Rivolte in medio oriente

[Andrea75]

Dopo il colpo di mano di Morsi (con decreto ha avocato a se i poteri legislativo e giudiziario - possedendo già quello esecutivo - rendendosi "intoccabile") ci sono state proteste Egyptians set fire to Muslim Brotherhood offices

 

Assailants attacked the hundreds of protesters who marched on Egypt’s High Judiciary Court in downtown Cairo to protest against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi’s recent decree granting himself near-absolute powers, including freeing his decisions from judicial review and ordering retrials for former top officials, including his predecessor, the deposed Hosni Mubarak.

Ahram Online reporters said the demonstrators were attacked with fireworks, which stirred panic among them as everyone ran aimlessly to escape violence.

The protesters gathered in front of the High Court as members of the Judiciary General Assembly mulled measures to oppose Morsi’s highly-controversial decree.

They chanted “the people demand the downfall of the regime” and “Freedom, Bread, the dissolution of constituent assembly,” in reference to the embattled Islamist-dominated constitution writing body.

 

Protests after "pharaoh" Mursi assumes powers in Egypt

 

* Mursi fresh from accolades over Gaza truce

* Decree threatens new turmoil at heart of Arab Spring

* Rally in Tahrir Square demand Mursi quit

* Mursi responds to critics, says working for rotation of power

* Violent protests in Alexandria, Port Said, Suez

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's decision to assume sweeping powers caused fury amongst his opponents and prompted violent clashes in central Cairo and other cities on Friday.

Police fired tear gas near Cairo's Tahrir Square, heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, where thousands demanded Mursi quit and accused him of launching a "coup". There were violent protests in Alexandria, Port Said and Suez.

Opponents accused Mursi, who has issued a decree that puts his decisions above legal challenge until a new parliament is elected, of being the new Mubarak and hijacking the revolution.

"The people want to bring down the regime," shouted protesters in Tahrir, echoing a chant used in the uprising that forced Mubarak to step down. "Get out, Mursi," they chanted, along with "Mubarak tell Mursi, jail comes after the throne."

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations expressed concern at Mursi's move.

Mursi's aides said the presidential decree was intended to speed up a protracted transition that has been hindered by legal obstacles but Mursi's rivals condemned him as an autocratic pharaoh who wanted to impose his Islamist vision on Egypt.

 

... un tentetivo di mediazione Egypt's Mursi to meet judges over power grab

 

Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi will meet senior judges on Monday to try to ease a crisis over his seizure of new powers which has set off violent protests reminiscent of last year's revolution which brought him to power.

Egypt's stock market plunged on Sunday in its first day open since Mursi issued a decree late on Thursday temporarily widening his powers and shielding his decisions from judicial review, drawing accusations he was behaving like a new dictator.

More than 500 people have been injured in clashes between police and protesters worried Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood aims to dominate the post-Hosni Mubarak era after winning Egypt's first democratic parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

One Muslim Brotherhood member was killed and 60 people were hurt on Sunday in an attack on the main office of the Brotherhood in the Egyptian Nile Delta town of Damanhour, the website of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said.

Egypt's highest judicial authority hinted at compromise to avert a further escalation, though Mursi's opponents want nothing less than the complete cancellation of a decree they see as a danger to democracy.

The Supreme Judicial Council said Mursi's decree should apply only to "sovereign matters", suggesting it did not reject the declaration outright, and called on judges and prosecutors, some of whom began a strike on Sunday, to return to work.

Mursi would meet the council on Monday, state media said.

Mursi's office repeated assurances that the measures would be temporary, and said he wanted dialogue with political groups to find "common ground" over what should go in Egypt's constitution, one of the issues at the heart of the crisis.

Hassan Nafaa, a professor of political science at Cairo University, saw an effort by the presidency and judiciary to resolve the crisis, but added their statements were "vague". "The situation is heading towards more trouble," he said.

