African Union suspends Egypt after Morsi ouster
File photo shows a meeting of African Union in Addis Ababa.
Admore Kambudzi, Secretary of AU Peace and Security Council, said on Friday that Egypt was suspended from all its activities until it restores constitutional order.
“As mandated by the relevant AU instruments, the African Union Peace and Security Council decides to suspend the participation of Egypt in AU activities until the restoration of constitutional order,” Kambudzi said after an AU meeting.
Suspension is the AU’s usual response to any interruption of constitutional rule in a member state.
The move comes two days after the army ousted Morsi in response to protesters’ demands for his resignation.
The North African country is now headed by its top judge Adly Mansour for an interim period.
In the meantime, Morsi’s supporters continue their rallies calling for his reinstatement. They are staging a mass demonstration in Cairo’s Nasr City. The angry protesters have promised to fight to the death until their elected president is brought back to power.
The Egyptian army has deployed tanks near the Presidential Palace and in Nasr City.
Several arrest warrants have also been issued for members of Muslim Brotherhood to which Morsi belongs.
In another development, the military announced state of emergency in south of Sinai and Suez Canal regions following an attack by gunmen on an airport in the Sinai town of El-Arish.
Morsi is reportedly being held “preventively” by the military. An army official said he might face formal charges over accusations made by his opponents.
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AU should also suspend African governments that abuse human rights and are dictatorial in nature. Sudan, Zimbabwe, Uganda
Learn to analyse issues before mixing up things please.
One positive move from Africa. This time, its the African continent which stands for democracy. The western world, which is apparently very comfortable with the military action is short of terminology to replace the word “military coup”. They are shamelessly calling for return to democracy, but are not willing to condemn the usurpation of power from a democratically elected leader. Hmmm ….. that is the hypocrisy of our world. Democracy is good when it produces the results they want. If they don’t like the democratic choice, they are happy to deal with a military dictatorship.
Itwould be shift of historical significance for an African Army to be
on the side of the people for the first time.
African Armies have historically always been used as a tool of oppression sadly unleashed against the people by their own Governments for dictatorial
convenience.
According to the media of late and leading to the ouster of Morsi in Egypt from power, it appeared the demand for his ouster came from the people and not the
army. If indeed that is true, then a lot of questions remain unanswered. Was the actual coming to office through an election during the Arab spring perhaps rigged and not truly free-and-fair? Or is it perhaps as has been echoed in the last several days, Morsi once in power had detached himself from the democratic principles that
brought him to power and was seen to be “unaccountable” to the people but to himself and the Islamic brotherhood causing dismay and a feeling of betrayal among the Egyptian people? Did this cause the anger that ensued which led to the mass protests and demands for his resignation and hence the support by the army for the people’s demand as rare and strange as this may be?
If any of the two scenarios I have mentioned above is an accurate assessment, then this must cause a lot of fear and panic among many African leaders who although came to power via the ballot, may have done so through rigged elections, and
those that are in power but accountable to themselves in practice and not the electorate which is historically the case in most African countries to this day. No wonder the urgent rush to an AU meeting to condemn the Egyptian Army. Will this be and evolve into a new painful, but necessary trend in bringing real democracy to Africa?
On the flip side, let us hope that the Egyptian army is not just taking advantage of the people’s demands for Morsi’s resignation, hence staging a military coup in style by
piggybacking on the people’s anger in disguise. Perhaps only time will tell as we wait to see if indeed the Egyptian Army does in fact call for a new “free-and-fair” democratic election to be held sooner than later or will they perhaps simply decide to entrench themselves in power. You be the judge.
Unfortunately, people who are depending on western media alone like you can be so gullible. When the protests began in Egypt, clearly there were two sides. Each side had millions of supporters – this does not surprise because Egypt is a country of 90 million people. Therefore collecting two million people at Tahrir square and call it the will of the people of Egypt is to grossly misrepresent the facts. But the western media, which was playing its part in the game, ignored balanced reporting and chose to concentrate on those opposed to Morsi. Western governments were clearly pushing the army to remove the democratically elected president instead of facilitating dialogue between the two sides!
That is why, until today, the crisis in Egypt is just escalating. Morsi supporters have refused to leave the streets. They are not a few thousand people. They are millions, and the numbers continue to swell. Those who thought that the game will be done the day Morsi is deposed, are now panicking. They don’t know how to handle the aftermath, especially when Morsi supporters insist that the President must come back to power!
So our Friend Instinctive123, hold your comment on the role of the Egyptian army. What they did was not a patriotic duty at all. You will soon learn that the army was in fact serving other interests. They were implementing someones agenda so that their pay cheque can be released. Not for the stability of Egypt. Not at all.