

“There are many people with influence in Pakistan who sympathise with fundamentalism,” said Fawzia Wahab, member of parliament from the opposition Pakistan People’s party. “The riots that you see in Pakistan have the chance to grow. These demonstrations could create a snowball effect, they could become bigger, more powerful and increasingly difficult to control.”

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Three people were killed today in riots sparked by protests against caricatures published in Western newspapers showing the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Rioters continued to ransack foreign firms and franchises across the country as protests this week have left a total of five people dead.

Pakistani authorities said two people died today here in Peshawar, capital of North-West Frontier Province, while one person died in the city of Lahore.

In Peshawar an 8-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet, police officials said, while another person died when a power transmission line damaged in the rioting fell on protesters.

A doctor at one of the state-run hospitals in the city said that 50 people were brought to the emergency ward for multiple injuries. Police officials said armed protesters opened fire.

An electric cable that was snapped by gunfire killed a 25-year-old man, police said. Four police officers also suffered injuries when tear gas shells exploded in their hands as they prepared to fire them at the mobs.

Violence erupted in Peshawar when tens of thousands of people went on the rampage, dragging the U.S. flag through the streets as they torched shops and offices. In many areas of the city, angry protesters opened fire as riot police tried to disperse them.

"We will not forgive Danish dogs for publishing cartoons against our holy prophet," said a banner in the city's main square. Peshawar's roads were littered with burning tires and bricks.

Students from madrassas, or Islamic seminaries, and Afghan refugees also joined the protesters, who shouted anti-U.S. slogans such as, "God is Great: Down with America and its allies. Death to Denmark."

Rioters set fire to gas pumps, movie theaters, shops and banks as well as 16 buses owned by a South Korean transportation company, Sammi-Daewoo, offices of the Norwegian telecommunication company, Telenor, and fast-food restaurants of the American chain KFC.

In Lahore, a Punjab University employee was shot in crossfire between students and police.

"The protesters are rudderless. To my knowledge, it was the worst agitation in the history of Peshawar," said Senior Superintendent of Police Saeed Khan Wazir, who was commanding the police force.

He said that over 200 protesters had been detained for damaging public and private property.

The North-West Frontier Province government closed down all education institutions, including schools, colleges and universities, for one week in an effort to prevent more protests.

Caricatures mocking Muhammad were originally printed in a Danish newspaper last September. But the cartoons were reprinted recently in several Western countries by publications whose editors insist they are defending freedom of the press. Many Muslims view such images as blasphemous.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz appealed for calm and said the central government would not allow any one to disturb law and order.

Aziz said the provincial governments have been directed to take any steps necessary to protect the life and property of citizens and stressed that "anti-social elements" must be identified and dealt with sternly.

"The government will not allow vested interests and criminal elements to take the law into their hands and create problems for the people," he said in a statement.

Authorities said the protesters were mobilized by the student wings of Islamic parties, which form the official opposition in Pakistan's national parliament and govern two provinces. The parties have called for a nationwide strike on March 3.

President Bush is scheduled to visit Pakistan in early March during an official trip to South Asia that will include a stop in neighboring India.

There were small protest rallies today in Pakistan's capital Islamabad and other cities, but the most violent protests were in Peshawar.

Caricatures de Mahomet: 40.000 personnes dans les rues de Karachi

AP | 16.02.06 | 10:57
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Quelque 40.000 manifestants scandant "Dieu est grand" ont défilé jeudi dans les rues de Karachi, le port du sud du Pakistan, pour protester contre les caricatures de Mahomet, , a annoncé la police.
Avant de se disperser dans le calme, des manifestants ont brûlé des portraits du Premier ministre danois au cours de cette quatrième journée consécutive de protestations organisées dans le pays.
Environ 5.000 policiers et forces paramilitaires en tenu anti-émeutes avec casque, matraque et bouclier, ont été déployés le long des trois kilomètres d'artères que doit emprunter le cortège dans le centre-ville. Pour l'heure, on ne déplore aucune violence.
Jusqu'à présent, les manifestations organisées au Pakistan ont toutes dégénéré en violences dans d'autres villes cette semaine, faisant au moins cinq morts et des dizaines de blessés parmi les manifestants et les forces de l'ordre. AP

Après les violences de mardi 14 février, les manifestations continuent au Pakistan. 70 000 personnes ont participé à une importante manifestation mercredi 15 février à Peshawar.

Un manifestant a tiré une balle tuant un garçon de huit ans, et un homme de 25 ans a été électrocuté par un câble. Au moins 45 autres personnes ont été blessées. La foule a saccagé plusieurs restaurants et commerces occidentaux. 70 000 personnes ont manifesté en différents endroits de la ville.

A Lahore, un homme de 30 ans a été tué dans une confrontation avec la police. 1 500 étudiants se sont rassemblés, ont bloqué la circulation et malmené la police.

La police n’a pas encore déterminé si les manifestations ont été planifiées, mais elle pense que des groupes islamistes y ont incité à la violence.

A Korean firm in the city of Peshawar in Northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday got caught up in Muslim anger about a series of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. A riot erupted there when a demonstration by some 70,000 protesters to condemn the publication of the cartoons in Europe got out of hand. A group of the protesters set fire to the bus terminal run by Sammi Daewoo, and local employees who tied to block them became caught up in the violence themselves.

Four of the firm's local employees who tried to stop the pillaging were injured. Sammi Daewoo lost 16 buses, four cars, a gas station and the entire 900 sq.m two-story terminal building in the blaze. The financial losses have been calculated at around US$3 million.

A company executive said it was thought that competitor companies that were jealous of Sammi’s success in Pakistan incited the mob.

The Sammi Daewoo bus terminal, owned by Daewoo before the firm’s crisis, was acquired by Sammi in 2004 and is considered one of the most successful foreign transport firms in Pakistan. Some 3,000 staff operate buses in 35 cities in the country.

ROME - Une manifestation contre la publication de caricatures du prophète Mahomet a dégénéré vendredi dans la ville libyenne de Benghazi, faisant au moins neuf morts et 55 blessés, rapporte la chaîne de télévision italienne Sky Italia.

Quelques minutes plus tôt, la télévision publique libyenne avait fait état, sans plus de précisions, de "victimes".

Des manifestants qui tentaient d'entrer de force dans l'enceinte du consulat d'Italie se sont heurtés aux forces anti-émeutes, indiquait la chaîne, citant un communiqué officiel des autorités libyennes.

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Le gouvernement pakistanais a interdit samedi tout rassemblement ce week-end à Islamabad mais une coalition de partis religieux a maintenu son appel à manifester dimanche dans la capitale contre les caricatures du prophète Mahomet parues dans la presse occidentale.
Au moins cinq personnes sont mortes dans les émeutes qui ont éclaté dans différentes villes du Pakistan lors de manifestations contre ces dessins.
Samedi, des centaines de protestataires ont tenté d'incendier des boutiques à Chaniot, dans l'est du pays. La police a ouvert le feu pour disperser la foule. Quatre personnes ont été blessées.
Le ministre pakistanais de l'Information a expliqué que les autorités avaient interdit le rassemblement prévu dimanche à Islamabad par crainte de nouvelles violences. «Nous avons condamné ces dessins blasphématoires mais nous ne permettrons à personne de troubler la paix», a déclaré Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. «Aucun parti ne sera autorisé à organiser des rassemblements à Islamabad dimanche».
Une coalition de six partis religieux a maintenu son appel à manifester. «Nous organiserons le rassemblement comme prévu», a déclaré le député Mian Mohammed Aslam. AP
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Incendie du consulat d'Italie à Benghazi: démission du ministre italien Roberto Calderoli, selon ANSA

ROME (AP) - Roberto Calderoli, le ministre italien accusé d'avoir déclenché des émeutes en Libye après s'être déclaré prêt à porter un T-shirt reproduisant les caricatures de Mahomet, a démissionné, rapporte samedi l'agence de presse italienne ANSA.
Cette information n'a pas été confirmée officiellement dans l'immédiat. Des manifestants protestant contre les caricatures du prophète Mahomet ont incendié le consulat d'Italie à Benghazi, en Libye, vendredi soir au cours d'une émeute qui a fait au moins dix morts, selon un bilan officiel italien.
Peu après cette émeute, le président du Conseil italien Silvio Berlusconi a demandé la démission du ministre des Réformes. «Silvio Berlusconi, estimant que le comportement de Roberto Calderoli est contraire à la position du gouvernement, l'a invité à présenter sa démission», a indiqué le cabinet de M. Berlusconi dans un communiqué. AP

Associated Press
Saturday February 18, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

A car burns near the Italian consulate in the north-eastern city of Benghazi, Libya. Photograph: Reuters/Libya

Libya's parliamentary secretariat today suspended the interior minister and referred him for investigation over yesterday's riots that resulted in the deaths of at least 10 people.

Meanwhile, the Italian cabinet minister blamed for sparking the riots has resigned.

"We condemn the excessive use of force and the inappropriate way that went beyond the limits of carrying out the duties of the police," said the Libyan statement announcing the suspension of Nasr al-Mabrouk.

The secretariat said all those involved "and the officials responsible for them" should be referred to investigations and to court.

"Those who have a relation to the incident and are responsible for security in Benghazi have been suspended and referred to investigations," the statement said.

At least 10 people died in a six-hour riot on outside the Italian consulate yesterday, where more than 1,000 demonstrators gathered in an angry protest, apparently in reaction to an Italian cabinet minister wearing a T-shirt printed with the cartoons satirising Prophet Muhammad that have provoked protests across the Muslim world.

The crowd hurled rocks and bottles before storming the compound and setting fire to the building and cars parked nearby. Police with Kalashnikov rifles fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse them.

A right-wing Italian minister resigned today after the riots were blamed on his decision to wear the T-shirt.

The reforms minister, Roberto Calderoli, said he had offered his resignation to Silvio Berlusconi to stop "the shameful exploitation which in these hours has been directed against me," according to comments confirmed by Nicoletta Maggi, a spokeswoman for Calderoli's Northern League party.

Calderoli had been under growing pressure to step down following the violent protests, which resulted in the highest reported death toll in any of the riots over cartoons of the prophet which were originally published by a Danish newspaper in September.

Berlusconi's office said the premier had a "long and friendly" telephone conversation with Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy, while the foreign minister, Gianfranco Fini, visited Rome's main mosque to stress Italian respect for Islam.

Fini met with representatives from Arab countries including Libya, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt.

"It is just that one respects another's religion and asks respect for one's own," Fini told reporters after his talks at the mosque. He said Calderoli's resignation was the "proper" action to take.

Calderoli's wearing of the T-shirt "was perhaps a provocation which he didn't fully realize," Fini said.

Abdellah Redouane, secretary-general of the Islamic Cultural Centre of Italy, said Calderoli's gesture had been a "provocation" and Fini's visit was greatly appreciated.

"Not only was it welcome, but also necessary," said Redouane, who was participating in the talks with Fini.

Calderoli embarrassed Italy's centre-right government, which is campaigning for April general elections. Earlier today, several ministers, as well as leaders of the centre-left opposition, joined Berlusconi in urging Calderoli to quit.

The Italian president, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, a highly respected voice in the country, said that in Italy, "there is a clear, undisputed policy that reflects the dominant feeling of Italians: the respect of religious creeds and of the faiths of all peoples."

"Above all, those who have a responsibility in government have to show responsible behavior," Ciampi said, adding that he was "deeply saddened" by the clashes at Benghazi.

Calderoli, whose Northern League Party is known for its anti-immigrant stance, showed off the T-shirt under his shirt during an appearance on Italian state television.

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) -- Des manifestations de protestation contre les caricatures de Mahomet ont dégénéré dans le nord-est du Nigeria, faisant une quinzaine de morts, ont annoncé les autorités. Selon des témoins, trois enfants et un prêtre catholique figurent parmi les victimes.
Les manifestants ont pris à partie des chrétiens et ont incendié leurs commerces et des églises, selon des témoins. Quinze églises ont été brûlées dans la localité de Maiduguri, a indiqué la police.
L'armée et la police ont été déployées pour rétablir l'ordre et plusieurs dizaines de personnes ont été interpellées.
Il s'agit de la première manifestation d'importance provoquée par les caricatures dépeignant le prophète de l'islam et parues dans quelques journaux européens dans le pays le plus peuplé d'Afrique. La population du Nigeria est estimé à 130 millions d'habitants pour moitié musulmane au Nord, chrétienne et animiste au Sud.
Un journaliste de l'agence Associated Press (AP) présent sur place a vu des groupes de protestataires essaimer dans le centre de Maiduguri, armés de machettes, de bâtons et de barres de fer. Un groupe a fait subir le supplice du collier à un malheureux en lui jetant un pneu autour du coup, en l'aspergeant d'essence avant de lui mettre le feu.
D'après Chima Ezeoke, un chrétien de Maiduguri, les manifestants ont pillé des commerces appartenant à des chrétiens. "La plupart des morts sont des chrétiens battus à mort dans la rue par les émeutiers", selon ce témoin.
Les affrontements entre les deux communautés religieuses sont assez fréquentes au Nigeria. AP

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya suspended its interior minister Saturday, citing an "excessive use of force" in riots the day before that left at least 10 people dead in the bloodiest protest yet against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons roiling the Muslim world.

The controversy claimed another political casualty in Italy as Reforms Minister Roberto Calderoli offered his resignation after wearing a T-shirt featuring the drawings, a provocative move blamed for Friday's protests at the Italian consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, in which at least 10 people were killed.

In eastern Pakistan, police opened fire on a mob trying to burn down shops, the latest in a spate of cartoon protests that have killed five people in the conservative country. At least four people were injured in the city of Chaniot, said police officer Mohammad Ishaq.

Pakistani authorities, meanwhile, imposed a ban on rallies in Islamabad ahead of a planned protest Sunday. In the southern city of Karachi, though, about 12,000 women joined a rally organized by the country's oldest and best-organized religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami.

"We want that those who drew these blasphemous cartoons to be hanged," Aysha Munawar, a senior party leader, told the crowd.

In London, more than 10,000 people joined an angry but peaceful protest against the drawings. "Free speech cheap insults," read some placards. "How dare you insult the blessed Prophet Muhammad?" asked another.

At least 29 people have been killed in protests across the Muslim world, according to a count by The Associated Press.

Also Saturday, some 1,000 Muslims protested peacefully in Indian-controlled Kashmir, carrying banners reading "We love our Prophet" and "Down with enemies of Islam."

Libya's parliamentary secretariat announced the suspension of Interior Minister Nasr al-Mabrouk and said all those involved in Friday's riots "and the officials responsible for them" should be referred to investigations and to the courts.

"We condemn the excessive use of force and the inappropriate way that went beyond the limits of carrying out the duties of the police," the secretariat said in a statement.

Libyan security officials said 11 people were killed or wounded during the riot in the eastern city when police firing bullets and tear gas tried to contain more than 1,000 demonstrators hurling rocks and bottles. The casualties included police officers.

Rioters charged the consular compound and set fire to the first floor of the building, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

Domenico Bellantone, an Italian diplomat, said 10 or 11 people _ all Libyan _ had died.

The riot appeared to be a reaction to Calderoli's decision to wear a T-shirt printed with the cartoons. His declaration that he would do so was widely published in Libya.

Calderoli, a member of the anti-immigrant Northern League Party, wore the T-shirt beneath a suit on Friday and showed it off during an appearance on television. Hours later, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked for his resignation.

Calderoli said Saturday he had agreed to offer his resignation to stop "the shameful exploitation which in these hours has been directed against me," the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

There was no demonstration outside the Italian Embassy in Tripoli, a possible indication of greater state control in the capital. Politics is tightly controlled in Libya _ a former Italian colony _ and open dissent is rare.

The Italian ambassador to Tripoli met late Friday with the Libyan interior minister "who expressed the condemnation of his government for the acts of violence occurring in Benghazi," the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

In London, demonstrators carried placards reading "Europe lacks respect for others," and "Don't they teach manners in Denmark?"

Police said about 10,000 people were present. The Muslim Action Committee, which organized the protest, estimated that 20,000 people were there. There were no reports of violence.

On Friday, a Pakistani cleric announced a $1 million bounty for killing the cartoonist but did not give a name _ apparently unaware that 12 different people had drawn the pictures. Denmark temporarily closed its embassy in Pakistan and advised its citizens to leave the country.

The Danish newspaper that first printed the caricatures in September, the Jyllands-Posten, has since apologized to Muslims for the cartoons, one of which shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Other Western newspapers, mostly in Europe, have reprinted the pictures, asserting their news value and the right to freedom of expression.

Mogens Blicher Bjerregaard, president of the Danish Journalist Union and spokesman for the cartoonists, who have been living under police protection since last year, condemned the bounty offer.

"It is totally absurd what is happening. The cartoonists just did their job and they did nothing illegal," he said.

Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Jennifer Price in London contributed to this report.

Libyans protesting Prophet Mohammad cartoons set fire to Italian consulate; 10 killed

Saturday 18 February 2006

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) - Libyans protesting the Prophet Mohammad cartoons set fire to the Italian consulate in Benghazi on Friday in a riot that killed at least 10 people, an Italian diplomat said.
The death toll was higher than that of any other riot against the caricatures during the past two weeks of demonstrations across the Muslim world.
The rioters hurled rocks and bottles at the consulate in Benghazi, and then charged into its compound and set fire to the building. Police with Kalashnikov rifles fired live ammunition and tear gas at the more than 1,000 demonstrators, but failed to disperse them until about six hours later.
Libya condemned the attack on embassy property and, in an exceptional move, broadcast pictures of the violence. State television showed firefighters extinguishing the blaze in the consulate, cars burning, rioters hurling stones, and wounded men being carried to ambulances.
The riot appeared to be a reaction to Italian Cabinet Minister Roberto Calderoli, who said this week he would wear a T-shirt printed with the cartoons satirizing Prophet Mohammad that have provoked protests across the Muslim world. His remark was widely published in Libya.
Calderoli actually wore the T-shirt underneath a suit on Friday. Hours later, while the riot was taking place, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked for Calderoli's resignation.
Libyan security officials said 11 people, including police officers, were killed or wounded. The officials declined to say how many people had died.
Italian diplomat Domenico Bellantone said between 10 and 11 people had died, and all were Libyan, either police or protesters. He spoke in Tripoli after the Libyan interior minister had briefed the Italian ambassador on the riot.
Earlier, Italian consular official in Benghazi, Antonio Simoes-Concalves, had said nine protesters were killed and several more wounded. Libya's second biggest city, Benghazi is 400 miles (640 kilometers) east of Tripoli.
After clashing with police outside the consulate, the rioters burst into the grounds and started a fire on the first floor, the Italian Foreign Ministry said in Rome.
State television showed two cars ablaze, another two gutted by fire, and a police vehicle with its rear window smashed.
Police fired shots to try to disperse the crowd, security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Simoes-Goncalves told The Associated Press in Rome the police officers were not able to control the crowd, despite firing bullets and tear gas. "They are still continually firing," he said at 2100 GMT, speaking on the telephone from inside the consulate where he was holed up. "They haven't managed to block them."
About 11 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) the rioters dispersed. "The situation is calm now," said diplomat Bellantone, adding that police had cordoned off the consulate.
The television did not show police firing, but it screened blue uniformed police officers carrying Kalashnikov rifles in the street outside the consulate. Nor did the channel show the rioters setting fire to the building, but the newscaster told viewers that "some protesters sneaked into the compound and set part of the consulate on fire."
Simoes-Goncalves said the rioters had torched four cars in the consulate compound and also broke windows. No Italians were injured during the riot, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.
The Italian consulate is the only Western diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
There was no demonstration outside the Italian Embassy in Tripoli, a possible indication of greater state control in the capital. Politics is tightly controlled in Libya, and open dissent is rare.
The Italian ambassador to Tripoli met late Friday with the Libyan interior minister "who expressed the condemnation of his government for the acts of violence occurring in Benghazi," the Italian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Numerous riots and demonstrations have broken out in Muslim countries in recent weeks over 12 cartoons on the Prophet Mohammad that first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September. They were republished in many other European newspapers earlier this month.

Les caricatures de Mahomet continuent de provoquer à travers le monde de l'indignation mais aussi des violences et des retombées politiques.

A Benghazi, deuxième ville de Libye, la police a ouvert le feu hier soir sur des manifestants qui tentaient de prendre d'assaut le consulat d'Italie. Le bilan de dix morts est le plus lourd depuis le début des manifestations organisées contre les caricatures de Mahomet dans plusieurs pays musulmans. Le ministre libyen de l'Intérieur a dû démissionner.

Ces émeutes font suite, à l'heure où la campagne électorale bat son plein en Italie en vue des législatives d'avril, à une provocation du ministre des Réformes, qui s'était affiché à la télévision avec un T-shirt sur le dos reproduisant des caricatures du prophète Mahomet. De nouvelles accusations contre l'islam aux médias italiens ont également jeté de l'huile sur le feu.

Ce ministre de la Ligue du Nord, mouvement populiste et xénophobe, n'entend pas s'excuser. "Je ne me sens pas responsable de ces morts", a-t-il déclaré. "Ce qui est en jeu, c'est la civilisation occidentale", a-t-il soutenu au quotidien La Repubblica. Il a du démissionné à la demande du président du Conseil, Silvio Berlusconi.

Ce dernier avait déjà scandalisé le monde arabe en affirmant, deux semaines après les attentats à New York, le 26 septembre 2001, "la supériorité de la civilisation occidentale". Il avait éprouvé les plus grandes difficultés à réparer les conséquences de ces propos.

Beaucoup plus calmement, à Londres, c'est plus de 15.000 manifestants selon la police, 40.000 selon les organisateurs, qui ont défilés pour dénoncer les caricatures du prophète publiés par uplusieurs journaux. En fin d'après-midi, les manifestants ont commencé à se disperser sans qu'aucun incident n'ait été signalé.

Le gouvernement pakistanais a lui interdit aujourd'hui tout rassemblement ce week-end à Islamabad mais une coalition de partis religieux a maintenu son appel à manifester demain dans la capitale. Au moins cinq personnes sont mortes dans les émeutes qui ont éclaté dans différentes villes du Pakistan lors de manifestations contre ces dessins. Le ministre pakistanais de l'Information a expliqué que les autorités avaient interdit les rassemblements par crainte de nouvelles violences.

De nouveaux rassemblements contre la publication de caricatures du prophète Mahomet en Europe ont dégénéré aujourd'hui dans le nord du Nigeria, à Maiduguri, capitale de l'Etat de Borno, et dans la ville de Katsina, capitale de l'Etat du même nom, en violences interconfessionnelles qui ont fait 16 morts.

Les violences ont commencé quand la police a tiré des gaz lacrymogènes pour disperser des manifestants, rassemblés à l'appel d'une organisation islamique. Des émeutiers s'en sont alors pris à la communauté chrétienne de la ville en brûlant et en pillant des églises ainsi que des magasins tenus par des chrétiens. "Nous avons arrêté 115 personnes. Une quinzaine de personnes ont été tuées par les émeutiers et 11 églises brûlées," a déclaré un porte-parole de la police.

Il s'agit des premières victimes enregistrées depuis le début du mouvement de protestation contre les caricatures au Nigeria, un pays où les violences confessionnelles surviennent de façon épisodique.

URL: http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_world/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19864_4478290,00.html

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libyans set fire to the Italian consulate in a riot that left at least 10 people dead, the bloodiest protest yet against the Prophet Muhammad cartoons that have roiled the Muslim world.

Most of the protests have been in Muslim countries, but today more than 10,000 people turned out for a march in London, many arriving in buses from cities around Britain.

The protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square where speaker after speaker denounced the cartoons, first published in a Danish newspaper last September then reprinted in European papers in recent weeks in the name of press freedom.

Also today about 1,000 Muslims protested peacefully in Indian-controlled Kashmir, carrying banners reading "We love our Prophet" and "Down with enemies of Islam."

On Friday, a Pakistani cleric announced a $1 million bounty for killing the cartoonist. Denmark temporarily closed its embassy in Pakistan and advised its citizens to leave the country.

Libyan security officials said 11 people were killed or wounded during Friday's riot in the eastern city of Benghazi when police firing bullets and tear gas tried to contain more than 1,000 demonstrators hurling rocks and bottles. The casualties included police officers, but the officials declined to say how many people died.

Rioters charged the consular compound and set fire to the first floor of the building, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

Domenico Bellantone, an Italian diplomat, said 10 or 11 people - all Libyan - had died.

The riot appeared to be a reaction to Italian Cabinet Minister Roberto Calderoli, who said this week he would wear a T-shirt printed with the cartoons, which have provoked protests across the Muslim world. His remark was widely published in Libya.

Calderoli wore the T-shirt beneath a suit on Friday. Hours later, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked for his resignation. The Italian consulate is the only Western diplomatic mission in Benghazi.

In Pakistan, the cleric Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi said the mosque and the religious school he leads would give a $25,000 reward and a car for killing the cartoonist who drew the caricatures - considered blasphemous by many Muslims. He said a local jewelers' association would also give $1 million, but no representative of the association was available to confirm the offer.

LAGOS, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Sixteen people died on Saturday when Nigerian Muslims protesting against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad torched 11 churches and rioted in the north of the country, police said.

It was the deadliest outbreak of violence so far in demonstrations which have swept the world over the cartoons, and the first violent protest in Nigeria, whose 140 million people are divided about equally between Christians and Muslims.

Police spokesman Haz Iwendi said 15 people were killed by rioters in the northeastern state of Borno where the churches were burned, and one person died in similar riots in the north-central state of Katsina.

"The army is assisting the police and a curfew has been imposed," Iwendi said in reference to the Borno riot.

Police arrested 115 people in the Borno state capital Maiduguri and 105 in Katsina, he added.

Several hotels, shops and vehicles were also torched in Maiduguri by the demonstrators who ran wild after police fired teargas to disperse them, residents said.

"At least 10 churches, some hotels, more than 20 shops and over 10 vehicles were burned by the protesters," one resident said by phone from Maiduguri.

Joseph Hayab, north-west secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Reuters most of those who died were Christians.

"The Muslim group came out to protest and the security forces tried to ensure it was peaceful, but there were some hoodlums in the crowd and somehow the security forces shot one or two of them," he said.

"They went on the rampage, burning shops and churches of the Christians. The protesters killed the others. Some were even killed in the churches."

The state government said troops were deployed in the streets of the capital to restore order. In previous religious riots in Nigeria the army has been given a shoot-to kill order to restore calm.

The far northeastern state on the edge of Lake Chad is predominantly Muslim with a sizeable Christian population. The state has recently seen an increase in Islamic radicalism.

Thousands have been killed in Christian-Muslim clashes over the last five years in Nigeria. Twelve northern states, including Borno, introduced Islamic sharia law in 2000 which has contributed to the animosity between the two religions.

Last week, assembly members in the northwestern state of Kano burned Danish flags in protest at the publication of the cartoons and said they would impose a boycott of Danish goods.

