Tunisians to vote in historic post-revolution polls

TUNIS: Tunisia, which launched the “Arab Spring” when its outraged citizens ousted a seemingly entrenched dictator in January, again takes the lead with a historic vote Sunday for the drafters of a new constitution.

“It is a historic turning point. Tunisians do not have the right to make mistakes, the world is watching this first test on the road to democracy,” a European diplomat said, amid an election campaign dotted with violent outbursts, some by Islamists.

Ten months ago, Tunisian fruitseller Mohamed Bouazizi from Sidi Bouzid, a neglected town in the west of the country, set himself on fire to protest abuses under the 23-year-old regime of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.

He died days later, but Bouazizi’s action sparked Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution and region-wide revolts that have toppled leaders in Tunis, Cairo and Tripoli, and still threaten others.

Ben Ali, once backed by the West for his supposed role as a rampart against Islamisation, fled to Saudi Arabia a month into the leaderless uprising by Tunisians driven to the streets by social injustice, poverty and corruption.

Now, after a short transition period marked by protest against the pace of change and sporadic fits of violence, Tunisians will on Sunday have a chance to take charge of their destiny in the Arab world’s first post-revolution vote.

Despite the high stakes, however, voter interest is low in a complex electoral landscape: some 7.3 million potential balloters will elect 217 members of an assembly that will write the country’s new founding law, from more than 10,000 candidates.

Voters in the country of about 12 million people are faced with over 1,400 candidates lists: 787 belonging to political parties, 583 to independent candidates and 50 to party coalitions.

Most of the groupings propagate similar slogans of liberty, democracy and social justice. Half the candidates are women.

The new constitution will be the country’s third after those of 1861 and 1959, and will map out a new path by determining the type of government to take over a hitherto staunchly secular state.

The assembly will also choose an interim president who will appoint a prime minister and a government for the duration of the constitution drafting process leading up to new national elections.

Sunday’s polls will be run by the ISIE, an independent poll body based in the interior ministry that is widely blamed for ballot stuffing since Tunisian independence in 1956.

While the Islamic Ennahda (Renaisssance) party is polled to take the biggest block of votes in the Muslim majority country, the election system has been designed to include as many parties as possible in the constitution drafting process, to the benefit of smaller groups with fewer resources.

The votes cast in 33 constituencies will determine the number of seats allotted to each party. If votes are left over that are insufficient to give a party a full seat, these will be carried over to the next biggest party.

Ennahda, which had been banned under Ben Ali, has run a campaign vowing to build a democracy based on Islamic values, which it has said would include protecting women.

The party has denied involvement in an attack Friday night by Salafist conservatives on a television director’s house after the broadcast of a film deemed offensive to Muslims, while at the same time denouncing the “provocation”.

With more than 100 registered political parties, a handful stand out as strong contenders.

The Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), whose leader Ahmed Nejib Chebbi, was a vehement Ben Ali critic, has positioned itself as the main alternative to Ennahda and is polled as the second biggest party.

On the left of the political spectrum, the Ettajid former communist party gathers five smaller groupings opposed to Islamisation of the state, while the Tunisian Workers’ Communist Party (POCT) led by Hamma Hammami, is one of the few parties to have put a woman at the head of an electoral list.

There are about 40 small parties seen as heirs to Ben Ali’s now dissolved Rally for Constitutional Democracy (RCD), which still has many bureaucrats in the system.

The large number of independent candidates in the poll has been interpreted by analysts as a sign of distrust in political parties like Ennahda, suspected by many of wanting to pick the fruits of a revolution they were not part of.

Opinion polls have suggested that a majority of Tunisians had no idea who they would vote for.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/17/tunisians-to-vote-in-historic-post-revolution-polls.html

Fasih Bokhari takes over as NAB chief

ISLAMABAD: Former chief of Pakistan Navy, Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari, was formally notified as chairman of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Sunday despite objections raised by the opposition PML-N that the legal process required by the Constitution had not been followed in his nomination for the post.

The new chairman assumed charge of his office late in the night, sources told this correspondent.

With the appointment of Admiral Bokhari to the post which had been lying vacant since the removal of Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah in March this year, the premier accountability organisation of the country became functional again after three months of inaction.

