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| Africa North |
| Egypt army to 'use force to clear protesters' |
| 2011-04-10 |
| [Al Jazeera] Egypt's ruling military council has said it would clear protesters from a central Cairo square with "firmness and force". Speaking at a news conference on Saturday, a senior military officer blamed trouble in Tahrir Square on "elements that backed the counter-revolution", a reference to people loyal to the administration of deposed President Hosni Mubarak. ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... "Tahrir Square will be emptied of protesters with firmness and force to ensure life goes back to normal," the council's Major General Adel Emarah said. Responding to Emarah's remarks, protester Zain Abdel Latif in Tahrir said: "If they use force we will use force. This isn't Libya, where the army can just attack us." "The military council is part and parcel of the corrupt regime. It is made up of heads of the army that have benefited from Mubarak and his 30 years of robbing the Egyptian people," said Abdullah Ahmed, 45, a protester in Tahrir. Earlier in the day, hundreds of protesters had retaken the iconic square hours after security forces attempted to disperse them. In the clash that ensued, at least one person was killed. In scenes reminiscent of the violent 18-day uprising that ousted longtime President Mubarak in February, protesters and riot police threw rocks at each other, and security forces responded by firing tear gas, witnesses said. Egypt's health ministry said that one person was killed and 71 injured after those festivities. The military had earlier denied that anyone was hurt or killed in the raid of the square. Groups of protesters rallying around the southeast corner of the square threw bottles and possibly petrol Molotov cocktails at riot police, Michelle May, a freelance journalist, told Al Jizz. One of the main roads running east from Tahrir Square towards Talaat Harb Square was virtually empty, and gunfire seemed to have subsided, a witness said. Army and central security troops withdrew in the morning, leaving the square to protesters who began setting up barricades made of furniture and left-behind barbed wire. "The number of protesters remaining in the square is swelling, as news [of the festivities] spreads through the city," reported Mike Hanna, Al Jizz's correspondent in Cairo. Army officers joined protest Hundreds of soldiers and security troops backed by armoured vehicles stormed into the square at around 3am, firing shots into the air, brandishing tasers and batons, and beating people, witnesses said. Tens of thousands of protesters had come to the square on Friday in one of the largest demonstrations since Mubarak stepped down on February 11. The protesters called for the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which nows runs the country, to honour their demands, which include prosecuting a number of former high-ranking regime officials and Mubarak himself. The protesters had been joined by perhaps as many as 20 military officers, who had been under orders not to participate. Demonstrators stayed in the square past the military curfew, which runs from 2am to 5am, saying they wanted to protect the officers who joined. When security forces stormed the square, some of the protesting army officers managed to escape, while at least seven officers were tossed in the calaboose, witnesses said. Loai Nagati, a student, told Al Jizz that military police and central security forces took some protesters and beat them, but that nobody had been shot. Speaking while gunfire echoed in the background, he said that some of the army officers who joined the protests had been tossed in the calaboose by security forces. Amr Bassiouny, who was standing at the square's south entrance near the old campus of the American University in Cairo, told Al Jizz that hundreds of soldiers backed by eight armoured vehicles entered the square from that direction at around 3am. The soldiers formed a semi-circle around the south end of the square and advanced towards a tent in the middle where the protesting army officers had been kept. Soldiers could be seen tearing down the tent in an amateur video posted on YouTube. For 10 or 15 minutes, the protesters and soldiers faced each other, said Sanaa Seif, who had been in the square since 11pm. Protesters chanted "Peaceful, peaceful," and "The people and the army, hand in hand", but the soldiers moved forward again, firing "non-stop" into the air, she said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 Tahrir = Tiananmen? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-04-10 16:55 |