University students support GUC civil disobedience call

Daily News Egypt
University students support GUC call for civil disobedience

February 3, 2012

Heba Hesham

CAIRO: Students of several universities have expressed support for the German University (GUC) Student Union’s call to participate in a general strike on Feb. 11, which could be escalated to a civil disobedience until their demands are met.

The GUC student union on Thursday demanded that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) immediately step down and hand over power to an elected civil authority. They also want withdrawal of confidence from Kamal El-Ganzoury's cabinet, holding it accountable for its crimes, and to form a revolutionary cabinet.

GUC student Karim Khouzam, freshman studying management, was among 74 killed Wednesday night in the Port Said violence following a football match between Al-Masry and Al-Ahly.

The American University in Cairo (AUC) had also announced that Omar Mohsen, an economics senior slated to graduate in February, was among those killed during the violence.

"The state run media have been connecting such chaotic events to the revolution to scare people from instability. However, these events took place directly after the cancellation of the state of emergency and the interrogation of the interior minister in parliament [in which he claimed] the impossibility of a complete cancellation of emergency law," the union's statement said.

The students reiterated statements made by members of parliament in which they blamed the police, for both incompetence and complicity.

"The SCAF is seeking to systematically discipline the youth forces that have participated in the revolution," the statement added.

On the same token, the Modern Sciences and Arts (MSA) University's student union held SCAF responsible for the tragic events that took place over the past year, since it assumed power and for the martyrs.

MSA supported GUC's student union in its demands and said that it might participate in the strike and escalate its actions to civil disobedience if the demands were not met.

AUC also supported the demands of the two universities, condemning the brutal massacres which "Egypt didn't witness even during the days of the former repressive regime, but which have become normal under SCAF," according to a statement by the university's student union.

"To mourn the loss of our student and the many other victims who lost their lives, the university will observe a day of mourning on Sunday, Feb 5. The University will be open but all classes are suspended," Lisa Anderson, President of AUC, said in a statement published on the student union's official Facebook page.

The student union also announced three days of mourning, adding that the university will pursue judicial procedures against the perpetrators of this crime, without specifying the target of the case.