Nabila Ramdani
The Observer,
The grotesque murders of ordinary Egyptians by their own military says everything about the non-progress of the Arab spring. Just a year since democratic elections were meant to herald an era of freedom and stability in the third largest country by population in Africa, we are witnessing nothing less than routine street slaughter.
Those killed and wounded by automatic gunfire in Cairo were trying to show their support for Mohammed Morsi, the elected president ousted by the army. Men with guns – and the inclination to use them against unarmed civilians – are now controlling a city that was once a focal point of hope and optimism.Just as images of a packed, jubilant Tahrir Square came to symbolise the fleeting glories of the Arab spring, so world leaders such as Barack Obama endlessly pledged to stop dictators "killing their own people". Remember how readily David Cameron sent RAF jets to help bomb Gaddafi out of Libya? The "protection of civilian lives" was always the number one justification for the use of such lethal force, just as it was for the west eventually coming out in favour of revolutions all over the Middle East and North Africa.
Now, those same western leaders remain largely silent about the excesses of an army that was always the main power base of Egyptian despot Hosni Mubarak. No matter which way you look at it, the military's suppression of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood administration was a classic coup d'etat. Those who try to justify this triumph of military power are inevitably those who believe that martial force is the desired default position of any Arab country......
Nobody pretended that the Arab spring would provide a quick fix to the massive problems inherent in Arab societies, but if military force continues to remain the ultimate arbiter of which government is "allowed" to rule, then the killings will carry on unabated."
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