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Violence in Egypt: Brotherhood Leader Arrested; Massacre in Sinai

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Egypt's Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the military will respond to attacks on government buildings by supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi
Egypt’s Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the military will respond to attacks on government buildings by supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi
Early Tuesday, August 20, Egypt’s military detained Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie in a neighborhood of eastern Cairo where for weeks protesters rallied against Egypt’s interim military government. Video of the 70-year-old Badie on Egyptian television showed him sitting on a couch with his hands folded in his lap as a man with a rifle stands by.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is promising to press on with its massive protests despite the arrest of its spiritual leader. It says its struggle will remain nonviolent.

“Amir Bassam, on the board of the Brotherhood’s political wing, spoke to VOA News by telephone from an undisclosed location in Greater Cairo. He said despite the many arrests, it’s impossible to eliminate the Brotherhood as it represents what he called a “genuine, integral, working part of Egyptian society,” according to the agency’s Cairo correspondent.

The Brotherhood has appointed 69-year-old Mohamed Ezzat as its temporary spiritual guide. But Ezzat and the Brotherhood will have to contend with more than Egypt’s military.

Despite growing international concerns about the military crackdown that has killed more than 900 people in the last week, some Egyptians welcomed news of Badie’s arrest.

Badie has been seen by some as the driving force behind the presidency of Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted by Egypt’s military on July 3rd after days of large-scale demonstrations by Egyptians unhappy with his rule.

Badie is due to go on trial August 25 along with his chief deputy, Khairat el-Shater, who is also in custody. They are accused of inciting deadly violence outside the group’s headquarters in June, days before the military deposed Morsi.

Badie’s arrest comes just a day after militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula attacked and killed 25 police officers and two days after 36 Muslim Brotherhood supporters died in prison. Officials said the prisoners suffocated when tear gas was used to control an escape.

Since Egypt’s military responded to days of protests and ousted Morsi, the official death toll for violence across Egypt has topped 1,000 people. The Muslim Brotherhood says many more people have died.

International concern and condemnation over the military crackdown on the Brotherhood and Morsi supporters has been growing.

The United States has yet to make a decision on suspending aid to Egypt though it has cancelled some joint military exercises. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday the U.S. is “reviewing every aspect of our relationship with Egypt.”

European Union diplomats are set to meet in Geneva Wednesday to review the $6.7 billion in aid the EU provides to Egypt

Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities may soon free former leader Hosni Mubarak, who has spent more than two years in custody following the 2011 popular revolt that drove him from power.

A court said Monday he could no longer be held on charges that he and his sons stole public money for presidential palaces. With that order, Mubarak remains in detention in connection with only one other case.

On Sunday, August 18, Egypt’s military chief, General Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, threatened renewed force against attacks on government buildings and police stations by anti-government protesters. But Sisi told military and police officers the army has no intention of seizing power.

He called on Islamic supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi to join the political process, saying “there is room for everyone.”

Opponents of the military backed interim government planned two large protests on Sunday, but canceled one of them – citing fears of more attacks by security forces. But some protesters marched in spite of the concerns.

Armored vehicles were deployed around the presidential palace and constitutional court in the capital after the Muslim Brotherhood insisted that demonstrations against Morsi’s overthrow would go on despite the bloodshed. Morsi supporters set out on marches in the afternoon. Scores of arrests were reported in Alexandria, Assiyut and Luxor.

On Sunday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy downplayed some tough talk on the subject by President Obama.

“He did condemn what he considered to be excessive use of force by government forces. He also condemned violence throughout the events by all parties. And he also emphasized the importance of the Egyptian-American relationship and his interest in pursuing that. We will take the speech as a whole and we analyze it in detail,” he said.

This week’s bloody drama has sent shockwaves out of Egypt, the political weathervane and cultural heart of the Arab world. The effect on the region of the army’s power grab will not be uniform, because while countries such as Egypt are locked in a battle over identity, other states, from Syria to Yemen, and Libya to Iraq, are in an existential struggle for survival.

The Egyptian chapter of the Arab awakening began with the uprising that ended the 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak and has moved on to the spectacular implosion of the Brotherhood that replaced him. Having been outlawed intermittently since their founding 80 years ago, the organization won parliamentary and presidential elections, then self-destructed in one year.

Deposed president Mohamed Morsi alienated all but a hard-core constituency by devoting his energy to seizing control of Egypt’s institutions rather than implementing policies to revive its paralyzed economy and heal political divisions, analysts say.

“I was surprised by the rapid fall of the Islamists,” said Jamel Arfaoui, an analyst on Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings.

“I was expecting that the Muslim Brotherhood would continue long in power and benefit from the experience of the Islamists in Turkey,” where the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party has won three straight elections.

The Egyptian Brothers, or Al-Ikhwan, now have reason to fear they could be back in the wilderness for decades after the army, with much bloodshed, imposed a state of emergency last week. The last time emergency rule was implemented – after the assassination of president Anwar Sadat in 1981 – it remained in force for more than 30 years.

Foreign Reactions

The situation in Egypt puts many foreign governments in a quandary. But at Human Rights Watch, researcher Heba Morayef says there is one thing world leaders should definitely do.

“This is a moment where the international community needs to use whatever leverage it has in its relations with the Egyptian authorities, and in particular with the Egyptian military, because this is an incredibly volatile situation, because we are likely to see more violence. Whenever the police uses excessive force in response they exacerbate the situation,” she said.

The New York Times and Washington Post newspapers reported that U.S., European and Arab diplomats were close to a deal between the Brotherhood and Egypt’s interim government that could have prevented last week’s bloodbath when police destroyed two Cairo protest camps. The newspapers said Egyptian military leaders rejected the compromise.

 

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