The Egyptian military's 'pseudo coup' By Juliette Kayyem: Global Public Square

Last Spring, when the world was heralding the events in Egypt, many of us speculated about whether the Egyptian Army's steady hand would mark the beginnings of a pseudo-coup. I never liked the idea that America's interest in supporting the revolutionaries in the street could be so easily placated by the vaguely described Egyptian Army or military.

Now I am troubled by increasing evidence that the military is simply not sticking to its word - delaying timelines and the transition of power. That, coupled with increasing violence, only suggests that Egypt's Arab Spring experience will be much more complicated - more in line with nations like Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.  Maybe Egypt is just on a slower timeline towards unease. While we were busy giving awards to Egyptian freedom advocates - or focused on the plight of our former ally Hosni Mubarak - we may have missed a coup.

But that storyline did not fit with the media enthusiasm. It also was not consistent with America's financial and professional support of the Egyptian military. The storyline does, however, seem to be closer to the truth than we could have ever imagined.

Now, maybe the U.S. can use its considerable financial support of the Egyptian Army to force change - but that will be difficult absent cutting the bank account.

This all means may need a new name for what is going on in Egypt. Is this the first "slow-roll coup" of the 21st Century? The coup that shall not be named? The pseudo-coup?

Source: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/16/the-egyptian-militarys-pseudo-coup/

Dawn Analysis: The selfish state by Cyril Almeida

CRISES erupt, the government fire-fights, things settle back down: we’ve seen it a million times before, right?
At least that’s what logic traced on the historical record suggests. It’s always been the same, always will be the same. The unofficial motto of Pakistan is, onwards to the next crisis.
And yet, it’s hard to shake off the feeling that maybe, just maybe, something different is afoot.
The possibility of an Arab Spring breaking out in Pakistan has been pooh-poohed: Pakistanis are reasonably adept at knocking out of power dictators and civilians alike.
If you want Zardari out, a crowd of 10,000 converging on Constitution Avenue will have him scrambling to catch the next flight to Dubai. If you want Kayani gone, it would be more complicated and messier, but not as titanic as toppling a Mubarak or Qadhafi.
The possibility of an electoral revolution has been downplayed: the latest would-be saviour, Imran Khan, looks set to grab some seats, but lacks the candidates and party apparatus to make sweeping gains. The status-quo political powers will prevail come election time, or at least so says conventional wisdom.
The possibility of an Islamist takeover has been dismissed: the state is still too strong, the army too numerous for it to crumble against a militant force that all told may be a few tens of thousands strong.
The possibility of an Iran-style clergy-led revolution appears to be remote: among the ideologues in the religious parties and the militant corps none has the broad-based charismatic appeal that can carry them to national power.
But what do we really know about the preferences of the Pakistani people?
Conventional wisdom has it that the people want democracy to continue, they don’t want the army back. But the last time that theory was tested, a mere 35 million people turned out to vote in 2008. What did the other 130 million want?
Remove kids aged 14 and below from the scope of political action, and you’re still left with 80-odd million people whose opinion we know little about. Are they just indifferent to democracy, at least Pakistan’s version of it, or are they a combustible
mixture waiting for the right catalyst to be poured on?
The PPP and the PML-N are Pakistan’s two most popular political parties. Power will always belong to one of them, so says conventional wisdom again.
Turn once more to the 2008 elections and you’ll see that the PPP got ten and a half million votes, the PML-N nearly eight million. That’s a whole bunch more than zero — which our latest populist got after opting out of the election — and the handful
that the mullah brigade picked up.
Still, the notion that Pakistani politics is about constituency, constituency, constituency is undercut by the results of the last two elections. In ’08, the electorate singled out Musharraf’s men for punishment; in ’02, the American arrival in Afghanistan
powered the MMA to wins in Balochistan and then-NWFP.
With the right message, and the right timing, a few millions votes could be bagged, enough to bestow the sparkling newcomer with kingmaker status in the next parliament.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a politician as we know them. A right-wing ideologue could ride the wave of crazed religiosity that a Mumtaz Qadri-type act can unleash. Or maybe the next Lal Masjid-style firebrand will decide that the
possibility of a temporal kingdom is more tempting than certain rewards in the hereafter.
The surge doesn’t even have to come through the ballot box. Thus far the Baitullahs and Hakeemullahs and Faqir Mohammads have, much to the luck of the rest of us, thought small not big.
They have just wanted their little fiefdoms, their small platoons of suicide bombers, a bite here, a morsel there. And they haven’t exactly been the sharpest pencils in the militant box. Fear the day one of those kookie guys marries grand ambition to
ruthless political skill.
And why must it come from the civilian corner?
The army rank and file is disciplined and won’t en masse act on any crazy ideas, says conventional wisdom. But what about the top? It’s pretty well established that some pretty nutty men have made their way into the inner circle in the past.As for the
rank and filers tucked away in their orderly cantonments, who’s to say what they’re really thinking about and talking over among themselves. Rural and urban Pakistan have not stood still over the last 30 years, so why must the products of those
societies be what they have always been, docile and disciplined?
Whether any of these possibilities — or other possibilities that haven’t really been thought about — will ever come to pass is impossible to predict.
Easier is to identify the core reason for the unease spreading about the future of this country: the state has become its own raison d’être. The Pakistani state no longer exists to try and improve the lives of the people who live within it; it exists to feed
and perpetuate itself.
Really, what policy of the army hews to the public’s demand, recorded in poll after poll, election after election, for better delivery of basic services, for jobs, for economic well-being? Security or prosperity is a false choice, manifold times so when
the policy of putting security first has made Pakistan one of the least secure countries in the world.
And what’s the point of a transition to democracy when the choices made by a civilian set-up simply nudge the country a little closer to the edge of a cliff?
When a state exists to tend to its own needs to the almost-total exclusion of the public’s dreams and aspirations, it will eventually become a nightmare for everyone involved.
The only thing we don’t know yet: what kind of nightmare exactly.


Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/14/the-selfish-state.html

Aiders and abettors by Kamran Shafi

The Deep State is not alone in its enterprise of trying to fool all of the people all of the time for its own ends: it is aided and abetted by various and varied ‘elites’, most of whom have either occupied positions of high authority in government; are media ‘stars’; even Captains of private enterprise. All of them, of course, say what they do to amplify the Establishment’s views, to therefore, snuggle ever closer to it.

Some of these ‘elites’ are dishonest and hypocritical to boot, trying to be all things to all people: hawks to our own because that is the preferred attitude of the Deep State and its handmaidens in the ultra-right media which dishonestly moulds public opinion to its masters’ preferences; reasonable to the West where, incidentally, they spend most of their lives in their luxurious homes, returning to Pakistan for a few months before flying off again to spread more Deep State-inspired confusion in the various think-tanks and study groups.

On the Urdu media they flaunt Pakistan’s bums, saying in the context of the present difficulties with the United States that we should show confidence because we are a nuclear power; in the English press they go softly, softly, and become ‘reasonable’.

Case in point: the views of a former ambassador to the United States and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom as expressed on an Urdu TV channel and, a few days later, in an opinion piece in an English language newspaper. In the TV interview appearing alongside the great hawk, strategist, and ‘victor’ of Jalalabad, Hamid Gul, invoking Pakistan’s nuclear weapons; in the article advocating quiet diplomacy, and the need for both countries to make up.

This is absolutely appalling. Leave the world’s most powerful country aside, how can the reiteration of Pakistan being a nuclear weapons state help in talking and negotiating with any nation? Could the threat of nuclear bombs be a negotiating tool for any country, leave alone a desperately poor one like ours with barely a friend in the world; a country that barely keeps its head above water with periodic handouts from the IFCs and other donors?

Do we (yet!) not know that our so-called ‘deterrents’ are more like several massive, and very dead albatrosses around our country’s collective neck rather than weapons we can scare other countries with? In any case, how precisely do those that flaunt our ‘bums’ suggest Pakistan use them to its advantage? Threaten to nuke Kabul? Delhi? Bagram? Sheer madness, and yes, utter hypocrisy, for they know perfectly well that it can never be. Yet they will strike impossible attitudes.

For, despite the great game-changer introduced into this wholetamasha just last week by the Afghanistan-India Strategic Partnership Agreement, our brilliant strategists go on pinning their aspirations of one day ruling Central Asia on Pakistan’s geographic location alone. They fail to realise that Pakistan is like the spoilt little brat — whilst I used this example many years ago it holds true to-date, our strategists not having learnt a thing — who sits atop a tree flinging stones at passersby with his catapult, thinking he is beyond reach.