The satirical cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper last year and reprinted in European newspapers this year, triggering protests across the Muslim world. (Additional reporting by Tom Ashby)

Anti-3rd Term Riot in Katsina

At least one person was killed while five persons sustained various degrees of injuries in Katsina yesterday when police allegedly shot into a crowd of demonstrators protesting the planned public hearing on the amendment of the 1999 Constitution which they believed was aimed at creating a third term in office for President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Also in Maiduguri, about 16 people were reportedly killed as some muslims protest over cartoons published in Denmark depicting the Holy Prophet Muham-med.
In the Katsina riot, the injured persons including one of the co-ordinators of the protest, identified as Mallam Hamisu Safana, are currently receiving treatment at the Katsina General Hospital.
A public relations officer for the Concerned Citizens Against Third Term, Mallam Sabon Musa Hassan, told THISDAY that, "we were about 20,000 and we were marching to the Government House to complain to the governor that we do not want any public hearing concerning the Constitution because we know that the President wants an amendment to stay for a third term."
"It was a peaceful demonstration. When we got to the roundabout near the Government House, mobile policemen and opened fire on us. They shot some people on the leg and our leader received a gun shot on the head. He is in a critical condition now at the hospital. They did not allow us to see the governor," Hassan said.
In Maiduguri, churches and shops were also burnt during the riots which would have escalated to other parts of the state but for the timely intervention of the state Governor, Ali Modu Sheriff. Army troops and police reinforcements had been deployed and a curfew imposed to restore order, police spokesman Haz Iwendi said.
Hearing on the constitutional review which sparked off the protests in Katsina will take place in the six geo-political zones between Wednesday and Thursday.
Many Nigerians however harbour suspicion that the key objective of the constitution review exercise is to extend the tenure of office of President Obasanjo and some governors now serving their second term in office. The current 1999 Constitution allows a person to serve as president or governor for two terms of four years each.
Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) has said it would not take any position on the issue of the alleged plan in some quarters to elongate the tenure of President Obasanjo beyond 2007.
The EU which has membership drawn from a total of 25 countries however sai it was the alleged third term issue which is causing ripples in the land closely, Nigeria.
Speaking at a press briefing to mark the end of its two-day visit to Kaduna state on Friday, a delegation of EU Heads of Mission in Nigeria, described the third term issue as an entirely Nigerian internal affair which the union does not have the competence to deal with.
According to the leader of the delegation who is also the Austrian Ambassador, Dr. Christian Fellner, “there is no EU position on the third term question and we have not even discussed it because the EU should not hold any position on third term.
“It is none of our business, it is an internal matter for Nigeria. The United States of America can take whatever positions it desires on the matter. But of course we are following the developments closely and we want to see an outcome that will increase stability and prospects of good elections in 2007.
“That is a strong interest for us. We are working to promote free and fair elections by focusing on voter education especially at the grassroots level.”
Fellner said that the EU was equally committed to the control of corruption and corrupt practices in the polity, a development which he noted informed the union’s contribution of the sum of N4 billion to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He said,“that the donation gives you an indication of the importance we attach to strengthening the institution. With this help, we believe the EFCC will be in a better position to track funds that were transferred out of Nigeria illegally. This is one of the direct ways of helping Nigeria to fight corruption.”
Fellner condemned developments in the Niger Delta noting however that hostage taking would not solve problems in the area. According to him, the EU, in collaboration with some other agencies, had embarked on a number of measures to disarm militant groups in the Niger Delta.
He said, “we at the European Union also believe that we should promote the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [EITI], to promote transparency and accountability regarding revenues from oil and gas exploitations.”

Caricatures de Mahomet: des responsables religieux arrêtés au Pakistan avant une grande manifestation

ISLAMABAD (AP) - Plusieurs responsables musulmans pakistanais ont été arrêtés ou assignés à résidence par la police dimanche afin d'empêcher une grande manifestation à Islamabad contre la publication de caricatures du prophète Mahomet dans la presse occidentale.
Selon Mian Maqsood, porte-parole d'une coalition de six partis religieux, «des centaines» de personnes ont été arrêtées. Le ministre de l'Intérieur Aftab Khan Sherpao a de son côté indiqué que seulement une vingtaine avaient été arrêtées pour empêcher la manifestation prévue dans la journée dans la capitale pakistanaise.
Samedi, les autorités pakistanaises avaient décidé d'interdire les rassemblements dans plusieurs villes de l'est du pays, où des émeutes ont fait des morts la semaine dernière. Au total, cinq personnes ont été tuées dans tout le Pakistan lors de manifestations contre la publication des caricatures de Mahomet.
Les organisateurs du rassemblement d'Islamabad ont toutefois maintenu leur appel à manifester dimanche.
Parmi les responsables religieux arrêtés ou assignés à leur résidence figurent Qazi Hussain Ahmad, chef de la coalition de six partis et Mian Mohammed Aslam, député affilié à cette coalition. AP

Le centre-ville de Vancouver a retenti du son des chants islamiques, samedi, lorsque des centaines de personnes se sont réunies pour manifester pacifiquement contre des caricatures présentant le prophète Mahomet comme un terroriste.

Tous ceux qui ont pris la parole ont dénoncé ces caricatures, publiées en septembre dernier par un journal danois, le Jyllands-Posten. Ils ont affirmé que l'objectif des dessins était d'abaisser et d'insulter les musulmans.

Plusieurs se sont montrés indignés que les défenseurs des caricatures invoquent la liberté de presse pour justifier leur publication, à l'étranger et au Canada _ dans le cas d'une publication albertaine, le Western Standard.

"Nous reconnaissons que nous sommes dans une société démocratique et que nous devons respecter la liberté de presse, a affirmé Mohamed Shafiq à la foule. Toutefois, nous devons respecter les droits des autres. Il faudrait faire preuve de responsabilité quand ces droits sont invoqués."

Au cours des dernières semaines, plusieurs manifestations et émeutes ont eu lieu à travers le monde à cause de ces caricatures.

Par ailleurs, un journal étudiant de l'Université de Toronto a refusé de se rétracter après avoir publié une caricature montrant Mahomet embrassant Jésus.

Nick Ragaz, représentant du journal, a refusé de retirer des présentoirs l'édition courante du journal, dans laquelle le dessin est publié.

Il a affirmé que la publication de la caricature avait pour but de susciter un débat et ne devait pas être perçue comme faisant la promotion de la violence ou de la haine raciale.

Libya's parliamentary secretariat suspended interior minister and referred him for investigation after riots in the city of Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of at least 11 people. Sunday was declared a day of mourning for "our martyr sons," an official statement has said.

the six-hour riot took place on Friday outside the Italian consulate, where more than 1,000 demonstrators gathered in an angry protest, apparently in reaction to an Italian Cabinet minister who said he would wear a T-shirt printed with the cartoons satirizing Prophet Muhammad.

The crowd hurled rocks and bottles before storming the building and setting fire to it and cars nearby.

The Italian Reform Minister Roberto Calderoli resigned Saturday after being blamed by Libya for sparking the protests, ANSA news agency reported. The 49-year-old minister drew strong criticism from his colleagues in the cabinet for wearing the T-shirt and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had asked to step down.

The final death toll of Friday’s riot in Benghazi is 11 dead and 69 wounded, 25 of them are in critical situation, sources at the People's Committee for Health in Benghazi confirmed.

A number of non-Libyan citizens were among the victims of the incident that occurred in front of the Italian consulate in Benghazi

The sources said that among the dead were one Syrian of a Palestinian origin and one Palestinian.

“ two Syrians, two Palestinians, four Egyptians and one Sudanese were injured during the riot,” the sources confirmed.

The sources indicated that work was underway to verify whether still there are more non-Libyans among the injured and the dead.

Meanwhile, a special plane carrying four of the wounded people in the demonstration left Benina International Airport Saturday night for treatment abroad.

The departure of the plane with the wounded for treatment abroad is in line with the decision of the General People's Committee to send the cases -that require so- abroad for treatment.

The General Coordinator of the Social People's Leaderships in Libya and the Assistant Secretary of the General people's Committee accompanied by the Coordinator of the Social People's Leaderships in Benghazi and the Secretary of the People's Congress in the city, made a visit on Saturday to al-Jala hospital for Surgery and Accidents in Benghazi where citizens who suffered injuries are being treated as a result of the clashes between police and the people who marched towards the Italian consulate.

The General Coordinator of the SPLs and the Assistant of the GPC were reassured about the health conditions of those wounded.

The General Coordinator of the SPLs said what has happened in front of the Italian Consulate in Benghazi on Friday will not go without investigation. He confirmed that immediate instructions has been made to send the injured whose conditions require treatment abroad as soon as possible.

45 killed in Nigeria cartoon riots
[ Sunday, February 19, 2006 04:35:45 pm IANS ]

ABUJA: The Nigerian government deployed troops in the northeastern parts of the country on Sunday as the death toll from the previous day's riots over the controversial Prophet Mohammed cartoons rose to 45.
Police reports said 42 people have been arrested in the city of Maiduguri, capital city of Borneo state and the scene of Saturday's riots.
Soldiers have been deployed amid fears that rioters could regroup or strike in another city in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north.
Mufutau Ogunyemi, an undergraduate student at the University of Maiduguri, told DPA on Sunday that there was calm in the city as foot soldiers and armoured vehicles patrolled the streets.
"Figures of arrests have been contradictory. While some said 30 were arrested, others put the figure at close to 100. A Christian policeman and a pastor are hiding in our house now," he said.
"We are lucky that our landlord, an indigenous ethnic Kanuri, is a liberal Muslim and chose to still accommodate us," he added.
Most of the victims of Saturday's violence were Christians or other non-Muslims.
Rioters razed 18 churches during the protests and at least 17 houses were set alight.
Thousands of demonstrators took part in Saturday's rally to protest the cartoons of Prophet Mohammed, published last year by a Danish newspaper.

Caricatures de Mahomet: les autorités ont bouclé Islamabad pour empêcher toute manifestation de masse

ISLAMABAD (AP) - La police pakistanaise a pratiquement bouclé la capitale Islamabad, dimanche, réussissant à empêcher le grand rassemblement de protestation contre les caricatures de Mahomet auquel avaient appelé les formations islamistes.
Les autorités avaient pris les devants dès la veille en envoyant la police effectuer des descentes dans trois villes du pays dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche, procédant à des centaines d'interpellations et assignations à résidence, y compris parmi des députés.
La police avait bloqué les voies d'accès à la capitale et annoncé que toute personne participant à un rassemblement de plus de cinq personnes serait arrêtée.
La tentative de rassemblement elle-même a donné lieu à une dispersion musclée, à coups de grenades lacrymogènes et de tirs en l'air. Les affrontements ont duré trois heures, les manifestants tentant de pénétrer dans l'enclave diplomatique de la capitale.
Les autorités craignaient une répétition des émeutes qui ont fait cinq morts dans deux villes la semaine dernière.
C'est une coalition de formations islamiques, le Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) ou Forum d'action uni, qui appelait à descendre dans la rue. Le MMA est proche des anciens talibans afghans et farouchement anti-américain.
Le chef de l'opposition, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, qui avait dénoncé cette interdiction de manifester comme inconstitutionnelle, a été autorisé tenir un petit meeting avec huit autres députés et quelques partisans. Les participants ont scandé quelques slogans tels que «Dieu est grand!» et «tout ami de l'Amérique est un traître».
Le président du Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, entretient de bonnes résolutions avec Washington.

Nigerian rioters have killed at least 15 people after a protest against the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad descended into violence, a police spokesman says.

Witnesses told reporters that protesters turned on the Christian minority in the northern city of Maiduguri on Saturday, burning shops and churches, after police dispersed a rally called to condemn European newspapers that printed the caricatures.

A police spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Haz Iwendi, told reporters that army troops and police reinforcements had been deployed to the city and that a curfew had been imposed to bring about a return to order.

"We've arrested 115 people. Some 15 persons were killed by rioters, and 11 churches burnt," he said.

The victims were the first to die in Nigeria as anger over the drawings of Islam's prophet mounts among its 60 million Muslims, roughly half the population.

Police action

Mohammed Auwal, a civil servant, told reporters by telephone: "When the protesters gathered for the protest at Ramat square they were ordered by a police detachment to disperse but the crowd insisted on holding the protest."

"The policemen then fired canisters of teargas to disperse the crowd.

"When news went into town about what happened at the square, a mob attacked motor spare-parts shops of Christian Igbo traders at Monday market in the city, looting and burning them," Auwalu said.

A local reporter, Abdullahi Bego, told reporters from the scene that at least 20 shops had been looted and vandalised and churches had been burned to the ground.

"There are a lot of anti-riot police squad all over the city and their presence has helped quell the rampage," Bego said. Ibrahim Bukar, a student, said: "I have been indoors since the riots broke out, but a friend told me he saw two dead bodies at the scene of the looting."

Muslim anger

In recent weeks there have been protests around the world -some peaceful, some violent - by Muslims angry over the publication in European newspapers of cartoons satirising Islam's holiest figure, Prophet Muhammad.

In a radio broadcast following the violence, Ali Modu Sheriff, the local governor, said: "The Borno State government is shocked and disgusted."

Sheriff, a Muslim like the vast majority of Borno State residents, said that while he sympathised with the feelings of Muslims offended by the cartoons, Nigerian Christians should in no way be blamed for them.

In Abuja, Frank Nweke, the Nigerian information minister, called on religious leaders to rein in their angry followers.

Call for calm

"The federal government, while it does not begrudge any group the right to defend their faith and religion, also believes that certain actions - such as burning of churches - are not the best way," he told reporters.

Northern Nigeria is overwhelmingly Muslim, but major cities have significant Christian minorities, mainly members of the Igbo ethnic group who operate successful small businesses, trading especially in car parts and alcohol.

Since 1999 a dozen northern states, including Borno, have attempted to reintroduce Islamic Sharia law, exacerbating latent tensions between the communities and triggering several bloody riots.

Sometimes external factors such as the cartoon controversy trigger the fighting. In September 2001 news of the attack by al-Qaida hijackers on New York and Washington rekindled unrest in Jos which killed 915 people.

And in 2002 an attempt to stage the Miss World beauty contest in Nigeria offended conservative Muslims and led to a riot which left 220 dead.

Mayhem in Borno Over Controversial Cartoon

Daily Champion (Lagos)
NEWS
February 19, 2006
Posted to the web February 20, 2006

By Raymond Gukas
Maiduguri

AT least three persons were feared dead and property worth millions of naira burnt Saturday when Muslims took to the streets of Maiduguri, Borno State capital denouncing recent anti-Islamic cartoons published by a newspaper in Denmark.

Several churches including Saint Mary Catholic Church near the federal low cost housing estate, Winners Chapel, Bulumkutu and St. Augustine Anglican Church on Lagos Street were burnt in the mayhem.

Borno State governor, Ali Modu Sheriff in his response to the demonstration drafted a combined team of soldiers and anti-riot policemen to contain the situation.

Trouble started when one of the policemen drafted to the venue of a public lecture on "The Personality of the Holy Prophet" allegedly fired a cannister of tear gas to disperse a gathering who caught a pick pocket and were bent on lynching the suspect.

The tear gas, it was gathered provoked the violent crisis as some miscreants and almajiris took advantage of the commotion to destroy and loot private properties, setting ablaze shops, houses and churches in the process.

Efforts by Senator Sheriff to bring the situation under control failed at the first attempt as scores of miscreants chanting "Allahu Akbar" blocked his convoy thereby disrupting further movement on the busy post office area through Dandal Way.

However, during a second attempt to douse tension, Governor Sheriff detailed security caution and drove to the Maimalari Military Barracks where he secured the release of a contingent of military personnel who helped quell the riot.

Although the police deserted the troubled spots, a source at the state police command confirmed that some policemen who were injured were receiving treatment at the police clinic.

It was learnt that the Muslim Forum had earlier obtained police and security service permission to organise the lecture which they urged muslim Umma in the state to show solidarity by mobilising muslims to grace the event where Islamic scholars were expected to deliver papers.

A visibly disturbed Governor Sheriff had after touring the troubled spots in the metropolis in company of security chiefs later went into a marathon security meeting which ended in a state wide broadcast in local electronic media.

In the broadcast, the governor sympathised with muslim faithful in the state over the offending cartoon, but warned that the government would not fold its arm to watch undesirable elements cause havoc.

He said security personnel have been placed on red alert and all those involved in the violent acts would be brought to book and call for calm as steps have been taken to deal decisively with the situation.

A high level committee he said would be seek up to look into the remote and immediate cause by the riot and urged the people to remain peaceful and go about their normal duties.

Meanwhile the state police commissioner, Mohammed Abubakar shortly after the broadcast that the miscreants overpowered his men at the initial stage that was why the violence lasted that long.

By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP)- Pakistani security forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners, virtually sealed off the capital and used gunfire and tear gas Sunday to quell protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Pakistan had banned protests after riots killed five people in two cities last week.

Elsewhere in the Muslim world on Sunday, demonstrators with wooden staves and stones tried unsuccessfully to storm the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, while tens of thousands rallied in the Turkish city of Istanbul and complained about negative Western perceptions of Islam.

Troops patrolled the deserted streets of the northern Nigerian town of Maiduguri, where thousands of Muslims attacked Christians and burned churches Saturday, killing at least 15 people during a protest over the cartoons. Most of the victims were beaten to death by rioters.

In Saudi Arabia, newspapers ran full-page apologies by Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first ran the caricatures in September. The newspaper's Web site said businesses placed the ad on their own initiative, using an apology issued by the newspaper late last month. It did not identify the companies or say if they were Danish.

Boycotts of Danish products throughout the Muslim world have taken a heavy toll on Denmark's exporters, especially those selling Denmark's famed dairy products.

The cartoons, which have been reprinted by other Western publications, have outraged Muslims. But protests over the past three weeks have grown into a broader anger against the West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular.

Demonstrations have turned increasingly violent and claimed at least 45 lives worldwide, including 11 in Afghanistan during a three-day span two weeks ago and 10 on Friday in the Libyan coastal city of Benghazi. The Libyan riot outside the Italian consulate apparently was sparked by a right-wing Italian Cabinet minister who wore a T-shirt with a caricature of Muhammad.

On Sunday, thousands of police and paramilitary troops manned armored personnel carriers and sandbag bunkers in and around Islamabad to block a planned rally organized by a coalition of hardline Islamic parties that sympathizes with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and is fiercely anti-American.

As roadblocks went up around the capital, authorities declared they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five people.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, an opposition leader who denounced the government ban as unconstitutional, was allowed to stage a small rally with eight other opposition lawmakers and a few supporters. They chanted "God is great!" and "Any friend of America is a traitor."

But police fired tear gas and guns to chase off hundreds of stone-throwing protesters who tried to join the rally and then enter an enclave where most foreign embassies are. The three-hour clash left the street littered with rocks and spent tear gas shells. An Associated Press reporter saw two injured police, one bleeding from his head, and several injured protesters.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said police used tear gas, but denied they fired guns. The private Geo TV network said officers fired rubber bullets.

Qazi Hussain Ahmad, a top leader of the hardline Islamic coalition, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (United Action Forum), was confined to his Lahore residence and others were detained or told to stay at home, police said.

"These people could create problems of law and order," said Chaudhry Shafqaat Ahmed, chief investigator of the Lahore police.

In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, police said 15,000 coalition supporters, most wearing white shrouds of mourning splashed with red paint to symbolize their willingness to die defending the prophet's honor, rallied peacefully.

Twelve-year-old Amar Ahmed joined the protest, carrying a sign reading, "O Allah, give me courage to kill the blasphemer."

Hundreds of Muslims burned a church in the southern city of Sukkur. No worshippers were inside at the time, but one person was hurt afterward when police fired tear gas.

Local police chief Akbar Arian said the riot was not sparked by the cartoons but by allegations that a local Christian had burned pages of Islam's holy book, the Quran — another sign of the heightened sectarian tensions in this overwhelmingly Muslim nation.

In Indonesia, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in central Jakarta behind a banner that read, "We are ready to attack the enemies of the prophet."

Brandishing wooden staves and lobbing stones, they tried to storm the gates. They also set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush, and smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes.

The U.S. Embassy condemned the attack as "thuggery."

In Istanbul, tens of thousands joined a protest organized by the Islamic Felicity Party, whose leaders shouted over loudspeakers that the crowd symbolized the anger of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims and urged them to "resist oppression." Protesters chanted slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.

Ethem Erkovan, a 47-year-old participant who held a banner in one hand and his daughter in the other, accused Western nations of maligning Islam. "They are the ones who are trying to depict the expanding Islamic community as terrorists, though all we want is peace," he said.

Associated Press writers Sadaqat Jan in Islamabad, C. Onur Ant in Istanbul, Ali Kotarumalos in Jakarta and Abdullah al-Shihri in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, contributed to this report.

Après les émeutes anti-chrétiennes de samedi qui ont fait quinze morts, un Etat du Nord du pays a interdit la tenue d'une manifestation lundi.

L'Etat de Gombe, dans le nord du Nigeria, a interdit lundi 20 février la tenue d'une manifestation organisée par des musulmans qui souhaitaient protester contre la publication en Europe de caricatures du prophète Mahomet.
"Nous n'allons pas autoriser la manifestation contre les caricature danoises prévue aujourd'hui", a déclaré le chef de la police de Gombe, Atiku Yusuf.
"C'est dans l'intérêt de la paix", a-t-il ajouté, reconnaissant qu'il faut "trouver un compromis avec les libertés d'expression et d'association quand la paix civile est en jeu".
"Nous avons déployé nos hommes dans toute la ville pour s'assurer que personne ne trouble la paix et cause des problèmes", a-t-il ajouté, depuis Gombe, capitale de cet Etat voisin de l'Etat de Borno.

Une quinzaine de morts

Des manifestations de protestation contre les caricatures de Mahomet ont dégénéré samedi dans le nord-est du pays. Elles ont fait une quinzaine de morts, ont annoncé les autorités. Selon des témoins, trois enfants et un prêtre catholique figurent parmi les victimes.
Les manifestants ont pris à partie des chrétiens et ont incendié leurs commerces et des églises, selon des témoins.

Quinze églises ont été brûlées dans la localité de Maiduguri, a indiqué la police.
L'armée et la police ont été déployées pour rétablir l'ordre et plusieurs dizaines de personnes ont été interpellées.
Il s'agit de la première manifestation d'importance provoquée par les caricatures dépeignant le prophète de l'islam et parues dans quelques journaux européens dans le pays le plus peuplé d'Afrique. La population du Nigeria est estimé à 130 millions d'habitants pour moitié musulmane au Nord, chrétienne et animiste au Sud.

Machettes, bâtons et barres de fer

Un journaliste de l'agence Associated Press (AP) présent sur place a vu des groupes de protestataires essaimer dans le centre de Maiduguri, armés de machettes, de bâtons et de barres de fer. Un groupe a fait subir le supplice du collier à un malheureux en lui jetant un pneu autour du coup, en l'aspergeant d'essence avant de lui mettre le feu.
D'après Chima Ezeoke, un chrétien de Maiduguri, les manifestants ont pillé des commerces appartenant à des chrétiens. "La plupart des morts sont des chrétiens battus à mort dans la rue par les émeutiers", selon ce témoin.
Les affrontements entre les deux communautés religieuses sont assez fréquentes au Nigeria. (AP)

Les caricatures de Les récentes caricatures du Prophète Mahommed ont entraîné une vague importante de violence ce week-end, au Nigéria. A Lagos, la capitale du Nigéria, les rapports de police annoncèrent 144 arrestations lors de scène de violence qui se sont déroulées ce samedi. L’armée a été appelée en renfort pour éviter que les émeutes gagnent d’autres villes du nord.

L’appel au calme de la Jama Ahmadiyya rappelant que "la vrai mission du Prophète s’adressait à tout le monde pronant calme et tolérance vis à vis toute forme de provocation" ciblant ainsi les faits derniers concernant les caricatures du prophète, n’auront pas suffit à contenir l’envergure du phénomène.

Plus grave, dans l’état du Borno, plus d’une dizaine de morts a été décomptée ainsi que l’incendie de 46 églises, 22 cars et plus de 40 magasins appartenant à de non musulmans lors d’une manifestation organisée à l’encontre du Danemark et des médias danois.

Cette marche s’était pourtant annoncée pacifiste mais la tension qui ornait le défilé a toute de suite pris le dessus lorsque les policiers intervinrent pour sauver un pick pocket lynché par la foule. Pour repousser les assaillants, les forces de l’ordre ont lancé des bombes lachrymogènes en vain. Les jeunes s’encouragèrent en chantant des versets et criant des slogans anti-gouvernementalistes. Puis brutalement, la foule assoiffée de haine s’attaqua aux églises et autres biens suspectés d’appartenir à des catholiques ou protestants.

Les autorités déplorent la mort de 17 personnes dont un religieux catholique. Le gouverneur de l’état de Borno, Ali Modu Sheriff, demande à la communauté chrétienne de ne pas franchir le pas de la violence et assure que la crise sera résolue avec l’aide fédérale.

Ces émeutes s’inscrivent dans un climat de violence où le Nigéria est confronté depuis plus d’une semaine à des troubles au niveau des compagnies pétrolières.

(RV-lundi 20 février 2006) 44 morts : c’est le bilan de l’explosion de violences qui a suivi la publication des caricatures de Mahomet ces deux dernières semaines, dans le monde musulman. En Libye, on s’apprete à célébrer aujourd’hui les funérailles des 11 victimes des émeutes de Benghazi, vendredi. Tandis qu'au Nigeria, le couvre feu a été renforcé ; au cours des violences de ces derniers jours, les chrétiens ont été visés directement. 11 églises ont été brûlées et 16 personnes tuées, samedi.

updated: 20 Feb 2006

DEATH toll in Maiduguri religious riot which broke out on Saturday has risen to 16. Among those killed was a Catholic priest, Mike Gajere, who was burnt to ashes at St. Rita’s Catholic Church, Maiduguri.

Also, during the incident, no fewer than 15 churches were razed while shops, hotels, houses and several cars belonging to Christians were destroyed by the Muslim fanatics who were seen in large numbers at different locations of the town, shouting war songs and carrying dangerous weapons.

Nigerian Tribune investigations further revealed that many of the people killed were burnt beyond recognition. The killings, according to an eyewitness, started at the Ramat Square, Maiduguri, where a public lecture on the personality of the Prophet Mohammed, which was organised by Muslim Forum, the umbrella body of all Islamic organisations, was being held.

According to the eyewitness, as the public lecture which had in attendance prominent Islamic scholars was going on, a pick pocket was said to have been caught and was taken to the police station.

On the way to the police station, a group of people followed the policemen who were taking the suspected thief to the station, insisting that he (pick pocket) must be lynched.

In the ensuing struggle, one of the policemen was said to have thrown a tear gas canister at them. The mob then went wild and started damaging things. The riots in Nigeria are the first violent protests in the country over the cartoons.

Also, reports from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said the protest had begun peacefully in Maiduguri, and it was not clear what started the violence. The city’s residents described demonstrators running wild after police tried to disperse the protest with tear gas.

Crowds of protesters carried machetes, sticks and iron rods through the city centre, the Associated Press news agency reported. One group threw a tyre around one man, poured petrol on him and set him ablaze, it said.

Christian leader, Joseph Hayab, told Reuters agency that most of those who died had been Christians. “The Muslim group came out to protest and the security forces tried to ensure it was peaceful, but there were some hoodlums in the crowd and somehow, the security forces shot one or two of them,” said Mr Hayab.

“They went on the rampage, burning shops and churches of the Christians. The protesters killed the others. Some were even killed in the churches.” Soldiers have been deployed and a curfew imposed. Around 115 people were arrested in Maiduguri and 105 in Katsina.

Borno State governor, Modu Sheriff, said the state “was shocked and disgusted” by “the civil disturbance” in Maiduguri.

No fewer than 58 persons were killed and 30 churches burnt as the protest in Maiduguri, Borno State, over controversial cartoons published in Europe on Prophet Muhammed turned violent.

A victim, Mr Joseph Tukwa watched helplessly as six of his children were burnt to ashes. Another family of five in another part of Maiduguri were also burnt to death in the disturbance which occurred last Saturday.

In a reaction, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Borno State chapter has accused the police command of complicity in the crisis. The state chairman, Rev. Joshua Adamu revealed that over 68 persons were reported dead and churches numbering about 30 burnt in various parts of the city.

Altogether, he estimated that the CAN corporate members have suffered greatly, putting the loss at over N5 billion .

According to the state secretary, Rev Niven Mshelia, the police failed to act promptly to nip the crisis in the bud. Rev Mshelia told journalists that the police failed to provide security while the hoodlums were gathering, and for over three hours disappeared from the city of Maiduguri while the havoc was going on.

Daily Sun counted over 50 shops and three hotels belonging to southerners which were either burnt, looted or destroyed. Dr. Anthony Uba who led the delegation of Igbo Community Welfare Association to meet with Governor Sheriff at the Government House, told journalists that the damage in terms of lives lost and property damaged was extensive and yet to be estimated. “We are now seeking hope, shelter and food for the homeless,” he said.

Rev Mshelia, however, asserted that southerners were the main target, and they greatly suffered during the crisis, which lasted over six hours.

The state commissioner of police, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed said the police has on its record 17 deaths, while they have arrested 144 suspects. He also confirmed that 30 churches were completely burnt down.

