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BBC MUNDO RADIO
Egypt:Protesters stand ground as Mubarak's new cabinet meets
Pro-reform protesters defended their camp in Cairo's central Tahrir Square Monday as the country's new government held its first full meeting since President Hosni Mubarak was forced to implement a cabinet reshuffle over a week ago.
Mubarak orders 'independent' probe into violence
- From: AFP
- February 08, 2011
EGYPTIAN President Hosni Mubarak has ordered an independent inquiry into the deadly violence in Cairo last week when his supporters clashed with protesters.
Mubarak "has given instructions for the creation of a ... transparent, independent and impartial investigatory commission (made up) of Egyptian figures known for their honesty and their credibility to investigate the events of last Wednesday,'' the official MENA news agency reported.
The commission will investigate "the terrible and unacceptable violations that made some protesters innocent victims.''
"President Mubarak ... assured that he shares the pain of all the families of these victims,'' the agency said.
Mubarak supporters rushed into Cairo's Tahrir Square last Wednesday while it was occupied by opposition protesters, sparking clashes that left at least 11 dead and nearly 1000 injured according to official figures.
Mubarak also vowed to boost public sector salaries by 15 percent.
His latest attempt to buy time came as Google executive Wael Ghonim was released by Egyptian authorities, more than a week after he disappeared amid the unrest in Cairo.
US President Barack Obama, meanwhile, said he believed there was progress in Egypt.
"Obviously, Egypt has to negotiate a path and they're making progress," he told journalists after addressing the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington.
His spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said Washington "will be a partner" to an Egyptian government which "will uphold the treaties and obligations" by which Cairo is presently bound.
According to MENA, the cabinet approved a plan to increase state sector salaries by 15 percent from April and to spend another $940 million boosting pensions.
The raise might reassure Mubarak's partisans in Egypt's large bureaucracy and security forces, but there was no sign that the demonstrators who have now spent two weeks in Tahrir Square were ready to cede ground.
Some sat under the tracks of army tanks deployed around the square, fearful that any movement by the military could be designed to drive out the protesters or abandon them to the mercy of pro-regime thugs.
Human Rights Watch, citing doctors, said at least 297 have been killed in the Egyptian uprising so far, Sky News reported.
Activists also kept up the pressure by barring access to the Mugamma, the heart of Egypt's bureaucracy, which dominates the square, despite dozens of people seeking access to get documents such as passports processed.
In other government moves to revive economic life, the nightly curfew in three cities, including Cairo, was pushed back to 8:00 pm (1800 GMT) to 6:00 am, and the stock exchange said it would reopen on Sunday, two weeks after it closed with share prices plunging.
But opposition parties, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, repeated their demand that Mubarak himself must stand down or immediately delegate his powers to Suleiman.
The Muslim Brotherhood, still officially banned, said it had agreed to take part in the talks because it wanted to determine if the government was serious about reform, but warned that the initial concessions were insufficient.
Asked if Washington would be comfortable with the Muslim Brotherhood in a new government, Gibbs replied, "We have significant disagreements with we have not been in contact with the Muslim Brotherhood, but the United States does not pick the leaders of other countries."
Wael Ghonim, the freed Goggle executive, quickly rejoined the protesters after his release.
Suspecting his arrest -- but having no proof -- some protesters declared they would not leave Tahrir Square until Ghonim was freed. Marchers carried homemade signs emblazoned with his name.By SAAD EDDIN IBRAHIM
The young Egyptians now making their stand for democracy in Cairo's Tahrir Square were all born during Hosni Mubarak's reign. Although Mr. Mubarak has finally vowed to step down at the end of his term in September, few believe him. And the increasingly violent response of his dying regime demonstrates why the protestors' skepticism is justified.
Those in Tahrir Square have had their fill of the pharaoh's deception: the doubletalk, the rigged elections, the armies of plainclothes thugs employed to maintain his power. The protesters know that this 82-year old dictator is wily, and that he may simply be buying time with hollow promises so that he can settle the score with dissidents later, out of the news cameras' view.
Deception has defined Mr. Mubarak's rule from the start. Although most of the protesters are too young to remember, their parents have surely told them that upon taking power following the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in October 1981, Mr. Mubarak vowed he would serve only one six-year term. Thirty years later, he is the third-longest ruler in Egypt's nearly 5,000 years of recorded history.
He has accomplished this feat by systematically eliminating—through intimidation, torture and imprisonment—all potential alternatives to his leadership. He successfully duped Western leaders and the Egyptian middle class into believing that the only option to his rule was a fanatic Iranian-style Islamic regime. Many at home and abroad were inclined to swallow this self-serving myth, particularly after 9/11. In reality, it was the repression of his police state that swelled the ranks of jihadists.
