CAIRO: In a bid to appease demonstrators calling for the dissolution of the State Security apparatus, newly appointed Minister of Interior Mansour Essawy said the ministry will hold any State Security officer who violated the rights of the pople accountable. The ministry will limit the functions and powers of State Security to combating terrorism only, he said. Essawy, the first Minister of Interior to be appointed following the resignation of former president Hosni Mubarak last month, made his comments in a telephone interview to an Egyptian talk show on Sunday. Essawy is set to swear his oath before the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Hussein Tantawi, on Wednesday, along with the rest of the new Cabinet members nominated by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf. In response to accusations that State Security personnel have attempted to destroy incriminating documents since the revolution, Essawy stressed that it is illogical for the officers to burn or shred documents they rely upon in their investigation work. He added that the State Security headquarters are currently under control of the armed forces, and that even in the case that some documents were burnt the originals are kept within the main branch of the State Security. Essawy said Egypt's Attorney General has dispatched a team to Lazoghly, the State Security building in downtown Cairo, for examination. He called for rebuilding confidence between Egyptian citizens and police so the later can perform their duties. Essawy said he would work to implement the changes immediately after taking his oath of office. In related news, government-run newspaper al-Ahram reported that the Prime Minister has said he will personally oversee a proposal to transfer the State Security services and the office of the Attorney General to the direct supervision of the Cabinet. The proposal recommended the separation of the State Security apparatus from the Ministry of Interior and the Attorney General from the Ministry of Justice. Both would be supervised directly by the Egyptian Prime Minister. On Saturday, citizens overtook the State Security headquarters in Cairo's Nasr City neighborhood, uncovering thousands of previously secret and potentially inflammatory documents. The Egyptian Cabinet and the armed forces called for any documents removed from the building to be turned over to the armed forces immediately. State Security buildings in other governorates, including Minya, Marsa Matrouh, Suez, and Assiut, were also occupied by citizens on Sunday. BM