The first 11 people whose death were actually confirmed, a priest and his personal assistant, were burnt to death at St. Theresa Catholic Church in Olokutu area of Maiduguri.

Sources at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital also confirmed that more than 35 corpses were received at the hospital mortuary. However, the sources declined disclosing their identities.

Prominent on the list of churches destroyed include newly completed multi-million naira two-storey building of the Living Faith Church, which premises houses a nursery and primary school,

The Deeper Life Church also lost its state headquarters, while the Catholic Church lost over 10 church compounds housing church halls, offices and residents for its priests and other church workers.

Governor Sheriff in a speech on Saturday warned that there would be no sacred cow in dealing with the culprits caught in the crisis.

L'INSTRUMENTALISATION politique, par les formations islamistes, de la publication – déjà ancienne – de caricatures de Mahomet dans un journal danois, n'en finit pas de tuer. Au Nigeria, samedi, elle a provoqué la mort de quinze chrétiens – qui n'avaient bien sûr rien à voir avec ces caricatures – et brûlé onze églises.

C'est la ville à majorité musulmane de Maiduguri, située au nord du grand pays anglophone de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, qui fut le théâtre de ce massacre. Tout a commencé par une manifestation, qui avait été appelée par une organisation islamique. Initialement, les manifestants s'étaient rassemblés pour écouter leur leader, qui a dénoncé les caricatures du Prophète, et appelé à la punition des responsables de leur publication. Les violences ont commencé après que la police eut tiré des gaz lacrymogènes pour disperser les manifestants. Des émeutiers s'en sont alors pris à la communauté chrétienne de la ville, brûlant et pillant les églises, ainsi que les magasins tenus par les chrétiens.

Le Nigeria, pays fédéral grand comme presque deux fois la France, compte 130 millions d'habitants, dont 60 millions de musulmans et autant de chrétiens. Le nord du pays est très majoritairement musulman, mais d'importantes minorités chrétiennes sont installées dans ses principales villes. Ces chrétiens sont presque tous des Ibos (principale ethnie du Sud-Est du pays).

Le gouvernement fédéral de Lagos a instauré, dès samedi soir, le couvre-feu dans tout le nord du Nigeria. Policiers et militaires effectuent des patrouilles conjointes dans cette ville de Maiduguri, capitale de l'Etat fédéré de Borno, située à l'extrême nord-est du pays (à 200 kilomètres à vol d'oiseau de N'Djamena).

La ville de Katsina, capitale de l'Etat du même nom, située à l'extrême nord du pays, a elle aussi été le théâtre, samedi, de violentes manifestations islamistes. Mais elles ont été moins meurtrières qu'à Maiduguri (un émeutier tué par balle par la police).

«Nous appelons tous les Nigérians, quelle que soit leur croyance, à suivre le chemin de la paix», a déclaré samedi soir le ministre fédéral de l'Information. «Le gouvernement, qui ne refuse à aucun groupe le droit de défendre sa foi et sa religion, pense que certains actes, comme le fait de brûler des églises, ne constituent pas le meilleur moyen de le faire», a ajouté le ministre, dans un bel exemple d'understatement britannique.

Après son indépendance en 1963, le Nigeria ne connut pratiquement que des régimes militaires. Depuis 1999 et le retour à un régime civil, plusieurs Etats du nord de la fédération ont instauré la charia (loi islamique), provoquant souvent des violences contre les minorités chrétiennes.

Après les attentats islamistes du 11 septembre 2001 aux Etats-Unis, des affrontements entre musulmans et chrétiens avaient fait 915 morts à Jos, capitale de l'Etat du Plateau (centre du pays). En 2002, le concours de Miss Monde, prévu au Nigeria, avait été annulé et transféré en Grande-Bretagne après des émeutes de musulmans fondamentalistes, qui avaient fait 220 morts.

By Rotimi Ajayi, Bala Ajiya & Tanimu Dogare
Posted to the Web: Monday, February 20, 2006

MAIDUGURI — TROOPS were deployed in Maiduguri and Katsina, Saturday, after protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed triggered riots in which 16 people died and 11 churches burnt.
Fifteen of the victims died in the Maiduguri riots and the remaining one in Katsina when police opened fire into a crowd of stone-throwers. The police also arrested 220 suspects and a curfew imposed.
Some residents of Maiduguri have been fleeing the state on account of the riots. The Borno State government, reacting to the riots, set up a high-powered administrative committee to probe the unrest which it described as unfortunate and condemnable.

Christians in the North Central Zone deplored the riots and said they would not fold arms while they are being attacked.
Trouble had first broken out in Katsina when the crowd began protesting against rumours that President Olusegun Obasanjo might change the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term.
But in both incidents, the protesters had initially gathered to hear Islamic leaders denounce the cartoons and to call for their publishers to be punished.
“The situation out there is regrettable,” Information Minister Frank Nweke said Saturday in Abuja after a meeting with President Obasanjo.

“The Federal Government, while it does not begrudge any group the right to defend their faith and their religion, it also believes that certain actions– such as burning of churches and all of that– are not the best way. We are pleased that the security agencies have since moved into action and the situation is under control. Again, we appeal to all Nigerians, irrespective of their faith, to continue to follow the path of peace. We hope that religious leaders will continue to counsel their people to embrace peace and peaceful co-existence,” he said.

In a swift reaction, Governor Ali Modu Sheriff on Saturday inaugurated a high-powered Administrative Committee of Inquiry into the Maiduguri religious disturbances. He described the incident as unfortunate, condemnable and aimed at disrupting the age-long peaceful co-existence of the people of the state.
He said it was planned by some unscrupulous elements in the state to tarnish the highly cherished name of Borno the Home of Peace, and vowed that government would leave no stone unturned to ensure that justice, equity, understanding and harmonious co-existence prevail in the state.

Governor Sheriff said for democracy to be entrenched and meaningful developments to take place, “we must imbibe the habit of accommodating everyone. We must also forget our differences and learn to live with one another as a family.”
The Committee comprises the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ambassador Baba Ahmed Jidda as Chairman and Alhaji Lawan Tom Ahmed as the Secretary. Others members are the Brigade Commander, Police Commissioner, Director of SSS, Commissioners of Works and Housing, Information, Sports, Education, Chief Imam OF Borno, CAN president and President, Igbos Welfare Association.

Also reacting, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), North Central and Plateau zone, the Reverend Yakubu Pam said Christians in the area would not allow themselves to be massacred as it happened in 2001 in Plateau State. “I want to make it emphatically clear that this time around we will not fold our arms. We will react if they come to us. We are ready for anything and we are not going to be intimidated, he told Vanguard.

“Islamic scholars and leaders should call their people to order and the Federal Government should put more security on ground to prevent the violence from spreading further. What has happened in Maiduguri is bad because there is no how something will happen somewhere else and I will start burning my neighbours’ property and killing. Things that our brothers are doing is out of context. If somebody defame my religion, I should be able to call him to order instead of doing harm to my neighbour with whom I have been living over the years.
“What we even heard is that the security people in Borno State were aware of the violence ahead of time and yet no security was in place to protect lives and property. ”

LAGOS 20/02 (BELGA/AG) = Des manifestations samedi dans deux villes du nord du Nigeria contre la publication de caricatures du prophète Mahomet en Europe ont fait 24 morts et 230 blessés, selon un nouveau bilan établi par la Croix Rouge nigériane. "Selon les rapports de nos agents qui étaient samedi sur le terrain à Maïduguri, 21 personnes sont mortes et 207 ont été blessées, 50 maisons ont été détruites et 32 autres incendiées ainsi que 250 magasins et dix églises", a déclaré le responsable national de la gestion des désastres de la Croix rouge nigériane, Adronicus Adeyemo. "A Katsina, trois personnes sont mortes tandis que 23 autres ont été blessées ou hospitalisées", a-t-il ajouté, notant qu'un millier de personnes sont déplacées". Un précédent bilan faisait état de 15 morts à Maïduguri, dont un prêtre, et un à Katsina. (GFR)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani security forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners, virtually sealed off the capital and used gunfire and tear gas Sunday to quell protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

Pakistan had banned protests after riots killed five people in two cities last week.

Elsewhere in the Muslim world Sunday, demonstrators with wooden staves and stones tried unsuccessfully to storm the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, while tens of thousands rallied in the Turkish city of Istanbul and complained about negative Western perceptions of Islam.

Soldiers patrolled the deserted streets of the northern Nigerian town of Maiduguri, where thousands of Muslims attacked Christians and burned churches Saturday, killing at least 15 people during a protest over the cartoons. Most of the victims were beaten to death by rioters.

In Saudi Arabia, newspapers ran full-page apologies by Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first ran the caricatures in September. The newspaper's Web site said businesses placed the ad, using an apology issued by the newspaper late last month. It did not identify the companies or say if they were Danish.

Boycotts of Danish products throughout the Muslim world have taken a heavy toll on Denmark's exporters, especially those selling Denmark's famed dairy products.

The cartoons, which have been reprinted by other Western publications, have outraged Muslims. But protests over the past three weeks have grown into a broader anger against the West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular.

Demonstrations have turned increasingly violent and have killed at least 45 worldwide, including 11 in Afghanistan during a three-day span two weeks ago and 10 on Friday in the Libyan coastal city of Benghazi. The Libyan riot outside the Italian Consulate apparently was sparked by a right-wing Italian Cabinet minister who wore a T-shirt with a caricature of Muhammad.

Sunday, thousands of police and paramilitary troops staffed armored personnel carriers and sandbag bunkers in and around Islamabad to block a planned rally organized by a coalition of Islamist parties that sympathize with the former Taliban leadership in Afghanistan and is fiercely anti-American.

As roadblocks went up, authorities declared they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five people.

Maulana Fazlur Rahman, an opposition leader who denounced the government ban as unconstitutional, was allowed to stage a small rally with eight other opposition lawmakers and a few supporters. They chanted ``God is great!'' and ``Any friend of America is a traitor.''

Police fired tear gas and guns to chase off hundreds of stone-throwing protesters who tried to join the rally and then enter an enclave where most foreign embassies are. The three-hour clash left the street littered with rocks and spent tear gas shells.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said police used tear gas, but denied they fired guns. The private Geo TV network said officers fired rubber bullets.

In Indonesia, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in central Jakarta behind a banner that read, ``We are ready to attack the enemies of the prophet.''

Brandishing wooden staves and lobbing stones, they tried to storm the gates. They also set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush, and smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes.

BAUCHI, Nigeria, Feb 20 (Reuters) Muslim protesters set fire to churches and clashed with police in the northeastern Nigerian city of Bauchi today and the violence left at least five people dead on the streets, a Reuters witness said.

The violence followed weekend riots that killed at least 28 people in two other predominantly Muslim northern Nigerian cities, Maiduguri and Katsina, although it was not immediately clear if the Bauchi trouble was connected.

Residents said trouble began after a teacher in a secondary school tried to confiscate a Koran from a student who was reading it during class. Word got out into the streets that the teacher had desecrated the Koran, infuriating Muslims.

A Reuters witness saw Muslim youths set fire to two churches and to cars and tyres in central Bauchi. The protesters hurled stones at police, who first used tear gas before firing live bullets.

There was no official word on casualties but at least five dead bodies lay on the streets while at least 50 people were being treated with various injuries in the main hospital.

Le bilan des violences qui ont éclaté samedi lors de manifestations dans deux villes au nord du pays a été revu à la hausse.

Le bilan des violences qui ont éclaté samedi lors de manifestations contre les caricatures de Mahomet dans deux villes du nord du Nigeria est passé à 24 morts et 230 blessés, a annoncé lundi 20 février la Croix Rouge nigériane.
"Selon les rapports de nos agents qui étaient samedi sur le terrain à Maïduguri, 21 personnes sont mortes et 207 ont été blessées, 50 maisons ont été détruites et 32 autres incendiées ainsi que 250 magasins et dix églises", a déclaré le responsable national de la gestion des désastres de la Croix rouge nigériane, Adronicus Adeyemo.
"A Katsina, trois personnes sont mortes tandis que 23 autres ont été blessées ou hospitalisées", a-t-il ajouté, notant qu'un millier de personnes sont déplacées".

Une majorité de chrétiens

Selon lui, la majorité des victimes sont des chrétiens dont certains ont été tués dans les églises. Les maisons et magasins détruits appartenaient aussi à des chrétiens.
Un précédent bilan faisait état de 15 morts à Maïduguri, dont un prêtre, et un mort à Katsina.

Selon des témoins, les violences ont commencé samedi quand la police a tiré des gaz lacrymogènes pour disperser des manifestants, rassemblés à l'appel d'une organisation islamique à Maïduguri. Des émeutiers s'en sont alors pris à la communauté chrétienne de la ville, brûlant et pillant des églises ainsi que des magasins tenus par des chrétiens.
Les autorités de l'Etat de Borno (nord-est) donnaient de leur côté lundi un bilan moins élevé des émeutes de Maïduguri: "selon nos informations, il y a eu neuf morts dont quatre musulmans", a déclaré par téléphone le porte-parole de l'Etat, Usman Chiroma.
"Un comité de haut niveau a été mis en place par le gouverneur pour évaluer les dégâts causés par les troubles afin de pouvoir porter assistance là et quand c'est nécessaire. Cette équipe est actuellement sur le terrain", a annoncé Usman Chiroma.
Les autorités de Borno ont condamné les violences anti-chrétiennes et menacé d'arrêter et de juger "toute personne ou groupe qui se lancerait dans ces perturbations de la paix", a assuré le gouverneur Ali Modu Sheriff dans une allocution.

Manifestation interdite

Lundi, l'Etat de Gombe, dans le nord du Nigeria, a interdit la tenue d'une manifestation organisée par des musulmans qui souhaitaient également protester contre la publication en Europe de caricatures du prophète Mahomet.
"Nous n'allons pas autoriser la manifestation contre les caricature danoises prévue aujourd'hui (...) dans l'intérêt de la paix", a déclaré par téléphone le chef de la police de Gombe, Atiku Yusuf.
"Nous avons déployé nos hommes dans toute la ville pour assurer que personne ne trouble la paix et cause des problèmes", a-t-il ajouté.
La principale organisation musulmane du pays, le Conseil suprême nigérian des affaires islamiques, avait condamné dimanche les émeutiers. "Prendre des vies innocentes et détruire des propriétés est anti-islamique", avait déclaré son secrétaire général Lateef Adegbite.
Le Nigeria, 130 millions d'habitants, compte quelque 60 millions de musulmans et autant de chrétiens, mais le nord est très majoritairement musulman, bien que des minorités chrétiennes y soient installées surtout dans les grandes villes.
Depuis 1999 et le retour à un régime civil, plusieurs Etats du nord ont instauré la charia (loi islamique), provoquant parfois des violences avec les minorités chrétiennes.

By Taye Obateru, Ben Ngwakwe, Tanimu Dongara & Umoru Henry
Posted to the Web: Tuesday, February 21, 2006

JOS—THE mayhem that erupted in Maiduguri last Saturday, which claimed many lives and property over the publication in Denmark of a cartoon on Prophet Mohammed has spread to Bauchi and Gombe States.
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Borno State has rejected the 13-man administrative committee set up by the state government to investigate the riot, saying it has no confidence in the committee.
The Borno State Police Command, on the other hand, declared yesterday that it had arrested about 150 suspects who were allegedly involved in the riot.

In Bauchi and Gombe States, business activities were paralysed yesterday as protests spread to the two states.
The protest in Gombe which started on Sunday night and continued yesterday was believed to have been sparked off by the alleged torturing to death of a suspect who was in police custody. The protesters stormed the streets at about 7.00p.m. on Sunday, unleashing terror on residents, burning, looting and harassing people in what many initially thought was a spill-over of the crisis in Maiduguri, Borno State.

About three houses were razed and property looted by the protesters as they battled anti-riot policemen drafted to restore normalcy. Although the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Atiku Kafur, appealed for calm in a television broadcast to the people on Sunday night, the protesters again took to the streets yesterday, creating panic among the people.

Businesses were hurriedly shut and people troopped to the barracks for safety. However, the police fired teargas canisters to disperse the crowd and security men were deployed to churches and other strategic buildings to secure them from arsonists.

Addressing journalists on the disturbance yesterday, the police commissioner said the suspect who died in police custody, identified as Aba Hamidu was a suspected rapist and believed there was more to the protest than what was claimed by the protesters. He confirmed that 43 arrests had been made while the police were intensifying efforts to nip the demonstration in the bud. He appealed for calm, assuring that normalcy would be restored soon.
Vanguard learnt that the posting of policemen to guard churches was to prevent miscreants from invading them.
In Bauchi, the protest against the cartooning of Prophet Mohammed was said to have started from a government secondary school yesterday morning and gradually spilled into the town, creating pandemonium. People ran helter-skelter with parents rushing to schools to pick their children while business places were hurriedly shut. The prompt intervention of the police was said to have contained the protesters, leading to a quick restoration of normalcy. It was not clear if arrests had been made at press time.

In Maiduguri where the riot started, a Reverend Father, Mr. Mike Gajere of Saint Rita’s Catholic Church was among the victims as he was attacked by the hoodlums and set ablaze with petrol, according to eye witnesses at the scene of the incident. Not fewer than 30 churches and shops belonging to Christians were burnt down alongside vehicles.
Governor Ali Modu Sheriff has, however, promised to compensate all the victims of the mayhem while constituting an administrative committee of inquiry to assess the extent of damage.

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Borno State, however, said it had no confidence on the 13-man committee.
Speaking with newsmen yesterday in Maiduguri, the Vice Chairman, CAN, Borno State, the Reverend Father Joel Billi and Bishop of Maiduguri Saint Patrick Catholic Church, the Reverend Father Mathew Man-Ngoso of the Maiduguri Catholic Diocese said “50 Christians lost their lives in the mayhem, hundreds wounded, over 30 churches either burnt or destroyed, and several Christians business premises or outfits, properties and homes/houses burnt or vandalised. We the Christians in Borno State have lost confidence in the government and the security agencies in the state to protect our lives and properties.”

CAN Vice Chairman further stated that, “consequently, the incident of Saturday, 18th February 2006 is the culmination of the outburst to eliminate Christians in the state. This is because there is no connection to a cartoon published in Denmark more than a month ago with Christians in Borno State as at 18th February 2006."
CAN in the state was the only body that came out openly to condemn the cartoon in the state on Tuesday, 14th February 2006. It also observed that the state-owned media house, BRTV does not air Christians programmes in spite of continuous request by the Christians body

Meanwhile, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has described the mayhem in Maiduguri, the Borno State as most despicable, thoroughly condemnable and totally unacceptable.
The body said with these events happening in the usually tolerant Maiduguri, there was the urgent need for an investigation team that would comprise mature, honest, experienced people who will not tolerate any kind of arm twisting nor succumb to any form of intimidation, inducements or cover-ups to be put in place geared towards unfolding the truth.
According to the body, “the lessons from such an investigation must be rigorously and expeditiously applied to save this country from such tragedies in the future”.

Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State, has imposed a dusk-to- dawn-curfew on Onitsha, the state's commercial nerve centre.

This follows the outbreak of violence in the town yesterday, in which some people launched reprisal attacks on the Muslim settlers over the alleged killings of Christians in Maiduguri, last Saturday.

In a statement personally signed by him last night, Ngige directed law enforcement agencies to deal decisively with anybody who flout the curfew order.

.Ngige condemned yesterday’s attack, describing it as "both regrettable, reprehensible and detest-able."

No fewer than 500 men of the police mobile force 29, Awka, have been deployed to Onitsha, to forestall a total breakdown of law and order.

The reprisal attack left some people dead, but no official figure could be obtained as at the time of this report.

Law enforcement agents in the state have also been put on alert to deal decisively with anyone engaging in acts of recklessness, unconscionable brigandage and revenge at known flash-points in the state.

The tense situation in the state yesterday forced an emergency meeting of the state security council in Awka, attended by the Commander 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha, Colonel Lukas Chollampam Logag-woma, Director of the state security service in Anambra State, Ahmad Saleh, Governor Chris Ngige and the state commissioner of police.

In a Press statement by Mr. Fred Chukwuelobe, the Governor’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, the state government urged Anambra people to refrain from molesting people and stop all attacks on places of religious worship, adding that the incident was both regrettable, reprehensible and detestable, and urged the people to go about their lawful businesses.

The statement added “The Government deeply regrets this unfortunate incident and while commiserating with the families of the deceased and injured hereby warns all those involved in the attacks to stop forthwith.

“All Anambrarians are hereby urged to refrain from molesting people and stop all attacks on either churches or mosques. Both Christianity and Islam preach peace and love and as peace-loving and law-abiding citizens, the good people of Anambra state are enjoined to be their brothers’ keepers, especially our brothers from the North who have been residing with us for years.

“Meanwhile, Law enforcement agents have been put on notice to deal ruthlessly and decisively with anyone engaging in such reckless and unconscionable brigandage and revenge.

“Anybody caught molesting innocent citizens or either burning or looting property will be arrested and prosecuted. People are also enjoined to seek resolution to their grievances through appropriate channels. Resort to rioting, killing, burning and looting is primitive and belongs to the animal kingdom and should be jettisoned.

“All citizens of Anambra state are enjoined to go about their legitimate businesses without fear as the Governor, His Excellency, Dr. Chris Nwabueze Ngige has directed law enforcement agents to deploy more men to Onitsha and parts of the state to arrest the ugly development and to ensure the rioting does not escalate”, he said

LAGOS (AP) - Après les premières manifestations sanglantes liées à la publication des caricatures du prophète Mahomet ce week-end, des bandes armées, chrétiennes et musulmanes, ont mis à feu et à sang deux villes du Nigeria, des émeutes violentes qui ont causé la mort d'au moins 24 personnes.

Les violences de mardi portent à 49 morts le bilan des affrontements inter-religieux depuis samedi, lorsqu'une manifestation contre les caricatures publiées en Europe a dégénéré, faisant 18 morts à Maiduguri, dans le nord.

A Bauchi, dans le nord à majorité musulmane, ce sont les foules musulmanes qui s'en sont prises à la minorité chrétienne, faisant au moins 18 morts, selon la Croix-Rouge nigériane.

Dans le même temps, à Onitsha, dans le sud chrétien, des témoins ont fait état de six musulmans battus à mort par des chrétiens qui ont également brûlé deux mosquées. Dans cette ville, la violence semble avoir été déclenchée par celle qui s'est emparée de Maiduguri.

A Bauchi, selon le responsable local de la Croix-Rouge Adamu Abubakar, la foule est descendue dans la rue armée de machettes et de bâtons, des émeutes qui ont déjà fait sept morts lundi. Deux des membres de la Croix-Rouge ont été attaqués et grièvement blessés, a-t-il ajouté. Parmi les victimes ramassées par ses services figuraient six personnes tellement brûlées qu'elles ont été impossibles à identifier, et deux autres gravement mutilées, a-t-il raconté.

Le Nigeria, pays le plus peuplé d'Afrique avec 130 millions d'habitants, est souvent la proie de violents affrontements entre les chrétiens, majoritaires au sud, et les musulmans qui prédominent au nord, faisant des milliers de morts depuis 2000.

Les violences de samedi étaient les premières liées à l'affaire des caricatures dans le pays. Selon l'Association chrétienne du pays, les victimes seraient au moins 50, la police parlant de 18. Et l'archevêque du pays Peter Akinola a jugé que cette réaction violente faisait partie d'un complot visant à faire du Nigeria une nation islamique.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Witness accounts reaching Egypt's capital Tuesday confirmed a report by Italy's envoy, who said the violence that killed 11 people in Benghazi last week was the work of both Islamic radicals and anti-government forces.

In an interview with the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa published Tuesday, Ambassador Francesco Trupiano said domestic opposition to Col. Moammar Gadhafi had joined forces with religious extremists in a protest that began over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

"Benghazi is still out of control," said Trupiano, who was speaking from Tripoli. "The situation can precipitate any minute.

The accounts from Libyan witnesses, who refused to be named fearing retribution, said Libyan anger over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad had been conflated with widespread outrage about the political and economic neglect of Benghazi residents.

Gadhafi rules Libya with an iron hand, and security forces take tough measures to contain information unfavorable to the regime.

The witnesses also said the killings during the Friday riot, in which the Italian consulate in Benghazi was burned, had fueled anger and prompted continuing violence over the weekend.

The witnesses said anti-government demonstrators attacked the headquarters of the state security service in the coastal city as well as government buildings and police stations. A Catholic church was burned, the witnesses said.

Those accounts closely matched that of Trupiano, who said there was "disorder, looting, attacks on public buildings" Sunday night in Benghazi.

"The headquarters of police forces were besieged by an enraged crowd, which demanded the release of inmates," he was quoted as saying. "The police gave in, freeing the prisoners."

The riots in front of the Italian consulate produced the second-highest reported death toll in any of the recent protests over the prophet drawings. The caricatures originally were published by a Danish newspaper in September and subsequently reprinted in many newspapers, mainly in Europe, to display solidarity for a free press.

The demonstrations in Benghazi had been widely seen as instigated by an Italian minister, who wore a T-shirt featuring one of the caricatures while appearing on Italian television. The reforms minister, Roberto Calderoli, has since resigned.

Diplomatic sources in Rome, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said 40 people -- or about half the Italian population in Benghazi -- were flown to Tripoli. The remaining half decided to stay in the city.

A total of about 1,400 Italians live in Libya, a former Italian colony where Italy has major oil and natural gas interests.

Calderoli drew more criticism Tuesday from Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Speaking in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Ihsanoglu did not mention Calderoli by name, but quoted the minister who wore the shirt as saying "that the pope should wage a crusade against the Muslim world."

"After two days, he made T-shirts with these cartoons, these stupid cartoons and he wore this shirt and said, 'I am going to salute them.' Then what happened in Benghazi, happened," Ihsanoglu said.

Mob On Rampage in Onitsha

Daily Trust (Abuja)
NEWS
February 22, 2006
Posted to the web February 22, 2006

Angry mob on yesterday attacked two mosques and Northerners resident in Onitsha, Anambra State, in what is feared to be reprisal attacks of the violent riots that took place over the weekend in some parts of the North.

Agency reports said that: "the whole town is in frenzy and people are running in all directions as at yesterday evening."

When contacted on phone yesterday, the Commissioner of Police, Anambra State, Mr. Moses Anegbode confirmed the incident. He told Daily Trust "as at now, we are preoccupied with giving coverage to Hausas who are going into hiding. So many of the Hausa's have taken refuge in barracks."

The Commissioner of Police however, could not confirm the reported death of five people.

The mob is said to have torched two mosques located at the Hausa quarters, leaving behind ashes and burnt out properties. Also destroyed were kiosks and residences belonging to the Hausa community around Bide, Sokoto, Haruna and Ifejika Roads, with their properties looted by the rampaging mob.

The attacks began when a luxury bus conveying corpses of Igbo's allegedly killed in the weekend riots arrived Upper Iweka, Onitsha.

A witness account said as soon as commuters in the park got wind of the arrival of the corpses, a mob gathered and after lamenting on the situation took up arms in revenge.

The violent youths in their hundreds armed with clubs and stones, marched to the Hausa community destroying houses, shops and properties, the witness said.

When the Northerners got wind of the riot, they ran to 32 Army Artillery Regiment, Onitsha for safety.

Anti-riot police squads are already manning different locations in Onitcha to restore calm.

Meanwhile, Bauchi State Secretary of the Red Cross Society of Nigeria, Alhaji Adamu Abubakar, yesterday confirmed the death of 16 persons in the crisis that engulfed Bauchi metropolis on Monday.

Abubakar told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Hausa service monitored in Abuja, yesterday. Many people have fled their houses and are in need of prompt attention in Bauchi hospitals."

"But we had a difficult time mobilising logistics and vehicles to transport injured victims to the hospital." Many sustained bullets wounds and knife cuts.

Reports say there were skirmishes around the metropolis as some irate youths are still launching attacks in some nooks and crannies of Bauchi town.

BBC described some places in Bauchi town as no-go- areas where the dead bodies and injured people are still being discovered in the areas.

It added that the crisis that spread to Tafawa Balewa town was controlled by securitymen, and that normalcy has since restored to the place.