[Andrea75]

Tahrir Square Turns Against Morsi

 

On the edge of Tahrir Square, I met a twelve-year-old boy named Hassan Mohamed Abdel Hafiz who showed me an empty tear gas canister and a birdshot scar on his stomach. Scavenged canisters are a badge of honor for those who fight for the people who fight on the front lines of Egyptian protests; Hassan said he had acquired his after a battle with the police in front of the Lycée la Liberté, a block away from the square. He wore a filthy blue sweater with a thick collar that could be pulled up over his face whenever the tear gas got bad. Hassan was quick-eyed and alert; he spoke with the eagerness of a child but part of his attention was always directed at the street behind us, where injured protestors were carried past on their way to medical attention. The boy said that his elementary school education had ended shortly after the revolution forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign in early 2011. “The teachers did injustice to us after the President left,” Hassan said vaguely. “So me and my friends chanted slogans against the school, and they told us to leave.” He paused: “Look at that! An old man got hurt! Can you believe that? They’ll hurt anybody. I wanted to go back to school but they told me I couldn’t.”

 

He lifted his shirt to show off his scar. “That’s from Abbassiya,” he said. “From a birdshot cartridge.” He said he had seen a man die at Maspero. He claimed to have been on the front lines at Mohamed Mahmoud. In Cairo, where the cycle of protests has been more or less constant since 2011, and where the repetition of anger and violence has a tendency to blur, the most significant clashes are distinguished by nicknames: the twenty-fifth of January, Maspero, Mohamed Mahmoud, Abbassiya. Each term has its own tangled history, like the etymology of a loanword that’s drifted in from a distant land. A church is demolished in Upper Egypt, five hundred miles away; protest marches are organized in Cairo; the marchers head toward Maspero, the state media building; soldiers attack and kill more than two dozen. Why did the soldiers attack? Who issued the order? What was the purpose? Why do such questions remain unanswered after more than a year? Let’s just call it “Maspero” and leave it at that.

 

Someday we may have a word for what’s happening right now. Even by Egyptian standards, the past week has been eventful: last Saturday, sixty children were killed in a terrible train accident in Asyut, a town in Upper Egypt, a tragedy that many people blamed on poor government oversight. On Tuesday, protests became violent as they commemorated the anniversary of last year’s clashes on Mohamed Mahmoud Street, near Tahrir Square. On Wednesday, a cease-fire was brokered between Israel and Hamas, with the U.S. Administration giving much of the credit to the role of President Mohamed Morsi, who had been elected as a candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. On Thursday—less than a day after an Obama Administration official had praised Morsi in the Times as “somebody focussed on solving problems”—the Egyptian President suddenly issued a series of constitutional amendments that granted himself expansive new powers and rights, including immunity from judicial oversight.

 

“This is a way of recreating a dictatorship, of giving executive power to one person, with no regulation from the law,” Rami Shaath, one of the founders of the Free Egyptian Movement, an activist organization, told me yesterday. Shaath felt that Morsi’s amendments are particularly devious because they include three things that are popular among many Egyptians: increased support for the families of those killed in the revolution, the possibility of “new investigations and trials” against members of the old regime, and the dismissal of the nation’s top prosecutor, who was appointed by Mubarak. “That’s the teaser, the things we’ve wanted for a long time,” Shaath told me. “But he put poison along with it.”

 

Like many others, Shaath had marched to Tahrir in protest. By late afternoon, tens of thousands filled the square, chanting anti-Brotherhood slogans. “Be happy, Mubarak! Morsi is continuing down your path!” shouted one crowd. A group of men took turns praying atop a sign that featured Morsi in Tutankhamun’s golden headgear, along with the inscription: “Down with the Pharaoh President.” Many people believed that Morsi’s move was connected to American support; one sign read “U.S.A. Your Deal is Canceled.” The Gaza agreement was never top news in Cairo, where people have been much more concerned with the events in Asyut and the violence in Mohamed Mahmoud. Dr. Hussein Gohar, the international secretary of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, one of the most successful of the new non-Islamist parties, told me that some people suspected there is a plan to eventually place Gaza under Egyptian control. He believed that the U.S. Administration supported Morsi’s power grab. “It serves their purposes,” he said. “They want the security of Israel, and they want stability here. They want things to be under control in this region, and they want to continue to get oil from the Middle East.”

