Egypt's best-organised political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said on Wednesday it would join mass protests this week demanding faster reforms, and the government urged organisers to ensure the rallies are peaceful.
The Brotherhood's participation is likely to bolster what is billed as a million-person protest planned on Friday, called by secular activists unhappy with the way the military council has been running Egypt since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Activists complain that recent events, including the use of force by police against demonstrators, court rulings clearing three ministers in Mubarak's administration of graft as well as the release of some police officers accused of killing protesters, went against reforms.
The Brotherhood initially said it intended to boycott the rallies when the goal was to pressure the military council to delay parliamentary elections scheduled for September.
"Then there were new developments on the subject that necessitated putting it for debate once more," the Brotherhood said in a statement posted on its website.
It cited a change in the objectives of protest organisers in which they dropped their demand to delay the elections, the grievances raised by families of Egyptians killed in the revolution and the foot-dragging in trying Mubarak supporters.
In a referendum in March, 77 percent of voters said they backed constitutional amendments that would allow the military rulers to hold parliamentary elections in September.
The government said in a statement after a weekly meeting that it supported citizens' rights to demonstrate.
"It urges participating political forces to maintain the peaceful and civilised approach consecrated by the masses of the Jan. 25 revolution, and to be on alert against attempts by some counter-revolutionary forces to spread chaos and instability that would harm the people," the statement said.
Last week, more than 1,000 people were injured in clashes between police and hundreds of stone-throwing youths in Cairo, the worst violence in the capital in several weeks. The military council said the latest events "had no justification other than to shake Egypt's safety and security."
Critics have slammed the police for the violence.
Interior Minister General Mansour el-Essawy said in a statement that he plans major changes to the police force that will include dismissal of hundreds of top-ranking officers and promoting mid-ranking officers.
"The changes will be the biggest in the history of the ministry," he said.
Foreign investors say they have been holding back from returning to Egypt because of the fragile security situation and political instability before planned elections to return the country to civilian rule in September.
source : http://abna.ir