Sources said the crisis was ignited following an alleged mutilation of a portion of the Holy Qur'an by a female teacher at Government Day Secondary School located within the army barracks in Bauchi.

A peaceful protest by students of the Government Day Secondary School at the army barracks was hijacked by hoodlums.

In a related development, the Emir of Bauchi, Alhaji Suleiman Adamu, has directed District and Village Heads to monitor people's movements and prevent a further breakdown of law and order in their domains.

He charged the chiefs to ensure the continued peaceful co-existence among residents in their domains.

Adamu described the incident as unfortunate and assured that adequate measures are being taken to safeguard lives and property.

He blamed the riot on the "evil machinations of some undesirable elements, who manipulated a peaceful students protest to cause mayhem". The emir appealed to christians not to panic, assuring that the crisis has no religious undertones.

Meanwhile, the Gombe state government has imposed an 11-hour curfew on Gombe metropolis following two days of riots.

The Secretary to the state government, Alhaji Bala Magaji, said that the curfew will last between 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily.

He said the measure became necessary to ensure the protection of lives and property. The rioters burnt down at least three houses and a place of worship on Sunday and Monday.

The youths were protesting the alleged torture of their colleague 18-year old Abba Lamido, by the police.

Magaji assured the people that the perpetrators of the act would be brought to book and also promised that those who suffered loss as a result of the violence will be compensated.

Witnesses: Anti-Gadhafi Forces In Protest

Witness accounts reaching Egypt's capital Tuesday confirmed a report by Italy's envoy, who said the violence that killed 11 people in Benghazi last week was the work of both Islamic radicals and anti-government forces.

In an interview with the Italian daily newspaper La Stampa published Tuesday, Ambassador Francesco Trupiano said domestic opposition to Col. Moammar Gadhafi had joined forces with religious extremists in a protest that began over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

"Benghazi is still out of control," said Trupiano, who was speaking from Tripoli. "The situation can precipitate any minute.
"In Benghazi, Islamic radicalism has joined forces with domestic opposition."

The accounts from Libyan witnesses, who refused to be named fearing retribution, said Libyan anger over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad had been conflated with widespread outrage about the political and economic neglect of Benghazi residents.
Gadhafi rules Libya with an iron hand, and security forces take tough measures to contain information unfavorable to the regime.

The witnesses also said the killings during the Friday riot, in which the Italian consulate in Benghazi was burned, had fueled anger and prompted continuing violence over the weekend.

The witnesses said anti-government demonstrators attacked the headquarters of the state security service in the coastal city as well as government buildings and police stations. A Catholic church was burned, the witnesses said.
Those accounts closely matched that of Trupiano, who said there was "disorder, looting, attacks on public buildings" Sunday night in Benghazi.

"The headquarters of police forces were besieged by an enraged crowd, which demanded the release of inmates," he was quoted as saying. "The police gave in, freeing the prisoners."

The riots in front of the Italian consulate produced the second-highest reported death toll in any of the recent protests over the prophet drawings. The caricatures originally were published by a Danish newspaper in September and subsequently reprinted in many newspapers, mainly in Europe, to display solidarity for a free press.

The demonstrations in Benghazi had been widely seen as instigated by an Italian minister, who wore a T-shirt featuring one of the caricatures while appearing on Italian television. The reforms minister, Roberto Calderoli, has since resigned.

Diplomatic sources in Rome, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said 40 people _ or about half the Italian population in Benghazi _ were flown to Tripoli. The remaining half decided to stay in the city.

A total of about 1,400 Italians live in Libya, a former Italian colony where Italy has major oil and natural gas interests.
Calderoli drew more criticism Tuesday from Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary-general of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference.'

Speaking in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Ihsanoglu did not mention Calderoli by name, but quoted the minister who wore the shirt as saying "that the pope should wage a crusade against the Muslim world."

"After two days, he made T-shirts with these cartoons, these stupid cartoons and he wore this shirt and said, 'I am going to salute them.' Then what happened in Benghazi, happened," Ihsanoglu said.

Reprisal riots on Tuesday erupted in Onitsha, Anamba State, over the controversial Prophet Mohammed cartoons.

About 22 persons were feared dead.

The riots erupted in the wake of similar riots in Bauchi on Monday, in which at least 10 persons were killed. Earlier, on Saturday, hostilities flared in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, and in Katsina, leaving at least 18 persons dead.

Our correspondents learnt that Tuesday’s riots in Onitsha was triggered by the arrival of a luxury bus from Maiduguri, which brought corpses of Igbo residents who had died in the earlier riots.

Angry youths at Upper Iweka, where the bus stopped at about 7am, were said to have immediately gone on the rampage, attacking shops and buildings either owned or occupied by Muslims in the commercial city.

Riot policemen dispatched from Awka, the Anambra capital, took over major streets and roads in Onitsha in a bid to contain the situation.

The youths, who blocked the Niger Bridge for several hours, also torched the two main mosques in Onitsha – one at the Bridgehead Market and the second at Bida Road, near the Onitsha Main Market.

They also reportedly burnt some buildings at the famous Hausa Quarters, on Sokoto Road, and many vehicles.

The attack on the Bida road mosque reportedly forced the closure of the main market, which the youths tried to enter forcefully in search of suspected targets.

Many Hausa-owned shops on the popular Old Market Road and Upper New Market Road were also looted, forcing many shop owners to abandon their wares and seek for safety at the Army Barracks.

The Commissioner of Police, Anambra State Command, Mr. Moses Anegbode, confirmed the violence in Onitsha, but told our correspondents that he had no official confirmation of the casualty figure.

He said, “I cannot confirm whether anybody died for now because I don’t have the exact picture of the situation yet.

“All I can say is that several policemen have been deployed in Onitsha and we are trying everything possible to contain the situation. I don’t have statistics on the deaths.”

The Governor of Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige, said security agencies had been directed to deal with those behind the riots.

He deplored the killings in Onitsha and commiserated with the families of the victims.

He said those behind the riots were “unidentified,” warning however that the people of Anambra should “refrain from molesting people and stop all attacks on either churches or mosques.”

Speaking with newsmen shortly after he convened an emergency security meeting in Awka, Ngige said additional riot policemen had been deployed in Onitsha to contain the situation.

The Obi of Onitsha, His Royal Majesty, Igwe Nnaemeka Alfred Achebe, told our correspondents on telephone that his cabinet would not condone any act of lawlessness.

Achebe observed that there were legally-recognised means of resolving disputes. He expressed shock that the youths chose violence.

“What has happened in Onitsha is condemnable, not because it happened in Onitsha, but wherever violence is chosen above established methods to resolve disagreements,” he added.

The monarch said efforts were on to bring the crisis under control and expressed confidence in the ability of security agents to do their job.

Later on Tuesday, the Delta State Police Command beefed up security on its side of the Niger Bridge in Asaba.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Delta State, Olabisi Okuwobi, an assistant superintendent of police, said the command would ensure that the riots did not spread to Asaba.

Meanwhile, some Onitsha residents who fled the city in the wake of Tuesday’s riots thronged the Niger Bridge, en route Asaba.

The Hausa community in the Delta State capital is in the Cable Point area, which is separated from Onitsha by the River Niger.

Reports on Tuesday said that the Bauchi State Government had imposed a curfew on the capital city.

The Agence France Presse quoted a spokesman for the government as saying a dawn-to-dusk curfew had been imposed to pre-empt further clashes.

“A joint police military patrol has been going on since yesterday (Monday) and will continue until order is fully restored,” the spokesman, Mohammed Abdullahi, also told AFP.

A spokesman for the Borno government, Naomi Moses, also told the AFP that the state government had imposed a curfew.

“Soldiers have been drafted to keep order and prevent any violence,” she said.

THE PUNCH, Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Nigeria : Quatre églises catholiques et la maison de l’évêque brûlées

ROME (ZENIT.org) - Selon l’agence vaticane Fides, la situation est calme pour l’instant et les forces de l’ordre patrouillent dans les rues : c’est ce que rapporte Mgr Matthew Manoso Ndagoso, évêque de Maiduguri, capitale de l’Etat de Borno dans le Nord-Est du Nigeria.

C’est en effet dans cet Etat que, samedi dernier, 18 février les graves violences ont provoqué, selon l’évêque, « au moins 15 morts, parmi lesquelles don Michael Gajere, un prêtre local ».

Quatre églises catholiques ont été brûlées, ainsi que la résidence de l’évêque, et des structures d’autres confessions chrétiennes et d’autres habitations de fidèles chrétiens.

L’évêque, qui n’était pas présent chez lui au moment de l’attaque, affirme : « Ma maison a été complètement détruite, mais ce qui m’attriste le plus, ce sont les morts parmi lesquels don Michael, un prêtre ordonné voici 14 ans et qui était arrivé dans notre diocèse depuis peu ».

« C’est la première fois que des incidents aussi graves arrivent. Jusqu’à présent la zone a été tranquille : les rencontres qui ont eu lieu par le passé s’étaient produites dans d’autres zones du pays », rapportent les sources de Fides.

« Dans la matinée du 18 février, une manifestation pacifique de protestation se déroulait contre les fameuses vignettes danoises, à laquelle participait aussi le gouverneur local. Mais à l’improviste la manifestation a dégénéré avec violence contre les églises et les habitations des chrétiens. Seule la cathédrale a été protégée grâce à l’esprit d’initiative d’un policier catholique qui a réussi à rassembler des forces suffisantes pour empêcher que la foule ne la brûle », expliquent ces mêmes sources.

« La religion, comme il est arrivé dans un passé récent, est instrumentalisée pour des raisons politiques. Ceux qui fomentent ces désordres sont des extrémistes qui ne représentent pas la majorité des fidèles musulmans qui au contraire désirent vivre en paix. Il y a aussi des éléments criminels qui s’insèrent pour voler les habitations et qui mettent le feu pour effacer ensuite les traces de leur crimes », ajoutent toujours ces informations de l’Eglise locale.

Les journaux nigérians n’ont pas accordé une grande importance aux affrontements de Maiduguri, afin de chercher à calmer les esprits et éviter de nouvelles violences dans d’autres zones du pays, commente Fides.

Fides précise également que les violences ont été condamnées par le secrétaire général du Conseil suprême nigérian pour les Affaires islamiques, Lateef Adegbite, qui a déclaré : « Ce n’est pas aux musulmans de prendre la vie de personnes innocentes et de se laisser aller à des destructions matérielles. Les non musulmans du Nigeria n’ont rien à voir avec la publication des caricatures. Nous demandons aux chrétiens de maintenir le calme et d’éviter les rétorsions pour ce fait malheureux. En le considérant comme une initiative mal avisée des musulmans qui ont agi contre les principes de l’islam ».

Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - By NWABUEZE OKONKWO, Onitsha, DAVID ONWUCHEKWA, Nnewi, MARIAM ALESHINLOYE, Jos, CHRISTOPHER OJI, GEOFFREY ANYANWU, Awka and PAUL ORUDE, Bauchi

Security formations nationwide were Tuesday put on red alert to check possible spill-over of violent retaliation against killings of Christians in religious riots which began weekend in northern cities of Maiduguri and Katsina.

But it was a measure that came a bit late, as it could not stop reprisals in Onitsha, Anambra State, which claimed over 35 lives, with mosques, homesteads and property of people believed to be of predominantly Islamic northern origin destroyed.

At least about 58 people, believed to be Christians were killed in an outbreak of deadly protest by Muslims in Maiduguri, Borno State, at the weekend, angered by the caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish and other European publications.

The toll was notched up by 16 Monday, following another violent demonstration by Muslims in Bauchi, incensed by alleged seizure and desecration of the Holy Quran by a female teacher rebuking her listless pupil in a secondary school.

Properties, including about 40 churches were reportedly burnt by the rampaging rioters, which provoked the Onitsha action.

No fewer than 35 persons were confirmed dead Tuesday by the Nigerian Red Cross Society in the commercial city of Onitsha, in what appeared to be spontaneous reprisal attack on Moslems residing in the commercial city and its environs.

Also, the Red Cross Society rescued over 2,000 injured victims and evacuated them to Onitsha Army Barracks and various police stations, even as mosques scattered in various parts of Onitsha were set ablaze, the same time mini-shops belonging to the Muslims were being looted and destroyed by the mob.
Daily Sun gathered that the incident sparked off at about 11 a.m. from the Bridge-head end of the commercial city when the mob allegedly pounced on the Hausas and started clubbing some of them to death, and at the same time pushing others into the nearby River Niger.

Sources told Daily Sun that the mob was allegedly provoked by the sight of corpses of victims of religious riots in the Northern parts of the country which affected mainly Christians and Igbo indigenes whose bodies were allegedly brought down to Onitsha early morning Tuesday in a luxury bus belonging to prominent transporters from the Eastern part of the country.

Eye-witnesses confirmed that the incident later attracted the presence of anti-riot policemen who arrived the scenes and used teargas to disperse the mob, a situation which led to a stampede and temporary closure of the Onitsha main market and other markets in the adjoining streets.

As at the time of filing this report, it was not yet clear the actual number of lives lost in the mayhem and how many Mosques burnt, but sources hinted that the Central Mosque located at Bida Road, near the main market and other mini-Mosques at Haruna Street, Pam Pam Lane, Sokoto Road and others were already in flames.

All efforts to get in touch with the police Area Commander for Onitsha, Mr. Dennis Anyagafu (ACP), proved abortive as his telephone line rang without response, but the state police public relations officer (PPRO), Mr. Fidelis Agbo (DSP) and the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Moses Anegbode, who confirmed the burning down of the Mosques to newsmen over the telephone, said they had not yet obtained detailed information on the mayhem.

The Divisional police officer at Fegge, Mr. Bright Kakada (CSP), could not be reached as he was said to have rushed to the scene on a rescue mission, but the state chairman of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Dr. Peter Emeka Katchy, told newsmen at the police station that he and his team had rescued more than 2,000 victims, just as he personally counted over 35 bodies lying dead in various parts of the city.

Katchy who noted that he was still receiving distress calls from his team scattered all over, said he was also going out to source for food and mattresses for the rescued victims who were seen gathered at the station, while the injured ones were being given first aid treatment by the Red Cross medical team.

According to a traveller from Lagos who was delayed for hours on the bridge as a result of the clash, “bodies just littered everywhere, especially at the Onitsha end of the bridge where you have the ram/chicken market. The whole market is razed. I counted more than 60 bodies.”
Tension went up in many states in the country with the authorities moving to check the spread of the violence.

About 2000 mobile policemen were quickly drafted to quell the disturbances even as the state government imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on Onitsha. The curfew which took effect Tuesday is to last between the hours of 7p.m and 7a.m. A personally signed statement by the Governor, Dr Chris Ngige, warned that law enforcement agencies have been directed to deal decisively with anyone who flouted the order.

Ngige, who was with the Commander 302 Artillery Regiment Onitsha, Col. Lukas Chollompam Logagwoma and State Director of State Security Service (SSS), Ahmed Saleh noted that reports reaching the government have it that some lives have been lost and properties destroyed, adding that the situation was being taken care of.

Reports from Nnewi, Anambra State said members of the Hausawa community in the town disappeared into thin air with some of them seeking refuge in army barracks for fear of reprisal attack by their Igbo host communities.
Their mosque near DCC and residential places including Hundred Foot Road and Amauko Nnewichi were all deserted but for the heavy presence of armed policemen.

The new Nnewi Area Commander, Mr Godwin O. Obi (ACP) said he ordered police vigilance within the areas to avoid a breakdown of law and order after receiving reports from leaders of the Hausa community that their members were fleeing. Tension still mounts in the town.
Also, normalcy is yet to return to the streets of Bauchi as violent protest which erupted Monday brought commercial activities to a standstill just as the death toll increased to 16 with over 100 people receiving various degrees of injuries.

The Red Cross Society of Nigeria gave the latest figure in an interview with Daily Sun Tuesday.
Troops were deployed to quell the situation, which mostly affected Kofar Wambe along Gombe Road, Jahun, Nassarwa and Kobi with possible fears that there might be reprisal attacks on Muslims in the Christian-dominated area of Yelwa and Tafawa Balewa Local Government of the state.

The state Commissioner of Police, Richard Chime met with religious leaders and stakeholders urging them to appeal to their followers not to take laws into their hands in the name of protecting their religions or their political beliefs to avoid an innocent protest being hijacked by hooligans.
Also in Lagos, the state Police Commissioner, (CP) Emmanuel Adebayo placed his men and officers on red alert.

Adebayo ordered the officer in charge of Security and Criminal Investigation Bureau (SCIB), Chief Superintendent of Police, Kenneth Ebrison and the officer in charge of Surveillance, Gabriel Amadi, to get intelligence report on possible plan to foment trouble and nip it in the bud.

Lagos, Nigeria, 22/02 - Les manifestations contre les caricatures du Prophète Mohamed (PSL) semblent se répandre dans le Nord du Nigeria suite à des affrontements opposant jeunes musulmans et la police ce lundi dans la ville de Bauchi, selon des témoins.

Les jeunes qui étaient, dit-on, armés de batons et d`autres armes, ont fracassé des véhicules et pillé plusieurs boutiques appartenant à l`ethnie Igbo, des commerçants originaires du sud chrétien, dans ce qui ressemble à une répétition des émeutes mortelles qui ont coûté la vie ce week-end à plus d`une dizaine de personnes dans l`Etat de Borno, également dans le nord du Nigeria.

La police a tiré des gaz lacrymogènes pour disperser les manifestants en colère qui ont marché dans les rues de la capitale de l`Etat de Bauchi à dominance musulmane.

"La situation est vraiement tendue", a déclaré à la PANA au téléphone un journaliste basé dans la ville. "Je roulais droit sur les manifestants et j`ai eu de la chance de m`en être sorti".

Le porte-parole du commandement de la police de l`Etat, Umar Abdullahi a, pour sa part, dit qu`il ne pouvait pas s`exprimer immédiatement sur les manifestations du fait qu`il était en pleine "mission".

Les chiffres des victimes ne sont pas immédiateemnt disponibles, mais d`après certaines informations, au moins une personne serait morte et plusieurs autres blessées dans ces violences, tandis que la police a procédé à plusieurs arrestations.

La cause immédiate de ces violences n`est pas claire, mais certains habitants racontent que les troubles ont commencé quand un professeur du lycée Government Day Secondary School d`une caserne militaire de Bauchi a déchiré un Coran lu par un de ses étudiants en classe.

Des manifestations similaires organisées à Bauchi il y a deux semaines à propos des caricatures publiées d`abord au Danemark et plus tard dans plusieurs pays d`Europe et ailleurs dans le monde, étaient non violentes.

Lagos, Nigeria, 22/02 - Les affrontements interconfessionnelles qui ont éclaté lundi dans le nord du Nigeria se sont répandues mardi dans le sud du pays, rapporte une radio locale.

La même source indique que mardi matin une foule en colère a lancé à Onitsha, une ville du sud-est, des attaques contre les originaires du nord du pays, faisant au moins 15 morts.

Selon un habitant de la ville contacté par la PANA, des mosquées et des boutiques appartenant à des "Nordistes" ont été incendiées durant ces attaques qui auraient éclaté quand un véhicule transportant les corps de "Sudistes" tués dans les émeutes de lundi est arrivé à Onitsha en provenance du nord du pays.

Des sources indépendantes affirment que la foule en colère, armée de différentes sortes d`armes, a pillé les commerces appartenant à des "Nordistes" et allumé des feux à différents endroits stratégiques de la ville

De jeunes musulmans protestant contre les caricatures du prophète Mohamed dans certains journaux européens ont attaqué le week-end dernier des chrétiennes à Maiduguri, la capitale de l`Etat de nord de Borno.

La violence s`est depuis répandue dans le nord du pays, notamment à Bauchi où elle a fait 16 morts et 62 blessés, selon la Croix rouge nigériane.

L`Association des chrétiens du Nigeria (CAN) affirme que le bilan des émeutes de Maiduguri est d`au moins 50 morts, soulignant que des églises ont également été incendiées

Bauchi, Nigeria, 22/02 - Les violences interconfessionnelles de lundi à Bauchi, dans le nord du Nigeria, ont fait 16 morts et 62 blessés, indique mardi la Croix Rouge nigériane (NRC).

Le secrétaire de la NRC à Bauchi, Adamu Abdullahi, a déclaré que 16 corps ont été récupérés dans différents endroits de la ville.

Le gouvernement de l`Etat de Bauchi a imposé le couvre-feu et déployé des soldats aux endroits stratégiques de la ville après que de jeunes musulmans armés de différentes sortes d`armes ont tout saccagé sur leur passage, brûlant des églises, détruisant des voitures et pillant des échoppes.

Mardi matin, les écoles et les commerces sont restés fermées tandis que des accrochages ont été signalés dans quelques quartiers de la ville dont Dutsin- Tamshi où des mosquées auraient été incendiées en signe de représailles.

Cette violence fait suite aux émeutes à Maidiguri, la capitale de l`Etat de Borno, contre la publication de caricatures du prophète Mohamed, qui avaient fait au moins 50 morts au cours du week-end.

La violence à Bauchi aurait éclaté après qu`un professeur a déchiré un exemplaire du Coran que lisait un élève en classe.

La nouvelle, selon laquelle un professeur avait profané le Livre saint des musulmans, s`est vite répandue dans la ville, déclenchant des mouvements de violence.

Selon certaines sources, la tension était déjà forte à Bauchi après les émeutes à Maiduguri contre les caricatures du prophète publiés dans certains journaux européens.

Dans un communiqué, l`Association des chrétiens nigérians (CAN) a condamné ce qu`elle qualifie de destruction à grande échelle de vies et de biens, particulièrement des églises à Maiduguri.

La CAN se demande comment "un incident survenu au Danemark, un pays lointain qui n`est même pas une nation chrétienne, puisse provoquer une réaction aussi malheureuse au Nigeria".

Un Etat nigérian impose le couvre-feu après des émeutes inter-religieuses

Le gouvernement de l'Etat d'Anambra, dans le sud-est du Nigeria, a imposé un couvre-feu sur la ville d'Onitsha suite aux violences qui ont secoué la ville mardi dont le bilan fait état de plusieurs morts et des millions de dégâts matériels.

Le gouverneur de l'Etat, Chris Ngige, a condamné mardi soir les émeutes qu'il qualifie "regrettables, répréhensibles et détestables", ordonnant à la police de rester ferme pour faire respecter le couvre feu. Plus de 500 policiers anti-émeutes ont été dépêchés à Onitsha, le centre économique de l'Etat d'Anambra, pour restaurer l'ordre. Bien qu'aucun chiffre officiel n'ait été publié, la presse locale fait état mercredi de 15 et 22 morts. Le week-end dernier, une manifestation contre les caricatures du prophète Mohamed a fait 18 morts, dans l'Etat de Borno, selon un décompte officiel, mais l'Association des chrétiens du Nigeria (CAN) estime le bilan à plus de 50 tués. Lundi, d'autres violences religieuses ont éclaté dans l'Etat de Bauchi, faisant 18 morts et plus de 100 blessés.

Au moins 80 personnes, des musulmans pour la plupart, ont trouvé la mort à Onitsha, ville commerciale du sud du Nigeria, dans des incidents décrits comme des attaques de représailles de groupes tribaux chrétiens, a rapporté à Xinhua (Chine nouvelle) un groupe de la société civile.

"60 personnes ont été tuées mardi ; mercredi, 20 autres ont trouvé la mort. Certains d’entre eux sont des chrétiens, la majorité sont des musulmans", a déclaré par téléphone Emeka Umeh, directeur de l’Organisation ds libertés civiles (CLO, basée à Lagos), depuis l’état d’Anambra.

Les émeutiers utilisaient "des machettes, des massues, des couteaux et d’autres objets de métal", a-t-il dit, ajoutant que certains d’entre eux utilisaient également des armes à feu.

M. Umeh a déclaré que deux policiers musulmans avaient été au nombre des victimes, alors qu’ils tentaient d’aider les gens de leur tribu. Selon certaines rumeurs, des hommes de ce village s’étaient mobilisés pour attaquer et tuer des enfants, ce qui a déclenché cette attaque.

Le bilan pourrait être en réalité bien plus lourd, certains corps ayant été incinérés, indique M. Umeh, précisant que la situation s’est calmée jeudi après l’arrivée des forces de l’ordre. Samedi, des manifestations massives contre les caricatures danoises représentant Mahomet avaient causé la mort de 16 chrétiens dans le nord du pays. L’Association des chrétiens du Nigeria fait état pour sa part de plus de 50 morts. Le gouverneur d’Anambra a décrété un couvre-feu et incité les gens à ne pas répandre des rumeurs, qui peuvent causer une escalade de la violence.

Les affrontements religieux sont fréquents dans ce pays d’Afrique de l’ouest, où vivent 130 millions de personnes. Les populations musulmanes, dominantes dans le nord, et chrétiennes, dominantes dans le sud, sont réparties de manière à peu près équitables.

Une vague de protestations a secoué le monde musulman récemment, en réaction à des caricatures publiées en septembre dans un journal danois et reprises depuis en Norvège et dans d’autres pays européens.

By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 23, 2006; A01

ONITSHA, Nigeria, Feb. 22 -- Christian mobs in this southern city attacked Muslim motorists and traders Wednesday, leaving more than 30 people dead, according to witnesses, as religious riots sparked by the publishing of cartoons of the prophet Muhammad continued into a fifth day in Nigeria. Nationwide, the death toll reached at least 80.

Hordes of angry men marauded through Onitsha armed with machetes, guns and boards with nails pounded into their ends, witnesses said. The mobs burned two mosques and looted and destroyed Muslim-owned shops as they sought vengeance for similar attacks against Christians in two predominantly Muslim cities in northern part of the country.

"They've been killing our brothers and sisters in the north," men shouted Wednesday morning, according to Afoma Clara Adique, 40, a motorist who had driven through Onitsha. She escaped the mobs, she said, but only after speaking to the men in a regional language used by Christians.

Before she could get away, Adique said, she saw burned and dismembered bodies along the side of the road.

Her traveling companion, Tony Iweka, 45, a magazine editor, said a man in the mob raised his right hand to display what appeared to be a freshly decapitated head.

The attacks in Nigeria began this weekend, almost six months after the cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper and weeks after they ignited a wave of unrest in Muslim countries from Egypt to Indonesia that left about 28 people dead -- almost all of them shot by security forces -- in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Libya. But the clashes in Nigeria, this continent's most populous country, have been the deadliest, and the first involving counterattacks by Christians.

Religious violence has flared in recent years in this West African nation, which is split roughly in half between a Muslim north and a Christian and animist south, but with most areas containing a mixture of all three religious groups. More than 1,000 people were killed in fighting between Christians and Muslims in 2004.

Abdul Arwa, 25, a Muslim from the north, who for the past two years sold tomatoes at a roadside stall in Onitsha, said men stole about $60 from him Wednesday afternoon and tried to stab him before he fled across the Niger River with only the tattered clothes he was wearing.

The mob, he said, made clear that the attacks were reprisals for the killings of Muslims in previous days.

"They killed our brothers," one attacker said, according to Arwa. "So we are going to kill you."

Initial Nigerian news reports put Wednesday's death toll at 22, but witnesses placed the count at more than 30.

Truckloads of heavily armed police sought to regain control of the city, but by early afternoon the officers could maintain peace on only part of the roadway into Onitsha, where the massive steel girders of the Head Bridge deliver motorists from the west.

At least 19 bodies were visible along that short stretch of road. They appeared to have been beaten, stripped of some of their clothing and, in several cases, burned beyond recognition.

Discarded sandals and the round, decorative hats favored by northern Muslims were left behind in the dirt, and the road bore burn marks.

Adique and other witnesses said at least 14 other bodies, including several that had been decapitated and mutilated, were visible on the same road but farther from the bridge, in an area where mobs remained in control. Others said there were more bodies in other sections of Onitsha, including near the main bus terminal.

Muslim refugees gathered at a police station in the neighboring city of Asaba said they saw dozens of other victims tossed alive into the Niger River, where most were presumed to have drowned.

"I saw many people" in the river, said Musa Dayyabu Kumurya, 28, a tailor from the northern state of Kano.

