CAIRO: Egypt's powerful 6th of April Youth Movement said the movement continues to call for the nationwide general strike scheduled for Saturday, stressing that civil disobedience “is a constitutional and legal right” and a “similar strike took place in 2008,” explaining that this strike is the “beginning of the end to the military rule.” Their confirmation of their participation in the general strike comes as religious institutions and the military junta in power in Egypt have called the strike plans “destructive” and “un-Islamic.” Engi Hamdi, a member of the political bureau of the movement said, “the strike is a peaceful means that we use in pressurizing to achieve our demands, and the completion of the revolution,” stressing that it was not the first choice, “but this comes after resorting to marches, demonstrations and sit-ins” did not yield the desired results. “The strike is one of the means we resort to stress our demands for early presidential elections and [the] speedy transfer of power to civilians through a specific timetable, so as to hand over power to a civilian president elected before drafting the constitution, as the constitution should not be written under military rule so that it would not get exceptional authorities and impunity from legal accountability, to get away with the crimes committed during its rule,” she added. She called on the military junta to refrain from using the terms “a scheme to destabilize Egypt, driving wedges between the people and the army, [and] the demolition of the state.” The military has already begun establishing a security perimeter around Cairo International Airport and announced it would deploy soldiers and tanks across the country to ensure “safety.” Hamdi considered the absence of justice and the rule of law, “the main cause of the demolition of a state and not the scheduled strike.” She explained that “the strike is heavy pressure on the military junta, and the best evidence is the smear campaign against it by the media and state-owned newspapers,” which have accused those calling for a strike and civil disobedience campaign of “sabotaging the country and trying to demolish the economy.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/Tew5L Tags: April 6, featured, Protest, SCAF, Strike Section: Egypt, Latest News