 

The protestors included a large number of affluent and educated people; it was common to see women whose heads were not covered. But this crowd stuck to the center of the square, away from the violence. The fighting raged a block away, along Mohamed Mahmoud, where young boys and men clashed with the police. They threw rocks and Molotov cocktails; periodically a tear-gas cannon boomed and everybody scattered. Sometimes the police used firehoses, as well as guns and birdshot. When I asked one young man why he had come, he answered in perfect English, “To beat the fu*k out of the police.”

 

Many of these teen-agers had become fixated on the Lycée la Liberté. It’s a private French-language school, and although it has nothing to do with Morsi, or Gaza, or Asyut, the institution happens to be located on Mohamed Mahmoud Street. And reportedly there were police holed up inside the Lycée, so for three days straight the protestors had been pelting the walls and windows. They tore up chunks of pavement for ammunition; they climbed neighboring buildings to scout their targets; they wore kerchiefs against the tear gas. After nearly two years of protests, they were as practiced as an army—a group of kids whose education has been shaped largely by the violence around Tahrir. In the last few days, more than a hundred have been injured, and one teen-ager has been killed and another is in the hospital, where he has been declared clinically dead.

 

When I spoke through a translator to Hassan, the twelve-year-old elementary school dropout, he said that he had been fighting near the Lycée la Liberté. He explained why he disliked Morsi. “He fired the public prosecutor,” the boy said. “Now he’ll appoint a new one so that he can kill us and nobody will prosecute him.” He glanced over his shoulder; another injured man was carried past. My translator looked up and said, “You know, this kid actually makes a lot of sense.”

[Andrea75]

Haraka ashababa al-urduni: la protesta giovanile infiamma la Giordania

 

La scorsa settimana il regno di Giordania è stato attraversato da violente manifestazioni di protesta. Dalle città lungo il confine siriano fino alle comunità del sud abitate prevalentemente da beduini, la popolazione è scesa nelle strade e si è scontrata duramente con le forze di pubblica sicurezza a ritmo di slogan contro il re Abd Allah II.

È da qualche mese che la Giordania è protagonista di proteste contro la famiglia regnante , anche se le manifestazioni si sono svolte fino ad ora in modo sostanzialmente pacifico. Questa volta sono stati assaltati edifici pubblici e stazioni di polizia. Nel corso degli scontri molti manifestanti sono stati feriti e uno è rimasto ucciso. Si tratta di Qais al-Omari, considerato da alcuni il martire della rivoluzione giordana, così come Mohamed Bouazizi lo è stato per quella tunisina. Più di 150 sono stati gli arresti. In Giordania chiedere pubblicamente la detronizzazione del re è un reato punibile con la detenzione.

La scintilla che ha acceso la piazza è stata la recente decisione del governo Ensour di abolire il sistema di sussidi che consentiva di calmierare i prezzi di benzina e gas. La manovra, giustificata dall’esecutivo con la necessità di ripianare il pesante deficit di bilancio, si è immediatamente tradotta in un vertiginoso aumento dei prezzi. Il governo di Amman è stato costretto ad adottare una politica di austerità per beneficiare del prestito di 2 miliardi di dollari che il Fondo monetario internazionale si è dichiarato pronto a concedergli. Come contropartita però l’Fmi ha chiesto una profonda revisione delle voci di spesa.

La crescita del costo del carburante dell’11% e di quello del gas da cucina del 50% ha spinto la popolazione a ribellarsi. La situazione socio-politica, già provata dall’esodo di rifugiati siriani, si è subito incendiata.

