Friday, July 15, 2011

Egypt protests not to end despite government promises of reforms-2011-07-16

Egypt protests not to end despite government promises of reforms(It shows our Democracy is how deep rooted and much better..VT)


English.news.cn 2011-07-16 04:33:34 FeedbackPrintRSS

Clashes happen during a protest at Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, July 12, 2011. Clashes occurred Tuesday morning in Cairo's Tahrir Square between protestors and thugs, leaving at least two injured, official MENA news agency reported.(Xinhua/Ayman Mose) (srb)

Clashes happen during a protest at Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, July 12, 2011. Clashes occurred Tuesday morning in Cairo's Tahrir Square between protestors and thugs, leaving at least two injured, official MENA news agency reported.(Xinhua/Ayman Mose)

by Marwa Yahia

CAIRO, July 15 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian government's vowing to radical cabinet reshuffle and interior minister's order to terminate the services of more than 600 police officers among other announced procedures did not calm down protests converging across the country on Friday.

Thousands of Egyptians rallied in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo, the epic center of protests that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak in February, in what they called "Final Warning" Friday to express their anger with the military rulers over the slow pace of reforms. They use all means to press Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to meet their demands, the top of which is immediate and public trial of the murderers behind the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that ousted Mubarak's regime.

The military warned against harming the country's interests amid a critical economic situation in Egypt. It will not allow anyone to jump over the legitimate authority or any sabotage targeting the state.

The army warned against violation or breaching the legitimacy and stressed necessary measures will be taken to the threats that face the country.

According to Ammar Aly Hassan, chief of Middle East Center for Political and Strategic Studies, neither terminating hundreds of officers and the reshuffle movement of more then 4,000 officers to be implemented on August 1, nor postponing the parliamentary elections and the government reshuffle will lead to an end of the demonstrations or the sit-ins in Egypt.

He added the Egyptian revolution's demands are specified and clear, and the political powers needs tangible steps with timetable for applying these demands but not the analgesics.

"The democratic political forces don't want to change the government for the sake of change, but they require speed in performance and in responding to peoples' ambitions and aspirations, not just changing the names and the persons," Hassan added.

Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf announced on Monday that a cabinet reshuffle will take place within one week. He assigned Interior Minister Masour Essawy to quickly restore the security and order in the streets, while urging the Supreme Council of Justice to make all the trials of the former regime figures in public. After long time of suffering and corruption, Egyptian people aspire changing trends, strategies and manners of the country's authorities in parallel with restructuring the Interior Ministry specifically. Hassan said the current government includes a great number of those belonging to Mubarak regime, including several cabinet ministers and governors who are not suitable for the current time, so Sharaf has to take the step of reshuffling the cabinet.

According to Fakhry El-Tahtawy, professor of political science in Cairo University, people will not give up protests or sit-ins to push the government and the military to work faster, and it seems that their means of imposing pressure are gaining results.

He added that to regain security, all the security agencies should practice their functions first, start to impose its influence by the assistance of the political forces and groups, arrest the prisons' fugitives, and seize the weapons spread in different regions of the country.

He expressed his expectations for the coming new elected government to achieve people's demands, and to enjoy the dynamic and speed movements not just waiting to make decision under pressure from the street.

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