Bulgaria: Egypt Needs Change in Favor of Democracy, Human Rights

Politics » DIPLOMACY | January 30, 2011, Sunday // 21:07
Bulgaria: Bulgaria: Egypt Needs Change in Favor of Democracy, Human Rights Protesters wait for Egyptian Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei (not pictured) to speak to them at Tahrir square in Cairo, Egypt, 30 January 2011. EPA/BGNES

The civil unrest in Egypt from the past week demonstrates the country needs change towards greater democracy and human rights, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov said in a special statement Sunday night.

Mladenov's statement on Egypt appears to be very similar to the policy declarations of the USA with respect to the ongoing crisis in the largest Arab country. The Obama Administration continues to say that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must allow free and fair elections and put his nation on a path to "real democracy," but has stopped short of endorsing the calls of Egyptian protesters for him to step down.

In his statement the Bulgarian Foreign Minister argues in favor of prudent dialogue and reforms in Egypt, and welcomes the appointment of a new government by Mubarak.

"The will of the Egyptians for reforms is clear. It must be met with prudence, dialogue, and change but without making any compromise with the safety of the people of Egypt," Mladenov declared in his special statement.

 "I am encouraged by the appointment of Vice President Omar Suleiman and Prime Minister Ahmad Shafik who must now – together with the whole government – should demonstrate decisiveness and meet the expectations for change, democracy and greater representation [of the people in government]," says the Bulgarian top diplomat.

Suleiman is Egypt's longtime intelligence chief, while Shafik is a former commander of the country's air force; they were appointed on Saturday, after 82-year-old Mubarak made a scapegoat of the previous government in an attempt to keep his post and satisfy the demands of the street protesters.

He stresses that the Bulgarian government condemns unconditionally the use of violence against the protesters and expresses condolences for those who became victims to the civil unrest in Egypt. Bulgaria further declares totally unacceptable the cutting off of Internet and mobile phones connection to which the Egyptian authorities resorted on Friday as a measure against the intensification of the protests.

"At the same time, we are encouraged by the numerous examples in which the Egyptian army and people stood together in these hard moments. Now Europe must support Egypt on the way of reforms and change in the name of greater participation of the people in the government by avoiding destabilization, violence and chaos. Egypt's stability and the prosperity of the Egyptian people are key goals for the entire region and EU's southern neighbors," Mladenov concludes.

Meanwhile, a special crisis headquarters of Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry is expected to come up with a plan to evacuate the 200 Bulgarian citizens stranded in Egypt by the continuing civil unrest.

Among Bulgaria's neighbors, Turkey has already sent three military planes to bring home its citizens currently located in Egypt, while Greece is about to dispatch two military planes to evacuate its citizens from Egypt.

Sunday afternoon, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry issued a new warning against travel to Egypt and provided emergency telephone numbers, fax, and email addresses to its headquarters in Sofia and the Bulgarian Embassy in Cairo.

The families and relatives of the Bulgarians located in Egypt are encouraged to use them to receive or submit information to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. The provided contact information is as follows:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia, Bulgaria:

Tel.: (+359) 2 948 2404; (+359) 2 948 23 61
Fax: (+359) 2 971 36 20; (+359) 2 870 71 37
E-mail: egypt@mfa.bg

Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in Cairo, Egypt:

Tel.: +20 2 27 363 025 ; +20 2 27 366 077;
Mobile tel.: +20 12 317 05 04 ; +20 16 506 17 18
Fax: +20 2 27 363 826

According to private Bulgarian channel bTV, the evacuation of the 200 Bulgarian citizens located in Egypt at present will be debilitated by the difficult communications that will hinder the efforts of the Bulgarian diplomats to localize all Bulgarians in the country, and especially by the fact that the Bulgarian Embassy in Cairo is very understaffed.

No Bulgarian citizens have been hurt to date in the civil unrest in Egypt, which has been intensifying in the last 6 days. Bulgarian tour operators have not terminated their organized vacations in Egypt; the last plane with Bulgarian tourists left for Egyptians resorts on Saturday, and the next scheduled flight leaves on February 5.

The tour operators have declared that the top Egyptian resorts have not been affected by the civil unrest in the country, and that they have readiness to evacuate their clients should a necessity emerge.

"The Foreign Ministry is alarmed by the events happening in Egypt. We appeal to Bulgarians to postpone and cancel all trips there," Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Vesela Cherneva said earlier on Sunday.

She declared the Ministry is in constant contact with the travel agencies which have organized the trips there and if needed those vacationers can be brought back to Bulgaria, adding even the possibility to send emergency airplanes has been discussed.

"Bulgarian tourists are concentrated in resorts, far away from the cities where riots and clashes are taking place. We don't believe, currently and in the next hours, their evacuation is a must. We monitor the situation closely, and we will make all effort to make sure our citizens are safe," Cherneva said.

Speaking at a rally before thousands of protesters on the Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo Sunday night, the leading figure uniting the Egyptian opposition Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared the civil unrest in the country to be a "New Era" for Egypt.

Earlier on Sunday, all major opposition forces, including the most popular formation, the controversial radical Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt backed ElBaradei for negotiations with the Mubarak regime. The protesters continue to demand the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981.

Meanwhile, Mubarak has demanded from the new government to keep state subsidies, to create new jobs, and to "restore trust in the national economy to alleviate the suffering" of the Egyptian people.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!

Diplomacy » Be a reporter: Write and send your article
Tags: Egypt, Foreign Ministry, evacuation, Cairo, civil unrest, Bulgarians, Foreign Minister, Nikolay Mladenov, Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed El Baradei, Muslim Brotherhood

Advertisement
Advertisement
Bulgaria news Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) is unique with being a real time news provider in English that informs its readers about the latest Bulgarian news. The editorial staff also publishes a daily online newspaper "Sofia Morning News." Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency - www.sofianewsagency.com) and Sofia Morning News publish the latest economic, political and cultural news that take place in Bulgaria. Foreign media analysis on Bulgaria and World News in Brief are also part of the web site and the online newspaper. News Bulgaria