A notification of the law ministry signed by the president said: “The president of Islamic Republic of Pakistan has been pleased to appoint Admiral (retd) Fasih Bokhari as Chairman National Accountability Bureau in terms of section 6(b) of National Accountability Ordinance 1999, with immediate effect.”

But the PML-N rejected the decision and indicated that it might challenge the appointment in the Supreme Court.

“We believe that the government has taken the decision in haste as President Zardari did not give a satisfactory reply to a letter written by the Leader of Opposition, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, after thorough consultations with opposition party’s legal team,” said PML-N spokesman Mushahidullah.

The notification was issued after former law minister Babar Awan had met President Asif Zardari, the sources said.

Mr Bokhari is the fifth NAB chairman belonging to the armed forces. Earlier, NAB chiefs from the military were Lt-Gen Amjad Hussain, Lt-Gen Khalid Maqbool, Lt-Gen Munir Hafiez and Lt-Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz.

The two civilian heads of the bureau are Navaid Ahsan and Justice (retd) Deedar Hussain Shah.

Under the NAB Ordinance, the government is required to hold consultation with the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly for the appointment.

President Zardari had sent a letter to Chaudhry Nisar on Oct 9 seeking his consent for the appointment. Chaudhry Nisar replied on Friday, raising objections to the appointment on technical grounds.

He asked the government to prepare a list of possible candidates for the office of NAB chairman and hold ‘meaningful’ consultations with the opposition.

“Mr President, if the objective of the entire exercise is to select a nominee with impeccable reputation, integrity and credibility and unquestionable impartiality, there is no reason whatsoever for hesitation on the part of the government to engage with the opposition in a thorough, concrete and meaningful consultation.”

When contacted, President’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president had appointed Admiral (retd) Bokhari as NAB chairman on the advice of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Responding to a question about the opposition’s response, he said: “President Zardari, in his reply to the Leader of Opposition, had addressed all objections raised by Chaudhry Nisar and now the issuance of notification was a mere formality.”

President Zardari in his reply to the Leader of Opposition on Saturday said: “The sense of various judgments of superior courts is that the consultation shall be meaningful and for this purpose there is no necessity of sending a panel of nominees.

“Therefore, meaningful consultation can be done even on a single person and for that purpose you are taken on board quite candidly. Sending of a panel for consultation does not have any legal cover as well, there being no legal requirement as such. I have consulted the Leader of the House in the National Assembly on the subject who has concurred to the proposal.”

Admiral Bokhari is a retired four-star naval officer who served as Chief of Naval Staff from 1997 to 1999.

Admiral Bokhari is a graduate from the French Naval War College and served on several high posts during his tenure at the Pakistan Navy.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/17/fasih-bokhari-takes-over-as-nab-chief.html

BBC: Italy PM Silvio Berlusconi wins confidence vote

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has won a key confidence vote in parliament, sparked by questions over his handling of the economy and personal scandals.

Mr Berlusconi won the vote in the lower house by 316 vote to 301.

Italy's government credit rating was recently downgraded and parliament failed to back a key part of the budget this week, triggering the vote.

Mr Berlusconi also faces trial on sex, bribery and abuse of power charges.

The outcome of the vote was in doubt until the last minute - even some of Mr Berlusconi's own MPs were expressing uncertainty.

Most of the opposition boycotted the first round of the vote, raising questions about whether there were enough MPs to form a quorum.

Berlusconi in numbers

·         At least 51 votes of confidence (including 14 October vote) in his government since it took power in 2008

·         Three election victories - 1994, 2001 and 2008

·         Two election defeats - 1996 and 2006

·         Four ongoing trials

·         $9bn - net worth of Berlusconi and his family (Forbes, 2010)

·         2,500 court appearances at 106 trials over 20 years

On Saturday, he also faces a mass demonstration of some 200,000 people in Rome - similar to recent ones in New York and Madrid - against austerity measures and financial mismanagement.

Italy is considered vulnerable in the current eurozone crisis, with the highest public debt among countries using the European single currency.

The country approved an austerity package last month to balance the budget by 2013 but its central bank chief this week urged the government to introduce more measures to stimulate growth.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15302695

Some suggest staying away from Obama’s Wars By Imran Ali Teepu

ISLAMABAD: Gazetted officers of the federal government receive a book from the Cabinet Division’s Services Club every  year – for a price – to stimulate their minds.

