Egypt's military buries democracy

During clashes between security forces and demonstrators in Cairo on the Weekend a petrol bomb hit the Institute for the Advancement of Scientific Research, destroying a large number of historical manuscripts dating back to the times of Napoleon Bonaparte. The left-liberal daily Der Standard sees this is a portent: "The arrival of Napoleon in Egypt is generally considered to mark the 'beginning of the modern age'. 2011 was to be the year in which the country finally emerged from its post-colonial period and entered the modern political age. This seems to have become a distant prospect once more. The military junta is reacting just as the Mubarak regime always did: lying and denying. The difference is that it's no longer the police but the good old patriotic army, which is naively seen as being on the side of the revolution just because it got rid of Hosni Mubarak, that is now being deployed against the demonstrators. And in the midst of this breakdown the first elections are taking place. What was supposed to be a celebration of democracy has become its burial."

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