History of Egypt under Hosni Mubarak
The history of Egypt under Hosni Mubarak began with the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat and lasted until the Egyptian revolution of January 2011, when Mubarak was overthrown in a popular uprising as part of the broader Arab Spring movement. His presidency was marked by a continuation of the policies pursued by his predecessor, including the liberalization of Egypt's economy and a commitment to the 1979 Camp David Accords. The Egyptian government under Mubarak also maintained close relations with the other member states of the Arab League, as well as the United States, Russia, India, and much of the Western World. However, international non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly criticized his administration's human rights record. Concerns raised include political censorship, police brutality, arbitrary detention, torture, and restrictions on freedoms of speech, association, and assembly.
Mubarak's presidency greatly impacted Egyptian society and politics. This is in large part due to Egypt's political structure, in which the President must approve all pieces of legislation and state expenditures before they are enacted.
Politics
Hosni Mubarak became the President of Egypt following the assassination of Anwar Sadat on 6 October 1981; this was subsequently legitimized a few weeks later through a referendum in the People's Assembly, the lower house of Egypt's bicameral legislature. He had previously served as Vice President since 1975, a position he gained after rising through the ranks of the Egyptian Air Force during the preceding two decades. He also held the title of Deputy Defence Minister at the time of the 1973 October War.Political reform was limited during this period. Prior to 2005, opposition candidates were not permitted to run for President, with the position instead being reaffirmed via referendum in the People's Assembly at regular six-year intervals. This changed after a constitutional amendment on 25 May 2005, which transformed it into a de jure elected office accountable to the Egyptian people. Presidential elections were held four months later, with Mubarak receiving nearly 89% of the popular vote against two other candidates. In order to be listed on the ballot, a presidential candidate must have the endorsement of a political party and the approval of a national election commission. Opposition parties called on voters to boycott the referendum as meaningless, but it passed with over 80% approval.
Shortly after mounting an unprecedented presidential campaign, Nour was jailed on forgery charges critics called phony; he was released on 18 February 2009. Brotherhood members were allowed to run for parliament in 2005 as independents, garnering 88 seats, or 20 percent of the People's Assembly.
The opposition parties have been weak and divided and compared to the NDP. The November 2000 People's Assembly elections saw 34 members of the opposition win seats in the 454-seat assembly, facing a clear majority of 388 ultimately affiliated with the ruling National Democratic Party. The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, was kept an illegal organization and not recognized as a political party. Members are known publicly and openly speak their views. Members of the Brotherhood have been elected to the People's Assembly and local councils as independents. The Egyptian political opposition also includes groups and popular movements such as Kefaya and the April 6 Youth Movement, although they are somewhat less organized than officially registered political parties. Bloggers, or cyberactivists as Courtney C. Radsch terms them, have also played an important political opposition role, writing, organizing, and mobilizing public opposition.
President Mubarak had tight, autocratic control over Egypt. A dramatic drop in support for Mubarak and his domestic economic reform program increased with surfacing news about his son Alaa being favored in government tenders and privatization. As Alaa started getting out of the picture by 2000, Mubarak's second son Gamal started rising in the National Democratic Party and succeeded in getting a newer generation of neo-liberals into the party and eventually the government. Gamal Mubarak branched out with a few colleagues to set up Medinvest Associates Ltd., which manages a private equity fund, and to do some corporate finance consultancy work.
Foreign policy
Mubarak maintained Egypt's commitment to the Camp David peace process, while restoring relations with other Arab states. Mubarak also restored relations with USSR three years after Sadat's expulsion of Soviet experts. In January 1984, Egypt was readmitted to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; in November 1987, an Arab summit resolution allowed other Arab countries to resume diplomatic relations with Egypt; and in 1989 Egypt was readmitted to the Arab League. Egypt also played a moderating role in international forums such as the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement.Under Mubarak, Egypt was a staunch ally of the United States, whose aid to Egypt has averaged $1.5 billion a year since the 1979 signing of the Camp David Peace Accords. Egypt was a member of the allied coalition in the 1991 Gulf War, and Egyptian infantry were some of the first to land in Saudi Arabia to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Egypt's involvement in the coalition was deemed by the George H. W. Bush administration as crucial in garnering wider Arab support for the liberation of Kuwait.
