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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 23 - 29 September 1999 Issue No. 448
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Comment Focus Special Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The landmarks
Researched and compiled by Khaled DawoudForeign:
13 October 1981: Hosni Mubarak is elected president in a nationwide referendum following Anwar El-Sadat's assassination.
25 April 1982: Mubarak raises the Egyptian flag over Sinai following Israel's withdrawal from the last part of the peninsula in line with the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. However, a dispute persisted concerning the square kilometre Taba enclave which was claimed by both sides. The two countries resorted to international arbitration which ruled in Egypt's favour in March 1988.
December 1983: Yasser Arafat visits Cairo for the first time in six years to thank Mubarak for providing Palestinian forces with protection while pulling out of Lebanon.
March 1984: Egypt regains full membership of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Egypt was suspended following Sadat's peace treaty with Israel.
May 1984: Mubarak restores full diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. Sadat had severed ties with the Soviets in 1981 and expelled the Soviet ambassador and more than 1,000 advisers.
September 1984: Jordan restores diplomatic relations with Egypt.
November 1987: Syria obstructs attempts by several Arab countries to restore Egypt's membership to the Arab League during a summit meeting in Amman. However, Arab leaders agreed that the restoration of ties with Egypt was a decision that should be left up to each country. One week after the summit, nine Arab countries -- the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco, North Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania and Qatar -- restored ties with Egypt. Of the remaining 12 League members, only Sudan, Somalia and Oman did not break off relations with Egypt. Jordan and Djibouti re-established ties in 1984 and 1986 respectively. In February 1988, South Yemen restored ties. In November, diplomatic relations were restored with Algeria and in June 1989, Lebanon followed suit. In May of the same year Mubarak represented Egypt at an Arab summit in Morocco as Egypt regained full membership in the Arab League following a ten-year absence. In December 1989, Syria restored full ties with Egypt, ending a 12-year break.
August 1990: Following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Egypt hosted an Arab summit on 10 August. Twelve Arab countries voted in favour of a US-led coalition to liberate Kuwait. Nearly 600,000 expatriate workers in Iraq and Kuwait returned to Egypt. Mubarak dispatched 35,000 troops to support the US-led alliance.
March 1991: Egypt, Syria and the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states announce the formation of the Damascus Declaration States, a loose military and economic alliance that remained ink on paper.
October 1991: Egypt takes part in the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid.
May 1994: Following the signing by Israel and the PLO of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Egypt hosts talks between the two sides resulting in the Cairo agreement.
September 1995: Mubarak attends the signing of the Israeli-Palestinian interim agreement on the West Bank and Gaza in Washington.
6 November 1995: Mubarak pays his only visit to Israel to take part in Yitzhak Rabin's funeral following his assassination by a Jewish extremist.
March 1996: After a series of suicide bomb attacks in Israel, Egypt hosts the "Summit of Peacemakers" in Sharm Al-Sheikh attended by 29 world leaders. The summit was seen as an attempt to provide support for then Prime Minister Shimon Peres ahead of elections in May. However, relations between Egypt and Israel deteriorated again in April following Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" military offensive on Lebanon.
June 1996: After newly-elected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu adopts a hard-line position, Mubarak hosts the first Arab summit in six years in Cairo to link normalisation of relations with Israel to progress in the peace process. Iraq was not invited to the summit. Netanyahu held his first meeting with Mubarak in Cairo in July 1996. In August Mubarak threatened not to host the third MENA conference if there was no progress in the peace talks. The conference was held in November.
November 1997: Egypt and the majority of Arab countries decide to boycott the fourth MENA summit in Qatar. The final meeting between Mubarak and Netanyahu took place in April 1998 in Cairo where the two discussed a US initiative to revive the peace process, which ended up with the signing of the Wye River deal in October 1998.
4 September 1999: Mubarak hosts a summit in Sharm Al-Sheikh in which a timetable was signed to implement the Wye River Memorandum. The document was signed by Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Mubarak and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Domestic:
October 1981: Shortly after his election, Mubarak orders the release of more than 1,000 political prisoners whose arrest was ordered by Sadat one month before his assassination.
April 1984: The first parliamentary elections under Mubarak are organised. The ruling National Democratic Party won 72.9 per cent of the vote. The New Wafd Party, which revived its activities following a court ruling in January, was the only opposition party which managed to gain more than eight per cent of the vote, a precondition for admission to parliament. The Wafd, in an alliance with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, won 15.1 per cent of the vote.
4 September 1985: Mubarak appoints Ali Lutfi as prime minister, replacing Kamal Hassan Ali.
25 February 1986: Riots by Central Security Forces break out following rumours that their term of service would be extended from three years to four. Army troops are deployed to restore order. According to official figures, 107 people were killed in the mutiny. Interior Minister Ahmed Rushdi was dismissed and replaced by Zaki Badr.
November 1986: Lutfi is replaced by Atef Sidki as prime minister. Eleven portfolios, including four in charge of the economy and finance, change hands.
