SCAF transition plan fails to quell protests in Cairo

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SCAF transition plan fails to quell protests in Cairo

Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi addressed Egypt in his first public speech since coming to power, but failed to appease protesters who are calling for his immediate resignation. In a deal negotiated largely with the Muslim Brotherhood, the SCAF have delivered a plan to speed up the transition to civilian rule and committed to a presidential election by the end of June. But despite SCAF concessions clashes continued for a fifth day and protests escalated as activists called for a "million man march", with only the Muslim Brotherhood as the only major political party not in participation. Meanwhile, according to human rights groups, an estimated 38 people have been killed and at least 2,000 injured. Three U.S. students have also been arrested "for throwing Molotov cocktails from atop the A.U.C. building." The U.S. embassy is investigating reports.

Headlines  

• After backing down on several occasions, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has arrived in Saudi Arabia and is expected to sign a power transfer deal that will end his 33-year rule.
• Clashes erupted in Bahrain between police and protesters ahead of Wednesday’s release of a report on human rights abuses committed during the government crackdown.
• Libya’s interim Prime Minister, Abdurrahim al-Keib, announced a transitional cabinet tasked with drafting a new constitution and holding elections by June.
• Qaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, will be tried in Libya by Libyan judges with assistance from the International Criminal Court.
• The cause of an explosion at a Hezbollah weapons depot near midnight remains unclear, though Israeli warplanes and UNIFIL helicopters were seen in the region earlier in the day.
• The Moroccan opposition’s efforts to drive a boycott of Friday’s parliamentary elections are unlikely to derail voting.

Arguments & Analysis

‘Corrupt and brutal, Egypt’s police fight for their survival’ (Ursula Lindsey, The Daily Beast)

""It’s all just delays, delays, delays!" says Mohammed Habib, who was shot in the head and arm last February and was protesting in Tahrir recently, indignantly waving the cheap plastic medal the government gave him, emblazoned with the words ‘For the Sake of Egypt.’ "We’ve seen nothing real." In fact, police officers have reportedly threatened and harassed the witnesses against them. One officer on trial for the murder of demonstrators recently showed up to court with a retinue of supporters who carried their guns into the courtroom and clashed with the relatives of the victims. Now many here say the Ministry of Interior-tasked with securing the elections-doesn’t have the legitimacy to do so. The elections will need to be postponed, they argue, while the new minister of the interior undertakes real reforms. And those reforms will be part of ending a poisonous culture of impunity that doesn’t begin and end with the police. "You can be sure," says Mahfouz, "that the Ministry of Interior takes its orders from the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces.""

‘Egypt’s doomed election’ (Andrew S. Reynolds, New York Times)

"The result is an election that will overrepresent the larger parties while shutting out smaller ones, marginalize Coptic Christians and progressives and consign millions of Egyptians to voting for losers through an overly complicated process that combines proportional representation with majoritarianism and an antiquated quota system…Unlike in Tunisia, which successfully used a simple across-the-board proportional system to include many voices in the country’s legislative assembly, Egypt’s multilayered system is likely to marginalize new progressive, secular and liberal groups that lack grass-roots networks across the country.

‘The tide turns against Bashar Assad’ (The Economist)

"Turkey, the neighbour with the biggest punch, has been fiercest in calling for Syria’s regime to reform or die. Its government hosts the main political opposition, the Syrian National Council (SNC), and harbours the leaders of the Free Syrian Army, a burgeoning group of defecting soldiers. More recently Turkey has threatened to cut off electricity to northern Syria. Tensions between Syria’s internal and external opposition inevitably persist, though the SNC is doing quite well in maintaining a broad front that includes a strong component of Muslim Brothers as well as secular liberals. Some council members may be drawing premature hope from Libya’s experience, in the unwise expectation that the West and the UN may impose a no-fly zone over Syria and invoke a "responsibility to protect" civilians. Despite the Arab League’s increasingly robust demands that Mr Assad should engage in a proper dialogue, he still seems unlikely to do so. But his room for manoeuvre is a lot more limited than it was even a month ago." 

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