【经济学人】：Violence in Egypt Flaring up again

MacTavish_Tang

【原帖地址】：http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2011/11/violence-egypt



CAIRO'S Tahrir Square is strewn with stones ripped from pavements that have been flung at the police. Acrid tear gas drifts from side streets where security forces prevented protesters from reaching the nearby ministry of interior. Egyptians have once again taken to the streets to call for the fall of the regime. This time the group of 24 senior generals that calls itself the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) that has run the country since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's former president is the object of their anger. A week before elections are due, Egypt is facing its biggest crisis since the revolution in February.

A massive demonstration on Tahrir Square on Friday November 18th, led by Islamist groups, was peaceful but sent a clear message: the army's days running Egyptian politics are numbered. Protestors called for clarity about the transition timetable, demanding presidential elections—which would signal a handover of power from the generals to a new president—no later than May 2012, rather than sometime in 2013 as the military leaders had suggested. Many said Hussein Tantawi, the 76-year-old field marshal and Mr Mubarak's long-time defence minister who has led Egypt since February's revolution, had to go.

On Saturday a few dozen hard-core protestors tried to occupy Tahrir Square. The violence with which police disbanded them drew veterans of January's uprising back to the square. Police attacked them with rubber bullets and birdshot. Several protesters lost eyes. Others were killed. Since then, running street battles have blocked the centre of Cairo, and the death toll has risen to 35, with over a thousand wounded. Protestors who once welcomed the military with chants of "the people, the army, one hand!" shouted "the police, the army, dirty hand!"

The unrest is the result of the military's poor management of the transition so far. The generals' attempt last week, in a document intended to guide a future constituent assembly's work, to ensure that the military retained extraordinary privileges is largely responsible for the current crisis. The inclusion of articles that would have placed the military's budget above parliamentary scrutiny provoked outrage across the political spectrum. Islamists, who are expected to do well in the forthcoming elections, were particularly indignant.

The protesters—mostly from the same leaderless, revolutionary group that emerged in January—want the cabinet to be sacked, the violence investigated, and a firm deadline for the military's handover of power to be set. Political leaders have condemned the police violence, but disagree about whether the elections should be postponed. The Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists, as well as some secular parties, want the poll to go ahead, in part because they expect to do well. But others, including liberal leader Mohamed ElBaradei, are calling for the immediate formation of a national unity government that would take over from the SCAF.

Despite the violence, which has now spread beyond the capital, the government says the elections will go ahead. Perhaps hoping to douse this new revolutionary fervour, on Monday the generals announced that members of the former ruling party will be banned from standing. This is unlikely to placate angry protestors. As in January, they have vowed to stay put until they get their way.

MacTavish_Tang

自我认领！