Last year, ‘The Idea of Justice’ by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was chosen for them and was well received. In the book the eminent Indian economist argues that a “theory of justice that can serve as the basis of practical reasoning must include ways of judging how to reduce injustice and advance justice, rather than aiming only at the characterisation of perfectly just societies”.

But some recipients are disturbed over this year’s choice of Bob Woodward’s ‘Obama’s Wars’. They find the “criticism” of President Asif Ali Zardari in it disturbing, more so when the book has been distributed through the Army’s Services Book Club (ASBC).

Both the presidential and military spokesmen sounded non-committal in their comments to Dawn on the distribution of the book by ASBC.

“ASBC routinely sends books to civilian officers,” said Maj Gen Athar Abbas of the ISPR. But he was “not aware” that this year the ASBC had sent them Obama’s Wars.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar was equally unaware but more dismissive. “Since I am not aware about this (distribution) I have no comments to offer,” he said.

Bob Woodward, a Washington Post journalist, writes in the book that President Zardari told the then-CIA Director Gen Michael Hayden during their meeting in New York on 12 November 2008: “Kill the seniors. Collateral damage (caused by CIA drone attacks inside Pakistan) worries you Americans. It does not worry me.”

That unattributed account of the meeting irritated Islamabad and was immediately rejected by Pakistani ambassador in Washington, Hussain Haqqani. “I am amazed that the book was purchased in bulk and distributed to civilian officials,” said a senior federal bureaucrat. His colleague concurred that Obama’s Wars should not have been a choice read because its narrative reflect’s Washington’s “paranoia like mistrust” of Pakistan.

However, there are bureaucrats who say that “anything revealing the inner thoughts of other governments about Pakistan must be read by us”.

“It was President Gen Ziaul Haq who made book reading a must in the bureaucracy. Every federal government officer of Grade 17 and above had to become a member of the ASBC,” recalled a former bureaucrat.

The missionary president, however, chose mainly religious books, including Maulana Abul Aala Maudoodi’s voluminous Tafheem-ul-Quran. After him the titles changed and books on worldly matters by international writers also found their way through ASBC, he said.

ASBC distributes the book chosen for the officers at nominal price which is deducted from their salary.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/14/some-suggest-staying-away-from-obamas-wars-2.html

The Economist: A Swedish October surprise

d

Liberia at the polls

LIBERIANS have voted in the first domestically run poll since the end of a bloody civil war in 2003. Queues snaked around schools and churches converted into polling stations as eager citizens gathered despite heavy rain on October 11th. UN armoured cars were parked nearby but the atmosphere was overwhelmingly peaceful. National and international observers presided over ballot counts; the official results are due by October 26th. “People want peace, so until now there has been no foul play,” says Atiliean Gibson, a representative for the opposition Congress for Democratic Change.

Sixteen candidates are vying to be president. Preliminary tallies suggest the incumbent, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is in the lead but likely to face a run-off in November against a former diplomat, Winston Tubman, and his charismatic running mate, ex-footballer George Weah. Ms Johnson Sirleaf, a former World Bank official, has achieved a lot during her five-year term in office. She wooed foreign investors and won relief from the country’s debts. ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, last month started exporting iron ore from the west African nation, which is far stabler now than at the last election.

But problems are piling up too. The president recently fired her first-rate auditor-general, John Morlu, who was said to be making headway on graft, a perennial problem. Education and employment prospects for most Liberians remain poor. Public infrastructure has improved somewhat, but most electricity still comes from diesel generators.

Critics of the president say she has become autocratic, pointing out that she ignored the recommendations of a truth and reconciliation commission charged with investigating the civil war. The commission had said she should be barred from public office for 30 years because she once supported Charles Taylor, a warlord and president now on trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes committed in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Perhaps more importantly, Ms Johnson Sirleaf has not been able to dispel the sense of disenfranchisement felt by many indigenous Liberians. They see themselves as dominated by the descendants of the freed American slaves who founded the country.