Mr. Mubarak presented himself as the elder statesman of the region and the only leader capable of maintaining stability and brokering peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. He turned the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh into a virtual playground for Western leaders who came to sun themselves while participating in a charade of endless peace negotiations.
The idea that Mr. Mubarak is central to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been repeated like a mantra by successive American administrations. What none seems to have noticed is that he hasn't advanced the peace process one inch beyond what Sadat achieved before his death in 1981.
Hosni Mubarak
The reason is simple: The Mubarak regime has no interest in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate. The regime has parlayed the false perception of its role as mediator into a lucrative industry. As long as billions of dollars of Western aid continue to flow into its coffers, the regime has determined there is no benefit to a final resolution. In their cynical calculus, the best scenario is to work behind the scenes to keep the conflict at a low boil, while continuing to cultivate the false perception of Mr. Mubarak's pivotal role as a peace broker.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration bought this illusion hook, line and sinker. Until just last week the administration had fallen so completely for Mr. Mubarak's lie that it was willing to give him a pass on greater democratization in return for the false promise of his assistance in advancing peace. Only when the protests began on Jan. 25 did the White House and State Department begin to realize what a bad bargain they had struck, and the extent to which Mr. Mubarak and other antidemocratic leaders in the region have benefited from maintaining the impasse between the Israelis and Palestinians.
Mr. Mubarak's deception also extended into the economic arena. While he continued the economic liberalization and slow expansion of the market economy begun under Sadat, the benefits of such policies have not been shared equally by Egyptians. The fabulous wealth acquired through the business ventures of Mr. Mubarak's two sons, Alaa and Gamal, is emblematic of the cronyism of this regime. The educated young demonstrators in Tahrir Square and throughout Egypt were left with virtually no economic hope, and the lion's share of wealth flowed into the bank accounts of the elite favored by Mr. Mubarak.
The young and largely secular children of the Mubarak era now bravely standing their ground in the face of thugs mounted on camel and horseback—Mr. Mubarak's version of the Janjaweed in Darfur—have lifted the veil of deception to which this regime owes its existence. By setting loose his goons against the peaceful demonstrators, this aging pharaoh is trying to create the false impression that without his steady hand, Egypt will descend into chaos. The carefully orchestrated and well-armed mobs of "pro-Mubarak demonstrators" are just the latest acts in his three decades of deception.
Judging from the tragic footage that has come out of Tahrir Square and Alexandria, and the horror stories leaking out of jail cells, Mr. Mubarak may, in fact, protract his rule for weeks or even months. But the children of the Lotus Revolution, with the help of Twitter and Facebook, have revealed the pharaoh's nakedness to the world.
The time has come for the U.S. and other Western powers to spare Egypt further bloodshed and to side with Egypt's democratic future. Despite appalling missteps in the first days of the uprising, the Obama administration is now moving in the right direction by making clear that the time for transition is now. Western leaders cannot choose Egypt's future leaders, but they must continue to make it clear that they will not be deceived any longer by Mr. Mubarak.
Washington and Europe must lean on the Egyptian military and support the rapid emergence of a transitional government that will pave the way to free and fair elections fully supervised by the judiciary. Based on his record, and the violence he is unleashing on the peaceful protesters of the Lotus Revolution, Mr. Mubarak and his hand-picked cronies cannot be trusted to oversee Egypt's overdue transition to democracy.
Mr. Ibrahim, an Egyptian democracy advocate and sociologist, is currently a visiting professor at Drew University. From 2000-2003 he was Egypt's best-known political prisoner.
Freed Google executive helped spark Egypt revolt
By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and KARIN LAUB Associated PressLast Modified: Monday, February 7, 2011 at 4:52 p.m.
In contrast, he said, in his release he was treated with respect. Just before he was freed, he said, he was brought before Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy - installed only days earlier in a government reshuffle - in his office. The minister "talked to me like an adult, not like someone of strength talking to someone weak" and then the new head of the National Democratic Party escorted him home.
"This is because of what the youth did in the street," he said in the interview on private station Dream 2 TV.
He said his interrogators were convinced that foreigners were backing the movement, but Ghonim asserted it was just young Egyptians "who love this country." He also sought to debunk the government's accusations that the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mubarak's most bitter rival, was involved in planning the protests.
He referred to his arrest as a "kidnapping" and a "crime" but also sounded conciliatory, saying "this is not a time for settling accounts or cutting up the pie; this is Egypt's time."
He did forcefully place blame for the country's ills on Mubarak's National Democratic Party and said the good among them should abandon it and start something new to earn the people's respect.
