CAIRO: Prime Minister Essam Sharaf addressed the nation on Monday night, announcing 6 points regarding the future period for Egypt, but it didn't little to appease protesters currently camped out in Cairo's central Tahrir Square. Sharaf announced a change in the Cabinet within one week, a change “that reflects the aims and the demands of the revolution.” Sharaf also announced changes to governors to be applied within one month. The Egyptian prime minister added that he assigned the minister of interior to announce “movements within the police” including the removal of the officers who are accused of killing protesters to be applied by July 15 alongside the speedy return of public safety on the streets of the country. This is the second time the prime minister mentions the exclusion of the accused officers, as he mentioned it in his Saturday speech, and drew great opposition from the ministry of interior and the police officers coalition who announced their rejection of the decision, calling it “illegitimate” as it defies the law. Ahmed Ragab, a spokesperson for the police coalition said in a OTV interview on Sunday that the decision will be applied “on the officers' dead bodies” in clear defiance to the prime minister's decision. Sharaf also announced a call to the judiciary system to speed these trials and to apply “the publicity of trials,” another demand from the demonstrators. He also added that “reforms of state-owned media [would take place] as soon as possible.” He also announced that he would “personally head the martyrs fund that cares for the families of those who were killed or injured during the uprising,” also a demand of the protesters. He then finished his short address by saying that “the upcoming period will witness changes that reflects the aims of the revolution” and asked Egyptians to work with the new Cabinet to realize the changes, “which meet the aims of the revolution.” Meanwhile, protesters in Tahrir reacted in a similar manner as they did to his last speech, insisting on continuing their sit-in and blaming the prime minister for not taking immediate action. On social networks and Twitter, activists had a pessimistic reaction to the speech: Sandmonkey: It seems that there is no hope in Sharaf Yasmine_Ibrahim: just repeating himself and the speech gives more proof of lack of authority and slow decisions, we miss quick actions minazekri: the prime minister was obvious; i asked and asked and asked. Has he no power to decide or order or even direct. let him not waste our time alnagar80: Essam Sharaf you must leave, you are a failure and weak and you are over tomgara: ”Essam Sharaf seems to be following the well-established tradition of two infuriating empty speeches before the third and final one.” BM
