Egypt: Tantawi Following In Mubarak’s Footsteps
This is an original piece from Egypt for Channel 16, from Yasmine Fakry. Views expressed are the author’s own.
Since the removal of Mubarak, the situation [was] in constant deterioration. Thousands of frustrated and angry Egyptians demonstrated in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on November 18th to demand the removal of the ruling military council.”The people want the removal of the field marshal,” they shouted, referring to Mohammed Hussein Tantawi. With Tantawi in charge, he is responsible for all that is happening in the country since he is following the same policies as the ousted regime.
People are extremely frustrated with the slow pace of judicial cases of the killers of protesters and the former regime. Protesters hurled chants against both the interior ministry and Egypt’s ruling military council. The first round of Egypt’s first parliamentary elections after Mubarak’s fall is scheduled to begin on 28 November. Protesters have been holding demonstrations, however, against a draft constitution that they say would allow the military to retain too much power after a new civilian government is elected as presidential powers remain with the army until a presidential poll, which may not happen until 2013. Protestors demand a much swifter transition.
The same scenario that Egyptian people have been accustomed to lately repeats itself. Hundreds of participants are being cornered and beaten up by the Egyptian police. Teargas has rained down on demonstrators and police have beaten them with batons. Anyone who would watch the videos is reminded of the scene of Friday of Anger during Mubarak – 28th January. Peaceful protests were met by tear gas and live ammunition. Internet videos show security forces burn down banners, beating protesters with sticks, pulling them by the hair and, in one video, dragging a corpse and damping into a pile of rubbish. As the protest continues for several days, more than twenty people have been killed and more than 1000 injured in fierce clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo and Alexandria.
Egypt’s ruling generals are denying that security forces attacked a peaceful protest and confirm that the armed forces would never, and [have] never, opened fire on the people, but amateur videos and witnesses’ testimony contradict such claims. The Egyptian television is covering so little and as usual manipulating news and falsifying facts. The narrative is that those protestors do not represent the majority of Egyptians, which can be their justification for killing and torturing Peaceful Protesters in the name of maintaining stability. Tantawi and Mubarak are two sides of the same coin.