All it takes to fix the brat is for one of those he hits with his catapult rather hard, to one day roll up his sleeves, climb the tree, haul the whippersnapper down by his ear and give him ‘two tight slaps’ as we say in the subcontinent. I mean, look at where we are standing today, as I said before, with nary a friend in the whole wide world!

Nary a friend, did I say? We have even been reduced to whining about Turkey hosting a conference on Afghanistan in November without a-by-your-leave from us! AND inviting India to it, to boot! AND not waiting until we had used up all of our machinations trying to influence the so-called peace talks with the terrorist Taliban! The wooden-headedness, the plain mulishness of our Rommels and Guderians baffles one most completely.

And what do their propagandists do, quite shamelessly? Target the few people who do good for Pakistan, who fight its battles as best they can; who are true to their country and try to talk sense to those who call the shots?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, 50-60 ‘students’ of the ‘Ziaul Aloom’ (fitting name, eh?) madrassa in Satellite Town, carrying iron rods, broke into the Committee Model High School for Girls located in the neighbourhood and beat up the girls and their teachers for not heeding their instructions to wear the hijab.

What is to be noted is that the local police official first said the police had been told not to react, later changing his story and saying what the hooligans did was not an ‘offence’ since they were protesting the conviction of Governor Salmaan Taseer’s assassin. So there! The Taliban are on the March again, my friends … surely sanctioned by the powers that be … for they are part and parcel of the Jihadist ‘assets’. Remember Swat?

And now for those who quote Iqbal saying Afghanistan is the heart of Asia, possibly as a means of supporting the Deep State’s seeking the holy grail of a, what is the word I want, subservient(?), Afghanistan. Let us quote the stanzas in whole, which go like this:

‘Aasia yak paikar e aab o gil ast; Millat e Afghan dar ander aan paikar dil ast; Az kushaad e oo kushaad e Aasia; Wo az fasaad e oo fasaad e Aasia’. Tr: ‘Asia is the body (made of water and dust); (but) Afghanistan is the heart; In the ruin of the heart lie the ravages of the body; In Afghanistan’s peace (and) prosperity lies the peace (and) prosperity of Asia’!

It seems to those of us who have lived the Taliban horror through the 1990s that what the Pakistani Deep State is doing/is trying to do in Afghanistan can only bring ‘ruin of the heart’ to an already ravaged body.

Have a heart, sirs!

P.S.: Kudos to Raza Rabbani and his Committee for refusing to go to GHQ to be briefed by the COAS and the DG ISI. Generals go to parliament, not the other way around. You can’t keep a good man down…

Source: http://tribune.com.pk/story/273270/aiders-and-abettors/

IMP: Democracy’s failure? By S. Akbar Zaidi

THE new conventional wisdom is that democracy has failed in Pakistan. Yet again. It seems so obvious to everyone that this is now the overwhelming, unquestioned, uncontested consensus. Even very honourable and well-meaning members of the National Assembly, the main beneficiaries of democracy, have announced its failure.

Some concerned citizens and analysts have, as always, asked the military to intervene, yet again, while others have suggested that this would have happened many months ago, but that it is the military which is reluctant to take on such a huge mess supposedly created by elected representatives. The list of democracy`s failures is extensive and impressive.

The economy is usually at the top of the list to accentuate democracy`s failure. Pakistan`s economy is said to be in a crisis since the day the PPP government has been in power. Everyone who knows absolutely nothing about how the economy functions has an opinion on it, arguing that it has hit `rock bottom`, it is facing its `worst crisis` ever, and other such colourful, descriptive terms.

But, the broad consensus is that the economy has collapsed completely. Lawlessness and growing ghunda gardi at the local level is another manifestation of the failure of democracy as is always Karachi`s ethnic and political strife. One cannot mention democracy and not mention corruption, of course, for it is assumed that democracy in Pakistan is a system which is just another name for corruption.

The fact that the rupee has fallen some 30 per cent is also democracy`s failing, and of course, the power crisis, for which only democracy must be held responsible. Baloch separatism? Of course, due to democracy`s failure. Militancy, and `religion-based enthusiasm`? These have to be democracy`s biggest failures. How could one disagree? This is just the very top of a list which runs very deep. This ability of democracy to do such extensive damage to the economy, society, even to politics must surely be the envy of every other system known to society.

Yet blaming everything that has gone wrong with Pakistan on democracy only emphasises the fact that those who do so fail to understand what democracy is supposed to be, what purpose it serves and, importantly, how one evaluates successes and failures.

It also reveals a complete absence of a reading of how history has affected, and continues to affect and burden, the present, and amnesia about the past. Or, how social forces and social structures influence, even determine, current outcomes and a host of other social phenomena which have a bearing on social and political relationships.

The expectations from democracy in Pakistan have been highly and unrealistically exaggerated. To expect that democracy is a solution to any of Pakistan`s economic or social problems, or a counter to militancy and `religion-based enthusiasm`, is to misunderstand what it is that democracy ought to deliver.

More importantly, it is to be completely unaware of the structural and social conditions which constitute Pakistani democracy: messy, compromised, reconciliatory, inefficient, just like the rest of society, and which explain so many of Pakistan`s recurrent failures. To expect Pakistani democracy to be some angel-like, ideal, pristine system of government is foolish. Pakistani democracy only reflects what Pakistani society is.

For a country which has only known either military rule or electoral politics dominated by the military in the last 35 years to suddenly expect democracy to `succeed`, without any historical precedence, is equally absurd. Importantly, one needs to compare similar forms of representation from the past to evaluate the current form of governance rather than some abstract notions of democracy.

There is no denying the fact that the current government has been an abject failure in addressing many of the issues mentioned above. However, to hold democracy responsible for this failure is to confuse form with content. It is the government which fails, not necessarily the system which brought it to power.

Also, if one considers previous manifestations of representative and electoral government in Pakistan, the 1990s for example, despite its assumed failures most people would still consider today`s elected form of representation far better than the miserable 1990s. Democratic traditions, practices and outcomes evolve over time. By all accounts, Pakistan`s democratic system, while still starkly inefficient, has noticeably improved over the last two decades. All those writing about the `failure of democracy` in Pakistan must recognise this fact.

If one examines any of the supposed failures of democracy outlined above in a historical spectrum, we will learn that many of the problems which have exacerbated now have deeper roots. Pakistan`s economy, while not in a crisis, is in a mess because of the absence of policies and neglect not just of this government, but very much so of at least the two that preceded it.

The power crisis is not new either. Even critics of this government date it to 2006 or 2007. Clearly, neither democracy nor this government was to blame for this. Militancy and `religion-based enthusiasm`? Surely, a more objective and honest assessment to locate their genesis in a previous era is needed. There is no doubt that this government has made things far worse, but can one really call this democracy`s failures?

When people talk about the failure of democracy, they ought to mean that the government has failed their expectations. Whether their expectations were realistic and such that could be met by any form of government is never questioned. Democracy is not a solution to problems; it only allows us greater freedoms to recognise and articulate them. It also allows us to vote out those governments which have failed.

The writer is a political economist.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/14/democracys-failure.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

Tribal women blamed for inducing fear among children: Research

PESHAWAR, Oct 10: A University of Peshawar researcher on Monday blamed women from Khyber Agency, especially in Bara tehsil, for inducing fear among their children to teach them discipline.

“Mothers tell them to go to sleep otherwise dreaded militant commander Mangal Bagh will show up and take them away,” said Ruqayya Gul, who works with children from restive tribal areas now living in Jalozai camp, on Monday.

Talking to Dawn here on the World Mental Health Day, the researcher said fear was common among the internally displaced children from Bara, and Mohmand and Bajaur agencies.

“Most of these children fear that they`ll be suspected as militants. They can`t discriminate between the Taliban and army and show fear and passiveness,” Ms Ruqayya said, adding that children from restive tribal areas have memories of their destroyed homes and gun battles.

She also said the news about bomb blasts and adults talking in front of them about fighting in their areas flashed back violent scenes into their minds and they relapsed into the old state.

The researcher recommended recreational activities for children inside IDP camps so that they could remain busy making fun away from the terrorism related news.

Meanwhile, Dr. Irum Irshaad, provincial president of Pakistan Association of Clinical Psychologists and associate professor at Psychology Department of University of Peshawar, said over the last 10 years, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was on the rise among the people, especially women and children, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa areas adjacent to conflict-hit tribal areas.

