CAIRO: The Egyptian regime — shaken yet again by terrorist bombs — appears to be lashing out in all directions in an attempt to put a lid on the brewing chaos.
Disaffection has sunk deep roots among a citizenry angry over the worsening economy, the government’s harsh treatment of opponents and broken promises of political reform.
On Sunday, President Hosni Mubarak, as expected, called for and got parliament’s nod to renew the harsh emergency law he imposed when he took power in 1981 from the assassinated Anwar Sadat.
The law gives authorities broad powers of arrest and detention, that human rights groups have criticized and said is widely abused.
For example, the government has conducted a rash of arrests since March, jailing 90 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic organization that poses the greatest challenge to Mubarak’s continued rule.
At least 35 arrests were made in recent days, mainly of Brotherhood members who were hanging posters against renewal of the emergency law.
Last week, about 50 other people were arrested, journalists included, at a makeshift campground set up outside the Judges’ club in support of jurists who are being punished — apparently — for criticizing Mubarak’s handling of last year’s parliamentary elections in which at least 14 people were killed.
Most of the victims were supporters of the Brotherhood who died as police and security officials violently blocked polling places in a bid to keep the organization’s candidates from making even greater inroads into parliament.
Last week, witnesses said, the regime fielded thousands of security agents to crush the pro-judge demonstration in Cairo, more than it did at the scene of the triple bombing in Dahab, where at least 21 people were killed. Three of the dead may have been suicide bombers, but police are awaiting DNA test results.
Two days later, two suicide bombers hit further north in the Sinai, targeting vehicles carrying international peacekeepers and police. Only the bombers were killed and no one was injured.
The government has said the attacks were the work of local Bedouin tribesmen, but terrorism experts say that is unlikely.
The Mubarak government is at pains to blame local extremists in an attempt to deflect concerns about Al Qaida, which could seriously damage the vital tourist industry. It brought in US$6.4 billion last year and is the country’s foremost foreign exchange source.
Earlier this month, another smouldering social tinderbox, relations between Muslims and Coptic Christians, burst into flame in the port city of Alexandria. Rioting killed one person of each faith. Dozens were arrested, but only one “deranged” man was held responsible by the government. Mubarak maintained the two religious communities live in harmony, despite repeated — if scattered — violent conflict.
“We are waiting for a big surprise, the president might be aware of it, or it may be a surprise for him and us at the same time,” Suleiman Gouda wrote in the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm (The Egyptian Today).
“You feel that Egypt is pregnant with something, it’s up to you to imagine the looks of the baby that will be born after 25 years (of Mubarak’s rule),” he wrote.
Some insiders are making comparisons to the final days of Sadat’s rule, now known as “black September” because the former president had swept 1,500 opposition figures into custody.
“Be aware of the wind of the coming September, the judges massacre will cause the fire to burn more intensely,” said Hamdi Rizq, deputy editor of the pro-government weekly Al-Mussawar.
“Transferring revered judges Mahmoud Mekki and Hesham el-Bastawisy to disciplinary board is an announcement that the regime has expired, has become blindfolded, and the blind can’t lead,” he wrote.
El-Bastawisy and Mekki, both members of the Court of Cassation — the country’s highest appellate court — said the disciplinary proceedings, which started on Thursday and adjourned to May 11, were ordered by the justice minister because of their loud protests against deeply flawed and dishonest voting procedures.
The judges also accused some pro-government judges of allowing or participating vote rigging during November and December parliamentary balloting.
The government never investigated the violence surrounding the vote, nor were those responsible for the killings arrested or charged.
Mubarak, who will turn 78 on Thursday, has been in power since 1981, and was re-elected in September for six more years, issuing promises to reform the economy and politics. Many complain the vows were not issued seriously.
In an interview with Al-Arabiya TV on April 8, Mubarak said “he is very comfortable” about how things are going in Egypt and in the Egyptian street. “I feel people understand that we are working on constant reforms, and there is ongoing political movement, so of course I’m very comforted,” he said.
But events since then suggest the Egyptian leader, a Soviet-trained fighter pilot, may have been whistling past the graveyard.
In a move that signalled the regime’s deep concern over what its own people know about events in their country, for example, the government arrested Al-Jazeera television’s Cairo bureau chief in Dahab.
Security men, without explanation, snatched him away partially clothed and shoved him into a car. Hussein Abdel-Ghani was held for 29 hours, accused of false reporting and released on bail.
Mubarak walks a tightrope, trying to balance the interests of the United States, which has given Egypt US$2 billion each year since Sadat made peace with Israel in 1979, against a growing anger with Washington among his fellow Arab leaders.—AP
