New prime minister fills key positions

APPOINTMENTS IN EGYPT:EGYPT'S NEW prime minister Essam Sharaf yesterday revealed appointments to his transitional cabinet, notably highly respected judge Nabil al-Arabi as foreign minister and Mansour Essawi as interior minister.

The only survivor from the cabinet named by former president Hosni Mubarak was defence minister Muhammad Hussein Tantawi, head of the supreme council of the armed forces (SCAF).

A former governor of a southern province and critic of corruption and mismanagement, Mr Essawi pledged to restore public confidence in the country’s security forces. He was retained to cabinet as protesters stormed internal security agency facilities in Cairo, Alexandria and other cities to prevent destruction of documents said to implicate politicians and officials in human rights abuses and corruption.

Impatient with the failure of the SCAF to preserve archives of the State Security Investigations (SSI) apparatus, known as the Stasi, 2,500 people broke into the main headquarters of the SSI agency at the Nasr City suburb of Cairo where they found heaps of burned and shredded documents, files, instruments of torture, and secret detention cells evacuated only hours before they arrived.

Seizure of SSI offices began late Friday when 1,000 protesters, many of them victims of abuse, occupied the HQ in Alexandria as smoke billowed from the building.

Although some documents taken by activists have appeared on internet sites, Dr Sharaf and the state prosecutor have appealed for the return of files taken by the public.

The dismantling of the SSI has been one of the main demands of the democracy movement since it toppled the Mubarak regime. Under emergency laws imposed in 1981, the SSI, employing an estimated 500,000 officers and informants, was given wide powers by the former regime. It spied on supporters and opponents and detained and abused political prisoners.

The culture of harsh treatment spread to the civilian police. In June 2010 undercover police officers beat 28-year-old businessman Khaled Said to death, prompting human rights activist Wael Ghonim to create the “We are all Khaled Said” Facebook page which triggered the uprising.

Dr Sharaf has pledged to reform the security apparatus.