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 |  Subject: The Joy of Statism: Egypt’s army ousts president, suspends constitution  Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:12 pm | |
| Egypt’s military moved forcefully to seize power from President Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday, deploying tanks and troops in Cairo and other cities, restricting his travel and convening an emergency meeting of top civilian and religious leaders to devise an interim government and lay the groundwork for new elections.
Ahramonline, the government’s official English-language website, said the military had informed Morsi that he was no longer head of state. An aide to Morsi said he has been moved to an undisclosed location.
The military’s actions came as enormous crowds of the president’s supporters and opponents filled the streets of the capital and soldiers were deployed in significant numbers to keep the spiraling political crisis from going out of complete control.
State radio said that the emergency meeting, which included Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent Egyptian statesman who has emerged as a leading critic of Morsi, along with top Muslim and Christian leaders, had adjourned after several hours and a “road map” for a post-Morsi government would be announced later.
Military leaders have assured the Obama administration that they are not interested in long-term rule.
The administration would be forced to suspend its $1.5 billion in annual military and economic assistance to Egypt — which is deemed a critical US national security priority — if the ouster is determined to have been a coup d’etat. Under US law, the unconstitutional ouster of a democratically elected government by a country’s armed forces would trigger an aid cutoff. However, such legal determinations can take time and the officials said they believed Egypt’s military was trying to take steps to keep such a finding from being reached.
A US official said the State Department is ordering nonessential diplomats and the families of all embassy personnel to leave the country.
The developments followed the lapse of a 48-hour deadline imposed by the military generals on the increasingly isolated president to meet the demands of millions of Egyptians disaffected with the one-year-old governance of Morsi, the first democratically elected leader of Egypt.
By 6:30 p.m. military forces began moving around Cairo. Tanks and troops headed for the presidential palace — although it was unclear whether Morsi was inside — while other soldiers ringed the nearby square where tens of thousands of the president’s supporters were rallying.
Many of the Islamists had armed themselves with makeshift clubs, shields made of potcovers or metal scraps and plastic hard hats, and there were small scuffles with the better-armed soldiers. Some soldiers fired their weapons in the air. But the military forces held back.
Soldiers also were seen erecting barbed-wire fences and barriers around a barracks were Morsi may have been working, Reuters reported, quoting witnesses.
Morsi’s senior foreign policy adviser, Essam el-Haddad, issued an open letter Wednesday on his official Web page lamenting what he called the imminent takeover of Egypt’s first freely elected government.
“As I write these lines I am fully aware that these may be the last lines I get to post on this page,” he wrote. “For the sake of Egypt and for historical accuracy, let’s call what is happening by its real name: Military coup.”
Security officials said the military’s intelligence service had banned any travel by Morsi and senior Islamist aides, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, and his influential deputy, Khairat el-Shater.
With millions of Egyptians waiting to see what the military would do, Morsi reiterated in a Facebook posting what he had said in a long televised speech Tuesday night, vowing to stay in power as Egypt’s first democratically elected president following the 2011 revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak.
“The presidency reaffirms that violating constitutional legitimacy threatens democratic practice by veering off the right track and threatens the freedom of expression that Egypt has lived since the revolution,” the statement said.
Gehad el-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman, vowed that the group would not bend in its defiance of the military.
“The only plan,” he said in a statement posted online, “is to stand in front of the tanks.”
The escalating tensions between Morsi’s Islamist supporters and their opponents continued to spur street violence overnight. Egyptian officials said at least 18 people had died and more than 300 were injured in fighting near an Islamist rally in support of Morsi near Cairo University. State media reported that the dead included victims from both sides and that most died of gunshot wounds.Continued...
http://www.boston.com/news/world/2013/07/03/egypt-turmoil-grows-army-deadline-set-expire/CZ5tILA0ERpsn1sG4gvAjP/story.html |
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