Un anno fa, investito dal soffio della primavera araba, re Abd Allah II aveva sciolto il parlamento e indetto nuove elezioni. La data era stata fissata per il prossimo 23 gennaio. Anche se la mossa del sovrano doveva servire a tranquillizzare le opposizioni, l’enorme potere che il re ha continuato ad esercitare nel paese ha fatto sì che la possibilità di eleggere un nuovo governo non bastasse ai manifestanti. Tra le richieste della popolazione c’erano la possibilità di eleggere il primo ministro e quella di riformare il sistema elettorale, eccessivamente favorevole alle fazioni filo governative. Il Fronte d’azione islamico (Fai), locale declinazione dei Fratelli musulmani, aveva deciso di boicottare le votazioni.

Mentre il dibattito politico si articolava attraverso rivendicazioni di maggiore democrazia, sullo sfondo è rimasta sospesa l’allarmante condizione sociale. Disoccupazione e stagnazione economica hanno continuato a logorare la popolazione, la cui età media si aggira attorno ai 22 anni. Proprio i giovani sono stati i protagonisti dei recenti scontri. Riuniti sotto il movimento “Hirak” o “Haraka Ashababa al-Urduni”, non si sono limitati a chiedere riforme, ma hanno preso una decisa posizione chiedendo libertà e la cacciata di re Abd Allah II. Per la prima volta la rabbia della folla si è rivolta contro il monarca in persona e non contro la vuota figura del primo ministro di turno.

Hirak si colloca nella scia della primavera araba. Ma proprio come un anno fa, la rivolta rischia di essere inghiottita nelle profonde fratture che balcanizzano la società giordana. Mentre in questi mesi ci si è occupati di temi strettamente politici, è rimasto sullo sfondo il disagio dei più giovani. Come nel caso della rivoluzione dei gelsomini, la corruzione del sistema e la sostanziale assenza di vie di sbocco hanno fatto fermentare la rabbia dei giovani.

I partiti politici tradizionali, compresi quelli di opposizione, non sembrano comprendere le ragioni di questo movimento. Alcuni commentatori parlano addirittura di un accordo segreto tra il governo e il Fronte islamico allo scopo di emarginare le frange più laiche della protesta.

Ancora una volta pare difficile riunire in solo coro le diverse posizioni. Il risultato che si ottiene è quello di lasciar consumare nella furia ceca l’esasperazione delle nuove generazioni arabe. Il Movimento d’azione islamico ha però dichiarato la propria estraneità alle violenze anche se ha partecipato alle proteste e ha chiesto la liberazione delle persone incarcerate dal governo per aver manifestato contro la monarchia. I Fratelli musulmani non chiedono l’abdicazione del re, ma l’attuazione di profonde riforme nel sistema politico del paese. Buona parte della società giordana, soprattutto quella legata agli ordini professionali, condivide questa posizione.

Fino a questo momento la monarchia era riuscita a mantenersi in equilibrio sfruttando le spaccature della società giordana, ma il movimento Hirak si è posto come piattaforma unitaria per tutto il paese. È lecito pensare che se la rivolta prenderà piede, il destino del re potrebbe non essere molto diverso da quello di Ben Alì.

[Andrea75]

in Egitto proseguono le proteste Mursi opponents rally in Cairo's Tahrir

 

Opponents of President Mohamed Mursi rallied in Cairo's Tahrir Square for a fifth day on Tuesday, stepping up calls to scrap a decree they say threatens Egypt with a new era of autocracy.

The protest called by leftist, liberal and socialist groups marks an escalation of the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June and exposes the deep divide between newly empowered Islamists and their opponents.

The crowd is expected to grow in the late afternoon but hundreds were already in the square after many camped overnight. Police fired tear gas and organizers urged demonstrators not to clash with Interior Ministry security forces.

One person - a Muslim Brotherhood activist - has been killed and hundreds more injured in violence set off by a move that has also triggered a rebellion by judges and battered confidence in an economy struggling to recover from two years of turmoil.