April 1987: Second general elections take place under Mubarak. Earlier, parliament was dissolved after the move was approved by the people in a nationwide referendum. The move came after the Constitutional Court was on the verge of ruling that the electoral law which confined elections to political party slates or tickets was unconstitutional because it was discriminatory against independents. The slate system was retained but 48 parliamentary seats were reserved for independents. This time the Muslim Brotherhood ran on the same ticket with the Labour Party, raising the slogan "Islam is the solution". The ruling NDP won 346 seats, compared to 389 in 1984, opposition parties won 95 seats for the first time, and seven seats went to independents. The Labour-Brotherhood alliance won 60 seats, including 40 for the Brotherhood. The Wafd won 35 seats, down from 58.
October 1987: Mubarak is re-elected for a second term after winning 97.1 per cent of the vote in a nationwide referendum.
May 1987: Attempts are made to assassinate former Interior Minister Hassan Abu Basha and journalist Makram Mohamed Ahmed in the first sign of a comeback of armed militant activity.
December 1989: An attempt is made to assassinate Interior Minister Zaki Badr. Mubarak dismissed Badr in January 1990 after he launched a strong verbal attack against government and opposition figures, intellectuals and writers. He was replaced by Abdel-Halim Moussa.
May 1990: The Constitutional Court rules that the 1987 elections were unconstitutional because the electoral law discriminated against independent candidates. Mubarak decided to hold new elections on 11 October and the electoral law was amended to revive the individual candidacy system following its approval in a nationwide referendum. Campaigning took place amid apprehension in the wake of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the mounting militant threat. The assassination of Parliament Speaker Rifaat El-Mahgoub on 12 October forced authorities to launch a wide-scale crackdown against militants. The opposition Wafd, Labour and Liberal parties, as well as the Brotherhood, decided to boycott the elections following the government's refusal to meet some of their conditions for free and fair balloting. However, this did not prevent some of their members from running as independent candidates. The NDP won 348 seats while the leftist Tagammu, the only opposition party to contest the elections, won six seats.
Mid-1992: Militant violence breaks out. In June 1992, security forces clamped down on militants in Cairo's working class neighbourhood of Imbaba. In July the People's Assembly adopted an anti-terrorism law and in October Mubarak started referring militants involved in violence to military courts in an attempt to stop the clashes. Foreign tourists were targeted for the first time in late 1992. In June 1992, Gama'a Islamiya militants shot and killed secularist writer Farag Foda. In April 1993 Information Minister Safwat El-Sherif escaped an assassination attempt. Interior Minister Hassan El-Alfi was wounded in an attempt on his life in August. El-Alfi had taken office in April after Moussa's dismissal following reports that he had been contacting militants to reach a truce. In November militants tried to kill Prime Minister Sidki in a car bombing. Attacks against tourists damaged the country's tourism industry.
July 1993: Mubarak was nominated by parliament for a third term. In a referendum held on 4 October Mubarak won 96.3 per cent of the votes. The president announced that the priorities of his third term would be security and stability, economic reform, social justice, educational reform, combating unemployment and addressing the problem of population growth. He called for a national dialogue between all parties that reject terrorism.
25 June 1994: The first session of a national dialogue is held. On 7 July, the dialogue was concluded and recommendations were issued calling for limited changes.
October 1994: A Gama'a militant attempts to assassinate Nobel Prize winner Naguib Mahfouz.
January 1995: The government cracks down on the Muslim Brotherhood and arrests more than 100 members. They were referred to military trials and sentenced to jail terms ranging between three to five years.
May 1995: Parliament approves a new press law raising the severity of punishment for libel from one year imprisonment to five. The law was abolished a year later following protests by journalists.
26 June 1995: Mubarak narrowly escapes an assassination attempt shortly after his arrival in Addis Ababa to take part in a summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Egypt accused Sudan of giving refuge to the militants who staged the assassination attempt. Mubarak launched an international campaign urging all countries to cooperate in combating terrorism.
November 1995: Jihad militants bomb the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan.
November 1995: Parliamentary elections are held with more than 4,000 candidates running. Only the NDP was able to name candidates in all constituencies. The Wafd contested 182 seats, the Brotherhood 150, Labour 120 and the Tagammu 40. The NDP won 316 seats, independents 115 (with 100 later switching to the NDP) and all opposition groups won only 14 seats: the Wafd six, Tagammu five, Nasserists one, Labour one and Liberals one. Fifty-six Coptic candidates ran for election but none won. The NDP did not nominate any Copts. Out of ten MPs appointed by Mubarak, six were Copts. The elections were described as the most violent in Egypt's modern history. At least 51 people were killed and 878 injured.
January 1996: Kamal El-Ganzouri is appointed prime minister with the task of speeding up economic reform and raising the standard of living.
February 1997: Emergency laws, in force since Sadat's assassination in 1981, are renewed for three years.
July 1997: Jailed Gama'a leaders call for a cease-fire with the government. In late September, nine German tourists were killed by Saber Farahat and his brother in front of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
November 1997: The Gama'a claims responsibility for the Luxor massacre in which 58 tourists and four Egyptians were killed. Mubarak replaces Interior Minister El-Alfi with Habib El-Adli. Since then, no terrorist incidents occurred, while the country's major militant group, Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, announced a halt to all armed activities. The Ministry of Interior rejected claims of a truce deal and asserted the state's victory over terrorism.
July 1999: Parliament overwhelmingly supports the nomination of Mubarak for a fourth presidential term. The majority of opposition parties supported the president's re-election.
