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Britain, France, Germany urge Mubarak to avoid violence, launch reforms

29 January 2011 23:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a joint statement on Saturday calling on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to avoid using violence against protesters and launch political reforms in the country, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

"We call on President Mubarak to avoid at all costs the use of violence against unarmed civilians, and on the demonstrators to exercise their rights peacefully," the statement, issued in German, said.

"We recognize the moderating role President Mubarak has played over many years in the Middle East. We now urge him to show the same moderation in addressing the current situation in Egypt," it said.

The three leaders called on Mubarak to "begin a transformation process that should be reflected in a broadly-based government, as well as free and fair elections."

Several dozen people have been killed and around 2,000 others have been injured in clashes with police in Cairo and other Egyptian cities as tens of thousands of people took to the streets calling for constitutional reforms and fairer presidential elections. Official reports said at least 62 people had been killed in protests, while Al Jazeera reported about 100 deaths.

Mubarak, who has been in power for already three decades, rejected calls from protesters to resign and dismissed the country’s government on Saturday, pledging to form a new one and bring in democratic reforms.

Later in the day, Mubarak appointed a former civil aviation minister, Ahmed Shafiq, as the country’s new prime minister and ordered him to form the new cabinet.