"I don't want to see the logo of the NDP anywhere in the country," he said. "This party is what destroyed this country. The cadre in this country are filthy."
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press on Monday that two weeks of clashes have claimed at least 297 lives, by far the highest and most detailed toll released so far. It was based on visits to seven hospitals in three cities and the group said it was likely to rise.
While there was no exact breakdown of how many of the dead were police or protesters, "clearly, a significant number of these deaths are a result of the use of excessive and unlawful use of force by the police," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.
Egypt's Health Ministry has not given a comprehensive death toll, though a ministry official said he is trying to compile one.
Khaled Said was a 28-year-old businessman who died in June at the hands of undercover police, setting off months of protests against the hated police. The police have also been blamed for enflaming violence by trying to suppress these anti-government demonstrations by force.
Ghonim's whereabouts were not known until Sunday, when a prominent Egyptian political figure confirmed he was under arrest and would soon be released.
Time and again during the two weeks of demonstrations, protesters have pointed proudly to the fact that they have no single leader, as if to say that it is everyone's uprising. Still, there seems at times to be a longing among the crowds at Cairo's Tahrir Square, the main demonstration site, for someone to rally around.
The unmasking of Ghonim as the previously unknown administrator of the Facebook page that started the protests could give the crowds someone to look to for inspiration to press on.
Whether Ghonim forcefully takes up that mantle remains to be seen, but he said repeatedly in Monday night's interview that he did not feel he was a hero.
"I didn't want anyone to know that I am the administrator," he said. "There are no heroes; we are all heroes on the street. And no one is on their horse and fighting with the sword."
He looked exhausted and said he had been unable to sleep for 48 hours, but not because he was being mistreated.
He said he was snatched off the streets two days after the protests first erupted on Jan. 25. After he left a friend's house, four men surrounded him, pushed him to the ground and took him blindfolded to state security. He said he spent much of the following days blindfolded, with no news of the events on the street, being questioned.
In contrast, he said, in his release he was treated with respect. Just before he was freed, he said, he was brought before Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy - installed only days earlier in a government reshuffle - in his office. The minister "talked to me like an adult, not like someone of strength talking to someone weak" and then the new head of the National Democratic Party escorted him home.
"This is because of what the youth did in the street," he said in the interview on private station Dream 2 TV.
He said his interrogators were convinced that foreigners were backing the movement, but Ghonim asserted it was just young Egyptians "who love this country." He also sought to debunk the government's accusations that the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Mubarak's most bitter rival, was involved in planning the protests.
He referred to his arrest as a "kidnapping" and a "crime" but also sounded conciliatory, saying "this is not a time for settling accounts or cutting up the pie; this is Egypt's time."
He did forcefully place blame for the country's ills on Mubarak's National Democratic Party and said the good among them should abandon it and start something new to earn the people's respect.
"I don't want to see the logo of the NDP anywhere in the country," he said. "This party is what destroyed this country. The cadre in this country are filthy."
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch told The Associated Press on Monday that two weeks of clashes have claimed at least 297 lives, by far the highest and most detailed toll released so far. It was based on visits to seven hospitals in three cities and the group said it was likely to rise.
While there was no exact breakdown of how many of the dead were police or protesters, "clearly, a significant number of these deaths are a result of the use of excessive and unlawful use of force by the police," said Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch.
Egypt's Health Ministry has not given a comprehensive death toll, though a ministry official said he is trying to compile one.
Protesters have clashed with police who fired live rounds, tear gas and rubber bullets. They also fought pitched street battles for two days with gangs of pro-Mubarak supporters who attacked their main demonstration site in Cairo's central Tahrir Square.
The violence has spread to other parts of Egypt and the toll includes at least 65 deaths outside the capital, Cairo.
Heba Morayef, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that she and other researchers visited five hospitals in Cairo, a field hospital in Tahrir Square and one hospital each in the cities of Alexandria and Suez.
The count is based on interviews with hospital doctors, visits to emergency rooms and morgue inspections, she said.
Morayef said a majority of victims were killed by live fire but that some of the deaths were caused by tear gas canisters and rubber bullets fired at close range.
"We personally witnessed riot police firing tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the heads of protesters at close range, and that is a potentially lethal use of such riot-control agents," said Bouckaert.
In most cases, doctors declined to release names of the dead, Morayef said.
The group counted 232 deaths in Cairo, including 217 who were killed through Jan. 30 and an additional 15 who were killed in clashes between government supporters and opponents in Tahrir Square last Wednesday and Thursday.
In addition, 52 dead were reported in Alexandria and 13 in Suez, Morayef said.
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