Nigeria is home to more than 200 distinct ethnic groups drawn together in a volatile mix by European colonial mapmakers in the 19th century. Onitsha, alongside the historic trading route of the Niger River, has long been a commercial center. Though the city is considered part of the homeland of the heavily Catholic Ibo ethnic group, thousands of northern Muslims, mostly members of the Hausa ethnic group, have moved here in search of work.

The recent rioting began when Muslim mobs -- consisting mostly of Hausa men -- destroyed 30 Christian churches and killed 18 people Saturday in the northeastern city of Maiduguri. Those attacks were followed on Monday by rioting in Bauchi, another northern and mostly Muslim city, where 25 died over two days.

The rioting in Onitsha began Tuesday, according to news reports, after a bus carrying bodies of victims from the Maiduguri riots arrived at the city's main bus terminal. On Wednesday, according to the Reuters news agency, the violence spread to Enugu, a nearby, predominantly Christian city, where seven died.

A few miles from Onitsha, in a Asaba, northern Muslim refugees plotted their return home. Few had any money, clothes or other possessions for the journey. Some also had bandages on their heads and legs covering wounds from the attack.

Sale Garba, 40, said he was selling kola nuts at a market when the rioting began Tuesday. Attackers stole $23 from him and sliced his chin with a machete before he escaped, he said. On Wednesday, as darkness fell on the crowded grounds of a police station, he wondered how he would return to his northern home of Bauchi. After two years in Onitsha, he said, he was done.

At least 20 people were killed in revenge attacks on Muslims in Nigeria yesterday as religious riots intensified a day after the country's leading Anglican archbishop warned Muslims that they did not have a "monopoly on violence".

Christian mobs with machetes and guns roamed the streets of the mainly Christian city of Onitsha, in the south-east, in retaliation for Muslim violence in the north earlier this week which killed dozens of people, destroyed churches and left thousands homeless.

Troops were powerless to resist the mobs. Revenge attacks were also reported in another south-eastern city, Enugu, where the Red Cross said at least seven people were killed and 150 injured. At least 73 people have been killed in the past five days.

The Christian retaliation came after a widely publicised statement by the powerful Anglican primate, Peter Akinola, who warned that community leaders may not be able to contain "restive youth".

"May we at this stage remind our Muslim brothers that they do not have the monopoly on violence in this nation," he said.

He said the Muslim riots, which broke out at the weekend in response to the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have generated fury across the Muslim world, were part of a plot to make Nigeria an Islamic country.

"It is no longer a hidden fact that a long-standing agenda to make this Nigeria an Islamic nation is being surreptitiously pursued," he said.

Mr Akinola is also known for his opposition to allowing gays to be priests in the Anglican church. He could not be reached for comment on the outbreak of the violence in Onitsha.

The violence erupted on Saturday in the northern city of Maiduguri. Thirty Christian churches were razed and 18 people were killed, mostly Christians. There was also violence on Monday and Tuesday in the northern city of Bauchi, where witnesses and Red Cross officials said 25 people were killed when Muslim mobs attacked Christians. Bauchi was tense but calm yesterday as police and soldiers patrolled the city. But the focus quickly turned to Onitsha where retaliation flared.

"There are thousands of boys with cutlasses and sticks on the rampage," said George Esiri, a Reuters photographer. "I've counted at least 20 bodies here by the Onitsha bridge."

He said the dead were Hausas. "Some of them are burnt and some have their stomachs cut open," he said.

Mr Akinola blamed "influential Muslims" for supporting the religious extremists behind the attacks.

Nigeria is roughly divided between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian south. Thousands of people have died in religious violence since 2000.

A more widespread riot broke out in Onitsha on Wednesday morning, triggered by a rumour that Northerners taking refuge in Army barracks in the city sneaked out and killed school children.

They were said to have colluded with uniformed men to murder pupils in Awada Primary School.

Our reporter, who was nearly trapped at the Bridgehead area, counted three fresh bodies.

The Anambra State Government has extended the curfew in Onitsha to Awka and Nnewi, and Abuja says the riots in the state and elsewhere have been brought under control.

However, as the rumour of the killing of school children spread in Onitsha, schools, markets, and business premises were shut. Parents and guardians raced to schools to fetch their wards.

The streets were so flooded with protesters that pandemonium snow-balled into rioting. There were no security personnel in sight.

Youths with machetes, clubs and other dangerous weapons headed towards the Army barracks and Awada but were barred by soldiers.

Early in the morning, soldiers took position at the Bridgehead and escorted vehicles suspected to be conveying Northerners.

At least 10 trailers with livestock parked in the Hausa Market had been burnt to ashes the previous day. An 18-seater bus was torched as well.

It became obvious by Wednesday morning that the casualty figure of about 20 is an under-estimate. Up to 60 must have been killed over the two days.

However, neither the Commander of the Artillery Brigade, Colonel Lucas Logagwoma, nor Police Commissioner, Moses Anegbode, could confirm the killing of school children.

Logagwoma said “I have no reaction for now” because the picture of what was happening was not clear yet.

Yet, the rioters made their way to Onitsha prisons, forcing some criminals to escape.

The protesters moved about in trucks forcefully seized, and their number overwhelmed prison guards.

Anegbode told the press that he is satisfied with the conduct of policemen in containing the riot.

But policemen were not seen during the riot on Wednesday. They were said to be in the barracks to protect their own people.

All through the day, youths paraded the streets chanting war songs and brandishing machetes.

The Anambra State chapter of Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs (SCIA) has condemned the killing of Christians in Maiduguri and Katsina over the cartoon on Prophet Muhammed published in far away Denmark – which led to the reprisal attacks in Onitsha.

A statement issued by SCIA Vice President, Dauda Ajagu, urged Northern Muslim leaders to caution the faithful on the likelihood of “being used by the enemies of progress of this nation” to cause trouble.

The Federal Government on Wednesday assured Nigerians that the disturbances have been brought under control following the intervention of governors of the affected states.

Information and National Orientation Minister, Frank Nweke, who stated the position in Abuja, gave an update on the riots in Borno, Katsina, Bauchi and Anambra States.

His words: “Information available to us is that the states where these disturbances occurred are quiet at the moment. The Borno State governor has shown tremendous leadership there and he has calmed the situation significantly. The same thing with Bauchi and Katsina. Only yesterday (Tuesday) it was Onitsha where the situation has been calmed.

“The security agencies have of course brought the situation under control and we do not expect any further skirmishes from these places. We should not allow matters which could be discussed amicably to move into violence and panic”.

Nweke appealed “to our people, our compatriots, that the Government of Nigeria has great respect for the faiths professed by different religious groups. However, the government’s position is that even as you profess your faith, you should shun violence and rather embrace peaceful co-existence.

“We believe that this is the way that it should be done. It is not in anybody’s interest that this violence should take place because it is being attended by the loss of lives, by destruction of property and it has socio-economic implications. Let us not forget who we are.

“We are members of one family and in the course of our lives today, we have made friends and built relationships that transcend our various and individual ethnic, cultural and language groups.

“A lot of people have spoken up and we expect that more people should speak up, that there is no faith that preaches religious violence, that encourages you to kill your fellow citizen or fellow human being”.

Anambra State Governor, Chris Ngige, has extended the dusk to dawn curfew in Onitsha to Awka and Nnewi.

A statement he issued through his Special Assistant, Fred Chukwuelobe, warned the public to desist from rumour mongering that is capable of escalating the violence.

He said the rumour of the killing of school children has been investigated and found to be false.

He warned those involved in the jail break that they will be doing themselves a lot of good if they report to the nearest police station or to the controller of prisons.

Ngige confirmed that more law enforcement agents have been deployed in Onitsha and other parts of the state.

ONITSHA: Revenge attacks against Muslims killed at least 27 people in Nigeria on Wednesday after days of anti-Christian violence killed dozens in the mainly Muslim north.

The slaughter raised the death toll from five days of religious riots fuelled by political tensions in Africa’s most populous country to at least 66, and possibly many more.

“There are thousands of boys with cutlasses and sticks on the rampage. I’ve counted at least 20 bodies here by the Onitsha bridge. They are Hausas. Some of them are burnt and some have their stomachs cut open,” said photographer George Esiri. The Hausa are the main ethnic group in the north, while Onitsha is located in the ethnic Ibo heartland.

Rioting started in Onitsha on Tuesday after news of the northern riots emerged. Nigeria’s 140 million people are split roughly equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south, though sizeable religious and ethnic minorities live in both regions.

Religious violence is often stoked by political leaders seeking to bolster their own power bases. Fighting in one part of the country usually sparks reprisal killings elsewhere.

A doctor at the Onitsha general hospital said more than 50 newly injured people had been brought in on Wednesday, while the Red Cross said 325 people were injured and 2,000 displaced on Tuesday. Many were hiding in barracks and police stations. There was no official death toll from Tuesday’s fighting in Onitsha but a security source said at least a dozen people, possibly many more, were killed.

The catalysts were different in the three northern cities hit by violence, but observers say their underlying cause was uncertainty over Nigeria’s political future and particularly suspicions President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian southerner, plans a third term.

The revenge violence spread on Wednesday to Enugu, another southeastern city, where the Red Cross said at least seven people were killed and 150 injured.

In Onitsha, troops and police were unable to contain the violence. A group of soldiers prevented the mob from crossing the Niger River bridge into neighbouring Delta state, but did not attempt to stop the killing.

“We are evacuating some internally displaced people to Asaba for temporary sheltering because they were being overcome and attacked in places where they were initially camped, such as police stations,” said a Red Cross official in Lagos.

A doctor at Onitsha general hospital said police carried in 20 corpses, but it was impossible to verify if these were the same people as the doctor did not know where the corpses had come from. The local police commissioner declined to comment.

Oliver Onah, an Onitsha resident, said he saw an enraged mob burn two policemen to death at a roundabout in the city. Reuters

By Anayo Okoli, Enyim Enyim, Charles Ozoemena & Olasunkanmi Akoni
Posted to the Web: Thursday, February 23, 2006

ONITSHA— RIOTS raged for the second day running in Onitsha, yesterday, with the death toll rising to 38. The riots also spread to Nnewi.
The situation in Onitsha triggered a pandemonium in neighbouring Asaba where parents rushed to collect their children from schools while business activities were hurriedly suspended.

The Lagos State Government alleged plot by unnamed people to “exploit the recent religious tension in parts of the country to cause disaffection between religious groups and instigate violence in the state.”

However, the Federal Government reacted yesterday to the spate of violence in parts of the country and asked religious leaders to “counsel their followers... to live peacefully in the way that we have always done.”

Fresh trouble began in Onitsha yesterday morning following an alarm that some people had invaded the Awada Primary School and killed pupils. Parents rushed to the school to collect their children and wards.

Traders were forced to close shops while schools and most markets in Onitsha were shut.
But the Anambra State Police Commissioner, Mr. Moses Anagbode, dismissed the purported attack on Awada Primary School children. He said it was all rumour to “aggravate an already tense situation.”

The Police Commissioner who was in Onitsha to access the situation said he was informed that soldiers at the nearby Army Barracks were told of a planned attack on the school and the military authorities alerted the police at Awada who in conjunction with the military went to the school to protect the children. However, the pupils on siting the men in uniform fled, causing stampede that attracted their parents.
Contacted, the Commander 302 Artilary Regiment, Col. Lucas Chollampam Logagwoma said: “I don’t have any reaction or comment for now, because the picture of what is happening is not clear to me.”

Meanwhile, miscreants cashed in on the confusion and broke into the Onitsha prison and released an unidentified number of inmates at the prison yard.
Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State consequently extended the dusk to dawn curfew imposed on Onitsha to Awka and Nnewi. The curfew starts from 7pm to 7am.

In a statement issued by Gov. Ngige’s Media Adviser, Mr. Fred Chukwuelobe, he warned the public to desist from rumour-mongering, The statement said the attack on Awada Primary School children had been investigated and found to be rumour.
The governor also warned those involved in the jail-break at Onitsha Prisons, saying it would pay them more to report themselves to the nearest police station or the comptroller of prisons.

Gov. Ngige also warned the citizens of the state to desist from molesting anybody, adding that his government was working with the Federal Government to assuage the pains of the victims of both the Onitsha mayhem and Maiduguri crisis.

The Lagos State Government alleged yesterday plot by some people to exploit the religious tension in parts of the country to instigate violence in the state. In a statement, the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Dele Alake said: “The Lagos State Government hereby alerts the general public on the sinister plan by some unscrupulous and unpatriotic elements to exploit the recent religious tension in parts of the country to cause disaffection between religious groups and instigate violence in the state.

“Security reports reveal that these characters intend to aggravate the strong emotions generated by the negative cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper to further provoke religious groups and set them against each other.
“It is important to note that even the Danish government has apologised for the offending cartoon and there is thus no need to fight each other on the unfortunate incident.

“Contrary to their pretence of fighting for any religious cause, the evil minds behind this plot are only pursuing selfish political and economic interests. They believe that the best way to cause instability on a national scale in the country is to provoke communal and religious violence in a heterogeneous mega city state like Lagos where every faith and ethnicity in Nigeria is represented.

“Once again, we call on the good people of Lagos State to continue to maintain the peace and harmony we enjoy in Lagos State. The public should disregard inciting insinuations or rumors deliberately calculated to generate tension or create bad blood. Mischievous elements who engage in suspicious activities like advocating reprisal action by any religious group against others should be reported to the law enforcement agencies.

“All Lagosians are enjoined to go about their legitimate business without fear. The State Government is determined to continue to maintain a peaceful and secure environment conducive for inflow of foreign investment and rapid socio-economic growth. Accordingly, all security agencies have been put on alert to apprehend disturbers of the peace and protect lives and property.

“Meanwhile, in order to further strengthen the existing inter religious harmony and understanding in Lagos State, the Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will meet with religious leaders of all persuasions from all local governments of the state at the State Auditorium, Alausa, today at 11am.”

The Federal Government deplored yesterday disturbances in some parts of the country, and assured that the situation was under the full control of security agencies.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Frank Nweke, speaking for governors admonished Nigerians not to allow matters which could ordinarily be resolved amicably to degenerate to violent killings.

“Government would like to call on religious leaders, a lot of people have spoken up and we expect that more people should speak up, that there is no faith that preaches religious violence, that encourages you to kill your fellow citizen or fellow human being. So, we would like to call on the Ulama, senior citizens and individuals alike to speak up and counsel their followers, the religious groups and live peacefully in the way that we have always done.
“We should not allow matters which could be discussed amicably to move into violence and panic,” he said and singled out the Borno State Governor for arresting the violence in his state.

“Information available to us is that the states where these disturbances occurred are quiet at the moment. Borno State Governor has shown tremendous leadership there and he has calmed the situation significantly. The same thing with Bauchi and Katsina. Only yesterday (Tuesday) it was Onitsha where the situation has been calmed. The security agencies have of course brought the situation under control and we do not expect any further skirmishes from these places.

“To our people, our compatriots, that the Government of Nigeria has great respect for the faiths professed by different religious groups. However, government’s position is that even as you profess your faith, you should shun violence and rather embrace peaceful co-existence.

“We believe that this is the way that it should be done. It is not in anybody’s interest that this violence should take place because it is being attended by loss of lives, by destruction of property and it has socio-economic implications. Let us not forget who we are. We are members of one family and in the course of our lives today, we have made friends and built relationships that transcends our various and individual ethnic, cultural and language groups,” he said.

On the restiveness of the Niger Delta area, Nweke said President Obasanjo had more than past leaders attended to the problems of the oil producing areas. He said: “When you see the details of Federal Government intervention in the Niger Delta area from 1958, you will see that from 1999, everything that has been done in the last six years, has increased to about 300 per cent more above everything the government did in the preceding 40 years.

“Frankly speaking, one believes that a lot has been done in this area, a lot still needs to be done. The President acknowledges this and that is why he has shown the political will. He has provided the political leadership and the support needed to bring these things about.”

ONITSHA, Nigeria - Christian youths burned the corpses of Muslims on Thursday on the streets of Onitsha in southeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit by religious riots that have killed at least 146 people across the country in five days.

Christian mobs, seeking revenge for the killings of Christians in the north, attacked Muslims with machetes, set fire to them, destroyed their houses and torched mosques in two days of violence in Onitsha, where 93 people died.

"We are very happy that this thing is happening so that the north will learn their lesson," said Anthony Umai, a motorcycle taxi rider, standing close to where Christian youths had piled up the corpses of 10 Muslims and were burning them.

Dozens more corpses had been thrown into the back of pick-up trucks by security services overnight, residents said.

Uncertainty over Nigeria‘s political future is aggravating regional, ethnic and religious rivalries in Africa‘s most populous nation and top oil exporter.

Elections are due next year and many Nigerians believe President Olusegun Obasanjo and some state governors will try to stay on after eight years in power. The prospect angers those who want their own ethnic or regional blocs to have their turn.

Militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta have waged a three-month campaign of attacks and kidnappings, which has cut exports and driven up world oil prices. One of their demands is greater control over their region and its resources.

There was no fighting in Onitsha on Thursday but Emeka Umeh, of human rights group the Civil Liberties Organization, called it "the peace of the graveyard."

Some charred corpses were still lying on the streets and hundreds of Muslim men, women and children fled the city crammed into open-top trucks for fear of more killings. Thousands more were hiding in army barracks and police stations.

Umeh said most of the bodies his group counted were Hausa, but some Ibo were killed too. The Hausa are the main ethnic group in northern Nigeria and most are Muslim, while the Ibo are dominant in the southeast and almost all are Christian.

It is impossible to verify the exact number of deaths but Red Cross figures from all the different cities give a toll of 146. Local authorities decline to give death tolls.

In northern Maiduguri, where the Christian Association of Nigeria says 50 Christians were killed in a weekend riot that began as a protest against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, tensions were high during several Christian funeral masses.

The Red Cross said at least 21 people died in Maiduguri and 9,000 were driven from their homes.

A crowd of Christian youths broke away from the burial of one of the victims, a Catholic priest, and ran shouting through the streets before police dispersed them.

At the funeral of 13 children from two families who were burned in their houses, mourners wailed as police stood by.

News of the Maiduguri killings set off the bloodletting in Onitsha, and tit-for-tat violence spread on Wednesday to Enugu, another southeastern city, where seven people were killed.

Nigeria‘s 140 million people are divided about equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south, but sizeable religious minorities live in both regions.

Thousands of people have been killed in religious violence since the restoration of democracy in 1999. Killings in one part of the country often spark reprisals elsewhere.

The triggers for riots that killed at least at least 46 people, mostly Christians, in northern Maiduguri, Bauchi and Katsina, were different, but religious and secular leaders have linked them to political tensions.

In Bauchi, an alleged blasphemy started the trouble, while in Katsina it was a constitutional review that many see as an attempt to keep Obasanjo in power.

The constitution bars Obasanjo, a Christian from the southwest, from seeking a third term in 2007 and he says he will uphold the charter. But he has declined to comment on a powerful movement to amend the constitution to allow him to stay.

Maiduguri and Katsina are both hosting public hearings on constitutional reform this week which many Nigerians believe are geared toward furthering the so-called third term agenda.

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Abuja, Ibrahim Mshelizza in Maiduguri and Tume Ahemba in Lagos)

Libya has suspended its security minister and other officials, a day after at least 10 people were killed during a demonstration at the Italian consulate in the north eastern city of Benghazi.

In Rome, meanwhile, Roberto Calderoli, the Italian reform minister, has resigned, bowing to pressure from government colleagues after Libya blamed his anti-Islamic insults for igniting the demonstration, the most deadly yet of a continuing international wave of protests against cartoons of Prophet Muhammad.

A statement from the general secretariat of Libya's parliament on Saturday read: "Security Minister Nasr Mabrouk has been suspended from his duties and taken before an investigating magistrate."

The statement added that a national day of mourning would be observed on Sunday to honour "our martyrs".

Calderoli, of the xenophobic Northern League party, had appeared on a prime time news programme on Thursday wearing a T-shirt printed with the provocative cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper last year and which have recently been widely re-published in Europe.

"Security Minister Nasr Mabrouk has been suspended from his duties and taken before an investigating magistrate"

The Libyan deaths took place after about 1000 people gathered to protest outside the Roman consulate.

Calderoli, who has frequently attacked Islam in recent weeks and once called Muslim immigrants in Italy "Ali Babas", seemed defiant to the last, showing no signs of contrition in a series of newspaper interviews published on Saturday.

"I can be sorry for the victims, but what happened in Libya has nothing to do with my T-shirt. The question is different. What's at stake is Western civilisation," the daily La Repubblica quoted him as saying.

The al-Qadhafi foundation, headed by the reform-minded son of Muammar al-Qadhafi, the Libyan leader, issued a statement blaming the riot on Calderoli's "provocative and outrageous" actions.

Meanwhile, in a telephone conversation Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, and the Libyan leader agreed that the anti-Italian violence should have no "negative repercussions" for bilateral relations, Berlusconi's office said.

Calderoli's brazen stand embarrassed Italy's centre-right government, which is campaigning for April general elections. On Saturday, several ministers, as well as leaders of the centre-left opposition, urged Calderoli to step down.

The two leaders had a "long and amicable" discussion focusing on Friday's violence in Benghazi.

Gianfranco Fini, the Italian foreign minister, quickly scheduled a visit to Rome's main mosque for later Saturday, saying he wanted "to reaffirm that we respect every religion, and we expect identical respect," according to the ANSA and Apcom news agencies.

Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, the Italian president and a highly respected voice in the country, issued a statement saying that in Italy, "there is a clear, undisputed policy that reflects the dominant feeling of Italians: the respect of religious creeds and of the faiths of all peoples.

"Above all, those who have a responsibility in government have to show responsible behaviour," Ciampi said, adding that he was "deeply saddened" by the clashes at Benghazi.

In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Calderoli said he had declined a previous plea to resign from Berlusconi last week, after he threatened to wear the T-shirt. "I'm certainly not changing my mind," he told the paper.

Under the Italian constitution, the premier does not have the power to sack ministers.

In comments reported by another newspaper, Corriere della Sera, Calderoli said he would resign only if Umberto Bossi, the Northern League leader, asked him to do so, and "after receiving a signal from the Islamic world that such a gesture would be useful".

Calderoli travelled to Bossi's house in northern Italy on Saturday to meet him and Fini.

Fini, who had earlier appealed to Calderoli to avoid provoking Muslims, blamed his fellow minister for the violence in Libya.

"It was predictable that Calderoli's display would trigger reactions in the Arab world," Fini told La Repubblica.

* Civil Liberties Organisation puts death toll at 80
* Southerners invade barracks for cover in Katsina
* Onitsha calm, business, social activities resume
* 20 prison inmates return;Abuja police forestall riot

ABUJA - THE Federal Government, yesterday, directed the General Officers Commanding the Army divisions to team up with the police immediately to stop the wave of religious attacks and/or reprisals in parts of the country. Already, soldiers have been deployed on the streets of Onitsha, which was the scene of two days of reprisals against northerners, to check further violence.

The human rights group, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), said yesterday that over 80 people died in the attacks. However, the commercial city was generally calm yesterday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of southerners were still taking refuge in army barracks in Katsina, Maiduguri, Bauchi and Gombe, fearing reprisals after the Onitsha attacks.

Vanguard gathered that the Presidency fearing that the attacks might spread to other parts of the country directed the Chief of Defence Staff, General Alexander Ogomudia, to activate the internal security apparatus of the military for the purpose of quelling the sectarian/religious violence.

Consequently, the Service Chiefs were told to deploy troops to flash points at the slightest hint of possible confrontation.

Army divisions in the North-East and the South-East are particularly to ensure that the violence and killings are brought to an end forthwith.

Explaining why it took long for security agencies to move to quell the religious attacks in Maiduguri and Bauchi which led to the killing of some Christians which led to a reprisal attacks in other parts of the country, the source said: "The truth is that the Police which is the first line of defence reacted slowly to the outbreak of the attacks and this was because they (policemen on ground) were still wondering if their so-called strike would hold or not.

"So, while they were contemplating, the miscreants took advantage of the situation to wreak havoc. What I am telling you started very early and in just about five minutes a lot of damage had been done."

Onitsha Calm

However, after two days of the mayhem in Onitsha, the commercial city of Anambra State that left in its trail no fewer than 80 persons dead and properties worth millions of Naira destroyed, normalcy has returned to the commercial city. Commercial and social activities resumed yesterday. Markets in Onitsha which were hurriedly shut on Tuesday and Wednesday opened for business yesterday.

Commercial vehicles which were withdrawn from the roads at the peak of the mayhem resumed operations as residents and visitors to the commercial city freely went about their normal businesses.

However, schools in the city remained closed just as the dusk to dawn curfew imposed on the major cities of the state remained.

But the debris left behind by the mayhem were still seen all over the town. There were at least three burnt bodies on the Onitsha-Enugu Expressway between the Zik’s Roundabout and the New Motor spare parts market. One of the charred bodies was said to be that of a mobile policeman. He was said to have been lynched and burnt by miscreants after he allegedly shot at them.

Security in and around the city is still tight. Battle-ready soldiers were yesterday seen patrolling the city to ensure that nobody caused further trouble.

Meanwhile, the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, yesterday visited the victims of the mayhem at the Onitsha Army Barracks to commiserate with them. Achebe sympathised with them and urged them to be calm, assuring them that help would soon come their way.

80 killed, says CLO

The CLO in Onitsha said no fewer than 80 people died in the Onitsha riots. "We counted 60 bodies on Tuesday and 20 on Wednesday and there could be more," said Emeka Umeh, head of the local chapter of the Lagos-based Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO).

"It was a great massacre that should be condemned by any right-thinking person. Human bodies littered the streets in Onitsha. Even now, bodies can still be found on Upper Iweka road," in the city.

He said the victims had been slaughtered "with machetes, knives, metal objects, clubs and in some instance, even guns." Umeh said two policemen were among the victims, adding that he thought they had died "while trying to save the lives of the Muslims."

20 Inmates Return

Besides, 20 inmates of the Onitsha prisons who were freed by the angry mob that invaded the prison on Tuesday have voluntarily returned to the prison. Acting Comptroller-General of Prisons, Mr. Uche Kalu, who paid a visit to the state to see for himself what happened commended the freed inmates who voluntary returned to the prison. He described the attack on the prison as devastating and a colossal damage. According to him, the property destroyed were estimated at millions of Naira and will be very difficulty for government to put in place.

Expressing fears and danger of releasing the inmates, Kalu said: "Those who came there and released the inmates were not patriotic. Who were they helping? Armed robbers and murderers and suspects have been released to the society. I can assured you that since yesterday some of them have started operation. Those who released them could be their first victims."

Southerners Invade Barracks For Refuge

Hundreds of southerners sought refuge yesterday in army barracks in Katsina, Maiduguri, Bauchi and Gombe, fearing reprisals following the Onitsha riots. Some 7,000 people were holed up in police stations and military barracks in Katsina alone.

They also feared possible riots over on-going public hearings in Katsina on a possible constitutional amendment seeking to allow President Olusegun Obasanjo a third term.

The Onitsha riots on Tuesday and Wednesday were in response to an earlier attacks on southerners in the north following protests over cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Mohammed published in European newspapers.

The barracks presented a chaotic sight with men, women and children sitting under trees as vendors milled around vending food, soft drinks and water.

Police were yesterday also deployed across Katsina’s neighbouring towns, including Kano, Kaduna and Zaria.

"We are on red alert. All state commissioners of police are under instructions to monitor developments and prevent any violence," federal police spokesman Haz Iwendi said.

Abuja Police Forestall Riot

Meanwhile, the Police in Abuja yesterday moved to forestall attempts by some religious groups to cause crisis in the Federal Capital City over what a Moslem cleric described as the circulation of a book written by a Lebanese Christian from Lebanon, containing some derogatory remarks about the holy Prophet Mohammed.

Commissioner of Police in charge of the Federal Capital, Mr Lawrence Alobi, who summoned a meeting with over 100 religious, traditional and community leaders including leaders of thought in Abuja, warned the leaders against inciting any religious or ethnic crisis in the city, pointing out that Police were alert to deal with anybody who takes the law into his hands.