Critics charge that Ms Johnson Sirleaf cares too much about her standing abroad and not enough about her own people. Four days before the election the president (as well as another Liberian woman, Leymah Gbowee, and a Yemeni woman, Tawakul Karman) received the Nobel peace prize. The Swedish prize committee lauded the 72-year-old for being Africa’s first elected female head of state but seemingly ignored her earlier promise to stand for only one term. That is why the Nobel laurels will have gained Ms Johnson Sirleaf few extra votes. Many see it as further proof of the gulf between her gilded international reputation and the continuing poverty of her many young compatriots.

from the print edition | Middle East and Africa

 Source: http://www.economist.com/node/21532332?fsrc=scn/tw/te/ar/aswedishoctobersurprise

Movement in the making By Hina Mahmood

APPROACHING Zuccotti Park, the sound of drumbeats in the air, I could see hundreds of protesters, picketing on its lawns, a few blocks from Ground Zero in New York.

Dozens of signs read, ‘We are the 99 per cent’, as the earnest Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters, spoke to anyone who would listen, on issues ranging from corporate greed to education reform. The OWS movement, now in its fourth week, has gained momentum, spreading to over 25 cities. A hodgepodge of vague demands by an equally eclectic range of people projected through posters, signs, flyers, art and even music made it difficult to grasp the unifying message or theme that had brought them together.

Henry Gargan, a student from North Carolina, was hoping to encourage corporations to regulate waste and be environmentally friendly. Nicole Doula was protesting big government, favouring devolution of power to the state and community level. While Zak Cunningham, sitting beside his class warfare sign, identified himself as a communist. Despite this fragmentation, many protesters did share a sense of deepening inequality, a need for job creation and a desire for politicians to do more for the ‘other 99 per cent’.

Two factors will determine the success of the movement; frustration with the economy and the upcoming presidential race.

Frustration with the economy, Wall Street and politicians is palpable. People are furious with banks in particular: the dire state of the economy caused by irresponsible lending, the bailout by the government with taxpayer dollars and finally, the cosy relationship between politicians and Wall Street resulting in low taxes for the wealthy and light regulation.

Tom Phillips, a protester, echoed this last sentiment, “People are overeducated, underemployed, and debt-ridden.

Government has lost its way, taking care of the greedy and putting them in office. I want to show the government and Congress, to get re-elected the people will not put up with it.”

Due to a nationwide sense of inequality, high unemployment and the perception of political favour for the wealthy, the movement has spread quickly to over two dozen cities, from D.C. to Alabama to San Diego. This surge in support has caused politicians to take note. Many are referring to the OWS movement as the Tea Party for the Democrats. There are similarities.

Both movements started out with a lack of central organisation, as a backlash to Wall Street bailouts, and spread quickly nationwide. Unlike, the Tea Party at that time, the majority of OWS protesters believe that the government needs to be part of the solution.

This is where the political climate becomes interesting. With the upcoming elections and Obama’s unpopularity regarding his bailouts, the Democrats are keen to win back the support of the ‘other 99 per cent’. Obama has been eager to gain support for his ambitious job proposal, paving the way to reduce unemployment, create jobs and increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy — goals the protesters broadly share.

The Democrats are wisely tapping into OWS with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi giving it her full endorsement on Sunday. “I support the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen,” she said. “We cannot continue in a way that does not — that is not relevant to their lives. People are angry.”

While Democrats continue to equate themselves with populist demands, they are keen to equate the Republicans with the interests of the rich and wealthy. Republicans, on their part, are not doing much to dispel this image. Mitt Romney, GOP frontrunner, described the Wall Street protests as “class warfare”. While Rick Perry, his main GOP competition, indirectly referred to the movement when he said “…you can’t rev up the engine of economic growth by heaping higher taxes on job creators, you can’t spread success by punishing it, you can’t unite our country by dividing it.…”

The ugliness between the Democrats and Republicans has begun, with Eric Cantor, House majority leader, referring to the protesters as “mobs” who have pitted “Americans against Americans”. Nancy Pelosi has retorted by accusing Cantor of being hypocritical for criticising the Wall Street protesters, while endorsing the Tea Party movement.

The fact that OWS is getting politicians riled up speaks more for the protests than the slogans pasted on their boards. The Democrats will see the movement as a way to promote their agenda of deficit reduction, job creation, and taxation on the wealthy, and as support grows, will try to bring about some coherence and unity.

As the presidential race begins next year, the Democrats may remember the House midterm elections when the Republicans rode to victory on the tail of an energised Republican base, thanks in large part to the Tea Party movement. If they are smart, they will use OWS as an antidote for the Tea Party, and perhaps, will succeed in eventually bringing it into their political fold.

