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----- Original Message -----
From: sahannan
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ;
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Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 8:37 PM
Subject: Daily Star Lebanon report on Egyptian politics
---http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=17229) Egypt opposition slams beatings
Kefaya and Muslim Brotherhood say tactics prove regime not serious about democracy Compiled by Daily Star staff Monday, August 01, 2005
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition group, said the beating of activists protesting against a new term for President Hosni Mubarak showed the government was not serious about reform. Police and men in plain clothes beat activists with truncheons on Saturday while they were protesting against any extension to the rule of Mubarak, who on Thursday said he would seek a fifth six-year term in September presidential elections. Deputy Brotherhood leader Mohammad Habib said the beatings showed "that the regime has no serious desire for real reform and that it cannot bear any opposition opinion." "Habib expressed his astonishment at this barbaric method with which the security forces dealt with the demonstrators," said a statement from the Muslim Brotherhood, which is officially banned but usually tolerated. Meanwhile, about 50 Kefaya activists gathered outside the prosecutor general's office to call for the release of those who were detained during the demonstration. Kefaya spokesman Abdel Halim Qandil said the beatings and arrests would not deter the movement from holding more protests against Mubarak's rule. "This is the price we pay on the road to freedom," he said. Kefaya is prepared to hold a protest in central Cairo on Wednesday, he said. Security forces backed by men in plain clothes - armed with truncheons - charged a group of around 200 demonstrators who were protesting late Saturday against Mubarak's intention to seek another term as president. Several leaders of the Kefaya (Enough) movement - which has spearheaded Egypt's unprecedented wave of anti-Mubarak demonstrations this year - were briefly detained. The authorities later released some Kefaya leaders, but, as of Sunday, were still holding 20 activists for demonstrating without permission, throwing stones at policemen and holding up traffic, an official security source said. As Kefaya supporters staged an all-night sit-in to demand their release, some argued that the deadly July 23 triple bomb attacks in Sharm al-Sheikh had given the regime an excuse to get tough. "After Sharm al-Sheikh, the West will feel that it is not the right moment to let Mubarak down," said demonstrator and journalist Tareq Munir, predicting little international condemnation of Saturday's violence. "I think today is a turning point in the regime's attitude. They became very aggressive again just when we thought they were softening up. I think they want to crush the democracy movement - but they can't," Kefaya spokesman George Ishak said. Saturday's protest was joined at one point by several leading members of the Ghad (Tomorrow) party headed by Ayman Nour, Mubarak's most serious opponent in the September 7 presidential poll. Several activists were reporting leaks that the authorities had drawn up a list of prominent anti-Mubarak activists and predicted a large wave of arrests before the election. "In a country like Egypt, the attacks in Sharm al-Sheikh are a license for the regime to be violent against whoever they wish in the name of the 'war on terrorism,'" said Khaled al-Sawy, a famous Egyptian actor and Kefaya supporter. "In addition to this, Egypt may occasionally have to play the democracy game to please the West, but this brutal behavior is the regime's real face," he added. As protestors camped out on the steps of the journalists' union overnight, Sawy and other activists tried to rally the hundreds of surrounding policemen to their cause. A week after the triple bombings that left at least 67 people dead in the tourist-packed Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, Egyptian investigators appeared to have no clear leads and the identity of the attackers remained shrouded in mystery. Commentators warned that, while destabilizing the regime, the attacks would also deal a blow to the opposition and further dampen the Egyptian authorities' half-hearted democratic overtures. "Given that one of the long-standing demands of all reforming currents in Egypt has been for the lifting of emergency law, it's natural to assume that this event will be used by the authorities to bolster their resistance to that demand," said analyst Hugh Roberts. "If that's the case, then serious democratization in Egypt is simply not a prospect," said Roberts, who heads the International Crisis Group think-tank's North Africa project. - Agencies
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