COSPE FULLY SUPPORTS THE EGYPTIAN PEOPLE’S REQUEST

COSPE fully supports the Egyptian people’s request for an immediate end to any kind of police and army violence – including the use of the widely banned CS gas – against demonstrators in Tahrir square and many other cities. This has been requested in the last days by a number of international organisations, the most prominent of which is the United Nations’ Council for Human Rights.

also joins the call by the Egyptian Human Rights Organisation (The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights – Hisham Mubarak Law Centre – Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies – El-Nadim Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, the Arab Network for Human Rights Information) some of which are COSPE partners such as the Arab Network for Human Rights Information and the Centre for Egyptian Women Legal Advice, to immediately prosecute the police and army officers whose crimes against peaceful demonstrators have been widely documented during the last days, and joins their call on the International Courts to prosecute these criminals if the Egyptian judicial system is unable or unwilling to achieve justice.

COSPE stands in solidarity with the Egyptian people currently protesting in Egypt against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and with their simple democratic demands, which are:

– The end of the currently all-comprehensive military rule, that has made null any attempt at actually governing by the transitional – SCAF appointed – government. The SCAF has constantly vetoed any attempt at the slightest reform by any of the just resigned ministers, some of whom are decent persons who have repeatedly tried to reform repressive and undemocratic laws. Instead, the SCAF has increasingly imposed more and more restrictions on personal and collective freedoms, including the harshening of the emergency law and a clamp-down on NGOs.

Various reports, the most documented being the recent Amnesty International report “Broken Promises”, have detailed the continued human rights violations, such as torture and illegal military detentions of at least 12.000 civilians and hundreds of activists, among whom COSPE collaborator and friend, the blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah.

– The withdrawal of the supra-constitutional decree that SCAF issued at the beginning of November, where it reserves for itself the appointment of the majority (80%) of the constituent assembly members, the right to veto articles of the constitution that will be drafted by the said assembly, going so far as to place the army above the constitution, stating its role as that it ?protects the constitutional legitimacy of the nations only the army has the right to discuss matters related to the armed forces or discuss its budget and the president can only declare war after gaining the consent of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces .

This placement of the army above the constitution was further stressed by Field Marshal Tantawi in his speech of 22 November by declaring that only through a referendum the SCAF would accept to transfer power to a civilian government. .

This is why the youths that have struggled so hard to bring about a democratic system with free and fair elections in Egypt are afraid that hold them under these conditions will be used to strengthen a de-facto military dictatorship with a puppet parliament, a condition under which Egypt has suffered for too long.