Mubarak Dismisses Government, Protests Continue in Egypt
Mubarak Dismisses Government (trtenglish.com)
A huge crowd gathered in the capital of Egypt, Cairo, on Saturday, hours after the president of the country announced that he dismissed the cabinet, and that reforms would be implemented by the new government.
In his speech on Friday night, Hosni Mubarak said that the new government appointed on Saturday would implement social and economic reforms.
However, this did not seem to appease the people in the streets especially after 74 people are reported dead and hundreds wounded in the clashes with the army and the police.
The images broadcasted by Egyptian television show that the army seems to have decided not to intervene against the people, though it is not yet clear whether they have gone on the side of the people altogether or continue to perform their duty to the current president.
Egyptian Museum in Cairo (theamericanaudacity.blogspot.com)
Young people can be seen in the footages of the Egyptian television on board of tanks along with soldiers, an image that was seen for the first time in this sort of popular actions during the revolution in Bucharest, Romania, in 1989.
Police is thought to have failed in containing the tens of thousands of people, probably why the army was brought in.
Another thing that remembers of the bloody days in December 1989 in Bucharest is the attempt, thwarted in due time by the army who secures now the artifacts and arrests possible thieves, to pillage the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo, which harbors the remains of the Pharaohs and of 5,000 years of history.
In 1989, in Bucharest, the National Library was set on fire and before the fire was put out many important documents were immolated.
In Egypt, people are reported to have gathered around the museum before the army took over to assure that the artifacts are protected.
United States has asked, through the voice of the President Barack Obama, its North African ally to restore the freedom of press, namely the Internet and the telephone communications.
On Saturday morning, telephone services were restored, though the internet is still down.
Meanwhile, the opponent to Mubarak, Mohamed ElBaradei is still under house arrest, after he returned from Austria to be with the people, as he said.
As the Shah of Iran brutally killed, Husni Mubarak is attacking his own people with American bullets and tear gas cannons. “Made in USA” marked on burnt cannons on the streets of Cairo for its people to understand the conspiracy of democracy and controlling violence. It is not surprising why there is so much anti-American sentiment across the world and more so in the Muslim world. This is another case study of U.S. foreign policy of aiding arms and financing a dictator for decades and ending up on the wrong side of history. At least now the U.S. government and the people should stop hoping for Mubarak to hang-on. Many may wonder which military strongman that the CIA is going to recommend to replace Mubaruk.
Husni Mubaruk has chosen a man he can trust while the people are trying to chase him away. But Mr. Suleiman, a former general, is also the Mubaruk’s candidate, not the one that the people of Egypt will approve. His appointment if it were to occur would not represent the democratic change called for on the street, but most likely a continuation of the kind of military-backed, oppressive, corrupt, authoritarian and pro-Israeli, pro-American leadership that Mr. Mubaruk has led for nearly 30 years. Basically this is a way of paving the way for a military-led regime under the guise of reforms and democracy, a good move to please the U.S. neo-cons. After all, Suleiman is said to hold a similar worldview, deeply distrusting Iran, favouring close relations with Washington, supporting the cold peace with Israel, and against easing up on the Muslim Brotherhood, the principal opposition group in Egypt.