AMMAN (JT) - Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit on Monday issued orders to security services and governors to prevent any public gatherings that violate the law, announcing that special areas will be designated for protests to ensure that public life is not disrupted.
In a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, Bakhit said that authorities should “firmly confront those who tamper with the law and threaten the safety and security of citizens, regardless of their [political] orientations and opinions, as they have the right to demonstrate peacefully”.
The premier was apparently referring to threats by pro-government groups who have been coming to the capital from different locations in the Kingdom, with some reportedly firing guns and threatening to attack gatherings that demand reform and constitutional changes.
On Friday, a clash between a group of these protesters and participants in a pro-reform sit-in at the Interior Ministry Circle led to the injury of more than 150 people, including police officers, while one person died of a heart attack, according to forensic experts, but the opposition still insists that he was “killed” by police forces who broke up the demonstration.
Bakhit said that “carrying guns, sticks, rocks and cutting weapons to confront peaceful rallies and sit-in are condemnable and rejected acts that harm Jordan’s image, damage reform efforts and threaten national unity”, stressing that “all Jordanians are equal before the law and the right to expression and public gathering is genuinely constitutional as long as peaceful means are adopted and public order is observed”.
“The security forces will arrest anyone who dares to prevent people by force from exercising their right to expression.”
Within the same context, the premier said, peaceful demonstrations should not involve blocking roads and paralysing daily life, causing harm to others through occupying public squares, vital intersections, adding to the economic burdens the country and people are already shouldering.
He announced that certain alternatives will be designated as venues for peaceful rallies, ensuing the safety of protesters and smooth flow of public life.
Meanwhile, Bakhit reiterated Jordan’s stand on the Middle East conflict. He stressed that Jordan, “with all its components” will confront any plans to compromise the Palestinian people’s legitimate right of return, warning against “following slogans meant to take the reform process off course through raising issues that cause sedition and cross red lines”. The statement was made in an apparent reference to a perception some self-described loyalists reportedly have that those who call for political reform are after establishing a substitute homeland for the Palestinians in Jordan, a matter which serves the goals of right-wing groups in Israel.
The prime minister accused “enemies that have always wanted to transfer regional conflicts… to this part of the Arab world of attempting to liquidate the Palestinian cause”. He did not elaborate.
Bakhit echoed a call made by His Majesty King Abdullah, who a day earlier in the southern Petra region called for safeguarding national unity. The call was repeated by Minister of Interior and Deputy Prime Minister Saad Hayel Srour during remarks at a ceremony to mark the Karameh Battle held by the Baqaa Club in the Baqaa refugee camp. The 1968 battle occurred in the Jordan Valley town of Karameh (means dignity) and the Jordanian army was able to repel an Israeli military campaign.