"The purpose of our gathering is to call on residents of Abuja not to be part of the crisis that is happening in other parts of the country. We won’t allow that to happen here. I want to enjoin all FCT residents especially religious and community leaders to preach and ensure peace and tranquillity.

"We will not tolerate anybody bringing hoodlums from any where to come and cause problems here," Alobi said.

PFN Tasks Obasanjo On Riots

And reacting to the riots, the umbrella body of Pentecostal Christians in Nigeria, yesterday, held an emergency national executive meeting, at the end of which it asked President Olusegun Obasanjo to invoke the powers bestowed upon him to restore peace to the nation.

The PFN which said at least 36 churches were burnt in Maiduguri alone, condemned the reprisal action taken by youths in Onitsha, saying that as Christians, our faith does not accept such retaliatory actions, adding, however, that the said reprisal moves were precipitated by frustration on the part of the people.

It enjoined Christians in the country to remain calm and law-abiding, pointing out that "we cannot in the face of continued provocation guarantee that Christians will not be compelled to take their destiny in their own hands."

Des bandes de jeunes ont attaqué les musulmans dans plusieurs villes du sud. Il s'agit de représailles contre les émeutes anti-chrétiennes au nord.

Une nouvelle fois, le Nigeria est le théâtre de massacres religieux. Après que des musulmans eurent incendié 32 églises et tué 46 personnes lors d'émeutes anti-chrétiennes - «justifiées» par la publication de caricatures de Mahomet en Europe - il y a deux semaines, des sudistes (chrétiens et animistes) ont attaqué des musulmans dans plusieurs villes du sud après une intervention du primat anglican, Mgr Peter Akinola, prévenant les musulmans qu'ils n' «avaient pas le monopole de la violence». On déplorait 138 morts jeudi matin.

La majorité des victimes sont enregistrées à Onitsha, ville majoritairement d'ethnie ibo; les Ibos, souvent commerçants, sont très présents parmi les minorités chrétiennes vivant au nord (musulman) du Nigeria.

Cet immense pays est régulièrement le théâtre de tueries interreligieuses. Celles-ci ont surtout lieu au nord et au centre du pays.

Au nord, majoritairement musulman, en particulier depuis qu'à la faveur de la fin de la dictature militaire (1999), les islamistes ont fait une percée importante, aboutissant à l'imposition de la loi islamique dans 12 Etats fédérés. Des chrétiennes vendant de la bière, une éclipse, une rumeur, un concours de beauté - les prétextes à émeutes anti-chrétiennes sont multiples et ont fait des milliers de morts depuis 1999.

Au centre, parce que c'est la zone de rencontre entre islam et christianisme et qu'il y a de nombreux cas d'ethnies appartenant à des religions différentes qui se disputent des terres fertiles en brandissant l'étendard, bien commode, de la foi.

Depuis quelques années, cependant, on note qu'à chaque massacre de chrétiens au nord répond, en représailles, un massacre de musulmans au sud ou au centre; l'inverse s'est également produit.

Dans tous les cas, des intérêts locaux manipulent à l'envi les angoisses identitaires, liées à l'appauvrissement des citoyens (le revenu par habitant a diminué de 25pc depuis 1975 alors que, sur la même période, le pétrole, extrait au sud, a rapporté 300 milliards de dollars).

A la mi-février, le gouvernement fédéral a ainsi accusé les autorités de l'Etat fédéré islamiste de Kano (nord) d'avoir entraîné au djihad, «avec l'aide d'une puissance étrangère», une trentaine de membres de sa police religieuse. Les manifestations anti-chrétiennes de ce mois à Kano semblent avoir été noyautées par une milice chiite portant chemise noire. Les musulmans nigérians sont très majoritairement sunnites.

Plus généralement, on remarque que les autorités des Etats islamistes du nord doivent, de plus en plus, faire face à de plus radicaux qu'elles. C'est que les promesses qu'elles avaient faites lors de l'imposition de la loi islamique - fin de la corruption et de l'immoralité - ne sont pas suivies d'effet; curieusement, d'ailleurs, la loi islamique coupe la main des petits voleurs et fait la vie dure aux femmes -surtout celles qui n'ont pas de mari-, mais est bien moins sévère à l'égard des auteurs de détournement d'argent public ou des policiers qui rackettent les citoyens. Des groupes plus radicaux tentent donc de se faire une clientèle en accusant les autorités islamistes au pouvoir de n'avoir décrété la charia que par populisme et non par foi.

Le sud, lui, est marqué par le retour en force des mouvements ethnistes, parfois porteurs de revendications sécessionnistes.

Le bilan de deux jours de violences à Onitsha, dans le sud-est du Nigeria, se chiffre désormais à 100 morts alors que des bandes d'emeutiers ont pris d'assaut mercredi une prison et libéré l'ensemble des 585 détenus, a rapporté jeudi la presse locale. Des milliers de musulmans nordistes résidant dans la ville ont été contraints de quitter leurs maisons, et plusieurs d'entre eux se sont réfugiés au 32ème Régiment d'artillerie de la ville, tandis que des centaines d'autres ont fui dans l'Etat du Delta qui se trouve à proximité.

On redoutait, jeudi, que ces violences qui ont débuté le week-end dernier quand de jeunes musulmans protestant contre les caricatures du Prophète Mohamed (PSL) à Maiduguri ont tué des dizaines de chrétiens, se répandent dans les autres Etats du Sud à majorité chrétienne, y compris à Lagos, la capitale économique du Nigeria.

Les émeutes d'Onitsha, le poumon économique de l'Etat d'Anambra, ont commencé mardi en réponse directe aux violences qui ont éclaté dans au moins quatre Etats du nord musulman.

Les violences dans les Etats de Maiduguri, Bauchi, Gombe et Katsina, tous dans le Nord, ont fait de nombreux morts et suscité des avertissements sévères de la part de l'Association des chrétiens du Nigeria (CAN).

Bien que le gouvernement de l'Etat ait déployé des policiers et des soldats armés et imposé un couvre-feu, des jeunes armés, au nombre de 3.000 ont défié les mesures de sécurité pour semer le chaos. Ils ont pris d'assaut la prison d'Onitsha aux environ de 13h (heure locale), apparemment à la recherche de Nordistes, et pillé les biens de la prison. "Tous les jeunes étaient armés. Ils ont sauté sur le toit de la prison qui s'est effondré sous leur poids", a raconté le contrôleur adjoint de la prison, Columbus Omeneko. "Ils nous accusent d'accueillir des Hausas musulmans, mais nous leur avons dit que tous les détenus étaient originaires du sud-est", a poursuivi M. Omeneko, ajoutant que seuls neuf des 585 prisonniers libérés sont rentrés de leur plein gré.

Les corps des victimes jonchaient littéralement les principales rues dans la journée de mercredi tandis que les éocles et les commerces étaient restés fermés.

Le gouvernement de l'Etat a annoncé qu'il avait étendu le couvre- feu à la ville voisine de Nnewi pour prévenir toute autre violence dans l'Etat.

"Le gouverneur souhaite aussi avertir tous ceux qui sont impliqués dans l'évasion de la prison d'onitsha aujourd'hui (mercredi) suite à la crise à Onitsha qu'ils feraient mieux de se présenter au commissariat le plus proche ou au contrôleur des prisons", prévient le gouvernement.

Face à la crainte que les émeutes se propagent, les gouverneurs des Etats d'Imo, dans le sud-est, Kaduna dans le nord et Lagos, la capitale économique, ont annoncé des mesures pour prévenir les violences interconfessionnelles.

A Imo, des centaines de Nordistes apeurés se sont réfugiés dans les casernes de la police et de l'armée à Owerri, la capitale de l'Etat, mais le porte-parole de la police Bala Mohammed a affirmé que des mesures avaient été prises pour assurer la sécurité.

A Lagos, le gouverneur de l'Etat, Bola Tinubu, a convoqué une réunion des responsables religieux pour discuter des mesures visant à prévenir la violence.

Les émeutes ethniques et religieuses ont tué des milliers de personnes au Nigeria, un pays multiethnique presque équitablement divisé entre chrétiens et musulmans.

Libye Nouvelles émeutes à Benghazi Après les émeutes qui ont provoqué la mort de douze manifestants devant le consulat italien, les protestations ont continué tout le week-end à Benghazi, conduisant les résidents italiens à quitter la ville. Hier matin, c’est l’église qui a été incendiée. Bien que les émeutes aient été déclenchées à la suite de la présentation par Roberto Calderoli d’un tee-shirt présentant les caricatures du Prophète, le président du Sénat italien, Marcello Pera, a accusé hier le chef d’État libyen, le colonel Muammar Kadhafi, d’être à l’initiative des manifestations. Pologne Une exposition de tee-shirts provocateurs interdite L’université de Lublin, en Pologne, a interdit une exposition en faveur de la liberté d’expression. Devaient y être présentés des tee-shirts aux inscriptions provocatrices telles que « Je n’ai pas pleuré après la mort du pape », « Je suis gay » ou « Je suis juif ». « L’exposition et les textes imprimés sur les tee-shirts risquaient d’offenser les sentiments et les convictions de nombre de gens », a expliqué le directeur de l’université Wieslaw Kaminski. L’évêque de la ville, Mgr Jozef Zycinski, a quant à lui estimé qu’« il faut avoir perdu tout sentiment humain pour inscrire sur un tee-shirt "Je suis malade du sida" ou "J’ai avorté" ».

Palestine Ismaïl Hanieyh chargé de former le gouvernement C’est hier que le président de l’Autorité palestinienne, Mahmoud Abbas, a reçu Ismaïl Hanieyh pour lui remettre une lettre d’accréditation le chargeant officiellement de former le gouvernement palestinien. Cette lettre, a indiqué le dirigeant palestinien, Ismaïl Hanieyh, contient « plusieurs points qui devront faire l’objet d’une discussion et d’un accord ». En outre, le président palestinien a appelé le Hamas à reconnaître les accords conclus par ses prédécesseurs avec Israël et à s’engager à rechercher l’établissement d’un État palestinien par la voie de la négociation. Algérie La grève dans l’éducation largement suivie L’appel à une grève de trois jours, qui avait débuté, lundi, par l’intersyndicale des travailleurs de l’éducation nationale algérienne, a été largement suivi. Hier, tous les établissements scolaires algériens étaient fermés. Plus de 90 % des personnels de l’éducation ont adhéré à l’appel lancé par l’intersyndicale, qui regroupe trois syndicats autonomes. Les syndicats, non reconnus par les pouvoirs publics, exigent la revalorisation des salaires et une redéfinition du statut de l’enseignant. Autriche Le négationniste David Irving condamné à trois ans de prison David Irving, l’Anglais qui a perdu sa réputation d’historien sérieux en niant la réalité de l’Holocauste, a été condamné à Vienne à trois ans de prison, au titre de la loi autrichienne « contre la réactivation » du nazisme (datant de 1947 et complétée en 1992). Il a indiqué qu’il ferait appel du verdict, après avoir affirmé qu’il s’était « trompé », il y a dix-sept ans, en qualifiant de « contes de fées » le génocide des juifs et les chambres à gaz d’Auschwitz. La presse britannique a condamné hier cet ami de l’extrême droite. Mais elle se demandait si une telle peine infligée à un homme complètement discrédité ne risquait pas d’en faire un martyr tout en portant atteinte à la liberté d’expression. L’écrivain avait été arrêté en novembre 2005 en vertu d’un mandat d’arrêt émis en 1989, après qu’il eut nié l’existence des chambres à gaz lors de réunions tenues en Autriche.

NIGERIA: Les affrontements interconfessionnels font plusieurs morts

ONITSHA, le 24 février (IRIN) - Au moins 123 personnes ont été tuées au cours des récents affrontements ethno-religieux survenus au Nigeria à la suite des violentes manifestations organisées par de jeunes Musulmans qui protestaient contre les caricatures du Prophète Mahomet.

C’est à Onitsha, une ville du sud-est majoritairement chrétienne qu’on compte le plus grand nombre de victimes. En représailles aux attaques perpétrées le week-end dernier contre les Chrétiens dans le nord, des groupes de jeunes en colère s’en sont pris aux Musulmans de la ville.

Au moins 80 personnes ont trouvé la mort au cours des deux journées d’émeutes à Onitsha, a indiqué jeudi la Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), une association nigériane de défense des droits de l’homme.
« Nous avons dénombré au moins 60 morts mardi et une vingtaine mercredi », a confié à IRIN Emeka Umeh, le délégué de la CLO dans l’Etat d’Anambra.

Les émeutes ont éclaté mardi lorsqu’il a été état de l’arrivée à Onitsha des dépouilles de chrétiens Igbos tués dans le nord. Des jeunes en colère sont alors descendus dans les rues de la ville pour en découdre avec les Musulmans Haoussas, originaires du nord.

Mais le nombre de victimes serait bien plus important, si l’on tient compte des attaques perpétrées contre les Musulmans dans les villes voisines d'Awka et de Nnewi. Mercredi, Chris Ngige, gouverneur de l’Etat d’Anambra a décrété le couvre-feu dans les deux villes, alors qu’il était déjà en vigueur à Onitsha.

De nombreuses autres victimes musulmanes ont également été signalées mercredi à Enugu, la capitale de l’Etat d’Enugu, à environ 100 kilomètres au nord d’Onitsha.

Les manifestations organisées dans le nord-est du Nigeria contre les caricatures du Prophète Mahomet avaient dégénéré en émeutes le week-end dernier, faisant 18 morts dans la ville de Maiduguri. Lundi et mardi, au moins 25 personnes ont été tuées au cours d’attaques perpétrées contre des chrétiens dans la ville septentrionale de Bauchi.

Avec une population de près de 126 millions d’habitants, le Nigeria est peuplé au nord par des ethnies majoritairement musulmanes et au sud, par des ethnies essentiellement chrétiennes. Pour certains analystes, la controverse autour de la caricature a simplement servi d’élément déclencheur dans les récents affrontements interconfessionnels.

« Il y a trop d’animosités contenues et, plus grave encore, il y a beaucoup de jeunes gens oisifs qui guettent la moindre occasion pour exprimer leur colère », a expliqué Okey Nwiwu, professeur de sciences politiques, qui compare le Nigeria à une poudrière prête à exploser.

Après plusieurs décennies de mauvaise gouvernance imputable à des régimes militaires et civils corrompus qui ont dilapidé la manne pétrolière fournie par la région du delta du Niger, la situation économique de la majorité de la population est déplorable et les tensions ethno-religieuses sont encore plus vivaces.

Et ces tensions se sont accrues en 2000, lorsque 12 Etats musulmans du Nord ont décidé d’appliquer la Charia, la loi coranique stricte. Cette loi interdit la vente d’alcool, prescrit l’amputation des membres aux auteurs de vols, la lapidation et la peine de mort en cas d’adultère.

Et comme dans la plupart de ces Etats, cette loi s’applique sans discernement aux non Musulmans, beaucoup de chrétiens pensent que la Charia s’inscrit dans un plan d’islamisation du Nigeria.

Peter Akinola, chef de l’Eglise anglicane du Nigeria et Président de l’Association des chrétiens nigérians (CAN), a évoqué ce problème dans une déclaration rendue publique après les attaques perpétrées contre les Chrétiens dans le nord.

« Il ne fait plus de doute qu’ils poursuivent un objectif à long terme qui est de faire du Nigeria un Etat islamique », a-t-il déclaré au nom de la CAN, une association qui regroupe tous les mouvements de confession chrétienne. M. Akinola a également souligné que les leaders chrétiens ne seraient peut être plus capables de contenir le désir de vengeance des jeunes gens.

Aucune autorité musulmane n’a pour l’instant commenté les récentes émeutes.

Avec plus de 250 ethnies et groupes de langue, le Nigeria, pays le plus peuplé d’Afrique, est fréquemment en proie à des crises politico-ethniques.

Et avec les prochaines échéances électorales, les divergences politiques régionales ne font qu’exacerber les tensions, d’autant que l’opposition et certains détracteurs du gouvernement prêtent au Président Obasanjo l’intention de modifier la constitution pour supprimer la clause de la limitation des mandats et se maintenir au pouvoir.

Quant aux leaders politiques haoussas-foulanis du Nord, région majoritairement musulmane qui a fourni la plupart des chefs d’Etat du Nigeria depuis l’indépendance du pays en 1960, ils pensent qu’ils leur revient maintenant de donner au pays un président originaire de leur région, après les deux mandats successifs d’Obasanjo, un chrétien yoruba originaire du sud-ouest.

Entre temps, les chrétiens Igbos du sud-est, qui ont vainement tenté de faire sécession pendant la guerre civile du Biafra, à la fin des années 1960, se plaignent d’être persécutés plus de 35 ans après la fin du conflit.
Les ethnies Igbos, Haoussas-Foulanis et Yorubas comptent chacune plus de 40 millions de personnes. Ce sont les trois plus importantes composantes ethniques du pays et elles représentent plus de 60 pour cent de la population nigériane.

Le reste de la population se compose de minorités ethniques, dont la plus importante est celle des Ijaws, majoritaires dans la région du delta du Niger qui fournit une grande partie des revenus pétroliers du Nigeria.

Des miliciens ijaws ont récemment perpétré des attaques contre des installations pétrolières et des prises d’otages afin d'appuyer leurs revendications pour un meilleur partage des revenus pétroliers avec les populations pauvres de la région.

« La survie politique d’Obasanjo passe par une gestion intelligente de tous ces intérêts et tendances politiques divergents », a indiqué Ike Onyekwere, analyste politique et journaliste nigérian.

« Et cela ne semble pas être une tâche facile ».

Normalcy has returned to Onitsha, the commercial nerve centre of Anambra State, after two days of violence that left several persons dead.

Lagos and Ogun State Governments as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) drew on the lessons on Thursday as they took measures to avoid such needless pain.

It was the day Onitsha monarch, Alfred Achebe, visited and commiserated with about 5,000 Northerners taking refuge at the 302 Artillery Regiment, the Army barracks in the city.

He said the people now suffering did not even know the origin of the cartoon of Prophet Muhammed, published in a Danish newspaper, which led to killings in the North that spread to Onitsha.

Achebe urged residents to heed the advice of President Olusegun Obasanjo and religious leaders who appealed for calm.

"Differences should be addressed through dialogue and not violence. All sections of Onitsha metropolis should live together as they have always done in the past, despite differences in language, race and religions", he added.

According to him, the people of Onitsha believe in the right of citizens to live together, and that the burning down of houses is alien.

Achebe urged the law enforcement agencies to re-enforce security in the city and implored the inspector general of police and others to end the killings.

An investigation panel should be instituted to determine the cause of the riot, he advised, adding that people should go back to their businesses and shun rumour.

The commander of the regiment, Col. Lucas Logagwoma, had given him a run down of the situation, saying 5,000 people are taking refuge in the barracks.

He said the 70 of them who are wounded were sent to the hospital but returned for fear of their lives.

According to Logagwoma, the Army barely feeds them and provides medicaments but Governor Chris Ngige has promised to send more doctors and relief materials.

He denied that soldiers joined Muslims to kill school children and appealed to Achebe to urge the people to go back to their homes and stop rioting.

State Comptroller of Prisons, Sule A. Danyaya, inspected the burnt prison offices on Thursday and described the act as "very, very bad".

His Deputy, Columbus Omenuko, took him round the premises and narrated the event of Wednesday to him.

Omenuko said 20 inmates who escaped had returned, following radio and television announcements that they return.

He stressed that those who failed to return after Thursday would be declared wanted and a search party raised to fish them out.

The Lagos State Government and religious leaders met and mapped out strategies on how to prevent the religious crisis from spreading to the state.

A committee was inaugurated by Governor Bola Tinubu to start work on the management of religious matters.

The meeting called on the adherents of the two main religions, Islam and Christianity, to shun any one who may want to use them to initiate conflict.

Tinubu noted that though the rights of the people to protest unpleasant situations cannot be taken away from them, it should be done peacefully.

His words: “We should not allow evil to set us against one another. These perpetrators, who have lost politically, are only using this medium to gain popularity. We should think beyond the surface and know that they are only out there to cause confusion in the polity.

Ansa-Ud-deen Society National Missioner, Abdurahman Ahmad, noted that the protest is legal but that the violence accompanying it is illegal.

Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, urged Lagosians to continue to make Lagos the peaceful state others have emulated for years.

Speaking through his representative, John Aniagwu, he said those fomenting trouble with the cartoon do no have any religion to claim, as those who professes God will allow Him to judge any circumstance.

Police in Ogun State have taken measures to forestall the sort of reprisal killings seen in Onitsha.

It was learnt that Commissioner of Police, Joseph Apapa, has ordered that a full unit of the anti-riot mobile police squad be on standby in Abeokuta.

In the same vein, an inter-religious meeting was held by Christian and Muslim leaders where it was agreed that the various groups should urge their followers to eschew violence.

The communique signed by 2O leaders of both faiths condemned the killings, describing them as being perpetrated under political guise.

They praised the people of the state for living in peaceful co-existence, "more so as there is no family in the state without a mixture of both religions in abundance".

In Abuja, FCT Police Commissioner, Lawrence Alobi, informed a meeting of all religious and community leaders that intelligence report shows that some people are planning mayhem in the FCT, and warned such people to desist as the command will deal with trouble makers.

He reminded them that both Christianity and Islam teach peace and love, and wondered why people who profess such teachings would kill others.

“Abuja is the centre of unity of this country and we should be conscious of and sensitive to what is happing in other places. We should not allow such to happen here”, Alobi said.

All the religious and community leaders pledged that they will do everything within their power to ensure that peace reigns in Abuja.

ENUGU, Nigeria - Muslim and Christian mobs killed 11 people in three Nigerian cities on Friday, extending a week of tit-for-tat religious riots that have claimed at least 157 lives and injured more than 900.

Uncertainty over Nigeria‘s political future is aggravating regional, ethnic and religious rivalries ahead of elections next year. Rioting began in the mainly Muslim north and revenge attacks followed in the Christian south.

In the northern town of Kontagora, machete-wielding Muslim mobs killed nine people and torched four Christian churches, a Nigerian Red Cross official in Lagos told Reuters. They also looted shops owned by minority Christians, police said.

In the city of Enugu in the southeast, Christian youths armed with machetes and clubs attacked Muslims, beating one motorcycle taxi driver to death and burning a mosque.

A stray bullet also killed an 8-year-old Christian girl and rioters blocked off the area with burning barricades.

Nigeria‘s Red Cross said that in addition to the killings, the week of violence had injured 930 people and displaced about 16,000 across the multi-ethnic country.

James Obi, a market trader who was part of the mob in Enugu, said they killed the taxi driver, known locally as an Okada, after a rumor that a Muslim policeman killed a Christian boy.

"We got angry and we killed one of them on Okada. His corpse has been set ablaze," he said.

In northeastern Potiskum, Muslim youths burned shops, churches and houses belonging to minority Christians early on Friday. Police said 65 rioters were arrested.

The religious violence first broke out last Saturday in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, when a Muslim protest against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad ran out of control and 28 people were killed, most of them Christians.

But the violence has taken on a logic of its own in Africa‘s most populous country, divided roughly equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. Thousands have died in religious violence over the past six years.

Authorities are afraid the fighting could spiral into a bigger bloodbath and hundreds of armed riot police patrolled major cities across the north.

Many Nigerians believe President Olusegun Obasanjo and some state governors will try to stay in office for a third term after eight years in power. The prospect angers those who want their own ethnic or regional blocs to have their turn.

"If the north has a problem with the third term, that is no reason to attack ordinary people and destroy houses," said Joseph Hayab of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

In the far south of the country, militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta have waged a three-month campaign of attacks and kidnappings, which has cut supplies from the world‘s eighth largest oil exporter and driven up world prices.

They issued pictures on Thursday of nine foreign oil worker hostages -- three Americans, one Briton, two Thais, two Egyptians and one Filipino. One photograph showed them sitting on a bench in a forest with militants in army fatigues pointing assault rifles at their heads.

Diplomats said they were preparing for a long wait and the militants denied government statements that talks were under way to secure their release.

They threatened more attacks on oil installations and workers in the next few days.

Analysts say the violence in the south is also linked to the electoral tension because many groups from the southern delta also want a stab at the presidency next year and oppose any extension of Obasanjo‘s tenure.

(Additional reporting by Tume Ahemba and Tom Ashby in Lagos, Ibrahim Mshelizza in Maiduguri, Estelle Shirbon in Abuja)

Lagos, Nigeria, 25/02 - La situation était redevenue calme vendredi matin à Onitsha, ville du sud-est du Nigeria, après des violences inter-religieuses qui ont fait plus de 100 morts selon le bilan officiel.
Les responsables du ministère de la Santé, assistés de la Police et de la Croix-rouge, ont fini de récupérer des corps des rues de la ville à majorité chrétienne.
Les affrontements ont éclaté après l`arrivée de dépouilles de ressortissants de la ville tués lundi, dans le nord du pays, dans des émeutes déclenchées par des manifestations de protestation contre la publication dans dês journaux européens de caricature du prophète Mohamed.
Les banques, les commerces et les écoles ont rouvert vendredi matin, tandis que de nombreux habitants ont repris leurs activités pour vaquer à leurs occupations, tandis que le couvre-feu imposé (de 19h à 7h du matin) sur Onitsha et quelques villes voisines reste maintenu.
"La situation est presque revenue à la normale", a déclaré un habitant de la ville, Emma Okolo.
Quelque 25.000 personnes, essentiellement des musulmans du nord du pays, sont refugiés dans la caserne du 32ème Régiment d`artillerie d`Onitsha pour échapper aux émeutiers.

By Emeka Mamah, Sam Eyoboka, Anayo Okoli, Ben Agande and Chidi Nkwopara
Posted to the Web: Saturday, February 25, 2006

FOR Nigeria, these are, indeed, troubled times. It started in Maiduguri, Borno State and Katsina State when some religious fundamentalists last Saturday protested over the publication of offensive caricatures of Prophet Mohammed by some European newspapers. A newspaper in Denmark actually published the cartoon in September 2005.

But by the time the protests in Maiduguri were over, no less than 30 lives were said to have been lost, including that of a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Mathew Gajere. Many churches were also torched, forcing the Borno governor, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff to impose a dusk to dawn curfew on the ancient city.

The worst hit areas were Babban Layi in Hausari area and Customs-Bama Road where many Igbo dwellers have their shops, most of which were damaged.
In the moment of anomie, it was everyone to himself. Or so Rev. Fr. Felix Usman, the parish priest of St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in Maiduguri was to learn. His church was under threat from the rampaging protesters. He called the Gwanye Police Station for help. But the police complained that they did not have enough men to cope.

“We lost everything except the priory (priest’s living quarters),” he lamented. “It was so bad but there was nothing we could do.”
In similar fashion, the same sectarian riots in Katsina led to massive destructions, necessitating non-muslims to take to their heels.
Quite dramatically and unexpectedly, hell was let loose in Onitsha, Tuesday, when the corpses of those killed in Maiduguri were brought home. In reprisal attacks, the enraged Igbo headed to the Head Bridge populated by Northerners and pounced on the people. The crisis continued Wednesday, leading to the death of about 40 lives.

Like his Borno counterpart, Governor Chris Ngige imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on the commercial city as well as Awka and Nnewi where the protests had spread to.

And nowhere can the true pictures of the protests in the North and East be appreciated like the army and police barracks where the non-indigenes had taken refuge. In the case of Onitsha, the muslims had taken over every available space at the army barracks and have said that they are not in a haste to leave.
“Look at us,” Malam Saidu Bichi told Saturday Vanguard. “We are all Nigerians. Why we go kill ourselves? It’s not good. We (used to) live in peace here until that riot in Maiduguri. It’s not good to kill ourselves.

“It’s Allah that brought me here. Wallahi, I for die! We have to live as brothers. We have no problems with Igbo. It’s not good. Both Hausa and Igbo are one. I have many Igbo friends. One of them (has) come to see me here. Imagine!”

That, indeed, has been the lamentation of many of the displaced persons who see no sense in the bloodshed over what happened in far-away Denmark. Unfortunately, those eho now suffer as a result of the riots in Borno and Katsina are mere victims of circumstances.

