Letters: Nothing will save Hosni Mubarak from Egyptians’ wrath

The people of Egypt are learning that their dictator Mubarak will not follow the example of Tunisia’s Ben Ali and slip quietly into exile ( The battle for Egypt , 3 February). Though the vast majority of Egyptians want to be rid of this evil man, counter-revolutionaries with the clear assistance of the army have brought violence to the streets in his support. David Cameron told UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon: “If it turns out that the regime in any way has sponsored or tolerated this violence, that is completely unacceptable.” Cameron is being disingenuous. The violence behind Mubarak’s regime is well documented and long ignored by the west. In February 2009 the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, was handed a document by her own officials which had this to say about the routine crimes of the Mubarak regime: “Security forces used unwarranted lethal force and tortured and abused detainees, in most cases with impunity … Security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals, in some cases for political purposes, and kept them in prolonged pretrial detention. The executive branch placed limits on and pressured the judiciary. The government’s respect for freedoms of press, association and religion declined during the year.” Mubarak is a brutal dictator who has run Egypt as a police state for 30 years with the blessing and support of western powers – Britain included. Mubarak’s tyranny is founded on an immense apparatus of repression. His phony democracy, sham elections and manipulated plebiscites would not fool a child. Very shortly Mubarak – and his western apologists – will learn that no amount of repression can save him from the anger of a people he has abused for over a generation. As for Cameron’s recent appeal for “evolution not revolution”, that was answered on a placard outside the Egyptian embassy in London at the weekend: “World, are you watching? In Egypt history is being written.” Sasha Simic

Posted by on February 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry