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Africa North
Call for 2nd day of protests in Egypt
2011-01-26
[VOA] - An Egyptian opposition group has called for a second day of protests in Cairo, just hours after police fired tear gas and beat anti-government protesters to clear a central square in the city.

The 6th of April Youth Movement used its Facebook page to urge protesters to continue Wednesday, after the largest demonstrations in years against President Hosni Mubarak's decades-old rule.

Egypt's Interior Ministry said Wednesday no new demonstrations would be allowed, and warned that protesters would be prosecuted.
At some point people lose their fear of prosecution. Then they lose their fear of batons and clubs. Then they lose their fear of bullets. At that point the revolution is on, baby, and the question becomes one of whether the police and troops remember their fear of thrown rocks...
Waves of rock-throwing demonstrators occupied Cairo's Tahrir Square for hours Tuesday, beating back attempts to dislodge them by police wielding tear gas and water cannons. Several thousand people demonstrated in Alexandria, and there were reports of large protests in other cities including Mansoura and Mahalla al-Kobra.

Three protesters and a police officer were killed in Tuesday's unrest, which was inspired by uprisings in Tunisia.

Opposition groups, including Egypt's Kifaya movement, used Facebook and Twitter to organize the protests. Twitter said Tuesday its site had been blocked in Egypt."

Tuesday's demonstrations began peacefully, with police at first showing restraint. Several people said the clashes began in Cairo after protesters attempted to take control of a water cannon truck.

Such a coordinated wave of anti-government protests has not been seen in Egypt since Mr. Mubarak took power in 1981 after former President Anwar Sadat was assassinated by Islamists.

The protests were promoted online by groups saying they speak for young Egyptians frustrated with the kind of poverty and oppression that triggered Tunisia's unrest.

Legal parties such as the liberal Wafd, as well as the banned Muslim Brotherhood - Egypt's largest and best organized opposition group - did not formally endorse the demonstrations, but a number of their members took part.

Emergency laws in place since 1981 outlaw demonstrations without prior permission. Opposition groups said they were denied such permits for Tuesday's rallies, planned to coincide with a national holiday honoring the police, a key force in keeping President Mubarak in power.

Since Tunisia's anti-government protests, at least five Egyptians have attempted suicide by self-immolation, imitating the young Tunisian whose burning death in December first galvanized protesters there.
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