At both the army and the police barracks, there is communal life in practice. Because of the scarcity of essential facilities, most of the affected persons have been sharing things in common. But these things never go round.

It has been most traumatic for mothers who have been moving from one place to the other in search of food and water for their little kids. As the children wail, the mothers are moved to tears.

But such situation is not restricted to Onitsha. Saturday Vanguard visited some army and police barracks in Katsina, Wednesday and came face-to-face with some Igbo refugees who have sworn not to return to their homes in the city, no thanks to the tension in the entire state. It was such that the venue of the constitutional review was more like a war zone, with battle-ready soldiers wielding their guns menacingly. It did not surprise few of those who managed to come out that not even the state governor, Alhaji Yar’Adua attended the conference.

Chief Damian Ezenwa is a prominent Igbo in Katsina. According to him, “what happened here was unfortunate. What was the reason for killing and destroying things in Maiduguri and here (Katsina)? The cartoon was published in Denmark. Are Igbo traders from Denmark? Are the churches in Denmark?
“We’re still taking head-count to know those who are missing. But I want to say that between the Northerners and Igbos, we have a lot in common. I don’t know why we should be killing each other for no just cause.”

Maiduguri appeared relatively calm, Thursday, but the tension too has been particularly overwhelming since the reprisal attacks in Onitsha. Except those who live in Sabongari, other Igbos have now moved in with their friends and relatives in the area while others spend their nights at the military barracks.

The hitherto quiet Onitsha Army Barracks is now overflowing with victims of the two-day Onitsha mayhem which displaced hundreds of residents. The Barracks currently houses hundreds of displaced victims. Similarly, life has been quite difficult in the barracks since many of them ran into the place with little or nothing.

In a show of solidarity, the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe visited the displaced persons at the barracks and urged them to be calm. Achebe told them that help would soon come their way. He described the incident as “very unfortunate” and expressed the readiness of Onitsha to continue to accommodate all peace-loving people no matter their origins.

The commander of 302 Artillery Regiment, Onitsha, Colonel Lukas Chollampan Logagwowa, assured the victims of their safety in the barracks. He assured that they are doing everything possible to sustain the victims.

Meanwhile, normalcy has returned to the commercial city. Commercial and social activities resumed, Thursday. Markets in Onitsha which were closed on Tuesday and Wednesday opened for business while commercial vehicles which were withdrawn from the roads at the peak of the mayhem resumed operations. However, schools in the city remained closed just as the dusk to dawn curfew imposed on the major cities of the state remained.

But the signs of the devastation were still seen all over the town. There were at least three burnt bodies on the Onitsha-Enugu expressway between the Zik’s roundabout and the New Motor spare parts market. One of the charred bodies was said to be that of a mobile policeman. He was said to have been lynched and burnt by the miscreants after he allegedly shot at them. Though normalcy seems to be returning, battle-ready soldiers have been patrolling the city to ensure that there was no further breakdown of law and order.

We saw ‘em burn down our church, says Rev. Fr. Livinus
Reverend Father Williams Livinus is the father in-charge of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, one of the churches burnt down during the recent religious riot in Maiduguri, Borno state. He spoke to us in the charred remains of his church where relics of the destruction still littered the ground.
Tell us your experience on the day your church was burnt down.

Before anything happened, we phoned the police to inform them that there was tension in town and we needed the protection of the police. We were told that they had no personnel. I locked the gate to the church premises and came into the compound. Few minutes later, we heard some people shouting and were banging on the gate for more than thirty minutes before they finally broke down the gate and came in.

I asked the seminarian standing with me to find refuge on the other side of the fence while I watched events from a distance. When they gained entrance into the premises, they set fire on the store and broke the louvers on the church windows. They went inside the church, set fire on the altar. They also set fire on all other things that we use in celebrating mass. After that, they came into the office, destroyed my computer and took away what they wanted to take.

Were there any indications there would be riots?
There was an announcement over the radio that there was going to be a peaceful demonstration in the state against the Danish cartoons. We had a feeling that something was going to happen but we did not know to what extent.

Did the security agencies do enough to stop the destruction?
There’s no security in Borno state. We believe that there was not enough action taken by the authorities. Some people even saw policemen when the rioters were hitting at my gate. We did not get any support from any quarters.

Before this church was burnt down, for the past thirty years, no Christian has been given the certificate of occupancy to build any church. The religion is not even taught in schools here. Christianity has always been under attack. The only difference is that it has not been to the extent of burning churches.
We spoke with some Muslim leaders and they said what happened had no religious connotations but that unemployed youths took cover under religion to perpetrate crime.
If they are hoodlums, why should the attack be only on Christian churches and business premises?

Sheik Mohammed Abba Aji, a muslim leader spoke on the genesis of the crisis in Maiduguri.
How did the protest happen after these years of relative peace in Maiduguri?
The last time something like this happened was during the civil war, either in 1967 or 1968. Anybody who witnessed it would not like such a thing to repeat itself. What I find surprising is that if the cartoon in the Danish newspaper was the motive, people should know that we are in Africa while Denmark is in Europe. It is not the same government. Why would people manifest their anger against the newspapers through innocent people? I think they were propelled by the desire to steal.
The victims of the riots were not idle people. They were people who had one profession or handiwork or the other. You could see that most of the places attacked were business premises. The perpetrators of this were motivated by no other motive but to steal.

Who were these people that carried out these actions?
I am very sure that they are not indigenes of this state. There is no way you would find a Kanuri man doing that kind of thing. We are worried by the development. Each day, you find trailer load of people being brought into this town from other parts of the country. You will find one Mallam with over fifty pupils under his care. It is like that in every town in this state. Unfortunately, some of these mallams do not know the dictates of Islam. The children under them are made to suffer while the parents of these children are never told the true condition of their children.

It is better to take action against such practice or else it would be more disastrous in the future. Every idle person in this town should be interviewed and closely watched. Anyone that cannot discharge himself satisfactorily should be sent out of the town. No under-aged child should be taken from the custody of his parents and brought to this place in the name of studying under one mallam. When they bring them like that, they miss out in parental training and care. The end result is that they have no respect for anything or person. There is no gain.

Are you saying that anybody who professes to be a ‘mallam’ should be licensed so that they can be monitored?
Not exactly. As far as I am aware, no mallam took part in the riot. What the government should do is to set up a committee of the indigenes of this state to examine the people in the state. If the committee confirms that you are a genuine mallam, then you would be spared. If you are not genuine but hiding under the guise to bring in people of dubious characters to cause crisis in this state, then you should be forced to pack your things and leave with your pupils.

You find many Nigerians being deported from other parts of the world because they committed one crime or the other. We too should start deporting people who are not from this state but are causing trouble.

What in your opinion should the government do to the victims of the crisis?
Government should apologize to them and mitigate their loss because they have no fault in the whole crisis. Their only fault is that they refused to be idle. They are doing something to survive and they became targets. The perpetrators of these crimes have no human feelings.

Islam tells us to respect three things in every human being. The Koran says we should respect three things about any human being: the sacredness of his blood, his good behaviour and his heart. Any good Muslim would not do the things that the perpetrators of the riot did. Those who caused that destruction are not Muslims. They were motivated by the envy of the success of the traders.

Islam does not encourage the destruction of other people’s places of worship. Islam says if you have respect for your religion, you must also respect another person’s religion. Prophet Mohammed says you should not insult anything that somebody worships so that the person would not insult yours.
Those who did that are not Muslims, they were hoodlums.

My heart bleeds for the bereaved — Bishop Obinna
The Catholic Archbishop of Owerri ecclesiastical province, Most Rev (Dr) Anthony Obinna insists that government has not done enough to reassure the citizenry of their safety.

I attribute this problem to the recklessness of the secular media of the West, particularly of Denmark. They should have realized the sensitivity of abusing, even in image form, major religious leaders of the world, no matter what the individual may think of the religious leaders. The media in Denmark really trivialized a very important religious factor for many people. Unfortunately, the issue was mishandled in Nigeria.

So, the government must recognize the urgent need to restrain the religious elite because I have not seen where Christians have insinuated and instigated any crisis, unless in a place I do not know in Nigeria. Generally, Christians have not instigated their members to attack anybody. As a religious leader, I have never instigated anybody, any group of Christians to attack fellow religious believers, even if from a different religious group.

What the attacks portend
The Igbo people have been in the forefront of building up this nation because they accepted the fact, right from the beginning, that we can all live as one people under God in this country. That is why the Igbos have migrated to different parts of the country and by their tradition and custom, we also welcome our guests an settlers. As long as there is element of peace, fruitful exchange, the Igbo man is very ready to live side by side with all ethnic groups in Nigeria and elsewhere, including Muslims.

Igbos themselves are asserting that we still belong to Nigeria, irrespective of the fact that we lost the civil war, that we would like to build up Nigeria and we would like to express our presence across Nigeria. In fact, the Igbos should be congratulated for seeking to make Nigeria one nation. That was what late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and others championed. So, not firmly protecting the lives of the Igbos continues to make a statement that well, these people are not particularly wanted. It also means that the rehabilitation, the reconstruction and the reconciliation trumped up at the end of the war by Gowon, have not been really taken seriously these days. Until this nation takes every citizen and every ethnic community seriously and we respect their lives, this kind of bizarre thing would continue to happen. This is, of course, making the Igbos to say that if the federal government cannot defend us, we will defend ourselves. That is not the normal reasoning of the Igbos because they believe in live and let’s live, abide and let us abide, room for the kite and room for the eagle.

However, when they see that there isn’t that respect for their own lives, they are prone to react and take the law into their own hands, which is what exactly happened at Onitsha. As unfortunate as it is, it would not have happened if the Igbos, who are also generally Christians, were not attacked in Maiduguri or elsewhere.
Nigerian leaders are fiddling with the pursuit of power and money while the more serious issues of uniting the people, making everybody become a member of the Nigerian family is kept as secondary. What is more important to our leaders is their own quest for power, position and for money but the more important thing that makes for a nation is friendship, love and care that you can touch and feel wherever you go if there is a sense of seriousness in our country. So, I just believe that we are fiddling while Nigeria is burning. These people that are burning at the lower level are not part of the power and money establishment. They are just people going about their normal businesses, trying to meet their daily needs but unfortunately, the elitist absenteeism and manipulation of the poor people trigger these crises.
Now, you realize that people cannot travel as freely as they used to, and do their normal business. It is a challenge to the elite, even the religious elite on the one hand to direct their people aright, to restrain the brutal, wicked passion that is fuelled. It is the utmost blasphemy to say you are killing somebody in the name of God or for God, what God Himself has forbidden. On the other hand, the political and economic elite needs to look beyond politics and economics to find ways, more dialogical ways, of bringing peace just as now.

In the Niger Delta area, government is now forced to enter into more meaningful dialogue instead of using gunboat diplomacy to solve the problems in the Niger Delta Region. But prevention is better than cure. The sad thing is that Nigeria does not believe in prevention. It always waits for fallouts before taking action. And it is because of too much emphasis on the political and economic sphere in the narrow sense that the main issue of humanizing Nigerians and making them recognize and treat one another as dignified human beings has failed. That has been left as secondary. So, I do hope that this present blow-up would have to be taken care of. I almost thought that there should be a Bill in the National Assembly, against religious and ritual murder in this country. I say this because killing for the sake of God and killing to make money are outrageous. I hope I should find an opportunity to speak again on this matter so that people can be restrained from attempting to kill, to murder anybody either in the name of God or in the name of money. That is the bottom line.

Your final word to the bereaved families
Naturally, I am very much touched at the sadness, the sudden sadness that has prevailed in the various places in our land. Only yesterday (Wednesday) evening, I was worried because we have some of these our Hausa brothers working even for us (Owerri Catholic Archdiocese). We have thought about them and said well, we pray that they will not be exposed to the same kind of brutality around here (Owerri). Luckily, I have not heard anything happening in Owerri and indeed the whole of Imo State, because we know that to kill somebody’s brother or sister causes a lot of heartache and heartbreak that could trigger these sorts of negative reactions.
I definitely extend my hand of compassion, my spirit of comfort to all those who have been bereaved by the mayhem that has taken place first in Maiduguri and then in a reactionary way, in Onitsha. We pray for the repose of the souls of all those who have been so brutally murdered. I just hope that enough should be enough and that government should help to restrain such things for the future, instead of coming back after each one and then we wait for another period and then the blowout and we begin to blame and apologize. This is the time to act.

By Emeka Mamah, Sam Eyoboka, Anayo Okoli, Ben Agande and Chidi Nkwopara
Posted to the Web: Saturday, February 25, 2006

Like his Borno counterpart, Governor Chris Ngige imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on the commercial city as well as Awka and Nnewi where the protests had spread to.

It has been most traumatic for mothers who have been moving from one place to the other in search of food and water for their little kids. As the children wail, the mothers are moved to tears.

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian security forces patrolled cities on Saturday where religious violence has killed at least 157 people, and despite a fresh attack on two Muslim travelers most of the recent flashpoints were reported calm.

The week of tit-for-tat killings by Muslim and Christian mobs has shaken Africa's most populous country at a time when it is facing increasing militant attacks in its oil-producing Niger Delta region and an outbreak of bird flu.

Authorities ordered traditional rulers and religious leaders across the multi-ethnic country to calm their followers and put an end to the violence, which began in the mainly Muslim north and was followed by revenge attacks in the Christian south.

Analysts say uncertainty over Nigeria's political future is aggravating regional, ethnic and religious rivalries ahead of elections next year.

In Maiduguri and other northern cities which saw bloody anti-Christian riots that killed dozens over the last week, police and soldiers were patrolling the streets, residents said.

Security forces were also deployed in the southeastern city of Enugu where at least nine people were killed in revenge attacks on Muslims by Christian mobs.

"Police are patrolling and the military are guarding strategic points," said a local Red Cross official in Enugu, who asked not to be named.

But she added police were unable to prevent a Christian mob from attacking and seriously wounding two Muslim travelers from the north who got off a bus just north of Enugu early on Saturday. Police took the victims to hospital.

Nigeria's Red Cross has said that in addition to the killings, the week of violence injured 930 people and displaced about 16,000 across the country.

In the far south of the country, militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta have waged a three-month campaign of attacks and kidnappings, which has cut supplies from the world's eighth largest oil exporter and driven up world prices.

Voici heure par heure les événements liés à la parution dans plusieurs journaux européens, dont France Soir, de caricatures du prophète Mahomet.

DIMANCHE 26 FEVRIER

20h20 - Athènes Le chef de l'Eglise orthodoxe de Grèce, Mgr Christodoulos, exprime son inquiétude sur l'affaire des caricatures, n'excluant pas "le début d'une guerre des civilisations ou des religions".

16h00 - Karachi Quelque 25.000 manifestants, selon la police, ont défilé dans la plus grande ville du Pakistan.

06h00 - Malaisie La Malaisie fait fermer pour deux semaines un troisième quotidien qui avait publié un dessin d'une caricature de Mahomet.

SAMEDI 25 FEVRIER

15h45 – Lyon Quelque 250 musulmans, selon la police, et 600 selon les organisateurs, manifestent samedi contre l'islamophobie et la publication des caricatures, à l'appel du Parti des musulmans de France (PMF)

15h25 – Amsterdam Des bagarres ont éclaté lorsque des militants d'extrême gauche s'en sont pris à une manifestation en faveur de la liberté d'expression organisée à Amsterdam pour défendre la publication de caricatures de Mahomet, a-t-on appris de source policière.

06h50 – Copenhague L'auteur et comédien danois Flemming Jensen prépare, non sans appréhension, une pièce de théâtre sur le choc des civilisations avec en toile de fond la crise des caricatures de Mahomet.

VENDREDI 24 FEVRIER

Après 18h00

22h05 – Copenhague Le ministre danois des Affaires étrangères Per Stig Moeller dément des propos de son homologue égyptien selon lesquels l'Egypte a offert en vain au Danemark et à la communauté internationale la possibilité d'éviter la crise née des caricatures.

18h55 – Paris L'association de défense de la liberté de la presse Reporters sans frontières (RSF) dénonce l'"acharnement" des autorités du Bélarus contre l'hebdomadaire d'opposition Zgoda qui pourrait être fermé pour avoir publié les caricatures.

18h30 – Londres Une des caricatures a été affichée brièvement sur le panneau d'affichage d'une mairie britannique, conduisant la police à ouvrir une enquête.

Entre 17h00 et 18h00

17h35 - Minsk Un journal bélarusse d'opposition, l'hebdomadaire Zgoda, s'est vu signifier qu'il pourrait être fermé pour avoir publié des caricatures du prophète Mahomet, a annoncé vendredi le ministère de l'Information, alors que la rédaction du journal dénonçait un prétexte saisi par les autorités.

17h30 - Helsinki Le rédacteur en chef d'un petit magazine culturel finlandais a été licencié vendredi pour avoir publié une bande dessinée évoquant l'affaire des caricatures de Mahomet.

Entre 15h00 et 17h00

16h30 - Copenhague L'ambassadeur danois en Syrie va retourner dimanche à son poste à Damas dans le but de rouvrir prochainement l'ambassade, fermée à la suite de violentes protestations contre les caricatures de Mahomet, annonce le ministère danois des Affaires étrangères.

16h25 - Vienne Plusieurs intervenants occidentaux devant l'assemblée parlementaire de l'OSCE ont rappelé vendredi à Vienne que, dans l'affaire des caricatures de Mahomet, la liberté d'expression était l'un des piliers de la démocratie.

16h10 - La Haye Une entreprise néerlandaise a annoncé vendredi la mise en vente via internet de T-shirts portant l'une des caricatures du prophète Mahomet.

15h30 - Copenhague Le Danemark organisera le 10 mars à Copenhague une conférence sur le dialogue religieux et culturel, annonce le comité d'organisation.

Entre 11h00 et 15h00

14h30 - Islamabad Le chef de l'opposition islamiste et plusieurs dizaines de militants islamistes ont été arrêtés au Pakistan où des milliers de personnes ont manifesté malgré d'imposants déploiements des forces de l'ordre.

14h25 - Copenhague Le Danemark organisera le 10 mars à Copenhague une conférence sur le dialogue religieux et culturel, annonce le comité d'organisation.

13h20 - Copenhague Le quotidien danois Jyllands-Posten a reçu un prix de journalisme pour son initiative, annonce un responsable du jury.

Entre 08h00 et 11h00

08h00 - Islamabad Plusieurs dizaines de militants de partis islamistes ont été arrêtés au Pakistan en prévention de troubles avant une journée nationale de protestation, indiquent des responsables islamistes.

JEUDI 23 FEVRIER

Après 18h00

18h40 - Rome Le président du Sénat italien, Marcello Pera, entouré de plusieurs ministres du gouvernement de Silvio Berlusconi, lance un manifeste pour "défendre l'Occident, traversé par une crise morale" et menacé "par le fondamentalisme et le terrorisme islamiques".

Entre 13h00 et 18h00

16h40 - Copenhague Le ministre égyptien des Affaires étrangères affirme dans un journal danois avoir offert en vain au Danemark et à la communauté internationale la possibilité d'éviter la crise née des caricatures de Mahomet.

Entre 10h00 et 13h00

10h45 - Jakarta Plusieurs centaines de musulmans indonésiens sont rassemblés dans le calme devant l'ambassade du Danemark à Jakarta, pour protester contre la publication des caricatures, annonce la police.

Avant 10h00

Pas d'événement à signaler.

MERCREDI 22 FEVRIER

Entre 18h00 et minuit

21h05 -Washington Le président américain George W.
Bush rappelle les gouvernements étrangers, à commencer par celui du Pakistan, à leur "obligation" d'empêcher les foules protestant contre les caricatures de Mahomet de dicter leur loi.

20h40 - New York Le secrétaire général de l'Onu, Kofi Annan, présidera samedi à Doha une table ronde de haut niveau pour discuter de la crise provoquée par la publication en Europe des caricatures, annonce son porte-parole, Stéphane Dujarric.

Entre 15h00 et 18h00

17h25 - Madrid Le groupe espagnol d'habillement Inditex, surtout connu pour sa marque Zara, retire de ses magasins quelques milliers d'étiquettes de prix de vêtements de sa marque Bershka qui représentaient une mosquée.

Entre 12h00 et 15h00

13h50 - Téhéran Une centaine d'islamistes manifestent devant l'ambassade d'Italie à Téhéran pour protester contre la publication de caricatures de Mahomet.

12h10 - Peshawar Un imam pakistanais, qui avait déjà offert la semaine dernière un million de dollars et une voiture pour la mort des dessinateurs des caricatures de Mahomet, assure que des kamikazes se sont proposés pour "tuer les blasphémateurs".

Entre 9h00 et 12h00

11h40 - Karachi Quelque 10.000 personnes manifestent contre la publication en Europe des caricatures de Mahomet, à Larkana (300 km au nord de Karachi, sud), fief des anciens Premiers ministres Zulfikar Ali Bhutto et sa fille Benazir Bhutto.

11h10 - Rome Le chef du gouvernement italien Silvio Berlusconi condamne les caricatures de Mahomet dans une interview diffusée sur la chaîne Al-Jazira, après des manifestations anti-italiennes qui ont fait onze morts en Libye vendredi.

10h30 - Rome Mgr Velasio De Paolis, secrétaire au Vatican du Tribunal suprême de la signature apostolique, reproche à l'Occident ses peurs face à un islam "fermé au point de ne pas admettre la réciprocité", dans une interview au quotidien italien La Stampa.

Avant 9h00

6h20 - Jakarta La police indonésienne promet de renforcer la sécurité autour du bâtiment hébergeant l'ambassade du Danemark, qui devait rouvrir incessamment après sa fermeture causée par la colère provoquée par la publication des caricatures de Mahomet.

MARDI 21 FEVRIER

Après 17h00

19h30 - Copenhague Le Danemark jouera un match amical le 1er mars contre Israël à Tel-Aviv après avoir reçu des assurances sur sa sécurité, selon la Fédération danoise de football (DBU).

17h55 - Islamabad Le secrétaire général de l'Organisation de la conférence islamique, le Turc Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, qualifie de "très dangereuse" la fatwa lancée lundi par des musulmans indiens.

17h35 - Amman Le roi Abdallah II de Jordanie appelle le monde musulman et la communauté internationale à coopérer pour promouvoir un islam modéré bannissant l'extrémisme, selon l'agence officielle Petra.

Entre 15h00 et 17h00

15h30 - Copenhague Près de 500 sites internet danois ont été attaqués une nouvelle fois lundi par des pirates informatiques à la suite de la publication de caricatures de Mahomet au Danemark, a annoncé mardi l'expert en sécurité informatique Ulf Munkedal de Fort Consult.

15h24 - Copenhague Les 12 dessinateurs danois auteurs des caricatures controversées de Mahomet publiées dans le quotidien Jyllands-Posten, sont toujours protégés par la police, a indiqué mardi le Premier ministre danois Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

15h14 - Peshawar Environ 5.000 habitants des zones tribales pakistanaises ont manifesté mardi contre les caricatures du prophète Mahomet publiées dans des journaux occidentaux et appelé le président Pervez Musharraf à démissionner, indique des témoins.

Entre 14h00 et 15h00

14h20 - Copenhague L'ambassadeur du Danemark à Jakarta était attendu mardi en Indonésie pour rouvrir le plus tôt possible l'ambassade du pays, indique à Copenhague le ministère danois des Affaires étrangères.

14h20 - Lisbonne La Communauté islamique de Lisbonne condamne la publication des caricatures du prophète Mahomet aussi bien que les réactions violentes qu'elle a déclenchées comme "contraires à l'Islam".

Entre 13h00 et 14h00

13h15 - Kerbala Plus de 3.000 chiites manifestent dans la ville sainte de Kerbala (110 km au sud de Bagdad) pour dénoncer la publication de caricatures de Mahomet par un journal danois, jugées offensantes.

13h05 - Copenhague Le Premier ministre danois Anders Fogh Rasmussen met en garde contre "une solution rapide et facile" de la crise.

Entre 12h00 et 13h00

12h20 - Paris On apprend qu'un débat organisé par SOS Racisme à Paris XII "pour défendre la liberté d'expression dans l'affaire des caricatures de Mahomet" et prévu mercredi a été interdit par la présidence de l'université au motif du maintien de l'ordre public.

Entre 00h00 et 12h00

10h35 - Rome Le président du Sénat italien Marcello Pera met en cause les autorités libyennes dans les violents incidents anti-italiens de Benghazi.

LUNDI 20 FEVRIER

Entre 22h00 et minuit

22h00 – Riyad Les autorités saoudiennes interdisent le journal Shams qui a publié les caricatures dans le but d'accentuer la campagne contre le Danemark.

Entre 20h00 et 21h00

20h00 – Rome Le Vatican demande aux dirigeants européens de défendre le droit à la liberté religieuse lors des négociations et des déplacements dans les pays musulmans.

Entre 19h00 et 20h00

19h55 – Alger Le Secrétaire général de la Ligue arabe, Amr Moussa, plaide pour "un dialogue des civilisations".

19h55 – Lucknow (Inde) Un tribunal islamique de Lucknow, ville du nord de l'Inde, a lancé lundi une fatwa (décret religieux), condamnant à mort les 12 auteurs des caricatures.

19h50 – Bissau Un journal indépendant bissau-guinéen, Diario de Bissau, reprend les caricatures, et déclenche la condamnation d'un responsable musulman du pays qui a qualifié cette démarche de "provocation".

19h35 – New York Le secrétaire général de l'Onu, Kofi Annan, participera ce week-end à Doha à une réunion de l'Alliance des civilisations pour tenter de "calmer la situation" créée par la publication en Europe de caricatures, a annoncé son porte-parole.

Entre 18h00 et 19h00

18h24 - Lagos Des manifestations samedi dans deux villes du nord du Nigeria ont fait 24 morts et 230 blessés, selon un nouveau bilan établi par la Croix Rouge nigériane.

18h20 - Copenhague Le ministre danois des Affaires étrangères, Per Stig Moeller, affirme que "des forces extrémistes tentent de maintenir le conflit en vie", se disant convaincu qu'Al-Qaïda "veut aussi exploiter la situation pour attiser le feu".

Entre 17h00 et 18h00

17h25 - Copenhague L'opposition de gauche danoise demande une enquête indépendante sur la gestion de la crise entraînée par la publication de caricatures de Mahomet, estimant que le gouvernement aurait dû prêter attention aux mises en garde diplomatiques, notamment de l'Egypte.

Entre 15h00 et 17h00

16h15 - Bruxelles Le ministre iranien des Affaires étrangères Manouchehr Mottaki assure que son pays faisait "de son mieux" pour empêcher les violences contre les Européens.

Entre 14h00 et 15h00

14h25 - Jalalabad Près de 2.000 étudiants afghans ont manifesté contre les caricatures de Mahomet publiées par la presse européenne, en appelant les pays musulmans à rompre leurs liens avec le Danemark.

14h20 - Copenhague L'opposition de centre et de gauche du parlement danois exige une enquête indépendante sur le rôle controversé du gouvernement dans la gestion de l'affaire des caricatures de Mahomet qui a soulevé une tempête de protestations contre le Danemark dans le monde musulman.

Entre 12h00 et 14h00

13h50 - Rome Le parquet de Rome annonce ouvrir une enquête pour "outrage à la religion" muslumane contre Roberto Calderoli, le ministre des Réformes qui a démissionné après ses attaques répétées contre l'islam

13h20 - Islamabad Les autorités pakistanaises ont levé l'assignation à résidence du chef de la principale alliance islamiste pakistanaise, qui a aussitôt appelé à de nouvelles manifestations contre la publication en Europe de caricatures de Mahomet.

12h50 - Téhéran Le chef de la diplomatie iranienne lance un appel au clame et affirme que Téhéran ne soutient aucune violence.

12h20 - Cité du Vatican Le pape Benoît XVI a estimé lundi qu'il était "nécessaire et urgent que les religions et leurs symboles soient respectés" afin de "favoriser la paix et la compréhension entre les peuples et entre les hommes".

Entre 10h00 et midi

10h55 - Tripoli Un dernier bilan officiel fait état de onze morts et 69 blessés, dont 27 grièvement, suite aux heurts qui ont opposé les forces de l'ordre libyennes à des manifestants qui avaient attaqué le consulat d'Italie à Benghazi.

