Egyptian man sets himself ablaze in central Cairo

[Joanne98]

Source: AP

An Egyptian man set himself on fire Monday outside the country's parliament, security officials said, in an apparent protest emulating the self-immolation of an unemployed Tunisian man last month that helped trigger a popular uprising.

Egyptian security officials said policemen guarding the parliament building in central Cairo and motorists driving by at the time used fire extinguishers to quickly put out the blaze engulfing the man. Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shahine said the man was taken to the hospital with light burns, mostly to his face, neck and legs.

The officials identified the man as Abdou Abdel-Monaam Hamadah, a 48-year-old owner of a small restaurant from Qantara, an area close to the Suez Canal city of Ismailia east of Cairo. They said Hamadah was protesting a government policy preventing restaurant owners from buying cheap subsidized bread to resell to their patrons.

A subsidized loaf of typical Egyptian flat bread sells for about 1 U.S. cent apiece, but sells for five times that much to restaurant owners.



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[Joanne98]

1. Burnings spread to Egypt, Algeria in Tunisia echo

CAIRO/ALGIERS (Reuters) - A self-immolation that triggered unrest which brought down Tunisia's leader has led to apparent copycat protests in other north African states, with four men setting themselves on fire in Algeria and one in Egypt.

In Cairo, a man set himself ablaze on Monday near parliament in a protest against poor living conditions.

In Algeria, where riots over the last few weeks have broken out in parallel to the unrest in Tunisia, newspapers gave their first reports on Sunday and Monday of at least four men who set themselves on fire in provincial towns in the last five days.

"Are we seeing a new trend?" wrote Blake Hounshell, who covers the Middle East at foreignpolicy.com. "There is something horrifying and, in a way, moving about these suicide attempts. It's a shocking, desperate tactic that instantly attracts attention, revulsion, but also sympathy."

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE70G08320110117

[johnroshan]

2. Subsidies are borne by the government

to prevent individuals from starvation. It is not to be taken advantage of by restaurants and food outlets.

[harun]

3. Obama should denounce their last elections as the fraud they were. Also

threaten to end aid until real elections take place.

[CLANG]

4. Yeah, people should take our advice on "fair" elections.

[harun]

5. You have a point, maybe Carter should denounce it instead.

At least he has some credibility on the issue, especially in Egypt.

[Catherina]

6. Rec'd. I hope they overthrow Mubarak quickly. Losing the Suez Canal

would be a big blow against our wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other countries where we're waging undeclared wars.

Video of his immolation here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICuatZSZ4kA