News Update: December 19, 2011

Bullet Tahrir Square

At least 12 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in clashes in downtown Cairo over the past three days. Violence broke out on December 16 when military forces guarding the Cabinet building near Tahrir Square cracked down on a three-week-old sit-in to call for a transfer of power to civilian leadership.

EGYPT NEWS ROUNDUP (12/19/2011)
 
PROTESTS:

1) At least 12 people have been killed and hundreds more injured in clashes in downtown Cairo over the past three days. Violence broke out on December 16 when military forces guarding the Cabinet building near Tahrir Square cracked down on a three-week-old sit-in to call for a transfer of power to civilian leadership. [The Daily News Egypt, English, 12/19/2011] 

2) Around 40 MPs and political figures organized a sit-in outside the Supreme Court on Monday to demand the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) put an end to violence against protesters. They are also demanding an independent investigation into the clashes and the handover of power to a civilian president by 25 January. Participants included Freedom and Justice Party representatives Mohamed Beltagy and Osama Yassin, MPs Amr Hamzawy and Mustafa al-Naggar, Wafdist Wahid Abdel Meguid, the Coordinator of the Democratic Alliance, Kefaya Movement co-founder George Isaac, Mohamed El Sawy, and Shadi al-Ghazali Harb. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/19/2011] 

3) Eyewitnesses reported that security snipers continued to fire live bullets at protesters in Tahrir Square on December 19. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/19/2011] 

U.S. POLICY: 

4) Sec. of State Hillary Clinton urged both the military and protesters to refrain from violence on December 18: "I urge Egyptian security forces to respect and protect the universal rights of all Egyptians, including the rights to peaceful free expression and assembly…We call upon the Egyptian authorities to hold accountable those, including security forces, who violate these standards. Those who are protesting should do so peacefully and refrain from acts of violence." [AFP, English, 12/19/2011] 

ELECTIONS: 

5) Turnout in the second round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections reached 67 percent, according to the High Electoral Commission, slightly higher than the 62 percent recorded in the first stage. Although official results have not yet been released, the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) has claimed 37.2 percent of the vote. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/19/2011] 

SCAF: 

6) At a press conference on December 19, Major General Adel Amara claimed that security forces were only acting in self-defense and referred to a "systematic plan to bring Egypt down." [al-Ahram, English, 12/19/2011] 

7) General Abdel Moneim Kato denigrated the protest movement by claiming that people should not be concerned about "some street bully who deserves to be thrown into Hitler’s ovens.” [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/19/2011] 

CONSTITUTIONAL DEBATE: 

8) Former Deputy Prime Minister Ali al-Selmy claims that the Brotherhood’s FJP had agreed to his proposed supra-constitutional principles outlining guidelines for the constitutional committee. “We agreed to continue dialogue and create criteria for choosing the committee that would write the constitution. This means the Brotherhood was involved from the beginning and accepted the document,” al-Selmy said. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/19/2011] 

ECONOMY: 

9) The Finance Ministry announced plans to drastically cut spending in order to reduce the LE134 billion deficit by LE20 billion. It vows to cease building new offices and only buy Egyptian products. The measures include an end to fuel subsidies for energy-intensive industries, a maximum wage for state employees, postponing the application of a property tax for another year, deferring a new law a freeze on the construction of new offices, and rescheduling farmers’ debts for another five years.  Magdy Kandil analyzes these belt-tightening measures for EgyptSource. [al-Masry al-Youm, English, 12/19/2011] [al-Shorouk, Arabic, 12/19/2011] [EgyptSource, English, 12/19/2011] 

Photo Credit: Reuters

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