Egyptians die, the West watches
Editorial August 17, 2013 01:28 IST THE HINDU
The violent crackdown throughout Egypt is exposing the depth of the crisis in that country even as those who elected President Mohamed Morsy in 2012 face increasing brutality at the hands of the security forces following the July 3 military coup. In the third and most brutal series of attacks on Morsy supporters since his ouster, at least 638 people have been killed and thousands injured, with improvised street treatment centres overwhelmed and hospitals struggling to cope. Security forces have also bulldozed protesters’ makeshift camps, with victims saying the vehicles ran over people; the camps in two Cairo squares included women and children. Doctors also report officials as blocking ambulances from reaching the injured. A dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed under laws passed by the now deposed Mubarak regime has been partly successful, but further and potentially even deadlier confrontations loom. The Muslim Brotherhood, parent body to Mr. Morsy’s Freedom and Justice Party, has called for a nationwide protest march. The coup leadership, for its part, has declared a one-month state of emergency.
Reactions, both domestic and international, remain totally ineffective but this is hardly surprising given the prevarication earlier witnessed on the coup itself. The military’s nominated Vice-President, Mohamed ElBaradei, kept his promise to resign if the confrontation became violent, but even his own National Salvation Front, the main political opposition, which has substantial support among the purportedly liberal classes, has distanced itself from him and has backed the coup. Neither United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s nor the European Union’s condemnation of the violence has had any impact.
Above all, U.S. President Barack Obama’s cautious equivocation is very revealing. Saying that cutting annual Egyptian aid would only bring about more funding from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is disingenuous; U.S. aid greatly helps the Egyptian military, and it helps U.S. arms manufacturers, whose exports to Egypt Washington subsidises heavily. This hypocrisy is further confirmed by the White House’s failure to call the coup a coup, because U.S. law would then require an automatic stop to aid. Second, even the coup leaders have deplored the violence. Yet, international mediators have said it was the Egyptian military that wrecked a brokered plan which the Brotherhood had accepted. It is Egypt’s 84 million people who will pay the price for the military’s fear of democracy and for western self-interest, which is coupled with the West’s inability to accept the results of the very democracy it rapturously claimed heralded a new dawn for West Asia and North Africa.
THE HINDU
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The ferocity of the attacks by security forces on Islamist protesters in Cairo this week appears to have been a deliberate calculation of the military-appointed government to provoke violence from the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies, a number of Arab and Western historians of Middle East politics said Friday. Attacks on Protesters in Cairo Were Calculated to Provoke, Some Say
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Published: 16 Aug 2013 21:03 AL JAZEERA
Protests against the ongoing violence in Egypt have been staged in several countries, including Turkey, Tunisia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Libya and Malaysia. Hundreds of demonstrators waving Islamic flags and chanting anti-US slogans took to the streets in Ankara and Istanbul on Friday. Egypt-turmoil-protests-turkish-capital
Obama golfs, Kerry lectures, Egyptians die in droves
By Jennifer Rubin, Published: August 15 at 8:45 am WASHINGTON POST
Obama was briefed, said nothing and went back to golf. Secretary of State John Kerry took a break from his fruitless obsession with the nonexistent “peace process” to condemn the violence, but took no questions and had no policy announcement. This, in a nutshell, is the White House’s approach to the Middle East — the absence of any policy and a lot of empty words. Obama golfs, Kerry lectures, Egyptians die in droves
Military Madness in Cairo
Published: August 14, 2013 THE NEW YOK TIMES EDITORIAL
The major blame rests with General Sisi. He seized power from a democratically elected government. He controls the security forces that have persecuted and brutalized political opponents. And he approved orders for heavily armed forces to use deadly force against peaceful protesters with a very legitimate political grievance — the ouster and secret detention of Egypt’s first democratically elected president. Military Madness in Cairo
Morsi’s family brands Egyptian army chief a ‘criminal’ and say they plan to sue coup leader
Patrick Kingsley in Cairo: Monday 22 July 2013 THE GUARDIAN
The family of the ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has branded the army chief who ordered his detention an international criminal, and announced plans to take legal action against him in the international courts. Osama Morsi, a lawyer, said his family did not know where their father was, and described his imprisonment as an abduction. His sister said: “As the family of the president and citizen Mohamed Morsi, we hold the leader of the coup, Sisi, and his group accountable for our father’s and our president’s health and overall condition. We are in the process of taking legal action through international and local courts against the person of Sisi and those aiding him in the coup.” Ousted president’s children plan to sue coup leader
Realize United Nation’s universal aspirations for peace
Fight against injustice; the fight against violence, terror and crime; strengthen the International Court of Justice, in order to ensure justice and the rule of law in international affairs. We solemnly reaffirm, on this historic occasion, that the United Nations is the indispensable common house of the entire human family, through which we will seek to realize our universal aspirations for peace, cooperation and development. We, therefore, pledge our unstinting support for these common objectives, and our determination to achieve them. International Human Rights Law & Mechanisms
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