New clashes as Egypt protesters push back rivals
CAIRO
As bruised and bandaged protesters danced in victory after
forcing back Mubarak loyalists attacking Tahrir Square, the
government increasingly spread an image that foreigners were
fueling the turmoil and supporting the unprecedented wave of
demonstrations demanding the ouster of Mubarak, the country's ruler
for nearly three decades.
"When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be
foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to
raise the energy of the protesters," Vice President Omar Suleiman
said in an interview on state TV.
In an interview with ABC News, Mubarak said he wants to leave
office now, but cannot for fear the country will sink deeper into
chaos. He blamed the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, an opposition
group, for the violence.
"I was very unhappy about yesterday," Mubarak told ABC's
Christiane Amanpour. "I do not want to see Egyptians fighting each
other."
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley
condemned what he called "a concerted campaign to intimidate
international journalists in Cairo."
Pro-government mobs beat foreign journalists with sticks outside
downtown Tahrir Square, smashing equipment. Dozens of journalists,
including ones from The Washington Post and The New York Times,
were reported detained by security forces. One Greek print
journalist was stabbed in the leg with a screwdriver, and a
photographer was punched in the face. The Arabic news network
Al-Arabiya pleaded for the army to protect its offices and
journalists, and Al-Jazeera said two of its correspondents were
attacked.
Human rights activists were also targeted. Military police
stormed the offices of an Egyptian rights groups as activists were
meeting and arrested at least 30, including two from the
London-based Amnesty International, Amnesty spokesman Tom Mackey
said.
Aid group Oxfam said eight employees, including two directors,
were arrested in raids Thursday. New York-based Human Rights Watch
said one of its activists was among those arrested.
"We call for the immediate and safe release of our colleagues
and others with them who should be able to monitor the human rights
situation in Egypt at this crucial time without fear of harassment
or detention," said Amnesty's secretary-general, Salil Shetty.
Lawlessness that had largely eased since the weekend flared
anew. A fire raged in a major supermarket outside Sheikh Zayed, a
suburb of the capital, and looters ransacked the building. A
residential building neighboring a 5-star hotel on the Nile River
corniche was also ablaze, blocks from Tahrir. Other fires erupted
in the Cairo district of Shubra, north of the center, security
officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to talk to the media.
The military and the security forces appeared to be doing little
to stop either the looting or the clashes around Tahrir. In the
interview, Suleiman said without elaborating that the police had
"lost some of its capabilities" and that the army -- the main
force on the streets of the capital -- was struggling to fill the
void.
The military is "shouldering duties that are new to it,
enforcing the curfew and protecting citizens from thuggery and
outlaws," he said. "It's a huge burden on the armed forces to
carry out police role that it didn't have before."
Under an onslaught of international condemnation for Wednesday's
assault on protesters by pro-Mubarak rioters, the government
offered a series of gestures, trying to calm the fury. Protesters
accuse the government of organizing paid thugs and police in
civilian clothes to attack them Wednesday afternoon, sparking the
violence that raged until Thursday night.
The prime minister apologized for Wednesday's assault and
acknowledged it may have been organized, though he said he didn't
know by whom. Suleiman promised that 82-year-old Mubarak's son,
Gamal, would not run to succeed his father in presidential
elections in September and offered to hold negotiations on the
country's future even with the Muslim Brotherhood.
But the gestures -- which would have been stunning only a month
ago -- appeared likely to be drowned out by the chaos around Tahrir,
or Liberation, Square, where over the past 10 days tens of
thousands have demanded Mubarak's immediate ouster.
"Hosni Mubarak's every breath is a lie," said Assem Moussa, a
40-year-old businessman. "All the promises and the concessions are
part of the lies. He is trying to deceive the people." Moussa
pulled a white cloth out of his pocket, saying, "This is my
funeral shroud. If I die here, I will die for our freedom."
The anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests. In a
speech Tuesday night, Mubarak refused to step down, saying he would
serve out the remaining seven months of his term -- a halfway
concession rejected by the protesters.
At least eight people have been killed and hundreds wounded in
the fighting in and around Tahrir. In a sign of the economic impact
of the turmoil, Suleiman said 1 million foreign tourists fled over
the past nine days, costing $1 billion in lost revenues from one of
Egypt's most important industries.
Thursday's fighting centered on and under a highway overpass
about 500 yards (meters) north of the square's center that
pro-government attackers had used as a high ground to rain down
stones and firebombs. Anti-Mubarak protesters surged from the
square in the afternoon in volleys of stones, bottles and metal
bars, chasing their foes around the fly-over.
