Jordan’s king reforms, but stones still fly

Associated Press

AMMAN, Jordan

Stone-throwing youths in a poor southern town exploded in anger at rough handling by police during a visit by King Abdullah II on Monday, a symptom of simmering popular frustrations in Jordan even as the monarch moves toward democratic reform.

The spurt of violence, rare in Jordan while other Arab states were rocked by turmoil in recent months, pointed up Jordanians’ resentment of heavy-handed control by the Hashemite kingdom’s security forces.

Along with steps toward political liberalization, “we have the task to dismantle the security’s grip in order to have democracy and rule of law,” said democracy activist Laila Hamarneh.

The trouble in Tafila, 125 miles south of this capital city, came a day after Abdullah went on national television to announce a major concession to months of peaceful protests, accepting the idea of elected governments, replacing Cabinets appointed by him.

On Monday, he traveled to Tafila on what palace officials described as a fact-finding inspection of infrastructure projects and to hear people’s grievances.

But Tafila residents said their mayor had barred young unemployed people from taking part in a town meeting with the king.

When some 60 youths tried to line sidewalks as the king’s motorcade approached, to hand-deliver petitions, anti-riot police pushed them away “savagely,” and the crowd responded with stones, said Tafila shopkeeper Yazan Abu Yousef, 26.

“We wanted to give petitions to the king,” said a young unemployed man, who declined to be identified. “We wanted to tell him about our difficulties in not finding jobs, but we were beaten and humiliated.”

Government officials said the violence was not directed at the king, and he was unharmed, but 26 police officers were injured.

There was no word on injuries among local residents.

They said Abdullah, in his Tafila meetings, pledged new funding for local development projects and other help for townspeople, suffering through high unemployment and inflation.