CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak vowed yesterday that Egypt will be firm in dealing with attacks on its nationals, amid hot tempers and a diplomatic spat with Algeria over a World Cup football showdown.
“Egypt will not be lax with those who harm the dignity of its sons,” he told cheering MPs in parliament. “The welfare of our citizens abroad is the responsibility of the country. We look after their rights and reject violations and transgressions against them,” he said in his first apparent reference to the diplomatic row with Algiers.
The row has erupted between Algeria and Egypt since a bus carrying the Algerian football team was stoned in Cairo last week and Egyptians were attacked by Algerian fans in Khartoum and Algiers. Egypt twice summoned the Algerian ambassador in Cairo and on Thursday recalled its envoy in Algiers.
The dispute broke out ahead of a crunch match staged in Cairo on November 14, after Egyptian fans had stoned a bus carrying the Algerian players on its way from the airport. Busses carrying Algerian fans were stoned after the Cairo match and fans clashed outside hotels housing the Algerians, leaving at least 20 Algerian fans and 12 Egyptians wounded. The attack led to reprisals in Algeria against Egyptian homes and businesses.
After the play-off in Khartoum on Wednesday, won by Algeria, Algerian fans attacked busses carrying Egyptians who were heading to Khartoum airport.
Despite appeals for calm by the general secretary of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, rioting has spread to both capitals. In Algiers the offices of Egypt’s national airline were destroyed, while in Cairo security forces battled with protesters trying to reach the Algerian embassy, which was reportedly hit by firebombs. Parts of the city are under police lockdown.
In a rare public statement, Mubarak’s elder son Alaa who was at the Khartoum game slammed the Algerian fans as “mercenaries” and said the Egyptian team had faced “terror” in Khartoum.
“There appears to be something strange in the composition of Algeria—it has spite and malice towards Egypt,” he was quoted by state news agency MENA.
