Monday, November 21, 2011

Egyptian protests continue as cabinet tenders resignation


Within a week parliamentary election campaigns are slated to begin. However, after violent clashes between security forces and protesters in and around Tahrir Square the situation is quite fluid.
The government has offered to resign which would leave the Supreme Military Council to govern solely on its own. Generals on the Supreme Council have started talks with civilian leaders to try to calm the crisis.
As with the original revolution the protesters are very broadly based and include leftists, Islamists, and liberal reformers. A coalition of 37 groups issued a statement which said:"We confirm our readiness to face all the forces that aim to abort the revolution, reproduce the old regime, or drag the country into chaos and turn the revolution into a military coup,"
The protesters have demanded that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces set a date for giving up power and that the army withdraw to its barracks. In a report Amnesty International has accused SCAF( the military council) of adopting the same oppressive means as that of Mubarak. The group has banned media, jailed critical bloggers, and even tortured protesters. It might be added that the regime has used military tribunals even more often than Mubarak and is still using emergency powers.
A last straw for many protesters is that the armed forces has attempted to revise the law so that it will not be subject to civilian oversight. An appended video puts the number killed in demonstrations at 20 but I have heard reports that put the total higher than that. Wounded numbers are estimated at over 1700. For more see this article. Egyptians are trying to save their revolution from the army takeover.

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