Egypt dismisses US criticism of its detention of protesters calling for election reforms

Egypt slams US criticism over detaining protesters

CAIRO — Egypt has dismissed U.S. criticism of its detention of scores of protesters who rallied earlier this week in Cairo demanding constitutional reforms to allow more open elections.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement released late Thursday that Egyptian elections are an internal matter.

“The (U.S.) remarks, without clear justification, shifted from talking about the arrests to other internal political Egyptian issue in an unfamiliar pattern which is not accepted by Egypt,” said Zaki.

He was referring to Washington concerns expressed Wednesday by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley over the arrests. In his remarks, Crowley called on Egypt to allow its people to determine who will run and win the country’s upcoming elections.

Thirty-three protesters were arrested when police beat the demonstrators and violently broke up Tuesday’s gathering. The detained were released the following day without any official explanation.

Zaki said that “Egyptians don’t accept that foreign governments speak on their behalf.”

The Egyptian government is very sensitive about foreign reports about opposition demands for reforms to allow an open presidential contest in the polling next year.

Egypt’s leading Al Ahram newspaper carried Zaki’s statement splashed across the front page of its evening edition Friday, under a bold red headline: “Egypt tells America in an urgent message: Stay where you are.”

Al Ahram also published Friday interviews with several opposition lawmakers and two university professors, all denouncing what is described as U.S. interference in Egypt’s internal affairs.

Tuesday’s protest was organized by the April 6 youth movement that backs the unofficial candidacy of former U.N. nuclear watchdog chief and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammed ElBaradei. Officials had said Tuesday’s protest was banned and illegal.

New York-based Human Rights Watch also voiced its concern over the crackdown and condemned the “lawless brutality” with which police dispersed the demonstrators.

Egypt has been under emergency law, which severely restricts civil rights, for 29 years during the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, who will stand for re-election in 2011.