Mursi's opponents have accused him of behaving like a modern-day pharaoh. The United States, a big benefactor to Egypt's military, has voiced its concerns, worried by more turbulence in a country that has a peace treaty with Israel.

The protest will test the extent to which Egypt's non-Islamist opposition can rally support. The Islamists have consistently beaten more secular parties at the ballot box in elections held since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February, 2011.

"We don't want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom," said Ahmed Husseini, 32, who was speaking early on Tuesday in Tahrir Square.

Activists have been camped out in Tahrir Square, scene of the historic uprising against Mubarak, since Friday, blocking it to traffic and clashing intermittently with riot police in nearby streets.

[Andrea75]

notizia non confermata: Saudi King Abdullah rumoured to be 'clinically dead' Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/337790#ixzz2DRFFezsc

 

Rumours are spreading that the King of Saudi Arabia is "clinically dead" following back surgery on Nov. 18. There are claims that medical staff in the Kingdom have said the organs of the 89-year-old monarch are no longer working.

Speculation is growing over the health of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz following a report in the Asharq Alawsat newspaper on Monday that the King has been in a state of clinical death for two days, with his organs no longer viable. The report was based on information from a medical source who said "The fate of the king will be determined within three to four days."

[Simone]

Comprensibilmente la salute dei monarchi è un argomento piuttosto riservato, soprattutto in un Paese ancora legato a tradizioni molto rigide e che ben poco hanno a che spartire con l'Europa, però sembrava che il rotondo Re Said fosse affetto dai soliti acciacchi che accompagna chi arriva a quell'età. Si è fatto cenno ad un intervento "alla schiena", se-come posso pensare- riguardava problematiche ortopediche molto dolorose (ernia con schiacciamento delle radici spinali ?) , questo intervento effettuato da medici che studiano la Sunna più che la medicina non ha avuto proprio un buon esito.

Comunque, con tutto il rispetto, non mancano certo i successori in seno alla numerosissima famiglia Saudi ,bisogna vedere se ci saranno conflitti interni in merito alla successione -che, comunque, prima o poi dovrà essere presa in considerazion- con scontri molo frequenti nella storia delle dinastie arabe

[Andrea75]

On top of everything else, Egypt now risking constitutional crisis

 

Eight months after Egypt’s Constitutional Assembly first convened to begin the difficult and complex task of drafting the country’s post-revolution constitution, a document meant to guide and define the newly democratic nation, the assembly announced this morning that it will finish the “final draft” today and vote on it tomorrow.

The constitution still has to be approved by a national referendum, so it’s not necessarily final, but the proposed timing is jarring. Two veteran Egypt analysts, Elijah Zarwan and Marc Lynch, called it “madness” and “terrible,” respectively. Here are three reasons why:

 

1. Egypt’s political system is in the middle of a major crisis.

President Mohammed Morsi unilaterally granted himself sweeping new powers last week, a decree that has set off enormous protests, outrage within Egypt and beyond, and led many of the country’s judges to go on strike. It’s a big mess that has the potential to get bigger, a crisis that could test not just Morsi but the entire post-revolutionary democratic experiment in Egypt. Not an ideal time, in other words, for the country to weigh and consider a new constitution.

 

2. Did I mention that judges are on strike right now?

Under normal circumstances, the judiciary would play a crucial role in overseeing the constitutional process, and maybe in challenging the new constitution itself. Always-smart Middle East-watcher Issandr El Amrani elaborates: “The supervisory commission to run it would be difficult to form, because it has to include senior judges who would likely boycott it, and judges are supposed to also be present at polling stations.”

 

3. The constitutional assembly is a mess.

From its beginning, the assembly has had major problems: a possibly disproportionate majority of Muslim Brotherhood allies and even-more-conservative Salafists has led many Egyptians to see it as non-representative of Egypt’s diversity, and many leftist delegates boycotted. Reuters’ report on today’s constitutional news quotes “one of the few remaining liberal members.” Many Egyptians have been calling for reform of the assembly, which they are apparently not getting.

