CAIRO — Egypt’s president, speaking ahead of this week’s anniversary of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, on Saturday vowed to unleash a firm response to any unrest and to press ahead with the fight against the country’s Islamic terrorists.
Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi spoke at a ceremony marking Police Day, which falls on Tuesday, the day the uprising began five years ago.
He posthumously decorated nearly 40 policemen killed in terrorist attacks, including eight generals and three colonels. Most of the widows who received the medals were accompanied by their children, including infants. El-Sissi, his eyes frequently welling up, carried the infants, hugged and kissed older children and posed with them for photos. He allowed several family members, including a boy no older than 12, to briefly address the large gathering.
Addressing the nation, el-Sissi said of those killed in terror attacks: “Don’t let their blood go in vain, and, by the way, we will not allow that ourselves, and I am saying that so everyone listens and takes note.”
“The security and stability of nations are not to be toyed with,” he said, adding that the security of Egypt was the responsibility of all Egyptians, not just the police and the army. El-Sissi delivered his 30-minute address standing in the middle of the families of the policemen killed in terrorist attacks, with the sound of crying babies occasionally heard in the background.
El-Sissi, who as military chief in 2013 overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, has presided over a sweeping crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of Islamists and scores of secular, pro-democracy activists who fueled the 2011 uprising. He was elected to office in 2014 in a landslide victory.
El-Sissi made no mention of the 2011 uprising in his comments. He has in the past paid tribute to the uprising, just as he has done to the so-called “June 30 revolution,” the day in 2013 when millions of Egyptians demonstrated on the streets against the rule of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. However, some of el-Sissi’s supporters in the media and in politics have taken to publicly vilifying the 2011 uprising as an attempt by foreign powers to weaken Egypt through local saboteurs.
The nearly two-hour ceremony, with its many emotional moments and high praise for police, confirmed the president’s panache for populism, but also appeared to send a multitude of political messages. Foremost among these is that el-Sissi has endorsed the nation’s highly militarized police force, paying no heed to growing complaints by rights activists that it has gone back to Mubarak-era practices such as torture, random arrests and excessive force.
