source: www.reuters.com
CAIRO
- A man was shot dead on Monday in a fifth day of violence in Egypt that has
killed 50 people and prompted the Islamist president to declare a state of
emergency in an attempt to end a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world's
biggest nation.
Under
emergency powers announced by President Mohamed Mursi for the cities of Port
Said, Ismailia and Suez on Sunday, the army will have the right to arrest
civilians and to help police restore order.
A
cabinet source told Reuters any trials would be before civilian courts, but the
step is likely to anger protesters who accuse Mursi of using high-handed
security tactics of the kind they fought against to oust president Hosni
Mubarak.
Egypt's
politics have become deeply polarized since those heady days two years ago,
when protesters were making most of the running in the Arab Spring revolutions
that sent shockwaves through the region.
Although
Islamists have won parliamentary and presidential elections, the disparate
opposition has since united against Mursi. Late last year he moved to expand
his powers and push a constitution with Islamist leanings through a referendum
punctuated by violent street protests.
Mursi's
opponents accuse him of hijacking the revolution, listening only to his
Islamist allies and breaking a promise to be a president for all Egyptians.
They say too many hold-outs from the Mubarak era remain in their posts.
Islamists
say their rivals want to overthrow by undemocratic means Egypt's first freely
elected leader.
Some
opposition groups have called for more protests in Cairo and elsewhere on
Monday to mark the second anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in the
revolution that erupted on Jan. 25, 2011, and ended Mubarak's iron rule 18 days
later.
Hundreds
of demonstrators in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, cities which all lie on the
economically vital Suez Canal, turned out against Mursi's decision on Sunday
within moments of him speaking. Activists there pledged to defy a curfew that
starts at 9 p.m. (1700 GMT).
Instability
in Egypt has raised concerns in Western capitals, where officials worry about
the direction of a key regional player that has signed a peace deal with
Israel.
The
political unrest has been exacerbated by street violence linked to death penalties
imposed on soccer supporters convicted of involvement in stadium rioting a year
ago.
In
Cairo on Monday, police fired volleys of tear gas at stone-throwing protesters
in and around Tahrir Square, cauldron of the anti-Mubarak uprising.
Killed
by a gunshot
A
46-year-old bystander was killed by a gunshot, a security source at the
Interior Ministry said. It was not clear who fired the shot.
"We
want to bring down the regime and end the state that is run by the Muslim
Brotherhood," said Ibrahim Eissa, a 26-year-old cook, protecting his face
from tear gas wafting towards him.
Mursi
also called for a national dialog with his rivals for later on Monday, but the
early response from members of the main opposition coalition suggested they saw
little point.
Propelled
to the presidency in a June election by the Muslim Brotherhood, Mursi has
lurched through a series of political crises and violent demonstrations,
complicating his task of shoring up the economy and preparing for a
parliamentary election to cement the new democracy in a few months.
"The
protection of the nation is the responsibility of everyone. We will confront
any threat to its security with force and firmness within the remit of the
law," Mursi said, offering condolences to families of victims in the canal
zone cities.
Appealing
to his opponents, the president called for a dialog on Monday at 6 p.m. (1600
GMT), inviting a range of Islamist allies as well as liberal, leftist and other
opposition groups and individuals to discuss the crisis.
The
main opposition National Salvation Front coalition said it would not attend.
Mursi's
call to hold talks was "cosmetic and not substantive", a leading
member of the coalition, Mohamed ElBaradei, told a news conference.
Security
measures
The
opposition Front has distanced itself from the latest flare-ups but said Mursi
should have acted far sooner to impose security measures that would have ended
the violence.
"Of
course we feel the president is missing the real problem on the ground, which
is his own policies," Front spokesman Khaled Dawoud said. "His call
to implement emergency law was an expected move, given what is going on, namely
thuggery and criminal activity."
But
other activists said Mursi's measures to try to impose control on the turbulent
streets could backfire.
"Martial
law, state of emergency and army arrests of civilians are not a solution to the
crisis," Ahmed Maher of the April 6 movement that helped galvanize the
2011 uprising said. "All this will do is further provoke the youth. The
solution has to be a political one that addresses the roots of the
problem."
Thousands
of mourners joined funerals in Port Said for the latest victims in the
Mediterranean port city. Seven people were killed there on Sunday when
residents joined marches to bury 33 others who had been killed a day earlier,
most by gunshot wounds in a city where arms are rife.
Protests
erupted there on Saturday after a court sentenced to death several people from
the city for their role in deadly soccer violence last year, a verdict
residents saw as unfair. The anger swiftly turned against Mursi and his
government.
Rights
activists said Mursi's declaration was a backward step for Egypt, which was
under emergency law for Mubarak's entire 30-year rule. His police used the
sweeping arrest provisions to muzzle dissent and round up opponents, including
members of the Brotherhood and even Mursi himself.
Heba
Morayef of Human Rights Watch in Cairo said the police, still hated by many
Egyptians for their heavy-handed tactics under Mubarak, would once again have
the right to arrest people "purely because they look suspicious",
undermining efforts to create a more efficient and respected police force.
"It
is a classic knee-jerk reaction to think the emergency law will help bring
security," she said. "It gives so much discretion to the Ministry of
Interior that it ends up causing more abuse, which in turn causes more
anger." — Reuters
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