http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/201112511362207742.html
Egypt protesters clash with police
Police fire tear gas at anti-government demonstrators in Cairo as thousands
call for ouster of president Hosni Mubarak.
Last Modified: 25 Jan 2011 15:26 GMT
Protests in Egypt are often quashed swiftly by the police, who prevent
marching [EPA]
Inspired by Tunisian demonstrators, thousands of Egyptian protesters on Tuesday
gathered in Cairo and other major cities, calling for reforms and demanding the
ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, Al Jazeera's correspondents have reported.
The anti-government protesters, some hurling rocks and climbing atop an
armoured police truck, were chanting slogans against Mubarak, who has ruled the
country for three decades.
Downtown Cairo came to a standstill with protesters chanting slogans against
the police, the interior minister and the government, in scenes that the
capital has not seen since the 1970s.
Demonstrators marched toward what Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh called the "symbols
of their complaints and their agony," the headquarters of the ruling National
Democratic Party, the foreign ministry and the state television.
But police responded with blasts from a water cannon and set upon crowds with
batons and acrid clouds of tear gas to clear demonstrators crying out "Down
with Mubarak'' and demanding an end to the country's grinding poverty.
At least 30 people have reportedly been arrested in Cairo, according to
official sources.
Protests also broke out in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, the Nile Delta
cities of Mansura and Tanta and in the southern cities of Aswan and Assiut,
witnesses said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Rageh reported from the protests, calling them
"unprecedented" in the leniency showed by security forces who allowed
demonstrators to march through the capital.
The Egyptian government had earlier warned activists hoping to emulate Tunisian
pro-democracy protesters that they faced arrest if they went ahead with
Tuesday's mass demonstrations, which some labelled the "Day of wrath".
Promoted Online
The rallies have been promoted online by groups saying they speak for young
Egyptians frustrated by the kind of poverty and oppression which triggered the
overthrow of Tunisia's president.
Mamdouh Khayrat, 23, travelled from the governorate of Qalubiya to attend
protests in Cairo. He spoke to Al Jazeera's Adam Makary. "We want a functioning
government, we want Mubarak to step down, we don't want emergency law, we don't
want to live under this kind of oppression anymore," he said.
"Enough is enough, things have to change, and if Tunisia can do it, why can't
we?" Khayrat added.
Mohamed Ahmed, 36, a demonstrator from Boulaq told Al Jazeera's Makary: "We
might be trying to copy what happened in Tunisia. If Egyptians manage to even
come close to what they did then I can proudly say today was successful but we
still have a long way to do."
"The reaction [to join the protest] has been overwhelming," Rageh said. "The
people we have seen taken to the streets today are not the 50 or 60 activists
that we have been seeing protesting in Egypt for the past five or six years.
These were normal Egyptians, older women, younger men, even children."
A day of revolution
Black-clad riot police, backed by armoured vehicles and fire engines, have been
deployed in a massive security operation in Cairo, with the biggest
concentrations and likely flashpoints, including: the Cairo University campus,
the central Tahrir Square and the courthouse where protesters are said to be
gathering.
Coinciding with a national holiday in honour of the police, a key force in
keeping president Mubarak in power for 30 years, the outcome in Egypt on
Tuesday is seen as a test on whether vibrant Web activism can translate into
street action.
Organisers have called for a "day of revolution against torture, poverty,
corruption and unemployment".
"Activists said they wanted to use this particular day to highlight the irony
of celebrating Egypt's police at a time when police brutality is making
headlines," reported Rawya Rageh, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Cairo.
"In fact, the call originated from a Facebook page initially set up to honour a
28-year-old man from Alexandria who activists say was tortured to death by
police.
"Witnesses are telling us that there are hundreds on the streets. This is an
indication that the protests seem so far to be larger than the usual protests
that have taken place here in Egypt over the past few years."
Banned demonstrations
"The security apparatus will deal firmly and decisively with any attempt to
break the law," the government's director for security in the capital Cairo
said in a statement released ahead of the protests.
Since Egypt bans demonstrations without prior permission, opposition groups say
they have been denied such permits, any protesters may be detained.
Habib el-Adli, the interior minister, has issued orders to "arrest any persons
expressing their views illegally".
"I tell the public that this Facebook call comes from the youth," Adli said in
an interview published by the state-owned newspaper al Ahram.
"Youth street action has no impact and security is capable of deterring any
acts outside the law," he said, adding that he welcomed "stationary protests
held for limited periods of time" and that police would protect the protesters.
"Beginning of the end"
"Our protest on the 25th is the beginning of the end," wrote organisers of a
Facebook group with 87,000 followers.
"It is the end of silence, acquiescence and submission to what is happening in
our country. It will be the start of a new page in Egypt's history, one of
activism and demanding our rights."
Rights watchdog Amnesty International has urged Egypt's authorities "to allow
peaceful protests".
Protests in Egypt, the biggest Arab state and a keystone Western ally in the
Middle East, tend to be poorly attended and are often quashed swiftly by the
police, who prevent marching.
The banned Muslim Brotherhood, seen as having Egypt's biggest grassroots
opposition network, has not called on members to take part but said some would
join in a personal capacity.
Organisers have called for protesters to not display political or religious
affiliations at demonstrations. The Facebook page says: "Today is for all
Egyptians."
Commenting on the wave of public unrest in Tunisia, Adli, the interior
minister, said talk that the "Tunisian model" could work in other Arab
countries was "propaganda" and had been dismissed by politicians as
"intellectual immaturity".
"Young people are very excited, and this time there will be much more than any
other time," Ahmed Maher, one of the founders of the opposition youth movement
said.
"This is going to be a real test of whether online activism in Egypt can
translate into real action," Al Jazeera's Rageh reported.
"Anger has been on the rise in Egypt for the past couple of years, but we have
seen similar calls fizzle out. The main difference now is that these calls are
coming after what happened in Tunisia, which seems to have not only inspired
activists, but actually ordinary Egyptians, a dozen of whom we have seen set
themselves on fire in copycat self-immolations similar to the one that had
sparked the uprising in Tunisia."
Sympathisers across the world have said they plan to protest in solidarity. In
Kuwait, security forces detained three Egyptians on Monday for distributing
flyers for the protests, while large demonstrations have also been planned
outside the Egyptian embassies in Washington, DC, and London.
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