She told Dawn on Monday that data of patients with PTSD in the province had yet not been collected but research at Jalozai Camp for internally displaced persons and her patients showed that the disorder was on the rise.

Dr Irum said terrorism and insecurity had a negative bearing on the minds of the people, especially women and children.

“Women face gender discrimination when it comes to treatment for psychological problems,” she said, adding that more men had enrolled for treatment at her private clinic in Hayatabad than women.

She said women were generally considered to be `just acting ill` in the gender-biased society ignoring treatment for serious mental illnesses, adding that economic pressure and displacement due to conflict was coming out in the form of behavioural changes.

“Economic burden and breaking up of joint family system are common causes of psychological problems,” Dr Irum said, adding that increase in intolerance in society was an outcome of such problems.

According to her, local families, which have accommodated displaced relatives from Waziristan, Bajaur, Swat and other restive areas, have shown behavioural changes.

“Hospitality, which is considered a value in Pakhtun society, is stretched with the people feeling stressed due to economic burden and insecurity,” she said.

Dr Irum said provincial government should invest in improving mental health facilities and rehabilitation centres in the province since such facilities were almost equal to none.

“One mental Hospital that is adjacent to Peshawar Prison is in such a condition that one remains depressed for days after visiting it,” she said, adding that observance of human rights and tolerance can help attend to psychological problems.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/11/tribal-women-blamed-for-inducing-fear-among-children.html

Egypt forces clash with Copt protesters, 24 dead

CAIRO: A curfew was imposed overnight in Egypt’s capital after 24 people, mostly Coptic Christians, died in clashes with security forces in the deadliest violence since President Hosni Mubarak’s fall.

More then 200 people were injured in fighting that erupted during a protest by Copts on Sunday, prompting a curfew in central Cairo, said official statements broadcast on public television.

At least five of the dead were mown down by a speeding army vehicle, a priest from the minority Coptic community said, while an AFP correspondent saw other bodies with gunshot wounds.

Some activists blamed government-backed provocation for the bloodshed which has triggered fears of worsening sectarian strife.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf appealed for Egypt’s Muslims and Christians “not to give in to sedition because it is a fire which burns up everybody”.

As the military police gave assurances that calm had returned to the capital, Sharaf warned on public television that Egypt was “in danger” following the most serious clashes since Mubarak was ousted in February.

Sharaf, appointed by the military council that took power after mass protests led to Mubarak’s downfall, heads a caretaker government ahead of elections the council has pledged will be democratic.

A 2:00 am (0000 GMT) to 7:00 am curfew was declared in the area from Maspero to Abbassiya square, while security was stepped up around parliament and other official buildings in central Cairo.

“These events have brought us backwards… instead of moving forward to construct a modern state on a healthy democratic basis,” Sharaf said.

The clashes broke out during a demonstration in the Maspero district on the Nile, an AFP correspondent said after counting bodies at a Coptic hospital.

Amid scenes of mayhem at the hospital which was filled with grieving relatives, a priest named Daud told AFP at least five of those killed were mowed down by an army vehicle.

“Here is the brain” of one of them, he said, pointing to white matter in a plastic bag next to the body and disfigured face of a dead man. “Wael, wake up my dear Wael. Speak to me,” sobbed his sister in despair.

Other bodies bore gunshot wounds.

State television reported that three soldiers were shot dead and dozens of their comrades wounded as angry Copts wielding batons protested over the burning last month of a church in Aswan, southern Egypt.

“They fired at my colleague. He was standing next to me  Christians, sons of dogs,” one wounded soldier said on the television.

Later Sunday night, hundreds of Muslims and Coptic Christians exchanged blows and threw stones at the hospital treating the wounded from the earlier clashes, an AFP journalist witnessed.

The hospital morgue housed the bodies of those killed.

Some 200 to 300 protesters marched on the hospital to meet up with several hundred Christians already gathered there, including family members of the dead and wounded.

Several cars were set on fire in a wide street next to the hospital, and protesters were tapping the cars to make petrol bombs.

Users of social networking sites such as Twitter said the earlier clashes were provoked by thugs at the scene, while state television was accused of fanning anti-Coptic sentiment.