Although unpopular among Egyptians, the participation of Egyptian forces brought financial benefits for the Egyptian government. Reports that sums as large as $500,000 per soldier were paid or debt forgiven were published in the news media. According to The Economist:
The programme worked like a charm: a textbook case, says the IMF. In fact, luck was on Hosni Mubarak's side; when the US was hunting for a military alliance to force Iraq out of Kuwait, Egypt's president joined without hesitation. After the war, his reward was that America, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and Europe forgave Egypt around $14 billion of debt.
Egypt acted as a mediator between Syria and Turkey in a 1998 dispute over boundaries, Turkey's diversion of water, and alleged Syrian support for Kurdish rebels.
Mubarak did not support the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the US, arguing that the Israeli–Palestinian conflict should have been resolved first. In 2009, when the Obama administration "indicated it would consider" extending protection to its Middle Eastern allies "if Iran continues its disputed nuclear activities", Mubarak stated "Egypt will not be part of any American nuclear umbrella intended to protect the Gulf countries."
Unrest and terror
Unrest was not uncommon during Mubarak's reign. In February 1986 the Central Security Forces mutinied taking to the streets, rioting, burning and looting in demand for better pay. The uprising was the greatest challenge of the Mubarak presidency up to that point and only the second time in modern Egyptian history the Army was dispatched to Egyptian streets to restore order.In 1992, 14,000 soldiers occupied the Cairo shantytown suburb of Imbaba for six-weeks arresting and removing some 5000 people, after al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya followers of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman attempted to take control there. In the following years al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya waged war against the state and against foreigners. In one year 1106 persons were killed or wounded. More police than terrorists were killed that year and "several senior police officials and their bodyguards were shot dead in daylight ambushes."
In 1997, at least 71 people, mostly Swiss tourists, were massacred by al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya gunmen at the Hatshepsut Temple outside Luxor. In July 2005, a series of bombings left 86 people dead and over 150 wounded in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
During 2007 and 2008, Egypt witnessed more than 150 demonstrations and strikes, which were partially "violent and required heavy deployment of the security forces."
Human rights
A state of emergency remained in force throughout the entirety of Mubarak's presidency and provided a basis for arbitrary detention and unfair trials. Human rights violations on the part of Egyptian security services during Mubarak's rule were described as "systematic" by Amnesty International. In 2007, Amnesty International reported that the Egyptian police routinely engaged in "beatings, electric shocks, prolonged suspension by the wrists and ankles in contorted positions, death threats and sexual abuse". In 2009, Human Rights Watch estimated between 5,000 and 10,000 Egyptians were held without charge. Police and security forces regularly used torture and brutality. According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, 701 cases of torture at Egyptian police stations were documented from 1985 to 2011, and 204 victims died of torture and mistreatment. The group contends that crimes of torture "occur in Egyptian streets in broad daylight, at police checkpoints, and in people's homes in flagrant violation of the people's dignity and freedom."Freedom of speech, association and assembly were limited under Mubarak. The Press Law, Publications Law, and the penal code regulated the press, and called for punishment by fines or imprisonment for those who criticized the president. Freedom House upgraded Egypt's Press Freedom status in 2008 from "Not Free" to "Partly Free" in recognition not of a liberalization of government policy, but "of the courage of Egyptian journalists to cross "red lines" that previously restricted their work and in recognition of the greater range of viewpoints represented in the Egyptian media and blogosphere. This progress occurred in spite of the government's ongoing—and in some cases increasing—harassment, repression, and imprisonment of journalists."
In 2005, Reporters Without Borders placed Egypt 143rd out of 167 nations on press freedoms, and its 2006 report cited continued harassment and, in three cases, imprisonment, of journalists. The two sources agree that promised reforms on the subject have been disappointingly slow or uneven in implementation.