By IRNA,
London: Amnesty International Friday accused Egyptian political leaders of acting irresponsibly after they failed to initiate any human rights reforms during latest key speeches by President Hosni Mubarak and Vice President Omar Suleiman.
‘The President and Vice President utterly failed to respond to the demands of the protesters. It is irresponsible that neither of the two statements gave a commitment whatsoever to immediate human rights reform,” said Amnesty’s secretary general Salil Shetty,.
‘One human rights measure announced by the President was the cancellation of Article 179 of the constitution, a measure we have long called for, as it entrenches violations relating to arrests, detentions and trials. But he failed to give any timeline for when that would happen,” Shetty said.
The London-based human rights organisation also criticised the language used by Suleiman to try to discourage protesters from making their voices heard as “unacceptable.”
“It is ironic that a government which has fired on and allowed thugs to attack peaceful protesters is attempting to persuade protesters to go home by warning of ‘chaos’ and ‘destruction’,’ Shetty said.
‘Those now in power should view the activism on the streets of Cairo and other cities not as a threat, but as an opportunity to consign the systematic abuses of the past to history. Human rights reform must begin now,’ he said.