Egypt’s top brass warns against plans for protest

Egypt is facing unprecedented “grave dangers”, but its military will protect it, military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said yesterday in remarks aimed at rallying public opinion against protests planned for next week’s anniversary of the country’s 2011 uprising.

Field Marshal Tantawi’s comments also seemed to be a thinly-veiled warning to the activists behind last year’s January 25-February 11 demonstrations that led to the toppling of president Hosni Mubarak, who is on trial in Cairo.

The activists are now calling on the military to step down immediately, and accuse the ruling generals of botching the transition to civilian rule, of killing at least 80 protesters since October, of torturing detainees and of hauling at least 12,000 civilians before military tribunals.

Activists plan to stage a wave of protests to mark next week’s first anniversary of the start of the uprising.

Field Marshal Tantawi’s talk of unspecified “grave dangers” facing the nation and of the military’s resolve to counter them harks back to the Mubarak era, when officials frequently sought to shift attention away from domestic problems with warnings of conspiracies against the country by agents of foreign powers. “Egypt is facing grave dangers it has not seen before,” Field Marshal Tantawi said.

Calling on Egyptians to foil the “schemes and conspiracies” against Egypt, he said: “The armed forces is the backbone that protects Egypt. These schemes are aimed at targeting that backbone. We will not allow it and will carry out our task perfectly to hand over the nation to an elected civilian administration.”

The field marshal, who is in his late 70s, said that the armed forces were “pushed into the political fray only to protect Egypt from the enemies of the nation and people,” language that appears designed to counter charges by activists and politicians that the ruling generals planned all along to retain their political leverage and their privileges.

Activists claim that the generals sitting on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces are an extension of Mubarak’s 29-year regime and remain beholden to the former president, whose consent was essential to their promotion.

Field Marshal Tantawi himself was Mubarak’s defence minister for 20 years, during which he was widely considered to be unquestioningly loyal.

The military has said it intended to hand over power to an elected president by the end of June, but many suspect the military will not easily give up the political dominance it has enjoyed since army officers seized power in a coup nearly 60 years ago.