Egyptian PM apologizes after violence, promises investigation
"As officials and a state which must protect its sons, I thought it was necessary for me to apologize and to say that this matter will not be repeated," Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq said on Thursday, one day after loyalists to President Hosni Mubarak attacked the protesters calling for his departure and killed six of them. On Wednesday, Mubarak’s “men” attacked protesters in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square, killing six of them and wounding hundreds. They rode into the crowd on horses and camels and in carriages, wielding whips and sticks. The unprecedented attack which sought to unethically end the peaceful revolution of the Egyptian nation against the current regime headed by President Mubarak raised question marks about the fate of the Intifada and the possible exits of the current crisis. The Egyptian PM, who claims to be ready for dialogue with all Egyptians and expresses openness to solutions, found no choice but to “apologize.” He promised an investigation to find out "whether this was planned, was it spontaneous, did someone direct it, or did a certain party encourage it?" He also warned of the economic damage caused by the protests, now entering their 10th day. "I call on the protesters in these demonstrations to feel that with every passing hour there is destruction. Our work is frozen. There is very, very great destruction and we will suffer from it a great deal." He said protesters will not achieve anything new by staying on in Cairo's Tahrir Square. "I do not see that their stay (in Tahrir Square) will get them anything new ... The state is going to lose (economically)... they can stay if they want... they are free," he told reporters. The Egyptian PM, meanwhile, told journalists that his government did not have enough police to provide security amid deadly clashes between pro- and anti-regime protesters. "I do not have enough police," Shafiq said, blaming the fact that the police stopped doing their job when the army deployed troops around the capital and the rest of the country on Friday. "When the army moved in many of the riot police went back to their villages and we can't get them to come back," Shafiq said. EGYPT SLAPS TRAVEL BAN ON FORMER MINISTERS, OFFICIALSRight after the Egyptian PM apology, Egypt's public prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmud said on Thursday that several ministers and officials, including former interior minister Habib al-Adly, have been banned from travel and their accounts frozen pending investigation. They are "banned from travelling abroad while their bank accounts have been frozen until security is reinstated, and until investigative authorities conduct probes to establish who was criminally and administratively responsible for all those events," Mahmud was quoted by the MENA news agency as saying. Those being investigated include Adly, steel magnate and senior member of the ruling party Ahmed Ezz, former tourism minister Zoheir Garranah and former housing minister Ahmed al-Maghrabi.Egyptian PM ‘Apologizes’ after Mubarak Supporters Killed Six
