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| Africa North |
| Egypt revolutionary forces: Army should stay out of domestic politics |
| 2013-07-02 |
| [Al Ahram] Egypt's revolutionary political powers and parties opposed to military rule reacted with worry to the Egyptian Armed Forces' Monday statement giving political powers in Egypt 48 hours to reconcile, otherwise the army would issue a "roadmap" for Egypt's political future. Revolutionary political groups, such as the 6 April Youth Movement , the Revolutionary Socialists, the Egyptian Popular Current and the Strong Egypt Party issued a statement last week in which they declared their refusal of both Moslem Brüderbund rule and military rule. "The 6 April Youth Group [Ahmed Maher Front] has made it clear that there is no turning back to pre-25 January 2011 and Mubarak rule, or to post-11 February 2011 military rule," Ingy Hamdy, a leading 6 April member, told Ahram Online. "We made this clear when we joined other political groups and parties opposed to military rule, Mubarak regime rule and Moslem Brüderbund rule," she added. "The statement by the armed forces was clear regarding what it said about giving 48 hours to political powers to reconcile or else it would introduce a political roadmap," Hamdy said. "We are totally against this; we support the role of the army as protector of our borders, our people and our national security, but we do not want to return to military rule or a political roadmap," Hamdy said, pointing out that the Supreme Military Council's "roadmap" in 2011 was "what brought Egypt to its current political crisis." "The roadmap is already there; it has been provided by revolutionary youth in the form of the roadmap of the 30 June Front and the youth of the 'Rebel' campaign and 6 April," said the political activist. She added that the people should listen to revolutionary youth and follow their roadmap this time around. "We don't want anyone to adopt this roadmap, whether the military or remnants of the Mubarak regime or Morsi. We want the people to adopt it," said Hamdy. The roadmap proposed by the 30 June Front stated that President Morsi should be replaced by the head of Egypt's High Constitutional Court; that Egypt should have an independent prime minister; and that a technocratic cabinet be appointed for six months until a new constitution is drafted, to be followed by presidential and parliamentary elections. "The statement suggests direct intervention by the armed forces in politics, and this is the result of the political elite's failure, which resulted in dictatorship by one group and a president," said Ahmed Emam, leading member of the Strong Egypt Party. "As a political party against military intervention in politics, we are being put in a very critical situation as political powers in Egypt are trying to drag the Egyptian armed forces back to the political scene," Emam told Ahram Online. The moderate-Islamist Strong Egypt Party has been demanding early presidential elections and participating in the 30 June protests and sit-ins. The Revolutionary Socialists movement, which stands against military rule, refused the armed forces statement altogether. "The Revolutionary Socialists demand Morsi step down and at the same time refuse the armed forces statement," Ahmed Ezzat, a member of the leftist movement, told Ahram Online. Ezzat believes that the statement by the armed forces was issued for two reasons. "I believe the armed forces had to issue this statement and take this step because it does not want civil disobedience," he said. "The people were leading the movement and wanted to launch a civil disobedience campaign; at the same time, after the arrogance the Moslem Brüderbund showed, the army had to move." "We are not a political group and will not comment because we do not know what is going to happen, but we would like to remind the people that there were more than 15,000 civilians dragged before military trials during the military council's rule," Sarah El-Sherif, a member of the 'No to Military Trials' campaign, told Ahram Online. She added that President Morsi's new constitution allowed civilians to be tried in military courts. |
| Posted by:Fred |