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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 18 - 24 May 2000 Issue No. 482
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Labour revolt
THE CONTROVERSY over Syrian novelist Haydar Haydar's A Banquet for Seaweed, denounced by the Labour Party's mouthpiece Al-Shaab as blasphemous, took a dramatic twist on Tuesday when Hamdi Ahmed and Ahmed Idris, two former leading figures in the Islamist-oriented group, along with dozens of supporters, seized the party offices in Hadayeq Al-Quba and Nasr City, both in Cairo. They declared the Islamist leadership of party Chairman Ibrahim Shukri and Secretary-General Adel Hussein overthrown, and vowed to return the party to its former "socialist" orientation.The rebellion came in the midst of heated confrontation between the Labour Party and its paper on one hand and the government and secular intellectuals on the other. Al-Shaab's fiery campaign against Haydar's novel, and the Egyptian Ministry of Culture for publishing it, has been blamed for inciting student rioting last week. Writers and intellectuals have described Al-Shaab's campaign as a witch hunt and "incitement to murder," while security bodies seemed to view it as a cynical attempt at "early campaigning" by the Islamists for November's parliamentary elections.
At a press conference yesterday Shukri and Hussein declared the internal party rebellion illegal and warned the government against attempting to suspend the party's activities, a suggestion that has been urged by a number of editors of the national press.
See also: Labour in turmoil & Focus
COMESA trade
THE COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) summit is scheduled to end its three-day session in Port Lewis, Mauritius, tomorrow. The participating delegates of the 20 member states have reviewed the final preparations for launching the COMESA Free Trade Area on 31 October. An extraordinary summit will be held for this purpose by that date in Lusaka, Zambia.In addition to encouraging inter-COMESA trade, this regional organisation is also attempting to increase international investments. The COMESA share of international investments has registered a decrease over the past few years.
Egypt will take over the rotating chairmanship of COMESA tomorrow.
