CAIRO, 15 May 2005 — Some pro-reform demonstrations sweeping Egypt could hurt the country’s interests, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published yesterday. Mubarak also said he would announce later whether he would seek a fifth six-year term this autumn.
“There is unemployment. Battling unemployment requires investment. With these demonstrations that we’re seeing, the investor will flee, meaning unemployment will spread,” Mubarak said in the interview with the Kuwaiti Al-Siyassah newspaper, a transcript of which was published by Egypt’s semiofficial Middle East News Agency.
“It’s obvious that the unjustified demonstrations have no program. They are staged just to create a state of unrest that drives out the foreign investor,” he said. “There are those who want to hurt our economy, but they won’t succeed.
Mubarak accused some protesters of attacking and provoking police. Opposition leaders and pro-reform activists have staged protests in various Egyptian provinces to demand democratic changes and some have called for an end to Mubarak’s rule.
On Friday, about 2,500 of Egypt’s estimated 8,000 judges decided to refuse to supervise the presidential and parliamentary elections unless reforms are made to give them more independence and power over monitoring the votes in the latest sign of discontent over limited democratic reforms.
Mubarak, 77, has yet to announce whether he will run in September’s presidential elections, but he is widely expected to do so. He noted to Al-Siyassah that there has yet to be a referendum formally adopting the amendment and that a related law still must be passed to organize the election.
Meanwhile, Egyptian air traffic controllers, who started their go-slow last Tuesday, have gone on hunger strike to demand that “unfair” punishments that had been meted out to some of their colleagues for supposedly “plotting to cause damages to their company” be immediately reversed.
At least four air traffic controllers have been dismissed in the dispute after some 500 air traffic controllers began a sit-in and work slowdown at five airports in Egypt in protest for low wages.
The government refused to listen to controllers demand and instead eight controllers received a 15-day salary cut; three others were docked for 20 days; and one had a whole month’s wages rescinded.
“If the government thinks that their action is going to frighten us, they are absolutely mistaken,” said one air controller at Alexandria airport who asked to remain unidentified.