Also, major Egyptian political institutions have played an outsized role in the assembly, possibly tainting its mission to challenge the old status quo and create a new democratic Egypt. As scholar Nathan J. Brown wrote in Foreign Policy, “It is as if the United States decided to write a new constitution and allowed the Federal Reserve Board, the FBI, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Government Printing Office, and the Federal Judicial Center all to draft provisions affecting their work.” Brown worried that the constitution-drafting process would be, in many ways, a process of Islamists negotiating behind-the-scenes with powerbrokers such as the military.

As if that weren’t enough, the Salafists, which represent but one minority of Egyptians but have maintained a presence in the assembly, could exert their own influence. Here’s El Amrani again: “All this points to a royal mess, a constitution that has no legitimacy among a big part of the public, and gives the opportunity to the Salafis — whose votes the Brothers now need to approve the latest draft — to introduce modifications to the text.”

 

Bottom line:

The plan to reveal and rapidly approve the constitution in the middle of this crisis risks exacerbating concerns, maybe not groundless, that Islamist groups are seizing wider power in the new Egypt.

Even if the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies on the Constitutional Assembly are not deliberately taking advantage of this moment of political chaos to push through a new constitution while they hold many of its seats and more secular judges are on strike, they’re not exactly going out of their way to include non-Islamist voices. That’s been a major complaint of liberal, nationalist and Coptic groups from the start, and it’s unsettling many Egyptians to see Morsi and Islamist officials acting with such disregard for those concerns.

Given the deep anger at Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the worrisome skepticism at his government’s legitimacy, it’s difficult to see either of those negative trends improving if the assembly succeeds in pushing through this new constitution, whatever it says.

Maybe this is just clumsy politics, maybe it’s a more sinister attempt by Muslim Brotherhood officials to grow their own power at the expense of other groups, or maybe it’s something else. But it’s hard to see how it could be a good thing for Egypt’s nascent democracy.

[Andrea75]

Morsi e i giudici dell'Alta Corte egiziana ai ferri corti Egypt's high court suspends work, ruling on charter as political crisis deepens

 

Egypt’s top judges suspended work indefinitely after Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi swarmed the highest court Sunday, chanting “We will not leave!” shouting insults and blocking the judges from entering on the day they had been expected to dissolve the country’s Islamist-dominated constitution-writing panel.

In a statement from the Supreme Constitutional Court that underlined the increasingly personal conflict between Morsi and the judiciary, the judges described a campaign of “moral assassination” being waged against them and said an “environment charged with hatred and malice and the need for revenge” led to Sunday’s “appalling and shameful scene.”

The 19 judges — appointed during the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted nearly two years ago — said they would suspend work until they were able to continue “without being subject to moral or physical pressure.”

It was another day in Egypt’s rocky, emotionally charged democratic transition, one in which the revolutionaries who drove out Mubarak are increasingly divided, with Islamists on one side and liberals and secularists — and, increasingly, the judiciary — on the other in the quest to forge a modern identity.

[Andrea75]

Egitto nel caos, Morsi rimane solo Scontri tra manifestanti: 5 morti

 

L'Egitto precipita nel caos. Le scelte del presidente Morsi sui propri poteri «assoluti» e la nuova Costituzione, scritta da un'assemblea formata soltanto dai rappresentanti dei Fratelli musulmani, hanno portato a violenti scontri di piazza tra fazioni al Cairo e dividendo il Paese. L'opposizione chiede che il presidente rinunci ai poteri «di cui si è autoinvestito». Ma i suoi sostenitori oggi sono scesi in piazza per fronteggiare le manifestazioni dell'opposizione. E ne sono scaturiti scontri violenti durante i quali sono morte 5 persone e 200 sono state ferite. Una delle due vittime è una ragazza. I militanti governativi scandivano gli slogan «La gente vuole pulire la piazza» e «Morsi ha la legittimità». Dopo un fitto lancio di pietre e qualche bottiglia molotov lanciata dalle due fazioni, tafferugli e scontri violenti si sono trasferiti nelle strade adiacenti al palazzo presidenziale e poi in tutto il quartiere di Heliopolis. In serata Mahmud Ghozlan, uno dei responsabili dei Fratelli Musulmani, ha lanciato un appello a entrambe le parti: «I manifestanti devono ritirarsi insieme e impegnarsi a non ritornare lì, vista l'importanza simbolica del palazzo presidenziale».

