Egypt’s top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, has warned that the country’s antiquity sites were being looted by criminals amid the country’s political upheaval as he announced he would no longer serve in his ministerial post in the government.
Hawass was quoted in the Friday editions of Cairo’s dailies as saying he would not participate in the new government to be led by Prime Minister-designate Essam Sharaf.
Hawass, the longtime head of Egypt’s antiquities office, was elevated to cabinet-level antiquities minister on Jan.31, when ousted strongman Hosni Mubarak named a new government led by longtime friend Ahmed Shafiq.
Shafiq resigned on Thursday amid calls by protesters for his removal, and Sharaf has been tasked with naming a new government.
Hawass said he was no longer able to protect the country’s antiquities because of what he called the absence of police protection and because he was the victim of a campaign against him by senior officials at his ministry.
THIS MIGHT JUST BE THE BEGINNING OF A MASS "EXODUS" FROM EGYPT OF MODERATES.
Will the Mummies leave and not return??
ReplyDeleteseriously damages the heroic image of the Egyptian uprising, that one does. that, and that incident in which a group of men molested a CBS reporter, Lara Logan. Well, I guess it could have been worse.
ReplyDelete