The Tea Party, having gained momentum just two years ago, now finds itself in a powerful position to help Republicans defeat Obama. It is conceivable that, with OWS, the Democrats could do the same The fact that the Democrats are interested in ‘using’ OWS, is to the protesters’ advantage. Though they oppose Obama’s bailouts, they share many of his goals. OWS has won the attention of political players. The next step will be to translate demands into sound policy proposals in Congress. This will only happen if Democrats continue to stay in power. If they both ‘use’ each other effectively, it might just turn into a win-win situation.

The writer, a development economist, is currently working as a freelance journalist in New York.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/13/movement-in-the-making.html

Cairo killings raise heat on military: FT

Cairo Protesters Against the Massive Killings

Dressed in black, Teresa Youssef crouched sobbing and banging on the wooden coffin adorned with a large photograph of a young man, outside the morgue at the Coptic Hospital in Cairo.

“Get up, Mina,” she cried, to the 20-year-old in the coffin who was killed by a bullet which burst his lungs. “He was a lion. He had no weapon but he defended us when we were attacked.”

Mina Danial was one of some 25 people, mostly Coptic Christians, killed on Sunday evening when Egyptian military police used force to disperse a demonstration by thousands angered by the burning of a church in the south of the country. The violence, in front of the television building in downtown Cairo, was the bloodiest in the country since the popular uprising which ousted Hosni Mubarak, the former president, in February.

By Monday morning 17 bodies lay in the morgue of the Coptic Hospital, some with bullet wounds, others with smashed heads and limbs after armoured vehicles, driven by military police, ploughed into demonstrators to disperse them.

“They shot at us and the armoured vehicles shook the ground under us as they crushed people,” said Ms Youssef, one of the demonstrators. “We tried to pull our friends out by their feet but we could not.”

The violence in central Cairo has shocked Egyptians and brought renewed calls for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which has ruled the county since the fall of Mr Mubarak, to speed up the transition to elected rule. The council on Monday ordered an investigation into the violence, while Pope Shenouda, the head of the Coptic church, alleged that unknown individuals infiltrated the demonstration to provoke the army to attack the Christians.

In the current atmosphere of mistrust, many Egyptians believe remnants of the former regime are intent on derailing the revolution. Others put the blame on the army.

“The military council is the main reason for what happened last night,” said Ahmed Maher, head of April 6, one of the youth groups which launched the revolt against the former president. “They are using the same tactics used by Mubarak to address sectarian problems [by failing to take action against Muslims who burnt down the church in Upper Egypt.] State television was essentially inciting against the Christians. We need to transfer authority to an elected government as soon as possible.”

The military council initially said it wanted to leave power after six months, during which parliamentary and presidential elections would be held.

It now appears the generals will be in power at least until the end of 2012, when a new president is due to be elected. Although the army is still popular and many Egyptians view the council as the last remaining protection against chaos, their management has come under mounting criticism.

Analysts say the generals’ lack of political experience and their authoritarian inclinations are at the root of the problems in Egypt, rather than a conspiracy to cling to power. The end of dictatorship has unleashed demands and pent-up anger from many sectors of Egyptian society.

Workers and civil servants have staged strikes for higher pay and ultraconservative Muslim groups have emerged. Sectarian tensions have risen, with more attacks against churches. The normally quiescent Christians have also been emboldened to demand their rights.

The military has used increasingly authoritarian methods to maintain its grip, referring thousands of civilians to military courts for summary trials and reviving Mr Mubarak’s hated emergency law and widening its scope.

On Sunday night, the security forces entered the offices of two independent television channels overlooking the demonstration to take them off air. Hisham Kassem, a political analyst, said the violence could have been prevented if the authorities had taken action against those who burnt the church in Aswan that sparked the demonstrations and against the provincial governor who made statements to the press which appeared to justify the attack.

“We do not have trained people in the army or the police capable of dispersing demonstrations peacefully,” he said.

“The solution has to be preventive by applying the law, not by using the methods of Mubarak. There is no joking with these [sectarian] issues. The country could go up in flames and history will place the blame with the council.”

