Reports from Cairo today, Wednesday 23 February 2011: Interior ministry is on fire.

According to AlJazeera Arabic breaking news, the office that was burning contained information regarding criminal charges, such as murders, money laundering, etc. (جنايات)

I wonder why? Isn’t Habib Al Adly, Ex-minister of interior supposed to go on trial soon? And, isn’t the police and national security responsible for the deaths of 350+ civilians & protesters since the beginning of Jan 25? Aren’t they also responsible for subjecting civilians to torture and violence?

Just a reminder, the day after Ben Ali’s regime collapsed, the first thing police and security did was burn down a prison with detainees inside. (Tunisian government also participated in torturing/detaining prisoners for the United States.)

This is exactly the kind of thing that the revolution was fighting against. Where is justice? Where is accountability and transparency? If a revolution pauses, it ends. The fact that the army could not secure the Ministry of Interior from burning today is a catastrophe. The revolution is not over. If it had succeeded, the police who set fire to the Ministry of Interior wouldn’t even be allowed to walk the streets after the crimes they committed before and after the Jan 25 revolution. If it had succeeded, Mubarak would not be chilling in Sharm El Sheikh. After all, that’s what he was always doing when he was in power anyway. It’s not like he cared to fix the country or he actually stayed in Cairo to tend to civilian needs.

Ironically enough, just two days before this fire incident, Army generals were live on Egyptian TV saying that they were conducting investigations and gathering evidence in order to bring all corrupt officials to justice. How will they complete their investigations if evidence could be destroyed at the ministries were the corruption emerged? Many corrupt officials still haven’t been arrested yet, and you can’t expect them to welcome their evidence & history to be exposed.

This is why revolutionaries of Jan 25 are asking for faster and more transparent steps to be taken. This is why they want the rest of the government cleaned out, because corrupt officials who were members of the former Mubarak regime still remain. They are still in positions of power and are fighting for their immunity at the costs of Egyptian lives, justice, & freedom.

It’s time for everyone who abused their position of power to be held accountable. It’s also time for all of the revolution’s demands to be met. Only then will this revolution be complete.