...

LE DIMISSIONI DEI CONSIGLIERI- Uno dei consiglieri dimissionari del presidente egiziano Morsi, Ayman el Sayat, ha annunciato alla stampa che tutti i consiglieri hanno rassegnato le dimissioni. Altri quattro avevano già deciso di lasciare dopo il contestato decreto presidenziale. In tutto i consiglieri sono 17. Il Grande imam di al Azhar, Ahmed el Tayeb, la massima autorità religiosa del Paese, ha lanciato invano alla tv di Stato un appello alla moderazione.

[Andrea75]

Egitto: carri armati e Guardia Repubblicana per le strade In Egypt, tanks and Republican Guard soldiers deploy around palace after deadly clashes e Egypt military orders rival crowds to quit palace area

 

The Egyptian army’s elite Republican Guard deployed with tanks around the presidential palace overnight following clashes between supporters of President Mohamed Morsi and opposition protesters that left five people dead and scores injured.

The Republican Guard, whose job includes protecting the president, announced that no protests would be allowed around the perimeter of the palace. In a statement, the guard said its tanks would be pulled back on Thursday afternoon.

 

Egypt's Republican Guard ordered rival demonstrators to leave the area around the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday after fierce overnight clashes that killed seven people.

Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Mursi withdrew, but the opposition promised more protests there.

The presidency announced that the Republican Guard, whose duties include protecting the palace, had set a 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) deadline for supporters and opponents of Mursi to quit an area they had turned into a battleground.

The military played a big role in removing President Hosni Mubarak during last year's popular revolt, taking over to manage a transitional period, but had stayed out of the latest crisis.

[Andrea75]

Opponents of Egypt’s Leader Call for Boycott of Charter Vote

 

The political crisis over Egypt’s draft constitution hardened on both sides on Sunday, as President Mohamed Morsi prepared to deploy the army to safeguard balloting in a planned referendum on the new charter and his opponents called for more protests and a boycott to undermine the vote.

Thousands of demonstrators streamed toward the presidential palace for a fifth night of protests against Mr. Morsi and the proposed charter, and the president, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, formally issued an order asking the military to protect such “vital institutions” and to secure the vote.

With the decision to boycott the referendum, the opposition signaled that it had given up hope that it could defeat the draft charter at the polls, and had opted instead to try to undermine the referendum’s legitimacy.

The call for new protests — with major demonstrations expected at the presidential palace again on Tuesday and Friday — ensures that questions about Egypt’s national unity and stability will continue to overshadow debate about the specific contents of the charter. Although international experts who have studied the draft say it is hardly more religious than Egypt’s old constitution, opponents say it fails to adequately protect individual rights from being constricted by a future Islamist majority in Parliament.

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of thousands of people have poured into the streets to oppose the charter, crowds have attacked 28 Muslim Brotherhood offices and the group’s headquarters, and at least seven people have died in clashes between Islamist and secular political factions.

The opposition “rejects lending legitimacy to a referendum that will definitely lead to more sedition and division,” said Sameh Ashour, a spokesman for a coalition that calls itself the National Salvation Front. Holding a referendum “in a state of seething and chaos,” Mr. Ashour said, amounted to “a reckless and flagrant absence of responsibility, risking driving the country into violent confrontations that endanger its national security.”

 

 

Egypt's opposition rejects constitutional referendum

 

Egypt's main opposition coalition rejected on Sunday Islamist President Mohamed Mursi's plan for a constitutional referendum this week, saying it risked dragging the country into "violent confrontation".