The prime minister said on his Facebook page, “What is taking place are not clashes between Muslims and Christians but attempts to provoke chaos and dissent.”

The protesters clashed with anti-riot police and soldiers guarding the state television building, after thousands took part in a protest march from the Shobra district.

A standoff degenerated as the demonstrators started hurling stones and set fire to two cars, an AFP correspondent said. The television channel said that an army vehicle was burnt.

Security forces fired into the air to disperse the crowd, and dozens of people fled.

“Down with the marshal,” the demonstrators chanted on the march to Maspero, referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the military council.

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 that spearheaded the revolt, which say the army is reluctant to carry out genuine reforms.

Sectarian clashes are frequent in Egypt, where the Coptic minority, which makes up about 10 percent of the Muslim-majority country’s 80 million people, has often been the target of attacks.

Hundreds of Copts took part in a protest last Tuesday outside the state television building over the September 30 burning of a church in the southern province of Aswan, demanding that its governor be sacked.

The church in Merinab village was attacked after governor Mustafa al-Seyyed was reported as saying Copts had built it without the required planning permission, according to state television.

The caretaker cabinet has pledged to reopen closed churches and ease church building restrictions.

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/10/egypt-forces-clash-with-copt-protesters-24-dead.html

Military ruler says Egypt in a critical phase

CAIRO: Egypt’s military ruler said on Thursday the country was going through a critical period, particularly on the security and economic fronts, and called for national unity to achieve a democratic state under civilian rule.Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, delivering a televised address to mark the 1973 war against Israel, also said disagreements and mistrust have plagued the period following the uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak in February.

Protesters and political groups have widely criticised Tantawi for his reluctance to implement sweeping changes and dismantle elements of the former regime.

“Egypt is going through a critical period of its history. It is witnessing a comprehensive transformation of its national course … as changes and crises loom in the horizon,” Tantawi said. “People, despite their different political and non-political orientations, must realize the ramifications and what it takes to get out of that rough road.”

“Our great people … will be able to get over this critical and decisive phase of its history by agreeing on national goals, and protecting its unity and seeking a modern civil state based on sound democratic principles,” he said. He added that the ruling generals are working to overcome disagreements and mistrust that have plagued the transitional period, and address the looming economic and security problems.

Government officials have been sounding alarm bells about worsening economic indicators in Egypt since the revolt that toppled Mubarak on Feb. 11. They point to declining foreign reserves and tourism revenues, as well as a growing trend among local investors to withhold their cash because of uncertainty over the nation’s political and economic future.

A rise in crime and lawless has raised tensions in Egypt, where security forces have yet to redeploy in full since disappearing from the streets during the mass uprising.

Complicating the situation is growing mistrust between Egypt’s news political actors and the ruling generals, who took over from Mubarak in February. Activists and political groups are increasingly critical of the generals’ management of the transitional period, which they promised it would be a six-month period.

Eight months since Mubarak’s fall, the military rulers have yet to give a clear timetable of their plan for handing over power.

Instead, they have floated a proposal which would hold presidential elections by late next year. This prompted several presidential hopefuls to propose their own demands, asking the military to arrange for presidential elections by April.

Tantawi dismissed such claims on Wednesday, insisting the military rulers have no intentions of clinging to power.

Tantawi’s speech Thursday also provided him the opportunity to praise the role of the country’s armed forces, in the face of rising criticism of the military rulers. During the 1973 war, the Egyptian military recovered from its stinging defeat in the
1967 Mideast conflict — when Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and east Jerusalem — to attack the Israeli military and restore Egyptians’ faith in their military.

Fighter jets soared over the Nile in downtown Cairo to commemorate the anniversary Thursday, leaving a trail of red, blue and white smoke. “A salute to the great Egyptian people who were patient, and put up with burdens and challenges, and supporting its Armed Forces, trusting that its stronghold,” he said.

Some Egyptians, however, chose to commemorate the event with a visit to Mubarak, who was the nation’s air force chief during the 1973 conflict, at the hospital where he is staying during his trial over his alleged role in the killing of hundreds of protesters during the uprising.

Dozens of his supporters brought flowers and banners, one of which called Mubarak “The leader of war and peace,” a security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.—AP

Source: http://www.dawn.com/2011/10/07/military-ruler-says-egypt-in-a-critical-phase.html