Egypt's coup sounds death knell for Arab spring, says Nobel laureate

Tawakkul Karman says Morsi's ousting reset the clock on gains made since uprisings and warns that remnants of toppled governments are clawing back

Reuters in Cairo

theguardian.com, Tuesday 13 August 2013

 

"Tawakkul Karman, who shared a Nobel peace prize for her pro-democracy campaigning in Yemen, has said she views the Egyptian army's overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi as a death knell for Arab democratic movements.

The removal of Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected leader, on 3 July "reset the clock" on the gains made since a popular uprising ended 30 years of Hosni Mubarak's one-man rule in 2011, she said on Monday.

"The first emerging democracy in Egypt's history and the first in the region since the Arab spring is quickly being dismantled," said the 34-year-old Yemeni mother of three.

Karman, the first Arab woman and second Muslim woman to win the Nobel peace prize, was turned away from Egypt on 4 August after she announced on social media her intention to join Muslim Brotherhood protesters at a huge pro-Morsi vigil in Cairo.

Egyptian authorities gave no reason beyond saying Karman was on a list of people banned from entering the country.
"Denying me entry means only one thing. Egypt's new government is returning to the autocratic ways of the past. They are not willing to tolerate difference in opinion," she said.
Karman described Mursi's fall as part of a broader counter-revolution gripping the region and said remnants of governments toppled in 2011 and 2012 were clawing their way back into power.
"The Arab spring is about building democracy. A military coup is the antithesis of that. It undermines everything," she said.
"The destruction of Egypt's revolution means death for the Arab spring."....."