At one point, a police truck barreled wildly through the crowds
under the bridge, mowing down several people in its path, according
to footage aired on Al-Jazeera. Heavy barrages of gunfire were
heard from time to time, and at least one wounded person was
carried away.
After night fell, the fighting died down with protesters largely
in control of the bridge and their hold on the square itself
unchallenged. Nearly 10,000 remained in the square, some dancing
and singing in victory as others -- battered and bandaged -- drank
tea or slept in the center of the rubble-strewn roundabout.
"Thank God, we managed to protect the whole area," said
Abdul-Rahman, a taxi driver who was among thousands who hunkered in
the square through Wednesday night against the thousands besieging
the entrances. "We prevented the pro-Mubarak people from storming
the streets leading to the square."
He refused to give his full name.
The fighting underlined the unclear position of the Egyptian
military. During the battles Wednesday and into the following
night, they stood by without interfering. They only moved into
action Thursday morning, after heavy barrages of automatic gunfire
over the course of two hours before dawn killed five protesters.
Four tanks cleared the highway overpass and several hundred
soldiers on the streets below lined up between the two sides,
pushing the pro-government fighters back and blocking the main
battle lines in front of the famed Egyptian Museum and at other
entrances to the square. For several hours after, more protesters
streamed into the square to support those who had fought through
the night.
But when clashes resumed in the afternoon, soldiers again
disappeared from the streets, moving inside their tanks and armored
vehicles without intervening.
During Thursday's fighting, bands of Mubarak supporters moved
through side streets around Tahrir, trading volleys of
stone-throwing with protesters and attacking cars to stop supplies
from reaching the protest camp. One band stopped a car, ripped open
the trunk and found boxes of juice, water and food, which they took
before forcing the driver to flee.
The Mubarak backers seethed with anger at a protest movement
that state TV and media have depicted as paralyzing businesses and
livelihoods. "You in Tahrir are the reason we can't live a normal
life," one screamed as he threw stones.
Every once in a while in the fighting, protesters would wrestle
a Mubarak supporter to the ground, search him for an ID, then raise
an identity card in the air that they said proved he was a police
officer or ruling party member.
The anti-Mubarak youths posted sentries on the roofs and
balconies of buildings around the square to raise the alert of any
approaching attackers and rain stones on them. Other lookouts
banged metal poles against pedestrian barriers to raise the alarm
when they saw Mubarak backers.
One sentry waved his arms in the air like an airport runway
traffic controller, directing defenders carrying piles of stones as
ammunition to a side street to fend off an assault. But then
another sentry waved a hand across his chest horizontally in a new
signal. The crowd understood: false alarm, and they melted back
into the square.
Many of those leading the defense had cotton padding and grubby
bandages dangling from their faces, arms and legs. Many had chunks
of rock stuck to their hair and clumps of dust in their beards. A
large number had the trimmed beards of Muslim conservatives, a sign
of how the Muslim Brotherhood had a major role in the fight.
Mubarak said he would not run for re-election in September. His
top ally, the United States, has pressed him to quickly transition
to a democratic government but said his earlier gestures were
insufficient.
On Thursday, authorities offered new concessions. Prosecutors
announced an assets freeze and travel ban against the former
interior minister, Habib el-Adly, whose police forces led a fierce
crackdown against the protests when they initially broke out on
Jan. 25. Similar measures were announced against the former housing
and tourism ministers, unpopular millionaire businessmen.
Suleiman told journalists he had invited the Muslim Brotherhood
to enter negotiations with the government. He said the Brotherhood
remains "hesitant" but underlined that it was a "valuable
opportunity" for the fundamentalist movement.
The Brotherhood, which calls for an Islamic state in Egypt, is
the top political opponent of Mubarak's government, which has
always rejected contact with the group and has launched heavy
campaigns of arrests against it. The Brotherhood is among the many
disparate groups organizing the protests, though secular activists
have so far dominated the movement. All have rejected dialogue with
the government before Mubarak steps down.
Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq acknowledged that the attack
"seemed to have been organized" and said elements had infiltrated
what began as a demonstration against the protesters to turn it
violent. But he said he did not know who, promising an
investigation.
"I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday
because it's neither logical nor rational," Shafiq told state TV.
Shafiq, a former air force general appointed by Mubarak over the
weekend, defended Mubarak's plan to serve out the rest of his term.
"Would it be dignified for a nation for its president to leave
immediately?" Shafiq said. "There are ethics that must be
observed."