Egypt’s top general calls for unity talks
Fractious opposition may not participate
At the same time as the IMF delayed billions of dollars in urgently needed loans Tuesday, Egypt’s top general appealed for a meeting of “national unity” to try to ease tensions between secularists and Islamists locked in a bitter struggle over Egypt’s future.
But prospects of unity any time soon in Egypt remained dim late Tuesday as thousands of secularists and Islamists once again held rival rallies in Cairo to voice their support or opposition to a draft constitution that is to be put to voters in a national referendum on Saturday.
And Egypt’s judges Tuesday said that most of them would not oversee the nationwide referendum on a contentious draft constitution.
The demonstrations and judges’ boycott came hours after masked assailants set upon opposition protesters staging a sit-in at Tahrir Square, firing birdshot and swinging knives and sticks, according to security officials. They later said that five “hardened criminals” were arrested in connection with the attack.
Eleven protesters were wounded, the MENA state news agency said, citing a Health Ministry spokesman.
Whether the talks that Col.-Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has called will amount to anything was an open question. The Muslim Brotherhood, which supports the changes to the constitution, quickly announced that it would attend.
The opposition, which has denounced the proposed document because of its persistent references to Islam and its lack of protections for religious minorities and women, said it would decide if it will take part shortly before the meeting is slated to take place.
With at least eight different secular parties vying for attention, there has not yet been a consensus on whether to boycott or take part in Saturday’s vote on the constitution, although a decision on that may finally come Wednesday.
The mood in Egypt, which has been paralyzed by months of demonstrations, remains volatile and the situation could quickly worsen if either side resorts to violence before or doing Saturday’s referendum.
Perhaps the only thing preventing the kind of bloody, brawling confrontation that led to seven deaths last week has been that, since then, organizers have managed to keep the two rival protests several kilometres apart.
Adding to the gloom, the IMF held back loans that may eventually total more than $6 billion until at least January.
The main reason was that embattled President Mohammed Morsi cancelled plans Tuesday to bring in tax increases the IMF had demanded to balance the country’s books.
Crowds on Tuesday were thinner and tamer than those last week. But secularists gathered outside the presidential palace were as implacable as ever.
To mantra-like cries of “We will not vote, the whole process is wrong,” swarms of secularists easily passed through holes Tuesday in the concrete barriers that the army had set up to protect the palace from attack. Soldiers stepped aside, but tanks and armoured cars remained manned only a few metres away.
Reports appeared Tuesday that backers of the Muslim Brotherhood had detained dozens of secularists overnight last week. Some of them alleged that they had been badly beaten.