10h25 - Kano L'Etat de Gombe, dans le nord du Nigeria, a interdit la tenue d'une manifestation organisée par des musulmans qui souhaitaient protester contre la publication en Europe de caricatures du prophète Mahomet.

10h15 - Rome Le silence des Etats et des organisations internationales est "inacceptable" face aux émeutes anti-chrétiennes survenues samedi au Nigeria, estime le recteur de l'Université Pontificale, Mgr Rino Fisichella.

Entre minuit et 8h00

01h30 - Arabie Saoudite Une partie des médias saoudiens a publié le texte d'excuses du Jyllands-Posten suite à la publication des caricatures de Mahomet.

DIMANCHE 19 FEVRIER

Entre 20h00 et minuit

22h30 - Tripoli Neuf personnes tuées vendredi à Benghazi lors d'affrontements entre les forces de l'ordre et des manifestants qui avaient attaqué le consulat d'Italie ont été inhumées dans cette ville du nord-est de la Libye.

Entre 18h00 et 20h00

19h45 - Nador Des dizaines de femmes islamistes ont manifesté à Nador au Maroc, contre la publication des caricatures de Mahomet à l'appel de l'association radicale Al Adl Wal Ihssane (Justice et bienfaisance, non reconnue).

18h30 - Copenhague L'ambassadeur danois au Pakistan va rentrer temporairement au Danemark, annonce le ministère danois des Affaires étrangères.

Entre 16h00 et 18h00

17h15 - Kano (Nigeria) Le secrétaire général du Conseil suprême nigérian des affaires islamiques, principale organisation musulmane du pays, a condamné les émeutiers qui ont attaqué samedi des chrétiens, tuant 15 personnes,

Entre 14h00 et 16h00

15h30 – Le Caire Le ministre égyptien des Biens religieux, Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, a estimé dimanche "normale" la réaction des musulmans à la publication des caricatures de Mahomet, lors d'un entretien au Caire avec une délégation de religieux danois.

14h45 – Damas Les ventes de volailles sont en chute libre en Syrie depuis quelques mois et les pertes sont évaluées à quelque huit milliards de SYP (160 M USD), en dépit des assurances officielles sur l'absence du virus dans le pays, indique le journal al-Iqtissadiya.

14h15 – Istanbul Quelques dizaines de milliers de personnes se sont réunies dimanche à Istanbul à l'appel du parti de la Félicité (SP, islamiste) pour protester contre la publication des caricatures.

Entre 12h00 et 14h00

12h30 – Islamabad Les forces de sécurité pakistanaises ont tiré des gaz lacrymogènes pour disperser des centaines de jeunes rassemblés à Islamabad, malgré l'interdiction de cette manifestation, ont indiqué la police et des témoins.

Entre 9h00 et 12h00

11h20 – Islamabad Les forces de sécurité ont bouclé la capitale pakistanaise Islamabad après l'interdiction d'une manifestation à l'appel de partis islamistes.

11h10 – Islamabad La police pakistanaise a procédé à des raids dans trois villes du pays dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche, procédant à des centaines d'interpellations et assignations à résidence pour tenter d'empêcher la grande manifestation prévue dans la journée à Islamabad.

11h10 – Jakarta Quelque 200 membres d'un groupe musulman indonésien militant ont fait le siège de l'ambassade américaine à Jakarta, pour protester contre une représentation de Mahomet se trouvant dans l'enceinte de la Cour suprême américaine.

10h55 – Dubaï Un journal pan-arabe à capitaux saoudiens, Asharq al-Awsat, a publié une lettre d'excuses du Jyllands-Posten, le quotidien danois qui avait publié, le premier, les caricatures.

Avant 9h00

8h40 - Djakarta Environ 400 manifestants appartenant à un groupe radical musulman jettent des pierres, des tomates et des oeufs sur l'ambassade des Etats-Unis, accusant Washington d'avoir organisé la récente publication de caricatures du prophète Mahomet dans des journaux occidentaux pour tenter de discréditer l'Islam.

8h10 - Islamabad Plusieurs responsables musulmans pakistanais ont été arrêtés ou assignés à résidence pour tenter d'empêcher une grande manifestation prévue dans la journée contre la publication de caricatures du prophète Mahomet dans la presse occidentale, selon la police.

SAMEDI 18 FEVRIER

Après 17h00

20h40 - Kano Des violences ont fait 15 morts à Maiduguri, dans le nord du Nigeria, à la suite d'une manifestation contre la publication des caricatures.

17h40 – Montpellier Entre 1.700 et 2.000 personnes selon la police, 2.500 à 3.000 selon les organisateurs, manifestent dans le calme samedi à Montpellier.

17h10 – Tripoli Onze personnes, dont quatre Egyptiens et Palestiniens, ont été tuées et 35 blessées lors de la violente manifestation devant le consulat italien de Benghazi, annonce Seïf al-Islam Kadhafi, le fils du dirigeant libyen.

Entre 16h00 et 17h00

16h45 - Kano (Nigeria) Des violences ont éclaté à Maiduguri, dans le nord du Nigeria, quand la police a cherché à empêcher une manifestation contre la publication de caricatures de Mahomet en Europe, rapportent des témoins.

16h15 – Rome Le chef du gouvernement italien, Silvio Berlusconi, s'est entretenu avec Mouammar Kadhafi et obtenu du dirigeant libyen l'assurance que les manifestations anti-italiennes à Benghazi n'auront pas de conséquences sur les relations entre les deux pays.

16h10 – Duisbourg (Allemagne) Quelque 3.500 personnes manifestent à Duisbourg contre la publication des caricatures.

16h10 – Londres Des milliers de musulmans ont participé à la manifestation la plus importante organisée dans la capitale britannique depuis le début de l'affaire des caricatures de Mahomet.

Entre 14h00 et 16h00

14h30 - Tripoli Le ministre libyen de la Sécurité, Nasr Mabrouk, a été suspendu de ses fonctions et traduit devant un juge d'instruction, selon une source officielle.

14h10 - Multan Quatre personnes ont été blessées samedi 18 février au Pakistan quand les forces de l'ordre ont ouvert le feu contre des manifestants qui tentaient d'incendier des banques et d'autres bâtiments à Chiniot, dans l'est du pays, selon la police.

Entre 13h00 et 14h00

13h35 - Rome Le chef de l'Etat italien Carlo Azeglio Ciampi invite les membres du gouvernement dirigé par Silvio Berlusconi à faire montre de "comportements responsables" dans la crise internationale provoquée par les caricatures de Mahomet.

13h20 - Londres Plus de 10.000 manifestants dénoncent la publication des caricatures.

Entre 12h00 et 13h00

12h25 - Rome Le chef de la diplomatie italienne Gianfranco Fini annonce sa décision de se rendre à la mosquée de Rome pour tenter d'apaiser les tensions provoquées dans le monde musulman par les déclarations offensantes pour l'islam du ministre Roberto Calderoli, dont il a demandé la démission.

Entre 11h00 et 12h00

11h20 - Lucknaw Un ministre musulman de l'Etat indien d'Uttar Pradesh (nord) a offert 510 millions de roupies (11,5 millions de dollars) de récompense à qui obtiendrait la tête d'un des auteurs des caricatures de Mahomet, rapporte la presse indienne.

Entre 9h00 et 11h00

10h50 - Tripoli Un peu moins de la moitié des Néerlandais craint une confrontation entre le monde musulman et l'Occident, après les violentes protestations provoquées par la publication de caricatures du prophète Mahomet, selon un sondage de l'institut néerlandais R&M Matrix.

10h30 - Téhéran Les autorités iraniennes ont ordonné aux forces de sécurité de faire "leur possible" pour prévenir les attaques contre les ambassades étrangères en Iran, indique le ministre de l'Intérieur Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi cité par la presse.

10h30 - Tripoli Les déclarations "provocantes et outrageantes" contre l'islam du ministre italien des Réformes Roberto Calderoli sont responsables de la manifestation de contre le consulat d'Italie, affirme la Fondation Kadhafi dans un communiqué.

09h55 - Tripoli Selon des témoins, le calme est revenu à Benghazi.

Avant 9h00

02h35 - Tripoli La manifestation et l'incendie du consulat d'Italie à Benghazi "n'aura pas d'effet négatifs" sur les relations entre l'Italie et la Libye, affirme le ministre libyen des Affaires étrangères Abdel Rahman Chalguam, selon l'ambassade d'Italie à Tripoli.

02h05 - Rome Le ministre italien des Réformes Roberto Calderoli se déclare prêt à présenter sa démission mais à condition que l'islam fasse un geste d'apaisement.

00h50 - Tripoli Au moins dix personnes ont été tuées par la police libyenne au cours d'une manifestation de protestation vendredi contre le consulat d'Italie à Benghazi, déclare le premier secrétaire de l'ambassade d'Italie à Tripoli.

Des affrontements interreligieux, qui se sont déroulés durant la deuxième quinzaine du mois de février, ont causé au Nigeria la mort de plus de 120 personnes. Les violences ont démarré dans la ville de Maiduguri, dans le nord du pays, essentiellement musulman, à l’occasion de manifestations contre la publication dans la presse européenne des caricatures du prophète Mohammed. Au moins 34 personnes, la plupart chrétiennes, ont été tuées et plusieurs églises brûlées. Dans le Sud, majoritairement chrétien, à Onitsha, ce sont les chrétiens qui s’en sont pris aux musulmans. Bilan local : au moins 80 morts et deux mosquées détruites. Des milliers de personnes ont fui les lieux des massacres pour se réfugier dans les casernes protégées par l’armée, ou dans d’autres régions.

Ce n’est pas la première fois que des violences à caractère religieux ont lieu au Nigeria. Pour ne prendre qu’un exemple, la ville de Kano, dans le nord du pays, connaissait déjà des affrontements entre musulmans et chrétiens dans les années 50 et 60. Ces tensions se sont multipliées à partir des années 90. On se souvient, entre autres, des massacres de plusieurs centaines de musulmans qui ont eu lieu en mai 2004 dans le bourg de Yelwa (État central du Plateau). En général, les violences répondent aux violences. C’est ce qui semble s’être passé cette fois encore. La vue des corps de chrétiens tués à Maiduguri et transportés à Onitsha aurait été un des prétextes au déchaînement des représailles contre les musulmans locaux. L’apparition et le développement de mouvements religieux radicaux depuis une vingtaine d’années contribuent sans nul doute à exacerber les tensions. Chez les chrétiens, certaines Églises évangéliques et pentecôtistes aux discours manichéens gagnent du terrain par rapport à d’autres (catholique, méthodiste, anglicane…), généralement plus modérées. L’introduction de la charia (loi islamique) – qui ne s’applique théoriquement qu’aux seuls musulmans – dans le système juridique de douze États du nord du pays depuis 1999 illustre aussi l’intensification du marquage identitaire de certains territoires, tout en étant parfois comprise par les populations locales comme un moyen d’assurer un ordre public problématique.
Pays le plus peuplé d’Afrique (130 millions d’habitants), le Nigeria est une fédération de trente-six États. Historiquement, l’ancienne puissance coloniale britannique a, en 1914, rassemblé en une seule entité deux protectorats (Sud et Nord) bien distincts. Le pays, indépendant depuis 1960, se caractérise par une grande diversité ethnique, linguistique et religieuse. Quatre ethnies principales coexistent : au nord, les Haoussas et les Peuls, la plupart musulmans, au sud-ouest, les Yoroubas, musulmans et chrétiens, et, au sud-est, les Igbos, majoritairement chrétiens. Si les différentes zones géographiques du pays sont religieusement marquées, il n’y a cependant pas de parfaite homogénéité, particulièrement dans les villes. Le pays, qui jouit d’un régime démocratique depuis 1999, dispose de ressources naturelles très importantes, notamment pétrolières et gazières. Pourtant, la grande majorité de la population vit dans des conditions de pauvreté très marquées. Les autorités, minées par une intense corruption, se montrent incapables de développer efficacement le pays et d’assurer leurs prérogatives régaliennes, notamment dans le domaine de la sécurité. Les groupes armés prospèrent, dont les couleurs politiques ou religieuses plus ou moins affirmées cachent difficilement les motivations très terre-à-terre, liées par exemple au contrôle de la vente de pétrole brut. « Certaines zones, comme les États du delta du fleuve Niger, vivent ainsi dans un état de guerre larvée » , note Laurent Fourchard, chercheur au Centre d’études sur l’Afrique noire de l’Institut d’études politiques de Bordeaux. Dans ce contexte, l’explication des tensions entre chrétiens et musulmans ne saurait être réduite à l’unique facteur religieux. « Il faut dissocier la cible des violences, qui est effectivement ici religieuse, des mobiles, qui, eux, ne le sont pas toujours, explique Laurent Fourchard. On pille les magasins en même temps qu’on brûle les églises ou les mosquées ; il y a aussi des règlements de comptes politiques et, derrière la religion, la xénophobie n’est jamais loin : au-delà du musulman, par exemple, c’est aussi le Haoussa qui est visé… »

Lagos, Nigeria,02/03 - La Police nigériane annonce qu`elle engagera bientôt des poursuites en justice contre 463 personnes arrêtées durant la vague d`émeutes ayant soufflé sur certaines villes du pays contre les caricatures du prophète Mohamed (PSL) publiées dans des journaux européens.

La violence, qui a éclaté la semaine dernière, a fait plus de 100 morts et plusieurs églises et mosquées détruites par les émeutiers dans de nombreux Etats, essentiellement du Nord à prédominance musulmane.

C`est ainsi que 20 personnes ont été arrêtées au Niger, 205 à Borno, 116 à Yobe, 33 à Katsina, 48 à Bauchi, 22 à Gombe, 10 à Anambra et 9 à Enugu.

L`inspecteur général de Police, Sunday Ehindero, a déclaré à la presse, à Abuja, la capitale fédérale, que la Police présenterait les personnes interpellées devant les Hautes cours appropriées et a demandé aux commissaires de Police de s`assurer qu`ils (les émeutiers) ne bénéficient pas d`une liberté provisoire.

"L`époque où les suspects étaient présentés devant des tribunaux de première instance qui leur accordaient des libertés provisoires imméritées, faute d`avocats est révolu", a martelé M. Ehindero.

La violence a commencé à Maiduguri où une manifestation soi-disant pacifique contre les caricatures par des groupes de musulmans a dégénéré en violences massives, qui se sont rapidement répandues dans d`autres parties du Nord du Nigeria.

Des attaques de représailles contre les meurtres de Chrétiens dans le Nord ont par la suite éclaté dans la ville d`Onitsha, située dans le Sud à majorité chrétienne pour enflammer Enugu.

Les caricatures publiées pour la première fois par un journal danois, ""Jyllands-Posten, puis en Europe et ailleurs, n`ont pas été publiées dans les journaux nigérians.

Toutefois, certains journaux locaux ont publié un article de Fleming Rose, journaliste culturel du journal danois, expliquant pourquoi il a décidé de publier les caricatures injurieuses qui ont déclenché des protestations massives dans le monde musulman.

Killing Ndigbo Slowly (2)

Vanguard (Lagos)
COLUMN
March 3, 2006
Posted to the web March 3, 2006

By Chidi Nkwopara

AS at the last count, no fewer than 16 people died and 11 Christian churches burnt in Maiduguri and Katsina. The story is endless as we recall with grief previous occurrences in Kano, Sokoto, Lagos, Bauchi, Kaduna, Jos, Niger, Abuja, Kafanchan and other Northern and some Western towns. In the present case, the Nigeria Police claim they have arrested 220 suspects, while the governments slammed a dusk to dawn curfew in the affected towns. Similarly, many inhabitants of the crisis-torn towns, especially the non-indigenes, have fled the areas on account of the irrational mayhem unleashed on innocent citizens.

In Maiduguri where the riot started, a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Mike Gajere of Saint Rita Catholic Church, was among the first victims. He was attacked by the fundamentalists and set ablaze after generously pouring petrol on the cleric. Over 30 churches and shops and vehicles belonging to the Christian faithful were completely burnt. As if this was not enough, properties were looted in grand style. Borno State government has, in reaction to the riots, set up an administrative committee to probe the unrest, which it described as "unfortunate and condemnable". As rightly expected, the aggrieved Catholic Bishop of Maiduguri, Most Rev. Dr. Matthew Ndagoso, says the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has no confidence in the panel set up by the Governor. "Over 50 Christians lost their lives in the mayhem; hundreds wounded.

Over 30 churches either burnt or destroyed and several Christian businesses or outfits, properties, homes or houses burnt or vandalized. Christians have lost confidence in the government and the ability or preparedness of the security agencies, to protect our lives and properties", Bishop Ndagoso lamented. While saying that the current attack "is the culmination of the outburst to completely eliminate Christians in the state", the fiery Catholic cleric also tried to fathom the necessary connection between a cartoon published in Denmark more than a month ago and Christians living in Borno State. The protest in Gombe started February 19, 2006, in the night. The rampaging fundamentalists reportedly stormed the streets at about 7.00p.m, unleashing terror on residents, burning, looting and harassing innocent people.

Another sad side of this ugly protest was that Government Secondary School students initiated that of Bauchi State. Is this what their teachers have been teaching them? Is violence part of the syllabus compiled by the examination bodies in the country? What they started in their school eventually spilled over to the town. Parents rushed to schools to pick their children into safety. The questions now are: For how long will Christians continue to run for cover? Has this current riot not reinforced the call for the inclusion of state of origin, tribe and other relevant data in the census form? Today, we are just giving a blanket name, Christians instead of stating exactly those who were gruesomely murdered by the irate religious fanatics. The riot has forced a good number of Igbos to relocate to their ancestral homes in the South East. Many are still taking refuge in barracks. Lives and properties have been lost.

When will Ndigbo learn that there is no place like home? When will Ndigbo learn from history? When will Igbos realise that the so-called hospitability of their host communities in other states is merely cosmetic? I would also like to know how many Northerners have built mansions or estates outside their home states. Why are Igbos so myopic, even as we pride ourselves as intelligent people?

Can anybody tell Ndigbo what has become of the panel reports, which emanated from past religious crises in Nigeria? Will promises of compensation or its actual payments bring back lost Igbo souls? Why must we allow ourselves to be fooled by empty and bogus promises from the federal and state governments about the safety of Nigerians, who live in places other than their states of origin? Have we not been fooled enough? When will Ndigbo learn to say enough is enough and remain in their states of origin? When shall these religious fundamentalists be told in clear terms that they do not have the patent for violence and mayhem?

When will they be told that they equally do not have the patent for unbridled fundamentalism? Newspaper reports have it that Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has condemned the riots. Does this not mean the end of the matter? What practical steps did ACF take in past and similar crises? Who are they fooling? This is the time to call the bluff. Enough is enough. Not too long from now, we will get to know if Igbos are deaf, dumb and blind. For now, Igbos are being slowly but steadily exterminated.

ONITSHA, Nigeria (AP) - A body smolders in the road after Muslim-Christian clashes. Armed men ply the waterways of the Niger Delta, kidnapping oil workers and attacking pipelines.

Violence often erupts in Nigeria, but the latest unrest comes at a particularly difficult political time: elections are scheduled for 2007, and the transition from military despotism to multiparty democracy is at stake.

Olusegun Obasanjo - first elected president in 1999 - has not ruled out asking lawmakers to change the constitution and allow him to seek a third term.

From the Senate to the writers of splashy newspaper headlines, Nigerians are hotly debating if Obasanjo should stay on. Speculation about his desire for a third term ``is raising political tensions and, if proven true, threatens to unleash major turmoil and conflict,'' U.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said Tuesday.

Chaos in Nigeria could interrupt oil supplies, encourage secessionist moves, spur major refugee flows and create instability elsewhere in West Africa.

With 130 million people split among 250 ethnic groups, Nigeria is Africa's most-populous nation and among its most fractious. But as the continent's biggest oil producer, the country also has great promise.

That promise is threatened by violence, which can be triggered by faraway events.

As Nigerians joined worldwide protests over publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, a riot broke out in the heavily Muslim north that saw Muslims killing Christians.

By the time reprisal attacks ended in Onitsha, in the mostly Christian southeast, more than 100 people had been killed nationwide. Muslim bodies smoked beneath scorched tires in Onitsha. It was the deadliest religious fighting anywhere in the world since the cartoons' publication.

One analyst, Charles Doukubo, views the initial riots as a message by mosque leaders in the north to Obasanjo, a southern Christian, that they also wield power and he must heed the many northerners opposed to any third term.

``If he (Obasanjo) wants to stay, it won't be easy,'' said Doukubo, a research fellow at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos.

On Friday, authorities said they had uncovered a plot to cause a new wave of violence. Information Minister Frank Nweke did not identify the plotters, but said they had hoped to scuttle this month's census - the first in Nigeria in 15 years - as part of a campaign to discredit Obasanjo's government.

Obasanjo, 66, has said he misses his home in Abeokuta and has avoided further comment on any retirement plans. He says he is focused on leading Nigeria, determined to uphold the constitution and devoted to helping his country.

``Everything I do now is to protect Nigeria's interest, and if that will cost me my life, so be it,'' Obasanjo said this week.

His main opponent in the 2003 elections, which saw Obasanjo win his second four-year mandate since the end of military rule in 1999, frames the religious riots as an anti-Obasanjo protest.

The cartoons were ``not the cause of the disturbances; it was the government's mad rush for third term,'' local media quoted Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as saying. Buhari, like Obasanjo, once led a military government and has said he will run for president in 2007.

Poverty - and the struggle for the oil riches power delivers - is at the root of fighting in the Niger Delta, two hours drive from Onitsha.

Recent attacks and kidnappings by militants in the Delta have cut nearly 20 percent of Nigeria's usual 2.5 million daily barrel crude production, sending international oil prices sharply higher.

The federal government controls revenues from the oil pumped by international energy companies, and the people of the south want a greater share. They also hope for a president from their region and ethnic group.

Obasanjo is a Yoruba from the southwest, not an Igbo or Ijaw or Ogoni from the Delta, also in the south but to the east.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta militants patrol the creeks where the Niger River enters the Atlantic Ocean. Their numbers aren't known, but with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, they appear better armed and more sophisticated than past militant groups.

They want the federal government - in the person of Obasanjo - to back out of their affairs.

Obasanjo has waged a public fight against graft, but the militants say his security forces steal oil for sale on the black market. The government says the militants are just bandits.

``The Nigerian federal government has always oppressed us and stolen our oil,'' one masked militant carrying an AK-47 shouted to reporters in a mid-creek meeting. ``Now we're taking the bull by the horns.''

Some Nigerians worry the armed revolt could spread in the current political climate, even leading to a civil war that would send untold numbers of refugees across West Africa, undermining burgeoning regional stability.

But Doukubo, the analyst, called that fevered speculation. Nigeria has a history of political tumult but has remained unified despite one civil war since 1960 independence and 33 years of military dictatorships.

``Nigeria is a country where the worst never happens and the best is yet to come,'' Doukubo said.

KARACHI: Around 50,000 people protested against cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Karachi on Sunday, and many took the opportunity to criticise the government and the United States.

The cartoons, first published in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September last year, sparked widespread protests across the Muslim world. They have since been republished in at least 56 countries, predominantly in Europe but also in Asia and the United States.

The protesters carrying signs with the Prophet’s (PBUH) name written on them in Arabic shouted “Death to Denmark”, but many also chanted “Death to America”, “Death to Israel” and “Death to Musharraf”. They also burnt an effigy of US President George W Bush, who ended a 24-hour visit to Islamabad on Saturday. Hundreds of riot police lined the two-kilometre stretch of a road in central Karachi, but there was no violence. The rally had been organised by the MMA.

Islamic tradition bars the depiction of the Prophet (PBUH), favourable or otherwise, to prevent idolatry. One of the drawings shows him wearing a bomb-shaped turban with an ignited fuse.

“Both Musharraf and his master Bush are killers of Muslims,” said MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rahman. “The force that has gathered for the protection of the Prophet’s (PBUH) honour will be used to topple this undemocratic regime, which is serving American interests.”

“This movement for the protection of the sanctity of the Prophet (PBUH) will lead to a revolution,” MMA leader Liaquat Baloch told the rally. “Bush should know that his puppet Musharraf has become unpopular.” A large number of women wearing veils and girls with headbands inscribed with ‘Allahu Akbar’ also participated.

Some protests in the country have turned deadly and at least five people died in Lahore and Peshawar in rioting last month. Many more have been killed as similar protests have degenerated into riots in neighbouring Afghanistan. agencies

Yobe State goes by the inspiring pet name: “The Young Shall Grow,” but rather than live in accordance with that philosophy, through adequate nurture, some people in the state have elected to toe the path of destruction.

They have chosen to be vandals rather than builders. Instead of embracing peace, they tread the path of intolerance and war. In a way, it would appear that Yobe is growing into violence and a culture of intolerance.

In recent times, the state has witnessed series of violent religious crises and bloody eruptions. In February, the Prophet Mohammed cartoon riot, which spilled over from Maiduguri, took a large toll on Damagum, Gadaka and Potiskum. While the commission of inquiry headed by Lt. Col. Zakari Jibo (retd) was still battling to probe the crisis, a fresh one erupted in Buni Yadi and Nguru in March.

The toll in term of human and material loss was enormous. In Potiskum alone, nine churches were razed. Similarly, homes, property, and shops with wares worth millions of naira belonging to fellow citizens went up in flames.Several persons sustained various degrees of injuries, while Mr. Vincent Nnamuka, a carpenter with St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Potiskum, was not so lucky as he was stabbed to death. In Gadaka town, the Redeemed Christian Church of God and the Holy Trinity Catholic Church were destroyed, while the Anglicans lost theirs at Damagum.

In spite of series of appeals by the state Governor, Alhaji Bukar Abba Ibrahim, his deputy, Alhaji Aliyu Saleh Bagare, top government officials, traditional and spiritual leaders to the people to embrace peace, deviants remained undeterred taking the law into their hands at the slightest opportunity. Not even the stern warnings from police and other security agencies were able to stem the ugly tide.

Just recently in Nguru, some deviants destroyed government and public property. Irate youths went wild and set ablaze two trucks belonging to the fire service unit and the Lower Area Court building as well as offices of the State Security Services (SSS) and the National Population Commission (NPC).

According to security sources, the latest riots were sparked off by what they considered tardiness on the part of the fire brigade in responding to a distress call on fire outbreak that gutted more than 14 shops at the Nguru central market.

Daily Sun gathered that it was the perceived ‘negligence’ of the personnel of the fire service unit that angered the irate youths. By the time their anger subsided, they had caused more damages than the fire outbreak.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Hussaini Bulama, who confirmed the incident at the Police Command headquarters in Damaturu, told Daily Sun that some persons had been arrested in connection with the incident and were being interrogated at the State Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (SIIB).

Few days before the Nguru incident, Buni Yadi village had a taste of the culture of violence as some persons set ablaze a mosque and the house of the District Head of Wagir, Alhaji Abba Mohammed. He escaped lynching by the whiskers.He,however, sustained injuries. Some churches and the house of the State Security Officer in the area were also burnt and vandalized.

This crisis was said to have been induced by the arrest of a known Islamic preacher in Buni Yadi, Mallam Jibrin. Although police refused to disclose the reason for the arrest, some of the people who escaped from Buni Yadi to take refuge in Damaturu told Daily Sun that the preacher was overheard telling his followers of how some atrocities committed in the area were being covered by some influential persons and security personnel in the community.

Another version has it that the preacher, who was seen as an Islamic fundamentalist, was encouraging his followers to rise up against government authorities, and especially the royal throne which had prevented the fundamentalists in the area from carrying out a planned attack on the Principal of the Federal Government College in Buni Yadi.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of the Police in charge of Zone 12, Bauchi, Uba Ringim, with the Acting Commissioner of Police (DCP), Austin Obaedo, has visited Buni Yadi to assess the situation.

The AIG, while appealing to the people of the area to shun violence and embrace dialogue, pledged to ensure that the law takes its course in any situation within his zone. He said the consequence of violence has always been grievous and irreparable.
Perhaps, what he failed to add is that if the state is to grow, it must learn to shun violence and embrace peace.