Source: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b6ab5c00-f35c-11e0-b98c-00144feab49a.html#axzz1aRxTVMtq

Egypt probes deadly sectarian clashes, first victims buried

CAIRO: Egypt’s military rulers ordered a speedy probe into clashes which killed 25 people, mostly Coptic Christians, as the cabinet held crisis talks and thousands attended the funerals of 17 victims.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) “tasked the government with quickly forming a fact finding committee to determine what happened,” in a statement read on state television Monday as world leaders urged restraint.

It called for “all measures against all those proven to have been involved, either directly or by incitement”.

Both the ruling military council and the cabinet held crisis talks, a day after the clashes in Cairo left 25 dead, most of them Copts, and more than 300 people injured, according to health ministry figures.

The SCAF, which took power when President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, stressed it “continues to bear national responsibility to protect the people” until it hands over to an elected civilian authority.

Thousands of people attended a service at the Copt cathedral here late Monday for the funerals of 17 demonstrators.

Live television showed the coffins being brought in a procession from the Copt hospital in downtown Cairo where autopsies were carried out.

The coffins, each bearing the victim’s name and flowers arranged in a cross, were lined up in the cathedral for the funeral service before being taken out for burial.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said US President Barack Obama was “deeply concerned” about the violence.

“Now is a time for restraint on all sides so that Egyptians can move forward together to forge a strong and united Egypt,” he said.

“As the Egyptian people shape their future, the United States continues to believe that the rights of minorities – including Copts – must be respected, and that all people have the universal rights of peaceful protest and religious freedom.

“These tragic events should not stand in the way of timely elections and a continued transition to democracy that is peaceful, just and inclusive.”

A “deeply saddened” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the Egyptian military authorities to defend “all faiths” in the country.

The Congregation for Eastern Churches at the Vatican slammed the “senseless violence”, with Cardinal Leonardo Sandri telling Vatican Radio he hoped it “would not lead as well to a climate of precariousness and difficulty” for Copts.

Egyptian military prosecutors began questioning 25 people accused of involvement in the clashes, state news agency MENA reported, after a security official said 40 were arrested overnight.

Copts had been protesting against an attack earlier this month on a church in the southern city of Aswan when the violence erupted.

Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church led by Pope Shenuda III accused “infiltrators” of triggering the street battle on the Nile waterfront.

“The Christian faith denounces violence. Strangers infiltrated the demonstration and committed the crimes for which the Copts have been blamed,” a Church statement said after Shenuda met 70 Church leaders.

“Copts have suffered repeated problems without accountability for the aggressors,” it said, calling on authorities to “solve the root causes of the problems”.

European leaders in Luxembourg expressed alarm at the Cairo clashes.

“It is very important that the Egyptian authorities reaffirm the freedom of worship,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

“We can only call on the Egyptian government to get to the bottom of these incidents as soon as possible and bring those responsible to justice,” Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert told journalists.

And EU foreign policy Chief Catherine Ashton urged Egypt to move towards elections “with a desire to see all people part of those elections and to protect the people, whoever they are, wherever they come from, whatever belief and faith they have.”

A curfew was imposed overnight Sunday-Monday in parts of the Egyptian capital.

In a late-night address, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appealed to Egyptians “not to give in to sedition” and warned the country was “in danger”.

At least five of the dead were mown down by a speeding army vehicle which swerved to hit protesters, a Coptic priest said, while an AFP correspondent saw bodies with gunshot wounds at the hospital.

The grand imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed Tayyeb, the Sunni religious head, called for crisis talks between Muslim and Christian leaders “in a bid to contain the crisis”, state television said.

Some commentators warned of civil religious strife, but others said the clashes were fuelled not only by sectarian strife but also by anger towards the security services and the military council which succeeded Mubarak.

Government-backed provocation was also blamed.

Users of social networking sites such as Twitter said the initial clashes outside the state television building on the Nile were provoked by “thugs” at the scene, while the broadcaster was accused of fanning anti-Coptic sentiment.

On Monday, the authorities announced the hanging of a man sentenced to death for shooting six Copts last year.

Copts complain of systematic discrimination, but since Mubarak’s fall, tensions have also mounted between the military – initially hailed for not siding with Mubarak – and groups which spearheaded the revolt.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/11/egypt-probes-deadly-sectarian-clashes-first-victims-buried.html