Mursi's decision on Saturday to retract a decree awarding himself wide powers failed to placate opponents who accused him of plunging Egypt deeper into crisis by refusing to postpone the vote on a constitution shaped by Islamists.

"We are against this process from start to finish," Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesman of the National Salvation Front, told a news conference, calling for more street protests on Tuesday.

The Front's main leaders - Nobel peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and leftist Hamdeen Sabahy - did not attend the event.

Hundreds of protesters milled around Mursi's palace, despite tanks, barbed wire and other barriers installed last week after clashes between Islamists and their rivals killed seven people.

"Holding a referendum now in the absence of security reflects haste and an absence of a sense of responsibility on the part of the regime, which risks pushing the country towards violent confrontation," a statement from the Front said.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Mursi from obscurity to power, urged the opposition to accept the referendum's verdict.

Islamists say the vote will seal a democratic transition that began when a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak 22 months ago after three decades of military-backed one-man rule.

Modificato 10 Dicembre 2012 da Andrea75

[Andrea75]

Egypt opposition to protest against "invalid" constitution

 

Egypt's opposition will hold new protests on Tuesday against an Islamist-backed draft constitution that has divided the nation but which looks set to be approved in the second round of a referendum next weekend.

Islamist President Mohamed Mursi obtained a 57 percent "yes" vote for the constitution in a first round of the referendum on Saturday, state media said, less than he had hoped for.

The result is likely to embolden the opposition, which says the law is too Islamist. But they are unlikely to win this Saturday's second round, to be held in districts seen as even more sympathetic towards Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood.

Protesters broke out into cheers when the public prosecutor Mursi appointed last month announced his resignation late on Monday. Further signs of opposition emerged when a judges' club urged its members not to supervise Saturday's vote. But the call is not binding on members and balloting is expected to go ahead.

If the constitution passes next weekend, national elections can take place early next year, something many hope will help end the turmoil that has gripped Egypt since the fall of Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago.

The main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, said there were widespread voting violations in the first round of the referendum and urged organizers to ensure that the second round was properly supervised.

It has called for protests across Egypt on Tuesday "to stop forgery and bring down the invalid draft constitution" and wants organizers to re-run the first round of voting.

The Ministry of Justice said it was appointing a group of judges to investigate allegations of voting irregularities around the country.

 

 

Egypt's prosecutor general quits amid protest

 

Egypt's prosecutor general, appointed to the job just last month by President Mohamed Morsy, gave into demands of lower prosecutors by agreeing to resign next week.

The protesters converged on the prosecuting general's office at the High Court Sunday, refusing to leave until Talaat Abdallah resigned.

The siege by the prosecutors ended Monday when Abdallah signed a resignation letter that was then read to reporters. The letter will be delivered to Egypt's Supreme Judicial Council on December 23, the prosecutor's office said.

The prosecutors objected to Abdallah's appointment by Morsy because of his connection with the Muslim Brotherhood.

They became angry when Abdallah replaced attorney generals with judges affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The latest flare up happened last week when Abdallah transferred Attorney General Mostafa Khater, who had freed defendants arrested by Morsy supporters during clashes outside the presidential palace on December 5.

Modificato 18 Dicembre 2012 da Andrea75

[Simone]

Come immagino abbiamo tutti saputo dai media, il presidente Morsi, esponente dei Fratelli musulmani, è stato deposto dalle forze armate egiziane, dopo che numerosissimi giovani presumibilmente laici e poco contenti del regime islamico istituito da Morsi stavano protestando per tutto il paese da molti giorni.

A quanto pare non ci sono stati contrasti fra i militari sulla decisione, forse perchè gli ufficiali sono stati quasi tutti nominati dal vecchio regime e di tendenza non religiosa,ma è da dire che si temeva che in tanti, soprattutto fra i soldati semplici che da civili simpatizzavano per i Fratelli Musumani, avrebbero potuto opporsi al golpe con le armi