By Heba Fahmy
CAIRO: Following an interview with members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Dream TV Monday night, the April 6 Youth Movement has downgraded a previous call for a million man march today to a symbolic march to reiterate people’s specific demands.
Mohamed Adel, a spokesman for the movement told Daily News Egypt on Tuesday, “We will have a symbolic march today instead of a million man march in response to the army officials’ statements last night in the program.”
“They addressed most of our concerns which is considered a positive step,” Adel added.
These demands include the resignation of the current government, an end to emergency law, the release of all detainees arrested during the revolution, the formation of a presidential council that includes civilians and judges, dissolving the state security investigations apparatus, and completely restructuring the interior ministry.
Initially Shubra and Boulaq Abul Ela were identified as assembly points for the demonstrations, which would march towards Tahrir Square.
“The revolutionaries’ demands haven’t been executed yet and the battle [for reform is] now longer and fiercer,” media coordinator for the youth movement, Ingi Hamdi, said in a statement on Monday.
“The [head of the corrupt regime] has been detached while the body remains controlling everything and taking its orders from the detached head,” referring to ousted president Hosni Mubarak and the current government which was mostly handpicked by him.
“The army needs to choose either the government or the people,” Hamdi added.
However, on their first ever media appearance, three members of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Generals Mamdouh Al-Molla, Mamdouh Shahin and Mohamed Al-A’sar) strongly rejected accusations that the armed forces are being controlled by Mubarak in Sharm El-Sheikh, as many were beginning to suspect.
They said that people need to trust them as they have proven themselves, adding that they believed in the demands of the great revolution and vowed to see them through.
They said that the amendments to the constitution will guarantee free and fair elections as opposed to the fraud practiced in previous elections.
They added that changing the whole constitution would take more than a year and they had vowed to stay in power for only six months.
They also confirmed citizens will be allowed to vote using their national identification cards in both the referendum on constitutional amendments and the People’s Assembly and presidential elections, marking an end to the voting cards system which led to widespread rigging in previous elections.
Referring to the possibility of prosecuting Mubarak and members of his family, they said that no one is immune from the long arm of the judiciary and that they will be indicted if there is enough physical proof that they have committed illegal acts.
They also said that the heads of national media institutions, including press and TV, will be removed from their posts sooner or later, suggesting that they might as well resign.
