Egyptian Prime Minister’s Words Fail to Satisfy Protesters

Egyptian protesters continued sit- ins in Cairo and other cities, not satisfied with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf announcement that he will change members of his Cabinet within a week and is purging senior police officers accused of crimes against protesters.

Thousands of protesters marched today to the Cabinet building, some chanting, “We won’t leave, let the Cabinet leave,” and calling for the removal of the head of the ruling military council.

Sharaf accepted the resignation of his deputy, Yahya el- Gamal, meeting one of the protesters’ demands.

In a televised address late yesterday, the prime minister said that he ordered disciplinary action by July 15 against senior police officers accused of abuses of protesters and called for swift, public trials for all the “symbols of the former regime and the killers of the revolutionaries.”

He also said there would be a shakeup in his Cabinet and a change of provincial governors.

“We are going through a historic moment,” he said. “I ask the great Egyptian people to give the new government the full opportunity to work for the future of Egypt and to realize the goals of the revolution.”

Egyptian protesters, unswayed by his comments, continued to call for speeding up effort to prosecute former government officials accused of corruption and involvement in the killing of demonstrators during the revolt that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak.